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In his work The Republic, Plato relates a discussion between his brother Glaucon and his teacher Socrates. The discussion was about the question of human nature. Glaucon argues that, were it not for the painful consequences of bad behavior, we humans would live very bad lives.

Glaucon tells a story to illustrate his point.

There was a shepherd boy in the hills of Lydia who once stumbled upon a large bronze horse as well as a corpse with a ring on its finger. The shepherd boy took the ring, put it on his own finger, and soon realized that when he turned its gem towards himself, he became invisible. So what does the shepherd boy do? Using his newfound power, he seduces the queen, kills the king, and seizes the throne of Lydia.

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The following is an excerpt from John Whittaker’s N. T. Wright: A Theological Appraisal. For the full eBook, click HERE. 

Personally, I am grateful for the teaching of N. T. Wright and appreciative of his work. I first began reading Wright in the 1990s with his academic book The New Testament and the People of God. In the last three decades, I have read more N. T. Wright books than I’ve read of probably any other single author. I have read dozens of articles by him as well. His big commentary on Romans in the New Interpreters set is one I regularly recommend.

So, I write this assessment from a place of appreciation. There is much to be learned from N. T. Wright.

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With what set of assumptions do you begin as you open the pages of Scripture?

I find myself in agreement with James B. Jordan, Protestant theologian, with Matteiu Paggeau, the Greek Orthodox polymath, and even the insights of the Jewish mystical texts: To interpret Genesis 1–3 only as historical narrative may be correct on one level, but it misses the deeper meaning. The opening chapters of Scripture do not merely recount events—they unveil the architecture of reality.

To understand Genesis, one must think not only historically but symbolically, for the Bible itself trades in the currency of symbol.

And at the root of it all—pardon the pun—stands the tree.

There are three trees explicitly named in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the fig Tree, whose leaves Adam and Eve used to clothe their shame. But then, curiously, God also points to “every other tree of the garden” and says to Adam, “You may freely eat” (Genesis 2:16).

Why so much attention to trees? Why not flowers or mountains, or meadows? Perhaps because the very structure of creation mirrors the form of a tree. Reality itself is arboreal. It is fractal—that is, it repeats its structure at every scale.

The branching veins in a leaf, the rivers on a map, the bronchi in your lungs, even the wiring of neurons in your brain—all mirror the same pattern. Roots, trunk, branch, twig: the same design, echoed and re-echoed in miniature. As Solomon wrote, “What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9, ESV).

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What’s the most encouraging note a teacher wrote on your report card?

Maybe it was, “Great job this quarter!” Or “Fantastic job bringing your math grade up!”

The earliest comment I remember receiving on my report card was this: “Laughs at inappropriate times.” There was nothing added, no smiley face or “lol.” Just “Laughs at inappropriate times.” Which is funny because, if I recall, the teacher didn’t seem to have a sense of humor to begin with, so I’m not sure how she thought she knew the right or wrong time to think something was funny.

If the surrounding culture were to assign a “report card” to Christians, I hope they would write, “Gives thanks at inappropriate times.” Like a cheerful background vocalist clapping offbeat, our heritage as Christians is to thank God in times that feel off.

On one of his voyages, the apostle Paul in Acts 27 gave thanks, broke bread, and encouraged everybody on the ship to eat—a laughable mismatch to the situation. Two weeks earlier, a hurricane-force “Northeaster” had battered the ship so badly they had thrown the cargo overboard, cut loose the lifeboat, gone without food, and by now had given up all hope of surviving. Into this misery, Paul spoke thanksgiving.

In this, Paul was echoing Jesus, who “on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it,” and distributed it to his disciples (1 Corinthians 11:23-24, NIV). Jesus pierced the night of greatest sorrow—betrayed, abandoned, denied, falsely accused, unjustly sentenced, awaiting execution—with “Father, we thank you.”

Disciples of Jesus give thanks at inappropriate times.

