Ananias and Sapphira – A Closer Look

/ W. Keith Brenton / 5 Comments

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

~ Acts 5:1-11

I spend (probably too much) time reading comments and posts on subjects of interest to Christians, and in one of them a few days ago, someone pointed out that this passage doesn’t say that God put them to death.

It doesn’t.

It doesn’t even say that Peter told them they would die (“carry you out also” is said to Sapphira), let alone instantaneously. Though I think Peter knew what was about to happen.

This person went on to posit the possibility that the shock of being impossibly discovered drove one or both Ananias and Sapphira to sudden, fatal cardio events — heart attack or stroke.

I would accept that as a possibility.

But I would also posit the possibility that Ananias and Sapphira simply could not live with what they had done.

In allowing “Satan to fill [their] heart[s]” and thereby rejecting the Holy Spirit, they had conspired to lie to him, judging what was selfish and evil (secretly keeping some of the money) to still somehow be generous and good. They had called evil “good.” They were lying to themselves. They were lying to the Holy Spirit.

By lying to the Holy Spirit, to human beings and to God, they had in a sense blasphemed the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31) within them, who gives life to the believer (John 6:63; Romans 8:10; 2 Corinthians 3:6). In that moment when convicted by the truth, the Spirit-who-gives-life, the Pneumatos, was done with His work and gone.

They rejected the Spirit. They rejected life.

Thoughts?

Who Are Your Twelve?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 5 Comments

Our preparation to move to North Carolina is progressing well — we sold our house here in Little Rock Tuesday to a buyer who requested a closing date that is the same day that we had requested on our new house.

We went to see it on a little vacation trip, and enjoyed a day-and-a-half in Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains.

I applied and interviewed for a part-time position at the university.

We got acquainted with our new hometowns (Dillsboro, Sylva and Cullowhee) a little bit.

We met people new to us, and made friends over dinner and in prayer afterward last Sunday evening with  another family whom I feel sure will continue to grow closer and more treasured in our hearts.

Now the hard parts: Packing. Leaving. Realizing that it was probably our last family-of-four vacation for at least a long, long time. Helping our son move out of the house and into his apartment today. Saying goodbye to eight treasured friends in our LIFE Group at dinner last night.

As we dined together, I remembered a movie called Joshua where a farewell dinner was given by his friends for a person who has been called to an audience with the pope in Rome … a person who might be a lot more than just a visitor to their small town. Extraordinary things have happened among this group of friends and in their community as a result of the powerful love of this stranger. One of his friends, after the dinner, realizes aloud: “There were twelve of us.”

Last night I was made aware again of how our lives connect with so many others, changing them and being changed by them — but also of how profound those changes can be within a circle of close friends, no matter how different from each other we might be.

It made me wonder again what might happen if — like Christ — believers prayed fervently all night and then formed familial relationships with as few as twelve people … dedicated themselves to exploring His nature and personality together … lived it among themselves and others … prayed for one another from the heart … gave of self, sacrificially … loved deeply.

The movie I remembered starts thoughtfully and well, but I think it ends on a weak note. If I’d written its script, I would have had the character Joshua tell the pope:

“With all due respect, I didn’t come to see you or to satisfy your curiosity. I came to make a difference in the failing faith of twelve people I came to love … to help them experience what it means to believe even when confronted by things you can’t understand.”

My family will have that opportunity to help and be helped in that way when we move in three weeks.

We don’t know whom our twelve might be.

There might be more, or less, than twelve. Some might draw us closer with them to God through His Son than we could have imagined. Some might disappoint or wound us. They might choose us, initially. We might choose them.

But we will choose each other, and we will choose.

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. ~ Luke 6:12-16

Who are your twelve?

Inconsistency?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 9 Comments

I find it curious that folks who are willing to assume the existence of Noah’s tools (never mentioned in scripture) – in order to illustrate their defense of a doctrine of expediency (also never mentioned in scripture) … that those same folks blanch at the idea that God might have indeed told Nadab and Abihu and Moses and all of Aaron’s sons that only the fire He had authorized could be used in worship to Him.

True, that instruction never appears as such in scripture. (Just like Noah’s tools.)

