Available Light: The case from scripture

Posted on October 10, 2009 by Jay F Guin

We are considering a post by Al Maxey from November 15, 2004, arguing for the doctrine of “available light” — the idea being that —

all men, who ever have lived or ever will live, are amenable to whatever available light God has given unto them. Those who genuinely respond to that light with fullness of faith will be judged fairly and benevolently by our Father; those who willfully reject that light will be rejected by God.

In short, for those who’ve never heard the gospel, their salvation will be determined based on their response to what they know of God from other sources.

Al argues from several passages that God reveals himself both through the Bible and through nature. Indeed, he sometimes reveals himself through dreams, visions, prophets, and — ultimately — his Son. And Al is unquestionably true to scripture on this point. Continue reading →

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Ministry Ideas: Connect

Posted on October 10, 2009 by Jay F Guin

“Connect” is a brand new ministry, and we don’t have much in the way of results to report. But here’s the idea.

As mentioned in the last post about the school supply drive, we have members working to serve a high-crime housing project in town. And most of the effort is being focused on the children there. The idea of “Connect” is for a couple at our church to “adopt” a child from the projects, taking him to church, tutoring him, and otherwise helping out. And so now we have these white, middle class couples at church, most with their own kids, sitting at church with a black kid from the projects right alongside their own kids.

When we had a Sunday night covered dish dinner the other night, there were the Connect couples managing their own kids and one extra borrowed child from the projects. And it seemed to work pretty well. Surprisingly well, actually.

LIke I said, it’s all pretty new, so there aren’t any results to report except that, well, amazingly enough, some of our couples actually agreed to do this! I mean, when the announcement was first made, I just didn’t have the faith to think many couples would take this on. But many did! I am amazed at the hearts of our members and the power of the Spirit.

Now, I am instinctively skeptical about such efforts because I came up during the days of the bus ministry. If you’re my age or older, you remember churches that bought entire fleets of buses to bring in poor black kids by the hundreds in church after church — and it didn’t work. Maybe 1% or 2% of the kids were helped, but on the whole, it was a noble failure.

But I think this is different. You see, rather than busing kids in en masse and expecting them to be transformed by the preacher and Bible class teachers, these kids are being cared for by a married couple, most with children. They are getting surrogate parents. And parents shape kids. Buses do not.

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Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: Run! The Passion of Elijah

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Jay F Guin

I usually write these on the Sunday before the Wednesday before the Sunday we teach and time it to post on that Wednesday — giving me two or three to catch my mistakes (doesn’t work, but that’s the theory), so I’m WAY late on this. Which is ironic, given the topic. But I’ve been fighting a bug or something and haven’t felt decent until today (at last!) So with apologies for my tardiness —

The lesson is taught at the Greek city of Aphrodisias (not made up)(really). The city was famous for its quarry of fine marble and worship of Aphrodite, goddess of love. But Vander Laan’s purpose is to take us to the arena — essentially a 40,000-seat stadium for athletic contests.

He begins by reminding us of his earlier lesson on Elijah at Mount Carmel. Elijah ran up and down the mountain twice, defeated the prophets of Baal, and then outran a chariot over a 20-mile distance. By the First Century, Elijah had become the prototype for rabbis — rabbis were expected to have the same zeal for God as Elijah. And so, if we want to be just like the rabbi — so should we.

So how, RVL asks, did Jesus’ disciples communicate this lesson to a Grecian world that had never heard of Elijah? Continue reading →

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OneInJesus Hits 500,000 Hits!

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Jay F Guin


Thanks to all the readers for a rewarding experience — and putting up with my idiosyncrasies!
woohoo

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It’s Friday! — The elders announce the new candidate for youth minister

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Jay F Guin

After a long search process, the elders introduced to the congregation the search committee’s preferred candidate for the youth minister position for the church of Christ that Meets at Fifth and 17th Street Across from the Firehouse (known as the “COCTMAFA17SAFTF,” and not to be confused with the church of Christ that Meets at Fifth and 17th Street Next to the Firehouse).

The women on the search committee noted how the choice would take advantage of the new Twilight and Harry Potter crazes. They seemed positively hypnotized by the candidate.

The men appreciated that his willingness to sleep all day and stay up all night would fit the teen’s lifestyle perfectly.

The candidate said he’d always been a member of the Churches of Christ because of the absence of crosses and holy water — and the lack of windows in the auditoriums. He did allow that, but for those things, he might have been a Catholic, as their wine changes into actual blood.

However, during the congregational interview process, the church learned that he is single — having never been married in his 500-year life. The interview quickly went downhill.

“I have no problems with hiring a vampire,” Sister Glady Evercautious said, “I see it as just another lifestyle choice. But there’s no way my daughter will go roller skating with a single youth minister!”

Her husband gave a look of disgust. “For a man to remain single like that, well, there has to be something wrong with him.”

The candidate lamely tried to defend himself. “I’ve never been married, but it’s not like that! I’ve necked with plenty of girls!” But it was all in vein. The search continues.

[Photo and bad pun are courtesy of the Sacred Sandwich.]

Epilogue — The committee, duly chastened, insisted on a married candidate — but continued to hold that the un-dead have a natural advantage in dealing with teens of this generation.

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Blogging: New FTC Regulates Endorsements by Bloggers

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Jay F Guin

The federal Fair Trade Commission has modified its rules on endorsements to specifically regulate bloggers. Here’s what it boils down to: if you endorse a product or service and there’s any reason that you might be biased, you have to conspicuously disclose it. If you get a book for free and review it, you have to say you got the book for free. If the book was written by your brother-in-law, you have to disclose it. The same holds true for comments made in forums. Oh … and don’t lie.

Here are some key excerpts —

Example 5: A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser’s products on their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body lotion and write a review of the product on her blog. Although the advertiser does not make any specific claims about the lotion’s ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made through the blogger’s endorsement. The blogger also is subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made in the course of her endorsement. The blogger is also liable if she fails to disclose clearly and conspicuously that she is being paid for her services. [See § 255.5.]

In order to limit its potential liability, the advertiser should ensure that the advertising service provides guidance and training to its bloggers concerning the need to ensure that statements they make are truthful and substantiated. The advertiser should also monitor bloggers who are being paid to promote its products and take steps necessary to halt the continued publication of deceptive representations when they are discovered. Continue reading →

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Available Light: Will God Save Some Who’ve Never Heard the Gospel?

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Al Maxey recently posted Reflection 413, in which he deals with the doctrine of “available light.” This is a fairly new teaching to me … intriguing for sure. I’ve never really studied it. So that’s what I intend to do in the next few posts.

Al cites Leroy Garrett as agreeing with his views on this. That worries me greatly, because my initial reaction is that I disagree with this idea. And I’m a big fan of both men — so it worries me a lot when I find myself in disagreement with the two of them. In fact, this may be the first time it’s ever happened. And it likely means I’m wrong (and I hate being wrong).

As I type this, I’ve not yet worked through all their arguments. Rather, I thought I might write as I study what they have to say on this subject and see whether I change my mind.

“Available light”

The doctrine of available light addresses the eternal fate of those who’ve never heard the gospel. Although Al discusses this doctrine in his recent post, he relies on an earlier post as supplying the scriptural support. Continue reading →

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Fun with Translations, Supplemental

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Jay F Guin

My brother sent me this link: The Conservative Translation, an article in the Conservapedia I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair. But I think they’re serious. Yes, really.

Here are their translation guidelines —

  1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
  2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
  3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[3]
  4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
  5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”;[5] using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
  6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
  7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
  8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
  9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
  10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”

It’s conservative to reject “Yahweh”?? Oh, please … let’s do be serious! And get this — Continue reading →

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: An Idea for a Dialogue

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Jay F Guin

cooperation.jpgI get emails. This is from reader Alex Johnson —

Dear Brother Guin,

I was browsing your website earlier today, and I came upon an interesting statement in one of your posts;

“Our institutions should give some thought to where God wants the Churches of Christ to be going — and what is the strategy for getting there. Just imagine if our best thinkers and leaders sat in a room over coffee and prayerfully asked: What does God want next for the Churches of Christ?”

This is a wonderful idea! But I was wondering…has it actually happened yet? If so, what did they come up with? And if not, what’s holding it up? Let’s get this thing started! Who are our “best thinkers and leaders”, can they be convinced to hold just such a meeting (even if it’s through a blog like GraceConversation or by submitting papers to a journal) and if so, would anyone actually listen to them? And if people won’t listen to the best and brightest directly, who do they need to convince for that to happen?

These are excellent questions. The answers are — Continue reading →

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Ministry Ideas: School Supply Drive

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Jay F Guin

This one has a little more of a story than most of the others. Like a lot of churches in town, we provide free school supplies for many poor children at the start of school. We’ve been doing this for years. We might have been the first in town, but it’s hard to say. No one seems to remember for sure.

Originally, we passed out grocery bags to the members, each labeled with the supplies needed for a given class or grade. We generally supported the children at a school not far from our building.

Then, one Saturday morning, we’d provide a pancake breakfast and distribute supplies. The idea was to be relational, that is, to actually meet those receiving the supplies and to try to make them feel valued. And it was a good experience. But not real good.

It wasn’t real good because we learned that some families were scamming the system, going to more than one charity and piling up supplies to sell. And it was hard to actually build relationships over pancakes one day a year.

And then something happened. We had a couple start visiting us. This couple had moved into a house next door to “the projects” in one area of town just so they could minister to that community. They were looking for others to join them. They’d actually bought a second house to fix up and use to help with their ministry.

The chair of the ladies Bible class approached the elders and asked whether it would be permissible for the school supply drive to held in this couple’s backyard, in support of their ministry? They wanted to have a cookout for the families there and to provide all the supplies for the kids in those projects. They would coordinate with the school to make certain the other churches and charities in town only served others, so no supplies would be wasted.

Well, that was an easy decision. (Elders like easy decisions.) Yes, that would be okay.

And so it happened. And the campus ministry took over the other house to fix it up, and some of the men in that ministry now live there rent free in exchange for serving the children in that community.

Members volunteer to tutor and otherwise serve that community. And this all led to the Connect program … which I’ll explain in the next post.

This is all very new, and only God knows how it’s going to turn out, but it’s a big deal. These projects are a high crime area, and there are just all sorts of social problems there. And we don’t entirely know what will happen when a bunch of Christians move in and just start serving, but we are excited to find out.

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