Category Archives: Biblically Speaking

This category is for topics and issues which come back to specific biblical answers and debates. It is especially concerned with God’s grace and the Christian life…and, with keeping the Gospel of faith alone in Christ alone crystal clear.

Biblically Speaking

How Do You Gain Peace with Your Enemies?

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One of Murphy’s famous axioms says, “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.”

Isn’t it curious how true this quip is?  Of course, some of us never acquire enemies, but we never acquire much in the way of friends either.  You know, “If you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything.”  If you never stand up (or stand out), then no one will every dislike you…well, except for those who dislike people who don’t take stands.  But, no one will really like you either because they don’t notice you. You get the point.

Today my 3-at-home-sons were looking at the Bible on this topic.  “How do we get peace with our enemies?”  Naturally, we first concluded that we do see enemies in our lives from time to time, and that the Bible seems to have this assumption as well.  Remember Romans:

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:18-21, ESV)

Notice it doesn’t say, “If you have enemies…”  Frankly, I hate having enemies and I hate being one.  I deeply appreciate the kind words John Piper’s assistant pastor wrote me concerning my recent book Back to Faith (where I challenge some of Piper’s assumptions on faith and works).  He acknowledge my efforts to be gracious and supportive…even though I disagree with Piper.  That’s always my hope.

Now, with the boys, we pondered things like the Golden Rule and the value of following Matthew 18 in seeking to actually talk to others in order to be reconciled.  We talked of kindness and pursuing peace.  We talked of not speaking ill of others to others (a sure way to grow your enemies).  We even talked about how beating them or yielding to them so as to end the conflict.  Yet, here is where we landed:

“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7, ESV)

At that moment, it became clear that one great way is to let the Lord make the peace (we concluded it isn’t the person making his own peace, but the gracious act of God causing peace to happen).  So, please the Lord.  Walk with Him.  Stay tight with the Lord and He can sort out things with enemies.  We know a proverb is a principle and not a promise—but it is a nice principle to have on your side!

So, how do you please the Lord?

I think it is simply to do what He’s asking…next.  I believe Oswald Chambers suggested, “Trust God and do the next thing.”  Really sound advice.  We often try our best to tell God what should please Him (we do this with our enemies too), but He isn’t interested.  God isn’t concerned about EVERY issue in your life at EVERY moment.  He gets it, but He is at work on something.

It seems clear that if you’ll just ask Him what He wants next…He’ll tell you and give you the power to pull it off.  It couldn’t be clearer.  Of course, if you don’t know of anything, maybe there isn’t anything.  But just in case, pray with David:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, ESV)

If you want peace with your enemies…I don’t know a faster way.  My experience bears this out as well.

God bless,

Fred Lybrand

Biblically Speaking

Success, Wisdom, Tiger, and the Bible

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Tiger is fresh on my mind because we talked about him as we looked at the Bible.  When I say ‘we’ I mean my wife and my three at-home sons.  As we talked I described to them that  success can get us to a place of ‘believing’ our own press reports; specifically, that the rules don’t apply to us.  I was encouraged to later see that Tiger had used these same words about himself.  He knows he did wrong and we know he did wrong—but standards these days (amorality) really doesn’t have much of a reason as to why.  The wrongness is ethical…but the stupidity is practical.  It can be avoided.

So, what happens and how do we avoid falling into such a pit ourselves.  Three verses come to mind (the two in proverbs we all discussed around the kitchen table).

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV)


“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:7-8, ESV)


“Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” (2 Corinthians 10:12, ESV)


All of these verses hit at the same thing…I kind of arrogance that contains its own death-wish, so to speak.  Leaning on your own understanding, being wise in your own eyes, and using yourself as the standard of measurement…all of these are deadly.

The verses surely aren’t saying that thinking of someone as wise is a problem, rather it is when we stand back and look at our own selves with awe and wonder at our greatness (wisdom, smarts, looks, money, success, etc.).  I remember a speaker one time saying that he would get up in the morning, look himself in the mirror, and declare to his own reflection, “You good lookin’ thing—don’t you ever die.”  I can’t recall if it was a tip or a joke, but we all laughed.

