Like many people I went to church this Christmas Eve to
celebrate the coming, to earth, by God Himself.
Children and adults alike were filled with Christmas spirit with
reverence and goodwill toward their fellow man, as it should be. When we think of the awesomeness of the Word
becoming flesh and dwelling among us it's truly overwhelming. God Himself coming to earth in love and
humbleness to be a servant to His enemies as well as those who loved Him.
We sang Christmas carols and heard the Christmas story from
Luke 2. We also heard an Old Testament
reading from Isaiah 9. We also heard
a wonderful story of a new girl in school who is left out of festive activities
at school. But then, she was included in
the activities by her classmates because of the Christmas "spirit
“. It was a wonderful story. I do
believe in “the Christmas spirit” – I believe it is a gift from God, and I do
believe that the spirit world is far more active than normal around Christmas
and Easter but that's a different story.
Then it hit me – “do you know how ridiculous this sounds? This
Virgin Birth, Choir of angels, God come to earth because He loves me thing. Do
you know how silly this seems to a non believer? Or to someone on the fence
about God? Knowing there was war and violence sanctioned by God in The Old
Testament. Virgin birth? Choirs of
angels? Love?”
Don’t get me wrong. I believe these events to be absolutely true.
I am not critical of teaching and celebrating these events. I worship and thank
God for these things.
I do believe though that people should be taught the Biblical account overlaid with the historical and archaeological context of these events. Then people will know their faith is based on fact. They can then have faith in the unexplained times when God in His Sovereignty, performs Miracles in my life and yours.
We're teaching our kids Bible stories not accounts. There's a big difference between an account
and a story. An example of a story is
the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks And The Three Bears. An example of an account is a history book
telling true facts.
I think back when my kids were young we decided that it would be a good thing if they went to Sunday school. As children, my wife and I had both went Sunday school, we had grown up going to church. But we had learned the same stories with little or no historical or archaeological context, virtually no teaching as to why these stories were relevant. My understanding of Biblical facts was virtually the same as my four year old's after about a year of Sunday school. Sure my wife and I went to adult Sunday school and gained a little more understanding, but not much.
Generally we are not taught by our pastors, who preach every
Sunday cute little stories or comment on current events. We are not taught Bible history, we are not
taught relevant Mideast archaeology that supports Bible history. We are not taught that there is plenty of evidence
that Biblical societies existed. There is much evidence that people mentioned
in the Bible spreading the Word of God were in the places the Bible says they
were at the times the Bible says they were. We are not taught by the people who
have been charged by Jesus to “feed my sheep” the importance of Old Testament
accounts with the New Testament. We are not taught the absolute authority of
The Word. With proper teaching, the cute stories and illustrations will be based on
something but will be few and far between.
When we're taught these things we can readily see that our
faith is based on something, something concrete. We can then believe in the miracles that our
wonderful God performs. Believe in the
mysteries that have not yet been revealed to us. When the people who go to church are preached
the Word, and taught about The Word’s mighty power then they will be equipped
to “do” the Kingdom. They can then take
that preached and taught Word to the world.
They can use it in their everyday lives.
Everyone has a ministry.
It may be at your job or in your family or school - it can be anywhere
God uses you. We get fed, charged up and
taught as we come together once a week are so with fellow believers. Only the Word can charge us up - not current
events or allegories that illustrate “stories” with no context behind them.
Why are we surprised when we as followers of Christ, or the institution of Christianity are not taken seriously or even mocked? Why are we surprised when we are looked at as well meaning but irrelevant? Why are we surprised when we are looked at as deniers of science and natural science? Actually our message isn’t irrelevant (God’s Word never is) and we are not deniers of science, but if the conversation gets that far the outcome is usually a foregone conclusion unless you can defend your faith.
We are perceived that
way by the very people we are supposed to show Christ to. Our job, everyone’s
general calling is to take Christ to the world. That’s the real tragedy, that ignorant
Christians churched by lazy preachers can’t effectively take the message of the
Gospel to the world. The more little kids go to Sunday school and are taught to
blindly accept legitimate truths but can’t defend them and thus share those
truths with a broken world, the more the lie from hell that God is a myth is propagated.
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| The Gates of Hades - A real place |
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| Historical map |
The great news is that Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew
16:18 that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church. The bad news
is that we do Christ’s Church (AND IT IS HIS CHURCH) no good and actually do it
and the people that are lost because of poor teaching harm.
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