Breakpoint

John Stonestreet and Warren Cole Smith discuss the cultural and spiritual implications of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral on the Monday of Holy Week--all in light of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we commemorate and celebrate this weekend. 

 

 

Podcast: Embracing the Counter-Cultural Message of the Cross, with John Stonestreet

BreakPoint Podcast

 

The Seven Last Sayings of Christ from the Cross

Free, downloadable .pdf, Colson Center for Christian Worldview

 

The Truth about Everything

Chuck Colson and John Stonestreet, BreakPoint, April 19, 2019

 

This Sunday is the 7th anniversary of the passing of Chuck Colson. And it's also the day that Christians everywhere will celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God. Chuck Colson knew that the only way to Easter Sunday is through Good Friday.

Here’s Chuck  Colson.

Easter for many of us is a day of family gatherings and a celebration, not only of Christ’s resurrection, but also the coming of spring. Today, on Good Friday, let’s not rush the celebration before coming face-to-face with the paradoxes that are at the heart of the Christian faith.

Those paradoxes are the subject of a wonderful book, "Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus" written by my friend Father Richard John Neuhaus.

A paradox, as G. K. Chesterton famously put it, is “Truth standing on her head to get attention.” Our aversion and resistance to truth is so strong that God often finds it necessary to employ extreme measures to get us to see past the lies we've embraced.

Never was this truer than on what Christians call “Good Friday.” As Neuhaus writes, “If what Christians say about Good Friday is true, then it is, quite simply, the truth about everything.” That “everything” starts with telling the truth about the human condition. And how does God do that? By paradoxically punishing the offended party, instead of the guilty one.

As Neuhaus tells us, we are all aware that “something has gone terribly wrong with the world and with us in the world.” It is not just history’s best-known list of horribles. It's also “the habits of compromise . . . loves betrayed . . . lies excused . . .”

Yet, instead of acknowledging our complicity in the world’s evil, we minimize our own faults and regard our sins as “small.” Good Friday puts the lie to that claim. If the Son of God had to suffer such a horrible death, then our sins cannot have been “small.”

The Cross reminds us that “our lives are measured,” not by us or by our peers, but “by whom we are created and called to be, and the measuring is done by the One who creates and calls.” Instead of glossing over our sin with an understanding nod, the Cross renders “the verdict on the gravity of our sin.”

Our unwillingness to see our sins as they really are—that is, as God sees them—leads us to embrace another falsehood: that is, that we can make things right. Even though our culture is, in many respects, post-Christian, it still clings to the idea of redemption. However, just as with our ideas about sin and guilt, our ideas about redemption are pitiful and impoverished.

On Good Friday, God made it clear “that we are incapable of setting things right.” He made it clear by taking our place. On the Cross, “the Judge of the guilty is Himself judged guilty.” This is, of course, the great scandal, one that paradoxically points to the great truth at the heart of Good Friday. We are powerless to set things right, and only God, the offended party, could undo the mess we created.

The Cross—God’s way of bearing witness to the truth about our condition—is as offensive today as it was 2,000 years ago. Now, as then, we insist on misinterpreting the events of that Friday afternoon, but to no avail. Our sin has been judged, and God Himself bore the punishment. And that is the truth about everything.

Hi, John Stonestreet here again. Please come to BreakPoint.org to order a copy of Richard John Neuhaus’s “Death on a Friday Afternoon." We have it for you at our online bookstore.

And to help you meditate on the death and resurrection of Christ, we’ve also compiled a free, downloadable collection of essays entitled “The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus from the Cross.”  This beautifully illustrated devotional—with meditations written by Colson Center staff—is available at BreakPoint.org/7sayings.

For BreakPoint, I’m John Stonestreet, once again wishing you a Holy Good Friday, and a glorious Resurrection Day.

Tomorrow is Good Friday. Hundreds of millions of Christians around the world will observe the day Jesus was nailed to the cross to save us from our sins.

For many, it is a day of fasting. Of silence. Of prayer and contemplation. And that is as it should be.

After several weeks of Lenten fasts and disciplines, many of us are eager for the celebration of Easter. But as Fr. Richard John Neuhaus observed, we’re far too quick to rush past the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, and the events of Good Friday. The only way to Sunday is through, not around, the important events of this week, especially Good Friday.

Let me be clear, however. No Christian ought dwell on Friday as if we don’t know what happens three days later. “Sunday’s a-comin’,” said that great African-American preacher, describing that brilliant new day which awaits confused disciples, triumphant religious authorities, and that angry mob.

Sunday is not a maybe for us Christians. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Thus, we won’t rightly understand anything from the Creation and the Fall of the world to the birth, life, miracles, words, or last week of Jesus Christ without having His resurrection fully in view.

Søren Kierkegaard once observed that life is lived forward and can only be understood backward. As we remember the events of Holy Week, we have an advantage that Christ’s first followers did not. We look backward. Not only that, we also have the benefit of watching the shift in the disciple’s perspective from looking forward to looking backward.

Peter’s sermon at Pentecost offers the very first, clear, Holy Spirit-led, backward-looking exposition of Holy Week events. The punchline of that rhetorical tour de force in Acts 2 is this unequivocal claim: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified” (Acts 2:36).

Peter, like the rest of the disciples and the masses that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem, did not have this perspective looking forward. They expected a kingdom of this world, specifically of Israel. Even as they walked with Jesus after the resurrection, the disciples were still asking, “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

It is only after Christ’s ascension that Peter realized the answer to that question is both yes and no. Yes, the kingdom is inaugurated. No, the kingdom is not limited to Israel. God the Father has placed all things in heaven and earth under the feet of Jesus Christ. His rule is over all.

His rule was sealed by His Sunday resurrection, but it only came through His victorious death over death on that Good Friday: the Good Friday that we remember tomorrow. Many of us will remember it by walking through the words of Jesus from the cross.

The staff of the Colson Center has prepared a series of meditations on those last seven words of Jesus from the cross as He died. In a beautifully illustrated booklet, using sacred art about the passion of Jesus, these devotionals can help you and your family meditate on the significance of Good Friday. It’s a free pdf download that you can print and share. Just visit BreakPoint.org/7sayings.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jesus’ seven last sayings, they are: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do;” “Today you will be with me in Paradise;” “Behold your son/Behold your mother;” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “I thirst;” “It is finished;” and finally, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Tomorrow, find some time to pray and meditate on Him Who was wounded for our transgressions, whose chastisement was the punishment for our peace, and by Whose stripes we are healed.

Again, the free downloadable devotional booklet is available at BreakPoint.org/7sayings. For all of us at the Colson Center, may God grant you a glorious Easter celebration. He is risen. Indeed.

What is the foundational truth of all reality? And how does that truth shape the way we live in the world? That is the topic of a presentation John Stonestreet delivered at Focus on the Family in preparation for Easter.

And as you and your family get ready to mark the death of Christ on Good Friday, check out the Colson Center’s free downloadable booklet, a series of meditations on the “Seven Last Sayings of Christ from the Cross.”

I’ve learned a lot from Glenn Sunshine, the longest serving faculty member of the Colson Fellows Program, and a professor of history at Central Connecticut State University. Glenn not only gets history, he also really gets worldview and, even better, how worldview and history are related.

On Monday night, as I was trying to make sense of the tragedy of the burning of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, I learned again from Dr. Sunshine. Part of my sadness was that I’ve never visited this wonder of the world, where Henry VI, King of England, was also crowned King of France in 1431, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804, and Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909. But there was more to my sadness, and the sadness of so many who, like me, were mourning the potential loss of a place they’ve never seen.

Glenn’s comments, posted on Facebook, are worth quoting:

I am a historian. I revere the past. Artefacts that allow us to touch the centuries touch a deep place in my heart. Having lived in Paris, I feel a personal connection to Notre Dame: Not only is it an 850-year-old artifact full of beauty but it is also the site of some very happy memories for me with students and especially with my family. My wife nursed our firstborn in Notre Dame. I have been in shock and mourning all day over the fire. And yet ... I have also been thinking about C.S. Lewis's words from "The Weight of Glory": "You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat." My reason tells me he is right, but my emotions don't agree. To take it a step further, if the thing that gives human life value is the Image of God, if we are really the crown of God's creation, isn't human life more important than the ancient artefacts that I revere? Why then do I get more upset at the loss of things whose longevity is "to ours as the life of a gnat" than I am at the dehumanization of people made in God's image, at abuse and murder? As horrified as I am by those things, why do I feel the loss of ancient artefacts more? I don't have a good answer, and I'm not looking for one, but pondering the significance of the fire at Notre Dame has gotten me thinking about these questions.

I think we do well to ponder these questions. I remember, after a fire ravaged the signature building of a college where I once worked, hearing the wise words of our President Bill Brown (now the Dean of the Colson Fellows Program): “We didn’t lose anything important.” He meant, of course, no human lives were lost. Bill went on to lead an incredible recovery and renovation project, and the college went on.

I think Bill’s words were spot on in the context of that fire, but I also sense with Glenn Sunshine that, though the loss of lives would have been infinitely more tragic, we rightly mourn what we witnessed this week in Paris.

We rightly mourn the loss of that kind of beauty. Though, as I understand, many of the priceless works of art housed in Notre Dame are safe, many others are lost. Of course, God, in His grace, hasn’t ceased to endow His image bearers with creativity and skill. Thankfully, we can expect others to come along whom He has called to communicate truth and goodness with beauty.

But we must also know that not every culture is capable of producing art that captures the imagination in that kind of transcendent way. Today, our collective imaginations are far too often captive to things temporal, meaningless, and even obscene. That says a lot about the kind of culture we’ve created.

We also rightly mourn the loss of history, especially in this age of what C. S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery.” Cultural memory is lost at our own peril and, whenever it is, humans are tempted by a moral Darwinism, confident that our new technologies, leisure, and distractions will deliver the good life. They will not.

Finally, many of us mourn, rightly, the loss of faith and transcendence this fire seems to represent. Over a century ago, Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed cathedrals to be nothing more than the sepulchers of God. Of course, God is not dead in any ontological sense, but He is long forgotten in so many places where people were once inspired to build edifices for His worship, places like Notre Dame.

So as we mourn, let’s pray that God, in His grace, would haunt us with these questions, and through them would bring revival, renewal, and even new beauty from the ashes of Notre Dame.

Last year President Trump signed a proclamation declaring April to be “Second Chance Month.” In the declaration, he said “We celebrate those who have exited the prison system and successfully re-entered society.”

Then he added, “We encourage expanded opportunities for those who have worked to overcome bad decisions earlier in life and emphasize our belief in second chances for all who are willing to work hard to turn their lives around.”

If you’re thinking that this idea sounds, well, Christian, though recognizing a “Second Chance Month” is a recent phenomenon, the two ideas that it is based on come directly from the Christian vision of life and the world: redemption and restoration.

Second Chance Month is, in the words of Prison Fellowship, a “bipartisan national movement” to address what it calls the “second prison.”

“Second prison” refers to the hopelessness that often afflicts someone after being released from prison. For the sixty-five million Americans with some kind of criminal record, access to the kinds of things the rest of us take for granted can be a struggle.

There are by some estimates more than “48,000 collateral sanctions . . . not counting local laws enacted by municipalities,” that are applied to those who have served time. Collateral sanctions are sort of add-on punishments that put housing, employment, education, and “other things necessary for a full and productive life,” out of reach.

This is not only unjust—after all, these people have served their sentence—it’s counter-productive. As a Manhattan Institute study revealed, employment reduces the risk of recidivism among ex-prisoners. That’s not only good for ex-prisoners, it’s good for society.

That’s why Prison Fellowship helped create a bi-partisan and unlikely alliance that includes such disparate parties as the ACLU and the Heritage Foundation, in order to “reduce barriers [that keep] formerly incarcerated Americans from successfully rejoining society,” as well as to “rais(e) awareness of the importance of second chances.”

Churches can host “‘Second Chance Sunday’ events, as well as coordinated petition and social media campaigns.” Some groups even host a “Second Chance 5K” run.

These efforts are a very fitting tribute to Chuck Colson. Upon his release, Chuck not only had a new-found faith, he also had something else many others don’t when they leave prison: a network of support and friends who believed that he was a new creation. Without that sort of network, it’s unlikely that he ever would have founded Prison Fellowship, which has become an incredible force to mobilize churches to bring the good news to men and women inside prison, and to prepare churches to welcome them once they’re released. Chuck understood that if Christians don’t lead the way in making restoration a reality for the formerly incarcerated, no one would.

This is why we think “Second Chance Month” should be a big deal for followers of Christ. April is half over, but Prison Fellowship’s Second Chance Month events calendar shows there are many opportunities to be involved—especially through social media. To find out how you or your church can participate in Second Chance Month, come to BreakPoint.org and click on this commentary. We’ll link you to all the information you need to jump in.

While you’re there at BreakPoint.org, I’ll link you to a great article by Warren Smith on Second Chance Month. It’s part of his “Restoring All Things” series. As well as a BreakPoint Podcast interview that Warren did with Heather Rice-Minus, Prison Fellowship’s Vice-President of Government Affairs. Heather is one of our commissioned Colson Fellows, and she offers an update on the recently passed First Step Act, which is a major, bipartisan criminal justice reform effort.

Again, all of that can be found at BreakPoint.org.

It’s that time of year. Easter is coming, the flowers are blooming, and cable TV will air those “Jesus never existed” type of TV shows.

And perhaps you’ll find yourself at Easter dinner, when your favorite uncle, or perhaps even your son or daughter asks you, “You don’t really believe that Jesus literally rose again from the dead do you?”

Well, assuming you do, how would you explain why you believe?

As Christian apologist and former homicide detective J. Warner Wallace explains on today’s BreakPoint Podcast, we don’t have to rely on our personal religious experiences to explain what we believe, but we can make that case that Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the most is the most reasonable explanation based on the historical evidence.

 

Resources Cold Case Christianity Website       The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus from the Cross, downloadable .pdf booklet   Colson Center for Christian Worldview   Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels J. Warner Wallace, David C. Cook Publishing, 2012

In 1968, as Warsaw Pact forces invaded and occupied what was then Czechoslovakia, a young composer in another corner of the Soviet empire did something just as provocative.

In Estonia, the composer Arvo Pärt produced a musical piece entitled “Credo.” “Credo” means “I believe” in Latin. “Believe in what?” you ask. “I believe in Jesus Christ” was Pärt’s answer, followed by Matthew 5:38-39, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.”

This kind of open declaration of Christian faith was unacceptable in the USSR. According to Pärt’s biographer, Paul Hilliard, the Soviets saw the “strongly personalized religious declaration” of the title and the text itself as a “gesture of defiance” and a “direct provocation.” So the Soviets promptly banned “Credo.”

Their actions, however, did not end the composer’s career, nor did it dampen his commitment to composing music inspired by his faith. Instead, “Credo” would mark the start of a fifty-year run that has made Pärt the most performed living composer in the world. More importantly, “Credo” also marked a musical and spiritual turning point in his life.

As Hilliard describes, by 1968, Pärt had written himself into a kind of musical cul-de-sac. Up to that point, he utilized thoroughly modern forms of music, such as serialism and collage, in his compositions. Along the way, he’d grown skeptical that “progress in art” was even possible, or at least progress that was in any way analogous to the progress seen in science.

So Pärt began to look back instead of forward for his inspiration, back to “early music”— which for him meant music before Bach. Not coincidentally, it was during this part of his career that Pärt experienced a spiritual awakening. It led him to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church.

With his faith and his art now inseparably intertwined, Pärt began to compose his most powerful works, sacred music for chorus.

Like that early music that inspired him, Pärt believes, as he once told the BBC, that the text is “more important than the music.” Thus, Pärt uses his music to draw the listener’s attention to what is being said, and describes the listener’s task to “find what is behind every word.”

As one critic pointed out, “What is interesting in Pärt’s music is what is not there. There is little rhythmic complexity, no extravagant use of orchestration, no self-conscious harmonic display or dissonance.”

In other words, there’s nothing that would obscure the text and distract from its message. These elements especially come together in his 1982 composition, Passio. The Latin text is from John 18 and 19. Arrangement-wise, it couldn’t be simpler: two soloists, a quartet and a choir accompanied by an organ and a few other instruments.

But in a simplicity in service of the text, the piece has, in Pärt’s words, “given food for hundreds and thousands of composers, and it will continue to do so.”

The music is timeless in the way that a religious icon is: Both are windows into eternity. At the end you are ready to join Pärt in the Passio’s closing prayer, which is also the central message of Holy Week: “You have suffered for us, have mercy on us. Amen.”

That the message of Holy Week and the message of Arvo Pärt’s music are “inextricably intertwined,” is exactly as art and faith should be. But, unfortunately, it so rarely is.

To observe Holy Week and to prepare for Easter, come to BreakPoint.org. We will link you to amazing performances of Pärt’s music. And, you can also download a devotional booklet for Good Friday: “The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus from the Cross.” It’s beautifully illustrated, and absolutely free at BreakPoint.org/7sayings.

Is there a new breed of coach in college athletics? Two big-sport championship coaches--Tony Bennett of Virginia basketball and Dabo Sweeney of Clemson Football--display decidedly biblical principles in the way they treat their players.

John Stonestreet and Warren Smith also discuss the passage of Ohio's "hearbeat" bill, which would ban abortions after a baby's heartbeat is detected--and how the media is trying to cast it as a radical, unreasonable law.

They wrap up the show discussing religious liberty for all means "for all" (including Muslims and Buddhists) and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission's statement on AI.

As we enter Holy Week, be sure to check out our series of meditations: "The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus from the Cross."  It's available as a free .pdf download.

 http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/04/bp-this-week-a-new-kind-of-coach

Resources

The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus from the Cross, free download

The University of Virginia’s NCAA Championship

John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, BreakPoint, April 10, 2019

 

A Nice Guy Finishes in The Hall of Fame

Warren Cole Smith, BreakPoint, April 12, 2019

 

Ohio Has a Heart for Life

John Stonestreet and David Carlson, The Point, April 12, 2019

 

Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles

Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, April 11, 2019

The Trump Administration has been a stalwart defender of Americans’ religious liberty. From repealing the HHS mandate, to protecting religious rights in the workplace, and especially the appointment of justices and judges who respect the first amendment, the “more” that was promised by the President after that initial executive order has been delivered.

However, the Administration’s actions concerning religious freedom outside the United States is not as impressive as its talk. Last summer’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom featured spellbinding rhetoric delivered by a “Who’s Who” of people who’ve devoted their lives to the cause of religious freedom. The ministerial culminated in a statement called the “Potomac Declaration,” which stated, among other things, that “Religious freedom is universal and inalienable, and states must respect and protect this human right.”

Remember the scene in the movie “Braveheart,” in which Mel Gibson’s William Wallace delivers a barn burner of a speech to Scottish forces, whereupon Stephen, his Irish lieutenant, asks, “Fine speech. Now what?”

While Wallace had an answer for Stephen, unfortunately the same cannot be said of the current administration, as WORLD magazine recently reported. “Under [the Trump] administration,” WORLD told its readers, “refugee admissions have plunged to historic lows, with persecuted Christians in the Middle East suffering from the fallout.”

Just how low? “The number of Middle East Christians admitted into the United States in 2018 fell by a staggering 98 percent from 2016. Christians from countries that Open Doors ranked highest for religious persecution saw a 76 percent decline from 2016 to 2018.”

So far, the downward trend is continuing in 2019. In the first months of this year, “30 Iranian Christians, 25 Iraqi Christians, and zero Syrian Christian refugees” had been admitted to the United States.

As the saying goes, these low numbers aren’t a bug of the system, they’re a feature. According to one former administration official, the architect of White House immigration policy, Stephen Miller, once said that he “would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched American soil.”

Whatever you make of the truthfulness of that story, the truth of the refugee story remains: Unless the U.S. is willing to admit persecuted religious minorities as refugees, the Potomac Declaration, as well as all those great speeches by those amazing leaders at the Ministerial are nothing but empty noise.

Think about it: The countries represented at the Ministerial didn’t need to be admonished not to persecute religious minorities. The Potomac Declaration wasn’t directed at them. It was directed at Iraq, where the dire situation facing Christians is at least partly due to our invading and destabilizing the country. It was directed at Iran, Pakistan, and Syria and other countries on Open Door’s list.

Unfortunately, these are the least likely places to take the Potomac Declaration to heart, which leaves us with the question, “Now what?”

At least part of the answer has to be for the United States to admit people fleeing religious persecution as refugees. Otherwise we’re sending a clear message to their persecutors hat we don’t mean what we say about religious freedom.

As WORLD says, this administration “runs the risk of growing disillusionment among Christians for whom their persecuted brethren is a key concern.”

Christians have enjoyed nearly-unprecedented access to the White House, to administration officials and many of the promises made to us have been kept. Unfortunately, the promise to aid persecuted Christians around the world has not been kept. We see our persecuted brothers and sisters caught up in the middle of what is a very necessary larger debate over immigration. The administration could both secure the border and help refugees under religious persecution. And if it did, it would be a huge political win.

But even more important, with each year setting new records for religious persecution and martyrs around the world, it’s the right thing to do.

 

http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/04/breakpoint-christian-refugees-need-a-new-home/

 

Resources

Left behind

Harvest Prude | WORLD | March 28, 2019

Religious liberty report card: The Trump administration's first year

Travis Weber | Family Research Council | January 12, 2018

Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom Potomac Declaration Share

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor | U. S. Department of State | July 26, 2018