Vengeance - some of what the Bible says about it

The Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 public domain edition, defines vengeance in this way: “Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or an offense; retribution; -- often, in a bad sense, passionate or unrestrained revenge.”

The Bible says quite a bit about vengeance. In summary, believers are not to take vengeance into their own hands, but to leave this to God. The Bible promises that God will punish unforgiven sin. Christ’s example, and Stephen’s, show us how we should take injury or offense to ourselves. (We might legitimately react differently if a helpless person, rather than we, ourselves, is injured or offended.)

Some Bible passages on vengeance: (From the World English Bible, public domain)

Leviticus 19:18 “‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

Isaiah 53:7a He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. . . . 11b My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

There are many Biblical prophecies of God’s coming vengeance for evil. Amos begins by listing several nations, their transgressions, and promising vengeance., Jonah, Nahum is almost entirely a prophecy of the punishment of Nineveh. Obadiah promises God’s vengeance up Edom. there are many more prophecies, such as Ezekiel 25:15-17, where God says He will take vengeance on the Philistines. In Revelation 20:7-18, the final judgment of God is described.

Matthew 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Quoting Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21)

Matthew 7:12 Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (The Golden Rule.)

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil. 36 “Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.

Jesus on the cross, about those who crucified Him: Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Acts 7:59 They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60a He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!”

Romans 12:19 Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.” (Quoting Deuteronomy 32:35 and Proverbs 25:21-2. Hebrews 10:30 also quotes Deuteronomy 32:35.)

Romans 13:3a For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the . 4 for he is a servant of God to you for good. 4b But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good for one another and for all.

Two stories of God taking vengeance: Jezebel: See 1 Kings 21, which tells part of the evil that Jezebel did. Her husband, Ahab, repented, somewhat, anyway. Jezebel never did. 2 Kings 9 tells the story of the death of Jezebel, which was prophesied at God’s direction, and was really arranged by God – the dogs ate her in the parking lot in front of the palace, but Jehu didn’t plan that.

And one from the New Testament: King Herod (one of them) was struck down by an angel of God, as told in Acts 12:2-23.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 557

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Stephen Burnett has some advice for those who are working on a film version of The Silver Chair, the great book by C. S. Lewis.
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Christianity: An article on the main reason that young people leave the church.

A Sojourners article urges us to "wage peace," and indicates how that should be done.

Ken Schenck considers, carefully, what the Bible says about suicide and end-of-life decisions. (It doesn't say much!)

Computing: (This is different from the item in last weeks Sunspots.) Gizmo's Freeware tells us how to get an instant, unique e-mail address.

Gizmo's also has an annotated list of the best free software for the Mac OS.

Wired reports on how to create an e-book, from something you've already written, or from a public domain work that isn't available in digital format.

Education: National Public Radio reports on research that indicates that "pretty girls make higher grades."

Health: The BBC reports that beards may help fight infection. Really.

Humor: (or something) The BBC, and other news outlets, report that a church shaped like a glass slipper has been built in Taiwan. Really.

Listverse is a site that puts up bizarre lists frequently -- example: "10 Ridiculous Political Parties You Won't Believe Got Elected."

Politics: FiveThirtyEight points out that politicians, and the rest of us, are not mentioning the US national deficit, or our debt, as much as we used to, and considers why that is so. (The deficit has dropped in recent years, but a deficit of even $1 adds to the national debt, which has increased, of course.)

Science: Wired reports on the bearded vulture, or lammergeier, a bird that eats almost nothing but bones.

Wired also reports on a study that finds that you have a lot more insects in your home than you thought you did.

And Wired, and many other sources, report on the possible discovery of another planet.

FiveThirtyEight reports that, again, the past year is the hottest ever recorded.

Sports: ESPN and other sources report that, for the first time, an NFL team has hired a female full-time assistant coach.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 556

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:



Christianity: Benjamin L. Corey on how to avoid attending a church that you don't disagree with, on important points.

Ken Schenck on killing someone in self-defense. (Or not.)

Computing: Putting jigsaw puzzles together may be good for your brain. Gizmo's Freeware mentions some sources, for Windows, iOS and Android.

Gizmo's Freeware reports on "Just Delete Me," an on-line service that makes untangling yourself from various on-line service more easily.

