Ephesians at Tyndale

The syllabus for the course on Ephesians that I am teaching this summer at Tyndale is online. You can find it here. If you have ever considered university level biblical studies, this would be a great opportunity for you. To learn more about Tyndale’s modular program, go to their website. I hope to see you this summer.

The Riddle: UN Anti-Homophobic Video

This is a video put out by the United Nations bringing to our attention the danger that many homosexuals experience throughout the world. I must say that I agree with 90% of what is in this video. It is terrible that so many homosexuals are killed and tortured in countries around the world. I believe the church should be at the front of the line protecting homosexuals from violence, wherever they live. Having said that, I have two comments (one minor and one major).

The minor point is that this video says that homosexuality has been in every culture and in every generation. I would agree with that. However, when people point out ancient critiques of homosexuality (such as in the Bible), many people point out that homosexuality in our modern understanding, in terms of long term and loving relationships, is relatively new and therefore not covered by those concerns of many years ago. I would just say that you cannot have it both ways. If you want the long history of homosexuality to be part of its legitimacy, you cannot argue that what we consider homosexuality is something new.

My major concern with this video is with a subtle shift that is made. Many comments were made about the violence and abuse suffered by homosexuals, something I hope we would all condemn. But then at the end, the idea that some people consider homosexuality abnormal is tagged on to that as if we are still talking about the same thing. Killing is wrong. Torturing is wrong. Disagreeing with homosexuality is wrong. Those things are presented as if they are equally wrong.

However, there are millions of people who consider homosexuality wrong, not because they are filled with hate or want to kill homosexuals, but because their religious texts or traditions say it is wrong. What do we do with that? If the world takes a stand against all of these things, including believing homosexuality is abnormal, should the world take a stand against these religions as well? I am all for human rights for homosexuals. But I am all for human rights for religious people as well. Religious people’s rights should be limited so that they are not free to abuse or kill people. Homosexual’s rights should be limited so that they are not free from having people disagree with them.

The church, the homosexual community and everyone else should work together to end the violence against homosexuals. However, people should still have the freedom to disagree with the homosexual lifestyle and to consider it abnormal.

Why I am Pro-Life

Many people consider the pro-life position to be based on a faith or religious system. Some suppose that people would be pro-choice if their religious teachers or tradition would allow them. That may be true in a few cases but this has absolutely nothing to do with my experience. I actually came to a pro-life position during my time as an atheist. I figured if this life is the only chance we have at existence, we should give every person that chance to live. However, my reason for being pro-life at this stage is not based in either atheistic or religious presuppositions.

I sometimes hear pro-choice people offering abortion as a compassionate response to certain situations. The truth is that not every pregnancy is planned, not every relationship is ideal and some circumstances are very unfortunate. What about women who become pregnant and yet are totally not able to raise a child? What about cases when there has been substance abuse and there is a risk of harm to the child? For our family, these are not just “what if” questions.

My wife and I had two children. Because both were diagnosed with autism, we decided to not have any more children as there was a good chance that a third child would also have autism. After a few years, we began to wish that we could have another child, perhaps a child without autism. We approached the Children’s Aid Society and began looking into adoption. Do not let anyone tell you that mothers that give up their children are abandoning them to a lonely existence in an orphanage. We were told that there were far few children than there were parents looking for children. We were told that we might be waiting close to a decade and even then it was not guaranteed that we would get a child. It was discouraging but we decided to go through with the adoption classes anyway.

During this time, there was a girl that we knew that was pregnant. Because she was doing drugs during the pregnancy, Children’s Aid became involved and they planned to apprehend the baby at birth. Instead, my wife and I decided to put together a plan of care and take the baby into our home. It was an interesting situation for us as we attended our last adoption class and while all the other parents were dreading their long wait, we already had a baby at home.

During that first year, we discovered that the mother was pregnant again and that drugs were still involved. While I was hesitant to bring another baby home, since we already had two children with autism and we did not know what effects the drugs would have, we decided to bring this baby home (the decision was literally made the day she was born). After getting our son out of the baby stage, we suddenly had a baby girl. Our house was now very full. However, we soon discovered that the mother was pregnant again. We decided that we wanted to keep the children together and so brought another little girl into our home.

