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Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable

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Currently, here in the US, there has been a great deal of buzz over social media and the News media regarding the Bundy Ranch in Nevada. This post is not about the politics, conspiracies, nor the alleged federal police brutality. I’m only interested in the Biblical perspective. I believe the Bundy family is Mormon, so this isn’t for them so much as it is for my fellow Christians who engage in politics, particularly the “conservatives”.

Our text for this post comes from 1 Peter 2:

1 Peter 2:11-25 (ESV)
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. 18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to Him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

This is tough teaching. Remember the time frame in which this letter was written. These men suffered persecution unto death. Peter most likely died under the persecution of Nero (ref: The Deaths of the 12 Apostles). With that understanding, notice Peter’s specific instruction to Honor the emperor. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Great Commission do not require the support of any nation of men. For we are the Temple of God the Holy Spirit, and in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:22-31).

My heart goes out to this rancher for the loss of his livelihood (his cattle) and the apparent end of an era of ancestral claims to the land. However, notice verse 20, “for what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure“… he hasn’t paid federal gracing fees for over 30 years. The time to fight an unjust law is when the unjust law is in effect, not simply when the due punishment for ignoring the unjust law is at your doorstep. If you wait until your punishment, then the virtue of fighting the unjust law has lost its credibility, for you are now only fighting to justify your own action (or inaction). My heart breaks at the waning of a once-great nation of freedom. There is only one Nation of God, and that is the Kingdom of Heaven, of which we who have been grafted in by the Blood of Jesus Christ are a part. It is tempting to elevate the US to status of a “Christian nation”, though it was never truly a Nation under God. It was a well-established nation, founded on good principles of freedom and limited government, and its Constitution was clearly a masterfully written document. Were it a Christian Nation, its laws would have been drafted to honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is not to say it was built an evil nation, or to argue that it wasn’t established to be a free nation. Many of the founding fathers were Deists and Humanists whose desire was to create a system where all religions were protected and no religion would be “established” by Law. That is not a bad thing as far as a government, but let us not confuse it with a Biblical thing. The Bible does not leave room for any other gospel, for Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, obey the Word of God. Wherever possible and where ever practicable, participate in local politics wisely, but do not confuse the politics of a lost world with the role of the Church. They are completely separate. The world HATES Jesus, and it will hate us because of Him. In closing, I’d like to share a reminder of what Jesus said to His disciples regarding persecution when He sent them out:

Matthew 10:16-23 (ESV)16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

I pray that you will continue to grow in the Word and walk in the Spirit of God. Pray for our leaders, pray for boldness, and pray for peace; however, know that persecution will come and that we serve an Just and Loving God who will carry us through to the end.

In Him,
Jorge

 

Where did the week go?

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Philippians 1:2-11 (ESV)2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace,[d] both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Though this page is still small in its readership, I think and pray often for each of you who takes the time to read this blog. Thank you, for joining me in reading and studying the Word of God throughout your week. This week has been fairly inactive here at Faithful Stewardship, so I wanted to take some time to acknowledge that fact and provide a little background. I am currently taking some college courses, one of which is the History of Philosophy and this week I have a rather hefty exam.

That is not to say that I am not concurrently working on Bible Studies to share here. I am extremely excited about the next two subjects.

  1. We will be taking a close look at the sin of the Pharisees. Regrettably, a popular theme in modern-day Christianity has been to silence those practicing Biblical discernment and are actually doing the work of pointing out poor hermeneutics and false teaching, by accusing them of being Pharisaical. While that is an Ad Hominem attack, it’s not enough to point out the fallacy of argument (argument from fallacy, fallacy). Besides, there could be a spec of truth to it, so we need to do the work of first rightly understanding the sin of the Pharisee, so that we can see what the proper accusation of Pharisaical error should be.
  2. We will be taking a close look at the early Gospel confessions of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of God”. I find that for years I have skimmed over this one monumentally significant point in the Gospel, that the children of Israel (and even the Samaritans) were indeed looking for “the Christ, the Son of God”. I think a big part of this oversight is that we, Christians, approach the study of Scriptures already knowing Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of God”, because we have the New Testament (and most of us are told to read the New Testament first. I even advise it myself!). However, at the time that Jesus walked the earth in the flesh, there was no New Testament; therefore, the significance of each confession of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of God” is monumental. So I want to pour through the Old Testament Prophets to look at what it was these followers of God were looking for in the Christ, the Son of God. As it stands now, this will probably be a 2 part series at a minimum, because once we’ve developed a picture of what these people were looking for in the Christ, the Son of God… we’ll need to examine what it means when Jesus warned of false christs in the end time. I don’t think He was limiting His warning to just those who claim to be Jesus… there is more to it than that. I’m extremely excited for this series.

