Dividing Politics and Religion

Spirituality Column #261
November 8, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Dividing Politics and Religion
By Bob Walters

On this off-year Election Day, let’s take an off-beat tour of America’s mix of church and state. The Bible gets first “ups.”

Jesus separated church and state long before the eighteenth century secular humanists identified and attached the inalienable rights of man to modernity. Rights, by the way, are not in the Bible; responsibilities are.

One can consider the entirety of the New Testament and understand the unique moral and creative wholeness of Christian freedom in Jesus Christ.

Or, one can take the common Gospel verse “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:12:17, Luke 20:25), and see that Caesar (specifically here “Caesar’s money” or euphemistically “Rome’s man-made government”) and God play on different teams.

The apostle Paul declares the primacy of our “citizenship in Heaven” (Philippians 3:17, 20), but also invokes his own Roman citizenship in order to be heard (Acts 21:39) and then not to be executed (Acts 22:22ff). In Romans 13 Paul says government is ordained by God and that if we “owe taxes, [then] pay taxes” (verse 7).

While Paul seems to indicate the scary proposition that “Government is God,” he doesn’t, and it’s not. Jesus Christ is God, and Jesus plainly says that while both He (Jesus) and we (Christians) are “in the world,” neither He nor we are “of the world” (John 15:19, 17:14, 16). Christ commands that God is first, and that we are to love God and our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 19:19), and even to love our enemies (5:44).

What the United State Constitution and all it amendments describe is a political context within which the creative freedom of man and the God-ordained morality of “love others as we love ourselves” can prosper and thrive. Over 224 years they have mostly – though not always – thrived, but it is only in the Christian moral context that this kind of document is possible.

Democracy demands moral responsibility, which is different from the “fair” (read “blind”) application of “religious freedom” the secular modern world mistakenly equates and jingoistically describes as “all religions are the same.” They, um, aren’t.

Moral discernment is the first casualty of secularism, which replaces God’s moral truth – Jesus Christ – with man’s moral relativism.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “Under God” we enjoy freedom and defend a “government of, by, and for the People.” It certainly can and will “perish from the earth” lest we understand, and understand soon, the indivisible equation of our citizenship both in Heaven and as Americans.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recently read about and laments Europe’s cultural disestablishment of Christianity. He is sure we’ll either learn from Europe’s example, or die the same spiritual death.

Literal Truth, Inerrant God

Spirituality Column #250
August 23, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Literal Truth, Inerrant God
By Bob Walters

A popular online news organization recently posted a feature story about why it’s a mistake to read the Bible literally, and folly to think the Bible is inerrant.

Written by a Christian professor, the article cited predictable scholarship and supporting evidence. The Bible itself claims to be “inspired and useful” (2 Timothy 3:16), but not inerrant. Revelation (the Bible’s final book) in parts is impenetrable. Even the brilliant St. Augustine had to allegorize (or, “say it was something else”) the story of Jonah and the whale. The four Gospels don’t agree about what happened on which days of Holy Week when Jesus was betrayed, tried, crucified and resurrected.

Lots and lots of stuff in the Bible doesn’t seem to add up.

Well, it’s a good day for the Devil when he can sow doubt about the Bible, and by extension, about God. The double-entrendre headline, “4 reasons not to read the Bible … literally,” may be harmless, or could imply: The Bible is wrong, so if the Bible is the story of God, then God must be wrong. Hallelujah, we can ignore the Bible and God!

Misinterpreted or not, the headline harkens rehashing.

You see, a Christian faith conversation centered on literalism and inerrancy of the Bible will quickly go out-of-round for the simple reason that the conversation isn’t truly centered. The Bible is something dramatically more important than “literal” and “inerrant.” It is truth, which almost always involves more than simple calculation.

If the issue is, “The Bible doesn’t add up,” then let’s go to math class. Let’s add up a list of numbers, terms and factors; we’ll get a defensibly inerrant answer. But, if the “list” is actually a quadratic equation and calculated with the wrong method, say, addition, we’ll not only get the wrong answer but entirely miss the point of the exercise because we have mistaken its central purpose, which is not addition.

Secularist logicians and sadly more than a few Christians miss the “answer” of the Bible because they refuse or confuse the Bible’s central purpose – revealing God’s truth. Scripture’s message isn’t simple addition, it’s a cosmically complex equation of faith, hope, love, truth, creation, relationship, separation, loss, betrayal, death, redemption, eternal life and perfection. It’s the ultimate story problem.

And what’s the story? Jesus Christ is the literal truth about an inerrant God, and we – each of us personally – is a loved and important part of the equation.

That is the true center of the Bible.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was horrible at high school math but scored higher in math than verbal on the SAT. Go figure.

Where Pride Properly Resides

Spirituality Column #241
June 21, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Where Pride Properly Resides
By Bob Walters

Years ago I had a colleague who would compliment my work by saying, “I’m proud of you.”

It annoyed me. I took pride in my own work and it was both unsatisfying and a little creepy, frankly, to have my work evaluated from the standpoint of someone else’s overreaching pride. I, um, had plenty of pride of my own.