Gizmo's also reports on a web site that gives you a new temporary e-mail address, for those web pages that you want something from, but can't get it without an e-mail address, and don't want to use one that you really use.

Education: National Public Radio reports that the use of "they," and related words, as singular pronouns, has become more acceptable.

The Environment: Wired reports on rooftop gardens.

Politics: The difference between being a Socialist and being a Democrat.

National Public Radio did a "reality check" on the President's State of the Union speech.

Sports: (and Women's Roles) Sports Illustrated, and other sources, report that Jessica Mendoza will become a full-time Major League Baseball broadcaster (not an on-the-field brief reporter) on "Sunday Night Baseball." She has already broadcast some games, as a replacement commentator.


Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 56

Unitarians (a sect never to be mentioned without a special respect for their distinguished intellectual dignity and high intellectual honour) are often reformers by the accident that throws so many small sects into such an attitude. But there is nothing in the least liberal or akin to reform in the substitution of pure monotheism for the Trinity. The complex God of the Athanasian Creed may be an enigma for the intellect; but He is far less likely to gather the mystery and cruelty of a Sultan than the lonely god of Omar or Mahomet. The god who is a mere awful unity is not only a king but an Eastern King. The heart of humanity, especially of European humanity, is certainly much more satisfied by the strange hints and symbols that gather round the Trinitarian idea, the image of a council at which mercy pleads as well as justice, the conception of a sort of liberty and variety existing even in the inmost chamber of the world. For Western religion has always felt keenly the idea “it is not well for man to be alone.” The social instinct asserted itself everywhere as when the Eastern idea of hermits was practically expelled by the Western idea of monks. So even asceticism became brotherly; and the Trappists were sociable even when they were silent. If this love of a living complexity be our test, it is certainly healthier to have the Trinitarian religion than the Unitarian. For to us Trinitarians (if I may say it with reverence)—to us God Himself is a society. It is indeed a fathomless mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and the dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world. For it is not well for God to be alone.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 555

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: (and health) A post on the BioLogos Forum considers the question of whether cancer is part of God's good creation.

Ken Schenck on what the Bible does, and doesn't say, about capital punishment.

Relevant has posted some pertinent quotes from Jim Elliot, a missionary who, at 28, was murdered by South American tribal people, 60 years ago. (That tribe later became mostly Christian, partly because Elliot's wife was a missionary to them.)

Education: (sort of) The History Blog reports that a skeleton unearthed in Scotland may be that of a 16th Century pirate.

National Public Radio reports that children learn better in school if they have more recess time than most schools give them.

Finance: National Public Radio discusses the lottery: The odds of winning, whether winning would make you happy, how much you'd get if you won, and a lot more interesting stuff.

Health: The New York Times reports on the financial reasons why hospital stay lengths are shrinking.

Philosophy: (and science) Physicists wonder about how real the "real" world really is, according to NPR. (I have taught college physics, and this conversation is about a century old, by the way.)

A post on Speculative Faith considers whether the droids of Star Wars are slaves or not.

Science: Time, and many other news organizations, report on the discovery of four new elements in the Periodic Table. Wired also reports, indicating that discovering even more elements will be even more difficult.

Wired has selected the volcanic (as in real volcanoes) event of the year 2015.

Wired also tells us about a wasp with an amazing ovipositor. (There are a couple of videos in this post.)

 
Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 55

I want to love my neighbour not because he is I, but precisely because he is not I. I want to adore the world, not as one likes a looking-glass, because it is one’s self, but as one loves a woman, because she is entirely different. If souls are separate love is possible. If souls are united love is obviously impossible. A man may be said loosely to love himself, but he can hardly fall in love with himself, or, if he does, it must be a monotonous courtship. If the world is full of real selves, they can be really unselfish selves. 

Love desires personality; therefore loves desires division. It is the instinct of Christianity to be glad that God has broken the universe into little pieces, because they are living pieces. 

