Col. 2:16: Who is Paul Defending?
“So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Hodesh [new moon] or Shabbat [sabbath].” – Col 2:16
Along with the passage in Acts 10, this section of Paul’s letter to the Colossians is the other “proof” that the Old Testament ceremonial or dietary laws are no longer to be kept by those who follow the Messiah.
But also along with the Acts 10 passage, interpreters tend to read their predetermined view into this passage. In this instance, the predetermined view says Paul declared the dietary and ceremonial laws were merely a matter of individual choice. You may, or may not, choose to keep them. No one is to be your judge in these matters.
In order to understand this issue, it helps to ask this question: Who is Paul defending in this passage? Is he defending the Torah-keeping Christians from accusations by non Torah-keepers? Or is he defending the non Torah-keepers from the accusations of the Torah-keeping crowd? And what criteria would Paul use in order to figure out which group he should be defending?
Why Christians Are Not Winning the Culture War
When you speak of Christian culture, what do you mean? What do you understand by the idea of Christian culture?
There is a tendency by many to think of Christian culture in terms of things: movies, art, music, business, money, economy, property rights, and so forth.
In the past, however, when Christianity did influence the culture, it had an advantage. The key elements of Christianity were constantly a reminder to the people, not just through the implementation of music, art, literature, and law, but through a series of events that spread throughout the calendar year.
I’m referring to the Christian calendar. This created what Robert Webber calls “Christian-year spirituality”. According to Webber,
Through Christian-year spirituality we are enabled to experience the biblical mandate of conforming to Christ. The Christian year orders our formation with Christ incarnate in his ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and coming again through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. In Christian-year spirituality we are spiritually formed by recalling and entering into his great saving events (Ancient-Future Time, p. 22).
Now when was the last time you had a Christian-year calendar that recalled the major events of God’s saving work through Christ, and participation in that and his future as King of kings, and Lord of lords?
A Culture of Despair
If a Thief Hands You Stolen Money, What Should You Do?
Returning to Australia from time to time, I was soon reminded of many of the issues that dropped out of sight while living in America.
At the top of the list is the Australian concept of socialism. Socialism is the idea that the government takes control of all resources within the nation and allocates them in some fashion. Frederick Hayek drew the distinction between communism and socialism when he observed that in communism, the government owns everything and allocates according to government plan. Under socialism, ownership remains in the hands of individuals, but the government determines the allocation of the privately-held resources. The Australian government pretends it is neither socialistic nor communistic. But as Ludwig von Mises argued so clearly, the middle-of-the-road policy is the road to full socialism. You cannot control part of the economy without controlling all of it.
The key issue here is one of ownership and the meaning of the idea of ownership. “Thou shalt not steal” establishes the right of private ownership, ownership being the right of dispossession. This is the key. If you cannot dispose the things you own in the manner in which you would like, you don’t own the thing. Whoever controls the dispossession is the real owner, even though there may be official papers giving title to the individual.
In the modern world, it is taxation, perhaps more than anything else, that determines the biblical framework of ownership. The government not only takes for itself the right to tax, but it also allocates to itself the right to determine how much tax it might be entitled to. This is important because it raises the question of property ownership in money. It doesn’t exist any more. But it did exist at one time, when the Bible provided the prevailing philosophy.
The Medieval Origins of the Modern State
If you only read ONE history book in your lifetime, read this one.
You cannot understand how far we’ve come away from Christian culture until you realize what had to change to get non-Christian culture. And this little book helps explain the necessary steps to abolish freedom and Christian culture.
Since the time of Magna Carta individuals have been in disagreement with their rulers over the issues of power and control, especially control over money. Magna Carta, signed under duress by King John in 1215, was altered ten years later so that the new king could levy a one-sixteenth tax on moveable goods.
Joseph Strayer, author of The Medieval Origins of the Modern State, argues that the modern state has its origin in activities such as this. It’s an important study on why we’re in the mess we’re in.
Read it!
Culture Wars of the “Dark Ages”
The “Golden Age” of Applied Christianity
The victors write the history books, it is claimed.
Yet history is being rewritten in our own age by a new breed of scholars who are telling us a different story about the “Dark Ages.” In this case, it is not only a different story, it is a better story.
