Deicide

The April 1966 edition of Time Magazine lives in infamy for its bold title: Is God Dead? The cover is on many lists of the best magazine covers of all-time, and for good reason. It pulls at the heartstrings of many and forces us to ask questions we’d rather not ask.

The truth is, at one point, He was. Dead.

It is hard to fathom just how twisted humanity must be to assassinate God, Himself. To think ourselves self-sufficient enough to eradicate the very God that gave breath to our lungs was the pinnacle of the pride of mankind being exposed in the most grotesque of displays.

Deity sprawled across a wooden beam as humanity challenges Him by mockingly saying God couldn’t even save Himself.

An ancient portion of the Jewish text called the Torah had a portion that read:

לֹא־תָלִין נִבְלָתֹו עַל־הָעֵץ כִּֽי־קָבֹור

תִּקְבְּרֶנּוּ בַּיֹּום הַהוּא כִּֽי־קִלְלַת אֱלֹהִים

תָּלוּי וְלֹא תְטַמֵּא אֶת־אַדְמָתְךָ אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה

אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָֽה׃ ס

Ever so haunting are those letters. God’s own law used against Him by humanity, so that every person who is placed across a tree is cursed.

Make no mistake about it. Jesus was executed for political purposes. The idea that the Jews might have a new emperor was threatening to Romans. But the Jews were more haunted by the idea that a Messiah wouldn’t wipe out the Romans to set-up a political Kingdom so they could get revenge. They couldn’t wrap their mind around God not being their flavor of perfect. The Messiah they had spent years inventing wasn’t real.

God, Himself, had killed their idea of God, Himself.

It seemed an injustice and a fraud for this mere Nazarene born in rural Bethlehem to allow people to call Him King of the Jews. This wasn’t the king they’d craved. He had just let them beat Him with no measure of retaliation – what kind of a King does that?

God had a funeral. He was given burial spices even as a newborn. He was placed in a tomb with a boulder to seal to entryway. A soldier of the occupying political regime was placed before the tomb. They said it was to guard the tomb, but perhaps the imagery was the greater intention. The Romans had conquered another potential insurrection by slaughtering an innocent. Once again, the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) remained. Peace through death. Yet another successful crucifixion.

The light of the world – blown out like a candle.

Converting Gnostics

Several months ago, I addressed the tenants of Gnosticism compared to Christianty. Since then, I have been teaching a class to Christian teenagers about the Apostles Creed, the ancient list of things people are required to believe to be Christians. I did a somewhat blind test comparing ancient Gnostics to ancient Christians. Upon comparing the two groups, I was less than surprised when many believed they belonged in the “Gnosis”  column.

Gnostic Cross

The truth is, modern Christianity, as many have understood, it is in danger of crumbling under the force of the very heresies the Apostles aggressively attempted to prevent from distorting their faith. The Apostles Creed was framed to combat the beliefs that are now popular amongst adults and are being passed down to their children.

By teaching the Apostles Creed line by line to teenagers, I have discovered  a few things:

1. Modern Christian youth crave theology teaching that is ancient, well-reasoned, and gives them room to make decisions.
2. In doing this teaching, assumptions must be thrown out the window. Most youth haven’t thought these sort of things through yet.
3. It goes without saying that this teaching must be creative, interactive, and utilize multiple teaching methods that adapt to various learning styles.
4. We must be firm that certain beliefs being thrown out are grounds for not being Christians.

Other observations I’ve made tend to be more general. Since most Christians are neo-Gnostics, we must approach education with these from a missional perspective. Todays individual is presented with a multitude of religious options, but Christianity in its intended format has distinct advantages over Gnosticism, Islam, Hinduism, Atheism, and other religious/non-religious movements.

It seems to me that Gnosticism has grown seeped into Christian thinking for a few reasons:

1. Dispensationalism, that is, the belief in the rapture as God’s boat of salvation Christians aim to attain
2. Christians believing the world is evil as morality declines, and thus, yearning to escape the world
3. Popular media, film (perhaps including such films as The Matrix), and Christian media fueling the prior two reasons
4. Dialog in funerals, such as, “Being in a better place” and “No longer suffering” (which aren’t entirely wrong, but leave out the rest of the story)

Christians have a hope that is even better than living in Heaven for eternity. We are stoked that one day, Christ will return to Earth to judge the living and the dead, and those who have been dead in Christ will rise first. Those who are living will join, and a reign of Christ will commence. Maranatha.

Among those who believe they are already Christians, the Creed, when restored, is a fantastic tool. It should be instituted as a measuring stick for genuine Christianity.

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead, and buried
On the third day he rose from the dead

He ascended into heaven
And is seated at the right hand of the Father
He will come again to judge the living and the dead
I believe in the Holy Spirit
The holy Christian Church
The communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting.
Amen.

Leaving Behind “Left Behind”

As a high school student, I was an avid reader of Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” books. For those who missed out on this phenomenon, LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins authored a series of books about Christian doctrine of the “rapture” and what takes place thereafter that went on to sell 40,000,000 copies, spawn three movies, spin-offs, and more. It became a 1990s phenomenon that my church even adopted for a production of the same name. If you’re already familiar with it, just scroll past the bullets if you want.

In the series, the dispensationalist doctrine of the rapture takes place. As the world picks up the pieces, a group assembles together to create an alternative community of Christians who warn of the judgments of Revelation coming. A figure-head of a global government arises named Nicolae Carpathia to rule the globe (with his trusy sidekick, Leon Fortunato playing the part of “the false prophet”). A literal interpreation of Bible prophecy is transformed into a narrative story that slowly covers three years (or so) in 16 books.

Early on into the eighth book called The Mark (which I spent months anticipating), I had this sudden thought of, “why am I reading these books?” Faster than you can say “you just wasted $30,” I threw the book down and began pondering exactly what I had been reading. This wasn’t really Bible prophecy – this was an artisitic twist on speculative events. Something instinctively made me realize I was wasting my time.

Years, a college education, and a lot of reading later, I’ve revisited a look at what I missed. Apparently not much:

• I saw the first Left Behind movie and thought it was awful. Poor quality and not at all believable. They went on to make two more movies that were even more terrible.
•  A CD for the series was released with a “who’s who” of CCM. I’ll spare you the gory details of who’s part of this compilation, but let’s just say most of it leaves creativity and beauty in music as an optional component.
• Comic books – for those who can’t read, I guess.
• Left Behind: Eternal Forces was a video game where players “use the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.” Not only was the game awful by video game standards, but it begs the question, “What is spiritual warfare?”
• 40 kids books, 5 novels, 2 spin-offs, and a partridge-in-a-pair tree

I paint this picture to let you know that this is a juggernaut – and one I was extremely familar with. Sadly, I’ve been reading some of the “wrong books,” that theologians who read Left Behind don’t read.

• Surprised by Hope
• The Secret Message of Jesus
• Jesus for President

In these books, a different picture is painted of Revelation and other such theological texts. Consider a few thoughts:

1. 1 Thessalonians 4’s “meet Him in the air” was a common phrase in the day for greeting a prominent person and escorting them into a city – sort of like southern hospitality. See this document for more.
2. Revelation was a story John wrote, largely to emplore early Christians to come out of empire through allegorical language that made sense in the day and now seems cryptic.
3. The infamous “mark of the beast” was happening as Revelation 13 was being written. A person who wanted to shop in a first century supermarket had to check-in as they entered the store, pledge allegiance to Caesar, and take a stamp on their right hand or forehead with Caesar’s emblem on it. 666 is a simple math equation – nrwn qsr (knowing that Hebrew letters also have numerical values) that add up to NERO CAESAR.

I could go on and on, but you can do that on your own if you’re interested.

So what am I saying? I’m here to offer casual Christians a means to re-think what we have been told for quite sometime.

Consider the fact that the “rapture” wasn’t an existing doctrine until 1861 thanks to Margaret McDonald & John Nelson Darby. It spread a bit in Europe, but spread like wildfire in America. It rarely caught on around the world to the rest of Christians – you need only look at worldwide sales of Left Behind to see the proof. This is a Western phenomenon. No one in the early church had this idea. It would seem that something so critical to doctrine would have a whole lot more about it listed in Scripture than one verse and a few loose references.

I really don’t know much about Bible prophecy – I used to know everything if you’d asked me. Eschatology (as its called) is something that should have more questions than answers. Want proof? Find your favorite Bible prophecy expert and order their books from 20 years ago. If Christian doctrine swayed as much as their Revelation Unveiled “truth,” this religion would have never gotten off the ground.