A decade later I began attending church, discovered my life in Christ, was well-mentored by some amazingly intelligent Christians, read the Bible, and over time began to look really, really hard at the pride in my own life vs. the humility of Jesus Christ. No way have I “cured” my own pride, but I now understand pride from a biblical perspective.

And that perspective is this: Pride is the Lord’s alone. The Lord is humble, yet only in Him may pride properly reside. Simple, huh?

I know … it’s a seeming three-way collision of intellect, logic and faith, the kind that keeps “smart” people out of church. But once we understand pride as a “God” thing, humility as a “Jesus” thing, and faith as a human thing, it starts to make sense.

The Bible talks about pride a lot. In the Old Testament, where we learn so much about God, God is constantly telling people that their human, worldly pride will be their undoing, that it is willful, arrogant, foolish, sinful and in several ways destructive to them and offensive to God. The problem boils down to this, God tells man in Ezekial 28:2,

“In the pride of your heart, you say ‘I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god’ … but you are a mere mortal and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.”

The modern dictionary isn’t much help here, because it defines “pride,” generally, as “justifiable satisfaction.” What God says throughout the Bible is that the “pride” He detests is mankind’s misplaced, unjustified, self-satisfying and self-directed glory, which I interpret to be the biblical opposite of “justifiable satisfaction.”

Glory is God’s, not ours. Pride belongs to God’s wisdom, not man’s.

Jesus sets our standard and example: He was humble before God and Man. Therefore rather than harboring pride in our human selves and worldly situations, our pride must reside in our faith that Christ is our sovereign Lord.

God knows, it’s no sin to be proud of that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is thankful for God’s blessings rather than proud of the shiny spots in his life.

Words Fail Us at the Cross, Lent Part 7

Spirituality Column #232
April 19, 2011
Current in Carmel - Westfield - Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Lenten Series 2011: Just Not That into God, Part 7
Words Fail Us at the Cross
By Bob Walters

Some people are just not that into God because they have difficulty putting their faith into words.

So remember that faith is first about our relationship with God, not the words we use to describe faith. Like my mentor and friend George says, “Develop your relationship with God. The words will come later.”

Besides, the word “Word” among theologians is a confusing powder keg. Most regular folks are merely trying to communicate ideas or concepts with spoken or written words. But “Word” in the Bible – the Word of God – has many meanings with theologically intricate nuances such as Christ, message, spirit and prophecy.

This Easter week – Holy Week – we encounter the Cross of Jesus Christ. Words easily fail us if we rely on them to describe our deepest love, faith and hope we have in the redemptive relationship we receive in Jesus.

The Bible is full of words, yet is a book about relationships. Why the Triune Godhead (Father-Son-Holy Spirit)? Because God is community, relationship and love. Why the Covenant with Israel? To reveal a relational God. Why was Jesus born? To present eternal God as a humble servant capable of entering our history of human relationships. Why was Jesus crucified? To defeat death, erase our sins and restore relationship with God. And why the resurrection? To teach us the truth of salvation: that in faith our relationship with God extends infinitely past death.

Relationship, relationship, relationship. Not words. Christians throughout the centuries have fought over words: “nature,” “will,” and “worship” are common tinder for church debate. But Jesus wasn’t primarily about words. He was about living an example, dying for others, and living again in relationship with us. Jesus returned sinful mankind to communion – relationship – with the eternal Creator God.

The great danger of putting words before relationship is in evidence throughout the Christian landscape. We fight over words, even the ones in the Bible. Countless books, teachings, seminars, sermons and doctrines are full of words expressing countless ideas, concepts and gadget ways of doing this or that. Some are good, some are bad, some are heresies.

Jesus Christ is not an idea or a concept. He is a real, living person, the “Logos” Word of God with, in and through whom we are promised and invited into eternal, divine relationship with God in Heaven.

Know God first, then trust Him for the right words when you need them.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) wishes all a prayerful Holy Week and a blessed Easter. The Lord is Risen Indeed.

Love Starts with God, Not Us

Spirituality Column #222
February 8, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville – Current in Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Love Starts with God, Not Us
By Bob Walters

I love my wife, my kids, my family, my community, my church, my work, my home, my country.

I don’t love my sin, my debts, my mistakes, my thoughtlessness, my impatience, my pride, my fear, my selfishness.

Everything – and more – on the first list is a gift from God.

Everything – and more – on the second is a function of my fallen humanness.

As for the vagaries of health, wealth, family dysfunction, natural disaster, political turmoil and other things that blow hot and cold in our world, I think they provide context to learn when to call on God and when love matters most.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, love is in the air. But what we should learn about love from God’s word, the Bible, is far different from the playful rituals of human romance celebrated on February 14.

The “love chapter” in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 – recited often at weddings (Love is patient, love is kind,” etc.) – is lovely to read. Indeed, the chapter describes the necessity, characteristics and permanence of love.

But parts of it make little sense unless we realize it’s not about marriage; the chapter is merely one part of St. Paul’s larger argument sternly warning the first century Corinthian Christians to knock off their pagan-like worship involving tongues and prophesy. It’s an argument for the sufficiency and totality of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ (read Burton Coffman’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 13 for a most interesting perspective).

