John Mark Reynolds

Beauty and the Existence of God

John Mark Reynolds — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:52:21 -0800

The existence of beauty suggests that a God exists and that He is good. It is not a sufficient proof for the existence of God by itself, but a confirmation of His existence to those with other reasons and personal experiences that suggest His reality.

From Plato to C.S. Lewis, creation as a whole has been viewed as marvelously elegant.

The harmonious plan of the cosmos allows for variation and freedom for created beings. There is a fundamental pattern and order to creation, but also room for the unexpected within the design plan. Too much regularity would seem stagnant, so thankfully the created order also shows variability and the marvelously engineered capacity to adapt and change.

So delightful is the universe that elegant mathematical and scientific theories work better in explaining it than inelegant ones. It is no accident that scientists discover that more elegant theories are more useful in the “real world” than less beautiful ones.

These observations suggest an engineer, or artist, behind the cosmos. But is this just a useful natural adaptation? After all, we tend to care for beautiful things, and so it would be to our advantage to develop a liking for the ecosystem that sustains us.

But humans do not just find their local environment pleasing. They also discover that new areas of the cosmos, where humankind has never been, are beautiful. When my son first went up in a plane and saw “cloud land,” he turned to me with wonder and said, “It is so beautiful.” It was not surprising to him, because even though this land above the clouds would have been unknown to all but the most recent humans, we expect beauty when we come to new vistas and are rarely disappointed.

Gratuitous beauty, beauty that could have no survival value for humankind, exists! Both when we dive to the bottom of the ocean, and when we see distant corners of space, we find stark and weird things, never before known, but clearly lovely. At this point it would surprise us if we found a corner of the cosmos that was not beautiful.

That superabundance of beauty is a hint that a good and loving God may exist.

Ugliness also appears to us at times, but the ugly is less fundamental than beautiful. Ugliness exists as a twisting of the beautiful created order. This truth is taught in Scripture, but can also be observed in creation: every unborn child will grow to express the divine image unless their development is aborted by sin.

Viewed with the widest scope humans possess, the cosmos shows awe-inspiring beauty, and this beauty is repeated in the most focused examination of the basic elements of that massive structure. It is only in the middle, where we find humankind, at the level of choice and agency, that the pattern of beauty is twisted and marred. Yet, even there, the staggering ability of humankind to create beauty based on the common image of God within us reminds us that it is beauty that is fundamentally real.

For a Biblical Christian existence is good and goodness is beautiful. As a result nothing created can be wholly bad or utterly ugly. Even the most shattered part of creation remains part of the beautiful whole, made from the beautiful elements of creation.

Parts of creation, especially humans, require redemption. But even the image of God in fallen man, shattered though it is, retains enough beauty to remind the keen observer of God.

The Bible and Slavery

John Mark Reynolds — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:48:07 -0800

The Old Testament acknowledges the existence of economic, not racial, slavery in the ancient world and attempts to regulate it. The New Testament undermines the economic viability of slavery by calling for slaves to be treated as “brothers,” but does not call for immediate abolition.

Why not?

The Bible attacks slavery and many other social injustices indirectly. The main focus of the Bible is not human culture, but the relationship between God and humankind. The Bible prioritizes healing the dying soul over dealing with corrupt cultures.

God also recognizes that revolutionary change in human institutions often produces more harm than good.

The fallen world is full of great social evils and humans are busy thinking up new ones every day. Scripture does provide general principles that can be applied to specific cases with the potential to bring about large cultural change, but slowly and over time.

However, since God is most interested in changed hearts and eternal salvation, the Bible does not consist of regulations covering every aspect of life. Instead, God commands and forbids some very basic behaviors and begins the long process of revealing His nature and will to free will beings. The simple lesson of monotheism was difficult enough for the ancient peoples to understand.

Eventually, embracing monotheism undermines slavery: since it demands allegiance to God and the divine will, it places each individual human being on an equal footing. All people are essentially equal before God. Slavery, one person “owning” another as property, is deeply incompatible with this basic truth.

The slavery of the ancient world at the time of the writing of Scripture was economic or military. Losers ended up slaves whether in bankruptcy or defeat. Civilization, and the hope of future progress that goes with it, often depends on highly structured and, by modern standards, rigid social hierarchies. The technology simply did not exist to support a culture as free as is possible in modern times.