With the rise of the Enlightenment and its rampant anti-Christianity came a view of the past called the “Dark Ages”. It referred to the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and covered the next few hundred years; for some people, the “Dark Ages” remained until the humanistic Renaissance appeared. Why? Enlightenment thought was so critical of Christianity it could not face the facts. The facts being that the Bible and Christianity were the cultural reference points that replaced pagan Rome.
Imagine this. You are the last Roman Emperor. Your area of jurisdiction is dissipating in front of you. You have insufficient money to wage war, even defensive war. The tax demands you have inherited have created such hostility among the citizens, they don’t care any longer. Anything is better than this.
Among this mess was a veritable army of Christian monks and citizens who had answers. In fact, your predecessor, Constantine, not only permitted Christianity to exist, but helped established the local priests and monks as a surrogate source of justice. The Roman courts were too expensive for justice, whereas the local church was not only a cheap alternative, it had some better answers to the problems of life. So magnificent was the result of their Christian answers, that one historian noted: “[T]he early Middle Ages represented the age par excellence of ‘applied Christianity’.” (Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, 2nd ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003, p. 25, emphasis in original).
Education: Zeal Without Knowledge
When is Education Not Education?
This is a complaint. A complaint about teachers. In particular, teachers of musical instruments, especially piano, but more than that.
Here’s the nature of my complaint. But before I give you the basis of the complaint, answer this question:
Which group of teachers has the highest failure rate?
If you answered public school teachers, you’d be close, but not close enough.
If you answered Seminary professors you might also be close, but again, not close enough.
Maybe you thought of college professors in general. And while you might have some basis for this, you would not even be close.
Here’s my answer. Music teachers!
These are the teachers who offer to teach your child an instrument – piano, violin, flute, cello, clarinet, guitar, harp – you name it.
But look at how many students take music lessons then quit as soon as they are teenagers.
Now they would probably quit Math and English classes if they could, too. But music is one subject that mom and dad say is optional.
But the fact that it’s optional is not why the kids quit.
They quit because they can’t play the instrument.
Continue reading
The Gospel of Love
“All You Need is Love, Love, Love.” - The Beatles, 1967
The Romantic movement, following on the heels of the Enlightenment, brought a revitalized message about love. There’s not enough of it.
And Romantic art of all kinds – poetry, music, painting, etc. – indicates that the lack of love is the significant problem in the world. If only this girl or that man would love me, all my problems would go away. Romanticism in this vein, however, is even more likely to have the three-way love affair, with adultery mixed in the midst of it. There was a reason composer Richard Wagner used Tristan and Isolde as a key part of his operatic works with music designed to undermine Christian culture, for the story is a key representative of Romanticism. Hollywood, in our generation, perpetuates this belief about love.
Enter our churches and you hear an identical message called the gospel of love. “Honk if you love Jesus” was an old bumper sticker. Music, now the controlling influence in the contemporary church, is the music of the Romantic era. The use of melody and harmony are governed by the rules of the post-Baroque period, and when played on guitar and drums, the rhythm is highlighted and it becomes the dominant aspect of the contemporary worship service.
Now listen to the sermon that follows this kind of music.
Christian Business 101
I have a question for you. No, it’s not a trick question. But hopefully it will get you thinking.
Manufacturing business has a goal and objective to make more money. The prevailing philosophy of business says by lowering the price you sell more. This has been proven over and over again to be true. Computers, pocket calculators, are just some examples.
But now we move to a service business. Here the business owner makes his money primarily from his own labor, not from employing machines and other people to produce saleable items.
Continue reading
Divine Right and Immigration
I’ve just returned from the movies: Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett in “Robin Hood.” Alright, I confess, I’m a Russel Crowe fan, and Jessie and I are in Boulder, Colorado, celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary. Both Australians delivered what I consider a great performance.
But there is a scene at the end of the movie that is provocative. King John declares he is appointed by Divine Right, and he’s not about to let a bunch of barons tell him what to do.
Continue reading
I Dreamed a Dream, Too.
What Would a “Spiritual” Revival Look Like?
Charles Hodge, in his history of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, written in the 19th century, was critical of the revival period known as the Great Awakening. Why? His opinion seems to cut against common acceptance that this was a mighty work of revival, and that the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in a particular way during this period.
