BillMounce.com

I learned quite some time ago from John 17 that the key to evangelical outreach is the unity and love of local body of believers (see verses 21 and 23). Reading in the Old Testament last evening I came upon a passage that reflects the same truth.

In Ezekiel 36 the prophet foretells the return of God’s people from exile. God will bring his people back to the land, not because they deserve it (vs. 22) but in order to protect his holy name which by their actions they have dishonored. In verse 23 he says, “And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes . . . then the nations will know that I am the Lord.”

Note that God intends to reveal his holiness “through [his people]” Believers are to undergo an inner transformation that allows God to reveal himself through them. In verse 26 they are to be given a “new heart” with “new and right desires,” as well as a “new spirit.” As the popular song of the 40s has it,”There’ll be some changes made.” They had polluted the land with murder and idolatry (vs. 18) but because of the coming transformation they will so manifest the holiness of God that the nations will be forced to acknowledge that Israel’s God is the one sovereign Lord of all.

I had a great experience this Christmas and wanted to share it with you. It doesn’t have much to do with Greek, so I wouldn’t even try to make some sort of artificial connection.

With our move to Washougal, Washington, most of our Christmas traditions had to change since in the past they involved family. And with two of my three kids in college, the new traditions were even more important to them than to me. My wife and I have discovered that it is the stability of family traditions that help our kids go out and conquer the world; no matter what happens, they can always come home again to what is familiar and safe.

So we told each kid that they could establish one new tradition, so we went bowling and played games. But Tyler wanted to to serve a Christmas meal at a homeless shelter. We have never done this as a family, so my wife Robin made some calls and we headed to The Lord’s Gym the night of the 23rd. This is a food bank that operates in conjunction with an inner-city church in Vancouver.

There we stood, five tall very white people holding serving spoons and staring at life situations decidedly different from our own. First lesson: you don’t have to go overseas to serve in short terms missions. The same type of diversity exists in our back yards. I remember thinking that as a church we shouldn’t allow anyone go on an overseas mission until they had worked at a local mission. Probably a good idea.

This post is a little off topic, but I have gone through a series of events that have encouraged me to bring up this topic.

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (ESV). Our speech is not to tear down but to build people up. Our words should be appropriate to the situation and should be an extension of grace.

Two verses later Paul adds, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” I am pretty sure that the type of corrupting talk he has in mind is the result of human anger, anger that should have been dealt with and sin that should have been forgiven, which is the topic of the next verse. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

This issue is sufficiently significant that it resurfaces a few verses later. “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (5:4).

One of the patterns that I have noticed is that we often are justified in our anger, and that anger vents itself in ungodly language that clearly violates the clear teaching of Scripture. But because our anger is so strong, and our justification so deep, we feel that not only are we justified to speak in corrupting and graceless ways, but that we have some sort of divine mandate to do so. It would be wrong, we reason, to speak any other way.

Greetings from the first day of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. We are in Providence, Rhode Island.

In case you aren’t familiar with this organization and meeting, let me summarize. ETS is a scholarly society based primarily on a statement of biblical inerrancy, that the Bible is without error (as defined by the Chicago Statement of Inerrancy). About 2,000 evangelical professors and pastor and students attend. We get to see our friends, drool over all the books (many publishers are here displaying their books), and hear some scholarly papers read. There are a few plenary sessions that most people attend, and then lots of papers read by various people. These conclude with a question and answer time, so if you are going to read a paper you had better know your stuff.

ETS is now over and many of the people have move on to Boston to attend IBR (Institute of Biblical Research) and then SBL (Society of Biblical Literature), which is the largest of the three organizations. SBL is the least friendly of the organizations toward evangelicals and therefore perhaps our greatest opportunity for engagement in a non-evangelical theological culture.

Daniel Wallace gave an amazing plenary lecture of issues relating to the Greek text of the New Testament. Dan is a leading textual critic and is president of CSNTM (The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts). He started by discussing postmodern intrusions into NT textual criticism, and moved to how people are collaborating on text critical issues (e.g., www.codex-sinaiticus.net/en/). Perhaps most interesting was Dan’s discussion of the work that remains and the role that evangelicals must play.