Yet it is quite possible that the two oldest sons were bringing their own fire was because they had disobeyed by letting the fire go out (Leviticus 6:9-13) which had come from the presence of the Lord a few verses before (Leviticus 9:24). So fire came out from the Lord again and consumed them (Leviticus 10:2). You have to wonder why else would they be bringing fire in their incense censers, if it had not gone out on the altar …?

I guess that assuming such a command missing from scripture would not be expedient to the argument about God’s silence being prohibitive. Because if God was not silent, but in fact did express a command forbidding fire that was not His … well, the whole argument of God’s silence being prohibitive would hit a major iceberg; that’s the main rationale for it.

That would also put a big, leaky crease in the hull of the theology which goes which that argument.

Which is that God is on the edge of His throne looking down on us for the slightest excuse to utterly destroy anyone who disobeys Him by doing something that He has not specifically authorized (especially in worship).

And that, sadly, reminds me of the way that the steward entrusted with one talent envisioned his master: solely wrathful, greedy and vengeful. He was afraid to do anything with the talent that he hadn’t been specifically authorized to do. So he did the no-risk, nothing-ventured-nothing-gained thing to do: he buried it (Matthew 25:14-30).

(Of course, if you think about it, he hadn’t been specifically authorized to bury it, either.)

Is that really the way that we should assume God operates?

Because the other servants took some risk, transacted some business, put themselves out their to honor their master’s house and to increase the esteem of others at its assets – and his wisdom in choosing and investing in stewards for it.

They were generously rewarded.

Shouldn’t we put ourselves out there when we’re transacting gospel business for the chance at gaining the maximum return on investment? Shouldn’t it be that way every day of the week we’re in business, instead of just one day (which is all it takes to bury something)?

Let’s face it, we’re not specifically authorized to stand motionless singing in four-part harmony with books in our hands following only one song leader, either. So if we decide to start forbidding how hearts gifted by God want to worship Him, where do we draw the lines that scripture doesn’t?

At one day a week? At one day a week, plus maybe a Wednesday night? At one person speaking, rather than two or three? At one cup? At projected lyrics and/or music? At clapping? At a praise team leading? At accompanying instruments? Which instruments? At whatever I think is decent and orderly? At what my brother or sister thinks is decent and orderly? Do we draw the line at what does or doesn’t praise God, because we think we know Him so well through His silence?

Here’s the picture I have of God, and I get it straight out of scripture: someOne who wants us to express His praise, His wonder, His love and His power fully and with all our hearts (and encourage each other and be blessed by doing so!), whether we are gathered in worship, or worshiping by serving, or serving by sharing, or sharing by teaching. SomeOne who wants us to put ourselves out there – way out there! Take some risk. Transact some gospel. Not sell it. Live it. Share it. Give it away. Give it all. Don’t hold back.

Because that’s what He has done and does for us.

That’s what I find Jesus doing, and later, those who followed Him.

And if we picture our God before others as being miserly and stingy and secretive and vindictive, He will become the God we fear … but do not love and trust.

That’s not the provident God described by Peter:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” ~2 Peter 1:3

A loving God. A giving God. A God who is just, but merciful; righteous but forgiving.

A consistent God.

The Year I Didn’t Go To Church

/ W. Keith Brenton / 29 Comments

Well, that’s a little misleading. The year after my divorce was final, I visited several churches.

And had a little difficulty finding a home.

Churches of Christ (and probably other faith fellowships) weren’t sure what to do with divorced people in 1984, and while I would be greeted enthusiastically as a guest, the warmth of the smiles would visibly cool when I said I was divorced.

I did find a home at Pleasant Valley, where no one seemed to mind very much what my marital status was. There was an singles group, and for the most part, folks did not regard the divorced as people with a scarlet “D” embroidered to their blouses or seared into their chests. But in the meantime I’d found another home among people who readily accepted others and took them in and shared commonalities of interest:

Trekkies. Well, Trekkers, actually: the United Trekkers of Arkansas, so named because there was some kind of nomenclature debate going, in which “Trekkies” was perceived as an insult. Hey, it was just a word then and it’s just a word now. (There’s a chance that “Christian” may have originally been intended as an insult. It certainly is used that way now in some circles.)