Economic slavery is an evil, but not the worst possible evil. The economies of the ancient world were not just and revolved around slavery. But since Greek and Roman people lacked the moral training and economic sophistication to handle a fully free civilization, immediate abolition would have led to social unrest, starvation, and a collapse in civilization. God is a good educator and teaches His lessons as quickly as He can, but He must teach the students He has and not the students we wish He had.

The Bible treats the slave as a human being capable of his or her own relationship with God. Old Testament modification of slavery demanded righteous treatment, undercutting economic justification for bad treatment. By the time Paul asked a master to treat his slave as a “brother,” there was little chance that slavery could long survive amongst Biblically consistent Christians. Over time slavery died out in Christian lands until it experienced a sickening revival with race-based slavery.

Racial slavery finds no justification in Scripture and is much worse than economic slavery. The race-based slave has his or her basic humanity called into question. As a result there was a much stronger argument for immediate abolition of race-based slavery, regardless of the cost. Slavery in the United States occurred far enough along in the Christian era that it stood as an affront to moral progress. As the results of the American Civil War proved, slavery was not necessary for sustaining nineteenth century social order. Indeed, race based slavery undermined the health of any area cursed with its evil as an institution.

California and Thank-A-Mormon Day

John Mark Reynolds — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:34:08 -0800

Proposition 8 would not have passed if it had not been for LDS (Mormon) money and manpower. For their hard work as participants in the process, this small religious group received some of the worst attacks of the political season. They were demonized and stereotyped by opponents of Proposition 8 and sometimes by the mainstream media.

Within the Republican Party the areas dominated by LDS members delivered for John McCain and Sarah Palin. Though not a monolith (paging Mormon Senate Leader Reid), the LDS are some of the most consistent pro-family voters in the nation. Prop 8 did not win on their votes (that took millions of people), but one reason it won was their know how and fervor.

Despite this fact at times a plausible Mormon presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, was the subject of unfair religious scrutiny. (Some forms of scrutiny of religion are fair, but some are just bigoted. Distinctions start here.) Too often people they have supported in the past were weak in their condemnation of such bigotry.

Republicans should not ask for Mormon money and manpower and then regulate their leaders to the backrooms when leadership roles are handed out.

Of course, nobody should confuse political and social agreement with theological unity.

My theological differences with the Mormon faith are deep and important. Within the last month I have argued that the LDS view of the God is not compatible with what we know about Divine love. Those theological discussions and disagreements must continue bringing clarity with charity to the important disagreements.

They are important because they are, after all about eternal things.

In the battle for the family, however, traditional Christians have no better friends than the Mormon faithful. It would be wrong if that support were taken for granted. We are intolerant of the false attacks on Mormon faith and family. We stand with our Mormon friends in their right to express their views on the public square. We celebrate the areas, such as family values, where we agree.

A heart felt thank you may not win points from other friends who demand one hundred percent agreement from their allies, but it is the decent and proper thing to do.

Thank you to our Mormon friends and allies!

Morning in America

John Mark Reynolds — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:40:35 -0800

Wednesday the sun came up and I was happy. It is still morning in America. The candidate I voted for did not win, but I got to vote in a free and fair election. Power will be passed peacefully and the Constitution is intact.

We should never take that for granted.

The United States of America is still a marvelous place to live. People suffering in the Sudan would trade our worst day, economically speaking, for their best. Citizens in more prosperous China do not have the chance to throw the rascals out.

The sun is not setting on the American experiment. It is still rising, because there is still work to be done expanding the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all citizens.

It is glorious that an African-American has been elected President of the United States. Slavery was the original sin of the Republic and racism remains the bitter experience of too many Americans. The election of Barack Obama will not end racism in the United States, but it is a positive, symbolic step forward.

Each one of these steps brings us further to Dr. King’s dream of a society where men and women are judged on the content of their character and not on race.

President-elect Obama will soon be my head of state. I will pray for him daily and for his success. He is my president and it is my duty to do so.

