God-stuff Without Jesus?

In Romans 1, Paul surprisingly states that all people can know God. He doesn’t mention knowing God because of Jesus, the gospel, missionaries, or the church.  Is he advocating a universal acceptance by God of all people? Do people really need Jesus or Christians to know God?

Roman god: Saturn

Rom. 1:19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 

In Romans 2:15, Paul believes that the human conscience is more evidence pointing to people’s knowledge about God stuff without Jesus, the gospel, missionaries, or the church.

He says,

…since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.

Finally, Paul states that those who disobey God know inherently that their disobedience brings death. Nobody needs to explain a word.

1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. 

Paul is saying that people think about God all the time.God leaves his “fingerprints” everywhere. God has his “fingerprints” in creation (“his eternal power and divine nature”). People live by rules; societies have unwritten rules of behavior; and governments codify morals and ethics. How do people know these rules? Paul says: God’s universal law is stamped on our brains and soul. Even the punishment code is evidence of God. How? God is life. He is the opposite of these actions that bring death (decay, chaos, and damage included).

Atheists are constantly worrying about God. They write about how God couldn’t be this or that. Yet, an atheist seems to know more about what God can or cannot be than most Christians! Deep down within an atheist feels the need to secretly see God’s fingerprints, but by trumping those secrets they can hold power over those who do. He/she trumps the God thoughts by denying any personal confirmation. A smug interior grin spreads out to feel like he/she is not duped by the simplistic ploys of naive Christians and life can go on in his/her own chosen path.

What can be known about God is plain to people, Paul writes. The Romans got a lot right about God. They believed in the gods of order, beauty, power, and control. Yet, the way they lived their lives they promoted the god of self and personal glory. Every culture, tribe, or society gets some things right about God. His fingerprints are everywhere. His right and wrong thinking is stamped into our souls and minds. I think Paul is right when he says that people suppress the knowledge of God  by their ungodliness and unrighteousness.

[The NIV translates the second word, "wickedness." The Greek word is athikia, or unrighteousness, which means "off the path behavior" or "injustice to others". How hard it is to admit that one is wrong, on the wrong path, or selfishly smug? Thus, God has placed at least three witnesses in human existence to point to the need for suppression of the God-stuff seen or felt.]

Compare this LA TIMES article (click here) which says over and over that “religion” was stamped in our DNA by evolution. How many times does it repeat the mantra, “evolution created, wanted, or selected?” I hear Paul’s words ringing in the background…

Romans 1:19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 

What do you think?

Happy 50th!

To the one who keeps telling everyone it is her 50th,

I say, “Keep it a secret. It’ll be a bigger surprise

When no one sees 60 coming your way either!”

The students in Belarus couldn’t believe you were forty–

“Youthful,” they said.

The years are kind to you.

Only one injury nags you,

that darn

touch-your-toes-to-the-side

leap off a porch

when you landed on your tailbone.

I utterly spit on that moment in time.

It haunts you still.

Aside from that the years go softly.

Bravely, weathering, with the old man you married,

advancing against the foes and dangers like Joan of Arc,

singing lullabies in the morning still,

undaunted by the threats of the same old sister or the

three girls you love. Singing on, more than the first line,

the whole dang song to thousands of country western, rock, hymns, and now,

Mark Lowry’s, “Water, Water.”

So, fifty. Nothing beats making it to the mid-century mark,

and with brains and body intact, “Oh my!”.

Your life is weighed in the balance lightly, joyfully,

Spreading joy and hope missing in most at fifty.

Artsy, suprisingness, school girl restart, what more can you do?

Go on, I say. Go on! To one hundred.

Batten down the hatches. Damn the hot dogs.

Go forth with boldness. Your common sense, your Jesus sense,

that righteous, justice, God-ward-going-sense,

emboldened by life’s lessons, and zest,

and that “Je ne sais qua,” to push onward.

May I go with you, adventurous one?

Happy Birthday, to the one whose secret is no more!

Be fifty, boldly, proudly, as I am of you!

Pastor Smith Reads Pagan Christianity

A friend of Pastor Smith’s handed him a red covered book, and said, “You might like this. Just ignore my underlining.” With that Pastor Smith’s journey into never, never land began. The book was Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola. He read and felt like his job was threatened. He wandered through the arguments for house churches, and knew in his heart that simpler was better. He asked Mattie, his wife, “But what do we do with the building and all the people who like the way it is?”

He read Viola’s passion and anger at the way Constantine introduced pagan rituals, buildings, and practices to Christians. He took a step back because of that anger. He told an elder, “I feel like my world’s been shaken, but I need to let the dust settle before making a decision.” Pastor Smith mentioned he was reading this book in a sermon only to have Mrs. Bewley and Ronnie Tempest ask him separately if this Pagan Christianity means, “…we won’t be celebrating Christmas around here anymore?”

With great speed Pastor Smith changed the Sunday night service into a kind of house church within First Church. He broke the fifty or so people into small groups each week. He let the singing be Spirit-led, that is, the music was chosen by the people. He taught a little and then let the people discuss the text. Several weeks in a row, he had people talk about what God was doing in their lives, but that lasted only about an average of ten minutes before someone brought up an ache or a pain which spun the group down “illness of the week” reporting. Overall, Pastor Smith started to see his Sunday night crowd get closer and start doing some homework before coming. He assigned reading week by week, but something more was missing!

Viola had talked about communion being surrounded by a feast in the early church so Pastor Smith announced a potluck dinner the next Sunday night with communion. “Make it simple so you don’t spend your whole afternoon cooking,” he announced. By this time the folks were sure this “Pagan Christianity” kick was sticking, and not so outrageous. Communion was louder than some expected, but Pastor Smith had each group serve each other, then talk about what Jesus death meant to them. The feelings were so intense he felt like singing, “Kum Ba Yah, Ma Lord.” Of course, a couple of older folks told each other it was just a fad and would go away, but the two college children of Elder Johnson who were visiting from school loved it! They told their dad to have Pastor Smith do it again!

Through the years of his ministry Pastor Smith had attended conferences and read books to seek a secret weapon for making ministry easier or more effective. Sure, he could count about forty people in the last five years who said they had never read the Bible like this before, or another dozen or so who had dramatic conversions, but on the whole, everyone seemed to be about the same. Without changing the whole church, or packing up his office and taking down his ordination certificate, Pastor Smith decided that Pagan Christianity was right, but not all right. Those fifty or so folks on Sunday night were having a little revival. He thought he’d let them spread the word about a house church within a church-church if these changes were real.