On Tolerance, Scripture, Historicity, and Truth

A friend wrote this to me tonight:

Great program on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air segment on NPR today.  The guest was Bart Urman (sp?), author of Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene, the early followers of Jesus and New Testament and Gnostic Gospels historian and authority at University of North Carolina.  He spoke a lot about The Da Vince Code as well as the Gospel of Judas and other relatively recently discovered Christian writings... At the very end of the program he had a great couple of statements about the importance of today’s Christian realizing the diversity that even the early Christian church exemplified.  He sounded mightily Episcopalian, though I’m wary of religious academics tenured at state universities.  

Thanks!  Actually, I heard 5 minutes of it while going to Sr Hi Bible Study tonight, and one of the students also heard it.  He brought it up at Bible Study.  So, we talked about aspects of it tonight.  Must've been something God wanted me to be aware of and talk about!  I also heard the tolerance message at the end of it as well... And it brings me to a subject I have been wanting to write about for a while, so I am going to write about it if you don’t mind ;-)

My feelings about the tolerance part is paradoxical. I have just enough conservative Evangelical in me (as well as open-minded liberal), that I am both wary of, and sympathetic to, such calls for tolerance. Going to a liberal mainline seminary has taught me that for many future pastors and academics the core of Christianity is not Christ and his work, but a politically correct tolerance of anyone, as long as they have no firm opinions on anything. As soon as someone has firm opinions and is willing to identify something as "right" and something as "wrong", they are labeled as a "fundy" and excluded from "polite" conversation.  In such a climate a theological conservative has to know the presuppositions and arguments better than anyone else to even get a hearing.

Can we pray for the past?

I got a great question from one of my students. I thought I would throw it out for consideration and debate:

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If God is part of a separate time where he is both the past present and future all at the same time, why is it that we only pray for two of those time frames the present and the future? Is it possible to alter the past by praying for a past occurrence? I'm not talking about praying to learn from one's mistakes so as to not continue to do it in the future but actually praying for something to change in the past and actually receiving your prayer?
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Actually, this is fairly easy to answer, while also being very speculative:

Students Standing Strong for Plastic Trendy Jesus?

This is one of those posts where I know people are going to hate me, but if I am going to be true to the Church I minister in, the students I serve, and the Bible-belt culture I live in, I have to write it.

I was watching the news tonight and they were talking about a Christian student group at Colleyville-Heritage High School "fighting for their right" to worship after school at Colleyville High School. This group "Students Standing Strong" apparently brought in the strong arm of the lawyers to get the school to allow them to worship in the gymnasium.

The way it is being reported on Fox 4 news, I get real mixed feelings about it... but they could be presenting it in a bad light (news often does). But, since I am a youth minister about 15 miles away from this school, I thought I might ask one of my students in that school district what they knew of the group.

I asked this person: What do you know about this group?  Is it a good thing?  What are your feelings about it all?  Honesty is appreciated...

Here is what they wrote back (their words, not mine, but names and genders are deleted):

WWJD: What would Judas do?

Well, it is apparently time for us all to answer the question: What would Judas do?  A couple of my students and families at Church have asked me about the newly translated "Gospel of Judas" that has inspired much media hype, and yet another run-of-the-mill "groundbreaking" historical documentary on the National Geographic Channel this Easter Sunday. If you don’t know what I am talking about look at these online resources: either go to Wikipedia and type in "Gospel of Judas", or check out this collection (which includes a complete translation) at tertullian.org, or if you can read ancient Coptic, check out the text and translation here.

The questions I am getting are all versions of this well-thought out question by Matt:

Ask Nate: On Faith, Prayer, Mountains, and Seas

This week on "Ask Nate", Jake asks:

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Hey Nate,

This is one of my Biblical questions.

Mark 11:20-25  
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"  "Have faith in God," Jesus answered.  "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

If our faith will let us move a mountain, why can't we do that?  Why can't I pray to God to fold my laundry?  Is it using God as a tool?  

Or are there doubts that I am just unaware of?  If I was to repeatedly say "God will allow someone to find a cure for cancer" does that mean that eventually I will believe it so whole-heartedly that eventually I will have no doubts of it?

I was just curious as to why we can't move mountains.  Do we have doubts that we'll never overcome or are we testing Him? Take your time in getting back to me.
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My first response is "Why didn't you ask about the fig tree?" I have never figured out to my satisfaction why Jesus had to curse a poor innocent fig tree to get his point across!  Some things I will just have to wait for heaven to find the exact answer to.