You could be a Trek-fan and go to meetings and (in those days before widespread Internet) share rumors of movies being made and news of new books and comic books and collectibles; debate motivations of characters and planetary cultures and 23rd-century technology. And nobody cared if you were married, divorced or single (there were members of all those categories); or whether you were painfully thin or dangerously obese; whether you were old or young or somewhere in-between; or whether you wore Trek t-shirts or uniforms or street clothes or dressed like a Klingon from time to time.

The findings of many a research project in religion point to what people seek most in a church: community. That’s what the Trekkers excelled in. They were a community in which deep friendships formed and grew, based on a shared peculiar interest. They worked together. They had garage sales that raised money for local charities like Big Brothers/Big Sisters. They even put together three or four local science fiction conventions — again benefiting local charities — that attracted some of the writers and actors from the television series and movies to participate.

Not unlike followers of Christ.

Now, the club was no paradise to be sure, and it had a rival. Sort of. There were for a while a few members of the UTA who were also members of a larger local chapter of a national organization known as Starfleet. The national organization — and particularly the local chapter — took their charter very seriously. Members had a rank in Starfleet and could advance, and they wore Starfleet uniforms (whatever era one chose), and they participated in community service projects while wearing them. (The local chapter adopted a mile of highway for cleanup.) One member famously wore her uniform as a candidate for the jury in the impeachment trial of President Clinton.

But the Starfleet folks developed kind of a disdain for the undisciplined ways and unlimited acceptance of the UTA folks, and a rift developed, and most of the UTA folks who had also joined Starfleet let their Starfleet memberships lapse. And Starfleet soon went the way of all interstellar hierarchies.

As far as I know, neither organization persists all these years down the road. I let my membership in UTA lapse in 1987, the year I moved to Shreveport.

And that, really, was the year I didn’t go to church.

There was no Pleasant Valley there. There was a church across the river with a single again group of six morbidly depressed people. There was a church on the north side that was all folding chairs in a circle and worship renewal and total unawareness of visitors. There were others, and I was quick to pick up on the dress code and bylaws and expectations and requirements of them. But there was no home.

Every other month or so, I’d roll three-and-a-half hours back up the road to Little Rock to go to church and reconnect with my Pleasant Valley brothers and sisters. Fortunately, my sojourn in Shreveport was just for that one year, parts of 1987-1988.

Now, the point to all this is (if there is one): Jesus was in Shreveport as surely as He was in Little Rock. It may have been shallow — and may be shallow — for someone to look for a church home based on a craving for community rather than Christ. It may be self-seeking, selfish, self-interested.

Yet it can grow into something more.

When people visit our churches, we have a very narrow window of opportunity to offer them the comforts of home — especially those who are hurting and hungry and desperately in need of comfort. I was one of them, and I am not proud of the judgment I showed or the speed with which I exercised it in some cases.

If we greet people with our charter and our uniform requirements and our expectations for performing service and cleaning up highways and leave a general impression of disdain for folks who aren’t going to advance in the ranks, well ….

On the other hand, if we show acceptance as Christ accepts us … if we do not judge others as He eschewed judgment while in this world; what they wear or what their background is or what their potential level of commitment might be … if we work together to help others and honor children and obviously have a great time doing so … then I think we’ve got a better chance at reaching the folks who are starved for community and may have only the vaguest idea about the One who puts the lonely in families.

The Story of Job

/ W. Keith Brenton / 1 Comment

or, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

A Skit in Two Acts (of Satan, and One Act of God)

