When the storm is raging at sea, ask a sailor for help, not a taxidermist: How can we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic?

Given some of the private conversations I've been having, let me issue a clarification: I do not now, nor have I previously, had issue with those who have different opinions from myself {unless they be outright immoral views, i.e. antisemitism from anyone or heretical views, i.e. denial of the resurrection of Jesus from a self-professed Christian}. As a firm believer in ecumenism within the Church {treating non-Baptist Christians as true brothers and sisters in Christ}, I take seriously the need to separate the Majors from the Minors {something I was taught by excellent professors at Cornerstone University like Andy Smith and Dr. Ronald Mayers}. That is, to see what is essential/eternal vs. what is opinion/preference/cultural/changing. The Majors are worth striving/fighting/dying for, the Minors are not even worth losing a friend over. I thus have Christian brother and sisters whom I love and respect who are Republicans, some who are Democrats, and some who couldn't vote for either. I have friends who believe in public education, those who champion private education, and those who home-school.

That being said, in regards to the current COVID-19 pandemic. If you believe that the government should re-open the economy now, that is an opinion based (hopefully) upon currently available facts. If you believe the government should wait, or re-open with caution, that is also an opinion based (hopefully) upon currently available facts. Americans clearly disagree about this issue, and that's ok, it is part of being citizens in a republic with free speech rights.

What our rights as Americans (and for myself, the superseding rights and responsibilities of being a Christian) do not grant us are: (1) Our own set of 'facts', or the right to ignore the facts when they don't suit us. (2) Expertise in areas that we do not possess education, training, and experience. For example: I have opinions about war, and have formed them having read widely on the subject of both ancient and modern war, its methods, purposes, and affects. My opinions are not based on nothing, but I recognize their limitations. Thus, if a combat veteran, a professional soldier, has an opinion, I will give it added weight; his/her training and experience has earned it. When the topic is Education, I am on firmer ground, having spent ten years as a public school teacher and having the education/training that proceeded that. I will thus weigh the opinion of other teachers as being similar to my own. Lastly, when the topic is Religion, specifically Christianity (more specifically Protestantism, American Protestantism, Baptists, and finally American Baptists) it is precisely within my education, training, and experience to share opinions that ought to be given more weight {A measure of common courtesy and decency that we reciprocate topic by topic and allow those with education/training/experience in the issue at hand to be shown respect} (3) Therefore, in the case of a global pandemic, such as COVID-19, our go-to response ought to be to give more weight to the opinions (based hopefully on solid facts) of ER physicians, epidemiologists, public health officials, and various others whose education/training/experience helps elevate their viewpoints toward being more consequential than that of the average citizen. Have medical professionals disagreed about COVID-19? Certainly, and that too is to be expected from such a complicated issue whose details continue to evolve as new studies and new data come to light (and old ones are revised or proven to be accurate). What do we do when the experts can't agree? The same thing you do when one mechanic tells you that your car needs an expensive repair and another says there is an easy fix. Look beneath the surface, seek additional opinions, check to see if your own bias is affecting your judgment about who to trust.

What this perspective doesn't do: Make everyone who isn't an expert in a field shut up and obey. That's not the point at all, hopefully it isn't what you're thinking while reading this. My point is not elitist, not by any stretch, it does not require an Ivy League education to become and expert, just a real one.

What this perspective does do: Allow those who have the best chance of being correct on an issue (thanks to education/training/experience, this do matter) to rise above those who have the least chance of being right on an issue.

When the plane I'm on is in danger of crashing, I want a pilot to be in charge, not a preacher. When faced with an angry bear in the woods, I'd rather have a park ranger next to me than a stock broker. When I need to understand something about God, let me look to someone who has dedicated his/her life to the service of God. And when people are dying of a new disease by the thousands, let me first turn to the doctors who has chosen to spend their lives trying to heal the sick.

God bless you all, I know our viewpoints on regarding COVID-19 are far ranging, and that animosity has been dangerously boiling up in our political life as a nation. Please, we can do better, we have to try.

Why Christians should care about the work of CSNTM

I would imagine that most pastors, let alone most Christians, are unfamiliar with the work of CSNTM (gotta love acronyms).  The Center For The Study Of New Testament Manuscripts is an organization founded by noted New Testament manuscript expert, Dr. Daniel B. Wallace (a personal favorite) in 2002.  What does CSNTM do?  The organization's mission is to utilize emerging technologies to preserve and study Greek New Testament manuscripts. Since then, CSNTM has collaborated with more than forty institutions on four continents to produce hundreds of thousands of images of New Testament manuscripts. In the process, CSNTM has discovered dozens of New Testament manuscripts. - From the About page of the CSNTM Website
What is the importance of this work?  By cataloging surviving NT manuscripts, and digitally preserving them, CSNTM is helping to add further depth and breadth to our understanding of the original autographs of the NT. 
Why don't we just look at the originals?  Easy enough to answer, they no longer exist.  No autograph (original from the hand of the author) of any ancient document {excluding those carved in stone, not exactly an option for the entire NT) has survived to the modern age.  Time, wear and tear, natural disasters, and deliberate destruction (think marauding barbarians gleefully setting fire to libraries) have seen to that. 
What do we have then?  Around 5,800 NT manuscripts (some whole, some very fragmentary) in Greek, 10,000 in Latin and 9,300 in various other languages (the non-Greek being translations, still useful, but not as much as those in the original language, Greek).  The further beauty of CSNTM is that they have discovered, cataloged, and digitally photographed 90 previously undocumented NT manuscripts.  In other words, the surviving evidence of the original NT text is getting stronger thanks to this work.
How is the work of CSNTM utilized?  Scholars are able to remotely study individual manuscripts much easier than finding them and gaining permission to view them, without risk of damaging this delicate ancient documents.  In addition, the printed Greek text that underpins nearly all English translations (exceptions being the KJV and NKJV which use the Textus Receptus, and the Douay-Rheims based on the Latin Vulgate {the Catholic Bible, based on Jerome's 4th century translation into Latin}) is today the Nestle-Aland's 28th Edition or the United Bible Societies' 5th Edition both of which are in a continual process of being updated to take advantage of new discoveries and new scholarship (like that of CSNTM) to further refine the 99% accuracy of our current text.

For further study, check out my 6 hour lecture on the History of the English Bible (located conveniently at this blog), where I delve into the history of the copying by hand of the NT, the advent of printed editions, and the translation work that brought the Bible from its original hand copied Hebrew and Greek manuscripts to our printed English texts today.

Why is the Truth treated like a second rate commodity? Life lessons from an ESPN article: Happy 59th! Or is it 58th? Cracking the mystery of Don Mattingly's birthday - by Sam Miller

Do yourself a favor, read the ESPN article: Happy 59th! Or is it 58th? Cracking the mystery of Don Mattingly's birthday - by Sam Miller.  In a world of pandemics and political turmoil, an innocent mystery about a baseball card from 1987 is like a relaxing balm.

Yes, I have this card; several copies of it.

This story connects with me on multiple levels: (1) I was an avid baseball card collector in my youth {thus spending nearly all my paper route money} with tens of thousands of cards now stored in boxes in my parents' basement back in MI, (2) Don Mattingly was one of the four players that I tried to get every card of {along with the Tigers' Matt Nokes, the Mets' Dwight Gooden, and my all-time favorite, the A's Ricky Henderson}, and (3) the reason why I'm sharing this, I too care about accuracy and truth.

Why is it that so many people today can't even be bothered to spend 30 seconds to determine (painlessly and for free) whether or not what they're about to share on social media is a hoax, fake, or an outright lie?  What happened to the idea that, "My word is my bond"?  Why doesn't it bother more people that they're being used as tools to advance causes they may/may not agree with on the basis of falsehoods?

Baseball historian Bill Haber spent countless hours tracking down the truth about even totally obscure baseball players, writing letters and spending money for public records because he cared about the truth.  The author of the story, Sam Miller, dug around until he found the answer to a mystery (It's an interesting mystery, read the story) because he too wanted to know the truth.

As Christians, the Truth is supposed to matter more to us, there's a reason why I use a capital "T" when talking about it as a principle.  Dozens of times in the Gospel Jesus begins an important statement with, "I tell you the truth..." {"Verily"is the old school translation in the KJV}.

Numbers 23:19 New International Version
 God is not human, that he should lie,
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise and not fulfill?

John 4:24 New International Version
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 14:6 New International Version
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Those are but three of dozens of examples of the insistence upon the Truth from God and by the people of God.  When we lie, or share lies, we not only harm our own reputation as people who value Truth, but we are indeed committing acts of sinful rebellion against a God who rejects utterly the notion of using evil like a tool, no matter what the goal may be.  You may think you're serving a higher purpose by lowering the truth from a necessity to a nuisance, that your cause is worth the cost, but you're not, and it isn't.

Why don't we care more about Truth?  Why aren't we deeply concerned that we might inadvertently be spreading lies?  There is an answer, but you're not going to like what it says about us.    I use the plural pronouns because even though I do spend the time and put in the effort to honor the truth to the best of my ability, when some fellow Christians do not always do so, it is all of our reputation that suffers.  If we can't be bothered to care about the Truth in politics (to use a common example) why would anyone believe we know the Truth about life after death?  When enough Christians (or at least those professing to be Christians) have earned a reputation for dishonesty, that character flaw is ascribed to all of us, it becomes a weight that we must carry as we attempt to share the Gospel and impact our communities for the Kingdom of God.

Facts matter, honor matters, integrity matters, and yes, the Truth absolutely matters. If you can't be bothered to seek the truth, please stop pretending to represent Christianity.

Sermon Video: Isolation from, or Engagement with, the World? 1 Corinthians 15:33-34

Having corrected the error at the Church of Corinth regarding the reality of the resurrection to come, the Apostle Paul concludes by reminding them that, "Bad company corrupts good character." Is it true that, "One bad apple spoils the bunch"? Or can a bunch of good apples help the bad one? Which was does influence flow? Good to bad, bad to good, or both? As Christians we have an obligation to be engaged with the world, building friendships and connections to non-Christian people for the sake of the Gospel. How can we be the salt that Jesus commands us to be if we stay safe in our salt shaker of isolation? At the same time, we must retain our salty nature by ensuring that the weightiest influences in our lives are ones that are righteous and holy. This is a balance between isolation (from the world's corrupting influences) and engagement (for the sake of the Gospel) that each Christian and each church must maintain in order to be effective. We do need to be salt (righteous influences upon those living in darkness), and we also need to surround ourselves with enough other grains of salt (mature Christians) that we never risk losing our saltiness.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: A world without life after death - 1 Corinthians 15:29-32

What would be different about our world if we knew that there was no life after death? Considering that most people both now and throughout history have some sort of belief in an afterlife, the changes would not be small. The Apostle Paul outlines three of them, (1) we would lose our connection to our ancestors, (2) any rationale for self-sacrifice {much less worth dying for}, and (3) any hope for final Justice. In the end, without a resurrection the most likely human response is, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Hedonism and hopelessness are a toxic combination. Thankfully, Paul's thought is only a hypothetical, for the resurrection of the dead IS a reality, there will be a Judgment Day, and we have every reason to Hope beyond this life when we are in Christ.

To watch the video, click on the link below: