The December Meeting

Donny Introduces Greg



Greg Mathias talks on Biblical Anthropology and the Gospel


Some of our intrepid members

Neighbor Love

Luke 10:25-29 ²⁵ Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ²⁶ He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" ²⁷ He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." ²⁸ And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." ²⁹ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

The recent publication of the NRSV “Green Bible” has ignited a firestorm of response from some conservative (more likely Fundamentalist) Christians. The Bible is the standard NRSV translation—already a bad start for some extreme conservatives—with commentary from theological heavyweights like N. T. Wright. The passages that pertain to creation care are highlighted and social justice issues are tied to the gospel.

The fact that creation care is tied to the gospel is problematic to some conservatives as the gospel for fundamentalists only pertains to salvation of souls into a disembodied heaven and has nothing to offer for social issues, but one conservative leader responded to the “Green Bible” by claiming that the gospel only calls us to love God and our neighbor.

Of course, Richard Land’s comments are correct in sense as the scriptures call us to love God and our neighbors. And to go step further, we should care for our human neighbors more intently than we care for our non-human neighbors as there is a ordering in creation, but that the hard distinction he is calling for cannot stand.

There are simply times when environmental concerns are sanctity of human life issues. Consider the recent issues in China where whole water supplies were contaminated with chemicals, and even more recently, the infant formula was contaminated, and babies died. In situations like these, neighbor love requires us to act on environmental issues as what they are, matters of life and death.

Those who are familiar with the Luke passage quoted above will know that Jesus goes on to tell the Good Samaritan story to expand his interlocutor’s concept of neighbor. If we think that we can care for our neighbor, while ignoring his environmental problems, or even contributing to them, then we are no better than those lawyers who asked Jesus about their neighbor. We need the same shocking answer he gave them.

As far as the gospel goes, the gospel—the good news that the resurrected Jesus is Lord—affects the entire cosmos (col 1:15-20). This includes all of creation. Jesus was the agent responsible for creation and he is the agent responsible for its recreation in the resurrection. The restoration of creation is written all over the narrative of scripture and is a part of the mission of God and his CHURCH! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Racism and the Presidential Election

Because this election is historic in that an African-American is the lead on a major ticket, it was only a matter of time before the specter of racism raised its ugly head. Many of you will have undoubtedly started receiving the “anti-Obama” hate e-mails. These e-mails make all kind of racist statements and usually misconstrue some of his writings into a pro-Islamic rant against America. These e-mails are part and parcel of the extreme right and reflect a certain approach to politics that is governed not by reason and ideas but by bigotry and closed mindedness.

The episode of racism that I want to address, however, belongs to another category all together. Recently, during the Republican National Convention, a certain policy group that is historically affiliated with James Dobson’s Family Research Council was selling an interesting item. The said item was called “Obama Waffles”, which is an obvious play on Obama’s perceived or actual changes in position on a particular issue. While this is not offensive in and among itself, the pictures on the box were clearly racist and offensive. (I invite you to check the cartoonish representations of Michelle and Barack Obama at www.obamawaffles.com).

Reaching back to “Aunt Jemima” and other racist icons, the developers of the “Obama Waffles” clearly were attempting to tap into a stream of bigotry that exists within conservative America. The truly damnable aspect of this whole fiasco is that a Christian organization was involved. Racism has no place within Christian convictions, and all those involved in the “Obama Waffles” campaign should withdraw immediately if they are authentic followers of Christ. Jesus died in order to provide forgiveness for a single family that is made up of every tribe, tongue and nation under heaven. He would not tolerate this type of action from his followers and neither should we.

However, this post should not be taken as a blanket support of the Obama campaign. There are many reasons not to vote for him. Here are just a few. First, his position on the sanctity of human life is out of line with the historic Christian position. He openly supports abortion and would obviously appoint judges that reflect his convictions. Second, his position on same sex marriage is also problematic. While he says that marriage is between a man and women, he rejects the defense of marriage act, which would ultimately be an outright support of gay marriage across the country.

This is not to say that he does not have positive aspects as well such as, care for the poor and restoring international integrity. His economic plan is more in line with biblical ideas of restorative justice, and his views on the environment are also in line with the basic outline of creation care. His plan for a green economic sector is especially promising. There are positive and negatives with Obama, just as there are with McCain, however any decision should be made on significant facts and not racism or bigotry.

What I am trying to say is that this election, as all others, should be decided by what the candidates believe about the issues. There is plenty of authentic information out there that Christians should use to help them make an informed decision in November. Obama’s race, however, should not be an issue, and I seriously question the Christian character of believers who are proceeding in this fashion. They are no better than the serial e-mailers who present Obama as closet Muslim who is hell bent on enforcing Sharia law. Last time I checked, that was far too conservative for him.

As a final post script to this post, I would like to note the following. This week Dr Dobson, on his radio show, apologized for the affiliation of his lobbying arm with the “Obama Waffles” incident. I give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not racist and that he would have been upset, if he had been present. However, the fact that a Christian organization can be so wrapped up in something like this proves that so called “Conservative” attitudes are not necessarily Christian attitudes.

Rev. Donnie McDaniel, M.Th (Edinburgh University)

Greed: The Forgotten Vice

^NRS 1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one.

In evangelical churches all across America, this verse is used (correctly I might add) as a basis for sermons that teach people to avoid, all forms of sexual immorality, drunkenness, idolatry, and even robbery. But ask yourself this question. When was the last time that Rev. Young Evangelical Preacher began to sweat and beat the pulpit in a calculated tirade against greed?

If you are in the average evangelical church, then the answer may be never. Greed is the forgotten vice. In fact, we have made the vice of greed into a virtue. Our entire economic system is built upon the idea that everyone must be dedicated to their own self-interest above all else.

Instead of preaching against this turn of events in our churches, we have baptized the economic system of capitalism, complete with its reversal of virtues, and now not only defend it with our lack of preaching and prophetic critique, but run our churches based upon it.

We cannot preach against the evil actions of various joint stock holding corporations because we may offend the well to do businessman in our church whose monetary giving is so important to the new building program. This travesty must be addressed. Greed is a sin. Not only is it a sin but Paul places it within his list of the most heinous sins. Christians correctly rally against every other of these sins in that list, but greed slips through the gaps.

A good example of greed being tied to other sins is found in the actions of several oil executives who have putting their record braking profits to good work. These men and women have been buying both drugs and sexual services. When the story broke, all they had to say was “Their actions did not hurt anyone directly” and “the consumer was not harmed in any way.” I pray that the church of God would rise up and preach the whole council of God, even the uncomfortable subject of greed.

Greed hurts people and that is the bottom line. When the pursuit of profit becomes not only the sole issue for individuals, but the foundation for the whole world, then the entire world, including the image bearing creature, will be subject to marketing strategies that will lead to further exploitation. Do you think Paul would fail to teach on the vice of greed or that he would welcome its transformation into a virtue?

Sex Sales

As I stated in the September meeting, one of the main goals I hope to accomplish this year is to sustain a vision of God’s restorative justice that the members of IJM SEBTS can easily grasp and follow. One of the tools that we will employ towards this goal will be weekly posts on our blog.

The International Justice Mission is an organization that is dedicated to addressing abuses of power that occur around the world. The main areas of focus are unprosecuted rape, illegal land seizure, sex trafficking, female genital mutilation (clitoral circumcision), bonded slavery, sexual slavery, and others. The focus of IJM is in the international sphere where these injustices occur quite often.

A theme emerges when we look at the areas of concern for IJM; sexual injustice is at the heart what we do internationally. For this post, however, we will focus on our own domestic shortcomings in regards to sexual injustice. Whereas many of the injustices that occur internationally, may be rare events in the United States, we still live in a sex driven society. A recent issue of Prism Magazine from Evangelicals for Social Action took on America’s porno addiction head on.

The Prism articles investigated the problem from various angles and demonstrated how our culture has been invaded by images that are pornographic. The articles included pictures from current magazines, and only one could be described as blatantly sexual (Marissa Miller in Sports Illustrated). All of the others occurred in advertisements from Ladies magazines. One advertisement from high-end brand Dolce and Gibranna had a woman engaged in group sex. Another sales device had a bottle of cologne pressed between two bare breasts, with the obvious connotation that the purchase of this cologne would lead to sexual fulfillment. The story goes on and on.