CSNTM (www.csntm.org) is committed to the photographing, cataloging, and analysis of unknown Greek manuscripts. (The Greek Orthodox church has given Dan unprecedented access to many of their ancient libraries.) CSNTM is an example of how evangelicals must become involved in this work. The church needs to hear from us about textual issues and not just from scholars of other theological positions. Dan’s conclusion is that it is better for the church to live with a little uncertainty about the text than with a false certainty based on incorrect text critical assumptions. I would really encourage you to browse www.csntm.org and to support them financially. (Disclosure: I have no direct connection with CSNTM other than Dan is a life-long friend.)

I grew up in a culture that seemed to separate faith and reason. Faith was the requirement for a religious experience while reason was the more advanced and scientific approach to understanding the nature of reality. No one specifically taught me this but I gathered the comparison both from the classroom and the Sunday School class.

Obviously, I thought, science deals with reality and religion with that other realm of existence. We could measure reality but we had to experience spirituality. Matter could be empirically tested; we could weigh it, analyze it chemically, put it into safe categories. Spirituality was subjective; it did not have to prove itself by conforming to the laws of logic.
I was of the impression that the really bright people in this world had opted for science while the, shall I say intellectually challenged, found it easier to feel the truth than to understand it.

Now I understand how deceptive is this general attitude toward faith and reason. While it is true that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (read “spiritual insight” and “secular understanding” — 1 Corinthians 1:27), it does not follow that spirituality defies logic and that the two realms must forever be kept apart for a rational understanding.

I was going to write a Greek blog in ποιημα, but I saw an interview on TV a couple days ago and I can’t stop thinking about it, and I need your input to help me understand.

It was an interview on the Mike Huckabee Report. He interviewed Gayle Haggard, the wife of pastor Ted Haggard and author of Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour. Her husband was the founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and was president of the National Association of Evangelicals. If you don’t already know, he admitted to an incident with a male prostitute.

Huckabee was talking to her mostly about forgiveness. He asked what was the most painful thing that happened. Her answer was fascinating. Certainly learning of the event was painful. Her children’s loss of dignity was hurtful. She said that she had received many kind and encouraging emails from homosexual men and Christians, and many cruel and hateful emails from homosexual men and Christians. Her conclusion: people are people.

But the event that hurt the most was their forced separation from the church and the people that they had loved for 22 years.

The saying, “Like father like son,“ was certainly not true of Josiah and Jehoiakim, two kings of Judah. While Josiah, the father, was a godly king who ruled the land with justice, Jehoiakim, the son, served primarily himself, building a magnificent palace at a time when the kingdom was impoverished by war and in debt to Egypt.

The prophet Jeremiah reminded Jehoiakim that “a beautiful palace does not make a great king” (Jer 22:15 NLT) and that the reason his father Josiah had reigned so long (over 30 years) was because “he defended the cause of the poor and needy” (vs. 16 TNIV). Through Jeremiah the Lord asks, “Isn’t that what it means to know me? (vs. 16)”

In a recent closed meeting between Barack Obama and several Christians including Franklin Graham, Obama was asked whether he believed that Jesus is the only way to salvation. His answer, which the reporter, a Mr. Rivers, called "brilliant," was "Jesus is the only way for me. I'm not in a position to judge other people."

This kind of verbal evasion drives me crazy.

1. It suggests that there are different ways for different people. For example, Buddha could theoretically be a another way if you choose to believe it. That is not a biblical point of view. Consider Acts 4:12:

When we moved to Washougal a few months ago, my wife and I had to start the somewhat painful experience of making new friends. We were committed to having friends outside of a local church so that all of our friends are not Christians. That task is easier said than done.

Robin, my wife, is a good speaker and enjoys conferences with other women; so she wondered if she should take the new time she has and develop those gifts. Toastmasters, here she comes.

Toastmasters is an interesting organization (www.toastmasters.org). It is designed to help people, especially people in business, learn to verbally communicate, a skill that all people in business require. The different groups gather weekly, and the different members give speeches and are encouraged and critiqued.

I have found my wife’s experience with Toastmasters a more positive and encouraging experience than anything I have ever witnessed in a church, and I find myself wondering if every preaching pastor should not aggressively make Toastmaster part of his or her weekly experience. They would learn a lot about preaching, and they would foster positive relationships with non-believers. Where is the problem in this picture?