The eschatology I do know is that Christ is one day coming to literally be grand emperor of Earth. I don’t mean this figuratively – I mean that all the states and nations will have one ruler to rule them all. Those who are “dead in Christ” will rise to join along in this new Kingdom.

Dimensional Hypothesis

I realize that I’ve traveled this road before, but I find myself rather frustrated by a lack of Christians really getting this:

Christianity is not about going to Heaven.

There, I said it. Decades of misplaced salvation by preachers that didn’t know any better has created an American church that is ready to die, but not really ready to live. Its no wonder that in Jesus Camp, we hear Becky Fischer utter that she sometimes just tells God she can’t wait to get this life over with.

But I would submit a theory that we’ve had a rather wrong view of the divorce between Heaven and Earth. Imagine that during the Age of Eden, Heaven and Earth were one in the same (explaining Adam’s relationship with God being so personal). With the Fall, not only do you get Adam banished from the garden (paradise), but a virtual split of the God-ordained ecosystem. Earth becomes purely physical, Heaven spiritual in another dimension (but not far away).

The split between Heaven and Earth

We have often thought that once we get to Heaven, all will be well and good. However, I would submit that both dimensions are missing something with the split, indicated in Scripture. Consider these thoughts:

Earth

• Humans do not experience God as fully as they were intended to without the other dimension readily connected
• Animals that appear to be natural enemies get along better, like the lion and lamb laying down (Isaiah 11:6)
• Humans are given greater abilities to move about (see Jesus seemingly teleporting post-Resurrection)

Heaven

• Humans intended to reign and rule with God
• Post-mortem humans can’t eat without a body as they are intended to do

I’m just now developing these thoughts about the separation. Certainly these lists could last much longer. The good news is that one day, in the resurrection with the “New Heaven and New Earth,” they shall be re-united in space and time’s ultimate divorce reconciliation. Multiple millennia has seen a groping of Earth and longing of Heaven for “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” On that day, the two shall become one dimension.

Physically Spiritual

I’m on vacation in Estes Park, Colorado as of today. Its one of those getaways where it seems easier to smile at God’s creation. The thin air, mountains, streams, pine trees, and elk suddenly crossing a road in front of you all add to the aesthetics.

While in town buying a hoodie, I encountered a bumper sticker that is probably more thought provoking than the purchaser realizes:

My fear with this statement is that, while it could be correct if read with the right perspective, is its intended to mean something incorrect. Most Christians have a perspective that we are spirits trapped inside a physical body. Only through death can we be released from our physical bodies, emerge into Heaven, then really begin living. This view, a Christian twist on Platonism, leads to some unintended consequences.

1. Christians fail to really want to live today because life hasn’t begun yet
2. We appear to be weird to the rest of society when we imply that we’re just spiritual beings in their world. Almost like a baseball player saying, “I’m not really part of this team – I’m just in uniform.”
3. Christians read scriptures like Colossians 3:2 and tune right in, but with the wrong signal.

God created us as human beings, complete with a body. We weren’t really made to not have a body – angels already fill that role. Humans are created to be physical creatures with a body like an animal, spiritually driven like angels, but with the breath of God. Its a purely unique creation and one we should be proud to embody.

One day, despite all the hoopla over going to Heaven, we will experience a resurrection where we will be reunited with our bodies. I have a sense that, while Heaven is a great place, something will appear to be missing. Humans were made to be completely human. Jesus could have stayed as a spirit if He had chosen to do so. Just appear to everyone and proclaim that since he’s still alive spiritually death is technically defeated. From there, you should all desire to be like me one day – a spirit. Instead, we read in the New Testament that one day, we will be like Him. I believe that in every sense of the term, this is a true statement. We will be physically alive. At that point, truly, we will be Christians.

The Humanity of the Gospels

One of the things those who do not pursue Christianity most contend is that the Bible is stocked full of contradictions. There really is no sense is sugar-coating or denying something that is plain as black and white – there really are some inconsistencies, namely in the Gospel narratives. We find some odd things such as Jesus misquoting Scripture once (true story), inconsistent numbers of people in different places, and the issue I’ve been reading about in Surprised by Hope, there being inconsistencies with the Gospel accounts of the resurrection. I’ll spare the details, but a simple about.com search brought this. The argument then tends to go into a domino theory, leading to the Gospels not being authentic because of the inconsistencies.