Charles Hodge (no known relation to this writer) would not accept this view so readily. In his opinion, the church was in a worse state two years after the Awakening than it was two years earlier. Thus, he was not so ready to accept the Awakening was the work of the Holy Spirit.
His criticism, therefore, begs the question. And if you allowed yourself to dream for a few minutes, what would a spiritual revival look like to you?
I dreamed a dream. There was a spiritual revival under way.
Continue reading
God and Taxes
A Mark of Sovereignty
From time to time there are news items explaining why some people find it necessary to leave home. Taxes — property taxes to be precise.
In a period of rising house prices, it is easy to forget that with rises in prices come increasing property taxes. And property taxes can mean financial ruin for many whose income cannot rise to meet the increased tax burden.
One resident in Massachusetts some time ago was suffering when her tax bill increased from $2,200 to $3,500, while income remained fixed at $12,000 a year. The result? Sell the family home, with all its sweat and tears (it was built by the current owner and her late husband) and memories.
While the stock market may be on the move up again and there is little evidence that the real estate market is out of the doldrums, the banking fiasco in the US, together with fevered home buying, indicated personal debt was on the increase. So, too, were home prices, since a good portion of the debt went into home buying. Property prices were bound to increase — and property taxes along with them.
Continue reading
The Sins of Our Fathers
I was talking this week with someone about King David from the Bible. We talked about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, the “murder” of her husband and the death of the newborn. Then we went on to talk about the violence and deception that you find among his offspring.
I have often talked about the Biblical curses being much more about learned behavior and attitudes that are passed down. This discussion drove the point home even stronger to me.
God didn’t come down to David and say, “Because of what you did, I am now going to curse your children” nor, in all likelihood, was there a gene for violence that was passed down. What David demonstrated and did with his own life was passed down. It was something the children learned from the father’s behavior patterns.
We teach our children how to deal with situations, not necessarily through our words, but through our actions. An alcoholic has a much higher percentage of alcoholic children than a non-alcoholic. The visual evidence of the addiction is most of the time nothing more than how an addict deals with and avoids life, including emotions and feelings. This same avoidance behavior is what the children learn.
This is just one example of what we teach our children. Typically it is so subtle we don’t even realize we are doing it.
The good news is it works both ways, healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
So what are you teaching your children?
Better Than the Pharisees
HOW TO EXCEED THE PHARISEES
The words of Jesus create problems for many people. The reason? They don’t like them.
Consider this from Matt.12: 36-37: “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Everyone hopes that these words are somehow and somewhere modified elsewhere in Scripture. Justified by our words? No way. We’ll never make it, that’s for sure. Yet the words of Jesus are there to deal with.
Now consider this passage earlier in the book of Matthew: “For I say unto you that unless your righteousness exceeds he righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
For many, that sounds like a great dose of legalism.
Continue reading
Assets and Liabilities
“The primary cause of financial struggle is simply not knowing the difference between an asset and a liability.” So says Robert Kiyosaki in his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Economic categories are no longer what they were. It is now common to hear government officials say that the revenue they did not receive was a “cost” to the government.
Imagine going to the company accounting system and entering an amount in the costs of the company for revenue that was not obtained. “Let me see, we should have had another $10 million this year. Let’s put that in as a cost to the business. Better still, make it $10 billion.”
And you think corporate fiscal accountability is bad.
Continue reading
What Evangelists Need to Learn From the Kitchen
If you leave out an important ingredient, your best cooking efforts are doomed.
This article was written while I was in Nova Scotia and had just returned from having supper with a local family.
This part of the world, Clare County, has several municipalities that are Old French culture and language. The schools in these municipalities hold their classes in the old Acadian language, while the municipalities either side are English. In the seventeenth century, the French living in the valley of Nova Scotia were forcibly relocated by the British. Some found their way to the western shores of Nova Scotia while others were settled in Louisiana. The Cajuns and the Acadians are linked culturally — and share an understandable attitude towards the British. In Nova Scotia, the Acadians have been promised an apology from the monarch of England, but it is yet to arrive.
This caused me to reflect on the turmoil of Europe at the time of their dislocation. The Acadians, French in origin, tried to remain neutral in the struggles between Britain and France. They were not permitted to do this.
Continue reading
Recent Comments