If I might be so bold, I’d like to ask for your prayers. We are currently in the process of building a home, finding a new Church, and seeking new opportunities for work and ministry. Additionally, I’m trying to complete my college degree (somewhat begrudgingly), and I need grace in that endeavor as well. I thank you for your time and your prayers. May the Lord bless and keep you always.

In Him,
Jorge

Plagiarism and the Pulpit

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CTTRecently in the news and across the Christian blogosphere, we’ve seen a great deal of fallout regarding Mark Driscoll and his publishing scandals (plagiarism and manipulation of the NY Best Sellers list). That’s easy to discern since the books were sold for profit and the integrity issues are plain as day. But what about plagiarism from the pulpit? Is it only a problem if done without permission from the original author? If a preacher has gone to great lengths to build a sermon series but then offers it as free material to be used in any way imaginable by anyone… does that absolve others of any wrong doing for using that material without acknowledging that the work was not their own? If you are an artist, you probably say, “yes, everyone is free and clear to use images that have been made public domain by its author without requiring citation”. But is that the standard?

Paul exhorted Timothy many times in his letters to preach the Word of God. Titus, too, was warned to preach sound doctrine. Paul told Timothy that all Scripture is God-Breathed (2 Tim 3:10-17) and Peter pointed out that no prophetic word of Scripture comes from man’s own interpretation (2 Peter 1:16-21). One of the major promises Jesus made to the Apostles regarding the Holy Spirit was that He would remind them of all Jesus had told them. His Word. That is why the Apostles point to the Scriptures and instruct so strongly against false teaching. The Written Word of God is sufficient for all things in this life and the life that is to come for those who believe in Jesus Christ.

Throughout school, we are warned, scrutinized, and punished for plagiarism. The tagline for Plagiarism in school usually takes the form of “plagiarism = stealing“. But what about the cases where the plagiarism isn’t stealing? Does that absolve the wrong of plagiarism? No. Because the rebuke of plagiarism in school isn’t only based on the idea of theft, but on falsely representing one’s own understanding of the material being presented. Why is that a problem in school? Because the very purpose of attending school (in the classical sense, not this new age progressive sense) is to demonstrate a working knowledge of academic material. Therefore, plagiarism isn’t only stealing, it’s also cheating. You are hoping to gain credit for someone else’s work by presenting it as your own. Proper citation demonstrates both the level of research taken and the integrity to distinguish your own work from the work done by others.

Plagiarism in the professional world (outside of academia) generally revolves around the concept of stolen property. Again, that is an easy one to spot. How about in the area of Christian Ministry? Rather than jump straight to plagiarism, lets first take a look at the role of citation of sources in Christian Ministry. What if an individual at the pulpit taught a sermon about how to pray without citing a single verse of scripture, or specifying which God to whom we should pray? Is the problem that he might have stolen the material? No. The problem here is that he’s speaking on his own authority and we have no means of testing the spirit behind his teaching, and we can’t even be sure if what he teaches is sound doctrine, because he has not properly cited the Word of God. In academia, the “cheating” element of plagiarism seeks to take credit for the work of another; however, when it comes to teaching/preaching, a lack of proper citation is often used to present the speakers ideas as though they were coming from God. When we preach the Word of God, we cite the Word of God because of the Authority of Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16) and to make it clear that we are not speaking on our own authority. Therefore, the role of teacher/preacher has a higher standard than a student in English Literature 101. Because the preacher isn’t supposed to preaching the myths or schemes of men, but the Word of God. The preacher must properly, contextually, dutifully, humbly cite the Word of God in an authoritative fashion for the building/edification of the Body of Christ. He must make clear when he’s sharing his interpretation, his understanding of the scriptures, so that the faithful Berean listener might search out the Scriptures for themselves to see what holds True to Sound Doctrine.