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Today, during worship, my wife handed me her phone. She had received a text from an old friend from high school. Her friend was clearly exasperated, frustrated, and searching. “In light of everything going on…do you still believe in God?” What a question! Simple. Blunt. Receiving that question in church had the effect of throwing cold water on my, admittedly, rote and habitual worship. Do you still believe in God? Assuming the answer is yes, why?

My first inclination was not to answer the question but to compliment the asker. The person who asks a question like this is searching, and the only way to really find something is by adopting a posture that is seeking. There are way too many of us who have stopped pondering or wrestling with the questions that matter. Maybe we’ve become calloused by the distractions of life or maybe the questions scare us into looking away. Maybe cynicism or arrogance (or fear) have shaped us into the kinds of people who see questions as weakness. In that moment, I wasn’t afraid for my wife’s friend. I was proud of her. It takes courage, vulnerability, and humility to ask such a question.

My second inclination was to wonder what she meant by “in light of everything going on.” I know this friend has had some significant personal trials in recent years, but it sounded to me like she was reflecting on a reality much bigger than her own life. It feels like the world is in chaos. The news is full of anger and violence. There’s heartache and pain everywhere we look, and it doesn’t feel like there is much reason for optimism or hope.

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What do we know about 1 Enoch and the Bible? The first thing to say is that 1 Enoch is pseudepigraphal, that is, it was not written by Enoch. The book claims to contain dreams and revelations from Enoch, but this is impossible, since Enoch was taken to heaven millennia before 1 Enoch was written. Rather, the material was made up by writers from the Intertestamental period.

Furthermore, it is not likely that the author(s) of 1 Enoch even expected their readers to believe the book came from Enoch. Pseudepigraphal writing often claimed famous names for thematic purposes, not to pretend that the book actually came from the person whose name it bears. For these reasons alone, it is a mistake to suggest that the book has any canonical authority. It is not inspired, and it is not from Enoch.

Further, the book is full of biblical anachronisms, moving historical events around to suit the authors’ purpose. 1 Enoch also has errors in it, contradicting itself frequently. For example, Enoch learns about the Nephilim for the “first time” multiple times in the book. The stories often contradict what we know Jews believed, as recorded in other writings. And the stories contradict the Bible itself, making fanciful use of the Bible to tell a different story. The Jews have never considered the book as part of their canon, even though the book was fairly well known. And the only Christian traditions that ever considered it canonical, as stated above, are the Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedo Christians.

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We are all created in God’s image, but we each have a unique role to fill in his kingdom. Our identity is equally secure and beloved in Christ, yet our personalities are vastly different from each other. And that’s a good thing! We ought to celebrate each other’s unique personalities, giftings, and perspectives.

Yet we must not mistake our personality for our identity in Christ. When we conflate the two, we end up falling for destructive lies. We can believe that, well, we’re just created this way—with explosive anger or crippling shyness or unavoidable sloth—and that we’ll always be this way. Or perhaps we assume that we shouldn’t have to do things that are uncomfortable for our personality type. We limit what God can use us for, and we may hurt people while trying to help.

Our personalities aren’t mirages; they are real features of our identity. But does this mean that if I’m an introvert, I’m never called to host a gathering? Or that if I’m direct and opinionated, I’m never called to be quiet? If we believe that our personality traits can be used only for one purpose or in a certain way, we are being deceived by the enemy and hindered from living out life in God’s kingdom to its fullest.

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1 Enoch naturally divides into five sections: The Book of Watchers (1-36), The Book of Parables (37-71), The Astronomical Book (72-82), the Book of Dream Visions (83-90), and the Letter of Enoch (90-108). Even within these sections, however, there are breaks and subject changes. So let’s do a fairly detailed summary and interpretation of the book.

