Summary: When I believed in the life boat gospel, I could not explain the importance of the resurrection. The death of Jesus flipped the lever to get me into heaven so the resurrection seemed like a nice but unnecessary postscript. Through the lens of the Kingdom I now realize that the resurrection was the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the first day of new creation. 

The Resurrection: A Postscript?

When I was a pastor, Easter Sunday was a big day. I was guaranteed a packed house. It was my one shot a year at a whole bunch of strangers. I tried to preach my best sermons. This was hard since I was unclear about why the resurrection was so important.  

I used to see the cross as the place where God punished Jesus for my sins and earned me a seat on the life raft that would take me to heaven when I died. My ticket was punched on Friday, the day Jesus died. The resurrection was a happy postscript but, honestly, I wasn’t sure why it was so important. Here are four examples of questions and frustrations I had back then:

1. In the original Passover, it would have been strange if the lamb had sprung back to life. In fact, since, as I viewed it, the lamb’s death was what turned away God’s wrath, a lamb that did not die might even be dangerous. Similarly, when it came to Jesus, I wasn’t sure why three days in the grave qualified as dying. I reasoned that maybe those three days were so awful and that they made up for the fact that Jesus’ death was only temporary. Still, it still seemed odd. 

2. Jesus told the thief on the cross that they would together in Paradise the day he died. Evidently, Jesus died and went to heaven. Other than to reassure me that he had made it to the other side, why was it essential for Jesus to return to earth? 

3. I had a leader in my church who was obsessed with the fact that Jesus rose bodily and got into a debate with another leader who said Jesus’ resurrection was spiritual. I wasn’t sure why it mattered. Call it what you like. Jesus was in heaven and would take me there when I died in some sort of form. What was all the fuss about?

4. Since I thought Jesus’ death paid for my sin and made me right with God, I did not understand why Paul said that if Christ was not raised, I was still in my sins. Jesus’ death turned away God’s wrath. Jesus went to heaven. Why was the resurrection was necessary?

I watched other pastors struggle with the same issues. They said the resurrection proved that the price for my sins had really been paid. After all, any fool could claim to die for your sins. But how could you know he had really done the job? The resurrection was proof. I also heard Jesus’ resurrection explained as a temporary return from heaven to earth to give me a preview of things to come, to prove that there really was a heaven. 

None of this addressed my questions. How did a temporary death pay the price for my sin? And if somehow the three days satisfied God’s wrath, why did Paul say it was essential that Jesus return from heaven?

My confusion was created by the faulty assumptions of the life raft gospel. It went like this: 

The material world will be destroyed, leaving only two places: heaven and hell.”

Since I’m not worthy of heaven, I’m headed for hell. 

Jesus took the punishment for my sin. 

Since I asked Jesus into my heart, I would go to heaven.

This description is a logical construct that emerges from Plato-Dante cosmology. Verses can be strung together to support this view but it misses the point of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It turns the New Testament into a puzzle. Since this view springs from unbiblical assumptions it is not wrong in a few particulars; it is false to the core. It cannot be fixed. It must be abandoned and replaced with the Bible’s own perspective.  

When the life,

Summary: When I believed in the life boat gospel, I could not explain the importance of the resurrection. The death of Jesus flipped the lever to get me into heaven so the resurrection seemed like a nice but unnecessary postscript. Through the lens of the Kingdom I now realize that the resurrection was the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the first day of new creation. 

Three Ways to Get More From This Week's Podcast

Read the show notes below.

DO it, don't just HEAR it. Get daily devotionals based on the week's podcast.

Discuss it live with Maury. Anchorpoint Live starts again on Tuesday, October 10.

The Resurrection: A Postscript?

When I was a pastor, Easter Sunday was a big day. I was guaranteed a packed house. It was my one shot a year at a whole bunch of strangers. I tried to preach my best sermons. This was hard since I was unclear about why the resurrection was so important.  

