L’Abri Rochester

Discusses history of psychology, comparing viewpoints and usefulness over against the Word of God.

A look at those in evangelical history who boldly stood up against Racism.

Who Wrote the Bible?

The Concept of Authorship in the

Old Testament and Ancient Near East

Have you ever wondered why so many of the books of the Old Testament appear to be written by 'anonymous'? For example, Samuel died about halfway through the first book named after himself. Surely he did not write 2 Samuel! Did a Moabite peasant girl write the book of Ruth? Did Jonah write an unflattering story about himself as the anti-hero? How about the end of the book of Deuteronomy; did Moses write about his own death? Who collected the oracles of the prophet Jeremiah, or the oracles of Isaiah?

From our modern perspective, we think of a book as written by an individual author. We even copyright our work so it cannot be reproduced. It becomes the author's intellectual property. But this is not how 'authorship' was viewed in the world of the Old Testament. In viewing literary works from Mesopotamia, for example, we find that the authors are almost never named. In fact, authority was located in the text, not the author(s), who was either anonymous, or at best, deemphasized. When a person is named, it is unclear whether he or she is the 'first one' (i.e., the originator), or the copyist, or editor, or all of these things (the term used for this is 'tradent'). At best, authorship was considered a collective enterprise, with the content handed down (and sometimes updated or modified) to succeeding generations.

With this in mind, for Bible believing Christians, my goal in this presentation is to show that we can still believe in the divine inspiration of Scripture, even if the concept of individual authorship in the biblical world was different than our own.

Mark Chavalas is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he taught ancient Near Eastern and Biblical history for thirty-five years. He is the author or editor of a number of works on Mesopotamia and Israel, including Mesopotamia and the Bible, and the IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. Currently, Mark does a podcast on Bible backgrounds with Keagan Walz. https://www.youtube.com/@BuriedBiblePodcast. He and his wife Kimberlee live in La Crosse, WI and have six adult children and four grandchildren.

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(Handout below the Blurb)

A Brief History of the Soul

We will look at the idea of the soul from ancient times to the present. Questions will be raised about the effort to banish the soul altogether in the name of contemporary science. A Christian account of soul-body integration will be defended.

Charles Taliaferro Ph.D. MA (Brown) MTS (Harvard) MA (URI) BA (Goddard)

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Emeritus Overby Distinguished Professor, St. Olaf College, has taught at Notre Dame and U. Mass Boston. He is the author or co-author or editor of 40 books (3 are audio books, available on Amazon).

For a profile, see: https://wp.stolaf.edu/philosophy/charles-taliaferro-profile/

In The PICTURE: Prof. (Dr.) Charles Taliafero holds a pen, which he dropped during the discussion after his lecture, He was talking about the speed of the Earth's rotation and then asked us what the speed of the pen was, was it the speed of the earth plus the rate of fall? I guess you would have had to have been there - he was talking about how we evaluate or perceive things as stable.

\\//  Handout below \\//

Friday Night Lecture @ L’Abri

September 4th, 2026

Prof. Charles Taliaferro

A Brief History of the Soul

It is now widely recognized by cognitive scientists, psychologists, historians, and philosophers that some distinction between the person (soul, mind, self) and body is a natural, even "common sense" assumption. But we know from ancient philosophy onwards, there have been thinkers that embrace this distinction (Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Augustine) and those who see the soul or mind as a mode or dimension of the body (Aristotle) or the very same thing as the body (Epicurus, perhaps Tertullian).

The early books of the Bible suggest an earthy anthropology (God breathes on dust or earth in Genesis 2:7) which is why (to this day) some orthodox Jews measure human death, not by brain death or the irreversible loss of consciousness but by expiration --inability to breathe. In later Old Testament texts we see a gradual acknowledgement of humans being (or having) souls --Wisdom literature, Daniel, Ezekiel. The New Testament affirms a holistic approach (body and soul are unified in this life) but allows for separability --one's body may be destroyed and yet the soul is with God. This is in keeping with medieval theology, the Reformation (Luther, Calvin)

Historically, west and east, there has been a tension between MONISM (everything is one kind of thing, matter or mind, for example) and PLURALISM (there are multiple different kinds of things / realities). I offer comments on three issues.

