Take Your Bible for a Walk

I recently read an on-line article from my old seminary and discovered that The Rev. Shunji F. Nishi, acting dean at the time I attended, and my Philosophical Theology professor, had died last May. He was an interesting professor and yes, very philosophical. He asked us one day, “What is the commandment of Jesus most people follow today?” We gave him several scriptures. I quoted Mark 16:15. With a wry smile and a bit of sarcasm, Professor Nishi quoted Mark 7:36.

“And he charged them that they should tell no man…”

His point of course is that most professing Christians are reluctant to talk about the Gospel. Unfortunately, Professor Nishi was right. Most people when given an opportunity will choose to say nothing about their faith; in fact most professing Christians don’t even open their Bibles. They rely on the personality in the pulpit to tell them what they should believe.

Jesus said, “Go in into all the entire world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) The problem? Most Christians have no idea how to do that. Communicating the simple truth of the Gospel is elusive to those who never crack a Bible past Sunday morning. Jesus’ intention in Mark 16:15 wasn’t that our only obligation was to send and support missionaries, or go on the occasional mission trip. While these works are wonderful and needed, it isn’t the sum total of our responsibilities. The mission field is right out the front door. And Jesus’ admonition in Mark 16:15 applies to all of us. We live in amazing technological times. We have the ability to travel and communicate further than we ever have - whether by plane, train, automobile, or electronically. Everyone has a cell phone; texting and tweeting are now part of the American lexicon. Internet access that connects us globally is a few keystrokes away. Our voice and image has the ability to travel further and in a shorter amount of time than Professor Nishi or any of us could ever have imagined twenty-five years ago. Yet, we have friends, neighbors, co-workers, even family members who have never heard the Gospel. We stand next to lost souls in line at the grocery store; they’re sitting next to us in restaurants, movie theaters, and airplanes.

We are willing to carry on small talk with total strangers about our favorite sports team, our hobbies, or our family. How about talking about your church, the Bible, your salvation? I know, many of you will say you aren’t good with scriptures or you don’t know how to start the conversation without feeling like a “Jesus Freak.” Well - there are worse things you could be.

I have a challenge to all my blog readers. It is the same challenge the good professor gave our class all those years ago. Take the biggest Bible you can find, and carry it with you for a week; in full view - out in the open - everywhere you go. Don’t open it; just take it with you. Let me know how many opportunities to talk about your faith arise from this simple exercise. I was amazed at the looks I got, and more amazed at the opportunities I had to speak about what was in the book.

If you are doing your part, keep it up! If you’re not doing your part, please remember the verse after Mark 16:15. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16:16) Isn’t that something everyone needs to hear?

Be communicating,

Bishop Ian

Don't Just Do Something - Stand There!

I said that right, “Don’t Just Do Something - Stand There.” You see, the liberal church for years has said, “Let’s not squabble over the Bible and doctrine. Let’s just go out there, open our doors to every sin, every new theology, and preach the message of tolerance, relativism, and personal interpretation. Let’s just do something.”

The bottom line is this; it doesn’t matter whether we go out there if we don’t have the message that saves. So, don’t just do something, stand there on the Bible. Stand there on the truth. Stand there on the gospel. Stand there on what the Bible says about Jesus. Believe that and then we’ll do something.

This spring and summer I have been teaching a series on cults and the occult. Rob, a member of the vestry at St. Andrews in Middleburgh, MA, shares my rabid interest in Apologetics. In one of our many email conversations, he sent me a scripture from Jude, a passage I hadn’t visited for awhile. Jude calls us to be lovingly contentious Christians; to stand with conviction about our faith, to care about truth, to believe in truth, and teach the truth. Why?

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)

Jude is saying, ‘Here’s why I’m writing to you. There are people in your own congregation who have the name Christian, who say that their teaching is Christian, but they’re leading you astray. They’re teaching you false things. They’re teaching cheap grace and using it as an excuse to live a life of indifference and sin, and they’re denying the biblical historic Jesus Christ.’ Sound familiar? It certainly strikes a chord with most of us battle scarred Anglicans.

The new relativistic theology tells us that it doesn’t matter how you live as long as you’re sincere. It doesn’t matter what your life is like as long as you’re good and kind. It doesn’t matter what you believe about Jesus as long as it is relative to your expression of him.

A false teacher is a flip of the channel away, the opening of a book away, or as close as the nearest progressive congregation. False prophets and false teachers are everywhere. We need to be discerning because truth and good theology matters. What you don’t know can hurt you as false teaching can destroy souls and lives.

And so here’s Jude speaking to a group of Christians who lived in a pluralistic society, a relativistic culture that followed after many gods, many truths, many fashions, and many fads. And lo and behold, here we are 2,000 years later in a culture that’s very relativistic and pluralistic, following after many fads, many fashions, and many gods. Jude is saying to us again - care about the truth - cling to the truth - believe the truth. Be savvy enough about the truth that you can tell a false teacher from a faithful believer. Stick close to the Bible. Stick close to God’s word. Stick close to Jesus Christ. Don’t just do something, Stand There!!!

He’s saying all those things to us. And that word is just as fresh today as when he spoke it 2000 years ago. Thanks Rob, it’s been a while since I’ve looked at Jude, a simple message, with eternal consequences.

Be standing on the truth.

Bishop Ian

A Fine Line

Occam's Razor - William of Occam was a fourteenth century philosopher who enunciated the principle "pluritas non est ponenda sine necessitate," or "nature likes things as simple as possible." In other words, the simpler the explanation of a given phenomena - that takes into account all the experimental evidence - the more likely it is to be correct. This could also be called the KISS principle.

The Bible tells us that those who have trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior have been adopted into the family of God. We have life with God, we are children of God, and we are in the family of God...forever!

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." (1 John 3:1)

Pretty simple, and that theme is played over and over again in scriptures. Then why so many variations on the theme, when scriptures from the Old and New Testament clearly reveal God’s plan of salvation and reconciliation through the sacrifice of God the Son?

"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." (2 Peter 2:1-3)

I am still amazed by what some of the mainline churches have adopted as “New Spirituality," rejecting the completeness of God’s coming in Jesus Christ. It’s a new name for a very old error. Almost two thousand years ago St. Paul visited Athens. In the midst of all the Grecian idols was an altar inscribed "To the Unknown God" (Acts 17:23). The Greeks thought that they were covering all their religious "bets" by setting up an alter to all gods known and unknown. St. Paul said to them then, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious" (Acts 17:22). "Covering your religious bets" is the is the foundation for today’s "spiritual movement."

"(God) who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time." (2 Timothy 1:9)

Occam hit the nail on the head. It is the simple truth that leads to true spirituality. Think about it, the three persons of the Trinity knew you, loved you, and called you into the Most Royal Family...not because of your good works, but because of God's purpose and grace given to you in Christ Jesus - before the beginning of time!

God’s plan for reconciliation by nature is "pluritas non est ponenda sine necessitate.” His plan doesn’t get much simpler than that.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility." (Ephesians 2:13-16 NIV)

Be Simplistic,

Bishop Ian