Bias of the Church of Christ

So as I usually do here on the great campus of Johnson Bible College I find myself in one of those interesting little conversations where I don't agree with the masses. You see, I love these moments where I can go the opposite way of the peers around me. There is something that just gets me excited about being different and being separated from the mass. I don't know, perhaps it is the simple remnants of the teenage angst that plagued me so much in high school to the point where I would just start hitting doors and walls in my house to get out this hatred and fire I had within myself.

Now I am not implying that I hate my peers, but rather their single-minded fundamentalist Church of Christ views drive me crazy sometimes. For example I have a friend who made a remark against a book I truly enjoyed. The book was "A Generous Orthodoxy" by Brian McLaren. Now in defense of my friend McLaren is like the face of the Emergent Church and has some pretty crazy ideas out about evolution that paints Darwin as a revelationist rather than a challenger of the Christian faith. But the thing that got me is that in the book McLaren seeks to tell why he is many types of Christian and in the end states that he is unfinished. He combines many aspects of different denomination to form what he paints as his spiritual life. Now my friend says that the problem with that is that it is like syncratism. Take what you like and combine it. 

This mindset falls in line with exactly what I intend to fight against and that is that the Church of Christ is the Way Church in the New Testament. What constitutes a Christian? Is it the time of service? The type of worship? A responsive reading? An experience of communion? Prayer? Quiet time? What if I were to say that to simply be a Christian and to be a part of this body of believers all you have to do is simply believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and they accept Him as their Lord and Savior? Isn't all that is really needed. Isn't that what John said was needed when he quoted Christ in 14:6? 

Who gives a crap about the freaking doctrines and practices of the Church. Yes, I seek to find truth in the Bible. Yes, I want to understand the Bible's originally meaning. Yes, I think doctrine can be beautiful and important and can enrich a person's faith. But to be quite honest, who cares how someone gets to Christ as long as they find the Jesus that died for their sins and has called them to repentance. I can worry about the doctrines and the practices later. The number one priority is to show the people Christ. Not the doctrine. Christ. Not the sacraments. Christ. First we show Christ. And for those that accept Christ and a pursuit of living like him, they instantly become a Christian. Because a Christian should not have allegiance to the Church and their doctrines before they simply have their allegiance to being a follower of Christ. 

So what if McLaren takes parts of other denominations into his life? Are they all not our Brothers and Sisters in Christ? So what if McLaren tries to show the good sides of denominations the Church of Christ frowns upon? You see, I honestly believe that when we start believing that the Church of Christ has it all right, do what they do and you're a Christian, we are turning our faith into a system of belief; a formula. We stop searching. Unlike McLaren who admits to being unfinished, we seem to believe we have it all figured out. Well that rules out us having a relational faith with God. Because relationships are complex and they change, and we are called to be in a deep, affectionate, intimate relationship with our living, breathing, Abba Father. So maybe he is a little weird. Maybe he does combine theological thoughts and has some major doctrinal flaws (in my opinion). I think that all of us could use a little of the unfinishedness in our lives that McLaren seems to have, so that we may never stop searching and our beliefs may go beyond the institutional Church and into the great idea we call the Body of Christ.

Update on Omniscience of Jesus

So just a fun little side note, today our professor read some of our responses then came out and told us that he was the one that in fact wrote the memo. He said mine was actually his favorite argument against his because of the way that I took the examples he used and turned them around, even if he didn't agree with me. So on the second day of class I unknowingly, bluntly, stated that my professor was wrong. 

oops

It's going to be a fun year.

The Omniscience of Jesus

So today in Composition our professor began by reading a memo by some theological guy I can't remember the name of and asked us for our impression of what he said and if we had a response. We wrote down what we would say and he will read some next class session and I'm thinking mine will be included because as always I had a lot to say. 

The writer of the memo, O'Reilley, or something like that, claimed that Jesus couldn't have been all knowing stating simple things that Jesus did, but stressing the fact that Jesus walked over to the fig tree before he cursed it for not having any fruit. He says that this implies that Jesus walked over expecting to have his hunger satisfied. The author goes on to say that this in fact does not challenge the aspect of Christ that was 100% divine as well as 100% human.

Bull. If someone is claiming that Christ was not all knowing here on earth than we lose the idea that Christ is the image of God here on earth. You see, I fully believe that God is transcendent, meaning that the human mind cannot possibly grasp all that is the Holy God. However, there is a way to look at the "eminent" God, that is to say the here and now. The thing that bridges the transcendent God and the eminent God is the God incarnate. That of course refers to Jesus Christ. Scripture says that the Word was God in the beginning and the Word became flesh, once again referring to Christ. So if Christ is everything that God is, then why is he not omniscient? The author of this memo at one point said that he believes that God the Father simply chose to not reveal everything to Jesus the Son. I would have to argue the other way though. I would say that rather than God not revealing everything to Jesus, I would have to say that it was Jesus who did not reveal everything he knew to us. 

