The God Who Hates Egypt

I came across a post by TheThinkingPerson the other day. This post brings into question the actions of Yahweh against Egypt/Pharaoh in Exodus. The author asks how a loving God could possibly send the plagues he sent on Pharaoh and his Egypt. Not only that, but how could such a loving God send the plagues after he had hardened the heart of Pharaoh? How could Pharaoh be held responsible for his resistance to Yahweh? I have wondered this as well at times. For many Arminians/Wesleyans (which I use to be) this story is problematic for it forces them to admit that God does infringe of free-will to some degree. For many Calvinists it is a minefield because there are places to step but without caution there is bound to be trouble. A healthy reading of scripture will help to reveal answers to these more than reasonable questions.

My professor (Albert H. Baylis) this past semester suggested two things to consider which may help give some perspective:

1) Pharaoh goes against God's covenant made with Abraham to bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse Abraham. Egypt knew of this covenant through Joseph and yet through time he and the covenant were dismissed and Pharaoh enslaved Abraham's sons/daughters and in so doing perverted the role of host to God's covenant people and fell from a place of blessing to a place of cursing. Egypt was always meant to be cooperative with the birth of God's people but they decided to force God to perform a c-section to birth his children out of Egypt's womb.*

2) God raised up Pharaoh for the purpose of demonstrating His power in Pharaoh and for the purpose of being proclaimed throughout the earth (Romans 9:17). That doesn't mean God raised him up so He could harden and hurt Pharaoh. It is more likely God established Pharaoh's reign and Pharaoh (as stated earlier) rebelled which caused God to show His power (and keep his side of the Abrahamic covenant) through Pharaoh in a new and unfortunate way. Pharaoh first rebelled against his purpose and hardened his own heart. God consistently turns people over to their choices/desires/sin (we see this in a few other passages as well). Gregory Boyd argues that people work themselves into a type of people. Pharaoh worked himself into a hard heart and to give him what he wants God perpetuates that hardness. The plagues are not just an attempt to convince Pharaoh to let God's people go but to melt Pharaoh's hard heart. When God had all fair reason to destroy Egypt he attempted to bring them back into blessing.

I'm comfortable with this perspective. It continues to show a loving God who is concerned with all people coming to a knowledge of Him. He desires for his people to be a blessing and witness to the world so that all men come into his kingdom. This perspective shows He will do what it takes to show mercy when it is not due to sinners so that those who rebel against him will either be fully consumed with their evil or redeemed by entering into His kingdom and will. Unfortunately, as further reading of the story will show, Israel doesn't seem to clue into this quickly enough (or they too quickly forget it). We're still having problems fully grasping this truth that God has grace for all but judgment for all at the same time. One of the greatest challenges for Christians today is to understand the judgment aspect of God's love and the hope that it brings for all who seek righteousness. Reconciling judgment discipline, and punishment with pure and divine love is often difficult but it is not illogical or unreasonable. If Christians are to understand the covenants God has made with his people through time then they must learn how judgment and love embrace one another. Christians must embrace this mystery if they wish to know the covenant we have in Christ Jesus.

Paul was right when he said that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2Timothy 3:16-17). Let us continue investigating these breathes of God so that we may live. After all, how else could we possibly live? Without such breathe we'd still be dust.

*This word picture comes from Baylis' book From Creation to the Cross.

Developing Peaceful Churches

As I read Stanley Hauerwas' essay Should War Be Eliminated? I was reminded that war and peace are not opposites. Not really. The essay is pretty bold as Hauerwas calls out the Catholic Church for being insincere in their pursuit of peace due to their willingness to say Christians can practice violence and fight in wars waged by that nations which they say have a duty to do so for the sake of "justice" and "protection" for it's citizens. I assure you that the article is far more interesting and provocative than I'm presenting it to be. You should give it a read because it is basically a pacifist supporting war for half the essay. Anyhow, as he usually does, Hauerwas points out that the Church ought to stand firm in being the Church and show that the world is the world and not the Church (or kingdom). He says that the Church can not only hope for peace but work for it. As it stands, we hope for peace but work for war and as a result we have it war. Hauerwas suggests there is an alternative to war and that is is the peace of Jesus Christ.