Narrator: Of all the people of the East
no one like Job was found.
He owned eleven thousand beasts,
and sacrificed year ’round.
.
For his children, ten in number,
he gave offerings each morn
fearing that while he slumbered
they might have done some wrong.
.
One day when angels faced the Lord,
the one called Satan thought
that he should also have his word
and stood with all the lot.
.
The Lord: “Where have you come from?”
Narrator: asked the Lord,
and Satan said with pride,
Satan: “From roaming up and down the world
and going far and wide.”
.
Narrator: Then the Lord replied to Satan,
The Lord: “Consider Job, then, if you would.
There is none on earth so patient;
none so upright; none so good.”
.
Satan: “Does Job fear God for nothing?”
Narrator: said Satan,
Satan: “You’ve shown him only grace!
Take what you gave — take everything —
He’ll curse You to Your face!”
.
The Lord: “All right,”
Narrator: the Lord said,
The Lord: “Take his wealth,
his family, flocks and herds.
But do not touch the man himself,
and you will eat your words.”
.
Narrator: Then Satan left the Lord’s presence
and scurried to his task,
for there’s nothing more that he resents
than getting what he’s asked.
.
One day Job’s mesenger arrived,
and sadly said to him,
Messenger 1: “Of your servants, only I survived,
the rest: killed by Sabeans!”
.
Narrator: While he yet spoke, another came
and said,
Messenger 2: “The fire of God
burned all your sheep and slaves
and I alone there stood!”
.
Narrator: And still another, rushing up to him,
said
Messenger 3: “By Chaldeans we were surprised:
they stole your camels, killed your men,
and only I have survived!”
.
Narrator: The last one bore the worst of news:
Messenger 4: “Your children were all feasting at home;
it fell on them when the wind blew
and I’ve escaped alone!”
.
Narrator: At hearing this, the man called Job
could take no greater pain;
he shaved his head and tore his robe,
and called on his Lord’s name:
.
Job: I owned no thing when I was born,
nor when I die and am raised.
God gives and takes as He has sworn,
May the name of the Lord be praised.”
.
Narrator: Another day the angels came
to stand before the Lord
and Satan also called His name
to accuse the one God adored.
.
The Lord: “Where have you come from?”
Narrator: asked the Lord,
and Satan said with pride,
Satan: “From roaming up and down the world
and going far and wide.”
.
Narrator Then the Lord replied to Satan,
The Lord: “Consider Job, then, if you would.
Though your hand I put his fate in,
he still calls me only good.”
.
Satan: “Skin for skin!”
Narrator: then Satan answered,
Satan: “No man wants his health to waste —
Make his bones and flesh all cancered,
and he’ll curse You to Your face!”
.
The Lord: “All right,”
Narrator the Lord said,
The Lord: “Take his health;
afflict this man so strong.
But leave the man his life itself,
and you will see you’re wrong.”
.
Narrator: Then Satan left the holy throne
and hurried to his work,
for he likes nothing more, it’s known,
than making people hurt.
.
So from his head down to his heel,
with sores poor Job was scarred
and when they grew and failed to heal,
he scraped them with a shard.
.
Then Job’s wife said,
Job’s Wife: “Do you still claim
your innocence now? And why?
Curse God who’s cursed you! Curse His Name!
Perhaps He’ll let you die.”
.
Narrator: Job said,
Job: “Only foolish women
would speak that way — not you!
Shall we accept the good God’s given,
without some trouble, too?”
.
Narrator: In all this, Job refused to sin,
or blame evil on his Lord.
Then three friends came to visit him,
and for a week, said not one word.
.
At last, Job spoke, his voice forlorn,
and cursed the day of his birth:
Job: “I hate the day that I was born!
May it perish from the earth!”
.
Narrator: His friend Eliphaz, next to him,
sat in the ashen dust,
and said,
Eliphaz: “Does God punish good men?
Don’t you think God is just?”
.
Narrator: Bildad the Shuhite then agreed,
Bildad: “You surely must have sinned.
You think forgiveness you don’t need?
Your words are blustering wind!”
.
Narrator: And Zophar added his advice,
Zophar: “Devote your life to Him,
sweep from your tent your secret vice,
and He’ll forget your sin.”
.
Narrator: So Job argued with his befriended,
and proved he’d done no wrong.
About the time his words had ended,
Elihu came along.
.
Elihu: “You all are old, and I am young;
and that’s why I must speak.
The answer’s on the tip of my tongue;
the one that you all seek.
.
God is so good, so kind, so just,
that if He held His breath,
All mankind would turn back to dust,
and all deserve their death.
.
He made the world so perfect,
so that life might never end.
But now there’s every defect
because evil entered in.”
.
Narrator As if to punctuate these words,
and give them physical form,
an answer in the voice of the Lord
called to Job from a great storm:
.
The Lord: “Who questions what is clearly true
with dark words that can’t see?
Brace yourself, man; I’ll question you
— and you shall answer me!
.
“Where were you when I made the earth
and measured out the land?
Who made the stars all sing in mirth?
Tell me, if you understand!
.
“Who shut the sea behind its doors,
and gave it clouds to wear?
Have you walked on the ocean floors?
Or stirred the winds of the air?
.
“Who sounds the thunder, spreads the dew,
reserves the hail for strife?
Would you accuse me of wronging you?
The One who gave you life?”
.
Narrator: Then Job replied to his great Lord:
Job: “I know You can do all;
You asked, who questions with dark words?
Before You now I fall.
.
“Before, my ears had heard of You,
but now my eyes can see.
I must repent; I know it’s true:
You’ve given so much to me.”
.
Narrator: The Lord commanded Job’s three friends
to sacrifice and pray
because they had to make amends
for what they’d had to say.
.
Then doubly blessed was this man Job
with twenty-two thousand beasts,
three prettiest daughters on the globe,
and seven sons to host their feasts.
.
Of Satan, no more words are said
in this book — but I feel
he takes all his licks in the head
and barely strikes the heel.