The oriental deity is like a giant who should have lost his leg or hand and be always seeking to find it; but the Christian power is like some giant who in a strange generosity should cut off his right hand, so that it might of its own accord shake hands with him. We come back to the same tireless note touching the nature of Christianity; all modern philosophies are chains which connect and fetter; Christianity is a sword which separates and sets free. No other philosophy makes God actually rejoice in the separation of the universe into living souls. But according to orthodox Christianity this separation between God and man is sacred, because this is eternal. That a man may love God it is necessary that there should be not only a God to be loved, but a man to love him. All those vague theosophical minds for whom the universe is an immense melting-pot are exactly the minds which shrink instinctively from that earthquake saying of our Gospels, which declare that the Son of God came not with peace but with a sundering sword. The saying rings entirely true even considered as what it obviously is; the statement that any man who preaches real love is bound to beget hate. It is as true of democratic fraternity as a divine love; sham love ends in compromise and common philosophy; but real love has always ended in bloodshed. Yet there is another and yet more awful truth behind the obvious meaning of this utterance of our Lord. According to Himself the Son was a sword separating brother and brother that they should for an eon hate each other. But the Father also was a sword, which in the black beginning separated brother and brother, so that they should love each other at last.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 554

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:



Christianity: (And the Arts) A fine essay, in Christianity Today, about pop culture, especially Mad Men (which, I confess, I have never seen.)

Another essay in Christianity Today, on how and why it's so easy to ignore poverty in others.

Relevant tells us that the future looks good, and why it does.

Ken Schenck on the Christian's view of war.

Education: National Public Radio reports that some pediatricians are questioning our handling of Attention Deficit Disorder.

Health: (And Economics) The New York Times on why drug companies concentrate on treating cancer, rather than preventing it.

NPR on normal aging and forgetting, versus dementia.

NPR on the relationship between sleep disorders and Alzheimer's.

Politics: The New York Times on the probable effects of a flat tax (such as has been suggested by some Presidential candidates).


Image source (public domain)

How to treat strangers, foreigners and aliens

(This brief study is in response to the prophet Jonah, who did not want to go to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah, because he was afraid that they would, indeed, repent, and not be destroyed. The ESV, and perhaps other versions, use the word, "aliens." The World English Bible, which is quoted below, doesn't use this word.)

Foreigners, strangers and aliens
The Old Testament warns about keeping separate from the gods of other nations. But that’s not the whole story. The Israelites were also warned to treat non-Israelites well, and there were prophecies that God would be the God of all peoples:

Genesis 22:18 All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice. (God to Abraham. 26:4 is similar)

Leviticus 19:33 If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

Numbers 15:15 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner, a statute forever throughout your generations. As you are, so the foreigner shall be before Yahweh. 16 One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.

Jeremiah 22:3a Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. (See also Deuteronomy. 1:16)

Micah 4:2 Many nations will go and say,
“Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For the law will go out of Zion,
and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem;

Zephaniah 3:9 For then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that they may all call on Yahweh’s name, to serve him shoulder to shoulder.

Zechariah 2:1a Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you . . .

Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies.

Non-Israelite women were ancestors of important Israelites: Joseph’s wife, the daughter of an Egyptian pagan priest, (Genesis 41) was the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh, founders of two of the tribes; Rahab from Jericho was an ancestor of King David’s line; and so was Ruth, from Moab. There may have been more such.

Thanks for reading!

Added January 8, 2016: Two recent articles are pertinent: Relevant has posted "A Biblical Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis," which mentions a few Old Testament verses not given above, and Christianity Today published a "Christian Declaration on Caring for Refugees: An Evangelical Response," a policy document which was drafted by leaders from several denominations and agencies.

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 54

That Buddhism approves of mercy or of self-restraint is not to say that it is specially like Christianity; it is only to say that it is not utterly unlike all human existence. Buddhists disapprove in theory of cruelty or excess because all sane human beings disapprove in theory of cruelty or excess. But to say that Buddhism and Christianity give the same philosophy of these things is simply false. All humanity does agree that we are in a net of sin. Most of humanity agrees that there is some way out. But as to what is the way out, I do not think that there are two institutions in the universe which contradict each other so flatly as Buddhism and Christianity.
Even when I thought, with most other well-informed, though unscholarly, people, that Buddhism and Christianity were alike, there was one thing about them that always perplexed me; I mean the startling difference in their type of religious art. I do not mean in its technical style of representation, but in the things that it was manifestly meant to represent. No two ideals could be more opposite than a Christian saint in a Gothic cathedral and a Buddhist saint in a Chinese temple. The opposition exists at every point; but perhaps the shortest statement of it is that the Buddhist saint always has his eyes shut, while the Christian saint always has them very wide open. The Buddhist saint has a sleek and harmonious body, but his eyes are heavy and sealed with sleep. The medieval saint’s body is wasted to its crazy bones, but his eyes are frightfully alive. There cannot be any real community of spirit between forces that produced symbols so different as that. Granted that both images are extravagances, are perversions of the pure creed, it must be a real divergence which could produce such opposite extravagances. The Buddhist is looking with a peculiar intentness inwards. The Christian is staring with a frantic intentness outwards.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Christ and Creation