Some of the points used by this author could point to Christ not being omniscient, like the usage of the story of Christ not knowing when the second coming was, the identity of the bleeding woman who touched him, and the idea that he didn't know that the fig tree was bare. Well let's look at these with the idea that Christ didn't reveal them for specific reasons. If Christ had revealed that he knew the exact moment in time why would we always be ready for his return. Most of us would simply forget the now and live life the world's way and not the Lord's way, that is up until the point when Christ said he would come. As for the bleeding woman this is one that I thought of the answer for right away. When Jesus called for the person who touched him I honestly believe he knew exactly who it was. What this served as was a call to faith. He called the bleeding woman out on her faith to reveal herself and who she was. She stepped out onto that step of faith admitting to what she did and the belief she had in Christ. As for the fig tree doesn't Christ constantly move toward us? We are the fig tree in that Christ will always come to us, whether we bear fruit or not. It is our duty however, to become trees that bear fruit for Christ, or rather people who live out the life we are supposed to in Christ so that others may enjoy Christ through us and may get to know his glory. If there is anyone out there that reads this blog I would definitely love to hear your thoughts on this and what you tend to believe.

"Some say that it may be that God the Father in Heaven chose not to reveal everything to Christ. I would argue that rather than Christ's knowledge being limited it is more likely that our knowledge is insufficient to comprehend why Christ, who knew all things, chose not to reveal things to us as humans."

Self Interest

I realize I just put a post down but I had a little urge to continue writing tonight about a little problem I have called self-interest. It was Kinlaw in his book, "The Mind of Christ" who said that the root of all sin is self-interest. I'm not sure if that is true in every single case we point out but most of the things that run through my mind do seem to point back to the fact that sin is about the betterment of ourselves rather than the betterment of God's Kingdom or the people who reside in it, wish to reside in it, or have no idea of that Kingdom. So that is why I continually find myself in a seemingly unending tragic circle of sin that seems to pour out of my heart. (That may be a slight exaggeration but you get the point and we are a species of sin) For example, my biggest problem with sin at school is the fact that most of the worship, study, or prayer to God comes from the curriculum and guidelines of Johnson Bible College. I worship in chapel 3 times a week. I open my Bible to study for classes, and the majority of the time I pray is at the beginning or end of class. Now I'm not saying that those are bad things, but I think that my personal devotion to God suffers when it is all required and I simply don't take the time to immerse myself in the great mystery that is God's Love. 

You see there are sins omission and commission. It's pretty to figure out which sins fall into what category. Either we omit something from our lives and its not there and it is sinful to not have it there like a respect for parents, keeping the Sabbath Holy, truly worshipping God. Then there are the sins we commit like murder, stealing, adultery, or worshipping false idols (like a grade for instance). So at school I find myself in a path of serving myself interest by looking for the grade or by not going into a true personal time with God and I see myself serving self-interest. 

You see it is a pattern that we all get into and it is all about the fact that we are more concerned with our story than the story of God. You all get a little preview into what I will be preaching about next week in chapel. You see it comes from Louie Giglio's book "I am not but I know I AM," which is all about us becoming less to glorify God. I think that John the Baptist said it best when he said, "He must become Greater, I must become less." I can't help but think that the reason most of us go through our lives continually wanting more and not truly being happy is because it is impossible as long as we serve self-interest. We were created in the image of God, not be be god. And if we take that message to heart, if we truly see our purpose in life to be a child of God and to bring glory to his name then we have lost self-interest. We have immersed ourselves into something greater that is called the Story of God, and only being a part of that story will we find true happiness. A happiness that comes from being a part of something that has no beginning and has no end. Something that stretches forever throughout time and we, by the Grace of God, are humbly allowed to leave our mark upon it. 

So to sum it up my goal this semester is to pull myself out of the never-ending perpetual sin we call self-interest, which in itself is a portion of almost all other sin. Will I completely succeed? No. But that shouldn't stop me from finding my spot and being a part of the Story of God. That shouldn't stop me from beginning to find time with God where I don't care about grades, I don't care about knowing more, but where I simply take time to be immersed in the Word, and be immersed in wonder of the mighty God. 

TReturn to Johnson

So I have completely neglected writing in this for a few weeks even though I'm pretty sure nobody reads it. It has been a crazy few weeks getting ready to come back to school. After moving from Springfield home and then to school I am so excited to finally be done moving around and I can focus on the important things of school now. Thats not to say I won't be busy. Tomorrow I will have my first Greek class of the semester with a guy that has a reputation for being hard and challenged me enough in my BCB class. I am totally excited for the class and I wouldn't take it with anyone else except Rodriguez because I know he will push me, but I am worried about all that I am involved in. Like tonight I had one of two meetings I still need to have before I preach student-led chapel on Wednesday. I had a meeting with the worship leader of student-led and I still need to meet with the professor in charge of it. Plus I have the River to be concerned about. So next week I preach on Wednesday and then again on Sunday. Pretty sure everyone is going to be sick of hearing me speak. Oh well it should be fun.

