Literary views on death from a Christian worldview
This week I have a question for the hive mind. What is the most powerful description of death that you have read in literature from a Christian perspective? I would love for you to post the quote or the reference in the comment section. Here’s a few to get the discussion started:
CS Lewis wrote about death for his character Reepicheep in the Chronicles of Narnia:
“This,” said Reepicheep, “is where I go on alone.” They did not even try to stop him, for everything now felt as if it had been fated or had happened before. They helped him to lower his little coracle. Then he took off his sword (“I shall need it no more,” he said) and flung it far away across the lilied sea…” Voyage of the Dawn Treader (185)
CS Lewis in The Last Battle:
“But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. The Last Battle (172)
John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress:
The pilgrims then began to inquire if there was no other way to the gate. To which they answered, Yes; but there hath not any, save two, to wit, Enoch and Elijah, been permitted to tread that path since the foundation of the world, nor shall until the last trumpet shall sound. The pilgrims then, especially Christian, began to despond in their mind, and looked this way and that, but no way could be found by them by which they might escape the river. Then they asked the men if the waters were all of a depth. They said, No; yet they could not help them in that case; for, said they, you shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the King of the place. Then they addressed themselves to the water, and entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head; all his waves go over me. Selah. Then said the other, Be of good cheer, my brother: I feel the bottom, and it is good. Pilgrim’s Progress, Tenth Stage
~ JK
Pastor or Pope?
The subject at hand is extremely controversial and the ramifications of such an article will no doubt cause me open contempt, disrespect and possibly the label of ‘heretic.’ In spite of the inevitable results, I feel it necessary, yea vital, to present readers with a Biblical perspective on the role and authority of the Pastor. It is in no way my desire to cause division or discord among the brethren in this land but to present the truth for those who will hear.
The Catholic Church has long been known for its ability to manipulate its members through fear and threats, allowing those in leadership to effectively control the people and their commitment to the cause. The power associated with the pope is beyond belief. Masses submit to his every wish, convinced that to disobey or even disagree, is to fight against God Himself. A similar ploy has entered into the conservative churches of our land. A pastor will exalt himself to a place of power and demand the allegiance of his people instead of turning their hearts toward God and exalting His power and authority.
All Men are Sinners
It does not matter how ‘good’ your pastor or church leadership may appear, all have sinned. There are those pastors who would have their congregations believe that they have reached the state of sinless perfection, and therefore are a perfect example of holiness and wisdom, and that is simply bogus. The Pastor does not gain some ‘special’ entrance into the presence of God; He comes before the same throne of grace as all believers, and through the same person – Jesus Christ. The Pastor may preach from an elevated platform on Sunday but that is not an indication of a spiritual superiority in God’s hierarchy. Pastors who seek the praise and accolades of men are not fit to fulfil the shepherd’s role. Surely a man who is ever broken over his sin, and has an understanding of the holiness of God is the only suitable candidate for leading and shepherding God’s people.
‘…there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’ Psalm 14:3
‘Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?’ Prov.20:9
‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ 1 John 1:8
The Church is Christ’s
‘…Christ is the head of the church: and is the Saviour of the body.’ Ephesians 5:23
‘And He [Christ] is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church…’ Colossians 1:17-18
‘And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church.’ Ephesians 1:22
If Scripture were not so clear on this subject, I might look around today and be confused about who has the ultimate ownership and rulership of the church. The way some Pastors parade about, introducing bylaws and setting non-biblical standards and assuming the role of ‘Pope for the people’ is appalling, and is in total opposition to the clearly outlined role of the pastor. To assume a role of authority in the church that has not been given by God is theft. If I instruct my congregation to obey standards and practices that God has not commanded I become the ‘master of God’s people,’ and in turn teach them to follow me instead of the Lord. How many congregations in our land follow a confident, oratorical, dictatorial, ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ pastor instead of Christ and His Word as the final authorities in their lives?
It is the Message, not the Man
‘Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.’ Hebrews 13:7
Commenting on the above verse, John Gill writes:
“Christ’s church is a kingdom, and He is King in it; pastors of churches are subordinate governors; who rule well when they rule not in an arbitrary way, according to their own wills, but according to the laws of Christ, with all faithfulness, prudence and diligence.”