I have created a 20-slide PowerPoint 2013 presentation, "Christ and Creation," which attempts to set forth the essential scriptures concerning the relationship of Christ and Creation. It's mostly quoted public domain scripture.

The presentation is free for anyone to use, provided that they don't seek monetary compensation for it.

The presentation can be downloaded from this page.

Thanks for reading.

Please leave any suggestions or questions as a comment.

Sunspots 553

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:


Christianity: An article in Christianity Today argues that the Star of Bethlehem was a comet.

Recently, the President of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, jr., urged LU students to carry guns, and be prepared to use them, in case the campus were to be invaded by terrorists. John Piper has posted a detailed, scripture-based response, stating, basically, that that's the wrong attitude for a Christian.

Health: (If you are a fashion model, anyway.) National Public Radio reports that the fashion industry may be going to require that models not be walking skeletons -- really. There have been a few deaths among them, and the super-skinny models are probably inducing anorexia in girls.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight analyzes Republican support for Presidential candidates as correlated with the education of those Republicans, both so far for the 2016 race, and for the 2012 race. Romney was strongly supported by Republicans with college degrees.

The Difference Between differentiates between Marxism and Socialism.

FiveThirtyEight also analyzes, by state, preference for saying "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas."

NPR reports on the young Donald Trump, especially in military school.

Science: Christianity Today-related publication, Behemoth, on virgin births. (In animals, not in Bethlehem.)


Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 53

There is a phrase of facile liberality uttered again and again at ethical societies and parliaments of religion: “the religions of the earth differ in rites and forms, but they are the same in what they teach.” It is false; it is the opposite of the fact. The religions of the earth do not greatly differ in rites and forms; they do greatly differ in what they teach. It is as if a man were to say, “Do not be misled by the fact that the Church Times and the Freethinker look utterly different, that one is painted on vellum and the other carved on marble, that one is triangular and the other hectagonal; read them and you will see that they say the same thing.” The truth is, of course, that they are alike in everything except in the fact that they don’t say the same thing. An atheist stockbroker in Surbiton looks exactly like a Swedenborgian stockbroker in Wimbledon. You may walk round and round them and subject them to the most personal and offensive study without seeing anything Swedenborgian in the hat or anything particularly godless in the umbrella. It is exactly in their souls that they are divided. So the truth is that the difficulty of all the creeds of the earth is not as alleged in this cheap maxim: that they agree in meaning, but differ in machinery. It is exactly the opposite. They agree in machinery; almost every great religion on earth works with the same external methods, with priests, scriptures, altars, sworn brotherhoods, special feasts. They agree in the mode of teaching; what they differ about is the thing to be taught. Pagan optimists and Eastern pessimists would both have temples, just as Liberals and Tories would both have newspapers. Creeds that exist to destroy each other both have scriptures, just as armies that exist to destroy each other both have guns.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

2015 in Biology and Medicine, according to Wired

Wired has published a list of the most important developments in biology and medicine. Here it is. Some very interesting stuff.

Sunspots 552

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Some interesting research on church attendance during the Christmas season, from Christianity Today.

Education: Adjunct professors don't get paid much, and may have to teach at more than one institution, to get enough to live on, according to an NPR report.

From Global Citizen Foundation: "50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Know About."

Food: NPR reports on how the food industry has been manipulating us, and not for our good.

Health: An article about the most common receiving blanket (for newborn babies).

NPR reports that surgeons had a saxophonist playing his instrument during brain surgery, and why.

Politics: (and Christianity) Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post, on how un-evangelical Donald Trump is.

Science: Wired reports that you have tiny mites on your face. So do I. Scientists can trace the connections between racial groups by studying these mites.