In our system, President-elect Obama is also the head of government. In those terms, I am part of the loyal opposition. I will support President Obama when his policies are sound and give forceful reasons to oppose them if they lurch to the left. A loyal opposition is always hopeful that the Other Party will govern better than they have promised—the real world often tempers messianic dreams, but is ready to quip and quarrel if not.

The battle for the right to life for all God’s children will continue as will our defense of the family. We should ignore the temptation to read too much into elections. Pundits get paid to pontificate, yet they lack the anointing of pontiffs let alone of prophets.

Here is a rule of thumb: a party in charge during an economic meltdown and an unpopular war is finished. It is a sign of how center right the country really is, and the risk that the Democratic Party took in nominating Obama, that the race was as close as it was for so long. The banking crisis finished McCain.

Any analysis beyond that fact is speculation. The wave of anti-Republican sentiment during the “bail out” was so strong that any other tendencies are hard to separate or measure.

I will continue to support a small government just big enough to protect our fundamental rights, but today reminds me that most of life has nothing to do with government.

My family watched the returns with me. We mourned our defeat and then enjoyed time together. My classes in Torrey Honors at Biola will continue to explore the great texts of the West and my students will continue to argue well and press me to think harder about my ideas. My parish of Saint Michael will maintain the great tradition of the Western rite liturgy and we will not change our mind on the great moral issues with each passing poll.

Most of life is not government and most Americans put little trust in our “princes.”

“It is morning in America,” Reagan’s commercials famously ran… and for me it is still true. The land has not changed, our history is more glorious than not, and the election of the first African-American to the White House is good.

Besides, the imp and political junkie in me suggests, 2012 is not so far away…

Healing Before Empowering

John Mark Reynolds — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:56:09 -0700

Christianity is good for both men and women, even when it does not empower us. Americans often carry the illusion that empowering a person is always a good thing, but a moment of reflection clears up that optimistic fantasy. Bad people should not be empowered and good people already are.

Jesus Christ provides a way for men and women to become what they were created to be. His followers, Christians, are not so much empowered as healed. The healed soul of a Christian man or woman will grow, but out of adoration for God and not as the result of some religious form of pep talk or from a church service selling self-esteem.

Sadly humans as they are today are not what they should be. We are marred—and this applies to every area of human personhood. Humanity needs to hear women’s voices and men’s voices, but before empowering these voices to speak, both men and women need to be restored.

Doing so includes both encouraging difference and equality.

In traditional Christian belief both men and women were created in the image of God. We are both the same sort of being: human beings. Within that class of being men and women are different from each other. Both sexes reflect different aspects of God’s character and the differences are delightful.

Stressing fundamental equality while allowing for diversity is difficult, but Christianity does it.

The traditional Christian belief that men and women are both in God’s image helped produce equality before the law in Western cultures. Most of the time, the relevant feature of any person in civil society is not his or her sex, but his or her common humanity.

Christian societies consistently moved in the direction of giving equal civil rights to men and women.

Simultaneously, Christians recognize the pressure to homogenize and become intolerant of different voices. Treating everyone as if they are the same, when they are not can sometimes be used as an excuse to stifle different voices. This is especially true when there is a failure at creating space in which differences can flourish.

When people are different, then treating them as if they are the same can destroy valuable diversity.

The Church administers the same medicine to our broken humanity, but for different treatment where humans are different. Christianity allows both for spiritual mothers and fathers. Persons from either sex speak into the life of the Church, but the Church refuses to confuse the roles, in part because we wish to hear different voices.

Wisely, Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and many (if not most) Protestants reserve some roles in the family and the Church for women and some for men. This allows space for each sex to cultivate and speak powerfully in a different voice.

Saint Nina is venerated as equal to the apostles, but she is not an apostle. Christians are able to honor Saint Nina as equal to apostles, because her ministry has common features to their ministry. But by allowing her to act out of her own experience of humanity and not shoe horning her ministry into male categories, the Church is also able to hear her woman’s voice.

Treating humans the same where they are the same, but different where they are different is very difficult. Simple-minded societies and religions do not even try. Some particularly wicked cultures attempt to silence the voice of one sex or the other, sometimes in the name of religion.

In other cultures normative differences in roles and functions are not tolerated and so healthy diversity is lost. Some fading Protestant groups in the United States demand men and women are treated interchangeably in all functions. Experience shows a massive loss of many voices as a result.

In this area, like any other, Christians have not always understood their own ideas correctly. Bad people have used the slow development of Christian self-understanding as an opportunity for harm. Christians have been inconsistent in their views on these issues. Christianity is always good for men and women, but particular Christians often are not.

Christianity has reconciled Christian women and men to God by Jesus’ work. Salvation is, however, both general (for all humankind) and particular (for me). In general each Christian can sing Amazing Grace, but the individual applies this gift from God to his or her particular sins.

Another important piece of what makes each person what he or she would be is his or her nature as a man or a woman. The Church allows each woman and each man a unique voice and the opportunities to cultivate that voice.

When made right with God, humans gain the power to be what they were made to be. We flourish not just as humans, but as individuals. Before we can flourish, or even be empowered, we must first become good so that more power does not harm us or others. God often provides tough medicine for our problems . . . and this can feel exhausting and difficult for a time. When it empowers, Christianity wants to empower souls for Paradise. The great choir of heaven will be made of the beautiful harmony of many different voices . . . and not of the flat homogeneity so loved by the modern critic.

On the Election: Four Things

John Mark Reynolds — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:17:15 -0700

The election is not yet. Much can still happen in this crazy year, and I am not in despair but (as a commentator) four things about the nation and election look true to me right now:

First, let me state the obvious: Senator Obama is winning.

As I have often repeated: this is a Democratic year. John McCain was always running up hill with a fifty pound pack on his back. He might make it, but the stock market crash and credit crash added another one hundred pounds each. Senator Obama ran an uneven campaign, was a tough sell to the American public (compared to other Democratic choices), but he is well on his way to the White House.

Second, the world will not come to an end if Senator Obama wins. My family will go on being my family, my students will continue to be wonderful, and this grand Republic will still be a great place to live. Some of my correspondents are in a panic about President Obama, but they should not be. Some men grow in office. Some presidents, see Lincoln, surprise voters by revealing hidden depths. As John McCain pointed out recently, Senator Obama is a good man, a patriot, and very smart.

We should be hopeful people and begin to pray for him and his choices.

Third, to quote (roughly) one of my favorite bits of economic wisdom from that American classic It’s a Wonderful Life: “Potter’s not selling, Potter’s buying.” In the holiday film, the town plutocrat, Potter by name, buys up the bank and most of the other assets at the start of the depression. Most of the town loses their heads and allows him too much control of the local economy. Only George, marvelously played by Jimmy Stewart, keeps Potter from ruining the town by refusing to sell the Savings and Loan to Potter.

We need some brave Georges to stand up to the panic and Potter right now.

People need to stop rushing around (Panic! Sell! Doom!) and start thinking ahead to the recovery. What assets can be saved? What will we do during the recovery? When the recovery comes (and it will) what will be the next good place to invest?

Finally, California is the Gettysburg of traditional marriage. Proposition Eight, which would restore sanity to the system, was losing and will be outspent badly, but lately things have turned around. There is a chance that the rest of the nation will not have California rewrite marriage laws. Pray for us and send money to groups supporting traditional marriage so that traditional churches and Christian education can be left alone in the more left-of-center days to come.

Obama Pulling Away?

John Mark Reynolds — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:13:34 -0700

If the election were held today, Senator Obama would win easily.

The election will not be held today and there are still two major events to come.

However, the melt down on Wall Street and the unpopular bail out plan upset the best laid plans of the McCain campaign. McCain could only have caught up immediately by opposing the unpopular plan . . . but he thinks it in the nation’s best interest. You know what he will do in that case!*

The debate, where McCain did very well, was swallowed up in the overall reaction to Wall Street. Senator Obama was solid in that part of the debate, which was good news for him, because the foreign policy segment went badly for him.

That Senator Obama has not broken the fifty percent mark . . . he is stuck with the Kerry 49/50% is the only good news for McCain from last week.

McCain’s support has dropped, but Obama is not soaring. If Obama begins to poll in the 52/53 range consistently, the the election is over.

This weeks Vice-Presidential debate is as much about the future of Governor Palin on the national stage as it is this election. I don’t think it is fair, but Palin is about to be forever Quayled as an airhead.

If she blows the debate, her national career is not totally over, but it will be hard for her to recover.

If she comes back from the Couric performance to shine (as she did at the Convention), then those who jumped ship on her too quickly on the right will have the decency to admit it. Governor Palin will have helped the ticket . . . and given the low expectations going in (on the left people anticipate her total meltdown), she will have become a favorite on the right in 2012 regardless of the winner in 2008.

For Palin, everything rides on this debate. She has been set up perfectly (like at the RNC) to win at this debate and now must press her advantage. Every speaker dreams of such a chance . . . and though the pressure is high . . . it is not unfair since the rewards of turning conventional wisdom upside down will be so great.

From the start, I have said that this is a Democratic year and that major events (an economic meltdown was one suggested) could change everything. Bad news aids the Democrats (not their fault, they are not the party in power). Good news in Iraq helped Republicans, but Iraq is no longer the major issue of the campaign.

Senator Obama was helped by events and is running a good campaign again. McCain needs a game changer to get back in the election.

———
*What do I think of the plan? As a small government person, I hate it, but all the alternatives seem worse. If I were in Congress, I would vote for it as if supporting high risk new surgicial procedures for a very sick friend . . . with little, but some, hope.

Politics: Looking Ahead

John Mark Reynolds — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:12:30 -0700

The news on Wall Street has been bad, but should start getting better.

Christians face death in India.

Some very good students are exploring Phaedo at my house on Wednesday nights.

That is all news.

Polls are not news . . . and remember I am not saying this because they now show an Obama-Biden uptick. They do, but while better for Team Obama than the reverse it is not fundamentally altering the contest.

As I have said since early summer, this election comes in phases. Over excitement in any direction is unwise during a phase. Everything waits for the debates . . . and the first debate will count the most. Somehow the McCain camp managed to get the first debate switched to foreign policy. This is a masterful move as it plays to Senator McCain’s strength. I have noticed that the McCain camp, usually so quick to react, has not made much of Senator Obama’s “negotiations” with Iraq.

Why?

Perhaps they are saving the big attack for the debate. Obama will have to think on his feet to respond to the attack which he must know is coming, but which he cannot (now) be sure will come in a particular way.

The election is not back to where it started, however.

In looking at the data closely, I am convinced that Team Obama has a real problem.

Facts:

1. In my voting lifetime no Democratic candidate has gotten over half the vote.

2. This remains, especially in the swing states, a center-right country. People don’t like taxes. They don’t like abortion. They like God (I am sure He is gratified). Pundits often listen to themselves so much they forget this basic fact.

3. The current “undecideds” probably are not. Some will not vote, but most are in the McCain demographic. McCain will get most of those votes. If he is tied or close (as he is now), then Senator McCain will probably win.

4. Obama has gone negative more often than McCain. Really. He has yet to pay a price, but the price is coming. He has dropped his tough attacks and had to do so just to keep from cratering. He cannot “take off the gloves” in October, when he has already so.

5. This election will hinge on Colorado. If I were a Republican, winning a state I usually win (but which IS changing) in order to win it all would still make me happy.

Senator Obama has only one thing going for him at this point: it is not a Republican year. His only hope (and it is a big one) is that disgust with the Republicans carries him over the top. However, Sarah Palin has restored base Republicans confidence in themselves so this may no longer work. Base Republicans vote. Do base Democrats? Will the youth vote finally show up in November numbers that matter?

Senator Obama is no longer the prohibitive favorite.

The Election Today: Five Quick Takes

John Mark Reynolds — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:15:07 -0700

Avoid the temptation to read each poll and make Big Conclusions about each. The race is slowly unfolding.

Status Recap:

This election was Obama’s to lose, but he is presently losing it. “Losing it” is becoming personal as well as general. In fact, Obama now is the candidate who must be looking forward to the debates.

He needs to change the direction of the campaign. That is a major switch from the summer.

We will not know much more until the debates, but:

1. Sarah Palin jumped the low bar set for her in her first major interview last night. She was not great, she fumbled at least one answer, but in a high pressure interview she showed that she can handle major media (whoopee!) and has a good grasp on the issues of the day. It will only get easier from here.

A few points:

Charlie Gibson repeated lies about Palin’s prayer at her church, but he was relying on the grossly inaccurate edited version in an AP story.

Overall Gibson was tough but fair and Palin was fine. What we learned about her general “world view” was interesting . . .

We learned Palin would defend Ukraine (very good news) and Georgia (o.k. news) if both were admitted to NATO. We learned Palin loves Israel. We learned that Palin wants to win the war on terror.

Good.

People tempted to believe the President should be a Jeopardy winner would not have voted for Ronald Reagan and will not vote for Palin. Leaders have advisors who give them the details while they monitor the big picture (see Reagan). Bad leaders monitor every detail, including the White House tennis court schedule (see Jimmy Carter) and end up impotent and unable to see the big picture.

Palin did nothing to change the campaign dynamic which means she continues to move votes McCain’s way. In fact, she still is the campaign. She may be the best Veep pick ever in terms of changing an election dynamic.

Bonus insight: Palin understood “doctrine” when she first heard it as a philosophical or religious term. Her default vocabulary is not Washington-speak. I find that refreshing.

2. Obama is running ads that are harming his campaign.

His latest “McCain is old” and “he cannot use a computer” meme is a very, very bad idea.

Insight for the youngsters reading this blog: All my life the candidate for president who relied on the youth vote lost.

I have never seen a candidate go out of his way to make everyone over fifty dislike him. Why? Those folk vote and they dislike being prematurely sent out to pasture. In fact, they hate it.

Instead of pivoting to the middle, Obama keeps stirring up the already committed. What is the point? If McCain runs ads targeted to me, then he has foolishly wasted his money. Obama is running ads for his fans. Why? Why? Why?

3. Obama has never lost a lead and run into sustained electoral adversity before . . . and it shows.

His previous elections were uncontested or blowouts. His fight against Clinton was a slow, but fairly steady upward climb to victory. His setbacks were either of brief duration (New Hampshire) or after he could autopilot to victory (Pennsylvania). Obama’s problem is that he has won nothing yet. He cannot coast to victory.

The summer now counts for nothing. William Jennings Bryan would have been president of the United States if summer magic counted in November. I have been warning of this problem since winter! When will Senator Obama pivot to reach out to skeptical voters?

Look at the electoral map and you see more and more of his states in play and fewer of McCain’s.

How will Senator Obama react if he is “behind” for a couple of weeks? How will the media react?

4. Senator Obama is running a better campaign than his allies. Some of his friends are becoming unhinged.

When serious articles at mainstream sites written by Obama fans claim Sarah Palin is not a true woman (really!) and a “pathological liar,” then something has gone wrong in Obama-dom. The Alaska Democratic Party used to praise Palin for things like killing the Bridge to No-Where . . . she is simply not the lunatic that the far left believes she is.

Most of the American people are not going to believe Governor Palin is evil either.

We are not talking about posts on Daily Kos by obscure lunatics. That would tells us nothing. Heaven knows weird, offensive, and wicked posts about Senator Obama sometimes bubble up on sites like Free Republic from obscure lunatics on the right.

Mainstream pundits for Obama have simply lost it. The Atlantic, a great journal, has a columnist who suggested Palin was not the mother of her baby and maintains the fantasy that she is destroying the McCain campaign.

This is going to deeply hurt the Obama campaign. He should repudiate some of these folk by name.

5. McCain is biding his time for the debates.

If he wins the first debate (on the economy which is Obama’s strength), then he will win. We will see.

What It Means When Christians Say, “Jesus Is Lord!”

John Mark Reynolds — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:07:44 -0700

Understanding people from a different point of view can be difficult.

The first time I read the Koran or an atheist book, there was a strong temptation simply to scoff, attack, and stick with my comfortable point of view. That would have been too bad since looking at the world from their perspective, which is what a good reader should do, helped me appreciate the strengths of their position, helped me find weaknesses in my ideas, and gave me the pleasure of considering perspectives alien to my own.

What is more fun than that?

A few things are more fun, such as Disneyland with my family at Christmas, but not many. A good thing isn’t just entertaining, of course, it is good for the soul. Looking at another point of view deeply can avoid misunderstandings, help make new friends, and increase tolerance. While tolerance isn’t always good—getting along with Mr. Stalin is not necessary to live the examined life—tolerance in daily American life is usually good.

Lately I have read a few people disturbed to discover that I confess that: “Jesus is Lord.” What do Christians mean when they say “Jesus is Lord”? Are they forming militias to get ready for a theocracy governed by Biblical law?

This kind of worry is an example of the rule that knowing just a little bit about a group can be lead to big misunderstandings, but learning a bit more can be helpful. Of course, you may still not like the results, but at least you will know what you are opposing.

Why do I say Jesus is Lord? Why not just think for myself? In fact, thinking for myself is what made me bow the knee to King Jesus.

Taking the Delphic demand to know myself seriously made me realize how small and unimportant I was! At the same time, it taught me that my desires were for something greater than self. My longings were bigger than I was! My heart was filled with love and that love (to borrow from the Symposium) was for something or someone.

What could best fill my heart’s longing? What or who was this known (because I loved it) unknown beloved?

Most people never solve this problem. They live hapless lives lurching from one thing to another. This is not the way to happiness! Others find an ideology that seems to work, but too often this ideology is impersonal and destructive. Christian ideas without a personal God could be that way!

My intellectual journey was long (and continues!) and this is not the place to describe it. Instead, this is my testimony to a few things I discovered and experienced on the way that caused me to say in wonder (and surprise!): Jesus is Lord!

First, my search led me to a person. Why? It is better to submit to a person than to an ideology. An ideology is static and can hurt people. Jesus is a person and so has compassion on our weakness. His rule can cope with changing times in a way that a mere “world view” cannot.

My search led me, as it has every traditional Christian, to God. God would not be knowable for humans, He is so great and “other,” but He revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. God became one of us.

When I met Jesus Christ, in a deeply personal experience, certain things followed. The Jesus I met was smarter than I was, He was more powerful, and He knew the best way to live because He knows the past and the future. It was senseless not to listen to him.

It goes deeper. Jesus made everything. He has the creator’s rights over His creatures. When we say Jesus is Lord, we are recognizing reality. We discovered this reality using our best experience and our best reason. We are trying to find out what He wishes of His creations. Following His design plan for our lives simply makes sense!

Of course, if God were an arbitrary or cruel creator, then rebellion against Him might be justified. Instead, like an ideal father (so often dreamed of but so rarely found!), His rule is just and elevates us. We are slaves to our passions, but in becoming His children, we are set free from this bondage.

Jesus’ goal for us is freedom in His service. He calls us his brothers and sisters and elevates us (as much as humans can be elevated) to become like He is. On earth, this power is not given to any man, because apparently no man could handle it. Absolute power appears to corrupt absolutely. There is, however, one great exception in all of history.

The Son of God emptied Himself of power and became fully human. This God-Man had both divine and human natures. He had great power, but He came to serve us and to fully grasp our humanity. He came to serve. When He took on Himself every bit of human suffering, then He was exalted.

Jesus is Lord, by nature but also by suffering. He earned the power by service to humanity that He had by nature.

God became human so that humans could become like God. Of course, we can never become God, the divine essence is not for us, but we can become fit for His companionship. That is a great thing!

No living Christian is there yet. Death is the final passage on a long journey before we can see as we ought to see, hear as we ought to hear, or do as we ought to do. When Christians cry out “Jesus is Lord” it is an act of love . . . crying out for something better than they have yet experienced.

I have experienced enough of the liberty and joy of His rule to want more. My ignorance, folly, and prejudice that hold me back from the intellectual, emotional, and physical wholeness of spiritual union with Jesus is frustrating.

That is why we often seem so emphatic in our declaration! Nobody needs to fear this declaration, since if Jesus is Lord, then I am not. No consistent Christian could ever confuse his own will for God’s will. We know we are sinners. Only on a few issues where experience, reason, revelation, and history unite do we have the courage to speak boldly. The protection of human life is one of those areas.

We have creeds and ethical systems that sum our knowledge, but they are short and modest compared to the long codes and rules of any modern state. Caesar is much more sure of himself in our age than any follower of the Christ!

Meanwhile, this side of Paradise, how do Christians know what Jesus wants them to do?

First, Christians pray. Prayer is our heart reaching out to God because His heart first reached out to ours and made such communication possible. It is communion with God. We try to hear what Jesus is saying to us.

If you don’t pray, there is no real way to describe what communion with God is like. As this site often demonstrates, I am no saint and often mistake my own ideas for His! Over the years, experience has taught me (some) modesty about knowing God’s will. I want it. I want to know it, but know that it is a great and mighty thing not easily grasped.

Before heaven it is enough for me to know His will for my own small affairs and to do the best I can to work out my relationship with God humbly.

Usually, for me, prayer consists of being open to God’s voice and will. On an average day, this is all I experience. I continue to work out what He has shown me to that point in my life, though even in that I sense His help and power. For me, this is a deep sense of His presence and power.

Sometimes during prayer, there is an impression in my mind of an idea or an emotion that will rise up inside of me. Less often, I hear His voice in my mind encouraging or rebuking me or urging me to do something I should do. This voice is like no other in my experience. I cannot prove to a skeptic that it is God’s voice, but over time this voice has proven itself to me.

When I mediate daily, I first acknowledge reality. There is a physical and spiritual dimension to reality and God is in charge of it. I ask God to make those two things work together perfectly in the world. I ask for help with my physical and spiritual needs and then I ask for the needs of those around me. When I ask for God’s rule on the earth, I am not asking for power for self, but for justice for every human being.

Second, Christians read the Bible. My personal relationship with Jesus is the most important thing, but it could be that I am deceiving myself. The Bible shows me the real Jesus so I don’t miss Him for the Jesus of my imagination. There is nothing unique in that danger, it is a problem in all relationships between people.

People sometimes cannot get through to us because of the clutter of our own mental and emotional life. Nobody who has ever tried to be in love will fail to recognize that danger! We think we love the beloved, but we are really in love with our image of him or her!

The Bible is God’s written exposition of His nature.

The Bible doesn’t change, though over the years as I have studied it, I have learned to know it better. It might seem funny to some people to find wisdom about a relationship in an ancient book, but if the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to humankind, then it makes sense.

Words allow me to step back from my experience of Him, which can be quite overwhelming, and think about it. Thinking about a relationship is a great way to avoid misunderstandings and to deepen the experience. Also, it is easy to confuse what I wish Jesus Christ was saying with what He is saying. The Bible is a static expression of what He is like so that I don’t fool myself and mess up our conversations.

I keep my wife Hope’s cards and letters to me over the years and reread them for just this reason. She is a wise woman and I want to love her and not just the woman I imagine she is. Reading her words carefully is one way of making sure I am hearing her, and not just what I wish to hear when she talks to me.

Finally, Christians try to follow Jesus in the context of history and what other (better!) Christians have said about Him. Those of us who love Jesus are a family . . . a big family, fractious and sometimes unattractive. Over time, however, we have learned a thing or two about God and about the Bible. We have made most mistakes that can be made and fooled ourselves most ways that people can be fooled. Reading the fathers and mothers in the faith is a great way to avoid making the same mistakes!

Does this always work?

No.

Christians still make mistakes and misunderstand what they are told by Jesus. After all, my wife and I are much more alike than I am like God and I still misunderstand her!

Christians beg your indulgence for our failures and pray (or should pray!) for humility.

Sometimes Christians are hypocrites and say “Jesus is Lord” but really believe “I am Lord.” We use religion instead of letting the loving Christ use us. We want love, but we sometimes settle for personal indulgence.

What do I do when I fail?

There is a real person who keeps calling me back to my basic relationship with Him. I did not want to be a Christian at one point in my life, but reality (my best reason and experience) would not budge. Jesus is alive and He loves me. He is there and He is not silent.

If you don’t know Him, then it is hard to describe the internal sense of His presence. It is constant and not so different than the sense of my wife’s presence in the room with me now.

When I say, “Jesus is Lord” this is a bit of what I mean. Jesus Christ is real, present, speaking, and worthy of my obedience.

This Christmas when you stand in wonder listening to the Biblical language used by Handel in his glorious Hallelujah Chorus, you will briefly understand what Christians feel daily. King of Kings! Lord of Lords!