Friday, October 17, 2008

Radical Faith

Last night the Lord called me to have radical faith. He told me something was going to be ok, even WAS ok, and I didn't believe Him. All those stiff-necked, hard-hearted, blind, deaf, dumb predicates in the Old Testament? Yeah, that was me last night.

I wish I would have trusted God more. I wish I wouldn't have rebelled against the still, small voice that said, "Everything's going to be OK." I wish I would have listened to the words of Him who loves me and knows all, instead of connecting the dots in my own finitude and stupidity. I wish I would have placed my heart in His hands, and not let my own fears and insecurities snatch it away and play rugby with it.

But most of all I wish I would have realized this: Faith is not just resting in written promises, generally trusting in the goodness of God that He will work all things out for Good (though such things are of course true). It's more than just verses and eschatalogical hope. Sometimes faith is listening and believing God when you're staring at a blue wall and He's telling you it's red (believe me, He's always right). Sometimes it's forsaking all of our faculties and just trusting, giving up our rights of assessment and reaction and placing all of our attitudes, actions, reactions, thoughts, and feelings at His feet. It's being willing to say, "Lord, everything I know is telling me A, but You're telling me B and I trust you above everything else, so B it is." Sometimes faith flies in the face of all, and runs roughshod over it. But God's truth and faith in it always wins, even when it looks like the sorriest underdog there is.

Sometimes faith is just a general trust, a general hope, a gentle thing. But sometimes it's much more than that - it's radical, transcendent, and demands belief at the cost of disbelieving all else.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Primitive Logic

I stumbled upon this in my archives. I would classify this is as primitive theological logic in my conversion. Taken as an excerpt from an email:

Some Conclusions from Reading the Bible:


Jesus is the Son of God

Jesus died for our sins


Faith in Jesus and His atonement is vital for salvation

Works are vital for salvation (Luke 10, James 2, Revelation 20, etc)

The New Testament pictures God’s intention of one true community of believers being built up into the body of Christ, with apostles and prophets, teachers and evangelists being main means God has chosen to build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4)

The New Testament (and to a lesser extent the Old Testament) also predicts a falling away from the truth and a need for the true community of believers to be re-established upon the Earth (Amos 8:11; Matthew 13:25, Acts 20:29, 2 Peter 2:1, 1 John 2, 4, etc, etc)


On the basis of number six alone (which I think history corroborates), all historical faiths are disqualified for me (Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox – basically everything before the Reformation), leaving (outside of the LDS Church) only the Protestant faiths, which I consider to be disqualified by numbers four and five (I think even based on the 20th century alone, even on my lifetime, it is easy to see Protestantism splintering again and again, the end result being a privatized almost lone-gunman faith when it comes to doctrinal decisions. I consider this to be the natural and inevitable fruits of the Reformation principle of ‘sola scriptura’ and the ‘priesthood of all believers’). Pretty much, the LDS church is the only one left standing, at least to present it simply from one perspective (there are about a dozen others). For the sake of simplicity, though, here are just six conclusions I’ve made from reading the Bible carefully and considerately.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Necessity of Biblical Epistemology

The Necessity of Biblical Epistemology

(Not intended to be a definitive treatise, but instead the observations and reflections of a simple pilgrim of Zion)

The diversity of London continually provides a tide of philosophical challenge, which ebbs and flows, sometimes even crashes, against my worldview. As I stare into the faces of Bengalis, Buddhists, burka-clad women, businessmen and vintage New Wave rebels, I find my ideologies subtly challenged by the ones they represent , whether it be through cultural identification, speech, and even subconscious mannerisms. The way they interact with the world belies their beliefs and provides a foil of reflection against my own. Recently, I was struck by the philosophical integrity of Muslim extremists. Here were a group of people convinced that God (or Allah, for those of you who might be theological more conservative or reticent) dictated something not only extremely unpopular in the world’s eyes, but also time consuming and dangerous, not to mention lethal. And yet there are those in the world, who, despite such difficulties and hardships, carry out Allah’s commands.

As I contemplated the integrity undergirding the actions of Islamic extremists, my contemplation turned to evaluation of their actions and my assessment of their overall wrongness. At this point, I found my latent post-modern mindset rear its opinion. It leveled this against me: Who was I to say these zealots were wrong? Where did I get off imposing my sheltered and naïve Western world view on them?

At first I was slightly kowtowed by this accusation, but then I began to ponder epistemology and what basis I could claim to challenge the seemingly obvious misguided actions of our Muslim neighbors. It may seem obvious to you and me and many others that they are wrong, but why? Why are we convicted thusly, and furthermore often convinced that those who transgress our convictions will be judged according to the standards we vehemently profess?

This has led me to ponder biblical epistemology. I believed my convictions on jihad to be right, but why were they right? I would suggest a few conclusions that not only resolve the question at hand, but also seem to vindicate the Bible’s presentation of a universal judgment of mankind.

Before I proceed I should make clear one very important assumption, namely that there is good and evil, and that such distinctions proceed from God’s throne. So, operating on this assumption that good and evil do exist, I believe that we are all bound to these standards through several means of that inform us of them, and that it is this fact that enable us to evaluate right and wrong and facilitate the just Judgment of man portrayed in the lasts chapters of Revelation.

Firstly, we were given the basic ability of distinguishing right and wrong in the Garden of Eden. In addition, nature seems to undergird our obligations to God’s truth and standards, as does God’s verbal revelation (Psalms 19, Romans 1, et al). Further, it seems that when necessary, we can obtain further, transcendental, God given indications of truth through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 16, 1 Corinthians 2).

So, as much as I would personally like to lie back in the comfortable embrace of pluralism or universalism, it seems none of us are off the hook. As confusing as things can get, it would appear that there are always answers out there, to the heart that truly searches (Jeremiah 29:13).

This conclusion leaves me somewhat discomfited, because it introduces the wrenching ambiguity of who is and who is not truly searching. Perhaps though, such facts are supposed to be inscrutable. Perhaps we are only to dissect our own hearts, and simply pray for our fellow pilgrims.

In any case, I would suggest that God given knowledge and discernment, whether a now innate faculty or a special witness, is not only presented in the Word, but is the only sound epistemological footing on which to ground any sort of discriminating ethical evaluation.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Rest in Peace

So, I know this a rather morbid way to begin a note, but I was walking by a graveyard today (uh, yes, central London, everything's rather crammed together) and had a rather interesting thought come to mind: resting in peace isn't someting that need wait for the slumber of death.

Yesterday, in General Conference, one of the Church's General Authorities stated that a clean conscious is the best friend we can have. I think that's true, and I think when that is the case with us, when we are living with integrity, following what we know to be right, we can live in peace, and rest in peace - daily. When our lives fall in line with God's standards, we are more perfectly able to partake in His shalom, in peace and wholeness, on a daily basis. Resting in peace needn't be something for the afterlife alone. Resting (and living) in peace is a promise we can partake od today, tomorrow, everyday. All we need do is walk step by step, journeying in righteousness, until we finally enter into the Lord's eternal rest (Hebrews 3&4).