I used to see the cross as the place where God punished Jesus for my sins and earned me a seat on the life raft that would take me to heaven when I died. My ticket was punched on Friday, the day Jesus died. The resurrection was a happy postscript but, honestly, I wasn’t sure why it was so important. Here are four examples of questions and frustrations I had back then:

1. In the original Passover, it would have been strange if the lamb had sprung back to life. In fact, since, as I viewed it, the lamb’s death was what turned away God’s wrath, a lamb that did not die might even be dangerous. Similarly, when it came to Jesus, I wasn’t sure why three days in the grave qualified as dying. I reasoned that maybe those three days were so awful and that they made up for the fact that Jesus’ death was only temporary. Still, it still seemed odd. 

2. Jesus told the thief on the cross that they would together in Paradise the day he died. Evidently, Jesus died and went to heaven. Other than to reassure me that he had made it to the other side, why was it essential for Jesus to return to earth? 

3. I had a leader in my church who was obsessed with the fact that Jesus rose bodily and got into a debate with another leader who said Jesus’ resurrection was spiritual. I wasn’t sure why it mattered. Call it what you like. Jesus was in heaven and would take me there when I died in some sort of form. What was all the fuss about?

4. Since I thought Jesus’ death paid for my sin and made me right with God, I did not understand why Paul said that if Christ was not raised, I was still in my sins. Jesus’ death turned away God’s wrath. Jesus went to heaven. Why was the resurrection was necessary?

I watched other pastors struggle with the same issues. They said the resurrection proved that the price for my sins had really been paid. After all, any fool could claim to die for your sins. But how could you know he had really done the job? The resurrection was proof. I also heard Jesus’ resurrection explained as a temporary return from heaven to earth to give me a preview of things to come, to prove that there really was a heaven. 

None of this addressed my questions. How did a temporary death pay the price for my sin? And if somehow the three days satisfied God’s wrath, why did Paul say it was essential that Jesus return from heaven?

My confusion was created by the faulty assumptions of the life raft gospel. It went like this: 

The material world will be destroyed, leaving only two places: heaven and hell.”

Since I’m not worthy of heaven, I’m headed for hell. 

Jesus took the punishment for my sin. 

Since I asked Jesus into my heart, I would go to heaven.

This description is a logical construct that emerges from Plato-Dante cosmology. Verses can be strung together to support this view but it misses the point of Jesus’ life,

Summary: Under the Plato-Dante framework the cross is a human sacrifice to pacify an angry God. Seen through the lens of the Kingdom of God, the cross is the triumph of God and the beginning of the New Creation.

Shownotes

In the opening chapter, I discussed how all of the pieces my faith have to work together. I can’t modify one part without affecting all the others. This really came home to me as I reflected on the cross. I realized that the way I viewed it was a result of embracing the Plato-Dante cosmology I no longer accept. Here is how the pieces used to fit together: 

I viewed the creation as three pieces: earth, heaven, and hell (my cosmology). Since only heaven and hell were eternal, earth did not matter. The only thing to concern myself with was getting into heaven when the earth was destroyed (my eschatology). The question became how to get a place in heaven (my soteriology) and what Christ had done to make this possible (my Christology). 

When I shifted my cosmology to a Kingdom cosmology, it changed everything. Here is how I now put the pieces together:

I view this world as “the heavens and the earth” with God standing outside of the created realm (my cosmology). I believe that God is actively healing and restoring this fallen world, making a “new heavens and earth” (my eschatology). The question becomes how to be included in this restoration (my soteriology) and what part Jesus plays in it (my Christology). 

The table below summarizes the shift in my thinking:

In this chapter, I will focus on the cross, beginning with my old way of looking at things, the Plato-Dante cosmology, and then showing how much better it is to see the cross through the lens of God’s Kingdom.  

The Cross in Plato-Dante Cosmology

In the Plato-Dante cosmology, the physical realm is a temporary phenomenon. Earth, as all matter, will be destroyed and replaced by the spiritual realms of heaven and hell. Every created thing will be assigned one or the other. Where do I belong? Well, I have done some good things and some bad things. I’m certainly not good enough to deserve heaven but I also don’t feel that my life merits eternal torture in hell. My life is an mix of good and evil but the afterlife offers only a place of pure good (heaven) or pure evil (hell). 

I grew up thinking I would wind up in hell since the slightest imperfection disqualified me from heaven. I heard this illustrated in a graphic way. If I had a sandwich and put just a tiny piece of shit in it would you eat it? In the same way, there may be some good pieces of me but that doesn't matter. God doesn’t eat shit sandwiches. Whatever good I have done is irrelevant. I have sinned. God has no option but to condemn me to hell. 

There is nothing I can do to fix this. Even if I lived a perfect life from here on out, I have already violated God's standard of perfection and earned my rightful place in eternal flames. My situation is hopeless. What will I do? That's where the cross comes in. Jesus lived a perfect life and was punished by God on the cross for every sin I have committed. Since Jesus paid the price for my sin, I am now regarded as perfect. I am now fit for heaven. 

What I have just described it's called the penal substitution theory of the cross. There is some truth in it but in many ways it is a logical necessity caused by the assumptions of Plato-Dante cosmology. When this is viewed as the only reason for the cross, it creates problems. Here are six.

Problems with The Cross in the Plato-Dante Framework

1. The gospel writers do not emphasize Jesus’ moral perfection. If the primary reason God sent Jesus to this earth was to be a perfect sacrifice, why didn't his first followers emphasize the fact that Jesus was morally perfect? Although it is logical that if Jesus was God incarnate he lived a moral...

Summary: Under the Plato-Dante framework the cross is a human sacrifice to pacify an angry God. Seen through the lens of the Kingdom of God, the cross is the triumph of God and the beginning of the New Creation.

Three Ways to Get More From This Week's Podcast

Read the show notes below.

DO it, don't just HEAR it. Get daily devotionals based on the week's podcast.

Discuss it live with Maury. Anchorpoint Live starts again on Tuesday, October 10.

Shownotes

In the opening chapter, I discussed how all of the pieces my faith have to work together. I can’t modify one part without affecting all the others. This really came home to me as I reflected on the cross. I realized that the way I viewed it was a result of embracing the Plato-Dante cosmology I no longer accept. Here is how the pieces used to fit together: 

I viewed the creation as three pieces: earth, heaven, and hell (my cosmology). Since only heaven and hell were eternal, earth did not matter. The only thing to concern myself with was getting into heaven when the earth was destroyed (my eschatology). The question became how to get a place in heaven (my soteriology) and what Christ had done to make this possible (my Christology). 

When I shifted my cosmology to a Kingdom cosmology, it changed everything. Here is how I now put the pieces together:

I view this world as “the heavens and the earth” with God standing outside of the created realm (my cosmology). I believe that God is actively healing and restoring this fallen world, making a “new heavens and earth” (my eschatology). The question becomes how to be included in this restoration (my soteriology) and what part Jesus plays in it (my Christology). 

The table below summarizes the shift in my thinking:

In this chapter, I will focus on the cross, beginning with my old way of looking at things, the Plato-Dante cosmology, and then showing how much better it is to see the cross through the lens of God’s Kingdom.  

The Cross in Plato-Dante Cosmology

In the Plato-Dante cosmology, the physical realm is a temporary phenomenon. Earth, as all matter, will be destroyed and replaced by the spiritual realms of heaven and hell. Every created thing will be assigned one or the other. Where do I belong? Well, I have done some good things and some bad things. I’m certainly not good enough to deserve heaven but I also don’t feel that my life merits eternal torture in hell. My life is an mix of good and evil but the afterlife offers only a place of pure good (heaven) or pure evil (hell). 

I grew up thinking I would wind up in hell since the slightest imperfection disqualified me from heaven. I heard this illustrated in a graphic way. If I had a sandwich and put just a tiny piece of shit in it would you eat it? In the same way, there may be some good pieces of me but that doesn't matter. God doesn’t eat shit sandwiches. Whatever good I have done is irrelevant. I have sinned. God has no option but to condemn me to hell. 

There is nothing I can do to fix this. Even if I lived a perfect life from here on out, I have already violated God's standard of perfection and earned my rightful place in eternal flames. My situation is hopeless. What will I do? That's where the cross comes in. Jesus lived a perfect life and was punished by God on the cross for every sin I have committed. Since Jesus paid the price for my sin, I am now regarded as perfect. I am now fit for heaven. 

What I have just described it's called the penal substitution theory of the cross. There is some truth in it but in many ways it is a logical necessity caused by the assumptions of Plato-Dante cosmology. When this is viewed as the only reason for the cross, it creates problems. Here are six.

Problems with The Cross in the Plato-Dante Framework

1.

Summary: Hell is not a place of eternal torment in the next life. Hell is a tool of purification, both in this life and the next.

Shownotes

I first encountered hell in church. I was in the second grade Sunday school class and my teacher explained my options to me. I could receive Jesus into my heart and live forever in a wonderful place called heaven or I could reject Jesus and spend eternity in a fiery place of torment called hell. Guess which I chose?

This simplistic view of the afterlife is not what the Bible describes at all. But what does it describe? This is not an easy question to answer. It is difficult to paint a clear picture, partly because in the New Testament ideas about the afterlife were fluid and developing. Not only that; thinking about hell is unpleasant. It is tempting to deal with hell by ignoring it.

But as much as I would like to turn Jesus into a heavenly Mr. Rogers, he doesn’t fit the bill. Jesus warned of danger, both in this age and the age to come. Still, it’s not like he went from city to city preaching fire and brimstone. For every teaspoon of hell there is a quart of heaven. But that teaspoon is essential. 

I have undergone a massive shift in the way I think of hell. In this chapter I’ll describe the shift, first by looking at the world “hell,” then by examining two major images of hell in the Bible (shadows and fire) and finally, I’ll tell you why I have come to love hell. 

The Word “Hell”

The word “hell” is a clumsy translation of several different words used in the Bible to depict the afterlife, none of which mean what we mean by “hell.” The word hell comes to us from the Old English “hel,” or “helle,” which was the nether world, a place where the wicked were tormented after death. The Online Etymology Dictionary calls hell “a pagan concept fitted to a Christian idiom.” Wikipedia makes a similar remark: “The word was used to transfer a pagan concept to Christian theology and its vocabulary.” 

Why has the church been so eager to adopt this pagan term? I suspect it to be an issue of power. When the church and state were united, the terrors of hell were useful to keep the peasants in line. To mount a revolution against the King/Pope was to mount a revolution against God. You might improve your earthly lot for a few years but what would that compare with an eternity in hell? Best to shut up and hoe your corn. To this day, many Christian groups use hell as a big flaming stick to keep people in line.

In spite of its pagan origins, most people today think of hell this way. It is the alternative to heaven, the place where bad people go to spend eternity with the Devil and his demons. It is part of the Plato-Dante cosmology I described in the last chapter. It would be a big step forward to stop using the word “hell” completely and begin instead to use the Bible’s own images. Two of the most common are shadows and fire.

Land of Shadows

Put yourself back in the ancient world. The earth is a flat surface and “the heavens” are a dome overhead. When your loved ones die, they are buried beneath the flat surface. What’s it like down there? Muddy! Murky! In the Old Testament, this underworld is called Sheol. It is not a happy place. Everyone, without exception, goes to Sheol when they die. The only way to stay out of Sheol is not to die. No one wants to be in Sheol.

When a cloud vanishes, it is gone, So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. (Job 7:9)

For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? (Psalm 6:5)

I have been reading Greek mythology lately. What amazing stories! The Greek underworld is very much like the Hebrew one. It is sometimes called Tartarus

but more commonly is called by the name of its ruling god, Hades. I was surprised to find this term used by Jesus to describe the afterlife.

Summary: Hell is not a place of eternal torment in the next life. Hell is a tool of purification, both in this life and the next.

Three Ways to Get More From This Week's Podcast

Read the show notes below.

DO it, don't just HEAR it. Get daily devotionals based on the week's podcast.

Discuss it live with Maury. Anchorpoint Live starts again on Tuesday, October 10.

Shownotes

I first encountered hell in church. I was in the second grade Sunday school class and my teacher explained my options to me. I could receive Jesus into my heart and live forever in a wonderful place called heaven or I could reject Jesus and spend eternity in a fiery place of torment called hell. Guess which I chose?

This simplistic view of the afterlife is not what the Bible describes at all. But what does it describe? This is not an easy question to answer. It is difficult to paint a clear picture, partly because in the New Testament ideas about the afterlife were fluid and developing. Not only that; thinking about hell is unpleasant. It is tempting to deal with hell by ignoring it.

But as much as I would like to turn Jesus into a heavenly Mr. Rogers, he doesn’t fit the bill. Jesus warned of danger, both in this age and the age to come. Still, it’s not like he went from city to city preaching fire and brimstone. For every teaspoon of hell there is a quart of heaven. But that teaspoon is essential. 

I have undergone a massive shift in the way I think of hell. In this chapter I’ll describe the shift, first by looking at the world “hell,” then by examining two major images of hell in the Bible (shadows and fire) and finally, I’ll tell you why I have come to love hell. 

The Word “Hell”

The word “hell” is a clumsy translation of several different words used in the Bible to depict the afterlife, none of which mean what we mean by “hell.” The word hell comes to us from the Old English “hel,” or “helle,” which was the nether world, a place where the wicked were tormented after death. The Online Etymology Dictionary calls hell “a pagan concept fitted to a Christian idiom.” Wikipedia makes a similar remark: “The word was used to transfer a pagan concept to Christian theology and its vocabulary.” 

Why has the church been so eager to adopt this pagan term? I suspect it to be an issue of power. When the church and state were united, the terrors of hell were useful to keep the peasants in line. To mount a revolution against the King/Pope was to mount a revolution against God. You might improve your earthly lot for a few years but what would that compare with an eternity in hell? Best to shut up and hoe your corn. To this day, many Christian groups use hell as a big flaming stick to keep people in line.

In spite of its pagan origins, most people today think of hell this way. It is the alternative to heaven, the place where bad people go to spend eternity with the Devil and his demons. It is part of the Plato-Dante cosmology I described in the last chapter. It would be a big step forward to stop using the word “hell” completely and begin instead to use the Bible’s own images. Two of the most common are shadows and fire.

Land of Shadows

Put yourself back in the ancient world. The earth is a flat surface and “the heavens” are a dome overhead. When your loved ones die, they are buried beneath the flat surface. What’s it like down there? Muddy! Murky! In the Old Testament, this underworld is called Sheol. It is not a happy place. Everyone, without exception, goes to Sheol when they die. The only way to stay out of Sheol is not to die. No one wants to be in Sheol.

When a cloud vanishes, it is gone, So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. (Job 7:9)

For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? (Psalm 6:5)

Summary: Heaven is not a place I go when I die. It is a mysterious realm that is part of my existence right now. My problem is not that I can’t get into heaven. My problem is that I am at war with God. I don’t have to wait until I die to fix this!

Shownotes

Have you ever awakened in the morning in a new place, disoriented and confused, trying to remember where you are? That’s our human predicament.“Where are we? What is this world?” The room is spinning!

My description of the world I live in is called my cosmology. The way I understand the world I live in changes how I behave. I act differently at a football game than at the movies, or church, or a restaurant.