Preaching another man’s sermon from the pulpit, without citation is not a problem of stealing intellectual property. Doing so “with permission” doesn’t solve the problem of presenting as your own understanding what you did not extract from Scriptures. Furthermore, within today’s emergent, evangelical circles, pastors claim to be speaking divinely inspired messages that are custom-tailored to the needs of their congregation, and as such moved more to quoting portions of scripture rather than teaching passages of Scripture. This trend when combined with the trend of preaching pre-built sermons creates another integrity problem. If a sermon being preached to a small church in West Virginia is in-fact taken wholesale from a Beverly Hills, CA Mega-church… properly citing that sermon runs the risk of offending those who are under the impression that their pastor is teaching what God has for their church; however, NOT citing the Mega-Church sermon runs the risk of presenting someone else’s research, outline, anecdotes, application, promises, assurances, and errors as their own.

That last comment, is in-fact my biggest concern regarding pulpit plagiarism. A pastor/overseer/elder/deacon is worthy of a double portion provided he remains firmly rooted and grounded in sound doctrine, in the Word of God. The danger of this position is when he allows himself to drift from the Word of God and chase after myths, genealogies, and doctrines of demons, dishonest gain… because he does so not only at his own peril, but he risks being held accountable for all that he causes to stumble or leads astray. If the person preaching the sermon of another verbatim doesn’t catch the false doctrine or false teaching of his source material, then he is equally guilty of false teaching. Saying, “but I just preached what so-and-so preached” will not spare anyone. So then, it is clear to me that being absolved of theft (by an author making the sermon freely usable) does not fully remedy the problem, nor does properly citing the author but copying wholesale. Proper citation is the first step to solving the problem, but ultimately the problem stems from preaching other sermons as opposed to preaching the Word of God. The role of pastor/preacher/teacher isn’t just to give a good lecture, it is to preach the Word of God and that which accords with sound Doctrine.

2 Timothy 4:1-4 (ESV) 1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

The Gospel Coalition was looking at this issue back in 2010. Take a moment to read the initial post presented as a question to the coalition, and the responses from pastors in the coalition at the bottom (hyperlinks).

In closing, as some of the pastors in the TGC responses mentioned, there are varying degrees of error here. When a pastor follows a script and incorporates even the jokes and anecdotal stories… there is a clear problem. How does one properly cite a sermon that is quoted verbatim without saying, “today I will be preaching so-and-so’s sermon with little deviation”? I’m sure that would be okay once in a while… but if it happened often people might start wondering why they attend and give money to this church if they can stay home and watch the original sermons on WebTV. Is copying graphics, series titles, and general outline problematic? All I can say is that it could be, so pray about it. I leave you with one thought. If “borrowing” such material as a starting point is such a minor point… then why not take the extra couple of hours to start from scratch? We don’t want people coming for our graphic design skills, we want them coming to hear the Word of God.

If you discover that your pastor is regularly preaching material pulled from another pastor and doesn’t cite the source, I recommend talking to him about it privately. If there are errors in scripture or doctrine that isn’t sound, it definitely needs to be addressed in a meeting. However, if the pastor refuses to acknowledge this as a problem then pray for him and consider taking the matter to the elders. The responsibility and authority to teach sound doctrine rests with the elders, not with the congregants. If you approach them in love with a valid concern and are ignored, I recommend shaking off the dust and finding a church whose leadership takes their responsibilities to teaching the Word of God more seriously.  Those who notice you’ve gone and care will ask questions, answer truthfully. As the body of Christ, our unity must be based on the Word of God, not the branding of a church organization. I think that in most cases, a simple citation of borrowed material is all that is needed to both alert the congregation and elders of the source material and to encourage the preacher to search the scriptures himself, otherwise he’ll be citing entire sermons.