Sports:

Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 52

Of the fact and evidence of the supernatural I will speak afterwards. Here we are only concerned with this clear point; that in so far as the liberal idea of freedom can be said to be on either side in the discussion about miracles, it is obviously on the side of miracles. Reform or (in the only tolerable sense) progress means simply the gradual control of matter by mind. A miracle simply means the swift control of matter by mind. If you wish to feed the people, you may think that feeding them miraculously in the wilderness is impossible—but you cannot think it illiberal. If you really want poor children to go to the seaside, you cannot think it illiberal that they should go there on flying dragons; you can only think it unlikely. A holiday, like Liberalism, only means the liberty of man. A miracle only means the liberty of God. You may conscientiously deny either of them, but you cannot call your denial a triumph of the liberal idea. The Catholic Church believed that man and God both had a sort of spiritual freedom. Calvinism took away the freedom from man, but left it to God. Scientific materialism binds the Creator Himself; it chains up God as the Apocalypse chained the devil. It leaves nothing free in the universe. And those who assist this process are called the “liberal theologians.”
 
This, as I say, is the lightest and most evident case. The assumption that there is something in the doubt of miracles akin to liberality or reform is literally the opposite of the truth. If a man cannot believe in miracles there is an end of the matter; he is not particularly liberal, but he is perfectly honourable and logical, which are much better things. But if he can believe in miracles, he is certainly the more liberal for doing so; because they mean first, the freedom of the soul, and secondly, its control over the tyranny of circumstance. Sometimes this truth is ignored in a singularly naïve way, even by the ablest men. For instance, Mr. Bernard Shaw speaks with hearty old-fashioned contempt for the idea of miracles, as if they were a sort of breach of faith on the part of nature: he seems strangely unconscious that miracles are only the final flowers of his own favourite tree, the doctrine of the omnipotence of will. Just in the same way he calls the desire for immortality a paltry selfishness, forgetting that he has just called the desire for life a healthy and heroic selfishness. How can it be noble to wish to make one’s life infinite and yet mean to wish to make it immortal? No, if it is desirable that man should triumph over the cruelty of nature or custom, then miracles are certainly desirable; we will discuss afterwards whether they are possible.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 551

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:


Christianity: Christianity Today reports on the most popular Bible verses, based on on-line access to them. Popularity varies by the user's country.

Computing: How to look at the other person's screen when they call you with a Windows computer problem.

Education: (And politics) FiveThirtyEight has studied the effect of affirmative action in college admission -- without it, minorities are still not as likely to be admitted.

Politics: Most Americans aren't middle-class anymore.

Science: Wired reports on a lacewing fly with an amazing signal that attracts females.

Wired also reports on what happens if you get shot -- and it's not a lot like the way TV and movies portray it.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight analyzes Stephen Curry's long basketball shots, and finds that, so far this season, his accuracy is unprecedented.

Breanna Stewart, of the University of Connecticut Huskies, has become the only player in women's college basketball history to have both more than 300 career blocked shots and 300 career assists. She is also the only women's player (and, I think, the only player of either sex) to have been named most valuable player of the NCAA Final Four for three years. And she has most of this season yet to play, God willing!


Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 51

In the few following pages I propose to point out as rapidly as possible that on every single one of the matters most strongly insisted on by liberalisers of theology their effect upon social practice would be definitely illiberal. Almost every contemporary proposal to bring freedom into the church is simply a proposal to bring tyranny into the world. For freeing the church now does not even mean freeing it in all directions. It means freeing that peculiar set of dogmas loosely called scientific, dogmas of monism, of pantheism, or of Arianism, or of necessity. And every one of these (and we will take them one by one) can be shown to be the natural ally of oppression. In fact, it is a remarkable circumstance (indeed not so very remarkable when one comes to think of it) that most things are the allies of oppression. There is only one thing that can never go past a certain point in its alliance with oppression—and that is orthodoxy. I may, it is true, twist orthodoxy so as partly to justify a tyrant. But I can easily make up a German philosophy to justify him entirely.
For some extraordinary reason, there is a fixed notion that it is more liberal to disbelieve in miracles than to believe in them. Why, I cannot imagine, nor can anybody tell me. For some inconceivable cause a “broad” or “liberal” clergyman always means a man who wishes at least to diminish the number of miracles; it never means a man who wishes to increase that number. It always means a man who is free to disbelieve that Christ came out of His grave; it never means a man who is free to believe that his own aunt came out of her grave. It is common to find trouble in a parish because the parish priest cannot admit that St. Peter walked on water; yet how rarely do we find trouble in a parish because the clergyman says that his father walked on the Serpentine? And this is not because (as the swift secularist debater would immediately retort) miracles cannot be believed in our experience. It is not because “miracles do not happen,” as in the dogma which Matthew Arnold recited with simple faith. More supernatural things are alleged to have happened in our time than would have been possible eighty years ago. Men of science believe in such marvels much more than they did: the most perplexing, and even horrible, prodigies of mind and spirit are always being unveiled in modern psychology. Things that the old science at least would frankly have rejected as miracles are hourly being asserted by the new science. The only thing which is still old-fashioned enough to reject miracles is the New Theology. But in truth this notion that it is “free” to deny miracles has nothing to do with the evidence for or against them. It is a lifeless verbal prejudice of which the original life and beginning was not in the freedom of thought, but simply in the dogma of materialism.

