Heritage Herald
Volume 1, Issue 1; Spring 2007
Inside this issue:
Christianity is
not a Democracy
If you haven’t happened to notice,
the Internet has become ubiquitous. It has been helped along by the advent of
fast broadband service, which has reached the tipping point— the point where
more people use it than do not. The Internet, as it grows so rapidly, is
bringing many changes. One of the impacts is the power of the consumer, which
has grown exponentially. New tools such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, videocasts
and social networks have put a whole new spin on communications. A
technology/business writer pointed out “the ability for the manager to control
the company from the traditional top-down approach simply won’t work.” Mass
collaboration, a new way of organizing, is predicted to eventually displace the
traditional corporate structures. That same model is showing up across the
different business models, and now, even in the church.
Copying the World
Unfortunately
the Church in our era has an unsettling tendency to copy the world. In fact
Rich Karrlsgaard, a writer for Forbes, points out that you could take Rick
Warren’s approach, change one word (substitute business for church) and you
would have a great manual for corporate leadership. But that’s the world’s
viewpoint, not God’s.
The world is
enthralled with the new, vast forum that the Internet has provided, a place
where the “conversation” can include everyone as equals. The direction for the
future seems to lie in the decision making power of the masses, the democracy of
the whole group.
Democracy has
gotten a lot of press as being the cure all for the world. The Internet has
hastened that process. Living in a republic that is based on democracy, we can
certainly appreciate the benefits. However, as Christians, we all need to
realize that Christianity is not a democracy. Christianity is a
dictatorship—but happily, a benevolent dictatorship for those who submit to the
Dictator.
The difference between the dictatorship of
Christianity and the democracy desires of the masses lies in the point where
authority is held. In the democratic ideal, the people decide the direction and
the authority linked to it. In Christianity, authority comes from God alone.
There is a huge difference between a man-centered, man-exalting leadership and
the leadership designed by God for His church. Unfortunately, the church as a
whole has gravitated toward the world’s model. The most vivid example of this
is in the so-called “emerging Church” phenomenon that has appeared lately. In
the emerging Church, everyone is considered a leader. Everyone joins in the
“conversation” via the Internet and shares equal authority in viewpoints. This
isn’t necessarily good, however. One example of the fallout from this approach
was seen recently when someone attacked Dr. John MacArthur in an online forum.
That’s not the first time Dr. MacArthur has been attacked lately and it has
started largely through the medium of the online opportunity where everyone
spouts their two cents. When you have an authority model that equates everyone
as being equal in leadership, it clashes with God’s model. God’s model of
authority is not one of communal mass collaboration. Instead, it is a top down
direction, executed by His appointed leaders in the local church—elders and
deacons. The emerging Church has gone so far as to erase the titles of elders
and deacons and instead have “facilitators” - who simply facilitate the ideas of
the group. In their viewpoint, everyone’s perspective is valid as long as it is
“authentic.” The problem is that one can be authentically wrong, and this
approach is. Everyone does not have the right to interpret God’s word as they
chose, or to pick and choose the parts of the Bible they want to obey and ignore
the rest.
The Internet is a wonderful tool full of amazing
efficiencies for business and social life. The new paradigm it brings can be
very beneficial if used right. However, it is not wise to let it be employed as
a element to undermine God’s chosen plan for Church leadership.
Welcome to Tambov!
The new partners
of the Idaho Coalition* in Russia are the churches in the region of Tambov
(extra credit for finding Tambov on a map - look south and a little east of
Moscow).
Pastor Anatoly
Yarmoluck is the pastor of the church in the city of Tambov, and he is the
"Regional Pastor" for the area. There are about 15 churches in the region,
some of which are "missionary churches" which do not yet have ordained pastors.
The backbone of the Antioch Initiative is to train the pastors to be able to
train others to spread the gospel and plant churches.
April 24 through
May 3 is when our "Vision Team" will make the first visit to the Tambov region.
Our team includes Pastor Bear Morton (Twin Falls), Pastor Dan Reinhold
(Pocatello), and Todd Sawyer and Ray Tennant from Heritage Bible Church.
Please pray for a safe journey and for wisdom in establishing our working
friendship with the Russian brothers and sisters.
In late July a
team from our coalition will travel to Tambov to help with youth summer camps.
In October, Jim Harris will go to teach the first Pastor Training course.
Watch for news and prayer requests about this exciting partnership.
* Our coalition
includes Heritage Bible Church, Mabton Grace Brethren Church (Mabton,
Washington), Cambridge Bible Church (Cambridge), Magic Valley Bible Church (Twin
Falls), Crossroads Bible Church (Burley), and University Bible Church
(Pocatello). Three other churches are "friends" of the coalition.
Biblical Family Life: Priority One
Love the Lord
Your God
In our world today, I believe the family is coming under greater
attack than ever. Roles are being redefined and children are “calling the
shots,” influenced by media that portrays parents with traditional values as
buffoons and the “good” parents as those who let their children choose their own
paths.