Then of course there is the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) in the middle of the Old Testament (just after Ecclesiastes). This is first rate poetry celebrating wisdom and love as gifts from God. It’s typically read as a steamy allegorization of human sex, or a description of God’s relationship with Israel, or even a story of a maiden choosing a shepherd over King Solomon (he of 900 wives).

I don’t favor allegorizing so much as a single word in the Bible (another topic for another day), but Song of Songs lyrically tells us that God beautifully authors both the emotional and physical joys of love.

Perhaps the Bible’s clearest, simplest, shortest discourse on love is 1 John, especially chapter 4. Nothing in it about chocolate or flowers though; it says “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 4:16).

Love starts with God. It’s His gift to us that we can share it with others.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com), noting that Valentine’s Day is about human romance, is reminded he needs to go buy a card.

Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 3

Spirituality Column #195
August 3, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 3
By Bob Walters

American Christian historian Mark Noll wrote about the limitations of Evangelical intellectual development in "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind."

But I hope no one thinks he’s saying Christians, or Evangelicals, are stupid.

He’s saying that since God created everything and gave us freedom, every Christian ought to have the courage to study everything.

Right on. Noll’s thoughts are critical to reclaiming intellectual life for Christ.

Noll writes from the refreshing, academic viewpoint of the reality of God. The absence of that reality is one of the most distressing omissions from modern education at every level. Schools – except for religious ones - are not only afraid to admit God exists, they are afraid to mention His name. Satan must love that.

Noll, if I’m reading him right, is calling it a “Scandal” that believers too often and for too long have retreated from the big, messy, public, social, scientific square of academic knowledge and cultural opinion that conflicts with biblical comfort zones.

We Bible Christians are likely to say: "Here’s the Bible, I believe it, end of discussion." Well, it’s not the end of the discussion. Consider Galileo, who suggested that the earth revolved around the sun. He was a heretic! No, wait, he was right.

The only unchanging truth is Jesus Christ. As for physical science, our global knowledge of that changes all the time.

I think it’s a mistake to limit one’s understanding of Jesus Christ to one’s understanding of the Bible. Start with the Bible, sure. Read it. Study it. Know it. Repeat.

But don’t worship it. Worship Christ.

Believe the Bible, of course. But it’s more important to believe Christ.

Think through and with the Bible, but develop a mind for Christ.

The Apostolic Christians who actually knew Jesus, then those who came after the Apostles, then those who formed early doctrine and battled early heresies, didn’t have a Bible to study. But they knew and worshipped Christ.

If our heart, soul and strength are in our faith in God, we still come up short if we don’t accept the importance of the full engagement of our mind. God loved the world and made the world. We better be enthusiastic about studying the world.

Scripture encourages us to “have the mind of a child” (Matthew 11:25, 18:3).

Right. I think that means, “Be curious and grow.” That’s what freedom is for.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) contacted Noll for an update on what the Evangelical mind looks like in 2010. That’s next week.

Holy Week - Peace, Violence and Victory

Spirituality Column #176
March 23, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Holy Week – Peace, Violence and Victory
By Bob Walters

How odd that the greatest truth in the universe – Jesus Christ’s saving grace revealing God’s love, power over death, and our eternal home – is not explained in plainer language.

I know … it’s all right there in the Bible. But it’s a gigantic truth too big for words, too good for our sin, too eternal for our temporal understanding.

Next week is Holy Week – Palm Sunday to Easter – the Christian celebration of that enormous truth, of the Logos, of the Word of God.

Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s “triumphant” arrival into Jerusalem. How odd that he rode a donkey, a symbol of peace and humility, rather than a horse, a symbol of power and triumph.

How odd is the violence of the Crucifixion on Good Friday, when Christ, the sinless Prince of Peace, died horribly to defeat death and erase our sin.

How odd that Christ’s victory over the grave on Easter assures us of eternal life. How odd that God’s love resides not in our understanding, but in our faith in His love, which gives us true hope.

How odd that a believer’s heart is assured and at peace, yet the world expects words to soften hardened hearts. How odd that a man without sin erased my sin, yet I’m still a sinner, yet I am loved, and in my faith am saved.

The difficulty describing this with words is at least twofold:

1. God’s truth is a love relationship, not a word puzzle. Try describing your love relationship with someone or something using only words. Can the totality and expression of love be contained in words? Not a chance.

2. Christ is a real person, not merely an idea, so words and images fail. The Bible’s words show us how to meet Christ, but truth resides in the relationship, not in the meeting.

Holy Week begins with the Peace of Christ and adulation; peaks with the crucifixion’s infinite violence and scorn, and ends with Christ’s resurrection and mankind’s victory over death. And so begins the truth of eternal life.

It’s a big week. Read about Palm Sunday in the Bible (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19), and continue reading each book to the end.

Ask Christ to send the Holy Spirit to help you understand. I pray you’ll find love and peace, discover truth, and learn that it’s not odd at all.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) knows you can’t argue the Holy Spirit into someone, knows truth exists in Christ, and knows God loves each one of us. Amen.

Free to Make Mistakes

Spirituality Column #140
July 14, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Free to Make Mistakes
By Bob Walters

Occasionally we don’t field a fact cleanly.

