RMS Visit to The Islamic Center of America

Forty minutes from our home in Monroe is the beating heart of Islam in America - The Islamic Center of America. I'll be taking my RMS students there for a tour on May 8. Our host will be my friend Eide Alawan, director of the office of interfaith outreach at the Center. Eide has hosted us before. A good portion of what I know about Islam I have learned from him.

Free to Love #2 - What is Most Important is What God Thinks of You and Others





Looking west across Lake Erie to Ohio, from Monroe



Several years ago God told me "John, what others think of you is mostly not important. But what you think of others is very important." And: "What I [God] think of you and others is most important."

Here there are three ideas:

1. What others think of you is mostly not important.
2. What is most important is what God thinks of you and others.
3. What you think of others is very important.

In a recent Post I addressed #1. Today,...

2. What is most important is what God thinks of you and others.

The primordial truth of life is: God loves you. This is elemental and originary. From this everything else in life is derived.

Paling in comparison is: What other people think of you. When that idea becomes axiomatic, then people-pleasing follows inexorably. But from life's true, primordial state of affairs (viz., God loves you) comes security and authenticity. You are inwardly secure in His unfailing love; you are free from trying to be someone or something you are not for the sake of other people's approval. Only God's approval, only His "well done," now matters. You live every moment so as to please your Maker, with all of your life undergirded by His words "I love you."

My experience is that, when people have an abiding prayer life, God often communicates His love to them. When you abide in Christ, like a branch connected to a Vine, expect to hear and experience God's love, since God is love. This much is certain: God loves you. It will never get any better than this.

Further, God loves more people than just you. God so loved...  the world! God loves the few people who think little of you. God loves the few that think much of you. And God loves the overwhelming masses of people who never think of you at all.

Think on this. 99.99999% (ad infinitum) of this world's people do not even know you exist. If the world population is 6.8405 billion people, and you have 500 Facebook "friends," that you are "friends" with, for all practical purposes, 0% of all existing persons. (Divide 500 by 6.8405 billion here and get 0%. I think it is important to understand this. Think of this while reading Psalm 8:4 - What is man that you are mindful of him?

Though this world knows you not, God does. God is mindful of you. He is also mindful of all others. God has a spacious mental capacity. And, because God is, in His essence, love, He loves you and the entire world past, present, and future.

God even loves your enemies, few though they be. We even read that while we were God's enemies, God still loved us. (Romans 5) This fact will be important when we look, in a coming post, at:

3. What you think of others is very important.

Free to Love #1 - What Others Think of You Is Mostly Not Important



Storm clouds over our garage

Many years ago, while praying, God told me "John, what others think of you is mostly not important. But what you think of others is very important." And: "What I [God] think of you and others is most important."

Here are three ideas:

1. What others think of you is mostly not important.
2. What is most important is what God thinks of you and others.
3. What you think of others is very important.

1. It's not important what others think of you.

Mostly, this is true. When a Jesus-follower is secure in #s 1 and 2, and they love you and are not trying to control of change you, then what they think of you is important. For example, what my wife Linda thinks of me is very important. I pay attention to this. I have some others in my life like this.

My life has too much gone up and down, like a thermometer, reacting to how other people view me. The further I look into my past, the more I see myself as a moral and spiritual chameleon that changes colors depending on others' perceptions of me.

I have been too concerned about being liked and approved by others. I wore clothes that would, hopefully, win others' affirmation; I spoke words that people wanted to hear; and I made decisions that were inauthentic, not true to who I was. My 'yes' was 'no' and my 'no' was 'yes.' I was not secure in my own identity. Out of such insecurity comes the need to please others and be pleasing to them.

Part of my sanctification as a Jesus-follower has been growing out of this insecurity. (Sanctification = ongoing growth in holiness; ongoing "set-apartness" for the Kingdom.) I'm not fully secure yet. But now Linda and I often talk about how we both, as best we can, speak the truth in love to others who seek our counsel, even if they do not want to hear it, even if as a result they reject us, and even if they publicly crucify us.

Now I know that unless I am free from the insecurity of people-pleasing I will never be able to love them as I should. Only a free person can really love others. To be free is to have no emotional "strings" that others can pull, to have no "hot buttons" that others can push. We see this, fully demonstrated, on the cross, as Christ said, amazingly in an act of 100% freedom, "Father, forgive them...  for they don't know what they do."

At precisely that point we see the "true colors" of Jesus, who was not manipulated by some need to be liked by others. This allowed Him to freely love those who didn't love Him.

How can we grow in such holiness? I have found this freedom in my prayer life. Today I get to spend time praying. It's my "Tuesday with God." As I dwell with Him and hear from Him, He will tell me, as needed, that I am secure in His love. The experiential being-loved-by-God is the antidote that heals the chameleon's heart.

Next: #2 - What is most important is what God thinks of you and others.

Plantinga & God-Belief as Properly Basic

(For my MCCC Philosophy of Religion students.)

