Statement of purpose
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..." (Ecclesiastes)
Welcome to Newness of Life Christian Commentary. I would have done well to make this the subject of my first article, but my aims have evolved somewhat over the past few weeks. Hopefully “Better late than never” applies in this case.
Now that the dust has settled, so to speak, I will try to accomplish several things with this Substack publication, and do so in ways that may be beneficial to others as well, Christians or non-Christians, be they many or few in number.
(1) Examine biblical teachings
(2) Respond to contemporary criticisms
(3) Examine some problems with the churches
(4) Look into some other broader issues of religious significance
To elaborate briefly on these four distinct yet related goals:
(1) Examine biblical teachings of Jesus Christ, as contained in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or as delivered by Christ through the Holy Spirit to the apostolic authors of the remaining New Testament books. These words of life merit the most serious consideration, and are the surest and most effective guide to real human flourishing.
This is not to belittle the Old Testament. After all, Paul teaches in Romans 11 that Gentile Christians are wild branches grafted into the good olive tree of the faith revealed by God to the Jews. The literally and historically accurate books of the Old Testament, or what the Jews call the Tanakh, are essential to scriptural Christianity and are frequently quoted in the Christian books.
(2) Respond to contemporary criticisms of the Christian religion. Some of the most common are:
The Bible as an allegedly Bronze Age book
The sacrifice of Isaac
The massacres of the Canaanites
The dominion over creation given to Adam and Eve
The problem of slavery
Scientific problems with the creation account in Genesis
Apparent contradictions in the Bible
These and many other topics can be addressed plainly and briefly, if not conclusively. Incidentally, someone’s refusal to be convinced by an argument is not proof of its invalidity.
If the atheists are correct and God does not exist, then of course the Bible is largely fairy stories, with some ancient history and merely human wisdom thrown in. If, on the other hand, God exists as the Bible describes him - a being of infinite spiritual power and wisdom who created the universe and all that is in it out of nothing, by his spoken word alone - then any and all scientific criticisms are null and void from the outset.
God is not bound to or limited by the scientific laws which he has himself created. A literal six day creation is no problem for a God who can speak the galaxies and the solar system into existence (the appearance of age is a separate issue). Noah’s Ark is no problem for a God who could put all of the creatures on earth inside of a walnut and bring them out multiplied by a hundred if he chose to do so.
Many secular criticisms are driven not by reason, facts, logic and evidence, but rather by highly subjective motives that are not always apparent. This includes the desire to escape from God (unfortunately, not all Christians are paragons of rationality either).
True science is limited to the material world, which is subject to our manipulation and which we can study at leisure. Other questions, such as the following, cannot be answered by science (which is to be clearly distinguished from all unfounded assertions of scientists speaking outside of their fields of expertise). This includes such topics as:
The question of life after death
All of the operations of human consciousness which cannot be dissected, measured or weighed
Standards of ethics and morality, which cannot be explained by highly creative Darwinian scenarios totally devoid of any empirical evidence
The possibility or impossibility of biblical miracles
The existence or non-existence of God
The character of God
(3) Examine some problems with the churches, many of which are openly apostate, and have abandoned biblical Christianity altogether. Others are nominally biblical, yet are still lacking in power, authority and conviction. What are the reasons for this? There are many problems of doctrine and practice. Can they be identified, and corrected?
One very serious problem is a deficient understanding of faith. The Bible teaches that Christians are saved by faith without works - but what is faith? We read in Romans and Hebrews (quoting the ancient Hebrew prophet Habakkuk) that “The just shall live by faith.” We need to be exhorted and reminded to live by the faith we say we believe in. There are many instructions, exhortations and commands in the Bible telling Christians how they are supposed to live after salvation. “Believe in Jesus and go to heaven” is not the Christian message.
The thief on the cross believed in Christ, and died and went to heaven that same day. What about the rest of us, though, who believe in Christ and then remain in the world for ten, twenty or fifty years? Are we going to die to self? Take up the cross of Christ? Humble ourselves beneath the Word of God? Add virtue, knowledge, temperance and godliness to our faith, as the Bible says we should do? (2 Peter 1:5-8).
So, what is the gospel, the good news of God manifest in Christ? Merely that “Jesus was born, died, and rose again,” as one churchgoer recently told me? And who was Jesus anyway? Merely a Palestinian Socrates? Or a physical manifestation of the Supreme Power behind the universe?
We read in I Peter that
. . . all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
This too is part of the gospel.
Paul says in Romans chapter 2 that “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Paul’s Gospel - which he did not receive from man, “but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12) - included the Day of Judgment, heaven and hell, sanctification, justification, church polity, and other subjects.
(4) Look into some other broader issues of religious significance, including (in no particular order):
The Protestant Reformation
The Christians in Nazi Germany
Ecological problems caused by modern technology (not by the concept of human dominion over the world from the creation account in Genesis)
The social implications of Darwinism
The social implications of a purposeless universe devoid of higher law
The problem of Christian antisemitism, and the secular antisemitism that emerged out of the Enlightenment
The biblical concept of government as taught by Paul in Romans chapter 13 and the failures of the American political religious right.
The comments above have been taken almost verbatim from the About section of the website. There is a little personal information about the author there at the end.
Possibly next week I will take a look at Ben Burgis’ recent significant and challenging Substack article:
