"In the year that King Uzziah died..." (Is. 6:1)
King Uzziah, as Jewish kings go, was a good king, up until he went into the Temple and usurped the priest's role. Then he became a leprous recluse until he died.
Death has a way of shaking things up. It leaves a void, a vacuum. You can imagine what death does when it claims the life of your political ruler.
Much like our presidential elections, the people wait and wonder what will come with the new. But they must wait. They must wonder. There is nothing they can do to hurry the process or to change its ultimate outcome.
I was thinking about death this week, especially today as we remember the death of Jesus. What a roller coaster of emotions it must of been for his disciples. Feasting, then hours later fleeing for their lives. Feasting, and then falling back into a new normal as Jesus' life changed them and Jesus' death held them captive.
I liken it to pastoring for over twenty years, seeing God work first hand in the lives of his people, and then without notice being called back to the farm. I loved the farm but I loved being a vocational servant of God more. I could go back to farming but I would also have, lingering in my spirit, a hope again of something lost. This is what death does. It robs us of something and stays around as illusive hope. It produces a new normal with a lingering spirit of loss that does not go away. Death steals and reminds you each day that it has taken.
Tonight we remember Death. We must.
"I am the LORD [Yahweh]. That is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols."
Many have been asking me my thoughts on the Wheaton professor fiasco that has put the evangelical college in the center of yet another politically incorrect headline.
For those who may not know the story I refer you to the following site:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/22/wheaton-professors-ask-college-drop-case-against-colleague?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=2bec496f31-DNU20160122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-2bec496f31-197741561
To summarize, Dr. Larycia Hawkins, Associate Professor of Political Science, chose to wear a hajib (Muslim headscarf) and posted the following message on her Facebook page: "I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book." "And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God."
She is on probation and will be going through the process of termination for violating Wheaton's statement of faith.
I want to make several observations.
1. It first and foremost gives warning to any employer (university, college, ministry, church organization). Just because you check off the box "Christian" or "I agree" doesn't mean anything. If a person tells me that they are a Christian my first responsibility is to ask, "What do you mean by that?" Chances are their definition does not follow the historical, orthodox position. We are in a post-Christian, neo-Christian America.
2. It also tells us that at the highest levels of education people can be spiritually ignorant, even in a Christian academic setting. Dr. Hawkins may be a great poli sci teacher but perhaps she should take a few theology classes and especially a comparative religions class.
3. If Dr. Hawkins would have had a cursory understanding of the Koran she would have known that the "People of the book" are the Jews. And subsequently the "Book" that she clings to has been "supposedly" corrupted by both Jews and Christians. The Koran is the only true word of "God." See Surah 5 of the Koran. So if you truly want to hold theological hands with a Muslim you are going to have to ditch the Bible and start memorizing the Koran...and it needs to be in Arabic.
4. It probably isn't wise to quote a Roman Catholic pope as your source of theological witness in an evangelical Protestant college. There are enormous doctrinal differences. I am not saying that we cannot learn from Romanist writings. I have been blessed to read incredibly insightful and deep theological writings from those who have a genuine and true faith but have remained in the Catholic faith system.
5. WE DO NOT SERVE THE SAME GOD! Please take a moment Dr. Hawkins and read the Koran. I'll make it easy for you and keep you in the same surah as used above. The Koran, without fail, denies that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is God. It, without fail, denies the trinity. It denies his substitutionary atonement on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. I don't know how else to say this. WE DO NOT SERVE THE SAME GOD! Allah is a false God and Mohammad is a false prophet.
6. Tolerance is not the act of being nice and believing that if you sincerely believe it, it must be true. Tolerance is not the act of believing that all roads lead to heaven. True biblical teaching says that there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death. In other words, all roads do not lead to the same top of the mountain. Some roads lead you off of a cliff. Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but through me" (Jn. 14:6). He is not a way; he is the only way. And any faith system that denies that biblical truth is a false system of belief - no matter how sincere someone believes it. If Dr. Hawkins believes that we have the same God, she is not a Christian.
7. Stand strong Wheaton theology department. Do not let the donor or non-theological threat sway you from biblical convictions. God will bless you financially with other donors if others fall away. God will replace other faculty members. Fire those who continue to support a wrong theology. Perhaps a re-interview is necessary to actually see where some of these non-theo department profs really stand on the issue of Jesus' uniqueness and divinity. One might say that I am too strong on this issue. After all...its poli sci. The point is that if...I were to recommend a student to Wheaton...it would not matter the discipline. I am recommending Wheaton, not because of their theology department but rather because of their world view that understands the centrality of Jesus in every discipline. And...if that centrality ceases to be central then the discipline fails in its divine course. You might as well attend a secular university. At least you know its not going to pretend it is something that it is not.
