Theology World (Updated)

EDITORS NOTE: This column was intended to be in two parts originally, but after some thought I decided to just add on to this original column. The add-ons start after Calvin Corner below.

Yes, we are in desperate need for a theology based theme park. Well, some people think so. So in the interest of helping out I have a few ideas for Theology World:

The Lands: Every theme park has themed lands so how about these: Augustine's Area, Aquinas Apex, Luther Land, Calvin Corner, Arminian Acres, Higher Criticism Hollow, Barth Burg, and Existentialist End.

AUGUSTINE'S AREA: Attractions will include the following: Confessions Carousel (the park's merry-go-round); Hungry Hippo (a great restaurant); Allegory (a roller coaster); and The Two Cities Gift Shop.

AQUINAS APEX: Attractions will include: Suma Screamer (a looping roller coaster); Aristotle Air (airplane ride); Monastary Meals (a restaurant); and The Theologica Turnpike (an antique car ride). Of course, you need a gift shop - how about the Medieval Mart.

LUTHER LAND: Attractions include: Wittenburg Whirl (a tilt-a-whirl); Tetzel's Terror (a hyper coaster); Diets of Worms (a food court style restaurant); The Papal Bull (a mechanical bull ride); and the gift shop - Indulgences.

CALVIN CORNER: Attractions include: Tulip Twister (a scrambler ride); The Five Points (a nature walk with five scenic overlooks); Geneva Gourmets (a restaurant); Institutes Inverter (a looping ship ride); Calvin's Escape (a roller coaster themed to Calvin fleeing Geneva the first time he was there); and the Gift Shop: Unconditional Elections (you will buy this merchandise because you are predestined to do so).

ARMINIAN ACRES: Attractions include: Wesley Wheels (a car ride); Free Will Fling (one of those wheels that spins you upside down - chose the ride cabin of your choice); Jacob's Juice (juice shop); and I Hate Tulips (a shop featuring clothing that insults Calvinists).

HIGHER CRITICISM HOLLOW: This is the lame area of the park as can be expected. Attractions include: The Compromiser (a roller coaster that starts of fast but ultimately fails to deliver the intended results); The Wishy-Washy (a log flume); Sigmund Mowinkle's (a restaurant named after the higher critic theologian who, while lame in his work, definitely had the best name of a theologian ever); and Documentary Hypotheses (a bookstore filled with boring, irrelevant books).

BARTH BURG: Not quite as lame as Higher Criticism Hollow, but not that much better. Attractions include: Trying to Have It Both Ways (a ride that swings from side-to-side); Scremo-Orthodoxy (a roller coaster only slightly better than the Compromiser); Barth Burgers (it does have a nice ring to it); and German Accents (a clothing shop).

EXISTENTIALIST END: No one knows what this area is about or what is in it, so we'll go on. We suspect it is ultimately meaningless when you get down to it.

That's the great Theology World theme park. Admission is a pre-destined $45 for Calvinist guests and Arminian guests may chose their own price (as long as its ultimately $45).

Rejected Christian Book Titles

These little known book titles are not available at your local Christian bookstore because they were rejected by publishers.

10) Blue Like Bluegrass. A man moves from Portland, Oregon, to Renfro Valley, Kentucky, and discovers Christian theology while learning to make moonshine.

9) The Purpose-Driven Lifer. A prisoner's biography.

8) Left Behind Again, Left Behind Once More, Left Behind Yet Again, Left Behind: The Final Rapture; Left Behind: Oops, There Was Another Rapture; Left Behind: Jason and Freddy versus Alien and Predator at the Rapture. Apparantly it was decided to start a new series of books by the occurance of yet more raptures. Did not pass the eschatology smell test of any of the mainstream evangelical positions.

7) Confessions of Saint Augustine, Florida. Some things should remain secret.

6) Your Best Life 30 Years From Now. Osteenism only goes so far.

5) Your Denomination is Stupid. Considered too provocative by the publisher.

4) John MacArthur's Apocrypha Commentary. Publisher considered this title to likely be a forgery.

3) The Institutes of the non-Christian Religion. Apparently this was mailed to the wrong publisher.

2) The Leap Year Study Bible for Bill Johnson. This was considered to be a little too personalized.

1) Sound Theology in the Emergent Church Movement. This would be a very small book.

The Balanced Christian - Part Two

OK, where are we having trouble with balance in current Christianity. Well, some of these may not easily be pigeon-holed into the Pharisee/Saducee template we established, but others will. The ones that won't can be seen within the framework of ignoring part of the Bible's teaching while over-emphasizing other parts. And some unbalances are occuring because of wrong-headed interpretations of the text. But in the end unbalance is there.

Rules - This is ever a problem for Christians. One sects Pharisaical rules include no smoking (a practice not encouraged by me but still not directly addressed in the Word), no dancing (does this include exercising to upbeat Southern Gospel music?), or movie restrictions (six cuss word minimum with certain words being used once counting as six but at seven you must leave the theater in a rage and tell the teenager at the popcorn counter that he is a purveyor of utter filth). In another Saducaical sect, NC-17 rated movies are allowed as fine and dandy (its making an artistic statement after all and if its called art it must be unquestioned), you can engage in sexual sin just fine (as long as you love you each other, whatever that means to you), but you better show up at a radical environmentalist rally (after all Mother Earth is ruined by polluters and we must protest and dump our trash all over the park we are protesting in). The first three examples are rules added to the Bible while last three are, respectively, a fuzzy current culture inclination, a direct violation of the Bible, and a Pharisaical rule the Pharisees would have been proud these Saducees adopted.
The Bible has enough rules without any additions please. Biblical rules exist for our protection, holiness, and quality of life. Adding to the Scripture elevates the opinions of man to the level of God's commands and is thus SIN. Denying Scripture makes the opinions of man superior to God's commands and is also SIN.