Theistic philosopher Alvin Plantinga reasons that belief in God without having arrived at such belief evidentially is still rational. In doing this he counters the evidentialism of philosophers such as W. K. Clifford. Clifford stated that it is always wrong to believe something without having evidence for that belief. Plantinga thinks this is wrong.

His reasoning: If the Christian noetic framework is true, then belief in God is properly basic (warranted).


1. Many, even most, of the things we believe and claim to know are non-evidentially arrived at. For example, consider the statement I had breakfast this morning. This statement, where “I” means “John Piippo,” is true. I know it is true, and I know this non-evidentially; i.e., I have not formulated an evidential argument using premises that infer the conclusion (Therefore) I had breakfast this morning.

A more profound example of a properly basic belief is our basic trust in our rational capacities (logic). Should we trust in them? We just do, and an evidential argument cannot be formed to conclude we can trust them, since such an argument itself will use logic and require that we trust in it. One would have to trust in and use logic and logically argue that we can trust in logic. That, of course, is question-begging (circular). So one’s trust in one’s rational capacities is bedrock and foundational. It is properly basic.

2. Plantinga then reasons this way: If Christian theism is true, then we have grounds to believe in God, such God-belief being properly basic.

If the noetic framework of Christian theism is true, then such statements are true: God made you in his image; God loves you; God wants you to know him; When you look at the creation you are looking at the handiwork of God; I experience God forgiving me of my sins; I experience God answering my prayers; and so on.

On Christian theism we have “warrant” for trusting in our rational capacities. And belief in God is itself properly basic. (Like Calvin’s sensus divinitatis.)

3. Regarding this, atheist philosopher Michael Martin objected that, if on the noetic framework of Christian theism God-belief is properly basic and rational, then it seems any person’s beliefs are rational, within their noetic framework. Martin put forth the notorious “Great Pumpkin” objection to make his point. If someone thinks this noetic framework is true, then it is rational for them to believe in the Great Pumpkin. But that seems absurd.

4. Plantinga’s response was that, on some noetic frameworks, we do not have grounds or warrant to trust in the veridicality of our rational capacities.

For example, if Voodooism is true, then surely we cannot trust our rational faculties. This is because someone may be sticking a doll with a pin, or casting a spell, and this manipulating my thoughts to say things like “David Hasselhoff is a brilliant musician.”

Plantinga also reasons that, if atheism is true, then we do not have warrant to trust our rational faculties, since the probability of the veridicality of our rational faculties on naturalistic evolution is low. Unguided, non-theistic evolution is blind, its raison d’etre solely for adaptation and survival. 

Muslims and Easter

I took this picture of the mosaic of Jesus in the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul

There's a nice article at newyorker.com - "How Muslims View Easter." Here are the bullets.

• Jesus did not die on a cross. "It’s spelled out quite clearly... in the Koran’s fourth Sura, verse 157: “They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him.”" It was "made to look like" it was Jesus being crucified. But it was not. Maybe it was another person, perhaps Judas? "God changed his face to resemble Jesus, and Jesus himself was spared. A slight variation posits that God changed the vision of all those who witnessed the crucifixion to make them think they were seeing Jesus. Others argue that it was Jesus who was nailed to the cross, but that he survived it; what happened on Easter Sunday was not a resurrection but a resuscitation. Some say that no one was crucified at all." 
• Jesus was born of a virgin, but is not the Son of God. "Jesus is not, and could not possibly be, divine. He is a prophet but he’s still a mortal, and God is not his father. “I understand that if you believe someone to be God, and others say he’s not God, it’s like an insult,” [imam Ibrahim] Sayar said. “But if you look at it from the Muslim perspective, there’s no difference between Jesus, Abraham, Mohammed.”" 
• Jesus healed the sick, and raised the dead.
• Jesus is the Messiah.
• If you don't "believe in Jesus" then you're not a Muslim.
• Jesus is a Muslim.

Islam removes the beating heart from Christianity. This is what, for me, makes interfaith dialogue with Muslims unresolvable. We can love one another. We can dialogue together so as to understand one another. But fundamentally we are at odds with each other regarding Jesus who, on Christianity, is not merrely a prophet but God Incarnate.

Baptisms This Coming Sunday at Redeemer

If you come to Redeemer and want to be baptized this coming Sunday please contact either Josh Bentley or myself.

This Sunday Josh will preach on the meaning of baptism out of Romans 6:1-6

¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

If There's No God Then Our Universe Is Meaningless

Monroe, MI

Today's Los Angeles Times has an article by physicist Lawrence Krauss - "A universe without purpose: New revelations in science have shown what a strange and remarkable universe we live in." He writes:
"The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis. Everywhere we look, it appears that the world was designed so that we could flourish." Krauss is an atheist and thinks that "for many, to live in a universe that may have no purpose, and no creator, is unthinkable." Krauss wants to make it thinkable and palatable. Such thought takes people out of their comfort zones. Science, thinks Krauss, can help us.

He thinks science can explain how a universe could come, without God, from "nothing." But, as some are saying, Krauss's understanding of "nothing" is actually "something."