The man of the nineteenth century did not disbelieve in the Resurrection because his liberal Christianity allowed him to doubt it. He disbelieved in it because his very strict materialism did not allow him to believe it. Tennyson, a very typical nineteenth-century man, uttered one of the instinctive truisms of his contemporaries when he said that there was faith in their honest doubt. There was indeed. Those words have a profound and even a horrible truth. In their doubt of miracles there was a faith in a fixed and godless fate; a deep and sincere faith in the incurable routine of the cosmos. The doubts of the agnostic were only the dogmas of the monist.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Justice as a topic in the Bible

How does the Bible use the word, “justice”? Below is the result of a search. I used the ESV for the search, but the scripture quotations below are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. A search of the entire Bible returned 136 occurrences, with only a few in the New Testament. These are below:

Matthew 12:18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen;
my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased:
I will put my Spirit on him.
He will proclaim justice to the nations.

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. (Repeated in Luke 11:42.)

Luke 18:1 He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up, 2 saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man. 3  A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ 4  He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, 5  yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’ ”
6 The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. 7  Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? [The ESV uses the word, justice, four times in this passage.]

Acts 8:33 In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
Who will declare His generation?
For his life is taken from the earth.” [The ESV uses “justice,” rather than “judgment.” This is a quotation from Isaiah 53.]

Hebrews 11:33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [The ESV uses “enforced justice,” rather than “worked out righteousness.”]

The Old Testament uses justice many times, mostly in warnings against the rich and powerful, for exploiting the poor and powerless.

In Amos: 5:11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor,
and take taxes from him of wheat:
You have built houses of cut stone,
but you will not dwell in them.
You have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
12 For I know how many your offenses,
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the just,
who take a bribe,
and who turn away the needy in the courts.

Amos 5:24 But let justice roll on like rivers,
and righteousness like a mighty stream. [This was quoted by Martin Luther King, jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech.]

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good.
What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Do Justice!

"Poor" in the New Testament

What does the New Testament have to say about the poor? Below is the result of a search. I used the ESV for the search, but the scripture quotations below are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.

Matthew 11:4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5  the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. (Repeated, Luke 7:22)

Mark 10: 17 As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. 19  You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not give false testimony,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’ ”
20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have observed all these things from my youth.”
21 Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.” (Repeated, Luke 18:22)

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to proclaim release to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (This was a quotation from Isaiah 61, which Jesus read as part of an address to the synagogue in Nazareth.)

Luke 19:8 Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”

John 13:29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus said to him, “Buy what things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. [Apparently such donations had been made, in the past, from the money box.]

Romans 15:26 For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion. for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor.
His righteousness remains forever.”

Galatians 2:9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

Thanks for reading!

Why isn't God's existence obvious to everyone?

If God is so all-powerful, why can't we prove that he exists?
 
I believe that God exists, that He brought the universe into being, that God the Son redeemed us through his death, and was resurrected as a token of God's power, that God the Son sustains the created universe at present, and that God the Holy Spirit guides believers now. I also believe that the claims in the previous sentence cannot be unquestionably proved, mathematically, scientifically, or logically. As the scripture quoted in the graphic at the top of this post puts it, "By faith we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what was seen has not been made out of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:3)

The author of Hebrews does not explicitly say that we can't unequivocally prove the existence of God to doubters, but it implies that, and common experience indicates strongly that we cannot prove God's existence irrefutably to a doubter.