This is America’s sexual sin. We may not be engaging in sex traffic or bonded slavery but we have taken the image-bearing creature and commoditized it in pursuit of corporate and individual profit. We may think that the sexual sins of others are somehow worse than ours, but we need to take a closer look at what we are doing and promoting. Young models, mostly female, are told that their sexuality must become a commodity if they hope to be successful. Corporations employ this advertising because it works. But it is not a zero sum game, demand not only engenders supply, but supply helps generate the demand. We are a part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.

What should we do in response to this problem? Recently, a group of people in Raleigh actively protested Abercrombie and Fitch because of a picture of young man with his pants undone down to his shaved pubic region and this is a good place to start. We should also do our best not to fall into the advertising trap. Do we buy Axe spay because it smells good, or because of its successful sexual marketing? We have to resist the temptation to go along with the rest of society. Therefore, we can protest and resist. Resistance will hit them where it hurts, in the profit margin, and that is where we should focus. As for the picture at Abercrombie and Fitch, it is still up, but we know that the protestors did not work in vain.

This has just been a short walk through America’s sexual sin and we must keep it in mind as we are focusing on the problems of the rest of the world. I welcome your response and your own thoughts.

Rev. Donnie McDaniel, M.Th
President of SEBTS IJM

Update: September Meeting

The First Meeting of the Semester Kicks off Next Thursday.

What: IJM Monthly Meeting - September

Where: Ledford Center Multi-Purpose Room

Who: Anyone interested in Restorative Justice

When: 7:00pm

Restorative Justice as Worship

[An article by one of the IJM Southeastern staff]

Yesterday, almost 16,000 children under the age of 16 starved to death. Unfortunately, the majority of Christians in America don’t seem to care about children in other parts of the world. In fact, the majority of Christians in America are more offended that their taxes might go up than they are at the deaths of nearly 10 million children a year from hunger. Despite the apathy of so many of Christ’s followers, God is working in this world.
The Bible demonstrates that God has a plan for the human race. Despite our own rebellion, God has chosen to love his creation and offer hope to the race he created. His plan spans from the beginning of the biblical narrative in Genesis, all the way to the events yet to come, described to us in the book of Revelation. His plan to redeem his rebellious race begins in the person of his Son. Jesus Christ entered into history roughly two thousand years ago, as God’s ultimate solution to the problem of human rebellion. He entered into the corrupted creation, took on human form, and began the work of reconciliation. God’s ultimate plan for redemption led Christ to Jerusalem, to the hill called Golgotha. On a Roman Cross, he took the punishment due the rebellious race, and paid the penalty for human sin. This event, the substitution of the perfect Son of God for a rebellious humanity, becomes for his followers the ultimate example of love. This love should motivate Christians to live lives of sacrificial worship. God has commanded that we worship in our actions, as well as in our words.
In modern times, two distinct theological movements have sought to bring justice to the oppressed of this world. The Social Gospel movement, theologically led by Walter Rauschenbusch, sought to apply progressive theology to the problem of social justice, and thus sought to preach a message of social reform without preaching about sin or repentance. In a similar manner, the Liberation theology movement sought to apply the teachings of Jesus, about the poor and needy, to the political oppression of the poor by capitalists in South and Central America. Under the theological leadership of Gustavo Gutierrez, they proclaimed the experience of political freedom for the poor as the primary message of Christ.
“The theology of liberation attempts to reflect on the experience and meaning of the faith based on the commitment to abolish injustice and to build a new society; this theology must be verified by the practice of that commitment, by active, effective participation in the struggle which the exploited social classes have undertaken against their oppressors.”

Unfortunately, in their quest to right the many wrongs of their societies, neither movement remains faithful to the central message of scripture, that is, that Jesus Christ died on a cross to pay the penalty that sinners owed for rebelling against God. Both movements sought to focus the message of the cross on the moral example of a man willing to die for his beliefs, rather than on the payment for sin and crushing of evil that occurred at the cross.
Perhaps the most disappointing reality of modern Christianity is the lack of social action practiced by “conservative evangelicals”. Those who claim; first that the Bible is without error and second that Christ actually paid for sin on the cross, have neglected the clear call of scripture to worship God in all their actions.
It is the intention of this paper to demonstrate that the doctrines of Original Sin and Penal Substitutionary Atonement, coupled with the commands of scripture to worship God through actions, should motivate Christians to seek restorative justice, as one means of living out the Gospel. In order to better understand why the Atonement is so important in any discussion of social justice, it is important to examine the sinful nature of humanity and the initial rebellion that required atonement.
“In the Beginning” as the account goes, “God created the heavens and the earth.” And God created everything on the earth, and then he created man, “In Our image”. God created Adam to rule the earth and to bring glory to God. Then, evil entered into the earth, with the appearance of the serpent. Adam and Eve chose of their own freewill to disobey God’s command and rebelled against God’s supreme authority. Cornelius Plantinga defines sin as the “culpable disturbance of shalom.” To explain this definition, Plantinga goes on to say “shalom is God’s design for creation and redemption; sin is blamable human vandalism of these great realities and therefore an affront to their architect and builder”. Because humans freely and regularly rebel against God, one would expect him to punish them. And indeed, the account of Adam and Eve’s sin does not end with God simply looking the other way. God enters the garden and calls out to them. He reveals their disobedience and punishes them. He expels them from his presence, condemns them to work the land for their survival, and curses them for their disobedience. The earth itself is cursed by Adam’s sin, it is no longer perfect and pleasing to God. But God does not leave them without hope. In condemning the serpent for his deception of Eve, God promises that one of Eve’s descendents will crush the serpent’s head. As Old Testament scholar, G. Ch. Aalders noted, “If the enemy, whose ultimate defeat is announced here, is a personal being, then the force which would ultimately gain the victory over him must also be a personal being… This triumphant victor, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ.” This passage is rightly called the “prot0-evangelium”, for this is the first insight into God’s plan for redemption.
The extent of human corruption reaches into the very center of all human society. Not only are all individuals completely corrupted by sin, but also the corruption of each member contributes to the overall corruption of the society. Thus the Apostle Paul describes sinners in Romans chapter One.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.

Because of Adam’s sin, the whole human race is damned in the sight of God. But as Plantinga reminds his readers, “To speak of sin by itself, to speak of it apart from the realities of creation and grace, is to forget the resolve of God.” His point is not to be missed. Though conservatives must rightly defend the doctrine of sin, to divorce it from the doctrine of salvation and reconciliation is to deny the redemptive plan of God.
The Missio Dei, the “Mission of God” has been demonstrated from Genesis to Revelation. Time and again in scripture, God provides people and/or events to accomplish his purpose in reconciling humanity to himself. He chose a people (Israel) to carry out his mission. He chose specific individuals to do particular things, to accomplish his purpose. And perhaps the greatest accomplishment of God’s mission came in Bethlehem, when God himself entered human history. The miraculous nature of the incarnation should not be forgotten. As Lewis and Demarest remind their readers, “The focus of Christian confession, then, is the Christmas event – the fact that the transcendent God has visited and redeemed his people in Jesus of Nazareth.” It is this fact first which motivates Christian service; that Almighty God stepped down, from the perfection of Heaven into the corrupted Creation, in order to demonstrate his love for his people. His love would be clearly revealed in the thirty-third year of his life, on a tree outside Jerusalem.
Wayne Grudem summarizes the events of the incarnation and the cross this way. “The atonement is the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation.” In this he reminds his reader that Christ did more than simply die for his people, he also fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law in his people’s place. N.T. Wright argues that, “The Cross becomes the sign that pagan empire, symbolized in the might and power of sheer brutal force, has been decisively challenged by a different power, the power of Love, the power that shall win the day.”
It was the Love of God coequal with the Justice of God, which motivated Christ to go to the Cross. Because God loves humanity, his plan has been to redeem them since the fall. But because humanity has openly rebelled against Him, God has rightly chosen to demand a payment for their crime. Thus in the cross, the Love of God is perfectly demonstrated with the Justice of God. John Stott faithfully demonstrates the two truths working together.
How then could God express simultaneously his holiness in judgment and his love in pardon? Only by providing a divine substitute for the sinner so that the substitute [Christ] would receive the judgment and the sinner the pardon. We sinners still of course have to suffer some of the personal, psychological and social consequences of our sins, but the penal consequence, the deserved penalty of alienation from God, has been borne by Another in our place, so that we might be spared it.

And thus, God’s mission of Reconciliation pivots on the personal self-substitution of God himself, in our place, for our sins. God’s Love and Justice were equally and sufficiently satisfied in the death of Christ on the Cross. On the personal level, it is the Love and Justice of God which should motivate lives of Christian worship.
The life of a Christian should be a life of worship. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” For Christ has commanded his followers to live lives of worship. As Paul said in Romans 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” In addressing this passage, F.F. Bruce notes that the work of Christ transforms the ritual acts of the Old Testament into spiritual acts for the New Testament believer. Even as spiritual worship occurs, the sinner is being transformed to be more like Christ. This worship is also evidenced in the Letter of the Apostle James.