Christian Holism. In this view, in a healthy, integrated embodiment, one has the virtues of the 5 senses, proprioception, cognitive powers, memory, reason, emotions, agentive powers. This has a bearing on health and "final things" or eschatology.

The prospects of Christian Materialism today: Advocates claim it is more scientific, more Jewish, less Platonic. Critics reply that science has not established a single case of mind-brain identity (correlation is not identity) and it conflicts with Christian teaching about death and the incarnation.

AI and the Self: AI has encouraged a mechanistic view of the self. Intelligence is equated with information processing and problem solving; memory = data retrieval; agency = optimized decision-making, etc. Some argue for the distinction between intelligence and consciousness, but arguably the simulation of intelligence is not itself (robust) intelligence. Reasons will be provided for recognizing the irreducible reality of the self as a conscious subject enduring over time as opposed to our being processes or events or an illusion.

Charles Taliaferro Ph.D. MA (Brown) MTS (Harvard) MA (URI) BA (Goddard)

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Emeritus Overby Distinguished Professor, St. Olaf College, USA. Editor-in-Chief of Open Theology, editorial board member Agatheos, RSR, PC, Kanz Philosophia: A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism.

For a profile, see:

https://wp.stolaf.edu/philosophy/charles-taliaferro-profile/

20260904HistoryOfTheSoul-PrCharlesTaliaferro

Leadership That Solves Problems:

Seven Themes from Biblical Characters

Christianity is far more than devotional super-spirituality; our proven capacity to shape imperfect leaders who craft solutions to intractable problems is one of our greatest apologetics. Recently, an international team conducted an inductive study of the Bible's worthy leaders and discovered seven themes that marked their problem-solving leadership:

a) earnest faith;

b) compelling vision;

c) bold determination;

d) protective concern;

e) strategic discernment;

f) just character;

g) leadership cultivation.

How can these seven leadership themes help today's leaders glorify Christ as we solve 21st century problems?

A Senior Fellow with Wilberforce International Institute, which he founded in 2009, Robert Osburn trains international students as redemptive change agents and writes and teaches about international development, comparative worldviews, corruption, education policy, and wealth creation.  For seven years he taught courses on religion and educational policy and religion and international development at the University of Minnesota, and currently teaches courses with The New International University and Wilberforce International Institute.  He has a PhD in comparative and international development education from the University of Minnesota, a ThM from Dallas Seminary, and a BA from the University of Michigan. He is the author of Taming the Beast: Can We Bridle the Culture of Corruption? (revised and updated 2022) and Developing Redemptive Change Agents: Discipleship That Helps Nations Flourish Rather Than Flounder (2021). Bob and Susan have been married for 51 years, are the parents of four sons, and grandparents to 13. They live near Stillwater, MN.

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Holding onto our Humanity in the Age of the Machine

It's been said that there is nothing new under the sun, but every era in history certainly has its own flavor. Now that nearly all of us have steady interactions with screens, social media and artificial intelligence, we find ourselves in the middle of a technological revolution that is no less than rewiring our brains. Writers like Paul Kingsnorth and Wendell Berry say that we are deep into the Age of the Machine “a world in which the lines between human and artificial intelligence are increasingly blurred. Is this an exciting or terrifying prospect? What really are the things that make us human? Will our society be divided (as Berry has said) by those who choose to live like machines and those who don't? There is certainly no lack of questions! But, it's always a good time to have a conversation about what it means to be human because it brings up all the big questions of what gives us meaning, purpose, and hope.

Daniel Miller is an organic vegetable farmer and has a degree in political science from the University of Minnesota. His essays have appeared in the Minnesota Daily Green Blade, and Critique. He and his wife Hannah live near Zumbro Falls, Minnesota with their five children.

