The Temptations (and Dangers) of the Secret Knowledge Club

Not long after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, one of the first "Christian" conspiracy theories began to blossom. You can see the roots of it 1st Corinthians 15, watch it develop in 1st John, and then see how it really blossomed in the early church. It came to be known as Gnosticism, and it was a big problem that hasn't completely gone away even now. 

 

A group of people in the Corinthian church began to say that they had been blessed with "secret knowledge," about "the truth" of Jesus, that no one else could see. That truth was that there really wasn't really going to be a physical resurrection of the dead. They believed the body was evil, so there was no need for a physical resurrection. Paul powerfully refutes these ideas in 1st Corinthians 15:12-19:

 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead   are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope n this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Paul tells the church at Corinth that their "secret knowledge" is going to send them to Hell. If there is no resurrection, they are without hope, with Christ, without forgiveness, to be most pitied. But this little heresy continues to grow in the church, until a few decades later when it has developed even further - and some are now saying that Jesus never came in the flesh in the first place! See the progression - first, the body is evil. Because the body is evil, there is no physical resurrection. And because the body is evil - then Jesus could have never actually had a physical body! So, the Secret Knowledge Club has now rejected the humanity of Jesus! This is why John wrote in 1 John 4:2-3:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already."

Two things are happening here: the "Secret Knowledge Club" was not satisfied to simply deny the resurrection of the dead. The longer they talked, the more secret knowledge they seemed to obtain. Now, they denied the humanity of Jesus. And not only are they hell-bound - John now identifies them with the anti-Christ himself.

 

Now, the Secret Knowledge Club did not end there. They continued to push and grow over the years and decades, and their heretical beliefs continued to grow. What might have been a mistaken understanding of the resurrection turned into a full-blown movement in complete contradiction to Christianity. The Gnostics twisted the sayings and teaching of Jesus in such a way that the apostles wouldn't have recognized them, all the while saying that only they had the secret and special understanding of the way the world worked. The Gnostics are still around today - read a Dan Brown novel to see it. They were convinced that there was a conspiracy to cover up the truth of the world - and only they had the real answers! 

Unfortunately, the "Secret Knowledge Club," is still around, and you don't have to read Dan Brown to find them. There are unfortunately far too many professing believers in Christ who invest far too much of their time into the latest conspiracy theories, all the while believing that they have found the truth! They find some web site in a back alley of the internet that uses a little bit of scripture, a few current events, a heaping dose of suspicion toward "the powers that be," and a sprinkle of out of context facts to create conspiracies that sound like they might just be true. And as outlandish as they are, they seem to make more sense of the world than what you're being told. 

 

It feels good to have that secret knowledge, to understand things when no one else seems to understand them. It is so tempting and alluring, and it especially so right now, when the world just seems to be upside down. If everyone else would just "get it." If they'd just stop being "sheeple." If only they could see what you could see. If only they would do their research the way you have done your research. Here's the problem. It never satisfied. There's always another conspiracy. There is always more secret knowledge to gain. And the longer you invest yourself in gaining it, the further and further you move away from God's truth.

 

Don't join the Secret Knowledge Club. Get into God's Word instead. It will help you navigate every situation in life. It will give you all of the knowledge that you need, and it is not for a special few. It's for everyone. God has not hidden the truth. It is not a riddle that needs deciphering. It's not a code that needs cracking. It's not a secret that needs researching. It's right there, in black and white, just like it has been for 2,000 years. The knowledge you need is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 4:20). And it is enough. It will satisfy you. 

The (Im)Perfect Game

I am a huge baseball fan. I grew up on the baseball diamond. My dad ran our local recreation league for several years, and I played high school baseball, so from March to August, I was on the field or at the park practically every single day. I know a lot of people find the game to be slow and boring, but I love the subtle intricacies and strategies of the game, and I love the battle between pitchers and hitters. It's a physical battle, no doubt, but I think it's also one of the most intellectual battles in sports.

I say that to say this: baseball has a special place in my heart, but never has a story about baseball captured my interest in quite the same way as the recent story of Armando Gallaragga and Jim Joyce.

If you've been paying much attention to the news this week, you've probably seen the story already. Gallaragga, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, was on his way to throwing only the 20th perfect game in baseball history. For baseball novices, a perfect game is when a pitcher doesn't allow any hits, runs, errors, or walks through the entire nine innings of a game. It's obviously quite a feat, since only 19 people have done it in more than 100 years of playing Major League Baseball. Think about that, 100+ years of 20+ teams playing 100+ games. That's literally hundreds of thousands of games, and it's only happened 19 times.