One of the joys of moving every decade or so is packing old files and rediscovering something you have written and almost forgotten and written off as lost. This is one of those items. I think it’d be fun to see it produced sometime. If you do so, please post a YouTube and send me the URL!

Changes

/ W. Keith Brenton / 5 Comments

I haven’t blogged recently as much as I normally do. It’s been a challenge to keep up with posting/queuing up the almost-20 articles and reviews and interviews submitted for this month’s New Wineskins edition, “Why I Left / Why I Stay.”

And changes have been taking place in the Brenton household. Not all of them are for public consumption, but this one certainly is:

http://news-prod.wcu.edu/2012/05/angela-brenton-appointed-wcus-new-provost/

My wife, Angela Laird Brenton, has been appointed the new provost at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Her position begins August 1.

So early next week, our house goes on the market. And this weekend, we’re de-personalizing it — taking down the family pictures and packing away the collectible tchotchkes to give it that “Why, I’m ready for you to live in me!” HGTV-look. In fact, we’re already starting to pare down and pack generally.

We’ll make a trip, hopefully in June, to go house-hunting in the hills of western North Carolina.

I don’t know what I’ll be doing there, but I have a strong feeling that — given what I’ve been doing this weekend — I’ll be doing a lot of unpacking.

Your prayers and good wishes are always welcome.

God in Motion

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

“The one, simple theological take-away that I want you to get from this is: God is still moving.”

It’s three in the morning, and that is the phrase that I just now awakened with in my head. I’ve just been dreaming that I’ve been blogging. I can’t remember ever having done that before. I also can’t remember what I was writing in the context of the dream, but I know I won’t be able to get back to sleep until I can put this restless thought to rest.

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” ~ Genesis 2:2

No. It doesn’t stop there. He is no Deist God who created everything and then took eternity off. There’s another verse right after it:

“Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” ~ Genesis 2:3

He rested one day and He rested specifically from one thing: “from all the work of creating that he had done.”

“Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them …” ~ Exodus 14:19

“For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.” ~ Deuteronomy 23:14

He moved to create. He moved to destroy evil, immersing it in flood. He moved with Abram to Canaan, with Joseph to Egypt, to the wilderness with Moses and all of Israel. Whether as a smoking censer, a prophetic dream, a burning bush, or a pillar of cloud/fire … He moved with His people, leading them from the fore and protecting them from the rear.

He moved with them for generations as they moved into the land promised them and spread themselves upon it. He moved away from them when they moved away from Him just as He had warned.

He moved into a zygote and moved to grow and lived among them in the person of His Son Jesus, teaching and moving restlessly about Israel, Samaria and Judah with good news that His salvation had returned. He moved until pinioned to a cross and death stopped His movement cold.

For a day. Two days. Three days.

Then He moved within those who had followed Him, moved His Spirit within them, moved with the good news throughout Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Spain … throughout the world. He promised He would be with them until the end, helping them move the hearts of men and moving mountains of sin into the depths of the sea and destroying evil by immersing it in the flood of His own blood.