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Christian Wisdom for the Age of AI

There is not a day that passes without another announcement or news item about AI. We encounter it at our workplaces (where we are often encouraged to adopt it), when we go online and are presented with AI summaries of our searches, and in our schools and universities, where AI-produced work is quickly becoming a real problem. It is all around us, whether we like it or not. Proponents of AI sketch utopian visions of the future in which AI will solve all our problems, while opponents of AI sketch dark, dystopian visions of the future. Amidst all this noise, how can we think Christianly about AI? Is AI just a tool, albeit a very powerful tool, or is it more, or something different? What wisdom does the Christian tradition, with more than 2000 years of thinking about God, ourselves, and the world, have to offer in this confusing time?

Arend J. Poelarends is the director of the Center for Faith and Learning at Anselm House, a Christian study center serving the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). He received a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (MO). Prior to moving to Minnesota, he taught Physics and Astronomy for 11 years at Wheaton College (IL) where he also conducted computational astrophysics research. For more than two decades, he has helped Christians and non-Christians think deeply about questions at the intersection of science and the Christian faith.

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Contemplative Prayer:

An evaluation of Centering Prayer

Centering prayer is a contemplative prayer practice developed in the 1970s, drawing on earlier Christian contemplative traditions. Whilst it falls under the broader category of contemplative prayer, it is distinctive for its similarities to certain forms of Eastern meditation. Increasingly popular among some evangelicals, it raises an important question: is it a recovery of an ancient Christian practice, or a move away from a biblical understanding of prayer?

Imogen Lowe is a mother of four rambunctious children and a transplant from the UK to Minnesota. In the rare moments she finds spare time, she enjoys baking, reading, and creating things. Most recently, she has crocheted far too many snakes and is looking for a new animal to tackle. She is often found sipping tea made from herbs in her garden and consistently provides an unwilling but apparently delicious snack to the insect population.

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(Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. Syllabus is below)

Pascal's Apologetic

Blaise Pascal is a rich resource on apologetics. We will look at his famous wager argument, along with his argument that Christianity best explains human nature.

Douglas Groothuis is Distinguished Professor of Apologetics at Cornerstone University and the author of over 20 books, including Beyond the Wager: the Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal and Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed.

(Syllabus)

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Cornerstone University [email protected]. DouglasGroothuis.com. @DougGroothuis.

Podcast: TruthTribe

Blaise Pascal’s Case for Christianity

A. Amazing life of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Scientist, philosopher of science

Philosopher and theologian

Masterful writer of French prose

B. Pascal as an apologist; not a fideist (unlike Soren Kierkegaard)

C. Nature of apologetics.

Defend the Christian worldview as objectively true, compellingly rational, and pertinent to all of life (1 Peter 3:15)

Pascal’s Case for Christianity

A. Not fully worked out because of his early death.

B. His apologetic can be reconstructed.

Order. Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. Worthy of reverence because it really understands human nature. Attractive because it promises true good.1

C. We consider only two elements: the wager and the deposed royalty argument; there are more. See Douglas Groothuis, Beyond the Wager: the Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity Academic, 2024).

The Wager: Risks, Rewards, Options

A. We should bet on God being real instead of betting on God’s unreality in light of the possible consequences.

B. Theoretical reason: Is P true? How can I know this?

C. Prudential reason: What do I gain or lose by believing P? What actions should I pursue on this matter?

D. The outcomes and belief states

Believer, if Christian God exists:

Gain: eternal life; avoid hell. Infinite gain

Loss: worldly pleasures. Finite loss

Believer, if Christian God does not exist:

Gain: pleasures of religion. Finite gain

Loss: worldly pleasures and truth. Finite loss

Unbeliever (atheist or agnostic or member of other religion), if Christian God exists:

Gain: worldly pleasures. Finite gain

Loss: eternal life; gain hell, infinite loss

Unbeliever, if Christian God does not exist:

Gain: worldly pleasures. Finite gain

Loss: nothing.

E.  Given the stakes, we should investigate the claims of Christianity with an open mind and open heart and not be indifferent.

There are only three sorts of people: those who have found God and serve him; those who are busy seeking him and have not found him; those who live without either seeking or finding him. The first are reasonable and happy, the last are foolish and unhappy, those in the middle are unhappy and reasonable.3

A. The question and the problem of humans (#149/430)

What sort of freak then is man! How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, the glory and refuse of the universe! (131/434).

