John's God

God is Love

     The book of John, the most theological of all four gospels. Out of this book we get the most famous Bible verse of all time. You see it painted on the faces or giant stomachs of football fans, you see it tattooed on the bodies of reformed tough guys, or you hear it quoted by misleading politicians clamoring for the Christian vote, it's John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." It is this love that is the theme of John and it is poured out in every chapter. It is this love that gives the Christus Victor view of the atonement major ground to stand on. That the death and resurrection of Jesus was not a business transaction between two parties, but a selfless, covenantial fulfilling of God's promise to redeem us. This love, that was in the beginning with God and was God, became flesh, yet still fully God, wrapped in humility to reconcile us back to the Father. Other than the resurrection, with questions that I've asked before in other blog posts, is that not the largest miracle God has ever preformed? Does that not show the depths of His love?

Simple Words

      Let me start with a rant. I can't tell you how many times I've read online comments that people who practice Christianity are reading an old, out-dated, rule-book given them by a magic sky-faerie. While it is sometimes an amusing comment, it's also frustrating because people like that have a very superficial view on Biblical scripture. Pastor Bruxey Cavey put it like in his "End of Religion" sermon series, "you can't just jump into the middle of a book, start reading and expect to get the whole picture." He continues, and I'm paraphrasing here, "throughout the whole bible, God consistently meets us where we are to teach us truths." It's surface issues like the former, where people just open the Bible and point out something they think is ridiculous, but miss a deeper message. 

    

     My point is, if you judge something solely at face value you're going to miss out on a potential life changing experience. In this case, the same could said for judging the simple words in this gospel.  John didn't use sophisticated words while writing his gospel, he used words like "Word", light, flesh, love and so on. The original Greek he wrote is also considered by scholars to be "baby Greek," but so what? In our westernized culture we have a tendency to think that only large sophisticated words will be able to properly display complexity. Yet through the choice words, teachings, and events we are carried along on a wave of spiritual activity, thereby dumping the argument on its head.
      One other word that is a centralized theme in John is "belief," or "believe." In fact the word is so important to John that he uses the word it 98 times throughout this particular book, the whole purpose of this gospel could be argued that it hinges on chapter 20 verse 31, pictured above. The last thing I'll point out is the use of the Logos doctrine, it has both Hebrew and Greek connections. As we see throughout the gospels each one has a specific audience it's trying to reach, this particular gospel is for new Christians, and people searching. At the time the world was very Hellenistic, meaning inspired by Greek culture and philosophy. There were also Jewish Christians, or people that converted from mainstream Judaism who accepted Jesus as their savior. The Greeks determined that their was a divine reason for order and purpose in creation and they called it the Logos principle. For the Jewish culture, the "Word" illustrated the self expression of God. For both of these cultures "Logos" is the beginning of all things and John appealed to these philosophies to grab the attention of the reader during his day.

The Divinity of Christ

     In my high school photography class most of our homework assignments were just to take pictures of anything we wanted. I remember one of my classmates took a photo of a stain-glass window at the catholic church he attended with his family. We started talking about God and I must have said something to upset him because he snapped at me, "Jesus never claimed to be God in the Bible!" This is another argument I often hear and I don't blame the kid for saying it because the language of scripture is different from our common day English. Nevertheless, Jesus did claim he is the Messiah, especially while talking to the Samaritan woman in John 4:26. Also, look at this verse Jesus spoke while at the temple, " Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am!" (John 8:58 NLT). When the religious leaders heard him say that, they freaked out and grabbed the nearest rock to throw at him. That's not a statement a person could make in his day and get away with it. The phrase "I AM" was/is considered to the Jewish culture a holy name of God, and Jesus applied it to himself, which unmistakeably declared his divinity. Specifically, so that we may believe in Christ, John used seven more examples of Jesus stating his divinity and they are commonly known as the "I am's." Example, "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12). If that weren't enough John used seven signs (miracles) to prove the Jesus is the Messiah, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Raising Lazarus from death is significant because death is the single greatest threat to human existence and this miracle shows that Jesus was not limited by deaths hold on us.

The Compassion of Jesus and God in the temporal realm

  Just because Christ was not limited by death, as we see in this book with the whole Lazarus thing and in the other gospels with the resurrection, it doesn't meant he is indifferent to our suffering. Have you ever had a family member or perhaps a close friend in intense emotional pain due to a loss of someone important to them? They are pretty much inconsolable and no matter what you do, what words you say, you just can't seem to take away their pain. Then perhaps, they're so emotional, so distressed, that you yourself begin to cry because their pain moves you. Such was the case the Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, no matter what words Jesus said to the sisters, their grief and the grief of those around them moved him to tears. He cares enough to weep along with us in our suffering. The difference between Jesus and us is his divinity, he is God. Jesus was able to enter the tomb of a dead man and bring him back to the living, turning grief into joy. It might not be something as miraculous as that these days, but if we let God in we do have the ability to be restored.

     For the last 50 years or so there's a big hullabaloo going on in the world of theology about God and whether or not He exists in time and space. One argument suggests that if He did exist in time and space than he would be constrained by the effects of time, thereby limiting his power. I ask, why would the creator of time be a slave to His own creation? If He was afraid of time than we wouldn't even have a belief in God because He wouldn't interact with beings that operated within a linear time-stream. He most likely isn't afraid, or limited and throughout the Bible we see that he cares about our time here on earth and moves within the temporal realm because of His compassion for us. One more way we are shown this is when Jesus prays for future believers in the Garden of Gethsemane, "20 My prayer is not for them[disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:20-21). 

Far From the End

     There are lots of things I could still cover and there is a  possible conclusion I could come to for this book, but I choose not to. In truth John's words don't really end here because they stretch into eternity with the book of Revelation where God completes his promise. For those of you who have followed me on this journey of covering this gospesl I want to thank you. If you're are a believer, please remember Jesus' command, "Feed my lambs" (John 21:15). If you are searching, I hope my writings have at least made you think.

References

"Does God Dwell Within or Outside of Time?" A Question Is Asked. UK Apologetics, Web. 15 Aug. 2014.

Flora, Wayne. "The Gospel of John." New Testament Survey. Online, Cleveland. 15 Aug. 2014. Reading.

Life Application New Living Translation, Study Bible, Tyndale House Pub, 2012. Print.

Tenney, Merrill C., Walter M. Dunnett, and Merrill C. Tenney. New Testament Survey, Revised. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub., 1985. Print.

Faith Like A Goonie

    What is faith? What is this concept that the media mostly gets wrong, or Christians sometimes get wrong or at least confused by? Heck, even some pastors get it wrong. Is there a clear definition for it in the Christian life?
     Recently, I woke up in the morning and the first thing that popped into my head was The Goonies. It wasn't a slow process, but rather a thought that sprung me awake like lightning bolt to my consciousness, THE GOONIES. It occurred to me that Christians could probably learn a thing or seven from the classic 80's flick especially about faith. So, I will be relating this film to our walk in faith as well as making some arguments about what faith really is and means. Once again, like in my recent posts, I ask you to keep and open mind and open heart to what is going to be said in this entry.

The Goonies? Da fudge is dat?
     Hopefully everyone has seen or at least heard of the Goonies, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past thirty years I'll give you the rundown of the movie. Taking place in Astoria, Oregon it tells the story of a group of teenagers who are struggling with the fact they have to move due to a bunch of developers who bought out their parent's mortgages and also bought the surrounding land to build a golf course. Mikey Walsh, the protagonist, is super bummed that he wont be able to keep hanging with his group of friends he grew up with, nick-named the Goonies. So anyways, a bunch of them get together at Mikey's and mope about how their fates are certain unless miraculously their parents come up with the money to stop the deal. Mikey's dad just happens to be a curator at the town's museum and one of the friends, Mouth, suggests that maybe their is something in the attic they can sell to come up with the money since Mr Walsh stashes stuff up there all the time. They find a treasure map and Mikey convinces most of the others to take up the search for One Eyed Willie's treasure.


That Desperate Hour
     Much like Mikey and his friends we all face times of desperation where you are looking for a way out of your difficult situation. You pray and you pray and you pray, then you wait and wait some more. Finally an answer appears, but is it the answer you need? How are you sure it will get you out of your predicament? Who knows? You take the leap anyways! People on tv walk around saying "I've got faith! Hallelujah, I got faith!", but the thing of it is is that faith isn't a possession, there's no bogo offer on it. I would argue that it's an action, Hebrews 11:1 reads "Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.(DBY)", some people might get on me for  using the Darby translation, but I think it represents my point pretty well.  For another example look at Mark 5:25-34 when Jesus heals the bleeding woman, she saw Jesus and took her chance, all she needed to do was touch his robe. When Jesus realized some power went out of him he turned to her and reaffirmed her action, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." In my mind this clearly demonstrates that one aspect of faith is about seizing the opportunity, she had heard that Jesus healed people, it was enough for her and she was rewarded. Of course it was easier when Jesus was on the Earth, there was almost an instant gratification to this healing. We, like Mikey, might have to risk a little more for our answers in faith. All he had to go off of was a treasure map and a doubloon which supposedly led to a treasure, but that seemed enough for him even if he wasn't certain the map would lead to anything.

That's what I said! I said booby traps!

     When we exercise our faith that doesn't mean that everything is going to go swimmingly, or that everyday birds are going to sing a Disney tune and everyday is going to be sunny from here on out. Having that kind of attitude would probably lead to a mental meltdown. Jesus himself said that in this life we will have trouble(John 16:33), so while we cannot be certain about the outcome of our risks that we take through faith, we can be certain that God's grace is sufficient enough for us to get through our trials(2 Cor 12:9). We also have this jerk of an enemy, the adversary, who seems ever at our heels much like the Fratellis were to the Goonies, who sets booby traps for the faithful to throw us of the rails. His attacks combined with misconceptions about faith that we might have could serve to damage our walk with God especially when we are already going through something difficult. For example, let's say a person's family member get's severely ill and it interferes with the finances, they get behind on the bills. That person might say, if I just believe enough, have enough faith, things will get better. Then that person gets laid off and has little to no income. How are the medical bills going to get paid? Regular bills going to get paid? How are we going to eat? "I thought if I had enough faith God would carry me through this!" 

     While some of these events are influenced in the spiritual realm, we must consider the realm of free choice where events are effected by other's choices everyday. As Job's friends learned after they accused him, it wast't his lack of faith that caused his problems. Job was being tested, and through his testing, through the booby traps the devil placed in his life, Job persevered because he ultimately trusted God. With that being said I believe another aspect of faith is perseverance through trust(James 1:12). I'm not sure if Mikey believed in a god, but I know that he did place his trust in the rest of the Goonies to get himself out of some jams. Therefore we must be careful to not set booby traps for ourselves and we can avoid this by examining what faith really is, like author and theologian Greg Boyd asks in his book "Benefit of the Doubt", is a faith not examined worth having?

    

 An Unexpected Treasure

     Mikey and his friends took the risk on something they didn't know was a sure thing. They persevered through the booby traps and defeated the Fratellis, however they had to give up the pirate treasure in order to save their own lives. In our walk with faith there are times we are going to have to give things up, maybe it's a friendship, maybe it's a job, or maybe it's a prized material possession. Whatever the case it's important that you line up your faith with what God's will is and I know that sometimes it is the hardest thing a Christian can do, but ultimately it is for our benefit(1 John 2:17). Even though they lost the treasure, the Goonies were still over joyed at seeing their parents, and at the end of the film you could see that they had learned a lot through their experiences. It seemed that they came to terms with the fact the situation was out of their hands and when those country club jerks came around for the contract they decided to sign it, but then something unexpected happened. Mikey's house keeper Rosalita was searching through his jacket and found a marble sack full of precious stones! When we finally submit to God and confess we can't do it on our own anymore, we are opening ourselves to the possibilities of what God can do in our lives, we are putting His will above ours.  This is the last aspect of faith I'll be making an argument for, that faith is also submission to God. He will exalt those that are humble to him(Luke 18:14) and you will find comfort in His grace which abounds. If this is the case then God may reveal a treasure that we never thought to imagine.

Hey You Guys!

     In this assessment of what I believe faith really is I did my best to make sure I brought as much information from the Bible as I possibly could. I admit that some of what I have argued has been influenced impart by some theological readings I've completed over the past few years. Having said that I made sure that those authors were using a biblical source. In the end some may not agree with my points, but whatevs, I'm always willing to hear arguments that inspire growth in faith.