Writing humbly, he thinks science shows that "it's possible" that "our universe and the laws that govern it arose spontaneously without divine guidance or purpose." OK. Which brings us back to a universe without purpose or meaning, right? He writes: "that possibility need not imply that our own lives are devoid of meaning. Instead of divine purpose, the meaning in our lives can arise from what we make of ourselves, from our relationships and our institutions, from the achievements of the human mind."

But surely, if our universe has no Creator, then our universe is not a "creation," no more than the leaves now blowing in my backyard are arranging themselves in some meaningful pattern. On atheism our lives are devoid of ultimate meaning. Of course we can make our own meaning, just as children can invent games to play. Within the world of the game (or the Wittgensteinian language-game) there is relative meaning (meaning relative to the context of the game). But that is not my concern. It's also not the concern of some of the European atheistic existentialists who wrote of life's absurdity, on God's nonexistence. Relative to the context of the universe there is no meaning. And by "meaning," I mean "fitness within a context."

Furthermore "science," qua science, does not give us meaning. Right? Anyone want to try to quantify "meaning?"

Easter Week #8 - The Defeat of Shame and Death, & the Reign of Grace and Life

The greatest single days of my life have been:

• A day in May, 1970, when God became real to me in a very experiential way, I knew He existed, and that He incarnated Himself in Jesus.
• August 11, 1973. I married Linda.
• July 10, 1982, and September 25, 1985. My sons Dan and Josh were born.

All my life is formed and shaped around these four events. They color everything I do, and will do, for the rest of my earthly existence.

The greatest yearly holy day of my Jesus-life has always been, and remains, Easter Sunday. That's today! This morning I got to play guitar and sing on our worship team. How long will they let an aging man do such things? As I was playing there were some moments when I closed my eyes and said, for the bazillionth time, "Thank You, God, for rescuing me." It's forty-two years after my rescue. My heart was overflowing with gratitude this morning at Redeemer.

I preached out of Romans 5:12-21. It's about the rule or reign of condemnation and death brought about by Adam's sin, and the grace-gift of righteousness effected by Christ's death and resurrection. In Adam, death reigns. In Christ, grace reigns. And, even more than this, we who are in Christ now reign in life.

I shared this morning that, at times, I have gone to a cemetery to pray. In a cemetery one is standing in a field of tombstones. But because I am in Christ, I am standing in a field of grace. (Romans 5:2) In the kingdom of God tombstones don't rule. Grace does. Empty tombs, eventually, reign in the kingdom of heaven, because one tomb opened 2000 years ago.

Sin produces, rightfully, condemnation. "Condemnation," from the Greek word katakrima, has the root idea of separation or discrimination. Katakrima means: judgment coming down on someone. Because Grace Reigns, there's no more condemnation, no more separation. I think that THIS IS HUGE! This morning I celebrated this with my Redeemer brothers and sisters.

We also laughed together. This morning I got up early and drove around reviewing my sermon notes. I thought of something I was going to use as a sermon illustration. It was the old idea that says: "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you." When the point came in my message I said: "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you." With those words many of my Jesus-friends rose up and corrected me, right in our service. After all, they are my good friends, and a good friend doesn't allow their friend to be fooled on Easter Sunday.

So, taking their counsel, I said: "OK - It's 'Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you." It was then that near-rebellion broke out in our sanctuary, since I said it wrong again. Our people were smiling and laughing. The entire congregation (as I remember it) then corrected me once more, because good friends don't allow a friend to be fooled twice on Easter Sunday. I could not get this thing right! I then requested that this message not be put online for others to hear, thus saving me from possible condemnation and shame.

As I'm writing this I just googled it to make sure I get it right this time. Obviously, I'm insecure about this thing, and don't want to be fooled a third or fourth or fifth time. The correct version is: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If you don't believe this I say to you that IT SAYS SO ON THE INTERNET. And I now remember that, originally, one sin brought shame and death to the entire human race, but two-and-many-more sins brought, not more shame, but grace and life. (Romans 5:15-17) Don't be fooled about this: you can't out-sin or out-fail the grace of God.

The greatest day in history: one Passover Day around 33 A.D.

The day sin, condemnation, shame, and death were defeated.

REFLECTION

1. Take time today to thank God for...
- sending Jesus to rescue humanity from sin, condemnation, and death
- rescuing you from sin, condemnation, and death

2. Pray that you may experience and know what it means to "reign in life" through Christ, and by the Holy Spirit.

ONE MORE PHOTO PUZZLE

I took this photo in Israel. Where is it?

Redeemer Youth at Freshwind Conference in Toronto

I'm excited for our church's youth and youth leaders. They left Monroe yesterday afternoon to go to the Freshwind Youth Conference at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship.

Our friend Mattheus Van der Steen is one of the speakers, plus Cory Asbury is leading worship.

Pray that they will have a new God-encounter!

Good Friday Sunrise

Linda and I got up early today and drove to the shores of Lake Erie to catch the sunrise.