The problem with us humans is that we lose perspective, especially when we don’t have a ‘god’ to whom we are accountable.  All that is left is oneself, so we measure us by us.  Soon phrases like, “I could be wrong” disappear altogether and we drift in to rank subjectivity; if we think it, it must be true.

There is a better way, including a turning away from evil.  But, according to the passage above, the turn from evil is preceded by not looking at ourselves with awe.  Tiger is a helpful example here, which is already redemptive if we take it to heart.

The final promise is that there is HEALTH in the future…if humility and a flight from evil are taken to heart.  Acknowledging God surely begins with admitting “I am not God”— but there’s the rub.  We succeed, we believe our press reports, we decided the rules don’t apply—then all that is left is collapse.  This is how it goes with wisdom, this world, and a very interested God who is listening for our humble acknowledgment of Him over us.

God bless Tiger and all of us who would learn from his stumble and recovery.

Grace,

Fred Lybrand

Biblically Speaking

What makes someone an Agnostic and not an Atheist?

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All,

I received this comment in a previous post, and thought it might lead to clarifying a distinction about atheists and agnostics.

Here’s the note:

If you want to talk to atheists in Texas, go to Austin. Specifically the Atheist Community of Austin, and their cable access show “The Atheist Experience” or their podcast “The Non-Prophets”. (And no, they aren’t paying me to advertise.)

All I can say, and someone may already have said it, is that your definition of ‘atheist’ is wrong. All an atheist is is someone who doesn’t believe in a god or gods.

Certainly someone who asserted that there absolutely was no god would fit the definition of an atheist. But the definition of atheist isn’t so specific as to apply only to those people.

Here’s my response:

morsecOde,

You are sort of making my point – it is about ‘belief’.

I think I’ve been fair in my postings [see My Favorite Conversation (ever) With an Atheist] about the distinctions in language on the term, but I’ll ponder the following critique:

There is, unfortunately, some disagreement about the definition of atheism. It is interesting to note that most of that disagreement comes from theists — atheists themselves tend to agree on what atheism means. Christians in particular dispute the definition used by atheists and insist that atheism means something very different.

The broader, and more common, understanding of atheism among atheists is quite simply “not believing in any gods.” No claims or denials are made — an atheist is just a person who does not happen to be a theist. Sometimes this broader understanding is called “weak” or “implicit” atheism. Most good, complete dictionaries readily support this.

There also exists a narrower sort of atheism, sometimes called “strong” or “explicit” atheism. With this type, the atheist explicitly denies the existence of any gods — making a strong claim which will deserve support at some point. Some atheists do this and others may do this with regards to certain specific gods but not with others. Thus, a person may lack belief in one god, but deny the existence of another god.

Below are links to a variety of references pages to help understand how atheism is defined and why atheists define it the way they do.

Now, with all that in mind, I suppose the question is what is the difference between an atheist and an agnostic? [http://atheism.about.com/od/definitionofatheism/a/definition.htm]

I’m thinking:

atheist = I don’t believe there is a god or gods [i.e. there is no God.]

agnostic = I don’t know if there is a god or gods [i.e. is there a God?]

My point is that, though many atheists believe they are atheists (which is fine, believe you are whatever you think you are), they are in fact agnostics.

So, what makes someone an agnostic and not an atheist?

Thanks,


Fred Lybrand

Biblically Speaking

My Favorite Conversation (ever) with an Atheist

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Occasionally I get to bump into an atheist—even in Texas!

Here’s how I remember the conversation, though it probably wasn’t this smooth 🙂

Me: So, where are you on your own spiritual journey

Atheist: Oh, well I’m an atheist.

Me.  Cool!  I’ve hardly ever met a real atheist.

Atheist:  Well, congratulations, I guess.

Me:  So, can I ask you a question?

Atheist:  Sure.

Me:  So how do you absolutely positively know that there is no God.

Atheist:  Well, I don’t absolutely positively know that there is no God.

Me: Oh (very disappointed and crest-fallen), then you’re just an agnostic.  Well, which kind of agnostic are you, open or closed?

Former Atheist: I don’t know what you mean.