Such a peace... is not simply the absence of war, but rather it is a peace that is itself an alternative to a world at war. As such it is not some ideal, but an actual way of life among a concrete group of people... we must see peace as a possibility amid a world at war.

This got me thinking; One can not be peaceful alone. Sure, being a peaceful person is great and a wonderful first step but it's not sufficient (see my post How to Make Peace).* One must be joined with other people of peace. The alternative to a world at war is a society of shalom/peace. A concrete group of people is found in every congregation. Every Christian congregation ought to be filled with people who fully embrace enemy love and the peace of Christ which he left us at his ascension. The Church has the potential to offer within its people an alternative to the world that is constantly waging war and that alternative is rest.

So what does it look like to become communities [concrete groups of people] who share a way of life that embraces, preaches, and offers peace to all? What does it look like to not merely be a gathering of peaceful individuals but to become a larger unit of peace for the sake of God and for the sake of the world?

I don't have a suitable answer but perhaps part of the answer involves actually doing things together. Unfortunately for many church-goers this means moving from acquaintances to friends who actually like each other to family who actually need each other! (What a way to lose attendance! Just tell folks they have to actually spend time being intimate and vulnerable with each other until there are no more secrets!) We must grow together through shared experiences! Moving away from private and individualized faith and religion is absolutely vital! A lot is involved in this process of becoming a people of peace. Sound biblical teaching on the peace of Christ, shared doctrine, consistent submission to and sharing of the sacraments, shared prayer, shared suffering, serving of one another, shared service to others, shared preaching to the world, shared stories amongst each others, and so on must me embraced. We must engage liturgy together (consistently meeting and acting together for the sake of worship)! We must love the world around us as a unit. Here is the practical stuff: Walls of division must fall. The poor must find help among the people of the Church. The orphaned must find homes among them. The widowed must find comfort. The prisoner must find mercy.

To be an alternative to a world at war the Church must completely be the Church as she ought to be. She can not merely be gathered individuals trying to live their individual lives well but she must must be individuals dropping their individual cloaks and putting on their robes of the heavenly kingdom. The Church must be a net to catch the falling ones. Unless Christians bind themselves together and function with the same purpose and with the same means they will never be able to offer a proper witness. Unity is key. If individuals becoming people of peace is step one (as it often is) then step two would be bringing those individuals into a undivided unit of peace.** Unless Christian brothers and sisters share the same peace in every way they will inevitably be part of the world at war.

For Hauerwas the answer lies predominantly in the Churches understanding of herself. He writes "For what creates new opportunities [for peace] is being a kind of people who have been freed from the assumption that war is our fate." The Church must be a people who close the backdoor of war, unforgiveness, hate, anger, and violence with the faithful proclamation that Christ Jesus is Lord and has overcome the powers of the world through death on a cross and that this very same suffering servant has ushered in His kingdom to this world and His power comes with it for all who believe in Him (John 16:33).

*I suppose one could turn that post into a partial answer for this post by moving the focus form the individual to the local congregation. However, this would still leave much lacking for the post is primarily concerned with one's own person and how to alter one's character. The character of a community is formed quite differently (I believe) than an individuals and it consists of much more time, suffering, and action.

**After completing this I am uneasy about deeming individual peace and unified people of peace as steps 1 and 2. Of course many people will become people of peace only by entering a community of peace. This leaves us at the question of how do we not simply operate as individuals of peace or work as individuals together for the same cause but how do we find our identity together as a unified or concrete group of peace. How do we move from being people of peace to a people of peace?

Possessing Nothing

The following quote is from Commonprayer.net:

Fifth-century monk and bishop Paulinus of Nola wrote, “We have no right to our possessions; they have been entrusted to us for the good of all. Let us then invest with the Lord what he has given us, for we have nothing that does not come from him: we are dependent upon him for our very existence. And we ourselves particularly, who have a special and a greater debt, since God not only created us but purchased us as well; what can we regard as our own when we do not possess even ourselves?”

Paulinas may be called a communist or socialist by many Christians in the U.S. today but I call him beautifully in-tune with God. Richard Foster would probably love this guy (author of the classics Freedom of Simplicity and Celebration of Discipline). The concept of investing with the Lord is one we don't hear often enough. Surely we are stewards of all we have and we know we ought to serve God with all he has given us but we rarely use language that propels the idea that we are working alongside our Creator and Savior when we surrender all we have to him and when we acknowledge, praise, and thank him for being our provider. Every step we take away from materialism, self-focus, over-consumption, entitlement, or absolute ownership is a step we take towards the kingdom of God.

It is imperative that we realize that the world and everything in it belongs to God (Psalm 24:1), that everything we earn is because of God (Deuteronomy 2:7, 8:17-18) and that we are not our own but His (John 15:19) and all these truths result in the knowledge that we have no right to absolute ownership or selfish living. Christians have no justifiable reason to refuse gifting those who ask if all this is true. It also leads us to the conclusion that Christians should never ask back what has been taken from them (Luke 6:30) and that if what they have is taken it is no trouble to give what they have left, be it their time, their clothes, or their very flesh (Matthew 5:38-42). The generosity of Christians ought to shock the world for it is grounded in the kingdom that is not of this world!

If we are to live out our faith we must first be convinced of God's truth. We must be convinced in our minds of concepts behind the commands like Paulinus was. Perhaps this why the Apostle Paul writes to the Church in Rome, "...be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will" (12:2). Let us be led God's truth, the gift of reason, and our faith in Christ. If we will not be led by these things then we shall fall into the pit of legalism and see only rules when we should see love. We will surely fail without embracing truth, reason, and faith for we will be leaning on our own strength and understanding (which is actually weakness and foolishness).

Being Transformed

Because we have been reborn through sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ and have entered into his kingdom and his body (the Church) our lives have been turned upside down so that we now rightly stand on our heads with our feet grounded on the reliable and inherently good foundation of heaven. This means that our person is not only transformed but our very world is transformed (though not the earth itself).

It is for this reason that we can no longer live the lives we once lived before encountering Christ and his transformative Spirit. Truly, the Father leads us into his jealous and loving arms. Just as Yahweh has been the God of Abraham and always sought to make his people holy and unique in the world they occupy in a way that proves they belong only to the heaven kingdom so he continues to seek a people who have been conformed to the likeness of his son Jesus Christ in the way they live out their earthly lives, as strangers in a foreign land.

Yahweh now gathers His people into His family which is often call the Church. When we are baptized we enter into that family, adopted as a son or daughter by the Father through Christ and thus we begin to renew our mind. We are overhauled internally and this overhaul has external evidences. Being rooted in the Church changes the daily life of every saint.

As a member of the Church, the Christian receives a new calendar to live by which begins with the Advent season every November. The holy days of the kingdom replace the holidays of their former allegiances and cultures, even though there are still times when the two may find themselves celebrating the same blessings. Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost make for the greatest days of celebration for the believer.

The Church member now embraces a new approach to all relationships. The approach is love. The Christian loves family, friends, strangers/foreigners, prisoners, and enemies. In this new life the believer views all people as children of Creator God who are made in His image and treats them as brothers and sisters, even if they be wayward, for we have accepted another great change in life due to our baptism and that is new family.

In Christ, Christians recognize the truest meaning of family and loyalty. Those who do the will of the Father are the highest form of family, replacing the old ties of blood with ties of faithfulness to Yahweh. Old ties are not lost but have been superseded by the purest form of family which is found in the Creator of all things.

There are so many things that change when we put on the new self and discard the old self. The new man, being anchored in Christ and glued to the Body of Christ has found a new way to be defined. His/Her definition is created by the story of Yahweh which is found primarily in the holy scriptures which He breathed into being through faithful servants across the span of time. After Christ, all is changed. If we have not changed in our minds, hearts, and deeds then we have been foolish and believed in a false or incomplete transformation.

Therefore, let us cling to the Gospel of Christ and being transformed through the power of His Spirit by the renewing of our mind so that we will indeed know the will of our Father and that we may become faithful members of His body, knowing how to be defined and how to live as new men and women as we occupy a foreign world as strangers belonging only to a heavenly kingdom.