The Book of Enoch uses the brief verse in Genesis 6:1-5 about the sons of God and the daughters of men intermingling as an allegory for its current situation—presented, anachronistically, by the Old Testament character Enoch. Enoch refers to the sons of men in Genesis 6 as angels, whom he often calls “Watchers,” because they have the task of watching over God’s work. When one understands the struggle of 1 Enoch’s day, one can easily figure out that the “sons of God” represent God’s people, especially their priests, and the “daughters of men” are the pagan Greeks. This union creates bizarre giants, and it corrupts humanity in many ways: astrology, technology, immodesty, pagan worship, sexual immorality, non-kosher foods, etc. God will punish both the Watchers and their offspring, suggesting that there will be wars among them—possibly a reference to the Maccabean wars that left vast destruction in Judea.

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Everybody who leads has a philosophy of leadership. Every leader from Michael Scott to Genghis Khan has absorbed principles and values that guide them. If you are a Christian leader, have you considered what it might look like to develop a theology of leadership? Is your leadership grounded in and guided by biblical truth—or are you just leading from gut instincts and popular trends? In this article, I want to give you a handful of tools which will help you develop a theology of leadership for your context.

As for my context, I serve as lead pastor at Christ’s Church of Joplin, a congregation of 250 people in Joplin, Missouri. My primary responsibility is to lead our preaching and teaching ministry. In addition, I direct the Organizational Leadership program at Ozark Christian College in Joplin. The program includes 30+ students and 7 faculty members (2 full-time, 5 adjunct). I also serve as Director of Newday Midwest, a summer camp with about 225 students and 70 leaders. My role is to lead the leadership team, whose task is to equip youth leaders and small group leaders to guide their students into meaningful encounters with God and one another so that they can take the next faithful step in following Jesus.

These three roles intersect at one crossroads: providing leadership to leaders. I lead the leaders of my church, the leaders of my camp, and the students preparing for leadership. My calling is to lead leaders across these different spaces. Leading in these ways has taught me that Christlike leadership isn’t reducible to a few quick steps or ready-made principles; it takes time and intentionality to discern what God is doing in your context and how to steward what he has entrusted to you to lead.

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Now that you have wealth, you’ve crossed over into the financial promised land. Or have you?

From the days of Adam, God cursed man with the burden of painful toil in order to produce food (Genesis 3:17). Throughout most of human history, it was necessary to store up provisions in order to survive. Wealth building is a natural human instinct that gives us security, comfort, pleasure and a profound sense of accomplishment. It’s literally in our DNA.

Even children exhibit instinctive hoarding at a very early age. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch toddlers playing together with toys. God gave us this basic survival instinct, but as adults we take it to illogical extremes.

“I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners.” (Ecclesiastes 5:13, NIV)

Because of the advance of technology, we live in an age where many of us have far more than we need. This plenty, ironically, can put us in a dangerous position emotionally and spiritually. Even a scientific study has proven that wealth beyond a certain point does not make us happy.[1]

“I have a lot of friends who have a lot more possessions. But in some cases, I feel the possessions possess them, rather than the other way around.” —Warren Buffett

As always, the Bible is way ahead of man’s wisdom. Jesus warns us of the futility and dangers of wealth: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15, NIV). The apostle Paul famously advised his protégé Timothy that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10, NIV).

Why can’t we reach a certain point in building wealth and then be satisfied? It would seem logical that when our basic needs are met, we could then focus on higher pursuits than accumulating wealth. Psychologists would explain this illogical human behavior by saying that our expectations and desires rise to meet any standard of living we achieve. This human phenomenon is often referred to as the “hedonic treadmill.”

Christian or not, all of us in the modern world are on the hedonic treadmill to some degree. Our time, energy, and joy are spent in a never-ending mad dash. Often, achieving material success makes us more depressed, because when happiness doesn’t come with it, we lose all hope of ever feeling fulfilled. Of course, we are looking for happiness in the wrong place.

Lottery winners are perhaps the most extreme experiment in showing that wealth does not produce happiness. I recently read about a British teen who won the Euromillions lottery when she was 17.[2] She spends some of her time on talk shows complaining about her unhappiness. People are disgusted by her complaining, but the public simultaneously finds her unhappiness fascinating.

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