So Gallaragga is one out away from this historic feat. With two outs in the 9th inning, the would-be final out hits a slow ground ball to the first baseman. Gallaragga himself comes to cover first base and get the out. The first baseman flips it to him, clearly getting the runner out by about half a step. Then, the unthinkable happens: the umpire, Jim Joyce, calls him safe. One out away from the perfect game, and Gallaragga loses it because of a bad call by the umpire. In his defense, Joyce is considered one of the best umpires in the game. But he blew this call.

That in and of itself is enough to make this story incredibly intriguing, but what happened after has made it even more so. There are times, even in our fallen culture, when something happens that is so beautiful that it begins to show off the Gospel, almost despite itself. And that's exactly what we've seen in this situation. There are several things I want to note.

You might have imagined that Gallaragga would have lost it after this play. Most people would say he would have every right to get in the umpire's face, to yell and scream and argue. That pretty much happens in ten baseball games a day. But he did not. Gallarragga had a brief look of surprise, then he smiled, walked back to the mound and finished the game, doing his job, getting the final out, and getting the win for his team. I don't know much about this man, but this was an incredible display of character.

Here's what C.S. Lewis had to say about character:

"Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light." - Mere Christianity

When I saw Gallaragga's reaction, I immediately thought about what Lewis said here. Character is most clearly revealed when we don't have time to think about what our reaction to a situation should be.

This situation also displayed the Gospel in several pretty amazing ways I thought. Now, when I say it displayed the Gospel, I'm not saying that Jesus was proclaimed. But I am saying that there were several elements of the Gospel that were very clear. Here are some:

1 - Man's sinfulness. I'm not saying the umpire sinned by making the wrong call. But I am saying that the bad call says something about all of us. We are fallen humans, and we make mistakes. We are not God, we are not perfect.

2 - Repentance - After the game was over, and the umpire had a chance to review the play, he quickly realized he had made a big mistake. He was very upset. He immediately went to the Tigers' locker room, found Gallaragga, and apologized for his error. He then went before the media, admitted his mistake, and in tears apologized for ruining the pitcher's chance for a history making moment. His apologies were sincere and heartfelt. There was true regret in his voice.

3 - Mercy - By most accounts, Gallaragga would have completely been within his rights to blow off the umpire's apology, to say, "You cost me my chance at history!" But we've already learned that he has some character, and he continued to show it after the game. He simply accepted his apology, told reporters that he knows umpires make mistakes sometimes, and moved on.

4 - Grace - But that wasn't all he did. It would have been plenty. He's already shown more than enough character in this episode. Nevertheless, he takes it a step further the next day. You see, Jim Joyce was the umpire behind home plate the next day. It is baseball tradition for the manager of the team to take his batting lineup to the home plate umpire before the game. Instead, Gallaragga took it to the plate, patting Jim Joyce on the back as the veteran umpire wiped back tears. It was an incredible act of grace, going beyond just forgiveness. This is a beautiful picture of what Jesus does. It's not enough that he forgives our sins. When we repent, we are made joint-heirs with him in God the Father. We go from being his enemy to being a part of the family. And that's exactly what happened here.

At the end of the day, I believe this is actually a better story because of the blown call. Most non-sports fans would not even know of this story if it weren't for the bad call. And God has used it as a way to display his glory and his grace to the nations. What a beautiful picture.

The Culture War Misfires on Christmas

I have decided not to participate in the annual war on the "War on Christmas." I know as we get closer, and the decorations start going up, and the shopping gets going full swing, we'll begin to hear about it. You know what I'm talking about, those stores that refuse to acknowledge Christmas. Their web sites refer to Christmas trees as "Holiday Trees," and their greeter say "Happy Holidays," instead of "Merry Christmas." They've somehow become Public Enemy #1 over the last several years. But I'm going to completely honest with you: I really don't care.

I love the Charlie Brown Christmas special. You know the one where everyone is so caught up in the glitz and commercialism of Christmas, that they forget the real meaning, until Linus toats his blanket onto the stage and recites the story of Jesus' birth. It did a good job when I was a kid of reminding me of why we actually had Christmas, reminding me that new toys and Santa Claus and Christmas trees and jingle bells weren't the real "reason for the season."

While it stills does a good job reminding people about the birth of Jesus, it long ago lost the war to make sure people remembered that birth as the main reason for the Christmas season. Since that special first aired, Christmas has only become more commercial, and most Christians have bought into it hook, line, and sinker. Ask yourself this question: If Christians really thought Christmas was about the birth of Jesus, why would they care if the stores where they bought their presents acknowledged it or not? What does spending too much money on mainly useless gifts that usually don't last a month have to do with the birth of Jesus? Nothing, that's what.

I say that to say this: I like giving and getting gifts. I like the jingle bells and Santa Claus and all of that stuff that is associated with the holiday. I just don't think it has anything to do with Jesus, and I refuse to pretend otherwise. Don't get me wrong: I'm aware of some of the Christian origins of some of these Christmas related ideas and practices; I'm just saying they have long since lost those lost that meaning to most people.

So this is what I propose: We Christians need to understand that there are two very different holidays that take place on December 25th. One of them is remembering the birth of the God-man, Jesus, the savior of the world, who died for the sins of the world. We should spend time remembering that, and meditating on that, and thanking God for that during the Christmas season. But the other holiday that takes place December 25th is about Santa Claus and gift giving and jingle bells and mistletoe. It happens on the same day, but it has nothing to do with Jesus.

That doesn't mean there is something wrong with all of that stuff. It just means we should pretend it is related to the birth of Jesus. Celebrate them both. Have fun with it. I know I will. But don't confuse the two. When you go to the mall, or to Wal-Mart, or Target, or Home Depot, and spend hours looking for the right gift, you are not celebrating Jesus' birth, and you ought not need an acknowledgement from the people there that you are.

So I won't be boycotting any stores this year. As a matter of fact, I might, just for the heck of it, try to specifically patronize those that don't try to gain my business by selling me some false idea of Christmas. I think that might have it more right than they know when they tell me "Happy Holidays."

What does Obama's election say about Christians and race?

I'm about to dip my foot into murky waters here, and there's a good chance I'm going to get bitten for it. I guess that's okay. But as I've thought about this election for the last couple of days, my mind has gone off in a hundred different directions, and the one I'm about to talk about is one of them. Let me say first of all, I'm not promoting one candidate over the other, and though I have my political preferences, I will keep them to myself for the sake of this post. They're not really the point here.

Here's my concern. It's easy to see that the morals of our society are not the same as they were even 50 years ago. Sins like abortion and homosexuality are accepted practice, and though most Christians don't support those practices, they're pretty much losing ground in that fight. Our society has changed a lot over the last several decades, and on many things, that's not for the better. And despite everything Christians have said about those two particular issues, it's not really making a big difference. There might be a small victory or two here and there, but for the most part, our society is moving in a post-Christian direction, and many Christian values are being left behind. Frankly, Christian ideas about sin don't have much influence over much of society.

I say that to say this: there is one area where I think most can agree that our society has moved in the right direction morally, and that is on the issue of racism. The election of Barack Obama as President, whether you like him or not, says something significant about America. Fifty years ago, President-elect Obama wouldn't have been able to vote in many places in America, much less run for and win the Presidency. That is a major step forward. Though America hasn't overcome all of it's sins of racism, and though there are many who still hold strongly to the sin of racism, this week's election is a strong sign that those people are not going to win this particular moral fight. I don't want to sound as if I believe everyone who voted against Obama is a racist, far from it. I just want to make the point that his election is significant signpost in this nation's racial history.

Here is my problem: why is it, on the one moral problem that there seems to progress on in this country, Christians, especially Southern evangelical Christians, seem to be following rather than leading? As a Christian here in the South, it feels like many Christians have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into trying to bridge the racial divide. It's not that Christians I know want a return to the 50's on this issue. It's just that they don't seem to see it as that big of a deal, or a top priority. Christians, black and white, seem, for the most part, content to worship to themselves, content to trail the rest of society on this issue. That's not to say that Christians aren't making progress on racial issues, it's just to say that they seem to be behind the curve. I think that's especially true for my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. We talk about racial equality, we talk about the sin of racism, sometimes. But our efforts are doing little more than staying about two steps behind the rest of society on this issue. If a reporter wants a comment on drinking or gambling or abortion or homosexuality, the local Southern Baptist preacher will be at the top of his list. But on racial issues, there are about a hundred other people they're going to go to first before they go to that Baptist preacher.

If society can look at this particular moral issue, one that seems so clear to most of it, and see how far behind many Christians are, then why should we expect them to listen to us on moral issues that aren't as clear to them? I think this is one of the reasons I'm so turned off by the "culture war," and why I believe Christians should try instead to be a "counter-culture" that reflects Biblical values in such a way that others are drawn to them. Maybe that's a topic for another day.