The Word of Life

I John 1:1a – “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,…”

John immediately establishes that he and the other apostles are reporting eyewitness testimony.  The Gospel is not some second, third, fourth, nth hand rumor.  It is not some fairy tale.  It isn’t a fiction devised to take advantage of others.  It is the absolute truth as experienced by real people.

“…which we have looked at and our hands have touched — …”

Neither is the Gospel some cold and remote observation.  It is the result of intimate inspection, years of living with Jesus, years of hands-on experience.  It is the result of looking at Jesus’ life, conducting serious and critical investigation.  Not a few of the disciples were slow to believe, had many doubts and questions.  Jesus answered them all by His life and death and conquest of death.

“– this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

These hard facts of first-hand experience, and only this testimony is offered by the apostles as the Gospel truth.  This is why the gospels were written: so that there would be no embellishments over time, no apocryphal tales added later to make things more dramatic or entertaining.

And what need of embellishment?  Twice, God Himself spoke from heaven and gave His personal approval of Jesus as His Son (at His baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration).  Incident upon miraculous incident showed Jesus to at least be a prophet on a par with Elijah.  His resurrection showed Him to be much more.  And beyond that, they saw Him ascend into heaven.  There can be only one conclusion:  Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.

In building his case for the veracity of the gospel and the identity of Jesus, John harks back to the opening of his own gospel account, vv. 1-4 – ‘In the beginning  was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life, and that life was the light of [all] men.’

What is it about the idea of ‘the word’ that so fascinates John that he returns to it as the foundation of his understanding of Jesus and His relationship to God?

We might just suppose that the first chapter of Genesis was John’s favorite passage from the Torah.  But as we examine his letters, it’s obvious that he was a much deeper thinker than that.  He spent years contemplating who and what Jesus was and how the Gospel made everything fit together.  In the process, he gained some insights into the nature of God and what it means that we are made in His image.

Language, the use of words, implies thought.  Psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb says that thinking is speaking to ourselves in words.  We can, of course, think in images, and many people do.  Imagination, ideation and conceptualization use all the senses.  But reason, logic, the perception of cause and effect – these things require words to be understood and used.

If God uses words (as well as images and sounds, smells and tastes), He thinks and reasons as we do on some level.  Rationality and mind are part of the ‘image of God’ which we bear.

If God uses words, He also communicates.  He expresses Himself, shares Himself.  The whole of creation is God telling us something about Himself, as Paul notes in Romans 1.  His eternal power and divinity are obvious to anyone who will look at the universe without bias.  The desire and capacity to communicate is also part of the image of God in human beings.

A good communicator, a true storyteller, can make his or her subject come alive for the listener.  It’s as if we’re there, seeing and feeling for ourselves.  But this is God we’re talking about.  It’s only to be expected that His words are more potent than our own.  When God speaks, His words are active, powerful and creative.  Hebrews 4:12 tells us that,  ‘The word of God is alive and powerful…’

God’s word is so potent that it takes on a life of its own in and through creation.  It is, according to the opening phrases of John’s gospel, a living extension of God Himself, both God and with God.  So vital that it appears to be nearly independent.  The two are one and the same and yet, because God is so much more than any time-and-space-bound human, we perceive them as distinct and separate.

We talk about a man being ‘as good as his word’.  We have to go a huge step beyond that in speaking about God.  God is His word.  There is no distinction or disconnect at all between who God is and what He says.  ‘The Word was God.’ – the two are synonymous and identical, for all that we assign them different roles in terms of their interaction with us in history.

In both this letter and his gospel, John uses the definite article: the Word.  The Word is the sum of all that God has to communicate to us about Himself, about the nature of our lives and the world in which we live.

John goes even further.  In 1:2 of his gospel, John shifts from the definite article to the personal pronoun: ‘He was with God in the beginning.’  This is to develop the understanding made plain in 1:14 – ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us.’  The word of God took on a palpable existence so that we could not only witness its effects in creation, not only hear it in the words of the prophets – but so that we could touch it.  Just as John says in the epistle, that he and the apostles did.  God communicated Himself in and through a man.  One who not only passed along what the Lord had to say, but one who actually was God.  And John and his fellow apostles testify that this essential, immediate, personal, human expression of God was Jesus

It was by ‘the Word of life’ that life was created in Genesis 1.  It is ‘the Word of life’ because the thought and expression of God is the ultimate source of life.  All life, and especially human life, made in God’s image, finds its root and fulfillment in the continually active and creative Word of God.

‘The Word of life’ reveals life to us.  We know about existence: about what it takes to stay alive physically.  We are born with appetites which drive us to stay alive in that way, even to reproduce life.  But biological, mechanical life is not what John is talking about.  What we have trouble finding is that life of the mind and heart and spirit that brings us joy and peace, the sense that we are loved for who we are rather than what we do, the sense that our lives mean something beyond simple self–perpetuation and that we are realizing, or at least progressing toward our true potential.

The Word of life alone brings us this dimension of living.  It is He who shows us how to live in harmony with God, in the way that we were created to live.

Bless this Land: A Prayer for Peace

God bless this land. Protect and secure its people; keep them safe from harm against those who seek to promote injustice; safeguard our planet.

Preserve relationships between fathers and sons and their daughters, mothers and their children, husbands and wives–and keep them safe from iniquity’s tumultuous path.

Supernaturally thwart the actions of terrorists and rogue nations–countries who seek after war and baneful destruction.

Even within our own democratic governments, there are those who pursue plans birthed by greed and plan the destruction of the weak. Change the hearts and remove from positions of authority those from within our own governments who do not espouse a plan of reconciliation and responsible governance.

Protect our cities from terrorist attacks, wars, and natural disasters. Protect Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Texas, London, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Pyongyang, Beijing, Singapore, Jakarta, New Delhi, Kabul, Baghdad, Tehran, Moscow, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Van Couver, and all the cities of the world–no matter how great or small. Hold them accountable as well to righteous governance and supply them with great resolve to do what is right–regardless of public opinion and pressures from special interest groups or any world organization who would seek to undermine their authority in doing good.

In times of war, safeguard civilians and protect our warriors from the onslaught of war.

If wars must be fought, let it be waged as a measure of last resort. Keep battles away from our homes, our families, and our children, and end all wars swiftly.

Let us relentlessly pursue peace, but defend it when we must. Yet if it were possible, I would pray that war became an relic of the past, an ancient evil whose time has come and gone.

Above all, protect our children–those innocent lives so full of goodness and light. Let our kids have strong willing parents who will raise them well and protect them with passionate love. Parents who will be there for their children; to promulgate a deep and impregnable love into their spirits, souls, hearts, and minds–a love that will be passed on through countless generations.

Let peace reign on earth. Keep families healthy, bonded together; secure and unending–firmly rooted in the Love of God.

Protect us from fear and mayhem; from chaos and confusion; and from the real threat of biological and chemical weapons. May we never witness a nuclear disaster or see the results of unknown weapons of destruction unleashed on our peoples.

There are yet to be defined threats, both natural and man-made. These threats lay ahead in our future. Grant us the wisdom and fortitude to change the course of history to avoid both small and horrific calamities of our time and times to come.

What we cannot control in nature, we rely on Your Compassion to change; those things whose outcomes we can determine as a people and Godly nations through our course of actions and decisions, we pray for the heart, Spirit, and mind of God to direct us towards what is honorable and right.

I must end my prayer with a simple, directly supplication: help us, God, keep us safe and out of harm’s nefarious path.

For we are Your people; and You gave us breath. You gave us life to live on this land–we did not choose it, but were fashioned as a result of Your will. Give us strength, grace, and mercy to live out our time-limited lives in harmony and great peace which surpasses all understanding.

Bless our minds with peace and freedom from fear.

God, may we have centuries of peace and prosperity. I would ultimately ask for eternal peace, which we know will require Your coming.

In the Holy name of Jesus Christ, the Savior of All Life in the worlds that you have created.

The Next Reformation: Do non-Christians Know God?

Many Christians have veered from their fundamentalist dogma to debate, explore, or even embrace the possibility that there are sincere believers of other faiths who may unknowingly be worshiping the same God.

I am not here to answer this question in the definitive form but merely to report on a new Christian persuasion that may slowly be making its way into mainstream Christianity.

Brahman, “The Ultimate Reality”,  Bhagavan, “God”, Ishvara, “Cosmic Controller and Lord”, and Paramatma, “Super Soul”, are the most commonly used names of God in Hinduism.

Shangdi, a Supreme Being worshiped in ancient China, is the name used for God today among many Chinese Christians. Protestant missionaries adopted the word Shen to refer to God.

Ek Onkar is the name of God in Sikhism, meaning One Creator.

With the breakdown of the “church walls” into a postmodern, anti-establishment, and non-organizational Body of Believers whose likes we have not seen since the reformation of Martin Luther, boundaries and dogma have become fuzzy and uncertain.

Without the ever-so-wise counsel of Christian leaders, who is there to stand tall on a raised pulpit and tell Sunday Christians what to believe and how to interpret what they read?

The hard reality for many Christians is that their leaders have veered from a potent relationship with the God they serve and are teaching comfortable Pharisaical tenets, while passing around collection plates as often as they can.

It’s easy to be “Christian”; there are a set of “truths” to abide by, we do our Godly-duty by attending services and every now and then we tell a friend who doesn’t want to hear it about Jesus. Ahh, feels good. And it is comfortable.

In the Book of John, Jesus said that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. Could that be interpreted to mean that people from other religions who maintain faith in God and relationship with Him will still get to Heaven, even if they do not know it is Jesus they ultimately worship? Are there others who worship God in “spirit and in truth”?

In the postmodern age of plurality, it is difficult for an empathetic Christian to deny others the path to God and salvation. Especially in a day and age where Christian and “non-believer” have become increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another.

Followers of Christ today watch the same shows, mostly speak the same way, have the same divorce rates, and are as immersed in their culture and daily struggles as anyone else. This creates an equal footing with unbelievers around them.

Without a manifest difference in the Body of Christ, a sort of empathy and horizontal relationship is created between believer and non-believer; and it becomes difficult to determine for certain if God is the Lord of Plurality or the exclusive God whose name you must know to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Most Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and there is no doubt that He has been crucified and resurrected from the dead. True Believers cultivate a genuine relationship through prayer and daily experience with their Creator. But there is a pervading feeling among an increasing numbers of Christians today that the Muslim, Hindu, or Jew praying to God in a far away land where Christ is not pervasive in the culture and where Jesus may not be freely preached, will still be saved by the grace of God. After all, Christians reason, God is fair, and not only fair, but full of grace, and not only graceful, but Perfectly Loving, and wishing that none should perish.

Is it possible that the Muslim’s prayers prayed in Iran are acceptable to God? That the West African practicing the Yoruba religion in a remote part of the world has a real relationship with the God we know as Jesus? Is a marriage of “spirit” and “truth” formed between God and man regardless of name?

What about the nontheistic Buddhist who has attempted to absolve all desire from his soul? As Christians, we know this is not possible; and that only Christ Himself was able to accomplish such a feat (by desiring only His Father’s will and not His own). As humans we are unable because our innate sinful makeup will ultimately point us back to ourselves and away from God.

Of course, we all know that according to the teachings of the Bible, no one is sinless, and therefore, no one can enter into heaven without the intercession of Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. That is the pervasive theology; but could there be room for a pluralistic interpretation of salvation among sincere believers of all faiths who seek God with all their heart, mind, and soul?

The truthful answer–regardless of how your church friends and your own religiosity will react, is this: a massive reformation is needed in the church today, much as it was needed in Martin Luther’s time when he nailed his proclamation to the church walls.

We must, as Christians, throw off the shackles of all forms of slavery to non-truths that binds us to our self and all forms of familairity and marriage with false religion (in the form of our present day Christianity) and strive as the Body of Christ to find out the truth regarding this and many other matters facing our understanding of faith today.

Without some consensus among the True Body of Believers independent of past religious thought and worldly church leaders, we risk remaining in a dark age of sorts regarding our understanding of the One who has set us free.

“I say, then, neither pope, nor bishop, nor any man whatever has the right of making one syllable binding on a Christian man, unless it be done with his own consent. Whatever is done otherwise is done in the spirit of tyranny…I cry aloud on behalf of liberty and conscience, and I proclaim with confidence that no kind of law can with any justice be imposed on Christians, except so far as they themselves will; for we are free from all.” (Martin Luther).