Unless you can somehow prove that the end has come, then He is still moving.

The One who set in motion all creation, who choreographs the stars and planets in their nightly dance, who stills the sun for a day then moves it on, is moving still to lead His people from the fore and protect them from evil from the rear.

Not just on Sunday, but every day. Not just during the day, but while you sleep at night, in every part of the world and universe, moving in the hearts of those tender toward good and love and righteousness.

He is leading to an inevitable Day when He moves among us again, as perceptible then as He is real now, not by faith but by sight.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm —
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore. ~ Psalm 121

God does not slumber nor sleep.

But I would like to now.

So the one, simple theological take-away that I want you to get from this is: God is still moving.

Romans and Those Who Haven’t Heard

/ W. Keith Brenton / 26 Comments

It is my opinion that what Calvinists, Arminians, Universalists and virtually all other believers in Christ have some beliefs in common beyond a simple faith in Jesus as the Son of God — whether they want to admit it or not. And some of those beliefs aren’t necessarily good.

First, most of us believers have in common a kind of absolutist definition of the word “all” wherever it is used in scripture with regard to people — that it always means “everyone who has ever lived from the beginning of time through and including everyone who is still alive at the end of time.”

I can’t say that I buy into that. If I say “Singing at church Sunday was awesome,” and you ask me “Why?” and I reply “Because everyone sang,” you don’t assume that I meant “everyone who has ever lived through everyone who ever will.” When Genesis 6:5 says everyone was perpetually evil all the time, did that include Noah? His family?

Second, I think most believers share in an absolutist definition of “wickedness” in Romans which includes any sin, any number of sins, the nature of anyone who is not perfect and sinless. In other words, imperfection = wickedness. All sin is the same. Anyone who sins is damned.

I can’t say that I buy into that, either. Paul defines what he means by wickedness early on in Romans, and it’s pretty heinous. It’s not just slipping once in your life and saying “oh crap” instead of “oh doo-doo.”

Go ahead and read Romans 1:18-32. I’ll wait.

Now I ask you: Is that talking about people whose minds wander a bit during communion or who clap while singing praise to God in church or who let fly an epithet in an unguarded moment once in a while?

Or is it talking about sin, seriously depraved, self-seeking, God-denying, hateful, greedy, lascivious, murderous sin? Is that the way everyone is who sins? Or is that what a little sin leads to, and why it cannot be tolerated, and why it cannot be a part of God’s assembled saints? Is the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against people who aren’t perfect — or people who suppress the truth by their wickedness? Does Jesus’ statement in Luke 12:47-48 have any relevance here? (I don’t know for certain if He was speaking of eternal judgment there, but He certainly seems to support the principle that there are some sins that are worse than others.)

Third, most believers don’t believe what Paul says in places like Romans 2:6-11 (and many other scriptures) unless they get to add their own qualifications to what’s said. For them, “doing good” must include obeying God the way they define it. Otherwise, it’s not good enough. Even those of us who understand that our works don’t and can’t save us.

In the epistle to the Romans, it takes some discernment to figure out where Paul really is talking about everyone and about universal (not Universalist!) principles … and where he is talking just about people who have had some exposure to the notion of God … and where he is talking about people who grew up knowing all there was to know about God. And it’s important! Because the things said about one group of people may not apply to another group of people.

It takes some discernment to plot out where he begins talking to Jews only … and where, much later on in the epistle, he addresses Gentiles only … and where, still later on, he’s talking to everyone again. Not as much, but some. Plus, he’s writing  — obviously! — to people that have heard a gospel and have heard that Paul has a gospel and accusations against both Paul and his gospel. And that’s important to know, too. Because the things said to one group of people may not apply to another group of people. Right?

It takes some discernment to figure out whether Paul means that imperfection is the same as wickedness … if someone can actually be good and do good without hearing the name of God, having intuited His existence and goodness from what has been made, yet without having descended into the wickedness of idolatry and worship of self … if someone can actually be good and do good having heard and understood the will of God but having willfully rejected it in order pursue whatever gratifies self, at whatever cost to others and to God.