I’m treading on ground rarely tread by Christians here (and never to my knowledge, but this has probably been thought up by someone much smarter than me before). The Gospels were not written by God with some laser finger on a stone tablet. Four men who were directly connected to the events they recorded wrote reports a few decades later detailing the stories they remember.

Imagine that we were wanting to start a brand new religion and really dupe the world into going at it with us. Maybe a space alien with huge eyes and a white, oval head came to four people and told them they knew the secret to life. Worshipping piranhas was the secret to true happiness if only we’d embrace their religion. Now, if we were really going with this thing and wanted to document our encounter with the being and his newfound teaching, I would submit that the very first thing I would do is ensure that we all have our stories the same. Nothing will cause a story to seem unbelievable more than inconsistencies. After all, they are piranhas.

Yet, these men who obviously didn’t make up a story of their Messiah rising from the dead allowed their stories to be different. Certainly God could have intervened in a pretty stunning way, just to make sure that the story was straight. After all, He did send angels a few times within the same century to talk to humans. Yet, I think God is very proud of free will – so much so that He trusted these four men with the story of His Son traveling the Earth, being tortured, and getting up from an ancient coffin under His own power.

It is a tribute to the humanity of our foundation text that there are inconsistencies. These men obviously weren’t making up a story – not many people are willing to die for a lie. We have a Gospel that is based on facts – a man rose from the dead and invites us to live like He did.

The Really Good News

I took a large, lethal dose of Surprised by Hope on this mother’s day. It wasn’t anything he said that was lethal – it was the tone. There’s a certain audacity of confidence Brother Wright has that is rare in today’s wishywashy theology. This man reeks confidence and will make any relativists cringe.

Wright blew in with a great analogy that inspired me to write one of my own. This doesn’t shake out 100%, but I think I like it.

Imagine that a well-respected orator was so respected that some people treated him as a Messiah-like figure. This person had real sack and was willing to stand-up in the face of an oppressive system. The tyranical government was so impressive that anyone who appeared to threaten their rule was publicly put to death by caning with the video broadcast on network TV and spread via YouTube. However, the orator’s message began gaining momentum – a message that the oppressor’s system wouldn’t bring peace. That caring for others is the true was to bring what everyone wants.

Threatened, those in power conspired with others that opposed the orator’s message to put an end to his career. They bribed a fake whistleblower to toot a horn of sedition against the orator so they would have ground to have his career killed. He was brought to trial, but instead of being defiant, he was rather respectful publicly and even told some of his few remaining loyalists not to fight the justice system.
The government passed him up the court system until opinion polls within the government dictated that it would be too unpopular to let him go free. He was publicly executed in a brutal caning, causing his distraught followers to decide he really wasn’t the leader they thought he was.

Three days later, out of nowhere, the orator rose from the dead under his own power. This sent shockwaves through the region and caused conspiracy theories, YouTube mania, and a quick spin by the government and the orator’s enemies. He wasn’t around long, as he hung with his friends for a month or two and passed his message onto them. One day, he physically left them, but promised to come back some day.

The orator’s followers were stunned at all that had taken place, but were most enthused that this man’s message and exploits were so powerful that a brutal public caning and death wasn’t powerful enough to keep him down. This orator had a message and a life others could believe in. This man’s resurrection was so unique and powerful that no one could possibly doubt his message if only they would believe he sprung from a coffin under his own power.

The followers went on to spread his message very quickly. However, they faced tremendous opposition because it was difficult for people to imagine a person being able to be raised from the grave under his own power. Fortunately, many eyewitnesses saw Him walking around after the public execution and even wrote letters to others detailing what they saw. They changed their entire religious systems from worshiping Sundays to Tuesdays, the day he rose from the dead, just to commemorate how powerful this change had affected their lives. No longer were they just insiginicant people. This band of people from all different backgrounds, such as doctors, accountants, and hunters were so inspired by the message that they would confess it to the point of their death – and most of them died for proclaiming the orators message at the hands of a government that was threatened by the rebellion. Somehow, despite their death, the message and resurrection story spread like wildfire – faster than those joining the rebellion could kill them. Those men changed the world, but all looked forward to the day when the orator would return and do the unthinkable act he’d promised: raise them from the dead to join him.