Praying in Schools

My brother "K" sent me this message on Facebook:

Do you feel that prayer should be put back in public schools? ...Do you feel that mandatory Christian prayer should be in public schools? Or would you be all right with Christianity, Islam, and any other religious groups having their own prayer times in public schools as long as prayer is not mandatory?

Here is my answer:

I don't think it matters much if prayer is allowed or forbidden in [public] schools. I don't think Christians ought to demand it be allowed either. If a Christian is demanding prayer be allowed in schools I would venture to say they potentially are putting the American ideals of "equality" and "freedom of religion" above fearless faithfulness to God. They may be putting American ideals above kingdom ideals. I'm not saying that freedom to practice religious liturgy is wrong or not worth pursuit but that isn't a Christian ideal. It is an American ideal. It'd be nice but I'm not convinced it's entirely possible. I'd rather see Christians seek the kingdom and see how that works out. Fortunately, we have an example in scripture of how believers ought to address the legalization or the forbidding of prayer.

In Daniel 6 we read about a great man of God named Daniel who was faced with a situation in which he had to deal with the conflict of illegal prayer. Daniel certainly didn't demand prayer to be legal or accepted when it was outlawed for anyone to prayer to Yahweh. He just prayed. He prayed at predictable times and in a known place. It was no secret to his adversaries (who coaxed the king, who loved Daniel, into creating the irreversible law for the exact purpose of getting Daniel in trouble) that he was breaking the law. Not only did he rebel against the laws of men and refuse to fight the absurd law but he was one of the most powerful men in the government! He had more pull with the king than anyone else and yet he accepted the law and acted against it. In doing this he, like the apostles later on, held to the truth that he "must obey God rather than human beings" (Acts 5:29).

Daniel's situation was far worse than the potential "banning of prayer in schools." He faced death for praying to Yahweh. Nothing happens to students who pray. Nothing. At least nothing happened to me or any of my friends and I've yet to hear from a first hand source that something has happened to a student who prayed in school. If something does happen, it's not serious. Well, not as serious as being thrown into a den filled with lions. If it is this serious, praise God for the world declaring itself the world and the faithful servants of God declaring themselves as such! Also, he has clearly proven himself able to protect his faithful ones in such times. Persecution is not something to fear (1Peter 3:14). We're called by God to be faithful and to obey him and not men. The rules of men are basically irrelevant. If they compliment the way of God then we are obedient to them and if they go against the way of God then we rebel against them in holiness just like Daniel.

I don't put much stock in the American ideal of freedom of religion (see my post Rethinking Freedom of Religion). Again, I'm not saying it is bad but I just don't believe it is possible and I don't think that is necessarily something to mourn. I believe that type of peace among men is only possible through Christ and inside his kingdom (see my postMy Struggle with Political Involvement). Everyone getting along is a nice thought but it is simply impossible in a sinful world. A government can not please everyone and should not try (for that is not the purpose of government). It is my belief that the U.S. is often attempting to please everyone. Tolerance seems to be king a lot of the time. Christians, in contrast, should be concerned with pleasing God. Christians in the U.S. are often too focused on having "rights" instead of seeing all good things as gifts from the Father. Rights don't matter. Not really. Not for the Christian. Not for the sake of protecting them from persecution anyway. We're not entitled to anything (see my postReplacing Gifts with Entitlement). We've never been taught to fear or fight against the possibility of persecution. Perhaps we flee at times but that's it. If we're fighting for the legal right to pray then we are misguided or cowardly or both. At least, that's my currently leaning.

At the end of it all, it doesn't matter if prayer is allowed, forbidden, or demanded. Christians are merely concerned with being a faithful witness to Christ. That includes praying no matter what the surrounding circumstances may be. Instead of fighting for rights let us simply fight to be faithful. Let us fight against the evil powers that attempt to keep us from being faithful by actually being faithful instead of pushing papers in front of government officials. Scripture tells us it pays to suffer for doing what is right (1Peter 3:13-22). We are not told in scripture that it is good or right to fight to get our way or to have government permission to live out our faith. Rather, we are instructed to live rightly and endure whatever consequences that may bring us. In it all, we praise God. Just like Daniel.