I’m not going to pretend that I have it all sorted out and there is a simple color-coded systemological map that you can overlay the epistle with and have it all neatly figured out. But I’m smart enough to pick up on the fact that Romans is not a one-size-fits-all letter with the same thing to say in every verse to and about everyone in Rome, or just every believer in Rome. Or to every Jew and Gentile who has encountered it since it was written.

The can’t-wait-to-get-to-it message of Romans — after that quick overview of global morality and immorality in chapter one — is “Stop judging each other! You have no right to! You’re doing the same wrong things that you’re judging others for doing when you judge them — you’re sinning!”

Yes, I’m especially sensitive to this theme after studying Greg Boyd’s Repenting of Religion for several months with my LIFE group. Boyd’s examination of Bonhoeffer and scripture is pretty convicting about the original sin — judging God to be untrustworthy — and expressing virtually all other sins as failures of human judgment. That’s pretty much borne out in Romans, especially as chapter two begins:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? ~ Romans 2:1-4

This is the kind of judgment that comes from self-righteousness … the inability to see the plank in one’s own eye while trying to pluck the splinter from another’s. It’s the kind of judgment that a Pharisee or teacher of the law uses to justify crucifying an inconvenient prophet from Nazareth.

So far, in this epistle addressed to “all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people,” there has been no change of address. He’s talking to everyone, about all of them to whom he’s writing. They’ve all been guilty of this kind of judgment. Jews. Gentiles. Everyone. And yet they are people whose “faith is being reported all over the world” (Romans 1:8). He continues:

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.~ Romans 2:5-11

So there are people who have persisted in doing good … as well as those who have been self-seeking and follow evil. The standard of judgment is the same for Jew and Gentile.

When it says “God does not show favoritism,” does it say that He just going to save everyone because He doesn’t play favorites? No.

When it says “God does not show favoritism,” does it say that He will just condemn everyone who hasn’t heard because they have rejected truth they’ve never heard even though they might (or might not!) have persisted in doing good? No.

It says He doesn’t play favorites in saving Jews over Gentiles. That’s pretty much the point of the whole epistle, and why there should be no racial judgment taking place between the two groups!

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. ~ Romans 2:12-16

So it is possible for people who have not heard the law to still do things required by the law that are written on their hearts. We know from this epistle that keeping works of the law does not save. But the Gentiles described in this passage would have been described in scripture as “God-fearing” before the crucifixion and resurrection. Would they have been saved before those events, yet damned after?

Can we read that passage and still believe it is not possible for someone who has not heard of Jesus to live good lives, lives repentant of living for self, lives that express belief in love for others (and God is love)? That they cannot have belief in a good creator God who has put in their hearts a moral compass and a yearning for more than this life? Can we absolutely state that God cannot or will not impute the saving blood of Christ to those whom He wills, those who please Him by lives that give Him glory whether they have ever heard His name or not?

Paul understands that it’s impossible to believe on a name that one has not heard:

As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ~ Romans 10:11-14

Does he — in this epistle or any other scripture — ever say that it is impossible for them to receive God’s salvation? Does any writer of scripture?

Scripture says we are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14-15) and saved by faith, not works (Romans 3:27-28; 9:32; Galatians 2:16; 5:4; John 5:24). It also says all will be judged (not saved, but judged) by their works (Matthew 25; Revelation 20:12) and words (James 3:1, Matthew 12:37)  — and in the way that we have judged others (Matthew 7:1-2; Luke 6:37).

The only exceptions I have been able to find to those being judged are those who do not judge and do not condemn and who forgive others and those who hear and believe :

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” ~ Luke 6:37

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” ~ John 5:24

Are we ready to make a judgment that only one or the other of these is required? Just one and not the other? Both?

Have we as believers done one but not the other?

And aren’t we judging those who haven’t heard when we interpret scripture to say that God cannot, will not, and/or does not save them at His own discretion — when scripture does not say so? That they don’t rate an individual judgment like those who have heard and are just categorically out-of-luck? Damned automatically by chance of birth?

Don’t get me wrong: the gospel is still — and has been since Jesus lived it — the way God wants for His power to save to be shared with all; with everyone, everywhere, in every era.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” ~ Romans 1:16-17

Those who hear and believe; who will repent and conform their lives to Christ have a promise of salvation and advantage that those who heard do not have. At the same time, I feel completely inadequate — and forbidden — to judge the life of someone else who has not had that advantage and say that their faith is inadequate because they don’t know the Name.

