Theolatte
Nothing goes better with a steaming latte than an engaging discussion about theology and philosophy. Sit down with your favorite caffeinated beverage and peruse the thoughts of a pseudo-intellectual.
Theology, Worldviews & Philosophy
The Audacity of Doubt
April 2nd, 2010
Doubt is audacious.
It can taunt us at our most secure of moments. It challenges our most established convictions. It denies our eviction notices. It just won’t go away.
But is it really that bad?
Aren’t the beliefs you hold the dearest, the ones you have wrestled with the greatest? In this way, doubt is the necessary path to confidence and certainty.
I like what Francis Bacon has said, “If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts: but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”
More Than Bloomin’ Flowers
March 29th, 2010
There is something very springesque about Easter. Actually, I think it is the other way around – there is something very Easteresque about spring.
Every April we are reminded of new life. The flowers bloom, the birds sing, and a perennial truth penetrates the post-winter air. Our spring traditions have had real meaning for over 2,000 years now. Because of the historical resurrection of the Christ we can truly experience new life.
I’m thinking of starting a marketing campaign, “Spring: It’s more than blooming flowers.” Warmer weather actually seems to decrease suicide rates. Unfortunately, we know winter will come again.
The reality is: our sense of hope, joy and peace cannot be satisfied with the mere changing of the seasons. We need a change of heart that only a resurrected corpse who claimed to be God can offer.
Jesus is risen. Hallelujah.
Everything Matters: A Post-Nihilistic Perspective of Easter
March 28th, 2010
Nihilism says that nothing matters. Easter says that everything matters.
Nihilism is a philosophy based on atheism, which simply states that without the existence of a god there can be no objective basis for morality or purpose.
If nihilism is true, we should eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die; Dust to dust, and all that jazz. This reminds me of the dark lyrics of the Metallica song Nothing Else Matters:
So close, no matter how far
Couldn’t be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters
I never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don’t just say
And nothing else matters
If God doesn’t exist then Metallica is right, and the best we can do is live for ourselves, “Forever trusting who we are…and nothing else matters.”
But if God does exist things are profoundly different. If there really is something to Easter – a real event in human history – then everything matters.
Looking back at Easter we find purpose, significance, hope, and meaning for all who believe in Christ.
We have purpose and hope because of a historical event of a man named Jesus raising from the dead and proving his audacious claims of being able to forgive sins and offer Heaven.
Christian must not say, Jesus is risen and nothing else matters – but rather – Jesus is risen now everything matters.
Where Else Would We Go?
March 18th, 2010
Every person operates on a level of faith.
You might respond, “No, I only believe things that are scientifically verifiable.”
My response would simply be to ask where you earned a PhD in science, cosmology, physiology, biology, et cetera. What journals can you site that list you as a credible scientist? I’m not trying to be condescending. I don’t have a single degree in science, let alone an advanced one. I’m trying to make the point that you are placing your faith in others’ speculating, hypothesizing and interpreting the world around them.
It seems many today are very comfortable rejecting the words of Christ because they consider them “faith based” and then placing their faith in scientific postulations they really don’t understand. To be honest, they are placing their faith in whatever particular scientist they are referencing.
Without the proper education and expertise it isn’t possible for them to truly evaluate and assess highly complex scientific theories that are steeped in philosophical assumptions. This is a problem in our day, because atheism is enjoying a season of vogue. It is trendy to reject an orthodox understanding of life, reality and ultimately God. It seems that something else is at play here.
From my experience, I think James Spiegel makes a great case in his book The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief.
In his book he asserts:
“In light of the biblical account of atheism – and its philosophical and psychological reinforcements – believers should not be intimidated by the new atheism. Nor should the church be deceived by the notion that atheism is primarily an intellectual movement. It is little more than moral rebellion cloaked in academic regalia…In short, it is sin that is the mother of unbelief.”
Spiegel suggests that many people are drawn to atheism, not because of evidence, but because it is more compatible with their desired lifestyles. He goes on to quote Thomas Nagel, the atheist philospher:
“I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God, and, naturally, hope that I’m right about my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”
In a day when people are drawn away by so many scientific speculations and philosophical postulations, I’m reminded of the words spoken by Peter:
So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”
Christopher Hitchens is Right: Jesus is as Scary as Hell
March 17th, 2010
Put away your childhood images of a pale-skin, weak-wrist Jesus. He is as scary as Hell.
Christopher Hitchens seems to get this. He seems to be appropriately appalled at the New Testament. This is clear just in the titles of chapters seven and eight in his book God is Not Great:
Chapter 7: Revelation – the Nightmare of the Old Testament
Chapter 8: The New Testament Exceeds the Evil of the Old One
Those who take the Bible seriously can find common ground with Christopher Hitchens (at least on this one point). The idea that there is a grumpy and mean God of the Old Testament as compared to a loving and mild God in the New Testament is ridiculous. The liberal notion of demonizing the God of the Old Testament and feminizing the God of the New Testament is false.
Jesus is as scary as Hell. While Hitchens puts his poor biblical scholarship on display by saying that Jesus invented Hell, he at least recognized that the Jesus of the Bible was not a laissez-fair peace keeper.
Jesus did not water down truth nor present a harmless picture of God. Instead, he insisted:
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell….Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:28,32-34)
The Apostle Paul provides a powerful summary of Jesus’ role in the future of humanity:
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)
There are things more terrible than physical death.
Jesus told his followers not to fear men because they could only inflict mortal wounds.
He said we should fear the one who can kill both body and soul in Hell.
The Apostle Paul emphasized that one day every person will acknowledge this truth:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)
One day God will judge the world through Jesus. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, “Jesus is Lord.”
For those who have rejected Him, He will be as scary as Hell.
May our hearts be alive to the gospel, and may our lives be spent in earnest devotion of sharing the good news with the world.