holy spirit

Christopher Hitchens’ Gospel and Our Words

January 28, 2010

in everything

I think most Christians who are aware of who Christopher Hitchens is assumes that he doesn’t really understand the message of the Christian faith, that he really just needs to understand what it’s really all about and then he’d surely come along.

And then you read about his conversation with a Unitarian minister:

Maryiln Sewell:
The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and [sic] distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Christopher Hitchens:
I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

What do you do with that?

This is where Christians – ministers, missionaries and all who take Christ’s command to tell the whole earth seriously – can get burned out. We can get convinced that “if only they really knew” then people would certainly decide to follow Christ. But, that’s not reality, and that’s not what Jesus or the rest of the New Testament tells us.

After Jesus says his famous quote about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for the rich to be saved…

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:25-26

The rest of the New Testament goes on in a similar manner. Paul says to the Corinthians:

…my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5

A chapter earlier he had said:

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

… the  Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:17-18, 22-25

The Gospel is almost too easy to accept, and it also seems like foolishness to those who understand it. In the Hitchens conversation both parties are rejecting the Gospel, but I would venture to say that Hitchens is far more honest in his rejection than the Unitarian minister. He recognizes it for what it is and declares it “foolishness” while the minister plays semantic and word games and twists the scriptures to mean whatever she wants.

This should be a reminder that someone’s receptivity to the Gospel is not based on the witness or the presentation given. Someone’s response to the Gospel is a result of their own wrestling with God (the Holy Spirit), we should be clear about our message, but it’s the Gospel and the Holy Spirit that do all the convincing and all the convicting and all the converting – not us.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16

[Thanks to Melinda at the Stand to Reason blog for the quote.]

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Driscoll: What is the Church? [A09]

June 9, 2009

in everything

First up at Advance09 was Mark Driscoll who is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. From my understanding Seattle is a hard city for the Gospel, people largely view the Church as irrelevant, bigoted and backwards (unfortunately, the caricature is not inaccurate enough).

The title/question is a significant one. It’s important to understand what this messy thing is that we call the Church. Driscoll first covered what differing views throughout history have said, but what was interesting is that there was no written works from 251AD – 1378AD that talked about ecclesiology (the study of the theological understanding of the Christian church) and there is no historically consistent belief on it.

Is it essentially a visible phenomenon which is easy to define, or invisible and undefinable? Is it about apostolic succession or about faith and faithfulness? What if things are done wrong, is it still really the Church as God defines it?

So, May 31st was “Pentecost Sunday” which celebrates what is considered the beginning of the Church, so if that was the beginning what changed on that day that set it apart from the 50 days prior after Jesus had ascended? The Holy Spirit.

Jesus, while he was on earth, was in constant contact with the Holy Spirit and dependent on him for power, Jesus was constantly praying and depending on the Father to guide his steps as well. You’ll see (especially if you read the Gospel of Matthew) that Jesus as a real human was dependent on the Holy Spirit to do anything. So, as he’s preparing to ascend and giving last instructions, what does he tell the disciples? “Wait.”

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5 ESV)

He tells them to wait until they receive the Holy Spirit because if Jesus needed him to do what he did, the apostles would certainly need him all the more. It’s on Pentecost that the Church is born. The Holy Spirit shows up and Peter preaches a sermon in the middle of Jerusalem that convinces 3,000 people that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and able to save every one who believes.

When you look at Peter’s words they’re not all that eloquent, but they’re exactly what was true. Peter focused on Jesus because the Church is totally about Jesus. It is not about a political brand, it’s not about family, it’s not about charity, it’s not about morality, nor power, money, buildings, missions, empire-building, growth, your best life now, hymns or “praise and worship”, missional living or monasticism and asceticism or anything else – it is all about Jesus.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:32, 33, 36 ESV)

Driscoll said this about those of us in the Church: “We’re a one-song band, and we’re going to keep playing it until we see him again.”

Ultimately, the Church is that which comes in the wake of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. If it’s not following those Two (Three, really, since Jesus says that he does everything the Father tells him), it is not the Church.

Finally Driscoll listed (not exclusively) 8 things that mark a real Church that is following God:

  1. Regenerated Church Membership
    • Members whom God is working within.
  2. Qualified Leadership
    • This should illustrate a reality of the Trinity: ontological equality and functional (voluntary) subordination.
  3. Gathering for Teaching/Preaching and Worship.
    • Preaching illustrates the Gospel: God is the giver, I am merely the receiver.
  4. Sacraments Rightly Administered
    • Baptism and communion.
  5. Unified by the Holy Spirit
    • Distinguish between closed-handed (non-negotiable) beliefs and open-handed beliefs & prioritize important things.
    • Centered around Jesus and proclamation of the Gospel.
  6. Discipline for Holiness
    • I’m still not sure what this looks like.
  7. Obey the Great Commandment to Love
  8. Obey the Great Commission to share the Gospel

It’s not just the Church in its gathered state, but when it scatters into the world it is still the Church. It’s where we’re following in the wake of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

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