Please take a moment to visit my new medium for communication, over at YouTube. I have begun a new series of video talks, each about ten minutes in length, discussing ethics and theology.
Episode six was recently uploaded and can be seen here:
Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe!
The new video series I discussed in my last post has now started on YouTube. It is called "From the Library" and are each about ten minutes in length, discussing various theological, ethical, philosophical, and anthropological topics.
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX5OqeUKiK1giFzkJjkBRt-OeydjnAhMp
I have made the decision to transition this blog into a podcast. Over the next week or so, I will be creating video discussions/ ruminations on these same topics.
I will post the link to the podcast in the near future, most likely featured on YouTube.
I look forward to making this update and would love your feedback.
What does it mean to be a Christian? The trouble with asking this question is due to the theological/interpretive world that Protestantism/American evangelicalism has created. Because of the rebellious foundations of Protestantism, the answer to this question has become one of private interpretation or preference. Because the evangelical world operates on the premise of, “What does this verse/passage mean to you?”, there is no final authority to which to appeal.
If anyone has been visited by door-to-door missionaries, you will understand that debating over the meaning of biblical passages is futile, for personal interpretation is the foundation for evangelical belief. To ask the original question, one will get varying answers from the multitude of denominations or groups.
While some answers may be similar, the definition of words can be very different depending on the denomination. This again reduces to the question of authority. For example, the Methodist denomination broke away from the Anglican church, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. But being a splinter of a splinter does not make one’s theological premises necessarily correct.
To see the error of one’s predecessor is a good thing but to merely splinter away based on one’s private interpretation is to commit the same fallacy as the original splinter. Instead of looking at Rome and critiquing their theological views as aberrant when compared to one’s own private views is faulty.
As the Nicene Creed says, “There is one, holy, apostolic Church” and this is the standard by which all theological belief and practice should be analyzed. To use the metaphor of mathematics, unless one has the 90-degree standard by which to judge all angles, the end result will not be the right angle.
Everyone seems to be able to understand the consequences of poor eating habits and lack of exercise but for some reason, many people disregard the obvious long-term impact. If one is involved in an unhealthy lifestyle for long periods of time, the quality of life will be lower, and the length of life will be shorter.
The same is very much true in regards to spirituality. To live a life that disregards spiritual health, the result is comparable. The quality of life will be poor, and the state of eternity will mirror the type of life one lived in the physical body. To love God, to love one’s neighbor, and to pursue holiness are a lifestyle for which man was created. To live otherwise is to be less than human.
To live in such a way is to malform one’s soul, which will have a permanent impact on the state of one’s eternity. The torment that Christianity describes for those who did not seek after a relationship with God is not torment from the hands of demonic powers or from the hand of God but is instead a self-imposed state of misery.
One will experience for eternity the misery of not being truly human and will have no one to blame but himself. God has provided all the means for men to be truly human but if effort is not made on man’s part to be so, he will spend eternity in a state of regret, having formed his soul into something unnatural.
Hey look at this, hey look at this,
we’ve been watching your behavior and your interests and we think you’d like
this. The question we should be asking ourselves is regarding the value of
using our time in that way. How much of our time is simply a distraction? How
much of our time is just entertainment? How much of our time do we use to
improve ourselves or to help others?
All of us can do better. There is always room for improvement, even if it is just a small initial first step. You need to start somewhere.
When someone tells you that “X” is a virtue or that “X” is true, don’t just believe them, ask questions regardless of who they are. If they push back and claim authority, ask even more questions. Anything that is true is defensible.
No genuine authority appeals solely to its own authority. Truth always has a foundation and an answer.