People could easily condemn the mother of our children for taking drugs during her pregnancy. It definitely was not a good choice. However, I respect her for not taking the “easy” way out by getting an abortion. I am sure she was very uncomfortable during the pregnancy and I can’t imagine the emotional toll of knowing she would not keep the babies and having to part with them. And yet she did go through this hardship and allowed those babies to find a home and to be healthy and happy.

But what about the drugs? Is it fair to have babies go through withdrawal at birth, to possibly develop delays or other health issues? Would it not be more compassionate to end it all quickly in abortion? It was hard to watch them go through withdrawal and there are a few areas in which we see the effects of the drugs. But over all, these are beautiful, happy, loving, fun, intelligent, healthy children that we love very much. I do not see how anyone could look at our children and wish that their biological mother had chosen abortion instead. Experiencing these fantastic kids is a huge part of why I am pro-life.

 

Confessions of an Ex-Pastor

It always broke my heart when I would read stories of how a pastor had a bad experience at a church and quit ministry out of anger, pain and frustration.  I would hear those stories and would wonder how someone could give up ministry if God called them to ministry. A bad experience at a church cannot change that call.

And here I am as an ex-pastor, having just announced on my other blog that I am now the associate editor of Faith Today. I need to make some things clear here. I am not a burned out pastor who is settling for a non-church job to recover from my bad experience. I pastored Woodford and First Baptist Church Meaford for nine years and had a fantastic time. The people were awesome and I saw some great things take place there. It is true that I do not regret being out of pastoral ministry, but it is not because of a bad experience.

My decision to move from being a pastor to an editor is not an escape but an evolution of my ministry. Ever since I first felt God call me to ministry back in 1994 in London, England during an Operation Mobilization mission, I have seen that ministry shifting and changing.  That is not disappointing but is exciting. Change is good. God has been developing me and shaping me. I have become more aware of my skills and I have discovered new ways to serve.

I still think it is sad when I hear about a pastor abandoning the ministry. But as an ex-pastor (I have no idea if I will ever be on staff at a church again), I am happy with how my ministry has developed. I look forward to working at Faith Today and I encourage you to check out the magazine and watch for the exciting things that will take place.

Exposing the Jesus Myth

Here is my presentation that I gave on the Jesus myth theory for the Network of Christian Apologists in Calgary. It is a basic introduction to the background, the evidence for Jesus and how Jesus compares with pagan gods.  Thanks Paul Buller for allowing me to speak to your group.

Jesus Myth Presentation

I will be speaking on Saturday, May 11 2013 to a group of apologists in Calgary about the Jesus myth theory. I know that most of you cannot come to Calgary (even I will still be in Ontario).  However, there is an option for you to watch it live streaming.  For more information, go to this post.

The Historical Jesus and the Raglan Scale

I have been talking to a number of Jesus mythicists lately and they have been putting forth something called the Raglan scale.  This is a scale that puts together all sorts of categories common to mythical heroes.  The idea is that the higher a person ranks on this scale, the more likely they are mythical and the lower they rank, the more likely they are historical.  In the link above, Jesus is ranked as 19 (out of 22), which would put him clearly in the mythical category.  For a person to be historical, you would want them to be 6 or lower.  There are all sorts of problems with this scale, but for the sake of argument, let us take it as it is.  I decided to not just accept the score but to actually put Jesus as we find him in the gospels (and not as later church tradition interpreted him) through this scale to see how he did.  Here are the categories:

1. The hero’s mother is a royal virgin
2. His father is a king and
3. often a near relative of the mother, but
4. the circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. he is also reputed to be the son of a god
6. at birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or maternal grandfather, to kill him, but
7. He is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster-parents in a far country
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king and or giant, dragon, or wild beast
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
13. becomes king
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
15. Prescribes laws but
16. later loses favor with the gods and or his people and
17. Is driven from from the throne and the city after which
18. He meets with a mysterious death
19. often at the top of a hill.
20. his children, if any, do not succeed him.
21. his body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. he has one or more holy sepulchres.

Here are my results:

1. No indication that Mary was royal.
2. Assuming you are talking about Joseph (otherwise this would overlap with 5) he was not a king.
3. Father was not a near relative of the mother.
4. Definitely unusual.
5. Described as the Son of God.
6. No attempt by father or grandfather to kill him.
7. Was spirited away.
8. Was not reared by foster-parents.
9. We are told something about his childhood.
10. He does not seem to have his own kingdom at manhood, he preaches the kingdom of God but it is not his.
11. I’m not sure what victory over a dragon is being referred to here. While that was later attached to what Jesus did at the cross and his resurrection, that is absent in the gospels.
12. Jesus never got married. Sorry Dan Brown.
13. Is Jesus a king? In a sense, although he has no kingdom in this world which is probably what is being referred to here. I will give this to you but I am being generous.
14. I do not see any uneventful reign in the gospels.
15. Jesus does not proscribe laws. He enters into the conversation of interpretation that the other Jewish leaders were involved in but that is very different from proscribing.
16. He does lose favour with the people.
17. Driven from a throne? Where in the gospels? He is not even driven from the city.
18. A mysterious death? Nothing mysterious about crucifixion. Thousands of people died this way.
19. I will give you the hill.
20. No children.
21. His body was buried.
22. He had a tomb but I would not call that a holy sepulchre. The later church may have done that but it is not found in the gospels.

How does Jesus do here? By my count, Jesus scores a 6 on this scale based on what we find in the gospels. I believe that is the range in which a historical figure is expected.  This is very interesting.

Limits to Freedom of Expression

In Canada, as in many western countries, we take for granted our freedom of expression/speech.  This freedom is one of the things that I am thankful for as a Canadian.  However, that freedom is not without limits.  I have an article in the most recent issue of Faith Today in which I explore the limits of freedom of expression in the light of some recent examples.  You can read the article for free online here.

May the Force Be With You!

You know that I was raised Anglican because when I hear someone say “May the force be with you,” I want to respond with “And also with you.” Today is May the fourth, which leads some people to celebrate the great Star Wars movies. I am a Star Wars fan, though mainly episodes IV, V and VI. I am not a diehard fan in that I have not read any of the books in the expanded universe and I let my son play with my action figures rather than hiding them in a display box. Still, I enjoy the mythology created in the Star Wars universe.

I was thinking about Star Wars and the nature of evil. As you may know, there are two opposing groups in the Star Wars universe, the Jedis and the Sith. But these are not just two similar groups with different coloured light sabres. The Jedis are a group that seeks to use the force to do good. In doing this, they have an elaborate system of mentorship and training. The community keeps growing (when they are not being wiped out by the emperor), as they help each other to fight against evil.

When I first heard about the Sith, I assumed that they were just like the Jedis, only for evil.  That is not exactly true. While there could be very many Jedis, there can only be two Sith at a time: a master and an apprentice. Even with this pairing, it is not a healthy relationship. While there is teaching, the goal of the apprentice is to eventually kill the master and take on an apprentice of their own. You would think the new master might think twice about bringing on an apprentice considering their history.

Why bring this up? This is an interesting picture of the nature of evil. Goodness, faithfulness and righteousness, naturally leads to community. Evil and wickedness is not conducive to community. Of course there are many examples of wicked people in groups. But a group is not necessarily a community. When a group is marked by evil, their focus will be on selfishness, greed and jealousy. Community cannot grow in that environment.

The biblical picture of the church is a community of mutual support and love.  It is described as the Body of Christ. It is a community that rejoices together in good times and mourns together in hard times. The church’s community is one of our greatest apologetic resources. People of our world are familiar with the way of the Sith, but they long for true community. That community can only be found in Christ. Let us live in way that attracts others.

“Make [the faith] attractive, make good people wish it were true, and then show that it is.” – Blaise Pascal

It’s All About Jesus

I love this quote by John Stackhouse, taken from his fantastic book Humble Apologetics.  This rings true to me and it is the desire of my heart for my apologetics ministry.

“Since the heart of God’s revelation of himself is the figure of Jesus Christ, and since the heart of the Christian story of salvation is the career of Jesus Christ, Christian apologetics—like everything else in the Christian religion, from worship to mission, from prayer to almsgiving—rightly focuses on Jesus Christ.” (p. 189)