Contemporary/Traditional Debates - This can be over music, worship styles, preaching formats, dress, and on and on and on. The Scripture gives great freedom to us in certain areas. Take music. We have no commands in Scripture regarding styles of music we have today because none of our styles existed during Bible days (even if the organ seems old enough to have existed in Bible days it did not). Bach, Bluegrass, Basie, Beatles, Bono, Brooks, Bubble Gum, Brunge (OK, its technically Grunge but my allliteration was doing well), Bagpipe, Bangles, Bananarama, Britney (music style, not train wreck lifestyle), Billy Ray, Brown, Billy Joel, Bosephus, Barnyard, Ballet (please don't I beg of you), Beach Blanket, Buffet, B-52, and other styles are all acceptable music styles within Biblical limits (though we are dead certain that if we ever find 3 Thessalonians there will be a prohibition against any song ever being sung to the tunes of "House of the Rising Sun" or "I Will Always Love You" or "Help Me Make It Through the Night" or "You Light Up My Life").
At the same time your fellow Christian is not evil or outdated because they don't like your taste in music. Though we are sure it is banned in 4 Thessalonians, you can sing a worship song in church to the tune of "Almost Persuaded" (of course there is an actual hymn of this name that is available to sing but right thinking people do not want to do this as this hymn moans, drags out, and sounds like a funeral dirge that makes you want to listen to the sound of nails scraping against a chalkboard to get some relief from hearing it). But, you can see that I lack strong feelings on this issue.
Anyway, if it glorifies God, sing it.

I shall cease writing on this subject of balance at this time as I've grown tired of said subject at this point. Perhaps I will write more about this in the future.

The Balanced Christian - Part One

Those who know me well know that I am an advocate of balance in the Christian life. What do I mean by this?

Remember when Jesus told the Disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees. They at first thought he was speaking literally but became aware that he was actually telling them to beware the false doctrines of both groups. What were there false doctrines? Boiling it down to its simplest terms the Pharisees were guilty of adding to the Scriptures a whole pile of rules and regulations that became the focus of their religion which blinded them to Christ. The Saducees took away from the Scripture certain things they rejected and thus were also blinded to Christ.

There is an important principle here. The Bible essentially teaches a balanced life for the Christian and whenever we add to or take away from the Scriptures we get unbalanced. Sometimes this is blatant: Did you grow up in a church that required a dress code for attendance at church? This was the yeast of the Pharisees as the Bible teaches no such dress code for church attendance - it was simply the preferences of men that were being enforced. Did you grow up in a church that tried to explain that the miracles of the Bible weren't really miracles but could be easily explained via natural phenomena? This was the yeast of the Saducees as the Bible was doubted.

For most evangelicals, the yeast of the Pharissees is a far greater temptation. If you are an evangelical you probably saw more of your church in the first example than in the second. However, the yeast of the Saducees is making a tremendous comeback through some of the emergent church teachers and their allies.

Most of us have a problem with a mixture of the two. We sometimes side with the Pharisees and sometimes with the Saducees making us guilty of both. Actually, when you look at it, both groups were essentially similar on the inside as both rejected Christ outright and, whether they wanted to admit it or not, they rejected God's Word as well.

This thing we are calling balance is very important. Sometimes inbalance is easy to see and sometimes it is not. Sometimes we accidentally invoke either extreme without meaning to do it. This comes primarily from focusing on parts of the Bible's teaching without focusing on the whole teaching of the Bible. While we may be sincerely trying to uphold God's Word, we actually undermine it through our unbalance, and thus get infected with the yeast. The Thinking Servant has been guilty of this at times and still occasionally has to repent when shown his error. Examples of some of these current day inbalances will be featured in the next column.

2007 Recommended Reading List

Today I wish to blog about books I have read either in their entirety or in part (but enough "part" to be able to make a recommendation) this year. Some have been textbooks in classes and others have not.

The Holy Wild by Mark Buchanan = I read most of this with my accountability partners this year. It is an excellent book about God's attributes written in plain language. The unique takes in this book on the parable of the Good Samaritan as well as on God's Wrath are especially good.

Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer = The former CEO of Big Idea, Inc. and the creator of VeggieTales gives an autobiographical look at the rise and fall of his company. You really must read this book in its entirety in order to get the full impact.

The Peacemaker by Ken Sande. Required reading for one of my courses but an excellent study in how to resolve conflict.

Making Peace by Jim Van Yperen. Also required reading for the same course on the subject of resolving conflict.

Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson. The title pretty much describes the content (how to raise boys as a parent).

Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Laine Jones, and Reggie Joiner. A thought provoking study on seven things the authors believe a church must practice. These are more philosophical than theological in nature, but the authors make a strong argument for these practices.

God's Power to Change Your Life by Rick Warren. A study on developing the fruit of the Spirit into your life. Very easy to read.

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. This 17th century monk gives a strong argument for doing what the title says. Beware of moral perfectionist theology within the work, though.

Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture by Spencer Lerewenz and Barbara Nicolosi. A collection of essays by practicing Christians in Hollywood on various aspects of the screen world. I found some of the essays to be very valuable while others I felt were quite lacking. Read all of them, though, for some mental candy to chew on. You will likely find some of your attitudes about Hollywood challenged by this material.

and for something different:

The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World by Julie Neal and Mike Neal. It's extremely colorful and very helpful on planning a visit to WDW.

The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World by the Imagineers. Similar in design to the previously read Field Guides for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, this one covers Animal Kingdom. Very good. Very colorful. Very informative.

Walt Disney World & Your Local Church - Part 3

1)THIS COLUMN WILL BE BROUGHT TO YOU IN LIVING COLOR AND THAT'S A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START. WHY DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE USE OF APPEALING COLORS IN OUR CHURCH STRUCTURES? PLAIN WHITE WALLS GIVE THE FEELING OF BEING IN THE HOSPITAL OR AN ASYLUM OR PRISON OR SOMETHING? CONTRAST THAT WITH WDW WHERE VIBRANT COLORS ARE EVERYWHERE.
IT IS A BLESSING FOR YOUR CHURCH TO HAVE IT'S OWN BUILDING. MANY CHURCHES THROUGHOUT CHURCH HISTORY HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO HAVE BUILDINGS TO USE. AMERICAN CHURCHES TAKE THIS BLESSING FOR GRANTED . PLEASE, I BEG YOU, PAINT OR WALLPAPER THE WALLS WITH VIBRANT COLORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2) EVERYONE IN THE CHURCH SHOULD KNOW WHY YOU ARE THERE. IT ISN'T TO HOLD THE SAME RITUAL WEEK AFTER WEEK AFTER WEEK AFTER WEEK AFTER...... CONTRAST THAT WITH WDW WHERE ALL THE "CAST MEMBERS" (THEY ARE NOT CALLED EMPLOYEES) KNOW THAT THEY ARE THERE TO PROVIDE PEOPLE HAPPINESS.
YOU HAVE A MISSION, A PURPOSE, A REASON TO EXIST. GOD LOVED YOU SO MUCH TO DIE FOR YOU AND HE WANTS YOU TO SHARE THAT LOVE WITH OTHERS. HE WANTS YOU TO KNOW AND WORSHIP HIM AND DRAW CLOSE TO HIM. IN BROAD TERMS WE ARE "TO KNOW CHRIST (RELATIONSHIP) AND MAKE HIM KNOWN (DISCIPLESHIP)." EVERYONE IN THE CHURCH NEEDS TO KNOW THIS!