Revolt!

Time to come clean. I am obsessed with consumerism, because I think that consumerism will be the spiritual force to recon with in this century (maybe longer). I believe it will be the "delivery vehicle" through which the enemy will try to accomplish what CS Lewis calls "the abolition of man". The enemy used nationalism, fascism, and communism as his primary delivery vehicles in the 19th and 20th centuries. But, now consumerism is trying to consume all human society and make humans into the perfect renewable resource. It has a vested interest in destroying families, churches, and every other "support structure" in our lives so that we have to rely on purchasing products to be "whole" people (wholly addicted, that is). I really think that consumerism is one of the powers that makes Christianity so powerless in our society.

On Bouffant Hair and Bad Theology: Random thoughts while watching TBN

OK, I admit it.  Sometimes I watch TBN.  For several reasons:

1. It's just flat out entertaining.  Folks with way too much makeup, gaudy sets, and crazy hair-dos with hands raised to the ceiling, praising God, pronouncin' blessing, and claimin' the anointin' of the Holy Ghost.  And, I gotta admit: Watching Rod Parsley and "Bishop" TD Jakes is incedible.  I mean, I think Rod's prosperity theology is waaaay wacked, and TD has some questionable doctrinal areas too, but the dudes are used of God, changing their communities, and bringing people to love Jesus (can I get an Amen?).  And they are just flat-out dynamic, quirky, and fun to watch.  It's all a freak show... and it reminds me that Jesus LOVES freaks!

On using political-economic power to convert people to "Gospel Values"

My buddy Matt over at Two Cities Blog has written a great article on whether Christians should boycott "Brokeback Mountain" to send a "message to Hollywood" supporting Gospel Values. I think this article highlights an implicit tension and contradiction in Christian mission and social action: Christians using coercive power to "make" people change into "good" people.

Specifically, is it ever effective or right to use coercive power to make people "convert" to the values of the Gospel? Let me explain:

What is Truth? On the evaluation of the Truth of Doctrinal Systems

My buddy Matt, who I write on "Two Cities" Blog with recently wrote a great article on being Ecumenical. He is Church of Christ, I am Anglican, and we have a whole bunch of discussions about this kind of stuff. His article is posted here.

During the discussion, I wrote a reply about how we should evaluate the truth of doctrinal systems. I want to share that here:

New Wineskins and New Cloth

I got a good question from Lori I thought I would share:

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Today, I was reading the lessons for today, and I have always been confused by these 2 verses (21-22).  I don't understand how they go with the previous verses. Do you know how they go together?

Mark 2:18-22  
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?"  Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.  But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.  

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.  And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
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There are a couple of different takes on those verses, but I don't have time to tell you all of them... So I will just tell you my take...

Just what was the philosophical justification of splitting the Church in the Reformation?

In response to my last post, Matt asks a great question:

I have one question: You mentioned that if the Catholic Church would have listened to Aquinas, Augustine and others the Reformation may have been avoided. However, many Protestants believe that a major part of what sparked the Reformation was the scholastic synthesis of faith and reason achieved by Aquinas and exaggerated by Averroes and Ockam. Some believe that the problem of the Reformation was caused by Aquinas's "secularization" of faith. What would you say about that? Just curious.

In response to Matt:

We fixed the wedding, now let's work on the marriage

Isaiah 62:5 ...As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

After a decade of self-study in historical and systematic theology, a year of graduate study of Christian history, and another year of graduate study in the history of doctrine, a thought has crystallized in my mind: The Protestant reformation largely fixed the problems of our "wedding" with Christ, but it is not sufficient to fix the marriage.  Let me explain...

Theologically Correct Bible Songs (part 1)

Part of a series dedicated to revealing the concrete effects of imbalanced theologies by re-writing hymns and children's songs as if the theology were actually true.  The songs are somewhat funny, obviously badly warped, and certainly nothing we would want to teach our kids or congregations.  And yet, I think they faithfully carry out the explicit logical conclusions of certain types of theology.  If the theologies are correct, and something that people can actually believe, then WHY NOT sing these songs?  But, if the songs are horrendous, how can we keep believing the theology that underlies them (even if in a kinder, gentler, more nuanced version)?

Enough logic.  On to the songs...

An Open Letter to Those thinking of leaving their Christian Traditions

This is a letter primarily to some of my good friends (you know who you are) who have expressed severe disenchantment with their own Christian Traditions, and are currently thinking of moving over to the Anglican, Roman, or Orthodox Communions.  But this letter is also for everyone who may be thinking about "jumping ship".  I want to begin with a quote by St. Paul:

"To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." (1 Corinthians 9:20-23)

Now let me tell a little story to illustrate the points I want to make:

How do you get "saved" in the Anglican Church?