8. We should pray for our Christian colleges and universities. How we need to get back to the basics of our orthodox faith in every discipline. We are called to be set apart from the world. In it, but not of it. Let us educate to that end.
9. We should pray for Dr. Hawkins. I cannot tell from her writings if she is spiritually lost, spiritually ignorant, or ignorant of Islamic teachings. Perhaps all three.
10. To every person in my church family, especially teens that will be heading off to university...know what you believe, especially about Jesus and be able to defend it. There is nothing more intimidating than a professor who does not hold to an orthodox position on the person of Jesus and who seeks to undermine your faith.
"Peter, and apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, strangers in the world..."
I am starting a new series in my English adult Sunday school class called, "Prepared to Suffer: Studies in First and Second Peter." I am also trying to do something that I have never done before - memorize the whole letter. I just started this week and by God's grace, I have half of the first chapter memorized. I find that it is forcing me to slow down and, as best as can be discerned, has allowed me to enter into Peter's thinking toward the believers scattered across Asian Minor.
Scripture, per Paul's letter to Timothy, is profitable for teaching, rebuke, correcting, and training in righteousness. In other words, it is transgenerational. Even though Peter is writing to his generation, the word of God is so powerful and insightful that it is equally applicable to my generation and the generations to come. It simply takes on different emphasis.
For example, twenty years ago I would have read this letter about suffering and would have had to find a copy of Voice of the Martyrs to really grasp the significance. I had never suffered for Christ nor did I anticipate suffering for Christ - at least not like these "other" Christians were doing.
Fast forward twenty years and now I am having to be careful about my public opinion on gay marriage, on abortion, on cohabitation, on pornography, and even on the inerrancy of the Bible - and this within the church itself. I am getting a real-time sense of what it must have been like for the early Christians. They were strangers in their own world. Their new belief system was going to be at odds with the existing culture.They were new believers heading into a thoroughly pagan world.
I, on the other hand, was reared in a "Christian nation" that is now becoming increasingly secular (pagan). I, too, am finding that I am a stranger in this world. The "Christian" values that, in general, governed this nation are slowly transforming into an anti-god or at least into a neo-Christian environment. By "neo-Christian" I mean that the very essence of what it means to be a "Christian" - a follower of the biblical Jesus - is being reinterpreted to mean something new that is unrecognizable to historical, orthodox believers. For example, Jesus is no longer the way but a way to get to God. In evangelical circles we used to be concerned about ecumenicism but now we battle a greater evil - universalism. We have left the battle over inter-Church doctrinal separation and now are fighting the idea that all faiths and philosophies are of equal truth.
I have taken great interest in the mass migration to Europe from Islamic countries and the refugee problems that have incurred because of such migration. The Bible is full of consideration for the foreigner and the alien and yet there were expectations for their assimilation. Part of the outcry of Americans is that those coming to this country do not assimilate - they do not learn English, they do not bridge to other cultures, they isolate into smaller national communities, and become, "little Italys," "China towns," "Hispanic burrows," or "Muslim sectors." Our "melting pot" is more like a segregated luncheon tray. It's all on the same plate but nothing is touching.
I wonder what this will mean for true followers of Christ in the future. Peter would go on to say, "...live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear."
What does it mean to live as a "stranger" in my world? Perhaps it means that I am not to be familiar with its customs. Perhaps it means that I am to have a different way of thinking. It may mean that I am unfamiliar with its pleasures or its philosophies. It may mean that my language or manner of speech will always be different. It may mean that my view of the sacred and how I practice that sacredness will be different. How I dress may set me apart or how I voice my opinion or engage in confrontation.
I was in the airport in L.A. waiting for a delayed flight back to Portland when I sat down next to an orthodox Jew and a bunch of girls he was chaperoning. It was easy for me to recognize the beard, the plain clothes, and the hat. Others took notice when at the time of prayer he removed his left arm from his jacket, rolled up his sleeve, wound the tefillin straps around his arm, and fastened the small phylactery box upon his forehead. In a quiet voice he recited the afternoon prayers in Hebrew while motioning back and forth with his upper body. He was a stranger in the midst of strangers.
The question that I must pose to myself is, "Am I a stranger in the world? or is Peter calling me to be a stranger because I look too much like the world?" I am not sure of all of the applications of this to my life yet but I do know this, I am feeling more and more like I do not belong here.
In the world but not of it....
King Uzziah, as Jewish kings go, was a good king, up until he went into the Temple and usurped the priest's role. Then he became a leprous recluse until he died. 