But all in all it is good to be back and I cannot wait to get even more involved in everything this semester because I seem to have a good list of classes I can go off of. I have Old Testament Poetry, Composition, Greek, Speech, and Homiletics. It isn't too heavy off a schedule but I will stay busy. It is exciting however to be back in a place where I can get into those deep discussions with my friends about life, Church and God which come up a lot. Well I will have to expand upon some of my crazy thoughts later as I really have nothing bugging me right now or nothing I have to think through. I promise, it will come later.  Till next time...

WHODEY!!!

So just a quick thought for today and that thought is about how stoked I am for the first game of the season even if it is preseason. Tonight at 8 the Bengals will take the field against the Packers and it will be interesting to see how Chad and Palmer hook up with the passes and to see who has improved and or who shouldn't be on the team. It should be a fun night and I look forward to spending some quality time in front of the TV. Go Bengals. WHODEY? WHODEY? WHODEY THINK GONNA BEAT DEM BENGALS?

Old People and Jr. Highers

So this week I have been all over the board with whom I interact with. On Monday I had to teach a Bible Study for my grandma's small group which was quite the experience; good in some ways yet bad in others. For starters it was a picnic first before I gave my lesson and I showed up in basketball shorts, a Reds jersey, flip-flops, and a hat while everyone else was in stuff that is too formal for me to wear to a funeral (just an exaggeration but you get the point). So I felt underdressed and the leader of the small group was an elder which meant that he was my boss so from the beginning I was thinking they were probably all judging me for my non-formal attire at a picnic. This kind of left me with the impression of the fatalistic fundamentalist mentality from them which says if you don't adhere to our ridiculous standards that are not mentioned in the Bible your not a Christian, and it is this Christian fundamentalist mindset that makes many people, myself included, not like many Christians for being judgmental and shying away from simply loving people who are sinners. They are essentially just Christian pharisees. So I wasn't too happy with the whole I need to dress formally everywhere. 

I taught another lesson earlier this year for a church Bible study, but before I got there my grandma got mad at me because I was going to teach in sandals. She said that when we go before God we should wear our best. I simply reminded her that Jesus was a poor homeless man that wandered around in tattered clothes and sandals to love people and that we are called to be like Jesus, who didn't care about his appearance. Well she told me that it wasn't the same and today and that as a minister I needed to impress people. I left the argument before I really hurt my grandma's feelings but I can't help but think that all of this stupid stuff contributes to the downfall of Christianity as a religion and makes us fall away from simply being devoted followers of Christ. When my grandma started to say I needed to impress people I just have to disagree. The only opinion I should truly care about is God's and his approval for what I do with my life. Now unfortunately I do care what other people think, but not to the point where I feel I have to impress them with my clothes. You see, when we start thinking that we should impress people with how we look - clothes, hair-styles, cars, houses, and any other material things that elevate our position - we start worshipping our image rather than submitting to God and I would have to say all of us, not just the old fundamentalists, are a part of this all the time."First, worship is not something done solely by Christians or 'spiritual' people. rather, because everyone was made to worship God, everyone is in fact a worshiper whether or not he or she has any religious or spiritual devotion." (Mark Driscoll, Vintage Jesus, pg. 165)

So all that aside teaching the older people was kind of fun because they thought I was amazing simply because of the fact that I am a young guy going into the ministry. Oh, and they think the corniest jokes in the world are hilarious. For example, I planned on being this lame simply because I knew it would get a laugh out of them, I had no idea what to speak on so I put like 3 of my ideas together and I told them this: "Syncretism is the blending of religions and beliefs, well I call this 'Bradtism' and the blending of my thoughts." I know it is completely retarded but they all thought it was hilarious. So in that respect they are kind of fun to teach.

Then on wednesday I took twenty Jr. Highers down to a Reds game which was an experience I don't wish to revisit anytime soon. First off, Jr. High kids think they know everything. They thought I was wrong on every point and don't understand that they are completely wrong in almost every aspect of what we talked about. Some dumb conversation about Northern Kentucky being part of the Greater Cincinnati area (which it is). A friend of mine put it really well when he said Jr. High kids = suck because they think they are awesome when in reality they are just really awkward. That being said they are annoying but kind of cool because they think I'm cool which makes me like them. Oh and I get to threaten them. Like we were sitting at Skyline and a couple of the guys started squirting hot sauce in each other's drinks and I yelled at them saying if they didn't stop I was going to take the hot sauce and squirt it in their eyes. Yes, I know it is a weird threat. Yeah well my semi-venting session is now over and you can go think of how dumb I am to write about this pointless stuff.