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

The command seems to be quite clear, listen to the word, and live out what the word commands. As Douglas Moo put it, “And so, James insists, listening to God’s word must lead to ‘doing’ it. Only then are we truly ‘accepting’ the word.” And this is demonstrated in verse 27, where James illustrates one of the ways that Christians are expected to live out their faith, by caring after those who are unable to care for themselves.
In the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, God commands his people to worship him rightly. Throughout the Pentateuch, and the Prophets, God consistently commands respect. Several times in Isaiah, he commands his people to live out their faith in God, not to merely do the symbolic gestures required of them. In Isaiah 58, God chastises his people for fasting with the wrong attitude.

Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

This passage has oft been misused by those who seeking the primary point of the gospel the freeing of people from oppressive social structure. However, it is important to note that this passage is still an important part of Christian worship, even if its message has been abused in the past. The importance of this passage is demonstrated by J. Ridderbos, when he states, “The Lord now confronts Israel with another ideal – the practice of justice and mercy. This is the fast that pleases the Lord… The essence lies not in the externals, but in the conversion of heart and life”
More than a plea for justice, though it is that, God is pleading with the people of Israel to demonstrate their humility in acts of justice and mercy, rather than in parades of mourning. And this is a message of the entire Bible. God calls people to demonstrate that they have been changed by the love of God, by living out the love of God in the world. Worship for the believer means actively living out the Gospel in everyday live.
One of the most neglected aspects of living out the Gospel comes in the form of social justice and mercy. Despite passages like Isaiah 58 and even the Love Commands in the New Testament, there are many horrible things going on around the world which we as Christians are ignoring. Conservatives have not dealt with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we have not dealt with genocides in Rwanda or Darfur; we have almost totally ignored the international sex trade. These are issues that Christians need to deal with. We do not need to deal with these issues because of some sense of liberation, but because dealing with these things is an act of worship.
As Tim Keller expounds in his work, Ministries of Mercy, “ Mercy to the full range of human needs is such an essential mark of being a Christian that it can be used as a test of true faith. Mercy is not optional or an addition to being a Christian. Rather, a life poured out in deeds of mercy is the inevitable sign of true faith.”
This is the call of the Missio Dei, to live out the Love of God for the world around us. Only in understanding human separation from God and His plan for reconciliation, accomplished in the cross can a Christian truly appreciate the biblical mandate for social justice. God does not call his children to social justice simply because he favors the poor, but because he expects those whom he has redeemed to overflow with gratitude and love for the world around them. He expects that those who were, formerly, outcasts without hope, will demonstrate the sacrificial love that God has demonstrated to those who are hurting. The paradigm is simple, God entered a horrible realm, the earth, and sacrificed himself to save a hurting people. Likewise the Christian should sacrificially enter into situation that are hard, and demonstrate the redemptive love of God to hurting people. Where God saved us, we must demonstrate that salvation. It is this mandate which motivates Isaiah, James, Paul and the other authors of the Bible to demand that the followers of Jesus Christ live out their worship in deeds. Thus, the doctrines of Original Sin and Penal Substitutionary Atonement, coupled with the commands of scripture to worship God through actions, must motivate Christians, biblically, to seek restorative justice as one means of living out the Gospel.

A New Semester is Upon Us

International Justice Mission - Southeastern will resume meetings on Septemper 4, 2008, in the multipurpose room of the Ledford center. We have been updating our constitution, and planning for the new year. We are excited about what God is doing on our campus and about what God will do through this group in the coming semesters.
Justice Coffee
If you'd like more info about what we're all about, come out to the Wake Forest Coffee Co. this Thursday (Aug. 14) from 8-10, where some of the leaders of our chapter would love to share God's passion for the hurting in our world, and how you can get involved...

GREAT SEMESTER!

Thanks to everyone who showed interest in this semester's IJM meetings! We are planning on continuing to meet in the summer, and we will be sure to keep you posted on any news in the chapter.

-SEBTS Chapter Leaders
Rebecca, Jimmy, & Tim