The pastor, like you and I, is a man saved by grace. He has not been imbued with some special ability (albeit there are gifts dispensed by the Holy Spirit which differ – Romans 12:6), nor does he have some supernatural power over men which is of his own energies. The pastor finds his authority solely in the Word of God. His counselling and preaching must be grounded in the Scriptures if he is to exercise the authority that God has given him. The pastor is a man who is to be given to prayer and the studying of the Word. It is not his job to select the colour and pattern of the curtains in the auditorium. Nor should he concern himself with counselling men on the type of vehicle they should purchase for their family. I know pastors who busy themselves with all the tangible and temporal aspects of church life when they ought to be focusing on the urgent spiritual and eternal matters at hand. His job is to preach the Word and passionately pursue God thereby leaving an example for his people. The following ought to form the pastor’s chief ambition and desire:
‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ John 3:30
‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ Philippians 1:21
The Pastor will fail you
Nobody is exempt from the effects of sin. One of the great dilemmas in church today is the expectation on the pastor to do everything right. If the congregation is not careful to remember that the shepherd is only a man, they will inevitably and subconsciously promote him to ‘perfection.’ This will be the great downfall of that church and will result in heartache and discouragement when it is found out that the pastor cannot meet those impossible expectations. This does not give license to the pastor to enjoy the pleasures of sin but it does remove from him the unattainable standard of perfection. A humble and honest leader will acknowledge his own inability to perform his God given role, and will openly admit that he is the chief of sinners, and unworthy of such a responsibility.
‘It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.’ Psalm 118:8
‘Thus saith the Lord; cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.’ Jeremiah 17:5
‘…the Lord thy God…..He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Deuteronomy 31:6
Summary
There is much more to cover in this topic and I have not yet had the opportunity to address the qualifications of those in church leadership, the pastor on judgment day and the pastor in relationship to his family. Perhaps in time the Lord will lead me to write articles regarding those topics.
In conclusion, it is obvious from the pages of Scripture that God desires a pastor to lead by example, nurturing and caring for his people. When the time comes for him to discipline, confront and challenge, he must find his authority in the pages of Scripture. God give us pastors who love God supremely, act with honesty, humility and integrity, lead by example, and find the basis of all preaching, teaching and counselling rooted in the pages of Scripture.
“Dear pastor, it is better to stay silent on a matter in which thou hast no biblical foundation or word from on high, than to speak and find thyself defying the very will of God.’
The Chief of Sinners,
When Were You Saved?
It is a common question that we often ask new people that we meet. It is an important question, because it reflects our eternal destiny. However, the answer to this question is not as straight forward as we may think. Consider these 5 possible and yet correct answers to the question “When Were You Saved”?
1. We were saved before time began
God is sovereign and all powerful. Even before he created time and man, he knew we would fall and need redemption. God decided even then to save us. The fact that God decided to save us means that our salvation was as good as done.
2. We were saved around 30AD on a cross outside of Jerusalem
The price for our salvation was not paid until an innocent Jesus shed his blood for our sins. Death and the grave was conquered when Jesus died and rose again. This moment is the focal point of History as it was in this moment that all souls past, present and future received eligibility to come into the presence of God.
3. Were were saved when we repented on our sin and placed our faith in Christ.
Typically, this is the answer that we want when we ask the question ‘ When were You Saved’? The better question is when did we receive our regenerated life – our new life in Christ. Sometimes we can point to a moment in time when this occurs (e.g. an alter call or distinct moment in our adult life) Sometimes we cannot recall a specific moment (e.g. we may have grown up in a Christian family and believed in Christ as long as we can remember). Sometimes placing our faith in Christ can be a journey and we can’t remember a specific moment when we ‘crossed the line’, but we know that we are now trusting Christ. These can all be valid methods of how we arrive at ‘being saved’.
4. We are constantly being saved
Our salvation is more than just a status change in the book of life. It affects our whole life. Because we are saved from the penalty of sin, we can now be saved from the power of sin. We now have the knowledge and ability – through the Holy Spirit - to no longer be slaves to the sin. This means salvation has an ongoing application in our lives.
5. We will be saved one day once Christ returns to redeem us from this fallen world and to His side.
Despite our the price of our salvation being paid, it is not yet consumated. We are still waiting to be saved from the flesh and the world. We are waiting for that day when the uncorruptable is known and we can dwell in fulness with our Lord and Saviour. In that day, we will be able to truly say that we are saved.
- Blessings
JC
“The 360° Leader” by John Maxwell
Maxwell, John. The 360° Leader, Developing Your Influence From Anywhere in the Organization. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005.
This book supplied for review through BookSneeze®.
