“There are two things you should never talk about,” I was told as I was growing up: “Religion and politics.” And to show you how well I learned my lesson, there are two things I want to talk about this morning – religion and politics. Specifically I want to talk about what we believe as a church and as an affiliation of churches about our involvement in politics and the relationship between the church and the government.

If you go to our website and click on the “What We Believe” tab, you will find a section called “Religious Liberty.” It begins with this statement: “We believe that every human being is responsible to God alone in all matters in the practice of faith.” And what that simply means is that we don’t believe the government should tell us how to live the Christian life. The government should not dictate religious beliefs or religious practices. I imagine you’re quite aware that it doesn’t work that way everywhere. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the law prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam. And there was a time in the history of the Christian Church when some people thought the government should compel the practice of Christianity. But we don’t believe that’s a biblical view, and certainly religious freedom is a significant part of our heritage as Americans. I think most of us would agree with something Thomas Jefferson wrote about religious freedom. Jefferson, by the way, was not a Christian; you might know that Jefferson very famously took a scissors to his Bible and physically cut out every account of a miracle, including the account of Jesus’ resurrection. But Jefferson was a very smart and articulate man. Here’s something he published in 1779 called the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom that I think we would all support: “Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever … but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

“There are two things you should never talk about,” I was told as I was growing up: “Religion and politics.” And to show you how well I learned my lesson, there are two things I want to talk about this morning – religion and politics. Specifically I want to talk about what we believe as a church and as an affiliation of churches about our involvement in politics and the relationship between the church and the government.

If you go to our website and click on the “What We Believe” tab, you will find a section called “Religious Liberty.” It begins with this statement: “We believe that every human being is responsible to God alone in all matters in the practice of faith.” And what that simply means is that we don’t believe the government should tell us how to live the Christian life. The government should not dictate religious beliefs or religious practices. I imagine you’re quite aware that it doesn’t work that way everywhere. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the law prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam. And there was a time in the history of the Christian Church when some people thought the government should compel the practice of Christianity. But we don’t believe that’s a biblical view, and certainly religious freedom is a significant part of our heritage as Americans. I think most of us would agree with something Thomas Jefferson wrote about religious freedom. Jefferson, by the way, was not a Christian; you might know that Jefferson very famously took a scissors to his Bible and physically cut out every account of a miracle, including the account of Jesus’ resurrection. But Jefferson was a very smart and articulate man. Here’s something he published in 1779 called the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom that I think we would all support: “Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever … but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

How important is the issue of the reliability of the Scriptures? Can the Bible really be a source of truthful information? Can we know the Bible really is the Word of God? Did the Bible ever claim to be authoritative? If all of these questions are true, have the words contained in Scripture ever actually changed anyone? Can these words actually change me? If you have ever pondered these questions then this morning is for you because we are going to give you great justification for answering “yes” to all of these questions.

This week we’re jumping back into our series called “What Do I Stand For?” We’re trying to get a grip on those truths that all Christians believe are essential, the truths that distinguish what we believe as Christians from other religions and other world views. So far our focus is on what we believe about God. In our first week we talked about our belief in the existence of a personal, infinite, just and loving God, and in particular why we believe that such a God exists. In week two we tackled the Trinity, our belief that there is one God who exists in three persons – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In week three we focused on who Jesus is, and in particular we studied not what other people said about Jesus but what Jesus said about himself, and in specific Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh.

This week we’re jumping back into our series called “What Do I Stand For?” We’re trying to get a grip on those truths that all Christians believe are essential, the truths that distinguish what we believe as Christians from other religions and other world views. So far our focus is on what we believe about God. In our first week we talked about our belief in the existence of a personal, infinite, just and loving God, and in particular why we believe that such a God exists. In week two we tackled the Trinity, our belief that there is one God who exists in three persons – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In week three we focused on who Jesus is, and in particular we studied not what other people said about Jesus but what Jesus said about himself, and in specific Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh.

WE STAND FOR LIFE CHANGE

“JESUS: SUPERSTAR, SUPERHERO OR SON OF GOD?”

What Do I Stand For?

September 22, 2013

Cornerstone Community Church

Every few years a new book comes out purporting to reveal who Jesus really was and is. The latest such book is called “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” by Reza Aslan. Aslan has been on quite a number of news shows promoting his book – Fox News, CNN and even The Daily Show on Comedy Central, which is where I first saw him. And in that interview Aslan explained to a cheering audience that it’s crucial that we separate the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith. In other words, Aslan contends that the New Testament writers get Jesus all wrong. Jesus is not, as Christians claim, God in the flesh. Rather, the Jesus of history was a member of a political movement called the Zealots who was intent on overthrowing the Romans and who got himself killed for just that reason. Interestingly, although the book is a best seller, scholar after scholar has pointed out the many historical errors Aslan makes. My favorite critique of the book comes not from a Christian scholar but from the “Jewish Review of Books,” which titles its review “What Jesus Wasn’t: Zealot.” When Jewish scholars come out and say that a writer has completely missed what the Gospels teach about who Jesus was, it’s pretty hard to take that writer seriously. One last point that should have been a tipoff about Aslan’s work – he’s not, by profession, an historian; in fact, he’s a professor of creative writing.

In 2007 William Paul Young wrote a New York Times bestseller called “The Shack.” Many Christians loved the book, and many thought it was heretical. The main controversy of the book was its portrayal of the Trinity, which is one of the essential doctrines of our Christian faith. If you ask me, “What do we stand for as a church? What are our core beliefs?” I would tell you, “This is one of them – we believe in the Trinity. We believe there is one God who exists as three persons.” Here’s the somewhat technical statement of what we believe from our Statement of Faith: “We believe that there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons; that these are equal in divine nature, and that they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption.” I will do my best to make sense out of that this morning. But let me emphasize something I said last week – we didn’t just make these core beliefs up ourselves as a church. These have been the beliefs of the Christian Church for nearly two thousand years. Cornerstone’s Statement of Faith is not unique; it is the same Statement of Faith that you will find for many if not most of the Christian churches around the world. Part of what we stand for as Christians – a very important part – is this doctrine called the Trinity.

In 2007 William Paul Young wrote a New York Times bestseller called “The Shack.” Many Christians loved the book, and many thought it was heretical. The main controversy of the book was its portrayal of the Trinity, which is one of the essential doctrines of our Christian faith. If you ask me, “What do we stand for as a church? What are our core beliefs?” I would tell you, “This is one of them – we believe in the Trinity. We believe there is one God who exists as three persons.” Here’s the somewhat technical statement of what we believe from our Statement of Faith: “We believe that there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons; that these are equal in divine nature, and that they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption.” I will do my best to make sense out of that this morning. But let me emphasize something I said last week – we didn’t just make these core beliefs up ourselves as a church. These have been the beliefs of the Christian Church for nearly two thousand years. Cornerstone’s Statement of Faith is not unique; it is the same Statement of Faith that you will find for many if not most of the Christian churches around the world. Part of what we stand for as Christians – a very important part – is this doctrine called the Trinity.

It’s the most basic of questions, a question I suspect every person on the planet has asked at one time or another – is there a God? And the corollary question of course is this – if there is a God, what is he like? According to Gallup, over 90% of Americans believe in God. World religions are divided on the matter. Hinduism believes there are over 30 million gods; Buddhists tell us there is no god. Mormons believe in God, but what they mean by God is very different for what I mean by God. According to Mormon doctrine, the goal of mankind is to become a god. Mormonism teaches that the God of this world, Elohim, was once a man just like you and me, and that over time he became God. Mormonism also teaches that you and I can become gods ourselves, if we faithfully follow Mormon teachings. Here is Mormon theology in a nutshell on the doctrine of God, in the words of Mormon prophet Lorenzo Snow: “As man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become.”