Why is this so? Why does God hide himself? One classic answer is that, in this way, God allows for choice to believe as part of the free will of human beings. If God's existence were that obvious, everyone would be a believer.

Recently, Jim Stump, of the BioLogos Forum has posted on this question. I'll let you read his post, but will say that Stump believes that God has arranged things so that He is hidden for another reason, which Stump spells out. (Stump's post is partly based on a book by John Mullen, and Stump also refers to his own previous posts on the subject at hand.)

See also my post on Hebrews 11:3, Read Stump. Thanks for reading this.

Sunspots 550

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: (and politics) Ken Schenck has a fine post (and it's not long) on "God calls us to respect our governments," based on what the Bible says about that topic.

Relevant has a thought-provoking post on the question of whether there really is a "War on Christmas," and, in the process, looks hard at how our culture handles Christmas. Not well.

Computing: A short introduction to how to use Twitter.

Education: The difference between "have" and "have been."

The Environment: Wired reports that quite a few climate scientists have come to realize that the scientific findings don't matter. It's the money.

Politics: Leonard Pitts, jr., on the recent activity of Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and those who are enthused by this activity: "Keeping the customer satisfied, giving the people what they want, is the fundament of sound business. More effectively than anyone in recent memory, Trump has transferred that principle to politics. Problem is, it turns out that what a large portion of the Republican faithful wants is racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, the validation of unrealistic fears and the promise of quick fixes to complex problems."

Jerry Falwell, jr., recently urged the students at Liberty University to carry concealed weapons, and be prepared to use them on terrorists. Relevant analyzes what he said, and the reaction from the students, and says: the point that ought to concern all Christians is the joyous tone being struck here. Falwell speaks for the largest Christian university in the United States, and publicly calls for death to thunderous applause. Even if we allow for the distinctly unlikely possibility that Falwell or one of his students would ever have the opportunity to shoot and kill radicalized Islamic terrorists, ought the response really be one of—there's really no other way to put it—celebration? Shouldn't our reaction to violence elicit a slightly different response than a Monday night touchdown? Indeed.

Science: FiveThirty-Eight discusses the Paris Climate talks.


Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 50

It is customary to complain of the bustle and strenuousness of our epoch. But in truth the chief mark of our epoch is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent bustle. Take one quite external case; the streets are noisy with taxicabs and motorcars; but this is not due to human activity but to human repose. There would be less bustle if there were more activity, if people were simply walking about. Our world would be more silent if it were more strenuous. And this which is true of the apparent physical bustle is true also of the apparent bustle of the intellect. Most of the machinery of modern language is labour-saving machinery; and it saves mental labour very much more than it ought. Scientific phrases are used like scientific wheels and piston-rods to make swifter and smoother yet the path of the comfortable. Long words go rattling by us like long railway trains. We know they are carrying thousands who are too tired or too indolent to walk and think for themselves. It is a good exercise to try for once in a way to express any opinion one holds in words of one syllable. If you say “The social utility of the indeterminate sentence is recognized by all criminologists as a part of our sociological evolution towards a more humane and scientific view of punishment,” you can go on talking like that for hours with hardly a movement of the gray matter inside your skull. But if you begin “I wish Jones to go to gaol and Brown to say when Jones shall come out,” you will discover, with a thrill of horror, that you are obliged to think. The long words are not the hard words, it is the short words that are hard. There is much more metaphysical subtlety in the word “damn” than in the word “degeneration.”

But these long comfortable words that save modern people the toil of reasoning have one particular aspect in which they are especially ruinous and confusing. This difficulty occurs when the same long word is used in different connections to mean quite different things. Thus, to take a well-known instance, the word “idealist” has one meaning as a piece of philosophy and quite another as a piece of moral rhetoric. In the same way the scientific materialists have had just reason to complain of people mixing up “materialist” as a term of cosmology with “materialist” as a moral taunt.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Following Christ's Commandments - evidence of our redemption

A person who is truly a believer follows Christ’s commandments.

John 14:21 One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”

23 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. 24 He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. (Quotations, in red, are from the World English Bible, public domain.)
John 15:14  You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

1 John 1:3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. 4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. 5 But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him: 6 he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.