3) EXCELLENCE! TOO OFTEN OUR INVOLVEMENT IN CHURCH IS HALF-HEARTED AND SLOPPY. WE GO WHEN WE FEEL LIKE IT OR WHEN IT IS CONVENIENT FOR US. WE TO DO JUST "GOOD ENOUGH" IN OUR MINISTRY ACTIVITIES. CONTRAST THAT WITH WDW WHERE EVERY DETAIL INCLUDING THE DESIGN OF TRASH CANS IS CAREFULLY PRESENTED. YOU CAN EVEN NOTICE HAIR ON THE LEG OF ONE OF THE PIRATES IN "PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN". THEY ARE RUTHLESSLY DEDICATED TO THE EXCELLENCE IN THEIR PRODUCT.
WHEN WE DO CHURCH WE SHOULD DO SO WITH EXCELLENCE. THIS IS NOT A RIGID, UNREALISTIC PERFECTIONISM, BUT A COMMITMENT TO GIVE ALL THAT WE ARE TO OUR LORD. THE LORD WORKS THROUGH US AS CHRISTIANS AND IF HE IS WORKING THEN WE WILL DO OUR BEST IN TEACHING LESSONS, DECORATING, WORSHIP, PRAYER, AND ALL THE ACTIVITIES WE DO IN THE NAME OF CHURCH.

4) CREATIVITY! WE OFTEN TAKE A COOKIE CUTTER APPROACH TO EVERYTHING WE DO. OUR PREACHING/TEACHING STYLES DON'T CHANGE WHETHER WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE GENESIS FLOOD OR SEX IN THE SONG OF SOLOMON OR DOCTRINE IN THE EPISTLES. CONTRAST THIS WITH WDW - CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THE IMAGINNEERS DID "THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE-THE-POOH" AT MAGIC KINGDOM EXACTLY THE SAME WAY THEY DO THE "THE TWILIGHT ZONE TOWER OF TERROR" AT THE DISNEY STUDIOS? (A GREAT MENTAL PICTURE -SEEING PIGLET AND THEN DROPPING THIRTEEN STORIES). DIFFERENT BIBLE LESSONS CALL FOR DIFFERENT PRESENTATIONS. THE STORIES OR TEACHINGS ARE NOT ALL THE SAME (THOUGH THEY ALL POINT IN SOME WAY TO THE SAME GOD). CREATIVITY ALSO EXTENDS TO THE DECOR' OF OUR BUILDINGS AND OUR WORSHIP AND ALL THE REST.

These four things are only the beginning. There are others. However, it should be obvious that theology is not something we learn from WDW. You can't "Wish Upon a Star" and get anything your heart desires. Our theology of the afterlife does not come from "The Haunted Mansion". Your fairy god-mother is not showing up anytime soon. However, there are many things churches can learn from this otherwise secular organization. It is a shame we are having to learn aspects of our faith from them rather than them learning from us. It really should not be that way.

Walt Disney World & Your Local Church - Part 2

Walk into your church on an average Sunday morning. Probably there is a wall with many scuff marks that needs to be cleaned. Probably your Sunday School (or Small Group) room has a plain white wall. There is possibly a plumbing problem in the bathroom. Your auditorium is either (depending on your tradition) a gothic type structure that looks and smells like the middle ages or it is a plain functional room with very little to commend it. Hardly anyone knows what your mission is supposed to be. Your church possibly feels like a cold coporation or an out-of-date monument to a not-so-appealing past. Your pastor may give a boring little homily that can only elicit a "that's nice" at best or he goes into a detailed doctrinal explanation that makes you wish you were in someplace more appealing like the local hospital. You feel like you have to hide who you are for danger someone might find out and then there will be consequences!!! Did I mention that a great feeling of disorganization runs through the enterprise. And what about the suits and ties and the rest of the dress code? The only stories that are told there are done very poorly to the children. And gardening is limited to an artificial tree or two in the lobby.

PERHAPS WE ARE OVERSTATING THIS CASE A LITTLE, BUT THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT YOU DID FIND YOUR CHURCH DESCRIBED IN AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE STATEMENTS.

Well, it does not have to be that way. There are some things WDW can teach us about church life without compromising the Gospel or good doctrine (After all, a church can't teach that it's OK to be a Pirate of the Carribean). We'll examine what churches can learn from WDW without compromising what a church is and supposed to be about in our next post.

Walt Disney World & Your Local Church - Part 1

This past Saturday I went to a local mall with my wife. I allow myself book money so I won't be bored at the mall when my wife is in "women's stores". This week I bought an extraordinary new guide to Walt Disney World (WDW) I had not previously seen. It is filled with colorful pictures, colorful pages, and helpful information on planning your visit. It reminded me of my emotional connection to this place.

I visited California's Disneyland on my 7th birthday in 1977. I followed that with visits to WDW in Florida in 1980, 1988, 1995, and my honeymoon in 2004. On my honeymoon, after we had visited three of the four theme parks, I commented to my wife that this place gets to me at an emotional core level. You see, I don't just enjoy my trips to WDW, it is an emotional experience for me. Almost, do I dare say it, a religious experience.

Whoah, that started to sound like heresy. A theme park as religious experience for a Christian! How can that be! Well, to say the least, I have pondered this for some time now. Why would a saved person who believes in an inerrant Bible that should be lived view a collection of theme parks with religious significance? Dont' forget these are not "Christian theme parks' owned by Christians. These parks primarily exist to make money not spread God's love. They promote at times an unrealistic view of the world. They are open on Sunday! They even teach evolution at EPCOT!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!!!!!!

NOTHING!

That's right. You see what I connect to emotionally at WDW are things like Beauty, Quality, Good Story-telling, Child-like Wonder, Creativity, Smiling, Laughing, and just plain fun. I like the fact that WDW is highly organized and has a good structure. I like the fact that they will do what it takes to fulfill their mission: to provide people happiness. I like the fact that WDW is a place for families to grow closer and bond together. I like the fact that WDW is a place where the troubles of the real world can be left behind for awhile. I like the fact that even though you are busy seeing and doing things, you are essentially resting while you are there. You are taking a Sabbath, so to speak. And it is possible to encounter God there.

What does WDW have to do with the local church? Plenty. And I'll tell you to begin with that most churches provide Very Few or None of the Above things I just mentioned. AND THAT IS A PROBLEM!!!

We'll explore this further in our next post.

"The Office" and Broken Dreams

As mentioned in a previous post, my wife and I have gotten into the show "The Office" (I don't remember if I mentioned my wife was into it too, but she is). We are are now 3/4 of the way through season two. The last episode we saw was "Take Your Daughter To Work Day".

In the middle of the episode, the lead character Michael Scott shows a video of himself on a children's program many years ago. In it he states his life dream is to get married and have a hundred kids so he would have a hundred friends. In reality, he is still single, has no kids, and in truth, very few (if any) friends. In the deleted scenes of the episode, we see where the receptionist Pam realizes she has not realized her dream of being an artist. Once again the dream is not reality at the time.

So many people have found themselves in the land of broken dreams. The marriage that did not happen. The career path we can't seem to find. Sometimes we just have no clue what to do. We start jobs we wanted to do (and even trained in college for) only to find out we hate the job. Sometimes we have a good idea of what we should do but don't know how to realize it. Even the knowledge of a divine call from God to a particular path does not seem to bring the dream about.

What shall we do? Well, as one who is in the middle of trying to discern the next step in God's path to the dream, I can only offer limited advice. But here goes.

1) Is this my dream or God's dream He knows us better than we know ourselves. Perhaps we need to review and make sure that our dream is God's dream (or if you prefer, vision) for us or is it one we have made up for ourselves.

2) Trust God's character This may be harder than we realize. But we have to trust that what the Bible says about God is actually true. And if he calls us to a particular path, he knows how to lead us down that path correctly.

3) Remember the Experiences of Bible people God' divine call on Joseph took him on a path through an Egyptian prison. God's divine call on David took him to wandering as a fugitive in the wilderness. God's divine call on Saul of Tarsus took him to 3 years in Arabia and probably 10 years of living at home in his hometown (possibly in his parent's house). In other words, God' s path does not always make human sense.

4) Avoid Good Distractions It's easy to forget your call while on the journey. If you land in a good job on the path to the dream, you can forget the dream and pursue the job instead. One of the hardest steps on my path was probably leaving a secular job I had landed to refocus on God's dream for me.

5) Avoid Bad Distractions This should seem obvious, but when we get discouraged on the path to the dream, the bad distractions can take us out.

6) Enjoy the Journey This is probably the hardest part for me personally. But the journey to the dream should be enjoyed, though it is sometimes hard to do this. Sometimes the hardest part of the vacation to a desired place (such as Walt Disney World) is enjoying the drive to get there. Yet, there can be enjoyable stops enroute (such as Rock City) that while not as good as the destination, can still be great fun.

7) Insert Point Seven Here OK, I have only six points, but leaving it at six just didn't seem right.

The advantage the Christian has over the characters on "The Office" is God. That's good. That's the best!

The Christian, The Environment, And Discernment - Part Two

Unfortunately, the recent California wildfires have born out what I wrote in the first column as debris in these woods have helped to worsen the fire situation in California today. But, now for practical steps on how Christians can steward the environment.

1. Recycling helps a little bit. Do not fall for the line that you are saving the planet by doing this, but there is no reason why we can't do some recycling. I have been sometimes bad at this in the past but believe we can do better in this area. This is a small thing that's pretty easy to do.

2. Steward any land that you own. Mow the grass, remove dead tree limbs, clean up any trash disposed on your land. If you own a large enough piece of it, you can set aside apart of it for animal stewardship such as establishing a watering hole.

3. Controlled hunting. Read this carefully: hunting is absolutely necessary for stewardship of the land. You may think that your kind by banning hunting, but if you do not allow hunting, over-population of a species will cause massive starvation when there are food shortages. It is actually cruel to the animals to let them over-populate and die this way. The people of the late 1800's were wrong to hunt buffalo indiscriminately without harvesting the animals. But letting buffalo overpopulate is just as wrong. Therefore, hunt your bag limit guilt free. Attend the rattlesnake roundup with happiness. Mount that trophy on the wall with satisfaction.

4. Plant trees. They produce oxygen, so if you can do it, then do it.

5. Balance free enterprise with wilderness needs. You can't log every mountain. But some mountains need to be logged. If you do log your mountainside, then plant new trees for the future. Log only what is needed. Not in excess. The same is true for setting aside National Parks and wilderness preserves. Obviously the Grand Canyon is a national treasure that needs to be saved. But not every single canyon in the world needs to be preserved this way. Balance is the key. Do not be a libertarian recklessly exploiting the land but do not be a liberal imposing excessively absurd governmental regulation either.

6. Study the Scriptures in regard to the environment. This should be obvious (and I probably should have listed it first). A great place to study are the regulations the people of Israel were given in the law of Moses regarding the land (an example is Sabbath year rests for pieces of land). There are others to study as well.

These are some practical pieces of advice about the environment. In the words of the great theologian Forrest Gump: "That's all I got to say about that".

The Christian, The Environment, And Discernment - Part One

One of the frequent reader's of this blog has suggested that the blogger's she reads should comment on Christian's and the environment, and I thought it would be a good idea to blog on that, so here goes.

1. Christians are responsible to be good stewards of the earth. This command given to Adam for all mankind has not been altered. Therefore, we must be good overseers of the planet. This means that we must properly manage the environment. We cannot control some things like the weather, but we can properly manage our own private property and give guidance to government entities on how to manage theirs.

2. The modern environmental movement is largely pagan. A strong statement to be sure but a large part of today's environmental movement is pagan at it's core. They worship the earth, or some nature god, or (if they are atheist) they are huge advocates of massive government control of the environment. This is nothing new. The Old Testament records the worship of the god Baal, which was fertility god related to agricultural production. Many of the false gods of history have had some sort of environmental connnection.

3. The modern environmental movement is based in political liberalism which traces all solutions back to government controls and regulations. Most legislation related to the environment involves taking away the liberty of some private entity. For instance, in some parts of the country, people cannot cut trees on their own private property because of environmental regulations (i.e. spotted owls live in the trees is one example given). This is an improper infringement on freedom that has no biblical basis whatsoever but is based in the false religion of political liberalism.

4. Many disasters have been made worse by political environmental regulation. Many of our western forest fires have been far more devestating that necessary because lands have not been cleared of natural debris thus making those forest fires far more likely and disastrous because this regulation has not allowed man to be a good steward of the environment in those areas, where that debris needed to be cleaned out. If lands are left in a "totally pristine state" without any management whatsoever, it is not good stewardship. The National Park service sets controlled fires in parts of their lands to help manage the environment there, so why can't Californians do the same on their property?

5. A common myth: Republicans don't care about the environment while Democrats do care about it. This has come about as the Democrats have embraced the political agenda of the pagan environmental movement and Republicans have been defensive about it. Yet, it was a Republican president - Theodore Roosevelt - who vigorously defended responsible environmental management at a time in history when many libertarian big businessmen were recklessly destroying the environment (though not all big businessmen of the time did so). Another Republican, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (the son of the oil billionaire) bought much private land to create or add on to some of our National parks. And yet another conservative businessman, Walt Disney, had great concern for environmental management (Walt's political party ID is something of a mystery, though we know he backed Ronald Reagan for governor of California in 1966 and held to politically conservative beliefs). In truth, what has happened lately, is that many Republicans have been trying to stop excessive governmental controls backed by most Democrats in this area.

6. Another common myth: man is responsible for global warming. All you have to do is exercise common sense and realize that man could not possibly warm the earth up this way even if he wanted to. Also, a study of history will reveal that there have been warming and cooling cycles throughout history. When I was a kid in the 1970's, most environmental types were worrying about global cooling. I imagine that global cooling will be back by the time I am a senior citizen.

7. Unfortunately, many evangelical leaders have failed one way or the other in dealing with the environment. Some have totally ignored our responsibility to it, while others have foolishly bought all the propoganda about man-made global warming and demonstrate an extreme naivete about the pagan nature of the modern environmental movement (this one really grieves me because some Christian leaders I greatly admire have demonstrated a real lack of discernment on this subject). I think most of these leaders on both sides have just been intellectually lazy in this area and have just run with a superficial prediposition in this area.

In Part Two, I will discuss practical ways for Christians to steward the environment.

Trends in Christianity

NOTE: I originally named this column "Fads in Christianity" but have decided to rename it "Trends in Christianity". Fads are typically very short lived (less than 2 years) and each of the things I mention below lasted longer than 2 years. So I feel trend is a better term after all.

One of the more interesting phenomena of church life in the past 40 years or so have been a number of trends that have come, gone, come back, gone back, stayed around, etc. in the life of the church. Here's a sampling of these trends.

The Bus Ministry Trend: Running bus routes to pick up children for church. Most popular in the 60's and 70's.

The Evangelism Explosion Trend: Dr. D. James Kennedy's witnessing course. Most popular in the 70's into the early 80's.

The Seeker Sensitive Trend: Based on Willow Creek's weekend evangelistic services. Began to catch on in the late 80's on into the 90's.

The Experiencing God Trend: Based on studying the popular curriculum by author Henry Blackaby. Trendy during the 90's.

The Promise Keepers Trend: Going to the stadium events. Most popular in the middle and late 90's.

The Purpose-Driven Trend: Based on Rick Warrens' two bestselling books. Most popular in the late 90's and early 2000's.

The Prayer of Jabez Trend: Bruce Wilkinson's book. Most popular in the early 2000's.

The Worship Renaissance Trend: We're still basically traditional but we have added power point screens, contemporary music and praise teams. Began catching steam in the late 90's and still going strong at this point.

The Calvinism Trend: Who would have thought Calvinist theology would make a big comeback? Began in the mid 90's and is still going strong at this point.

The "Beth Moore Study" Trend: Women's Bible studies that have been popular in all of the 2000's. Still going strong at this point.

The Emerging Church Trend: A post-modern attempt at doing church with both liberal and conservative theological streams. Most popular in the mid-2000's and I think just now starting to wane somewhat (though it's hard to tell for sure).

The Joel Osteen Trend: A man who is a trend all to himself. Began in the mid-2000's and still going strong at this point.

Now there have been two basic responses of Christians to all these trends. They have been to either:
a) Latch on to them and ride them as far as we can until the next big thing comes along.

or

b) Rail against some or all of them and (via default) defend the way we've always done things.

Can I suggest a third alternative that should be obvious but doesn't seem to be crashing through the thick skulls of American church men.

c) Judge each trend on it's own merits. See if it is theologically accurate. Find out if God is using it. See what God wants you to do with it.

Some of the trends reflect ways of doing church. Just because it may be new to you does not make it automatically bad. Just because you have a preference that is different does not make the other preference heresy. Great care needs to be taken to make sure these ways of doing church do not contradict Biblical truth in any way, but once this test is passed, and God is leading you to do so, feel free to use new methods.

Most of the books I mentioned are excellent. You need to read them before you judge them. There are great misconceptions about them that are bandied about that just are not true. For instance, Prayer of Jabez has been accused of being a health and wealth Gospel book. A closer examination of the content does not bear this out.

In closing, the two trends I would exercise great caution with are the last two. I have great problems with the liberal wing of the Emerging church (and I disagree on some points with the more conservative wing). There is some value to studying this movement but you need to be theologically grounded to do so. And as for Joel Osteen: well, I don't want to say anything negative about a person, but Osteen's theology has proven quite shaky. While some of the things he says may have some value, Osteen is committed to a health and wealth theology that is very shaky and just not Biblical on many levels.

Which brings up a caution about all trends: run them through the Word of God before embracing them.

Do You Hate Me Yet?

I am about to reveal things about me that may cause you to hate me. I'm talking primarily to you Christians. It seems we have trouble with loving each other because we have differences with each other. I am going to give you the reader a test of your love level toward your brother in Christ. If you struggle with still accepting me as a brother after this you may have trouble fulfilling Jesus command of unity found in John 17. Here goes:

Preferred Worship Style: Contemporary completely. I like the old hymns when sung in a contemporary style. I do not like traditional organ music (I have sometimes joked that the organ was invented in Hades - my apologies to you organ lovers). I do not like southern Gospel styles of music (I don't like to OD on music about heaven which is probably about 75% of this style of music). Within contemporary styles, I'm not much on hip-hop or Chritian metal.

Political Involvement of Christians: Vote for sure. I believe in Christians holding political office. I believe preachers can comment on politics as long as it is relevant to their sermon topic. I believe Churches should not endorse candidates but also believe the government is wrong for making this practice illegal. I believe individual Christians should voice with freedom their political views and that definitely includes pastors. I do not believe that other Americans should have rights that a pastor would be denied.

Calvinism/Arminianism: I'm in the middle but lean closer to the Calvinists. Man is definitely totally depraved. Pre-destination and election are definitely in the Bible but I believe they do work together with free will which is also clearly there (I can't explain how this works anymore than I can explain how the trinity works). Christ's atonement only covers those who accept his grace yet it is not arbitrarily withheld from some. It's hard to argue for an irresistable grace when we have plenty of Biblical characters who rejected it (i.e. rich young ruler, Agrippa). On the other hand, the idea you can lose your salvation seems clearly to be ludicrous and makes your salvation dependent on your actions rather than God's. God is very much a sovereign deity!

For the record, I will note that I admire past Christians on both sides of this debate. I admire Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, William Carey, and C.H. Spurgeon who were all Calvinistic. I also admire Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf and John Wesley who were more Arminian in their theology.

Preaching Preference: INTERESTING!!! I am not as concerned with topical/expository debate because if your boring it doesn't matter which style you use. You will not communicate to your audience. For the record, I believe that both are needed in a church. You simply must go through the books and preach them to mature your people in the faith. It is also necessary from time to time to address what the Bible says about a particular issue in a topical format. There is a huge amount of junky stereotyping (i.e. Expository sermons are dry and boring, Topical sermons are shallow) of each side that is totally uncalled for and needs to be abandoned.

Prophecy: I believe in a pre-tribulational rapture of the church before the seven year tribulation period that precedes the millenial reign of Christ. I reject the idea that the seven churches of Revelation represent different eras of the church age. Postmillenialism is an idea that makes no sense to me and I don't see where in the world it comes from. On the other hand, it is inexcusable fro pre-millenial Christians to fall into hopeless cynicism about the world getting worse and worse and thus fail to work for social change when necessary.

That's just five areas of testing. I suspect that virtually noone in the world will agree with me completely on these issues. Please don't send replies trying to convert me to your view one way or the other (as the purpose of this column is not about engendering debate). This column is just a test to see if you can love a brother who has differences with you on some issue(s). It is also a test for me too on whether I can love those who disagree with me.

Much Ado About Emerging

For the last couple of years I have been following the emerging (pun intended) saga of the Emerging Church movement and it's critics. Defining just what the Emerging Church movement is all about is easier said than done. In short, the Emerging churches are basically trying to reach young adults with a post-modern view of life. This requires defining post-modernism. That is even harder to do than defining the Emerging Church. I will define it (it would be a very un-postmodern thing to do to quibble with how I define the term) as the philosophy that there are no absolutes .

Now that we have highly disputable definitions of both the Emerging Church and Post-modernism, I will now chime in with an absolutist middle-of-the-road view of the Emerging Church. But first we must address the critics of the EC movement.

The easy answer for the critics is to say of all EC people:"Their all heretics! Where is the closest dungeon?". This seems to be the approach of John MacArthur in his latest book The Truth War (in fairness MacArthur is not an advocate of dungeons). MacArthur has done some good things in his time but I feel he paints too broadly a brush here.

Of course, we could just say "Their all cool! Can I get a picture with you guys?" Not so fast!! There are some truly disturbing writings by some of the EC people. Brian McClaren is one author I have great reservations about. McClaren is the kind of person an attorney would find troubling on a witness stand. He doesn't seem to answer direct questions and I feel some of his viewpoints in his book A Generous Orthodoxy are just a little too unorthodox for me to be generous towards. Not to mention the fact (this is sort of a side issue) that he feels I should feel great guilt about the Conqistadors conquering the Incas almost 500 years ago because they called themselves Christians and I call myself a Christian. Sorry, Brian, but those guys most likely were extremely unsaved and thus not really Christian.

Anyway, there is great division in the EC movement to the point that one EC leader, Marc Driscoll, has totally seperated himself from some of the other key figures in the movement over their embrace of liberal theological positions. A more balanced view of the EC movement can be found in a book by D.A. Carson whose title I can't remember right now (the words "emerging church" are in the title so you can probably google or amazon or yahoo it and find it easily).

But here's the main point. THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT IS SMALL, TRENDY, AND IS SO RESISTENT TO FINDING ANSWERS TO LIFE'S QUESTIONS (IT LIKES QUESTIONS SO MUCH THAT IT DOESN'T LIKE TO ANSWER THEM) THAT IT CANNOT LAST INDEFINITELY AND WILL THUS BE A THING OF THE PAST IN A FEW YEARS!!!!!!!!!!! People will eventually want to move beyond a vaccuum and in short, grow up in their faith.

I feel it won't be too long before you'll find The Truth War and A Generous Orthodoxy at a lot of garage sales. So don't get too stressed out.

The Michael Scott Within

Sometimes it takes me a couple of years to discover something after it comes out. Recently I have seen the first season of the NBC series "The Office" (this season originally aired in the spring of 2005). The series is set at a regional office for a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and is filmed in a way similar to a reality show (with characters talking directly to the camera at times in interviews). I've seen five of the six episodes on the disc so far and the show is the best sitcom I have seen in years.

By years I mean since 1997-98. That was the year "Everybody Loves Raymond" had a fantastic second season. Raymond was still good after that but I don't know that it ever reached the same consistent brilliance episode after episode that it did that season.

The genius of "The Office" lies in its central character Michael Scott (played by Steve Carrill - I hope I spelled his name right). This guy is a lunatic! On the one hand he wants to be a great boss and get along with his workers. On the other hand, he is constantly accidentally insulting them through offensive stereotyping and bad practical jokes. He can be firm when he wants to be, but that certainly is not when it comes to making a difficult, hard decision. He thinks everyone in the office loves him, but in reality it is obvious that no one truly respects him. At times his on screen behavior directly contradicts what he tells us about himself in the interviews.

On the one hand, most of us are not like him. Most of us know better than to insult people with the aforementioned offensive stereotyping (EXAMPLE: he is forming a basketball team in one episode and tells the Mexican-American in the office that he can't play basketball with them, but that he can join them for baseball or boxing). On the other hand, how many people have you known who didn't have a clue about how others really felt about them? How many of us would tell an interviewer one thing while living out a different story?

What makes Michael Scott so funny is that, in our fallen human condition, we all have the potential to be just like him. And that is also more than a little bit scary!

Other characters on the show demonstrate the human condition as well: Dwight, the assistant to the regional manager who is a dictatorial nerd just hoping to get to fire someone at some point or Jim, who is obviously interested in Pam the receptionist but won't tell her (she is in the middle of a three year engagement to one of the warehouse workers).

While I am sure the producers did not intend this, "The Office" is one more television example showing us people desperately in need of a savior to come in and change their lives and work on the rough edges within. Fortunately, such a savior is available for us!

Remembering Jerry Falwell

It was quite a shock to learn yesterday of the death of Jerry Falwell. I was a student at Liberty University for five years and an active participant in the Middle School Youth Ministry at Thomas Road Baptist Church for three of those years. Even though it has been many years since I left Lynchburg the news of Dr. Falwell's passing hit me harder than I ever thought it would.

The news media caricatures of Dr. Falwell were wholly inaccurate. This is understandable from the secular press who hated Dr. Falwell's Christian values but may in the so-called Christian press were just as slanderous in their coverage. I always wondered why Christians would hate him just as much if not more than their secular counterparts.

Anyway. Dr. Falwell was not a perfect man. I disagreed with him on some issues over the years. He is not even on the Top 10 list of my favorite preachers to hear. While I was at Liberty, I thought the rules were too strict in some areas. I did not understand some of the verbal gaffes he committed at times (though admittedly some of these gaffes were greatly exaggerated, mis-characterized, or otherwise taken out of context by the press to make them sound worse than they actually were).

YET HE WAS A CHRISTIAN GIANT!!!!!!!!

The main thing I learned from Dr. Falwell was VISION. Falwell did not have small dreams. His dream for Liberty University was for it to have 50, 000 students, play 1A sports at college's highest levels, have world class academics, and be deeply committed to Biblical Christianity. He wanted to change the world. He spoke constantly of this dream. It didn't seem to matter what passage of the Bible he was preaching on, he would always wonder back to this gigantic vision. I soaked up this visioneering. The vision God has given me for my future ministry is not small either. Dr. Falwell contributed to that greatly.

He had no interest in retirement. He wanted to live at least twelve years longer than he did (in 2004 he stated his desire to live fifteen more years). This was not to play golf or recline in a rocking chair on the front porch. It was to lead people to Christ and train (in his words) "Champions for Christ".

You will likely not see in the secular press the alcoholics who received healing at the Elim Home for Alchoholics he founded. You will not likely read of the many hungry people fed via different aspects of the ministries he founded. You will possibly not read of the hundreds (if not thousands) of unborn babies he saved from death in an abortion clinic through the Liberty Godparent home he founded. Yet this only begins to tell the story of God's accomplishments through him.

In a future post, I will tell of my personal interactions with Dr. Falwell. Including the time I almost contributed to him being attacked by a large number of empty milk crates. For now I shall just say: I miss him.

Thoughts About Spiritual Awakening/ Revival

For roughly the past fifteen years or so, there has been a prayer movement in America asking the Lord to send national awakening/revival to America. There have been prayer meetings at historic sites of past revivals, a small mini-awakening in 1995 focused largely on a few college and Seminary campuses, a small local revival last year at one college in my home state of Kentucky, the Experiencing God movement, the Promise Keepers movement, the 40 Days of Purpose movement, the Passion movement, and many others I could name. These have all been positive for American Christianity, and yet the nation as a whole has not been touched by the kind of true awakening/revival Christians have been praying for at this time.

Why?

This is not an easy answer. Obviously, the Arminian Charles Finney has been proven wrong in his belief that man can manipulate things to the point that God has to send awakening/revival. Otherwise, there is no reason why we would not be seeing it as many American Christians have done their best in this area. Yet, some Calvinistic believers seem too passive in their "it's just a sovereign act of God whenever he wants to do it" belief. If that is true, then it appears that God is being cruel to those who desire awakening/revival by refusing to send it (I am only following this argument to a natural conclusion - this is not my personal belief).

I believe that it is probable that God is eager to send awakening/revival to America but is soveriengly withholding it at this time for 3 possible reasons: one is that American Christians are not prepared to handle it right now, another is that some of us are praying for it with the wrong motives, and the third is that it is not quite God's timing for it just yet.

For Point One: Can we honestly admit that our churches (as a whole) are in good enough shape to properly disciple a sudeen influx of new converts? This confirms that we need the revival (renewal of spiritual vitality in Christians) before we get the awakening (huge numbers of salvations). As well, I'm not sure that our pastors and other staff people are prepared to handle the revival of their people even. Revival, it would seem needs to start there, before it hits the people in the pew. Too many pastors are more concerned about their golf games, home remodling projects, the 2008 Presidential race, or whatever else, than about their people being revived. However, I must admit that many (if not all) past revival movements have almost totally bypassed the clergy of their day (i.e. Wesley and Whitefield faced great hostility from the established clergy).

For Point Two: I think we may be too selfish in our prayers. MANY OF US SEEM TO WANT REVIVAL TO MAKE US FEEL GOOD RATHER THAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT GOD WANTS.
And, most convicting of all, when we pray for revival, we want it for "everyone else" and not really for ourselves. I think I've been guilty of this. God isn't going to answer a prayer for revival based on our selfish desires rather than on it accomplishing his purposes.

For Point Three: God's timing is frequently mysterious to us. Why he made the Israelites be slaves in Egypt for 400 years rather than just 200 is a good question we can't answer fully. Why didn't the first Great Awakening impact France as well England and America. Surely we could have been spared the French Revolution had that happened. In short, there is a limit to our understanding of God's timing and perhaps revival is being delayed for a timing reason known only to God.

I am not a prophet and I don't claim to know God's mind. I don't know for certain the three reasons I have cited above are really true or not in our current case. All I can say is this: Check your priorities - is God really first in your life? Check your motives - Why are you praying for revival? Prepare for what to do when revival comes? Are you ready to do God's work when it hits? Trust your God - he will answer our prayers for revival in his timing.

America: Has It Ever Been A Christian Nation?

Great Question. Here are some of the arguments for both sides of this issue.

For Yes: We have historically had a very high church attendance percentage; Christian revivals including the two Great Awakenings, the 1858 Prayer Revival, and the Jesus Movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's; the Spiritual nature of some of the early colonists like the Pilgrims and the Puritan (who are not the same group as many believe); the Christian impulse behind the abolitionists and womens suffrage groups of the 1800's; our effort at Prohibition that, while failing in many ways, did come out of largely Christian influence; the number of Presidents that either directly claimed Christianity or whose writings and general governing philosophies (e.g. Washington, Lincoln) lead many to believe they were Christians.

For No: Slavery and the following racial segregation; the mistreatment of the Native Americans; the influence of Deism on some of the early Founding Fathers (e.g. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine); the failure of Prohibition to be effective; the rising Drug trade and other forms of crime; the general lawlessness which characterized parts of the Old West; the complete greed of some early colonists (e.g. the Jamestown settlers) and 19th century businessmen who subjected their workers to slave-like conditions.

I believe the best way to say it is the following: America is the closest example of a genuinely Christian nation that one can find in all of history. The style of our government (while having some roots in pagan cultures) reflects more closely Christian values than any other form of government that has been designed. However, this does not mean that all Americans have been Christian or that our application of Christian values has been perfect (and even sometimes we have been completely non-Christian about it).

The above statement will not win any prizes for articulation of thought (awkward as it is in places) yet I believe it is a more balanced view of American thought than simplistic extremes of some Christians ("Every last Founding Father was a Christian") or the simplistic extremes of our cultural elite today, which includes many historians ("The Founding Fathers were largely Deist and divorced their religious views from implementation of their political philosophy") or the simplistic extremes of America haters ("They were all maniacal psychopaths").

It is not really an accurate statement to say that "America is a Christian nation" as the no evidence above will expose. It is also not accurate to say that "America has never been a Christian nation" as the yes evidence above exposes. The term "A Christian nation" is somewhat subjective and all of American history shows that true Christianity and Paganism (often disguised as Christianity) have been at war since Day One of our history. No better example of this conflict exists than the personal war that went on inside Christopher Columbus. He had a Christian vision of the purpose of his voyages yet succumbed to the Pagan influence of greed for gold once he got to our shores. Another great Contrast in this areas is the differing saga of the Jamestown colony and the Plymouth colony. The former emphasized greed and the latter emphasized God.

The war between Christianity and Paganism continues today in America, as it likely will until the day America ends.

More Book Recommendations: Church Life

I previously posted a list of books I recommend. These are largely Christian volumes aimed at a more general audience. As a Seminary student, I would to recommend some books I have read both at Seminary and apart from my Seminary studies (as well as some I have in progress but believe I've read enough to recommend them. These are primarily about practical church work and not about theology or Biblical Studies. My theology and Biblical studies lists will come later.

The Purpose-Driven Church by Rick Warren has become something of a classic now. The Purpose-Driven phenomena is frequently abused, misinterpreted, or otherwise misunderstood by both critics and fans. I recommend reading it yourself (cover-to-cover) before judging the book.

Confessions of A Reformission Rev. by Mark Driscoll will also clarify what an Emerging church is and what it is not (there is frequent confusion on all sides about this movement). It details Driscoll's story in planting Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Driscoll is Scriptural in his theology but is definitely not a traditional Southern Evangelical loaded with traditions and legalism. The book is very challenging.

Visioneering by Andy Stanley. Though not specifically about church work it is definitely a must read and should be read by all pastors and staff in light of church mistry.

The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. Also not specifically about church work but a must read along the same lines as Andy Stanley's other work.

Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby. The Blackaby's have a unique take on leadership that sets their work apart from all other works on leadership. Much practical insight here.

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. This is a true classic that has impacted many over the years.

Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer. For those going into church planting, this book which I have in progress has already been worth every penny spent on it.

Boundaries of Light by Elmer Towns and Ed Stetzer. Guidance to those in the Emerging church movement on how to remain Biblicallly faithful while ministering to post-moderns.

Power in the Pulpit by Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix. A thorough and exhaustive guide to expository preaching that is valuable.

Communicating For A Change by Andy Stanley. Stanley's unique take on preaching has much practical wisdom.

Letters To Timothy by John Bisagno. Worth every penny you spend on it for the pastor. A treasure of practical wisdom on practical ministry.

Back To The Heart of Youth Work by Dewey Bertolini. This book written almost twenty years ago has much valuable wisdom on relating to people in general in ministry even if you are not specifically in youth work. Absolutely priceless for the youth/student minister.

Teaching To Change Lives by Howard Hendricks. Another classic - this one is about teaching.

There are probably more I could list but that is what I have thought of for now.

Should Blogs Be Used To Attack Other Christians?

After doing some randomn reading on the Internet, I became once again aware of the fact that Christians are fighting each other on Blog Sites all over the web (not to mention real web sites). Why would you do this? It is one thing to debate a point on which you disagree with someone (i.e. Calvinism, Charismatic Doctrine, Eschatology, et al.) but it is quite another to criticize other Christians personally in such a forum. I cannot imagine that Jesus is remotely pleased by personal attacks on other believers on the web.

Let me be clear. I am not saying you can't disagree with someone else's position by name. For instance, I disagree with (oh, let's pick somebody) John Piper on 5 point Calvinism. It is OK of me to announce that I disagree with him on that issue and he is perfectly OK (if he ever finds out that I exist) to announce he disagrees with me on the issue. We can even argue the merits of our individual positions in a respectful tone and tenor. I would cross the line of Christian behavior if I made personal attacks on Dr. Piper himself or call him an unwarranted name (heretic is a good example) or talk about how he is a bad person because of this. Even if the things I said in this way were true, it still would not be right to attack him. Let me remind you I only use Dr. Piper as an example here and I do not actually think he is a heretic or a bad person.

Ahh, you say, but what if a person has done something I disagree with (in fact it was an un-Christian thing the person did). The old cliche still holds: two wrongs don't make a right. In the book of Acts, Barnabas probably thought Paul was a complete jerk when he would not allow John Mark to go with them on the 2nd missionary journey. They couldn't reconcile their dispute and went seperate ways. Yet, we have no record of them ever cutting each other down in a public way over the issue even though it seems (to me at least) that Paul's action was completely wrong in this case.

I disagree with the views and actions of many Christian leaders and there are some well known Christian leaders I personally have no respect for because of things they have said or done. However, you won't find their names printed here in the manner of a personal attack. If you ever do, you may feel free to call me on it and I'll correct the error if it is done. Let's act like Christians fellow bloggers!