The Narcissism of Nationalism is spreading

Much is being made, globally, of the rise once again of nationalism after a lull following the end of the Cold War.  "America First" is a cry being echoed, in altered form of course, in England, France, Germany, and a host of other countries.  The sense that we're in this together is being challenged by the cry of every man for himself.  An example of this tendency in action is the ongoing controversy in Gdansk, Poland regarding the WWII museum set to open next month.  This museum was designed years ago to focus upon the civilian suffering, worldwide, that WWII caused.  Nationalist Polish politicians, however, want this global focus scrapped in favor of a museum that focuses on the heroics of the Polish army and resistance.  Instead of a museum that reveals the horrors of nationalist wars, they would have a museum that glories in the futile effort of the Poles to withstand the Nazis and Soviets at the same time.  The second museum isn't a bad idea, per se, the story of what happened in Poland during WWII, to Jews and Poles alike, needs to be told, but the rationale behind the animosity toward the original idea is a telling example of why nationalism can never be compatible with Christianity.  The foundation of nationalism is the belief that our people are worth more than their people.  It is a clear "us" vs. "them" mentality that ultimately devalues the lives of people living beyond our borders.  Those wanting to change the museum in Gdansk believe that Polish lives today, and the tragedy of lost Polish lives in WWII, carry more value than those of people elsewhere.  The ideology of the Nazis is simply this idea taken to its extreme form.
The Christian must reject the claim of nationalism that his life, or the life of people like him, have a greater value than those of a person who happened to be born elsewhere.  Paul makes the Christian ideal of equality clear in Galatians 3:28 when he writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all on in Christ Jesus."  Our ancestors failed to heed this command in the word of God, and willingly marched off to war, generation after generation, to seek national aggrandizement at the expense of their neighbors.  Humanity ought to have learned the horror of going down this road before, WWI and WWII should have been enough of a lesson, but humanity doesn't change, and one generation's call to "never forget" fades into the background as demagogues of a new generation seek power through nationalist grievances.  It may be inevitable that nationalist forces claim supremacy for "us" over "them", but Christians, those who take seriously the Word of God, must reject this call, always.

God reveals his secret wisdom: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10a

Every year a new book purports to reveal the secret things hidden from the public by the Church.  In the end, these books merely reveal things which have been known for centuries, not mysteries at all, nor any grand conspiracy, but simply the writings of heretics forgotten over the centuries.  The apostle Paul does reveal, however, that God kept an important secret from humanity, for thousands of years.  The secret wisdom of God was at last revealed, although it had been hinted at previously in the form of prophecies, to be the coming of the Son of God to dwell among men as Immanuel.  After the coming of the Christ, the people of God were commanded to share this news throughout the earth.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Five years of preaching, how far have I gotten?

While planning out my sermons up through Easter (I normally only plan that far ahead in advance of Christmas and Easter, so as to ensure that my sermon focus lines up with those holidays), I took the time to look back on the past five years here at First Baptist of Franklin to see how much of the text of the Bible I have preached, verse by verse.  This tally doesn't include the five years prior at First Baptist of Palo, as that was a different audience, thus any repeated texts from then don't enter into it.

The results were interesting, to me at least.  I've completed preaching through six books of the Bible, verse by verse, start to finish: Ruth, Jonah, the Gospel of Luke, Philippians, Titus, and James.  I've also completed chapters 1-18 of Acts, and chapters 10-32 of II Chronicles.  Throw in five messages out of Isaiah (one of the Lenten series), and a couple out of Matthew (an Advent series), plus a half dozen Psalms, the sections of 1 Samuel covering Hannah and Samuel, and the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians (my current sermon thread), and that about covers it.  The stack of yellow legal paper I write my sermons upon is now impressively high.

Which makes me wonder: If, Lord willing, I continue on here at 1st Baptist of Franklin for, say 20 more years, to pick a round number, how close to preaching through the whole Bible will I be able to come?  The Bible contains sixty-six books, of varying length, Luke is the only one of substantial length I've finished thus far, but Acts and II Chronicles will be finished in a year or two.  In theory, after 25 years, I might be halfway to preaching through the whole Bible.  What would it take to get the whole way through, and has anyone really accomplished that goal while still doing justice to each phrase, sentence, and verse?  I don't think I have the additional 50 years of preaching in me that it might take for me to finish, but who knows, after all, I am training for the Oil Creek 50k again this year.

The Word of God or the words of man?

There are few questions you can answer as consequential as this: Is the Bible the Word of God, or merely the words of men?  From your answer will flow all manner of impactful beliefs and decisions.  If the Bible is the Word of God, it has a claim on your life, you must consider its statements and commands and respond to them, for you will be judged one day by God.  If the Bible is the words of men, it can be argued with, co-opted, taken piecemeal with only the things we agree with given any weight, or ignored all together.

Virtually every moral or ethical issue that we as a society face, has been, or will be, profoundly impacted by our viewpoint upon the Bible.  Is abortion the murder of a child created in the womb by God and given a soul, or the choice to be made by an individual with no moral implications?  Those two conclusions could hardly be further apart, and they both reflect a firm stance on the origin of the Bible.  Is homosexual behavior a reflection of the human sin nature, like all of our other sins and akin to heterosexual lust, or is it a wonderful expression of love?  Once again, opposite viewpoints on an important issue that reflects what we believe the Bible to be.  Is divorce something which God hates, with exceptions for only the abused or cheated upon, or is it simply a personal matter of convenience that either of the two parties to a marriage can choose if they not longer want to be married?  This same divergence of moral viewpoints could be demonstrated again and again.  The key issue will always continue to be our definition of authority.  If the Bible is God's Word, it has authority over us.  If it is but the work of fallible men, any claim to authority is moot, and thus we can be our own authority and make our own decisions based upon whatever standard suits us.

What is the Bible?  Your answer matters, more than your may realize. 

Don't let your assumptions about the End Times define the Church.

I could have entitled this post, "Don't let your Eschatology determine your Ecclesiology", but that would probably have made most people skip reading it.  How we define the Church is a very important part of our theology as Christians.  It is imperative that we work together with everyone else who is a genuine part of the Church of Jesus Christ in order to fulfill our mission to share the Gospel.  There is danger in defining the Church too narrowly, which would turn those who are supposed to be our brothers and sisters into rivals, or at worst enemies, and there is danger in defining the Church too broadly, which would turn those who are supposed to be the object of our witness to the Gospel into those we wrongly assume to have already accepted it.  For a doctrine this important, we ought not allow anything other than the entire teaching of Scripture on the subject to be our guide.
In reality, however, a significant segment of those claiming to be Christians are allowing their assumptions about the End Times to be the most significant factor in determining their conclusions to these very important questions.  Most of those who believe that we're currently entering into the final days before the beginning of the Apocalypse also believe that one of the supporting evidences of that conclusion is their belief that 99% of all those who think that they are Christians, are in reality not.  This pessimism about the current state of the Church is a reflection of a theology of the End Times that requires the Church to be in a dire state prior to the return of Christ.  If the return of Christ is imminent, then the Church must be in a dire state, and therefore the definition of those who truly belong to the Church is made to fit that expectation in a predictably gloomy fashion.
There is, of course, great danger in making assumptions about when Christ will return, something that Jesus himself warned about.  One example of that danger is the pessimism and antagonism it fosters among those have convinced themselves that his return is imminent.  The Church, all of the Church, ought to be working together for the sake of the kingdom.  The question of how we define the Church is far too important to let it be influenced by anything other than the Word of God.