Matthew 7:24 “Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. 25 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
What are Christ’s commandments? Many of them are found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Some of the commands in that Sermon are to keep our motives pure – don’t even want to commit adultery or murder; be reconciled to others, and forgive them; turn the other cheek; love even your enemies; don’t draw attention to your good deeds; don’t be anxious about worldly possessions; judge yourselves before judging others; beware of false prophets.

Christ also told us to live the summary of the Old Testament Law:
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
In Mark 12:14-19, Jesus commanded His listeners to honor the government, including paying taxes. We should remember that this was an occupying government, and its head was a Roman pagan emperor.
There are other commands, but one more is found in the last words of Matthew’s gospel: Matthew 28:19 Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

This post is modified slightly from an earlier post on "Evidence for Being a Christian." Keeping Christ's commandments is one such evidence. Thanks for reading. Keep Christ's commandments!

Sunspots 549

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

 
Christianity: (and politics) Benjamin L. Corey tells us that the Governor of Texas has ordered Christian ministries to cease giving aid to any Syrian refugees. (Other news outlets, including CBS News, on December 1, 2015, have dealt with this.)

Christianity Today lists, and explains, five errors pastors might make (some have) regarding social media.

Computing: Wired reports that the Wikipedia is incorporating some artificial intelligence into the editing process.

Finance: National Public Radio considers whether pennies make sense any more. (Groan . . . I didn't put this in humor, in spite of that pun -- which is NPR's -- because the post is about finance, not fun.)

Health: NPR reports that your relationships with your adult siblings may have an important influence on your well-being.

Humor: (and other items not easy to classify) The Difference between a pamphlet and a brochure.

Science: (Math, in this case) Christianity Today's Behemoth considers why fractals are so beautiful, and muses a little about a God who sometimes creates using fractal geometry.

Sports:


Image source (public domain)

Atheism doesn't have all the answers, and it can be a religion, say some prominent atheists

Michael Ruse is a prominent philosopher. His academic career has included a lot thinking about the relationship between Christianity and science. He has written a lot about the connection between Darwinism and ethics. In a recent article, he describes himself as "an atheist Darwinian evolutionist ..."

The article is about what Ruse sees as excesses by some other prominent atheists, and he names some of them: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, Edward O. Wilson. Actually, he calls these people, and they would probably agree, Humanists. These Humanists, and others, Ruse says, are too enthusiastic. In other words, they are actively trying to convert others to their views, and ignoring weaknesses of their position. At least some of these four, and others, are advocating a sort of religion based on science.

Ruse points out some serious weaknesses. For one thing, he says ". . . there is no simple line from evolutionary biology to the ethical life, and there is no guarantee that an alternative secular religion will lead us there." I agree. Ethics has to be based on something, and Darwinism doesn't provide such a foundation, whatever the scientific merits of Darwinism.

Another serious weakness is that science has limitations. Ruse says that science can't answer the question "Why is there something rather than nothing?" or "Does life have a purpose." Indeed. The Humanists claim that those questions can be answered by science, or that they aren't important, which is ridiculous.

Ruse makes a powerful case, and it's more powerful because of his prominence, and his own atheism.

For more about Dawkins, see here and here.

*  *  *  *  *

In another article, Gary Gutting, writing in Salon, claims that Richard Dawkins has departed from ideas with firm foundations. The question Gutting considers is the question of whether God exists. Dawkins does not, I believe, claim to have disproved God's existence beyond all doubt, but he clearly believes that he has made some strong arguments against His existence. Gutting, a philosopher who apparently believes in God, himself says that "I myself think that there’s no argument that decisively establishes that God exists." But that's by no means the same as proving that He doesn't.

(Gutting is apparently a solidly competent philosopher, but he's not much of a biologist -- he seems to think that tortoises are amphibians . . .) 

Gutting concludes that there is a serious case to be made for theism. Therefore, either Dawkins doesn't understand that, or he does, and has chosen to pretend that there is no such serious case.

I conclude by quoting Hebrews 11:3 "By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible." (World English Bible, public domain) My own belief is that Gutting is correct -- there is no decisive argument for the existence of a creator God. But I can logically and legitimately believe that He does exist, and so can you, even if Dawkins doesn't.

See also here.

I thank Jim Stump, of BioLogos, for pointing me, and other readers, to these articles.