And I think it extremely presumptuous to say that God does not have the power, the right, the sovereignty, the love that covers sins, the grace that triumphs over judgment, to show mercy to whom He will show mercy and compassion to whom He will have compassion … to say that He is somehow contractually obligated by the way most believers have historically interpreted Romans and other scriptures to categorically condemn everyone who has not heard, understood and accepted the gospel of His Son Jesus, the Christ.

We don’t believe that’s necessarily true of categories within it like babies and small children, mentally challenged people, or those among His people who lived before the Word took human form in Jesus.

We tend to believe — want to believe — that God can impute the grace bought by His Son’s blood to those exceptions, though we have no scriptural basis for that belief.

What does it say about us that we somehow want to believe that He cannot or will not save good people who have diligently sought Him but never had the opportunity to hear His name or His story?

I believe that is our double standard, not His.

I believe it’s our error that this kind of final judgment is ours to make, before the Day when He decides.

Not that He will save all whoever lived. There are those who are mortal who have chosen to defy, oppose and blaspheme all that is good and all that is of God, just as surely as there were those who were celestial beings who so chose. Their reward is just. My pity for them has no salvific power. My conviction that God’s heart also breaks for each one cannot redeem them. They must choose and they have chosen. What they have chosen will not prevent me from loving and trying to reach as many of them as I encounter.

Because the promise always beats the possibility of a relationship with God.

I believe God created this world and us to offer us choice and then to respect our choices.

We can choose good or evil, righteousness or sin, God or Satan, salvation or damnation … love or judgment.

I am doing my best to choose to love and not to judge …

… for the reasons outlined above.

I Will Still Shave

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

Monday, I return to the ranks of telecommuters. I’ll be working at home again, concentrating on updating and putting the Web site of my home church into the best possible condition — hopefully, upgrading its Joomla operating system from antiquated version 1.2 to something a little more contemporary.

I’ll come back in to the church office on Tuesdays for staff meeting and to pick up changes for the online church directory and chat with ministry leaders about items that need to go on their Web sites.

I say “return” because I’ve done this before. After we moved back to Little Rock from Abilene, I continued to work as the Content Manager for the Abilene Reporter-News from 2001 through 2003. I retrieved content from the newspaper pages’ pasteup files through a Virtual Private Network connection and reformatted them to post on the Web site. So I’m used to working at home.

I had a personal standard that I tried to keep then and will try to keep now: I will still shave. I will still wear cologne. I will not work in my pajamas.

Or anyone else’s.

The Ideal | The Reality

/ W. Keith Brenton / 12 Comments

The Ideal:
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” ~ Matthew 5:48

The Reality:
“… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ….” ~ Romans 3:23

The Ideal:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” ~ 2 Peter 3:9

The Reality:
“… Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” ~ Matthew 7:22-23

There is no point in mistaking the ideal for the reality (or vice-versa) in scripture. The Lord has expectations of us, but they are not unreasonable. He was a perfect example; God decided that we needed and deserved that, and that only a perfect Sacrifice would prove worthy. But there is no indication in scripture that perfection is expected of us.

Instead, the perfection of Christ covers our imperfections.

The Ideal and the Reality:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” ~ Isaiah 53:5

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” ~ 1 John 2:1-2

If God had expected perfection from us, expected nothing else, foresaw nothing else … there would have been no need for “… the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” ~ Revelation 13:8.

Perfection should be our goal; we should aim no lower. We should yearn to be like Christ; to learn obedience as He did (Hebrews 5:8-9). He should be our Ideal.

But we should also have a sense of reality. We will not be perfect. We will need His perfection between ourselves and God, the vindication of His good and righteous will for us.

It is not what we do that saves us, but what He has done.

It is not by what He has done that we will be judged, but by what we say (Luke 19:22) and do (Matthew 25:31-46) that testifies each moment to our belief in what He has done.

That is how the world will judge us: by what we say and by what we do. That is how the world will judge Him through us.

And that is how the world will be judged by Him.