B. How to live with the human burden in light of reality; “deposed royalty” who can be restored through Jesus Christ

C. What are the options? We will look at two “live hypotheses” (William James) for many today.

A. True explanation of the human condition: one that agrees with objective reality; factual; realism.

B. Rational explanation: one that explains who we are in accordance with the evidence and sound reasoning.

C. Significant explanation: one that gives us value, meaning, and realistic hope for being human in the world. Philosophical anthropology is a very important part of any worldview.

D. Manner of explanation: abduction (inference to best explanation)

Has a broad scope: explains more than its rivals

Doesn’t have internal contradictions

Accords with other well-established beliefs

A. New Age or spiritual worldview: Ken Wilber, Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra4

Background belief on humanity

a. Pantheism: everything is divine.

b. Monism: all is one (or nondualism)

c. Morality is not absolute, but good and evil dissolve into a universal and impersonal oneness.

New Age view on humanity

a. Human nature is really a divine nature: we are one with an impersonal deity.

b. Human problem: we have forgotten our true identity as divine, one with all things, and unlimited.

c. Human solution: Find the divine within through meditation, yoga, self-realization seminars.

Questioning New Age philosophy

a. Human beings are limited in power and goodness; this is evident and not a delusion or matter of ignorance.

b. There are moral realities that reveal a moral dualism: good and evil; right and wrong; virtue and vice. Rape is always wrong; kindness is better than wanton cruelty.

A. Background belief: personal theism—God as Creator, Lord, Judge

B. Pascal’s point can be strengthened by natural theology: arguments for God’s existence from nature and in accord with reason.5

C. Human nature: created in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:27)

Uniqueness of humanity: ethics, culture, language, religion

Human greatness: creativity, intelligence, etc. (#113/348)

Thinking reed. It is not in space that I must seek my human dignity, but in the ordering of my thought. It will do me no good to own land. Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it.6

Human dignity: image-bearers of God (Psalm 8:3-5)

Disjunction from the rest of the living world; different in kind, not just degree

“Rumors of glory”—Bruce Cockburn

D. Human problem: we are fallen, warped, alienated, deposed (#131/434)

Human evil: sexism, racism, pettiness, greed, envy, ad nauseum

Our moral and spiritual corruption (Psalm 14:1-3; Mark 7:21-23)

Corruptio optimi pessima: “There is nothing worse than the corruption of the best.”

The essential problem: pride, self-centeredness, egotism

Escaping our condition through diversion (#620/146)

Diversion. If man were happy, the less he were diverted the happier he would be, like the saints and God. Yes: but is a man not happy who can find delight in diversion?7

E. Neither angel nor beast, but human (#121/418)

It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.8

F. Humans! Wretched and great (#106/403)

G. The reality of death (#434/199); life kills us all; finite time to figure it all out (Hebrews 9:27).

A. The human condition requires a radical, transcendent cure

Impossible on our own; possible through God’s initiative (#148/428)

B. Jesus Christ provides this liberating cure for all people

Jesus: You must repent (Matthew 3:2) (#378/470)

Jesus provides forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration (John 3:16-18; Romans 5:6-8: Ephesians 2:1-10)

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

The message is liberating for everyone; we are all deposed royalty (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 4:12; I Timothy 2:5-6) (#417/548)

C. Being human with knowledge, hope, and integrity

Honesty about oneself: deposed royalty, fallen (#212/528)

Jesus is a God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.9

A world view that makes sense of oneself and others

Putting the pieces of the human puzzle together, solving the problem

The strength to love and serve through Jesus Christ, “the Mediator” (Pascal’s term)

A living reality, not simply the best explanation of humanity

The Christian’s God is a God who makes the soul aware that he is its sole good: that in him alone can it find peace; that only in loving him can it find joy: and who at the same time fills it with loathing for the obstacles which hold it back and prevent it from loving God with all its might Pascal (#460/544; see also #352/526).

Provides incentive to give oneself selflessly to God and God’s liberating program for humanity.