Me:  Well, an atheist knows there is no God.  An agnostic doesn’t know whether there is a God or not.  The closed agnostic says that if there is a God we can’t know because He is so beyond us we couldn’t grasp His existence anyway.  In this sense the agnostic is closed because the system is closed.  An open agnostic says that he just doesn’t know if there is a God or not.  The open agnostic doesn’t insist that God’s existence is unknowable, but rather that it is unknown to him

Former Atheist: Well, I’ve got to catch my plane.

Me: OK, have a nice day.

Well, it didn’t happen quite this way…I for sure didn’t look so ‘clever’ and he didn’t look so anxious to leave; but don’t you get the point?  Their is an innate arrogance in most atheism which really amounts to FAITH.  The atheist BELIEVES that God doesn’t exist…perhaps based on evidence, but really taken more as a matter of faith.  We too can offer our evidence, but it really comes down to a matter of faith.

Perhaps, all of this explains why I think open-agnostics are pretty cool—hey, they are honest.  What a refreshing thing to encounter; a person who doesn’t know and admits it!  I think we should celebrate these folks and invite them to consider why God’s existence makes sense to believe…but plese remember, it is ALWAYS an INVITATION.  We aren’t going to talk people into believing in God, but we can sure invite them.

I’ve always thought of golf as a great metaphor for ‘evangelism’ as such.  Basically, when you play golf, you play the ball where it lies.  Sometimes you use an iron and sometimes a putter.   And, yet, you are always simply trying to move the ball closer to the hole.

Isn’t that a better way to go?  Helping an atheist move to an agnostic is a BIG move!  Of course, I’m not really ‘moving’ anyone…just inviting them to consider things in a fresh way.

We all can do that as opportunity arises.  True?

God bless,

Fred Lybrand

Biblically Speaking

Did you know the Bible mentions Luck?

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Well of course we all know God is sovereign, which means He is clearly in charge and He does as He pleases.  But you know, this is only one side of the story.  I’ve noticed that people tend to get theologically ‘lopsided’ from time to time.  By being lopsided I mean that we can drift into forcing the rest of the Bible to fit our own view.

I mean, is it all about sovereignty or all about free will?  I prefer the term ‘responsiblity’ over the term ‘free will’— but in any case issues such as these turn out to be about mystery.  It may seem like a cop-out, but the mysteries are best held as such.  Jesus…God or man?  Yes!  But I say this by way of admitting a mystery that I can’t (yet in this life) explain.  I affirm both elements without having to RESOLVE THE TENSION.

The Bible does this in many spots, and in this sense reminds us of Art and not Philosophy.  Art holds tension (such as in the use of irony), while Philosophy mostly does not (it must fit well as a system / answer objections).  In Art, the Mona Lisa can smile.  In Philosophy, we have to define smile and explain her motives (which means we guess)!

So what about luck?

Well, here’s the verse—

“But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by CHANCE a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.” (Luke 10:29-31, ESV)

I emphasized the word CHANCE so it would be easy to see.  Yes, here is Jesus Christ telling the famous story of the Good Samaritan and sticking luck right in the middle of it!  Is this really a word that means luck?

Well, here’s what an online Greek-word-tool  called Perseus which says (and I’ve verified it with TDNT, etc., if you care)—

συγκυρέω 1 2

I. to come together by chance, Il., Hdt.: to meet with an accident, συγκύρσαι τύχῃ Soph.; εἰς ἓν μοίρας ξυνέκυρσας art involved in one and the same fate, Eur.

Basically, it just means what we think it means; by happenstance, a priest came upon a man after he was attacked, beaten, and left for dead.  Things really do ‘just happen’, though I’m sure this happening is not without the permission of God in how He ordained the universe.  Personally, I don’t like it because this world doesn’t seem to work right.  And yet, I hold out that this isn’t the best world God can make (the next world will be the best world); but that in the meantime, we can give folks a taste of the world to come as the Samaritan did.

Jesus talked in truthful and plan language.  Clearly God is not obsessed with over-controlling every detail.  Surely we have free will responsibility…how else can we explain what we wear on most days!

Good luck…stuff happens…but the Lord is still above it all,

Fred Lybrand