308 pages plus workbook.
John Maxwell has achieved guru status in the field of leadership—and rightly so. He’s authored a steady stream of leadership resources over the years and is represented best in his New York Times best-seller The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
This book is different because it focuses—not on leaders at the top—but on leaders in the middle of the organisation. In this book, Maxwell applies his leadership principles to the person who is not the leader and therein helps the average person in the organisation become the sort of person who can lead others whether they are below them, beside them, or above them in the hierarchy.
The ups
First, as always, Maxwell is clear and precise in his writing. He is easy to read and his logic is easy to follow.
Second, this book addresses a major gap in the literature. Anyone can read the books designed for the top leaders and try to apply their principles to their own place in the organisation, but in this work Maxwell specifically addresses the problem of how to lead from the middle.
Third, Maxwell understands leadership and breathes it in everything he writes. You cannot spend time with Maxwell without being pushed to grow as a leader. This work briefly reviews some of the material he’s covered in other books, but gives great insights on the challenges of leading in all directions.
The downs
First, as many would know, Maxwell used to be pastor of a large Evangelical church. If you read Maxwell as a pastor, you will no doubt be disappointed. He does not approach issues from a theological point of view (though he does approach them from a basically Christian point of view). His theology, from what one might deduce, is rather shallow. But as a specialist in the area of leadership, he is brilliant.
Second, this book is probably longer than it needs to be. I felt like the section on leading down was mostly rehashed from other books and could have been significantly abbreviated. That said, this is 300+ pages that fly by fairly quickly.
Third, there is a definite thread of ethnocentricity in many of Maxwell’s earlier books—the assumed audience is American. In this book, there are several places where it is clear that it has been edited for an international audience, but then there are other places where the earlier approach is still taken. Maxwell is a world-class author and I feel it would be appropriate to address it to an international audience.
Conclusion
This is the sort of book you can use to help develop the people who report to you in an organisation. If you want a church/business/organisation that is full of leaders, then you need 360° leaders and this book is worth reading. If you work under someone and find it difficult at times, then you will probably find this a helpful read as well.
Grace to you.
Can I take a Christian to court?
Living in a broken world is messy. It would be nice if everyone saw eye-to-eye and problems were easily resolved. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Even believers sometimes find themselves in bitter disputes with other believers. This raises the question: Is it ok to take another believer to court?
A common answer to this question is a straightforward—and sometimes emphatic—no.
The Apostle Paul addressed the question directly in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8.
1 Corinthians 6 — 1When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
While I won’t be able to fully exposit the passage here, I will make some observations that I hope will be helpful in wrestling with the question.
Observations
1) This passage deals with brothers.
This passage addresses “a dispute between the brothers” (v. 5). This is confirmed by the statement “brother goes to law against brother” (v. 6).
2) Not everyone who says he is a brother is a brother.
While we know that there will be “tares among the wheat” (Matthew 13), who has the right to judge such a thing? The answer to this question is complex in situations between the members of two churches, or where one or both parties are not connected with a church, but what is clear is that the church is authorised to mark members in prolonged, unrepentant sin and to treat them as unbelievers. This authority is explicitly defended in Matthew 18:17-20. This is important because once someone is to be legitimately treated as an unbeliever, he is not the sort of person to whom 1 Corinthians 6 applies.
3) This passage deals with disputes.
The text calls it “a grievance” (v. 1). The KJV translates it “a matter” which effectively communicates the idea in the Greek of a business matter or a contractual disagreement. In verse five, the text refers to it as “a dispute.” The Greek here speaks of someone judging something in between two brothers.
One or both parties feel that to let the situation drop would result in them having to “suffer wrong” or “be defrauded” (v. 7).
4) This passage deals with civil matters.
The passage addresses one brother taking another brother to court over a dispute. By very definition, this is a civil matter.
It is crucial here to understand the difference between a civil matter and a criminal matter. In the legal tradition passed down to us from the Roman world in which Paul lived, a civil matter is a dispute in which one person argues a case against another person. The underlying assumption in a civil case is that one person has allegedly wronged another and the two people are in need of someone to judge between them. This is reflected in the way a civil case is named in our legal system (Bloggs v Smith); the terms used for the parties in a civil case (plaintiff1 and respondent); and the way the outcome is worded (the court rules either for or against the plaintiff).