Pascal’s challenge: seek God (#131/434; #149/430)

Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Be humble, impotent reason! Be silent, feeble nature! Learn that man infinitely transcends man, hear from your master your true condition, which is unknown to you. Listen to God.10

Resources on Blaise Pascal and the Human Condition

Douglas Groothuis, Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity, 2024). Revised and updated from On Pascal (Wadsworth, 2003).

Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, 2nd ed. (InterVarsity Press, 2022).

Douglas Groothuis, Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism (InterVarsity Press, 2000). Critique of postmodernist ideas in philosophy, theology, ethics, race, gender, and the arts.

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (Touchstone, 1996). Classic argument for the existence of objective values across cultures.

Thomas Morris, Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life (Eerdmans, 1992).

Blaise Pascal, Pensées, ed. Alban Krailsheimer (Penguin, 1966). Standard collection with an excellent introduction by Krailsheimer.

Blaise Pascal, The Mind on Fire, ed. James Houston (Bethany House Publishers, 1997). Collection from Pensées and Pascal’s shorter works. Excellent introduction by Os Guinness.

Michael Rota, Taking Pascal’s Wager: Faith, Evidence, and the Abundant Life (InterVarsity, 2016).

James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalogue, 6th ed. (InterVarsity Press, 2020). Compares major worldviews, including each worldview’s understanding of the human condition. A modern classic.

Leslie Stevenson and David L. Haberman, Ten Theories of Human Nature, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1998). A standard comparison, but somewhat unsympathetic to Christian views.

Graham Tomlin, Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World (Hodder Faith, 2025). Superb biography, sympathetic. Excellent treatment of the wager argument.

Robert Velarde on Pascal’s anthropological argument: http://www.equip.org/articles/greatness-and-wretchedness/

1 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 4). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

2 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 115). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

3 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 52). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

4 See Douglas Groothuis, Unmasking the New Age (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986) and Douglas Groothuis, Confronting the New Age (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988).

5 See Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity—Academic, 2022), particularly chapters 8-18.

6 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 29). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

7 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 37). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

8 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 31). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

9 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 69). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

10 Pascal, Blaise. Pensées (Penguin Classics) (p. 35). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

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L'Abri 101

The Lordship of Christ over ALL of Life

This Summer we are trying something new!

We are beginning our Summer series of lectures with a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of you who have wondered about what makes L'Abri's teaching distinctive or who want to learn more, this will be a good opportunity. Each lecture is stand alone, but if you can attend all five lectures that make up this short course, that would be best. This week we conclude the course with our fifth theme, which looks at the transforming reality that Christ has come to make ALL things new. Dr. Schaeffer stressed that Christ is not just Lord of our heart or in the Church, but is Lord over all of life.

Greg Jesson's journey from Los Angeles took him to Switzerland, where he studied at L'Abri with Francis Schaeffer, back to LA where he earned a BA at UCLA and an MA at USC under Dallas Willard, and finally to the University of Iowa for a Ph.D. in philosophy. Most recently, he was a professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Ethics and Public Life at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Having decided to leave the university, he now spends his time writing, lecturing, restoring an old home, and looking after his dog, Dr. Watson.

Jock McGregor and his wife Alison direct the Rochester L'Abri where they have lived for the past 25 years. They met at Swiss L'Abri and previously worked at English L'Abri for ten years. Jock has a B.Sc. and an M.Div from Regent College in Vancouver. He lectures widely on many topics that bear on the relationship between Christianity and contemporary culture.

\/  \/ Greg Jesson's Syllabus \/   \/

Pondering the Five Themes of L’Abri: #5: The Lordship of Christ Over ALL of Life

Dr. Greg Jesson

[email protected]

“Christianity is not merely what a man does with his solitude. It is not even what God does with His solitude. It tells of God descending into the course publicity of history and there enacting what can—and must—be talked about.”

C.S. Lewis, “The Founding of the Oxford Socratic Club” in God in the Dock, p. 133

We are looking at the nature of the Christian spiritual life.

In the context of:

Christianity being true

That we live in a supernatural universe

That we are living in the shadow of the Fall &

Christian spirituality is about restoring of our God-created humanity;

“Outside of God the biggest thing in the universe is the human soul (mind).”