I recently noted in print that the word "freedom" is not in the Declaration of Independence, and that the word "liberty" is not in the Bible.

Right on the first point; wrong on the second.

An alert reader pointed out that every day the top of the front page of the Indianapolis Star – the banner – has the verse from II Cor 3:17, “… where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

That’s the King James Version (KJV); I did my look-up in the New International Version (NIV). Whoops. “Liberty,” which appears a couple dozen times in the KJV, is translated as “freedom” in the NIV.

On further review, the word “liberty” does appear in the NIV, but only once and it’s buried in the Old Testament, Leviticus 25:10, in a verse regarding the 50-year jubilee of debt forgiveness and property return.

As penance for the mistake, I went to ScriptureText.com and looked up the Greek words for “liberty” and “freedom.” It turns out they are mostly interchangeable – though subtly distinct – variations of “eleutheria.”

With 13 variations of “eleutheria” sprinkled in 39 New Testament verses, it’s easy to drop in “liberty” for “freedom,” and vice versa.

And if you ever wondered why Greek Bible scholars are a breed apart, they have to know exact grammatical construction to even come close to bringing Ancient Greek into modern English. For example, the grammatical tense of “eleutherothentes” (“being made free” in Romans 6:18, 22) is Aorist Passive Participle Nominative Plural Masculine.

“Aorist,” if you’re curious, refers to an action that happened but doesn’t have an end, like gaining one’s freedom. The rest of it – Passive Participle, etc. – is taught in eighth grade English on a day most students probably take a nap.

Grammatically perfect Classical Greek notwithstanding, my overall point is that liberty, as we understand personal liberty and “rights,” is a humanist concept, not a Biblical concept. And freedom’s author is not the Declaration of Independence … or the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, for that matter.

Jesus Christ is the author of our freedom. We are free in Christ, and we are free of our sin, because Christ died to give us freedom.

He died so that we would know the Father, and so that our faith would overcome any mistakes we might make along the way.

Mea culpa.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests going outside ourselves to find right and wrong. God gives us the freedom to search; we pray for the wisdom to find.

Surfing the Bible

Spirituality Column #132
May 19, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Surfing the Bible
By Bob Walters

An end-of-the-millennium magazine article in late 1999 listed the printing press as the most important invention of the past 1,000 years.

I wonder where, another thousand years hence, they will rate the invention of the Internet, and whether the Internet will have as large an impact on Christianity.

It’s doubtful any mass-printed piece has had as much influence on mankind as the Bible. English theologian John Wycliffe in 1382 provided the first translation of the Vulgate (Latin Bible) into common English, and then German Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press around 1450. By 1517, Martin Luther was nailing his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, and the Protestant Reformation was on.

Throw in the 1611 publication of the further-refined King James Version of the Bible – with paragraphs, indented poetic verses and translator’s notes – and scripture became both widely available and understandable to the masses. Continued technology, missionary work and evangelism have spread God’s word to every corner of the globe in virtually every language by Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox alike.

The point here is not the winding course of church history, but that the printed Bible has been and still is a powerful influencer of worldwide culture. Whether today one prefers a Thompson Chain Reference Edition, a multi-version Parallel Bible with side-by-side translations, a Study Bible with many reference notes or a simple Zondervan NIV with minimal reference notes, printing press technology delivers the Word in many forms.

How much moreso the Internet. What the printing press did for Bibles, the Internet can do for Bible study. In-depth, free, online resources abound.

My favorite Bible Internet site is ScriptureText.com, with its word-by-word Greek translations. To try it, Google this: “John 1:14 in Greek.” You see each word in original Greek, Greek in English letters, English words, exact grammatical tenses, and multiple meanings along with multiple languages and translation versions.

While I often flip to the back of my little NIV for index entries, a broader reference is BibleGateway.com. One can instantly search Bible words, phrases or specific verses in virtually any version or any language. Other helpful sites BlueLetterBible.com, BibleandReference.com and NewAdventBible.com (Catholic). Countless Bible studies, concordances, commentaries, blogs, FAQs and tutorials are within a couple of clicks.

Also, visit ThompsonBible.net or Zondervan.com to see how Bibles are made.

We have the tools, we need to use them.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) remembers that the millennium article listed eyeglasses (Italy, 1200s) as the second most important invention; they keep human beings sighted and productive past the age of 40.

Kick This Habit Up a Notch

Spirituality Column #121
March 3, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Kick This Habit Up a Notch
By Bob Walters

How’s this for great advice?

Read the Gospels.

Recently I heard a sermon about another topic entirely, but the pastor made the corollary point, “If you haven’t read them lately, read the Gospels.” What a capital idea.

Over the remaining five weeks of Lent, which started last week with Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, and ends with Easter, April 12, why not take the time (daily if you can) to grab a Bible, sit down and read – or re-read – the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?

Read one book a week – 28 chapters of Matthew, 16 chapters of Mark, 24 chapters of Luke and 21 chapters of John.

That’s what I’m going to do, and write about them weekly. I’m “in” the Gospels all the time, but I haven’t read them end-to-end in five years.

If you’re not now a regular Bible reader, they say habits form over a period of 21 days. I don’t know of a better habit than daily time spent with God’s word, reading the Bible. We make lots of attempts to break bad habits at the start of each New Year. Why not resolve to create one new good habit at the start of this season of renewed life?

This is a “habit” we – Christians or anyone who’s interested in Christ – could work on together, even though many Christian churches don’t implore their congregations to read the Bible, and many other Christian churches do not celebrate Lent.

The good news is … well, the Good News is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But for the purposes of this particular plea, the good news is that all Christian churches celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It’s what we call common ground, and that’s the message of the Gospels.

This is a good season to put away sectarian disputes about Biblical origins, versions, translations and interpretations, and just read. Let’s not fight about “The Bible.” What we want as Christians – regardless of doctrine – is for everyone to know the Gospel message, and to read the Bible.

So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John over the next four weeks.

Know the best way to start? Pray. Get the Holy Spirit involved.
Need a prayer? Try, “Lord Jesus Christ, help me understand what I’m about to read, that it may bring Glory to You. Amen.”

Need a Bible? Let me know.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), who reads the NIV Bible because it’s easy, will find you a Bible if you don’t have one.

Not A Word, THE Word

Spirituality Column #109
December 9, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Not A Word, THE Word
By Bob Walters

And the Word became flesh … John 1:14

When Jesus spoke, people listened.

Some were enraptured, many were enraged. Some believed, and many were incredulous. Some followed, some shunned, and some attacked.

Yet, they listened. His words were unlike anything heard in the history of mankind. His words talked of truth, light, life and eternity. They described a God of love and good, not wrath and power. Christ’s words spoke not of earthly goals for survival, but of a divine plan for salvation.

Jesus spoke, with human words, of His eternal Father and of His oneness with the Spirit of Life. He talked of humility and service. He revealed not only God but a new covenant of faith. He became flesh – a man – not only to save a needy world from death and sin, but also to call mankind to share in the divine glory of God.

It was radical stuff in the world of Jewish Law and Roman Rule 2,000 years ago. It is radical for all time.

Even in this day and age of instant, global, personal, mass communication, we too often dwell on the Bible’s words (Greek: rema), and miss the actual Word of God (Greek: Logos), Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the immutable word (small “w”) of God. Amen. I love the Bible, and even if you don’t love or even believe the Bible, you should read it: it’ll make you smarter. The Bible isn’t so much a rule book, a science book, or even a history or literature book. It is a relationship book; it describes God’s relationship with mankind.

And the key, top, No.1 component of that relationship is God’s Word (capital “W”), and that divine Word is the incarnate Christ Jesus, not the Bible.

This brings us back to John 1:14. The Bible presents good words, yes, but they are manmade words even as they express a Godly idea. Christ joining humanity (i.e., becoming flesh) brought to us the Word: a relationship with the Creator God, the Father Almighty. This is not something we could do on our own, and it is an action manmade words could never accomplish.

Read the Bible, go to Church, love your neighbor, take care of your family, and tend to your business, but don’t worship them. Worship God, and His Word.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is making a point about the true meaning of Christmas. This is the second of a four-part series.

Rational Faith, Real Wisdom

Spirituality Column #102
October 21, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN), Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Rational Faith, Real Wisdom
By Bob Walters

Perhaps the Bible’s simplest book to understand is Proverbs.

It plays well to any crowd … everyone wants to be wise. And Proverbs is, front to back, advice on wisdom: How to get it. How to keep it. How to recognize it. How to increase it. How to apply it. How to share it.

Proverbs is 31 chapters of wisdom one-liners.

It also gives nearly equal time to fools: How to be one. How to recognize one. How to avoid being one.

Nothing else in the Bible is so secularly clear, so spiritually uplifting, and so humanly convicting all at the same time. Proverbs is a close-up look into a brightly-lit wisdom mirror.

The hardest thing about reading Proverbs is its common construction of couplets that tug us in two directions at once, e.g.: “The wise do this, but a fool does that.” Gosh, some of those first ones make me feel smart; and too many of the second ones make me feel dumb.

Proverbs insists that we are down-to-the-bone honest with ourselves. You can’t fool Proverbs.

In our everyday lives too often we confuse wisdom with simple book-learned knowledge. Too often in culture we see people praying at the altar of rationality and logic.

Knowledge, rationality and logic are good, but it’s wise to at least occasionally consider that they are manmade. I think, therefore I am. That is Descartes, not the Bible.

Proverbs tells us that true wisdom comes from God and resides in faith.

A dear friend advised me, in a time of emotional confusion, to consider Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Lean not on my own understanding? Before I was a believer, I couldn’t imagine. As a believer, I shudder at the thought of having nothing but my own understanding.

I think, therefore I am? That’s rational.

I think, therefore I pray. That’s wise.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests a month of Proverbs … read one chapter a day. Consider it “Vitamin P.”

Basic Training

Spirituality Column #99
September 30, 2008
Current in Carmel - Westfield (IN) newspaper

Basic Training
By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The most important thing I did as I began my walk with Christ in earnest not so many years ago was to read the Bible … Genesis to Revelation.

Did I understand everything I read? No. Parts of the Bible are great stories, parts of it are stultifying lists, parts of it are depressing truths about mankind, parts of it are scary truths about God, and parts of it are glorious truths about God’s love, hope, faith and salvation. There’s not one part of it that doesn’t serve to teach us about the light and love of Jesus.

