Paul's Passing Thoughts

The Bible teaches us how to be reconciled to God. It also teaches us how to show others the same salvation we received, but in doing so, it also teaches us how to interpret our entire world. This message is the crux of this ministry—what I believe God has called many to proclaim. The prism that dominates my mind concerning all questions regarding one; life, and two; godliness, is the apostle Paul’s rhetorical question, “What saith the Scriptures?”

It seems strange indeed: God wants to involve us in the knowledge process. We must, “study to show thyself approved.” We are to seek God’s wisdom for maneuvering through life which puts His wisdom on display and exposes the foolishness of men. This is set against the wide easy road of our day: the “gospel” is a narrative about Christ’s story. It is a metaphysical story, or a metanarrative that is a predetermined redemptive history by God that encompasses everything from what tie we decide to wear today to great historical events that affect the whole world.

Metaphysics is the interpretation of reality, and all reality therefore according to the “gospel” of our day must be interpreted through the redemptive metanarrative. The sole purpose of the Bible is to help us place ourselves in the narrative that is predestined rather than to use the Bible to determine propositional truth. Seeking truth in order to determine our way in life according to divine guardrails and guidelines arrogantly assumes that Christ’s redemptive story is not already predetermine in every detail.

All is predetermined to “show forth Christ and His gospel” in the historic metanarrative. Tragedies such as 911 and giant tsunamis that show forth Christ’s wrath towards sinful man are birth pangs that point towards the final birth of all wrath at the end of the ages. All good things that happen are for the sole purpose of showing forth the good (or glory of God), and all sins show forth the depravity of man as set against God’s holiness. Therefore, we should run to repentance because it is the other half of the epistemology that shows forth the all-encompassing gospel reality.

The gospel is a Genesis seed that grows organically into the full grown Revelation tree and encompasses every event in human history. Therefore, ALL wisdom (or epistemology: how we know what we know) is divided into two primary parts: the glory of God and the depravity of man. These two things enable us to see reality: the gospel metanarrative. All events therefore are predetermined to show forth gospel reality. If we do not “inter into the rest” by observing what God has predetermined and showing it forth, we are attempting to create our own reality. We are attempting to create our own gospel story where we please God with “our own efforts.” We are attempting to “be the gospel rather than showing forth the gospel” (Michael Horton).

This allows us to separate ourselves from true reality—a freedom from a material world that we often can’t control. Is there tragedy in your life? Don’t take it too hard, it’s merely part of the gospel narrative; ie, “God’s will,” and “for His glory.” Hence, coldblooded indifference is often interpreted as spiritual maturity that at times seems to even celebrate tragedy. Hence, the snooty indifference to politics because those on this spiritual plane flavored by Gnosticism are above the fray of such trivial worldliness. Hence, the indifference to injustice and spiritual abuse as well.

Much of the preaching in today’s church is driven by this philosophy. We do not often realize what is really behind seemingly harmless truisms like, “History is His story.” We assume things like the aforementioned mini-treatise are not behind those bumper stickers. Therefore, these ideas are slowly assimilated into our minds, and we begin to function according to philosophies that we are totally unaware of. This is why there are no answers for life’s difficult questions in the church. Answers are not the issue. Your pain isn’t the issue. A right way verses a wrong way isn’t the issue (men can’t do anything right anyway). The only issue is “how we respond to God’s gospel narrative.” I contest that the Bible refutes this epistemology, and it is a “wisdom” that will hinder the true gospel, and in fact has.

In our (The Potter’s House) study on the book of Romans, we see that book as equipping Christians to interpret reality from God’s viewpoint. The book is about how to be reconciled to God, and interpreting reality according to God’s worldview. It is how to do things God’s way. It is about changing our outlook to God’s outlook. And it involves us, and holds us personally responsible before God for doing so. It holds us responsible to learn our part, and to do our part, and to teach others to do the same.

We have finally come to a very exciting part of the book: God’s anthropological, psychological view of man. What makes mankind tick from the one who created man Himself. It will have much to say about something that I am going to touch on in this post: a life happening, and the question of how we should interpret it. Paul’s “what saith the Scriptures?”

It involves a dead dog in Dallas, ghost sex, and saving baby lions. Every day in this world our children get hit in the face with all kinds of information. And that information always has an agenda. Somebody wants to sell us something, either for money or a victory in the truth war that is constantly raging about us. We must always remember that the world is also trying to sell our children the same thing 24-7. TV shows are not mere entertainment—somebody’s trying to sell something. Interpretations and conclusions are the loss or winning of a battle that in part determines the winning of the war; specifically, the truth war. It is a war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Darkness. And even though the outcome is determined, those who win or lose eternally will be manifest according to the truth they buy or reject.

“It’s just entertainment.” That’s easy. “Truth isn’t absolute.” That’s easy. “It’s just a song.” That’s easy. “That’s what it means to me.” That’s easy. “It’s just part of the gospel narrative—praise God anyway!” That’s easy. “What saith the Scriptures?” That’s hard. And easy is the road, and wide is the gate that leads to destruction. Eternal destruction.

So let’s just pick something at random that hits our children in the face daily in this culture. The successful pop star Kesha, who stylizes her stage name by replacing the “S” with a dollar sign (Ke$ha), claims to have had sex with a ghost. This has been widely reported, and her attractive blonde persona does nothing to prevent further stimulation of young imaginations. The episode was reported as follows by the Huffington Post:

Ke$ha says she has had sex with a ghost. Yes, you read that right — sex with a ghost.

And what do you do when you have sex with a ghost? You write a song about the experience, of course.

At least that’s what the 25-year-old singer told Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS FM radio show, of her new song “Supernatural.”

“It’s about experiences with the supernatural… but in a sexy way,” she told Seacrest. “I had a couple of experiences with the supernatural. I don’t know his name! He was a ghost! I’m very open to it.”

The singer added that her new album “Warrior” is based around the theme of the spiritual quest she embarked on to improve her music.

“The theme of this record is magic. I went on a spirit journey by myself. No security guard. No managers. I just went around the world and lived on a boat,” she explained. “I was in Africa rehabilitating baby lions. I went diving with great white sharks, and just went on this crazy spirit quest. I got hypnotized, and I just really wanted this record to be really positive, really raw, really vulnerable and about the magic of life.”

If one googles this eventful claim by Kesha, opinions abound. And if our teenagers ask what we think of such a claim, will we push the easy button, or does the word of God speak to her report? Well, her reported experience is no new thing under the sun. Based on what the Bible describes, I assure you it didn’t happen. Not because the claim is sensational—truth can certainly be sensational, but because of objective information that can be found in God’s word. I would like to focus on a more difficult question that can arise from her statement: can lost people, even lost people who obviously have issues, do good works? And are the works, in and of themselves, good? I am speaking of her work in rehabilitating baby lions (apparently injured or otherwise). Kesha is an animal rights activist which is honorable. Does this earn her any merit at all with God? What about the whole issue of good works and lost people? Moreover, unbelievers have been known to execute extraordinary feats of good works. Does the Bible equip us to lead an Oscar Schindler to the Lord? Would we approach him with the gospel in the exact same way as we would others? Why do wicked people do good works?

I will never forget an experience I had as an unbeliever while living in Dallas, Texas. I was traveling down a street and saw the car in front of me hit a dog. They kept going and did not stop. I stopped and looked for the dog which was able to run some distance, though fatally injured. I found the dog at the same time the owner did who was a widow. The dog was her long time, and only companion in the world. It was truly a very sad affair to witness. The widow and I decided we would bury the dog and I would help her. It was winter; thus, not only cold, but the ground was hard and difficult to dig. Not only that, when I had a fairly deep whole dug, she remembered how much her dog enjoyed romping around a nearby pond and wondered if I would mind changing locations. I agreed. On the way home, I pointed out to God (assuming that He was listening) what a righteous deed it was that I had accomplished and suggested that He would have to agree that I was a pretty nice person.

I know now that unsaved people do righteous deeds because God has written the works of the law on their heart, and they also have a conscience that argues for the law and accuses them when they don’t obey it. We will observe this truth as we progress in the book of Romans. I believe that this greatly restrains evil in the world and is the only reason that the world is a fit place to live in at all. Nevertheless, sin still wreaks havoc, and all of creation groans under its curse and tragedy. Man would rather endure the awful weight of sin in order to avoid change. He is willing to pay a heavy price in order to remain the king of his own throne. God doesn’t want our good works, he wants our whole life. He wants more than common decency, He wants kingdom citizens. Men are willing to continue the bet that they will cheat death in order to proclaim their own glory.

People display common decency, but the whole world lays in the lap of the wicked one. They assume that the spring of true life puts forth both pure and bitter water. That’s Kesha’s “magic life.”

She’s right, if that were true, it would be magic. But life isn’t magic—it’s a gift from God, and all will give an account in regard to the offer of eternal life. Kesha, like many other prophets in both the religious and secular realm are selling something. It is competition for the persuasion of minds in the truth war. In such a war, slothful thinking and lack of discernment will certainly lead to death. Our major weapon is our epistemology, or how we interpret what truth is.

What is the proper use of the Bible? This is a life and death question. Eternally.

Paul