Or, another way to think about tonight’s theme: “What are the conditions under which human beings flourish?” Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

Think of “The Sermon on the Mount” as addressing the same question:

What are the moral conditions under which a person lives the most fulfilling life possible?

Living in the availability of God’s Kingdom, what are the conditions and processes under which humans can flourish?

These themes are based on what is actually real (reality)

Here is the reality:

The infinite personal God eternally exists and is always available to reach out to us

The issue of our life before God is if we are actively responding to His plans

On/off spirituality can’t be correct because God can’t be part-time

Think of the thoroughly non-Christian designation “full-time Christian work”

If Christian belief isn’t applicable to every part of life (emotional, education, career, relationships, politics, etc.) it can’t be true

Why? Because that means God and His guidance are restricted to very limited parts of human life

Compartmentalization:

Occasionally putting on the spiritual hat

Sacred/secular distinction

Mafia movies, such as The Godfather, killers who cross themselves and attend Mass

Obviously can’t be true,

Christianity as an activity, usually Sunday mornings, 10-12

Christianity as a hobby

Christianity as a philosophy; a purely academic pursuit in academic settings, no commitment whatsoever

The Bible, from beginning to end, presents two Kingdoms or Realms: Kingdom of Man vs. Kingdom of God

These Kingdoms war against each other

At every moment of life everyone lives in one or other of these two Kingdoms.

So, for example, when Jean-Paul Sartre says,

“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.”

Nausea, p. 133, that is affirming a particular set of realities, and therefore, a particular set of possibilities of the human person (dispositional properties)

We forget what it is like to feel spiritually healthy and thriving

Jesus came to teach us The Availability of the Kingdom of God (salvation) and

The goodness of rightness (sanctification)

We live surrounded by false caricatures of what real goodness is, and what real life is

The message of Jesus is so utterly radical, beyond everything that had ever been hoped or dreamed for, that people, even after twenty centuries, have trouble even grasping it what it is all about

14,000 biographies written about Jesus

The full, but simple, message of Jesus is often missed

Dallas Willard often said, “Life is about more than having our sins forgiven.”

The picture that we are often given is one of contentless ritual unconcerned about truth as opposed to propositional truth about the love of God that restructures human life on every level

Lordship is not as the oppressive, hope-crushing condemnation by God in every situation like the kingdoms of this world, but it is God’s ever-present offer of reconciliation in each situation of life (Luke 15. 2, “This man accepts sinners and eats with them.”)

The Lordship of Christ brings the authority of God into every corner of human life, not by the soul-crushing ways of the Kingdoms of this world, but with the radical message of God’s grace and truth.

It is an RSVP (the chance of a lifetime)

A gracious invitation, not a burden, not the constant threat of condemnation and judgment.

Most people think of God as a giant condemnation machine.

What is often missed is that we can’t follow the teachings of Jesus without being transformed by Him

The context is everything:

Without the Biblical context: Christianity is true, the supernatural is real, we live in the shadow of the fall, and genuine Biblical spirituality is what it means to be a fulfilled human being

You simply cannot follow what Jesus said, apart from the context of His ever- present availability (Lordship). “The kingdom of God is at hand” Matt. 4.17

“Love your enemies” Matt. 5.43-48, (Hamas leader’s son)

“Pray for those who persecute you” Matt. 5. 44 (According to Dallas Willard “Vernon Grounds was unflappable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”)

“Pray without ceasing” I Thess. 5.17

Forgive, not “seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matt. 18.21-22

“Be anxious for nothing” Phil. 4.6

“Deny yourself” Luke 9.23

“Be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect” Matt. 5.48

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself” Phil. 2.3

Doctrine is important, but it alone does not magically save you or transform you

What does it mean to believe?

Not mere mental assent, not a mental checklist of approved doctrines

James 2.19: “the devils believe—and tremble”

Their lives are not submitted to the reality of God’s love and it’s availability

How the Qualifications of Discipleship look Impossible Apart from the Lordship of Christ over all Things:

Luke 14.25: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sister, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14.27: “And whoever does not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14.33: “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all he has cannot be my disciple.”

John 13. 34-35: “A new commandment I give unto you: As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Luke 4. 18-21: Do you hear the Lordship of Christ over All things in these verses?