All of it I accept as God’s truth, even the parts I don’t entirely understand; even the parts I understand but can’t explain. The Bible is a treasure of truth God has provided. As Christians, it’s where we dig for treasure every day.

Yet, reading the Bible isn’t enough.

So many people either stay away or turn away from Christ, from religion, from church, from the Bible. I’ve yet to encounter a believer whose faith hasn’t been challenged by someone they loved or respected.

Reading the Bible end-to-end may provide some street cred in ecclesiastical circles, but learning apologetics – how to defend one’s faith against the challenges of an all-too-disbelieving world – is time every bit as well-spent as learning scripture.

Apologetics (think C.S. Lewis) means “defense” and is the arena where my faith and trust in Christ Jesus encounter the doubt, distrust, disappointment and even hostility of non-believers. It’s where the rubber meets the road of a Christian walk; it is basic training for being in the army of God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) originally wrote this in advance of an apologetics conference in the area that was later cancelled.  But ... he posts this as a Classic now because Walters began his walk in faith 11 years ago this weekend, on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2001, at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis.  It was his first time in church in nearly 30 years and that morning amounted to the "hour he first believed."  It just so happened that very day at E91 was the 50th anniversary of Russ Blowers' ministry at E91, and both Russ and senior minister Dave Faust - who two and a half months later baptized Bob - shared the E91 pulpit that day.  Russ preached on 1 Corinthians 13.  Bob's never forgotten that.  And, a special thanks to Bob's older son Eric (Carmel, 2010), who a couple weeks earlier had suggested the family attend church.  It's funny how things get started ...

Not for the Faint Hearted

Spirituality Column #95
September 2, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

Not for the Faint Hearted
By Bob Walters

My daily thirst for Bible instruction and faith commentary is well-watered by the online blog “SeriousFaith.com,” written by Brent Riggs.

I’ve mentioned Riggs before and will probably mention him again. His daily email commentary is not for the Christian faint-hearted. He’s a Bible guy, not a denominational guy. He pays attention to what scripture says, not what we want it to say. His focus is on what God wants from us; not on what we want from God.

Riggs isn’t a minister, at least not the ordained kind. He’s a former Army drill sergeant raising a family in Tulsa, Okla., who teaches Sunday school and has obviously paid attention to some very fine theological mentoring. His actual business is graphic design and website development.

It occurs to me that I laud his efforts due at least in part to the fact that he is not an actual minister; I’m not either. Riggs is a church member with a passion for God’s truth and a gift for communication. We should all be so Christ-centered in our energies.

I don’t agree with Brent every day, but his arguments are always well constructed and his Bible citations flawless. He recently (Aug. 13) excoriated and called heresy The Shack, a book I immensely enjoyed and saw as an exceptional story describing God’s love for humans.

Riggs also panned The Message version of the Bible, even though there is Aramaic (language of Jesus) precedent for street language scripture (the Targum).

Nonetheless, Riggs presents solid, serious Biblical devotions and teaching. He emails daily, and writes fresh entries two or three times a week. His easily accessible online archive has exceptional content, for example ...

... Where in the Bible does it say Christ “descended into Hell”? Well, it doesn’t. At SeriousFaith.com, search “descended into Hell.” Fascinating.

... Sick of “prosperity Gospel” and “personal victory” preachers? So is Brent. On his website search “Give Me, Fix Me, Restore Me, Bless Me.” Great stuff, especially considering Riggs has a young adopted daughter named Abby for whom I hope you will pray. She is battling leukemia.

SeriousFaith.com. Take a look at it and sign up for Brent’s free daily emails if the teaching gets your attention.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that theologian George Bebawi’s class on Romans resumes Wednesday, Sept. 3, 6:30-7:45 p.m. at East 91st Street Christian Church in the Great Room.

Noah, Field of Dreams and the Bible

Spirituality column #84
June 17, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! In Westfield (IN) newspaper

Noah, Field of Dreams and the Bible
By Bob Walters

Our intellectual experience as Americans is, I think, not only diminished but crippled if we are not aware and conversant of what’s in the Bible.

By “intellectual experience” I mean the entire spectrum of thinking, from our childhood education, to our philosophical development, to our faith (or non-faith), and ultimately to our adult actions and beliefs as free human persons, both individually and as a community.

Most literature and art in the Western world has something to do with the Biblical/Christian conversation. It is too bad that so much of our society over the last century and half, and especially over the past 50 years or so, has tried to reinterpret and redefine the Western experience of freedom and individual personhood away from Biblical principles.

We often wind up missing the richness of what is being said in our artistic conversation.

I’m going to use a sports movie and a Bible story to try to explain what I mean.

Field of Dreams, a wonderful baseball movie from 1988, is a terrific morality play about faith, redemption, family, freedom, community, heaven, and God’s permanence and involvement in each of our lives.

If you think the movie is only about a guy dumb enough to plow under a couple acres of corn on the advice of an unknown voice, risks losing his farm, and gets lucky in the end … well, you miss the depth of the movie.

In Genesis chapters 6 to 9, Noah building a boat – where he built it – would have seemed even crazier than Ray Kinsella building a baseball field where he built it. It took Noah 124 years to build the ark in an area that was miles from the sea in a place where rain had never fallen.

Watch Field of Dreams for common Christian symbolism – including the New Testament truth that Heaven will one day be on earth (which obviously includes Iowa) – and it becomes a story about the affirmation of God’s promises, not just a baseball movie.
This is one small example of why it is such a big deal that such a large slice of America is becoming systematically Biblically illiterate. We understand so much less of the gifts we have … not from Hollywood, but from God.

The gifts are wonderful; that so many of us don’t recognize where they come from is a shame.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves baseball. He’ll discuss Narnia next week.

Spiritual Nutrition

Spirituality Column #83
June 10, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Spiritual Nutrition
By Bob Walters

The great banquet of the Holy Spirit, the source of our spiritual nutrition, exists in our very real and palpable relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Things that enhance that relationship – the Bible, church, humility, service, prayer (the list is long) – feed our faith and both deepen and strengthen our commitment to walking the joyous but often hard steps of the true Christian life.

What steps?

Just take the examples of Christ in the Bible. That’s the most accurate picture of what a walk with God is supposed to look like. We all want the reception with palm leaves; but it’s that walk to the Cross that ultimately defines our faith. We need nutrition for that walk.

I’m not sure we’re going to need nutrition in Heaven, or in Hell, for that matter. Nutrition seems to be the stuff of this life, not the next. The Bible does not reveal a precisely recognizable nature of how the perfection of our eternal relationship with God works (“No eye has seen …” etc., 1 Corinthians 2:9), but there is no hint that it continues to be, on either our part or God’s, a work in progress.

At that point it’s a done deal.

Between the Bible, Christian traditions and my faith, I have no lingering doubts God has the eternity thing all figured out. My hunch is that he saves that part of the mystery for the end because … duh … it’s the best part.

But here and now is when developing that relationship provides the spiritual nutrition for our walk, both through the imperfections of our own lives in this fallen world, and for the hope we find in the glimmers of our potential for goodness in a beautiful world God created for us.

If we are having difficulty being certain of our relationship with God, we should look at the elemental components of how we build relationships with each other:
- we nourish relationships with love and grace and trust,
- we choke relationships with sin and fear and guilt.

It seems obvious which is the more nourishing three-course communion meal.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), who has been putting on weight lately, neither ignores sin nor makes it the center of his spiritual life.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him ..."
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)

Job: With Friends Like These

Spirituality Column #82
June 3, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Job: With Friends Like These
By Bob Walters

What does Job teach us about faith and trust?

Job is the oldest book in the Bible. The story predates by several hundred years God’s anointing of Abraham. There is no name for Job’s religion; he simply feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1).

Conversely, God trusted Job. God tells Satan in Job 1:8, “There is no one on earth like him (Job); he is blameless and upright.”

Satan tells God that Job’s faith can be shaken (Job 1:11), and God says, in effect, OK, it’s a bet. Satan suggests God strike everything Job has, but God simply puts Job’s possessions into Satan’s hands.

Job’s children, servants, herds, oxen, donkeys, camels were all wiped out. Job’s reaction was to fall to the ground and worship God (Job 1:20).

God said to Satan, See? “Job maintains his integrity” (Job 2:3). Satan replied, let’s hurt Job himself, and afflicted him with “painful sores from … his feet … to his head.” Job’s wife tells Job to curse God. Job tells her she is a fool (Job 2:10).

Then Job’s three friends show up (Job 2:11), and for the next 35 chapters try to tell Job, basically, that bad things only happen to bad people, so what has he, Job, done to God?

Job’s celebrated “patience” with God is pretty much over by verse 3:26, “I have no rest; only turmoil,” and with his friends by verse 6:15, “… my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams.” Job and his friends bicker, mourn and lament until God decides to have His say, “The Lord Speaks,” in Chapter 38. God was displeased that Job questioned His intentions.

Notice: Job’s faith wasn’t shaken by what had happened; it was shaken by those closest to him, seeking to divide him from God by saying he was guilty of something.

Key Point 1: No one stopped to think Satan was behind the turmoil.

Key Point 2: Good counsel increases faith and creates focus on God; bad counsel decreases faith and creates focus on ourselves.

Job, who was restored much as we are restored eternally by Jesus Christ, had it right to start with: keeping faith and trusting God always works.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has learned faith and patience the hard way, and is almost positive there is not an easy way.

Dealing with Jesus

Spirituality Column #79
May 13, 2008
Current! in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current! in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Dealing with Jesus
By Bob Walters

Ben Stein’s recent movie Expelled presents Intelligent Design/Creation as a salient life science subverted by 150 years of incomplete yet burgeoning and now pervasive Darwinian/Evolution worldview and education.

The 1996 PBS NOVA episode titled “The Ultimate Journey,” a video on evolution commonly shown in high school biology classes with fascinating microphotography of embryos, confidently asserts itself as “The Odyssey of Life,” a veritable highlight reel of how life works. The video contains this direct quote, “We don’t know how life began.”