A criminal matter, on the other hand, is not a dispute. It is an alleged offence. The underlying assumption in a criminal case is that someone has been accused of committing a crime against the Crown. The purpose of the case is to give the Crown a chance to prove the alleged offence was indeed committed by the accused person. This is reflected in the way a criminal case is named (R2 v Bloggs); the terms used for the parties (Crown prosecutor and defendant); and the way the outcome is worded (the defendant is found either guilty or not guilty of the charges).
These definitions help to clarify that 1 Corinthians 6 is clearly addressing civil matters, not criminal matters.
5) This passage cannot apply to criminal matters.
The text says “brother goes to law against brother” (v. 6). As noted above, this cannot be a criminal matter because a crime is not committed against a person—it is committed against the state, against society. Individuals cannot prosecute crimes. Only the Crown can prosecute a crime.
A criminal matter is not a dispute. “I think you owe me $100 but you think you only owe me $50″ is a dispute. I think you broke the law in X way is an alleged crime.
That is why in a civil case, the judge rules either for or against the plaintiff (the complainer). The plaintiff has brought a complaint (i.e. a dispute) against another person and the court either agrees with it or doesn’t. A criminal case does not seek to settle any dispute. There is no plaintiff. Rather, there is the prosecutor and when the judge rules, it will not be for or against the prosecutor, but rather will be a judgement regarding the defendant: guilty or not guilty. The question in a criminal case is not which side is right but whether the defendant has broken the law in the way in which they were accused of breaking the law.
Some thoughts on the final observation
To apply 1 Corinthians 6 to criminal cases not only takes it well beyond what is being taught in the original context, but also opens the door to all sorts of problems. For instance, if I should suffer the wrong, shouldn’t children who are being sexually abused be told to suffer the wrong as well? Is justice only for the world and foreign to Christianity? Should I report a stolen car? Should I report a sexual predator? Should matters of abuse be dealt with through a church tribunal? What about murder? Should churches own jails? Should they perform capital punishment?
This brings us to another important passage.
Romans 13 – 1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
It seems to me that this passage directly calls for us to view the state as “God’s servant” who “carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” God intends the state to pursue and prosecute crimes because that is what a just state will do. God has placed the sword in the hand of the state to be used for the protection of the innocent and the state “does not bear the sword in vain.”
Clearly, the church cannot and should not usurp this God-given authority. Nothing in Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians contradicts Paul’s instruction to the Romans and visa versa. This is a crucial point in interpreting 1 Corinthians 6 and sets a solid foundation for the conclusion argued in my recent post 16 reasons crime should not be handled in-house.
While these observations do not resolve all of the interpretational difficulties with 1 Corinthians 6:1-8—indeed, they hardly begin to address them—they do, I hope, give some helpful insights on what the passages does and does not mean.
A precise understanding of this passage will allow us to know when we have the option of handling a situation in-house and/or allowing ourselves to be defrauded and on the other hand, when we have the option or even the obligation to go to the law and seek justice.
Grace to you.
1I.e. the complainer.
2The “R” refers to the Crown and stands for Rex in the case of a male monarch and Regina in the case of a female monarch.
Feeling Rejected?
Charles Simeon is a fascinating character study in rejection. Six years before Captain Cook sailed into Port Jackson, Simeon was an unloved English minister placed in a church where the people wanted someone else and they weren’t afraid to show it. Over a ten year period the congregation tried various things including locking the doors of the church and the family pews. His evangelical heart never resounded with his established audience and there is evidence showing that conflict continued until his death.
Here are some thoughts for people who are feeling rejected:
You can forgive because you are forgiven. The parable of the forgiven servant resonates during times of rejection. When you are forgiven in Christ – how much more can you forgive someone who is rejecting you?
You can fortify the soul. I often think of personal attacks in the context of a castle. Personal attacks that come through word of mouth by other people run straight through the main gates into the castle keep. These attacks can be belittling, petulant, and downright mean. Start by fortifying the soul with your sufficiency in Christ.
Choose your counsel wisely. You should read Macbeth by William Shakespeare – it’s a good character study in how family advice can turn a bad situation into a tragedy. Stirring up the problem without looking for a solution feels good at the time but ultimately it won’t resolve anything (kind of like picking a scab!). Walk through the historical books in the Old Testament or Proverbs to see how true friends help you with rejection.
It may not be resolved – God knows. The crowd rejected Jesus Christ and chose Barrabus. Yet this was a part of God’s plan that even the disciples could not comprehend until Pentecost. God’s work is mysterious – but he will fulfill his purpose.
