Chris Hoke: What is Church? A Jesus Movement Invading Hades

"If we don't know where the gates of hades are, no wonder the church doesn't know where the church is going ... The church is a movement with a downward arrow, following Jesus from heaven into the realm of death."

"The story of Lazarus' resurrection is a model for our ministries, rolling away stones and unwrapping those Jesus is bringing back to life."

Chris Hoke is the author of Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit through Jail, among Outlaws, and Across Borders (HarperOne, 2015).

Jesus Was A Hypocrite - Zack Hunt

A little while back I wrote a post asking “Are Bible Verses The Worst Thing Ever?”

This past week or so as I’ve read Christian defenses of Jerry Falwell Jr.’s call to kill Muslims and heard Christian rallying cries for more guns in the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting, I’ve wanted to answer that question once again with a resounding “yes.”

Sure, there are obviously things worse than the Bible being divided into chapters and verses – like nuclear war or genocide or cancer – but few things have the power to engender, condone, and sanctify evil like a biblical proof-text.

Case in point: Luke 22:36

He said to them, “But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one.

Taken in stripped down isolation, as I’ve seen done countless times in the past few weeks, it seems like the ultimate trump card for arguing that Christians should pack heat.

Of course, sequestered like that, Psalm 14:1b – “there is no God” – could be the ultimate trump card for atheism.

But the simple truth of the matter is there is nothing divine about the arrangement of the Bible into chapters and verses. In fact, they didn’t really even exist until the 13th century. But in trying to help the faithful more easily access and reference scripture, the inventors of the biblical chapters and verses unwittingly unleashed one of the most destructive forces in human history: the biblical proof-text; a weapon that needed only the effort to cite it to be effective and could be wielded at a moment’s notice to destroy any enemy and justify any action, no matter how heinous or unholy that action might be.

Sometimes though, and to the eternal consternation of the holy warrior, some of those proof-texts, when seen in their original context actually mean something quite different than we are led to believe.

As clear cut as it seems, the currently en vogue invocation of Luke 22:36 is a textbook example of a verse being used as a proof-text for something it can’t possibly mean.

Now, to be clear, Christians have been debunking this proof-text for quite a while. I am simply adding my voice to that choir because it doesn’t seem like anyone is listening. Perhaps, the louder the chorus becomes, the more likely it is that someone will eventually hear the truth.

So, here’s the thing about Luke 22:36.

If it’s true that counter to everything he said and did in his public ministry, in this private moment Jesus has declared that those closest to him should own swords (or in our case today, guns) for their own defense, then there is only one conclusion we can draw.

Jesus was a hypocrite.

And the rest of the gospel makes no sense.

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Fasting from Anti-Christ, Feasting on Love - Eden Jersak

I know that we’re in the Advent Season, but I think I’m going to fast as if it’s Lent instead. What was at first comical, amusing, and just plain silly, has become so abhorrent that I have to look away and stop listening and watching “the show.”

I remember as a child being invited to our church on a Sunday evening to watch a film. It was called “Left Behind”, and it was all about what it was going to be like to be left behind when Jesus returned to take home all the Christians. This film was particularly effective at making me very scared of God, his judgement, and his return. It probably took about a decade after seeing that to finally shed the last of that fear and to come to know Jesus relationally, rather than out of fear and duty.

Do Not Be Afraid - Greg Albrecht

Cover by Emily Zeck

The time and culture of Jesus' birth was not unlike the world in which we live today. For that matter, it was just like any generation or era in history. The specific people, land and culture to which Jesus came was a world permeated with fear at almost every level. The Jews were an occupied people. They suffered under grinding poverty and heavy taxation. There was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Life expectancy, particularly among the poor, is estimated to have been in the mid-30s to early-40s. Fear is a part of what it means to be human. It's a common and normal emotional reaction.

• We have fears that we will live so long that our money will expire before we do.
• We have fears that we will die and be unable to take care of our family.
• We have fears that we will be unemployed and our family will suffer.
• We have fears that we, or someone we love, will be a victim of crime.
• We fear this world, with its hatred and terrorism, with its warfare and violence.
• We fear diseases—we fear the announcement of a terminal disease in our lives and that of our loved ones.
• We fear that those we love will not love us in return.
• We fear getting old and lonely.
• We fear the dark places of this world—and there are many of them.
• And of course we fear death—the final enemy.

As Luke begins the story of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus we are told not to be afraid. Do Not Be Afraid begins as a comforting message before Jesus' birth and continues with the events surrounding his birth. As Matthew records, the Gospels end with an angel saying to the women at the tomb, after Jesus was raised, Do Not Be Afraid…he is not here, he is risen (Matthew 28:5-6, my emphasis). 

In Luke 1:13 Zechariah, who would become the father of John the Baptist, is told not to be afraid. In effect the angel said: "You and your wife Elizabeth are past it—you are old, but so were Abraham and Sarah. Even though you are humanly incapable of birthing a child, by his grace, God will give you a child. Do Not Be Afraid. Nothing is impossible with God." 

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Taking a Break from Deconstruction - Caleb Miller

The approach so many take to their faith is found only in positive affirmation of things they already believe or the repeated affirmations of the commonly accepted doctrines of their local body of faith. This is known as cataphatic theology, which finds its definitions of God in affirmations and positive statements (God is, versus God is not). It is likely the leading approach to God in the Western church, and certainly within the streams of Christianity known as the grace and charismatic movements. It is also the largest reason so many I’ve met are unwilling to pull their god from their hearts and see if he’s even good enough to be in there—that is—affirmations lead us to believe that the community is operating with some sort of certainty, and if the community is wrong about God, maybe they’re wrong about so much more.

"How are you a Universalist?" Tony Kriz interviews Paul Young

The Victory of God's Perfect Love (it's not about the 'power') - Bev Mitchell

It's not God's power that we need to focus on, it's our misuses of the power we are given. Just like God's power, our power needs to come under the supervision of love. We are not good at doing this. We are so bad at it, in fact, that we expect even God to put his power above his love. As usual with sin, things get turned upside down, spun 180 degrees.

We are quick to insist that power is the center of being for an all powerful God. But could what we see as the effects of God’s power not be, in reality, the effects of God’s perfect love? Perhaps our attempts to describe the source of what God’s accomplishes should seek to portray what can happen, has happened and ultimately will fully happen as the violence and the power of evil come up against perfect love? The warrant for this view comes from the victory of perfect innocence and love at Calvary and on Easter. The resurrection does not celebrate the victory of violent power but its defeat. By celebrating the resurrection, through Spirit-given faith, we proclaim evidence of the victory of perfect love. Just like a great rocky costal promontory stands unconquered against the most violent storm, God's perfect love stands unconquered against any violence evil can hurl against it. God stands against evil and evil destroys itself against God’s love. In Job we read:

“Who closed the sea behind doors
When it gushed forth out of the womb,
When I clothed it in clouds, Swaddled it in dense clouds,
When I made my breakers my limit for it,
And set up its bars and doors,
And said, ‘You may come so far and no further’;
Here your surging waves will stop.”
From the Tenakh JPS 1985

Or as St. John says about the reality of creation “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Or even better in the NIV Spanish “… y las tinieablas no han podido extinguirlo.”

We can speak of all this in terms of might against might, which is almost universally done in world religions, but, in light of the Cross, we should instead accept the clear revelation that violence is wholly on the side of evil. Complete impenetrability to the forces of violence and evil is what a holy God offers, and this is also our eschatological hope. Our best evidence of the indestructibility of God's perfect love is the resurrection.