May the Lord Bless you and keep you,
In Him,
Jorge

When Artistic License is Unacceptable

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On February 28th, 2014, the movie “Son of God” opened in theaters.  The film is simply a repackaging of the History Channel’s “The Bible” series. The promos for the movie demonstrate a complete disregard for the Biblical account of the events that took place. It is one thing to try to script moments in between Biblical accounts, but to completely retell events that are recorded in Scripture in an attempt to portray a different version of Jesus is reprehensible. One of the more popular scenes used for promos is the calling of Simon (whom Jesus renamed Peter according to John 1:42). I will not be watching the film. I questioned the authenticity of the film based on some of the individuals promoting it. However, lets just look at the promo I saw of Jesus calling Peter:

Yikes. For now, lets just ignore Max Lucado’s exegesis (from the film, NOT the Scripture) and focus on the film clips. By including the fishing event, I assume the film is at least inclined toward the Luke account. Let us look at what is recorded in Luke 5:

Luke 5:1-11 (ESV) 5 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Not a lot of text here, yet the movie manages to ignore and change every line. Jesus was teaching when he came to the boat. The crowd was pressing in on Him, so He asked Simon to put out a little so He could continue teaching. No, Jesus did not wade out into the water to compel Simon to let him into the boat (something Max exegeted from the film that isn’t in scripture). They knew Jesus was a teacher, because they heard him teaching and knew the crowd was there. Jesus gives Simon the name Peter. When Jesus told him to go into deep water, Peter did let Jesus know that they had fished all night with no results, but he obeyed. The bit that gets me the most is the clip they like to throw in at the end of most of their promos, where Peter asks Jesus “what are we gonna do?” and Jesus responds, “change the world”.  It may seem like a subtle thing, but Jesus didn’t come to merely change the world. He came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29-30). You see, as fishers of men, the disciples were not called to merely improve the social atmosphere, but to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Salvation.

While we will undoubtedly have an impact on the world, it will not always look like a positive one, because our primary goal is not to “make the world a better place”; rather, it is to call those who are lost in the world to repentance so that in Christ they may have eternal life. The disciples, the Apostles, were persecuted. The early church faced horrific persecution. And we know that the Tribulation that is coming to the church before Christ’s return will be greater than ever before (Matt 24). But Jesus also had some tough things to say in Matthew 10:

Matthew 10:16-25 (ESV) 16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Matthew 10:34-39 (ESV) 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The writers of the film went to great lengths to paint Jesus as a positive world changer. However, what He said of His purpose is far different. Jesus came to call sinners out of the world. That is going to divide the world in two: those who follow Christ versus everyone else who have rejected Him. The primary charge of the church is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that in Him, we are made free to do good works; however, that freedom is so that we can freely preach the Gospel, not so that our good works can become a goal on its own. A purpose-driven life doesn’t atone for your sins, repentance and faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross does. Even if the church were capable of ending world hunger, that feat would not save a single person from the curse of sin. Only the Gospel is capable of such a feat. When you tell some random person, “you can change the world”, you are falsely elevating their level of impact in a humanistic attempt to motivate them to strive to be better than they are. Its one of those politically acceptable lies. However, when you say that Jesus came to change the world… you are diminishing and ignoring what He actually came for, and that is a tragedy of eternal proportions.

I’m sure some will be very emotionally touched by this film, after all it was very well produced by folks who know how work your emotions (that is what the film industry is excellent at… itching ears and all). I’m not worried about those who know the Scriptures and know the true Gospel. But how common is such a person in these days, even within the church? The Gospel that is presented in “Son of God” is a false gospel. The artistic license taken on this film is completely unacceptable. Not only are they ignoring and changing scripture, they got creative with the very words of God the Son, Jesus Christ. If you do take someone to see the film, please correct their false Christology as soon as possible by having them read the Word. What’s worse, is some might grow overly attached to scenes or comments that aren’t in the Bible, or are contradicted by the Bible… then you’ve got a real problem. Please pray for those who you know that are going to see the movie, or who have recently seen it. Challenge them to read their Bibles to get the real story.

May the Lord bless and keep you,
In Him,
Jorge