In the Church there have been varied responses ranging from the
fatalist attitude “I guess God will have to take care of them” abdicating
parental responsibility,
to the other extreme of
total separation from the world and absolute control over every aspect of
children’s lives. If left to their own devices, the majority of the time the
child’s sin nature will eventually lead him or her down a path of destruction,
because they have not been equipped to recognize or resist temptation.
At the other end of the
spectrum, children who are totally separated from all the evils of the world and
whose every move has been dictated often have a difficult time functioning when
they are out from under the parents “rule.” Reactions range from outright
rebellion to the standards imposed upon them to a legalistic pride in their
ability to be “better” than others.
What is the answer to these
extremes which honors God and His word? This article is the first of a series on
what a biblical family life should look like in our world. God forbid that it
turn into a “12 step plan!” Your family must be based on principles that allow
God to work in every aspect of your family and cause you to grow in your
relationship with Him through obedience to His word. All this must be within the
framework of standing in His grace every day.
When asked what the greatest
command was, Jesus responded by saying, “ `YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the
great and foremost commandment” (Matthew 22:37,38). This is simple to say, but
what does it mean to Love God this way and what does this look like in practice?
Because this is the most important aspect of the Christian life, it would be
impossible to have a truly biblical family without this as the cornerstone. Many
reduce this to a list of do’s and don’ts which is legalism and makes your
relationship with God a performance-based endeavor that carries over into every
aspect of family life, often with disastrous effects. As parents, we cannot
expect our families to live in a God-honoring manner if we, the leaders (father
and mother) are not living in a close and personal relationship with God by His
truth and grace. You cannot lead anyone any further down the path than you have
gone. Dad, to expect your kids to walk more closely with God than you do is not
realistic. You need to remember that your kids are much more likely to see how
you live your life than to hear your words, especially if the two don’t match.
I spoke with an exasperated
teacher after an especially trying day. “Where do these kids learn to lie?” she
asked. I said, “From their parents,” to which she responded, “No parent would
teach their kids to lie”. I explained to her that while the overwhelming
majority of parents would never overtly teach their kids to lie, cheat, or
steal, many--by their actions--override their verbal teaching with life choices
that run contrary to their “teaching” and are obvious to the children. For
example it is one thing to tell a child not to lie, but a distinct contradiction
when they see you call in sick on a Friday to enjoy and extra day at the cabin.
It is easy to tell your children that stealing is wrong, but what message is
sent when they see you take advantage of a clerk’s error in your favor? We teach
our children to play fair, be honest and not cheat, and yet how many have
observed a parent cheating on taxes, or hiding the fault in the used car in
order to get a better price? We teach the virtue of loyalty, yet how many
children see a parent leave because of an affair with another man or woman?
Our children will not
hear our words about loving God until they see the truth of it lived out in our
lives!
We need to know what it means to love our God and to, by His
grace, walk with Him consistently. If this is not true in our lives (and thank
God that He gives us grace to change!) then before we preach to our kids, we
need to start to live out our faith in truth. This does not mean that we must
wait until we are perfect before we begin to teach them, but that we are on the
same road that we are trying to lead them down. When they see the reality of our
walk with God, we will have taught them by example what a genuine relationship
with God is. Then our words will make sense and lead to their growth in
godliness.
Blame it on Genetics
In recent years
medical researchers have made some exciting discoveries and are on the verge of
many more. They are finding key genes responsible for triggering various health
problems and diseases. Identifying these genes is the first step in possibly
developing a treatment that targets those genes.
The downside
of these exciting discoveries is that many in the medical field are starting to
blame everything on genes. Not long ago it was all the rage in psychology to
blame criminal behavior on either a poor upbringing or insanity. Either way the
criminal was not morally responsible for his/her actions. They were the poor
victims
of their social or mental environment.
Now the
latest fad is to blame everything on genetics. If you go on a rampage and
murder several people then there’s probably a gene to blame. Homosexuality –
another gene byproduct. So we can’t hold people responsible for what their
genes made them do
now can we? It’s a new spin on the old Flip Wilson gag “The devil made me do
it.” Now it’s “my genes made me do it.”
The idea
that genetics is behind every facet of life in our modern thinking can be
illustrated by a recent quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton, “I am cursed with the
responsibility gene.” Mrs. Clinton said this in reference to admission that she
initially supported the war in Iraq despite her opposition now. Rather than
admit her conscience or political posturing led her to the admission she instead
wryly attributed it to genetics. The Hollywood movie
Gattica
features a world in which genetics has taken over the public consciousness and
people are judged not by their accomplishments but rather by their genetic
score.
Like many lies of
Satan there is some truth to be found in all this. No doubt some people
struggle with their weight due to genetics. Some mental illnesses are likewise
tied to genetics. Genetics plays a huge role in many aspects of our health and
we are just scratching the surface in understanding this.
Where we err
is when we blame
moral ills (i.e. sin) on genetics. The Bible makes it
clear that we sin because of what is in our
hearts
not the genetics we were born with.
“For out of
the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, slanders” (Matthew 15:19 NASB)
We are responsible
for our actions regardless of our upbringing, environment, or genetics.
In an
installment of “Science Gone Wild” (or should that be “Science Gone Silly”), I
bring you this. In an article from
Discover
magazine titled “The God Experiments” we find that scientists believe they have
found the “God gene.” British evolutionary biologist (we can spot his bias a
mile away) Richard Dawkins became a guinea pig in an experiment conducted by
neuroscientist Michael Persinger. Persinger claimed to have induced religions
experiences in subjects by stimulating specific regions of their brains with
electromagnetic pulses (of course torturers have long used electricity to induce
all kinds of confessions and statements…). Some journalists have dubbed his
device the “God machine.” Note however that scientists like Persinger see
religion as an experience which is actually quite right so long as one realizes
that Christianity is
not
a religion. Christianity is a set of propositions with a demand for belief.
After we respond to these propositions by faith we then begin to experience a
changed life in Jesus Christ. Our faith though is in the infallible Word of God
and in the person of Jesus Christ. We are not free to “Experience” our faith in
any way we choose with my experience being just as valid as yours and vice
versa. That type of thinking is quite popular outside Christian circles and
increasingly inside Christian circles through movements like the
Emerging Church.
But I digress.
Maybe a
quote from an Anglican psychologist and theologian (hmm…contradiction there?)
Fraser Watts will help clarify things: “Even when the neural basis of religion
has been identified, it remains a plausible interpretation of any conceivable
neuropsychological facts that there is a genuine experience of God.” (Fraser
has a way with words doesn’t he ;) So if I understand our Anglican friend,
religion has a “neurological basis” (well
all
thoughts do but somehow I think he means more than that). This is sounding a
lot like he is saying that “religious experiences” happen in our neural pathways
in the brain. They are not
spiritual
but rather
neurological. A “genuine experience of God” is merely
a chain event of neurons firing in the brain.
Anthropologist
Stewart Guthrie of Fordham University in New York believes that the belief in
the supernatural is a result of an illusion that comes from our tendency to
project human qualities onto the world. He goes back to his evolutionary roots
when he posits that over the millennia natural selection bolstered our
unconscious anthropomorphic tendencies to reach beyond specific objects and
events to take in all of nature until we persuaded ourselves that “the entire
world of our experience is merely a show staged by some master dramatist.”
Charles Darwin likewise believed that “higher mammals” shared the human
propensity to “imagine that natural objects and agencies are animated by
spiritual or living essences.” Darwin cited as an example watching his dog
growl at a parasol lifted off the ground by a gust of wind (honestly, I’m not
making this stuff up!)
I’ll spare you the
attempts by neuroscientists to scan the human brain and compare the brains of
those who have reported “spiritual experiences” to those who have not. The
bottom line is that they believe electromagnetic pulses delivered to a specific
part of the brain can cause test subjects to “sense a presence” when they are
being stimulated (hmm…maybe prolonged cell phone use will lead to massive
spiritual revival…)
Getting back to
genetics, Dean Hamer of the National Cancer Institute is attempting to link
religion to a specific gene. In the 1980’s a team at the University of
Minnesota carried out a study on twins which suggests a genetic component to
what the researchers called “intrinsic religiousness” which included a tendency
to pray often and to feel the presence of God. Hamer studied the genetics of
nicotine addiction. He asked test subjects detailed questions in which they
were asked to rate their feelings of absentmindedness, connectedness with
nature, belief in extrasensory perception, and other traits. Hamer felt these
questions provide a measure of the subject’s “affinity for the supernatural.”
Further research
has led Hamer to the discovery of a gene called VMAT that corresponded to the
higher scores for what he had defined as spirituality. Hamer calls the VMAT
variant “the God gene.”
Thankfully the
article concludes that “Science cannot tell us if God exists only in our
imaginations or as an entity beyond our comprehension.” So why do scientists
persist in this field of study. The article suggests they do so because “such
studies offer the potential to alter our lives. In principle, these findings
could lead to methods – call them ‘mystical technologies’ – that reliably induce
the state of spiritual insight that Christians call grace and Buddhists,
enlightenment.” Such states could be electromagnetically induced to treat
depression and other mental illnesses. The author obviously did not get his
doctrine of grace from the Bible!
We see once
again man wanting the benefits of “religion” without personal responsibility and
moral accountability. We like the idea of a “spiritual experience” so long as
we define what that experience is and judge for ourselves the worthiness of it.
What we don’t
want is objective truth. We scream at the tops of our lungs, “There absolutely
are NO absolutes!” Touchy, feeling “religion” is great. Propositional truths
and a sovereign God who will judge all men is not the fashion.
Of course such
studies are fatally flawed as unregenerate minds are incapable of understanding
the truth. Such minds will never understand the difference between man-made
religion and God-revealed truth. They will never see beyond “spiritual
experience” to a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. For them
religion is a matter of genetics and evolutionary biology. I am reminded of the
description in 2 Timothy 3:1-9 of men in the last days that are described as
“always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.” Such are
the scientists who think they can explain away God by a gene or induce grace.
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