Deepak Chopra on Jesus

This is over a year old, but Time magazine interviewed New Age guru Deepak Chopra about a novel he wrote on Jesus’ life.  It’s tremendously sad and misinformed (that is, the interview, but I’m sure the novel takes the cake).  Here’s a few of the more interesting questions and answers:

You write “making [Jesus] the one and only son of God leaves the rest of humankind stranded.”

Because we end up worshipping the messenger instead of the message and excluding all the theologies that existed before Jesus was born.

But it’s also the one thing that inspires Christ’s most fervent followers: that Jesus was God’s only son, who died for them and so took away sin. Isn’t your premise of an acquired godhood heretical to orthodox Christians?

It may be. Fundamentalist Christians always quote Jesus in the Gospel of John saying “I am the way. I am the life. Nobody comes into the kingdom of heaven except through me.” But what does Jesus mean by “I”?” In his language, Aramaic, the word is translated as “the I within the I.” So he may be speaking about himself as a universal spirit. In that case he can’t be squeezed into a body or the span of a lifetime.

Read the whole thing.

America’s Ugliest Export

Here’s a video from Christianity Today about the prosperity gospel in Africa.

(If you are viewing this in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the blog to see the video.)

(HT: Justin Taylor)

You Can’t Make Science to Mean Something it Doesn’t Mean

I’m not a scientist.  My science classes in college were geology, meteorology, and food science.  The best I did in high school was a B in honors physics at a public school.  And even that grade should be investigated.

So allow my non-scientific mind to think through something with you.

Often in debates about evolution and creation, I hear people argue for evolution (that is, the origin of the universe via big-bang) by saying, “Science proves it.  Science is not faith, it’s fact.”   They do this by talking about carbon dating, fossils, and the fact that Noah couldn’t really have had all those animals in the ark.

Well, science is “fact” if you are talking about how a tree grows, how a car moves, or how my heart works.  You can prove those things.  But science cannot prove the origin of the universe.  “Yes it can!” people tell me.

No.  It can’t.

Why?  When we refer to science, we usually mean “systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.”  We come to this knowledge of the physical world by using the scientific method, which Merriam-Webster defines as “principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”

You cannot re-create a universe as vast, complex, organized, and beautiful as ours in a test tube in order to collect data about how it began.  It just can’t happen.

So if you hold that the origin of the universe is due to a randomized explosion of atomic particles, that’s fine by me.  Just don’t call it science.  Call it what it is: faith, belief, and religion.

“Keep your low view of God to youself.”

This in-your-face quote (my paraphrase) comes from Heinz Schrader, pastor of Capital City Church International here in Pretoria.

Right now we have a few people who are in conversation with us about our view of suffering and God’s sovereignty.  They totally disagree with what we teach.  I want to tell you, that when someone has problems with the way a family is doing things, they are supposed to go to the head of the household.  So let me try to say this nicely: if you have a problem with what we believe and teach about suffering in this church, then come talk to me.  And you can talk to any one of our elders.  But you had better not ridicule one of these sheep down here who are in the midst of suffering, hardship, pain, and loss by telling them they’ve sinned or they need to read their Bible more.

Listen to me: if you don’t believe that God is sovereign in suffering, if you believe that all suffering comes from personal sin and lack of holiness, if you believe that man dictates the circumstances of life and not God, then you do not have a theology — you have an anthropology.  You exalt man higher than God.  So please, do us a favor and keep your low view of God to yourself.

Separation of Church and Sport?

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was critiqued in a USA Today editorial for believing Jesus is the only way to God.  Erik Raymond and Kevin DeYoung (among others) have written responses.

The USA Today writer, Tom Krattenmaker, said in the editorial:

According to a December 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, 65% of American Christians believe that many religions can lead to eternal life.  Our pluralism is a defining and positive reality of American life — but not one that is much valued by those who define the faith coursing through the veins of sports culture.

The comments about this in particular have been interesting.  Here are two:

• From Dale LaRoy Splitstone: “Honestly, do you really think God gives a damn what the majority of American Christians think about salvation? At the judgment day, there’s only one opinion that’s going to matter.”
• From DonAW: “The 65% of American Christians who believe that many religions can lead to eternal life had better take a closer look at their ‘playbook.’  Someone is wrong, and I am betting it is not the Maker of the World.”

HT: Justin Taylor

Praise God Because He Creates

In 1 Chronicles 16, David sings a song of thanks to the Lord.  In verses 25-26, David sings:

For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods.  For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

What separates the LORD from all the other gods in the world?  He creates.  They are created.  That’s the difference between God and an idol, between the finite and the infinite.

And don’t just think of golden statues when you read “gods.”  Think power, money, sex, food, entertainment, sports, friends, success, looks, fashion, and any other good thing in this world.  They are all created things, and so they cannot comfort or provide in our darkest hour. But God is not created.  He creates, and therefore is everlasting and infinite.  So in your time of deepest despair, he is able to provide grace and mercy to help.

Why Did Jesus Tell Those He Healed to Stay Quiet?

He did it so that the people in the local town wouldn’t think he was a magical, healing genie to grant them three medical wishes.  Jesus’ first coming wasn’t mainly about physical healing.  There were thousands of people in Palestine he never healed.  It was about coming to ransom people for God so that they might be healed of a much greater disease.

True Joy is Found in Insignificance

This morning I read about Jesus feeding the five thousand and walking on water from Mark 6.  The disciples didn’t understand.  In fact, Mark says that their hearts were hardened.  What the disciples didn’t get was the fact that the God who created water, fish, bread, and the world was sitting and talking with them.

Then I began to think about molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons and the like.  I’m not scientific at all, but when you let your mind wander into the vast complexities of these invisible structures that make up the universe, you don’t feel important anymore.  Actually, I would argue that it’s impossible to think about such things and feel significant in yourself.

But I didn’t feel this way because of the atoms or protons themselves.  It’s ultimately the result of knowing and loving the infinite God who, with a single word, created those things and everything else — including me — in the universe.

That will make you feel small.  That will give you true joy.

Truth is Truth is Truth

From the urban philosopher Lecrae:

Man, see some folks say, “All truth is relative, it just depends on what you believe.” You know, “Hey man, ain’t no way to know for sure who God is or what’s really true.” But that means you believe your own statement: that there’s no way to know what’s really true. You’re saying that that statement is true. You’re killing yourself. If what’s true for you is true for you, and what’s true for me is true for me, what if my truth says your’s is a lie? Is it still true? Come on man!

…See, there’s this thing called “Secular Humanism”, it says man is the source of all meaning and all purposing. You know what i’m saying? We’re just the result of a big cosmic explosion. We don’t really have a purpose or meaning, so we just come up with our own purpose. We’re the source of our meaning and our purpose. How can a man, which is the product of chance, a finite being be the source of purpose and meaning? You can’t! You’re created with purpose man!

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Related Posts:

• Don’t Waste Your Life Music Video
• Driscoll Interviews Lecrae
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The Unborn and the Unborn-Again

John Piper has some intriguing thoughts on the battle for life for the unborn and the unborn-again.