How odd. I know how life began; God created life, and us. The Bible lays it out in plain terms in Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

The fact that there is life because God wanted there to be life – and our trying to figure out the how and why of life based on that – is entirely different and I daresay more satisfying than evolutionists stuffily saying “we don’t know how life began” and foregoing any explanation of why life exists.

To an evolutionist, there is no “why.”

Creationism is different. That’s because the Bible is different, and Jesus is different.

Our God-given human creativity and freedom to invent secular views like evolution, humanism, and broad and competing swaths of philosophy – or conversely, to discover God, life, love, purpose, salvation, relationships and truth in the Bible – too often create conflict, not understanding. For the record, I don’t think science is specifically secular or necessarily divisive.

Discussing this with a friend from church, wondering why so many people insist on separating science and scripture, she said, “The problem is that if you deal with Creation, you have to deal with the Bible. And if you deal with the Bible, then you have to deal with Jesus … and a lot of people don’t want to go there.”

So true. The thing is, we should recognize that our individuality, uniqueness and significance all come from Jesus, not Darwin. Evolution defeats all those ideas, and Darwin doesn’t demand that we act right and love each other.

We’d all be better off dealing with Jesus, even in science class. And by all means … go to science class.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) finds dinosaur bones and carbon dating quite fascinating, but not as fascinating as his relationship with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Freeing Up a Choked Debate

Spirituality Column #77
April 29, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Freeing Up a Choked Debate
By Bob Walters

I saw the movie Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed and thought it was pretty good.

What has surprised me is that the reviews and comment I’ve seen are predictably, iconoclastically “Conservative – Intelligent Design” or “Liberal – Darwinism” and have consistently missed Stein’s central point of the movie – Freedom.

Evolutionists, Atheists and anti-Creationists certainly saw – to their way of thinking, I’m sure – an unfair attack on their beloved and holy Darwinism. Believers like me were likely struck by Stein’s images, boldness and surely snickered at some of his forensic mischief and filmmaker’s license.

And I must say that the sound track was fabulous. To Yoko and her “Imagine” complaint, all I can say is “Let It Be.”

But whether I think the movie’s message is right on or someone else thinks the message is right off the loony farm, Stein began and ended the movie talking about Freedom.

Freedom. Galatians 5:1. As a Christian believer, and an American, I want to stop right there and drink in the elegance of focusing on Freedom in a debate about science. And religion.

Religion is a quest for Truth. Science is a quest for Truth. Both require freedom of honest inquiry to establish Truth, or you wind up with idolatry and demagoguery, not religion and science. You have Political Correctness, not Truth.

What is Truth? That’s easy. It’s in the Bible. John 14:6. Jesus Christ is the Truth.

And how Darwin got to be more politically correct than Christ I do not know.

Stein addressed science, but mainly he was talking about Freedom; Freedom which I interpret as being of ultimate importance to our relationship with God and its utter necessity in our search for Him.

Trotting out the Bible as the ultimate science book is not satisfying, because our God-given thirst for discovery requires us to investigate beyond the relationship Truths of Genesis-to-Revelation. Yet the church cannot define science without stifling human creativity (look at the Dark Ages). When science stifles the church, you have, well … today.

Our creativity is an absolutely essential part of our humanity Christ came to redeem. How else can we discover Him?

We all want Freedom for our own point of view. If we battle to preserve Freedom on all fronts, religion and science will take care of themselves.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures our purpose in life is our quest for God, and our pursuit of Truth. We find both in Christ.

God Be With You

Spirituality Column #53
November 13, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) Newspaper

God Be With You
By Bob Walters

How close are you to God?

Pretty close? Not so close? Don’t believe?

Truth is, we all have a different answer to that question. Just like each of us has our own picture of heaven, hell, or the nature of God’s existence, so too we each have in our own hearts a unique sense of our closeness to and relationship with God. There’s not really a “right” answer, and it usually changes over time anyway, but I pose it as one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves.

How close am I to God?

My reality in God, Christ and the Holy Spirit is something that I can talk about, and it might even make sense to others of similar religious orientation, but it’s not something I can share completely with anyone except God. The only real way to share our closeness to and love of God with others, after all, is to love others.

Your reality with God, your closeness to God, is your own business. Not worse or better than mine … just, your own. It’s unique, special and important.

Oh so important.

When we question each other’s closeness to God it hits at the core, I think, of what annoys non-believers and edge-believers about deep believers. If I claim a firm reality in Christ, oddly enough, people who don’t actually believe in Christ will perceive it as a smack down; a claim of superiority, even though it is actually, biblically, a claim of humility.

Now turn that question around and ask “How close is God to you?” and the Christian answer is unswerving and the same for every living soul: God is not only with you and close to you, He is in you.

Christ is in you because the fully-God Christ became fully human to create communion between God and Man, and put the Holy Spirit of God in each of us. That’s sort of the Bible, especially the New Testament, in a nutshell.

My point is that I can’t tell or compel anyone to be closer to God, but I can absolutely with all confidence tell anyone that God is this close to them.

He is with us, and in us. That includes you, and that’s a fact.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) begins his second year writing this column and both congratulates the editors of Current in Carmel for their success and thanks them for this column space.