For years, I lived under Plato’s and Dante’s cosmology. In the last few years I have replaced this with the Bible’s cosmology. I like it. The world will make more sense. I have reason to be optimistic and have access to the presence of God in ways I would not have thought possible back in the old days. 

Where Am I? The Scientific Answer

Like most people, I have turned to the scientific community for my cosmology. Science offers solid, no-nonsense real answers that can be measured and verified. It’s not like the wild speculations of religion. At least I thought this until I started paying attention to science. 

The first scientists looked at the world and saw that the world was flat with a sky overhead and heavenly bodies that made their way across. This was updated when people began to sail around the world. The flat earth was exchanged for a sphere with other spheres circling it. Then Copernicus showed that the sun was the center. Now we know that the earth is a tiny speck in the Milky Way galaxy which is made of a hundred billion stars. Dizzy yet? Buckle up. The Milky Way is just one of a hundred billion galaxies. Even worse, space and time are not absolute and “outer space” is not a vast “nothing” but a mysterious “something” called dark matter with properties that are impossible to explain. If you trade your telescope for a microscope you discover another Alice’s Wonderland called quantum physics. The only reason I thought science offered a tidy cosmology is that I had my head in the sand.

Where Am I? The Religious Answer

Religions try to explain where we are as well. One ancient cosmology says that the world is supported by elephants who sit on a turtle. Really this is no more bizarre than what scientists are discovering! 

What does the Bible say? Well, the Bible actually gives a wonderful answer to this question, though for a long time I didn’t know it. In the Bible, the cosmos is called “the heavens and the earth.” God, the creator stands outside “the heavens and the earth,” as in the first verse of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

So what are the heavens and the earth?

Ancient people believed that the earth was flat with a dome on top. The flat part, where people lived, was called “earth.” The dome that covered it was called “the heavens.” The heavens were mysterious, inaccessible to human beings. They included the sun and stars, weird wandering planets, clouds, birds, and thunder. What was beyond the heavens? God. 

What I find fascinating about this cosmology is that it still works. Our description of the pieces has been updated but the pieces still make sense. 

1. Earth is where I live. It’s the “real world” in which I get up and eat breakfast, brush my teeth and go off to work. This hasn’t changed much. The world of Abraham and my world are much the same in spite of cosmetic differences. The sun “rises” and “sets.” I eat and sleep.

2. “The heavens” is still an apt description of the realm I observe but cannot explain. The concept of “the heavens” has undergone enormous redefinition since ancient times due to the discoveries of science but ...

Summary: Heaven is not a place I go when I die. It is a mysterious realm that is part of my existence right now. My problem is not that I can’t get into heaven. My problem is that I am at war with God. I don’t have to wait until I die to fix this!

Three Ways to Get More From This Week's Podcast

Read the show notes below.

DO it, don't just HEAR it. Get daily devotionals based on the week's podcast.

Discuss it live with Maury. Anchorpoint Live starts again on Tuesday, October 10.

Shownotes

Have you ever awakened in the morning in a new place, disoriented and confused, trying to remember where you are? That’s our human predicament.“Where are we? What is this world?” The room is spinning!

My description of the world I live in is called my cosmology. The way I understand the world I live in changes how I behave. I act differently at a football game than at the movies, or church, or a restaurant.

For years, I lived under Plato’s and Dante’s cosmology. In the last few years I have replaced this with the Bible’s cosmology. I like it. The world will make more sense. I have reason to be optimistic and have access to the presence of God in ways I would not have thought possible back in the old days. 

Where Am I? The Scientific Answer

Like most people, I have turned to the scientific community for my cosmology. Science offers solid, no-nonsense real answers that can be measured and verified. It’s not like the wild speculations of religion. At least I thought this until I started paying attention to science. 

The first scientists looked at the world and saw that the world was flat with a sky overhead and heavenly bodies that made their way across. This was updated when people began to sail around the world. The flat earth was exchanged for a sphere with other spheres circling it. Then Copernicus showed that the sun was the center. Now we know that the earth is a tiny speck in the Milky Way galaxy which is made of a hundred billion stars. Dizzy yet? Buckle up. The Milky Way is just one of a hundred billion galaxies. Even worse, space and time are not absolute and “outer space” is not a vast “nothing” but a mysterious “something” called dark matter with properties that are impossible to explain. If you trade your telescope for a microscope you discover another Alice’s Wonderland called quantum physics. The only reason I thought science offered a tidy cosmology is that I had my head in the sand.

Where Am I? The Religious Answer

Religions try to explain where we are as well. One ancient cosmology says that the world is supported by elephants who sit on a turtle. Really this is no more bizarre than what scientists are discovering! 

What does the Bible say? Well, the Bible actually gives a wonderful answer to this question, though for a long time I didn’t know it. In the Bible, the cosmos is called “the heavens and the earth.” God, the creator stands outside “the heavens and the earth,” as in the first verse of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

So what are the heavens and the earth?

Ancient people believed that the earth was flat with a dome on top. The flat part, where people lived, was called “earth.” The dome that covered it was called “the heavens.” The heavens were mysterious, inaccessible to human beings. They included the sun and stars, weird wandering planets, clouds, birds, and thunder. What was beyond the heavens? God. 

What I find fascinating about this cosmology is that it still works. Our description of the pieces has been updated but the pieces still make sense. 

1. Earth is where I live. It’s the “real world” in which I get up and eat breakfast, brush my teeth and go off to work. This hasn’t changed much. The world of Abraham and my world are much the same in spite of cosmetic...

Summary: The Greek word pistis (πιστις) is usually translated “belief” or “faith.” This badly misses Jesus’ intent. A much better translation (and way to live!) is “trust.” Trust opens the doors to the Kingdom of God, here and now.

Shownotes

Deus Absconditus

(God has fled the scene!)

The first time it felt like God had totally abandoned me, I was in college. I was the summer youth leader at a big church in Richland, Washington. I had taken the youth on a waterskiing outing on the Snake River. When it was time to go, one of the kids was missing. After an hour and a half of searching, we began to fear the worst. We called the police who sent a diving team to search for the body. I will never forget the sight of the diver who raised his hand to indicate he had found my young friend’s body, or the sight of his corpse on the bank of the river.

My whole world got swallowed up by evil that day. I cried out to God but my voice was lost in the darkness. I heard nothing. God seemed absent. There was nothing in my understanding and no verse in the Bible that could explain it.

Some might say I have led a charmed existence but there is no such thing as a charmed existence. Life's path goes along smoothly for a while and then, when you least expect it, a vast pit opens up and swallows you. It happens to everyone.

It happened to me again on January 10, 2015. I was happily eating Mexican food with my wife and youngest child, when out of nowhere, she had a grand mal seizure. I had never seen this before. I was terrified. I held her in my arms, stroking her hair and wondering if I would lose her. I spent the night in stony silence on a cold plastic chair by her bed in the emergency room. I didn't pray that night. Not even once. I was furious with God. I figured that if God was so wonderful and could heal my daughter, surely he could have prevented her seizure in the first place. Obviously, God was not paying attention. Deus absconditus. God either didn't care or are was unable to prevent this. He carelessly fumbled my child. Why would I ask him for help? He had already proven his incompetence. 

I have felt the same thing in protracted form over the past few years. In the first part of 2014 I heard God, as clearly as I ever have, telling me to resign my church. There were no further instructions. No picture of a bright future. No financial plan. Just instructions to take a crazy leap. That was three years ago. I’m still falling. 

The One Thing Jesus Asks

So you have my proof that God is neither personal nor loving. I'm sure you have yours too. It may involve an ugly divorce, toxic parents, cancer, losing your job, chronic pain, being sued. Our cry reaches the highest heaven. My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me? In the face of all this, the one thing Jesus asks from us is to trust him. This is no small order.

In our optimistic American culture, it’s easy to think the tragedy that falls in our lap is a departure from the script, as if God promises a rosy existence for everyone except a cursed a few. But trusting God in the face of absurdity is the very center of the Scripture. It goes back to Abraham, the father of those who trust in God. Abraham packed up and left everything. If you think he went from victory on to victory you have not read the story. There were many dark nights of the soul.

Job is another example. Here is a man who did everything right and evidently was cursed by God. His “friends” try to get God off the hook by putting Job on it. Job must have done something wrong. Job does an exhaustive inventory of his life and finds no reason to explain the tragedy that has been heaped on his family. God’s “explanation” is no an explanation at all. God tells Job that he is out of his league. He simply cannot understand the ways of the Almighty and has no right to stand as the accuser. In the end,

Summary: The Greek word pistis (πιστις) is usually translated “belief” or “faith.” This badly misses Jesus’ intent. A much better translation (and way to live!) is “trust.” Trust opens the doors to the Kingdom of God, here and now.

Three Ways to Get More From This Week's Podcast

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Shownotes

Deus Absconditus

(God has fled the scene!)

The first time it felt like God had totally abandoned me, I was in college. I was the summer youth leader at a big church in Richland, Washington. I had taken the youth on a waterskiing outing on the Snake River. When it was time to go, one of the kids was missing. After an hour and a half of searching, we began to fear the worst. We called the police who sent a diving team to search for the body. I will never forget the sight of the diver who raised his hand to indicate he had found my young friend’s body, or the sight of his corpse on the bank of the river.

My whole world got swallowed up by evil that day. I cried out to God but my voice was lost in the darkness. I heard nothing. God seemed absent. There was nothing in my understanding and no verse in the Bible that could explain it.

Some might say I have led a charmed existence but there is no such thing as a charmed existence. Life's path goes along smoothly for a while and then, when you least expect it, a vast pit opens up and swallows you. It happens to everyone.

It happened to me again on January 10, 2015. I was happily eating Mexican food with my wife and youngest child, when out of nowhere, she had a grand mal seizure. I had never seen this before. I was terrified. I held her in my arms, stroking her hair and wondering if I would lose her. I spent the night in stony silence on a cold plastic chair by her bed in the emergency room. I didn't pray that night. Not even once. I was furious with God. I figured that if God was so wonderful and could heal my daughter, surely he could have prevented her seizure in the first place. Obviously, God was not paying attention. Deus absconditus. God either didn't care or are was unable to prevent this. He carelessly fumbled my child. Why would I ask him for help? He had already proven his incompetence. 

I have felt the same thing in protracted form over the past few years. In the first part of 2014 I heard God, as clearly as I ever have, telling me to resign my church. There were no further instructions. No picture of a bright future. No financial plan. Just instructions to take a crazy leap. That was three years ago. I’m still falling. 

The One Thing Jesus Asks

So you have my proof that God is neither personal nor loving. I'm sure you have yours too. It may involve an ugly divorce, toxic parents, cancer, losing your job, chronic pain, being sued. Our cry reaches the highest heaven. My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me? In the face of all this, the one thing Jesus asks from us is to trust him. This is no small order.

In our optimistic American culture, it’s easy to think the tragedy that falls in our lap is a departure from the script, as if God promises a rosy existence for everyone except a cursed a few. But trusting God in the face of absurdity is the very center of the Scripture. It goes back to Abraham, the father of those who trust in God. Abraham packed up and left everything. If you think he went from victory on to victory you have not read the story. There were many dark nights of the soul.

Job is another example. Here is a man who did everything right and evidently was cursed by God. His “friends” try to get God off the hook by putting Job on it. Job must have done something wrong. Job does an exhaustive inventory of his life a...