Finally, what is the result of rejecting the Lordship of Christ over everything; what is the result of ignoring the Kingdom of God as it has been revealed in general and special revelation?

This is the cost of non-discipleship

This explains so much in the world today

Here is a quotation that I have always found compelling:

“Plato and Aristotle have left us awesome portraits of the effect on human character of choices known to be immoral…Such choices are motivated by love of my associates and/or myself, but end up in destruction of all human friendships and in loathing for the self that has so preferred inadequate goods…to practical reasonableness [what is known to be good]. And this self-loathing still does not inspire repentance, because this person has effected a partial but concentrated integration of his character around some set of experiences—say, of domination, or sensual pleasures [and/or indifference].

“It is not too difficult to envisage, then, the constitution by free choices of a character that would be described simply as repudiating all friendship with God…The possibility of having constituted oneself thus, at the time of one’s death, is the possibility of being in the situation which those who offer to transmit the divine self-disclosure to us have called hell. No-one who has thought seriously about ethics, and about his own character, will be inclined to shrug off the possibility that that is the situation he is heading for because he has already, implicitly, chosen it, or might tomorrow do so.”

Fundamentals of Ethics by John Finnis, p. 152

Practical Considerations:

Before the formation of L’Abri, Francis Schaeffer was deeply despondent over the lack of reality in the Christian community. He constantly pondered the question, “How can we claim that Christianity is true yet there is so little love and compassion in so many Christians?” This question became so compelling to Schaeffer that in 1951 it drove him into a spiritual crisis in which he had to go back and reexamine his reasons for believing Christianity was true. Even after he worked through the good reasons for believing, this question would be the dominant orienting thought of Schaeffer’s life. (I quickly have to add that Schaeffer constantly stressed that this did not mean perfection, but it did require a most definite intention.)

L’Abri was gradually founded as a visible expression of the truth of Biblical Christianity, centered on the Five Themes we have examined in the last few weeks. Here, it makes no sense to claim that one should just “believe” (make merely an affirmative assertion) in the Lordship of Christ, but that it is unnecessary to live by actually following the things that Jesus said and did, i.e. live as if Jesus is Lord.

“Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in they name have cast out devils? and in they name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.” Matt. 7. 21-23

1. One’s general orientation in life determines how we react to the events thrown at us. Life often happens faster than we can carefully prepare for, and our immediate reactions are those things that are closest to our hearts. For most people, their immediate reaction is an expression of their rebellion against God.

Jesus replied “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites [the Pharisees and teachers of the law (vs. 5)]; as it is written:

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” Mark 7. 6-7

“Jesus went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.” Mark 7. 20-22

This is why Dallas Willard said that “we spend too much time trying and not enough training,” i.e. training to follow Jesus in what he said and what he did.

2. The presence of the Kingdom of God, given through the ministry of Jesus, is available at all times to every person who has accepted God’s offer of salvation.

3. Our pilgrimage in life is to discover that living in the resources of the Kingdom of God is infinitely better than following the self-centered Kingdom of Man.

4. Life affords us daily opportunities to treat every person we meet with Christ-like love and compassion.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. 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. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours…Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory” in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, p. 14-15

5. We are invited to live in the Kingdom of God in all things, from the great and glorious to the small and seemingly insignificant.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Matt. 10. 29-31, see also, Luke 16.10

6. Finally, as you live your life, remember the glorious and fathomless context in which each person who has ever walked upon the earth. All of history, all the drama, all the laughter, all the “big” events as well as all the “small” events, all the hopes, all the dreams, all the fears, all the early-morning aspirations, all the late-evening disappointments, all the tears, all the smiles, all the failures, all the successes, every word that was ever spoken—all of it, all of human life without exception: the bottom line of every person’s life is that either it was deliberately lived in the Kingdom of God or it was lived in the Kingdom of Man. The predicable results always followed.

For Further Study:

Francis Schaeffer: True Spirituality, The Church Before the Watching World, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century

Edith Schaeffer, L’Abri

Dallas Willard: The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’ Essential Teachings on Discipleship

Mohab Hassan Yousef: Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices