I’m a mutt when it comes to Bible translations. Rather than choose just one, I like to use several in my personal study and teaching. One that I have really grown to appreciate is the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). The editors released the New Testament while I was taking Greek in college and I was immediately impressed with its accuracy and readability. Take a look for yourself.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about church polity lately. I know that such a topic can be about as entertaining as a Whoopi Goldberg movie, but much needs to be addressed in regards to the actual teachings of the Bible on the subject. I thought that it would be a good idea to have this conversation through a new series of posts and open it up to you to comment and/or discuss on the various issues raised.
So here’s where I leave the discussion to you.
Which topics concerning the operation of the church do you believe we need to address? As you comment, I will do my research and try to answer questions and give my opinion based on the text of the Word of God.
And who knows? Along the way we may just catch a fresh and "rebooted" view of the body of Christ.
This week’s quote comes from one of my favorite authors, 
A.W. Tozer. A few years ago, I spoke at a weekend youth conference and took the group through each of these items. As what seems to happen, I came away convicted to change sinful patterns of behavior that had crept in over time.
Rules for Self Discovery:
1. What we want most;
2. What we think about most;
3. How we use our money;
4. What we do with our leisure time;
5. The company we enjoy;
6. Who and what we admire;
7. What we laugh at.
How about you? Does anything need to change in your life as you look at this list?
This week’s quote comes from one of my favorites: Francis Schaeffer. In his book, True Spirituality, he addresses a common misunderstanding we make in regards to the gospel and the believer’s place in this current world.
“This passage [1 Peter 2:9-10] says that in this present life, Christians are called for a purpose, called to show forth the praises of God. In other words, God did not mean that there should be no evidence of the realty of the victory of the cross between Jesus’ ascension and his second coming. God has always intended that Christians should be the evidence, the demonstration, of Christ’s victory on the cross (page 63).”
Your thoughts?
The problem of evil leaves one with an enigmatic
question: “If God exists in spite of the reality of suffering and will someday end the horror of evil, where is He when suffering occurs? Does He care when His creation must endure the acts of evil?” Returning to the story of Elie Wiesel, one finds the answer to the problematic question: “Where is God when suffering occurs?” Wiesel concludes his account of that appalling day:
Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish.
But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…
And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
‘For God’s sake, where is God?’
And from within me, I heard a voice answer:
“Where He is? This is where – hanging here from this gallows…”[1]
God is not absent in the midst of human suffering; He is there, present in the midst of it all. His immanence is not disproven by the presence of evil; otherwise, He would not be the omnipotent God. Further, the reality of evil does not negate His goodness or care for His creation. The only reasonable answer to the dilemma of evil and the existence of God is that He is here, present in spite of it all, waiting for the day when He has foreordained to set things right and destroy evil forever. As is written:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.[2]
Until that day when God destroys all evil and “makes all things new”[3] the Christian must undergo that which is allowed to occur. However, this waiting is not without hope and relief; for God has promised that this is not to be endured alone (Matt. 28:20). And with this truth from the lips of Christ Himself, one can live and cope with the problem of evil.
[3] Revelation 21:5, ESV.