This article was originally an essay in a booklet I am putting together called "Explaining Anglicans". But, today I read a wonderfully touching, yet insufficient, explanation of salvation from a fellow Episcopal youth minister. You can find it here.

Although I really, truly sympathize with the pastor who posted this article, I believe he frames the issue in an EITHER/OR debate: Either salvation is individual, other-worldly, and about doctrinal correctness (as in Fundamentalism) or salvation is communal, this-worldly, and about loving social justice (as in Liberalism). I think this is too simplistic. Salvation is rather both-and.

An Open Letter to the Republican National Committee

2018 Note: There are several things about this blog I really do not agree with now. Notably, I have long since evolved to embrace marriage equality, and see same sex marriages as equally and fully families that should be strengthened and embraced. I leave this up on blog as a monument to personal growth and change over time. 

I received an email on February 13th, 2006 from the Republican National Committee asking for feedback about the GOP.  Not letting any opportunity slip to tell someone what I think, I penned the following letter:

SOVEREIGNTY AND FREEDOM, HOPE AND HELL

Examining The Paradoxes Of Creator And Creation In The Light Of Ultimate Reconciliation Through Christ

Copyright © 2006 Nathan L. Bostian

Out of all of the doctrines of the Christian faith that cause problems for both believers and those who are yet to believe, the doctrine of hell seems to create the most problems.  The traditional view that hell is the last word God gives to the unrepentant, even if hell is a self-chosen reality, seems absolutely horrific if God is as loving and powerful as Christians say that He is.  How could God be anything like a loving Father if He is content to give up on any of His children, and allow them to suffer forever.  Wouldn't He keep reaching out to them if there was any possible way to reach them?  And if anything is possible with God (cf. Mat 19:26), is there ever a reason for God to stop reaching out?  Why then is hell apparently God's last word to a significant portion of humanity?

Or is it?

Needle Pricks, Crocodile Tears, and Divine Providence

I think I learned something about God this morning.  At 9am it was time to take my daughter to the doctor for her 15 month checkup.  My wife is a teacher with a very structured daily schedule, and since I am a youth minister with a completely variable schedule, I usually get to take our daughter to the doctor.  I do not like going to the doctor.  I hate getting my blood drawn, and I hate shots. But I have found out that there is one thing I dislike more than getting a needle stuck into me.  It is getting a needle stuck into my daughter.

They don't get it but maybe they will someday

I just switched over media players on my computer, and I am tidying up my music collection.  You find some strange and wonderful things when you do that.  I found an album on my hard drive by a band called "Concrete Blonde".  They are an L.A. club band with a hard edge to them.  I loved them in high school.

I stopped listening to them because they are blatantly anti-Christian.  It is clear from their lyrics that some person(s) who claimed to be Christians hurt some of them very badly when they were younger.  Concrete Blonde was also into the "Anne-Rice-Interview-with-a-vampire-dark-goth-vampire" thing in the early 90's.

They have great lyrics.  Passionate, painful, haunting lyrics.  Angry lyrics.

Last night I began reading Anne Rice's new novel, "Christ Our Lord".  She used to be a bitter anti-Christian for the same reasons that Concrete Blonde still is.  Anne Rice was deep into the dark-voodoo-vampire thing in New Orleans.  She is now a passionate believer in Jesus Christ.  If you doubt it, read the last 17 pages of her novel.

I wonder if the same thing that happened to Anne might happen- by God's grace- to Concrete Blonde as well.

A good debate on spiritual gifts

Hey folks. I am participating in a really good discussion with the boys over at Fide-O about whether or not the Spirit has ceased giving the gift of "prophecy" and other spiritual gifts (called "cessationism"), or whether the Spirit continues to give these miraculous gifts (called, guess what, "continuationism").

I am on the continuationist side of things, and I think my arguments are better than theirs (no surprise here). But, they like their arguments too. And, they bring up a lot of good points and a lot of problems associated with the use and abuse of spiritual gifts. Definitely worth reading.

Go see what we have to say at:

The introductory article (filled with good links too):
http://fide-o.blogspot.com/2006/01/oops-holy-spirit-messed-up.html

Where the discussion gets a bit better:
http://fide-o.blogspot.com/2006/01/schizophrenic-god.html