Keener on Ehrman, Briefly

(Siam Paragon Mall, Bangkok)

Craig Keener, in his new The Historical Jesus of the Gospels, makes a brief statement about Bart Ehrman which is clarifying. Craig writes:

“One need not argue that the entire text of the Gospels as we have them is accurate; most scholars, in fact (including the most conservative ones), will agree with most of [Bart] Ehrman’s textual decisions (e.g., the inauthenticity of Mark 16:9-20 or John 7:53-8:11). Observing that most scholars have not been driven to agnosticism by these textual issues, one scholar suggests that Ehrman’s agnostic response to them reflects his rigidly conservative background; if the text is either completely or completely wrong, Ehrman’s skepticism is a logical conclusion. Most biblical scholars do not insist on such a forced choice, just as most historians would not.” (xxiii)

An Atheist Become a Jesus-Scholar

(Bangkok, on the Phrao Chaya river)

Craig Keener, in the Introduction to his new book The Historical Jesus of the Gospels, writes of his conversion from atheism to Christian theism, and how this affects his work as a Jesus-scholar. He writes:

“I began my interest in questions about religion and, to a much lesser extent, biblical perspectives from a position of extreme (though not totally close-minded) skepticism, as an atheist. As one who is now a Christian I approach the subject with an special interest I previously lacked, but an interest that I believe makes me more rather than less committed to investigating genuine historical information about Jesus. When I was an atheist I never imagined my life would take this turn, but I harbor no regrets that it has. Even when I was an atheist I valued pursuing truth, regardless of where it might lead.” (xxxv)

The Myth of Value-Free Hermeneutics

(In Bangkok)

I'm beginning to read Craig Keener's The Historical Jesus of the Gospels: Jesus in Historical Context. In the Introduction Craig makes some methodological points, such as this one: "no one is free from assumptions, and... the presuppositions of skeptics are no more value-free than those of believers." (xxxi)

I agree. Failure to recognize this is seen in fundamentalist hermeneutics as well as a skeptical fundamentalism that is often a reaction against one's fundamentalist Christian upbringing. The Jesus-skeptic who thinks he is unbiased is hermeneutically just as narrow-minded as the fundamentalist hermeneutic he criticizes. As one who was not discipled in such anachronistic ways I see "value-free" discussions as essentially misguided when it comes to interpretation theory.

I'm looking forward to getting into Craig's Jesus scholarship!

Redeemer Ministry School Winter Trimester Classes

Redeemer Ministry School



Winter Trimester Classes

• T/Th, 9:30-11 - Worship II, Holly Benner
• Tues, 5-7 - Prophecy, John Piippo & Josh Bentley
• Teaching & Preaching, Wed., 9:30 - 1, John Piippo
• Kingdom of God II (Healing & Deliverance), Fri., 9:30-1, Josh Bentley

The Winter Trimester begins Tuesday, Jan. 5.

If you are not a full-time student and want to take an RMS class, the cost for the Prophecy class is $75 - for books and materials.


All other classes are $240.


redeemerministryschool.com

John 15:1-8

(Lake Erie pre-dawn, 11/29/09)

At Redeemer we are now moving slowly through John chapters 14-17. This coming Sunday morning I will preach on John 15:1-8 - the vine and the branches.

Keys to understanding what Jesus is saying here include:

• the secret of how Jesus has said what he says and has done what he does, which is that he is "in" the Father
• how we, then, are able to do the things Jesus has done, and even greater things, because the Father comes to make his home in us
• the being of God as Triune; perichoresis as a good way to describe the Triune Godhead
• the conditional truth-statements Jesus gives, such as: If you love me, you will obey my commands (in the same way as: "If it rains, the ground gets wet")
• Thus: "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit"

No More Minarets in Switzerland

("Stop the Minarets" poster in Switzerland)

Watch this in Switzerland on the vote taken Sunday to ban future building of Islamic minarets. The London Times says: "Swiss voters defied their Government and clerics yesterday and approved a ban on building minarets — reflecting an alarming hostility to a rising Muslim minority."

Al-Jazeera reports:  Supporters of the ban say minarets represent the growth of an alien ideology and legal system that have no place in the Swiss democracy. "Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure - we don't have that in Switzerland, and we do not want to introduce it," Ulrich Schlueer, co-president of the Initiative Committee to ban minarets, said.

Just as some Christians have as a goal to "Christianize" a nation, so do Islamists desire to "Islamify" a nation and establish sharia law. There's going to be a battle over religious freedom in Switzerland, a land known for openness and tolerance.

The Times says, "The Swiss political world is worried at the prospects of a worldwide Muslim backlash of the kind that hit Denmark after a newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad."


The minaret is a powerful symbol when introduced into a Western country. A cross on top of a church building, on the other hand, is culturally harmless. It it should also be a sign of revolution, of a kingdom invading this world and turning it upside-down.

Why the Prince of This World Had No Hold on Jesus

(Sunrise over Lake Erie, Monroe, MI, 11/29/09)

In John 14:30-31 Jesus tells his followers that “the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”


“The prince of this world” is kingdom-language. It’s two-kingdom theology. Jesus was a two-kingdom theologian. The kingdom-bifurcation goes like this: kingdom of God or kingdom of satan, kingdom of heaven or kingdom of earth; kingdom of light or kingdom of darkness. To Jesus, persons give allegiance to one of these two kingdoms. The Jesus-movement is a rescue mission to save (“sozo”) persons out of the kingdom of darkness and deliver them into the kingdom of light.

The real King is Jesus himself, and his kingdom is “not of this world.” It’s an upside-down kingdom that inverts the prevailing, oppressive social hierarchy. The word “sin” is defined in terms of these two kingdoms. “Sin” is essentially non-love for the real King, and thus rebellion against God. Every act of sin is an act of allegiance to the prince of this world; aka satan, our adversary.

When Jesus says that the prince of this world has no hold on him, the Greek words contain a double negative that literally reads, “This world’s ruler does not have anything on me at all.” This is legal language, prosecuting attorney accusatory-language. Jesus tells his disciples that he is “not guilty.” Of what? Of lovelessness and rebellion; viz., of sin. Satan’s non-claim on Jesus proves his love for the Father. Jesus’ thorough, total love for the Father results in him, in every detail, doing exactly as his Father commands. In Jesus the Son there is not one slight whiff of rebellion, not one moment of un-love. For this reason, and this reason alone, satan has no claim on Jesus. Jesus does not deserve the cross. But he goes to the cross out of perfect obedience to the Father, and out of his love for you and for me.

What about us? Does satan have any claim on you and on me? I think the answer is as follows. When we heart-claimed our allegiance to the Lamb, a “great exchange” was enacted by which we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The result was, as Paul writes in Romans 6, that sin was no longer our master. Sin is no longer an internal force controlling us. Now Christ is the internal power in our lives. Sin is now an external power trying to defeat us. We belong to the realm of grace and no longer live in the realm of sin. Our power to defeat sin comes from the presence of Christ in our lives. We no longer belong to the prince of this world. We now belong to Christ. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us. Father, Son, and Spirit have come to make their home in us. Romans 6:7 says that we are now freed from the slavery to sin that we once experienced.

Paul wonderfully spoke of “Christ in me, the hope of glory.” As songwriter Charlie Hall wrote, now “sin has lost its power, death has lost its sting.” (“Marvelous Light”)

Black Friday & A Phenomenology of Discontent

Thomas Merton writes:

"Why should I worry about losing a bodily life that I must inevitably lose anyway, as long as I possess a spiritual life and identity that cannot be lost against my desire? Why should I fear to cease to be what I am not when I have already become something of what I am? Why should I go to great labor to possess satisfactions that cannot last an hour, and which bring misery after them, when I already own God in His eternity of joy? It is the easiest thing in the world to possess this life and this joy; all you have to do is believe and love; and yet people waste their whole lives in appalling labor and difficulty and sacrifice to get things that make real life impossible." (New Seeds of Contemplation, 159-160)

Today, on Black Friday, Merton's words ring prophetically. Americans are consumers in a consumer culture that depends on human hearts that are miserable. Define 'miserable' as: 'discontented.' I now present to you a phenomenology of discontent.

Discontent is a dark mood rooted in a sense of lack. "Lack" equals the absence of a felt need. The stronger the lack, the greater the felt need, hence the greater striving to "possess" that which satisfies the felt need. One strives to acquire what one lacks, only to soon find that its contentment-power diminishes and is gone. Discontent returns. The felt need that is the sense of lack returns. Something else is neeed to bring contentment. We have here a rhythm of: discontent - striving - acquisition - discontent - striving - acquisition - discontent - ... and so on ad infinitum.

When I was about ten years old and Christmas was approaching, I saw an advertisement on TV for a mechanical bowling alley. It had a little mechanical man with a movable arm and open hand, into which you placed a small plastic bowling ball. It also had a mechanical pin-setter. You would hand-place the little plastic pins in the the holes, and then turn a crank to lower the pins in place at the end of the alley. A lever would pull the mechanical arm back, and upon release the ball would go down the alley into the pins. When I saw this I knew I wanted it for Christmas. My little heart also felt that, should I acquire this for myself, I would never lack for anything again in life. I mentioned this to my parents. They complied. Imagine my delight when, on Christmas Eve (which is when we opened our presents), before me was my heart's desire. I did notice, however, that the box the bowling alley was in seemed smaller than what I had seen on TV. Had there been some mistake? The pins were so feather-light that, when the mechanical pin-setter released them, they were prone to topple. The bowling ball was light as well, and at times would launch itself over the pins. It was phenomenally difficult to get the alley level so the ball, when it did roll down the alley, would make it to the pins. I was discontent. To make things worse my neighbor friend John had gotten a battery-powered pinball machine that I wanted. It turned out that, when he saw my bowling alley, he wished he'd gotten that instead of the pinball thing. We traded the day after Christmas. Mutual discontent set in. Longing returned.

If everyone who says they are a Jesus-follower actually "learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want" (Philippians 4:12), then Black Friday would be morphed into Good Friday, since all the striving that happens during the American folk-Christimas would be gone. Of course, should this actually happen, the entire American economy would be in ruins, since in America we must spend to keep the ship afloat. But, following Merton, real life would then be possible. Because deep, lasting things like family, friends, and joy are endangered by ad infinitum striving that grows out of a discontented spirit.

Flannery O.Connor

Thanks to our friend Will Peebles,  Steve Belkoff and I were, years ago, introduced to Flannery O'Connor. I can't speak for Steve, but I know I had a difficult time reading O'Connor. Will, however was familiar with her and is a very good teacher. What happened was that a world of Christian spirituality was opened up to me in a brilliant fictive way that nonfictive discourse cannot.

O'Connor was a genius. Terry Teachout's "Believing in Flannery O'Connor" sweeps me back to the 1980s whem Will, Steve, and I read, I think, everything O'Connor ever wrote. Every week I came away stunned by the Christ-haunted world she described. I hope one day to return to Wise Blood, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and The Violent Bear It Away, among many others. I think her work will have more to say to me now than back then, having been in ministry with people for the past 40 years. I sometimes wonder, "What the heck is going on in this crazy world, and what do I think I am doing in it." "Am I, are we, is the Church, making any real difference?" I think yes, and sometimes I am John the Baptist in prison sending out friends to ask Jesus if he is still the One.

To furrther explain. I teach logic in our local college. I love logic and try my best, at times, to think logically, to reason about life. But life, itself, is not logical. I'm talking Pascal-language, who said, "The heart has reasons, that reason cannot know." Amen. Sometimes things turn out well that logically should never have. And vice versa, with things turning out hellishly that were preceded by all of heaven's reasoning. O'Connor shows how Jesus-faith finds its way into our crazy world and latches on to people. We see the outrageously redemptive work of God who is able to take the bitterest lemon and squeeze out a lemon smoothie. The steel nets of logic cannot capture all of reality, and I suspect logic cannot capture the human heart which is, I think, what this whole mess is about anyway.

Now I think I'll go back and re-read about The Holy Church of Christ Without Christ in Wise Blood.

C.S. Lewis on Heaven

(Green Lake, Wisconsin)

A few summers ago, at our conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin, our speaker was Dean Sherman of Youth With a Mission. At one point Dean was talking about life after death. He said, "I don't want heaven to have streets of gold. I want heaven to be like Green Lake." Me too. I'll take the beauty of God's creation over anything when it comes to thinking of heaven.

In the book of Revelation the heavenly city ius described in this way:

"The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass." (Rev. 21:18-21)

I have always taken this description as symbolic of something so phenomenal that words fall short. Re. this C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, wrote:

"There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of 'Heaven' ridiculous by saying they do not want 'to spend eternity playing harps'. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs."