Posts Tagged ‘justice’

Stage 2. Post 2. Evil and the Justice of God

The N.T. Wright Project = 4 books. 2 weeks. 1 bishop. 1 man.

Sorry, Hillsong fans, but this is about your beloved Aussies, but I think it still applies.

Evil and the Justice of God (2006)

Page one of NTW’s Evil and the Justice of God references that in Revelation 21 there is “no more sea.” I’ve always been intrigued by that because I figured if the new heavens and new earth were supposed to be so awesome, will there be any surfers since there’s no sea? That doesn’t seem very “gnarly.” I am being facetious. If you are a literalist, then, yes, no surfers. However, NTW correctly points out that the “sea” (biblically) is a reference to evil and chaos. Thus, the future new creation will be a place without evil.

Our Solution

“This ideal of America is the hope of all mankind…That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness will not overcome it” (George W. Bush in speech commemorating the anniversary of 9/11).

“I still believe that America is the last, best hope of Earth” (Barack Obama in his 2007 remarks to the Chicago Council of Global Affairs).

The Western world has continually fallen into the trap that democracy is the solution for the world. The thought goes like this, “If we could spread our ideal of democracy to the rest of the world, iron-fisted dictators, terrorism, and evil will cease to exist.” This thought fallacy is in line with what NTW calls the “doctrine of progress,” where many can conclude, “everything was moving toward a better, fuller, more perfect end” (p. 21). As Wright continues,

The heady combination of technological achievement, medical advances, Romantic pantheism, Hegelian progressive Idealism and social Darwinism created a climate of thought in which, to this day, a great many people–not least in public life–have lived and moved….when people say that certain things are unacceptable “now that we’re living in the twenty-first century,” they are appealing to an assumed doctrine of progress…We are taught, often by the tone of voice of the media and the politicians rather than by explicit argument, to bow down before this progress. It’s unstoppable (pp. 21-22).

In this way, progress is the solution the we offer.

A simple look at history would show that such a belief is certainly not true. Progress is not our solution, but we still bow down to it anyway. NTW in a rather long statement explains,

It seems remarkable that the belief in progress still survives and triumphs. The nineteenth century thought it had gotten rid of original sin; of course, it had to find replacements, and Marx and Freud offered some…And somehow, despite the horrific battles of Mons and the Somme during World War I, despite Auschwitz and Buchenwald, despite Dostoyevsky and Barth, people still continue to this day to suppose that the world is basically a good place and that its problems are more or less soluble by technology, education, “development” in the sense of “Westernization” (p. 22).

If none of these things are the solution, where can one be found?

God’s Solution
It’s an easy, Sunday school answer to the question…but…Jesus. Wright explains,

The Gospels are trying to tell us the story of how the death of Jesus is the point at which evil in all its forms has come rushing together…the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ death as the story of how the downward spiral of evil finally hit bottom with the the violent and bloody execution of this man (pp. 82-83).

NTW lays out five forms of evil that Jesus’ death confronts as follows:

1. “The Gospels tell the story of the political powers of the world reaching their full, arrogant height” (p. 79)
2. Israel was supposed to be the solution but is just part of the problem (p. 80)
3. Dark, demonic forces are confronted (p. 81)
4. Evil runs down the middle of Jesus’ own followers. Jesus rebukes Peter as “Satan.” James and John want prestigious positions in the kingdom. And Judas is, well, Judas.
5. “The story of the Gospels tell is a story about the downward spiral of evil. One thing leads to another; the remedy offered against evil has itself the germ of evil within it, so that its attempt to put things right merely produces second-order evil, and so on” (p. 82).

How then does Jesus confront evil? Jesus enters his ministry with healing, table fellowship, and, lastly, he “articulates and models the call to Israel to be Israel” (p. 85). All of these things are Jesus’ ways of confronting evil. In this way, early Christianity understood that Jesus had defeated evil, and they chose three events that focused on this–the temple action, last supper, and his crucifixion. Particularly, Christ’s crucifixion is told “as the story of how cosmic and global evil, in its supra-personal as well as personal forms, are met by the sovereign, saving love of Israel’s God, YHWH, the Creator of the world” (p. 93). In this way, God deals with evil.

Now, back to Revelation 21, where there is no more sea (but still surfers). The Christian must follow in the footsteps of Jesus in the past, but, since he or she has a picture of the new creation in the future, it helps one understand his or her purpose in the present. A large portion of Wright’s application focuses on forgiveness. NTW does well to remind his readers that forgiveness is not synonymous with tolerance, which is often the wrong assumption. Tolerance is a way of not dealing seriously with sin–we have to call evil, evil (p. 151). Also, we forgive others because Christ forgave others even when he was on the cross. And not only do we forgive others, we forgive ourselves. Sometimes, forgiving ourselves is the biggest stumbling block to living a life of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is an aspect of love or, as Christ showed, suffering love. Thus, NTW is correct to state,

The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love. The cross is not just an example to be followed; it is an achievement to be worked out, to put into practice. But it is an example nonetheless, because it is the exemplar–the template, the model–for what God now wants to do by his Spirit in the world, through his people. It is the start of the process of redemption, in which suffering and martyrdom are the paradoxical means by which victory is won (pp. 98-99; emphasis mine).

The world will one day be finally put to rights at the arrival of God’s new creation, but, until then, what does it mean for the church to implement the victory of God in today’s world? This is a question we must continually ask of ourselves.

The last quote is exactly why I believe every Christian should read this book. This is, in my opinion, the best book N.T. Wright has written on a popular level. I will be handing this book to people who need to know that God is there with them in the suffering. I will offer it to those who can’t forgive themselves. But I recommend it to all of us because we need to embrace this “paradoxical means” by which God brings about victory over evil. Evil is amongst us. We offer our own solutions, but, in fact, God through the work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit guiding his people will judge evil and bring about true justice to this unjust world. This is the true solution (or as Hillsong fans like to sing, “Let God be the solution…We will run, we will run, we will run with the solution!”). Score 10 out of 10

+++++++
Wright, N.T. (2006). Evil and the justice of God. IVP: Downers Grove.

Buy: Amazon.com
You can also the special edition with DVD included here.

Stage 2. Post 1. Evil and the Justice of God

The N.T. Wright Project = 4 books. 2 weeks. 1 bishop. 1 man.

I must first say that any post will do this book a great injustice. I truly believe this is the best book Wright has written on a popular level. After reading the book in 2 days, I had this appreciation confirmed by a fellow-Wrightian. N.T. Wright (NTW) originally sought out to write a book about the cross, but he quickly realized “that in order to speak meaningfully about the cross one must say at least something about evil, the problem which, in classic theology, the cross has decisively addressed” (p. 16). There is a problem, but there is a solution. Let’s look at the problem first and tomorrow we’ll look at the solution.

Our Problem
“We have to call sin, sin.” I’ve heard this statement before, and Christians usually apply this statement as license to get angry at homosexuals or abortionists. However, NTW correctly shows that we have to call evil, evil. In this way, we do not fall into the usual mistakes that people make in reaction to evil. NTW mentions three reactions by modernity and they are as follows:

• We ignore evil until it hits us in the face. We think the world is
  

  Evil and the Justice of God (2006)

  basically OK so there is no reason to fuss about it. For instance, “Western politicians knew perfectly well that Al-Qaeda was a force to be reckoned with; but nobody really wanted to take it too seriously until it was too late” (p. 24).

• We are surprised at evil when it finally does hit us in the face
• As a result, we react in immature and dangerous ways, knee-jerk reactions such as those found in response to the events of 9/11

On the other hand, postmodernity offers a culture of nihilism while at the same time realizes that humanity is deeply flawed. The issue is that “you can’t escape evil within postmodernity, but you can’t find anybody to take the blame either” (p. 32). In this way, postmodernity’s analysis of evil is dehumanizing and offers no redemption (p. 33).

God’s Problem
Throughout the Old Testament, there appears to some conclusions about the problem of evil that God is confronted with:

1. The Old Testament provides a picture of “the personified force of evil, the satan, is important but not that important. The origin of evil itself remains a mystery; and the satan, when he (or it) appears, is kept strictly within bounds.”
2. There is overwhelming evidence of human responsibility for evil. The OT is full of sinners — Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and of course the entire nation of Israel. Interestingly, “God chooses to bring the world back to rights through a family which is itself composed of deeply flawed human beings and thereby generates second- and third-order problems of evil.”
3. Human evil is connected to the enslavement of creation. What about natural disasters? NTW explains from the OT, “No theory is offered about earthquakes or other so-called natural disasters, though no doubt the prophets would have been happy to identify them with heaven-sent warnings” (p. 72).
4. Perhaps the most difficult thing to swallow is that “the Old Testament never tries to give us the sort of picture the philosophers want, that of a static world order with everything explained tidily” (emphasis mine). As NTW shows God is not “the omnicompetent managing director of a very large machine…What we are offered instead is stranger and more mysterious: a narrative of God’s project of justice within a world of injustice” (p. 73).

I appreciate that NTW is honest with Old Testament material. We all usually miss one or two of these points. Some partially emphasize point 3 and totally miss point 1. Others over-emphasize point 2 and miss point 3 and 4. For me, point 4 is something none of us like to hear. We come to the Bible and expect it to give us a clear expression as to why evil exists and why we suffer. Instead, it offers us mystery.

I once recall a conversation with a young man who expressed that his religion teacher at his college continually referenced God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer by Bart Ehrman as a way of deconstructing Scripture. I am not a Bart Ehrman fan, and, in fact, I think he draws simplistic, misleading theological conclusions. If I had to guess, I believe Ehrman’s “problem” is that the Bible doesn’t offer one reason for evil. We really just want to know. We don’t know perfectly well why evil exist or why we suffer. But, from Scripture, NTW shows that we do know that God hates evil, wants to judge it, and has set out to rid the world of it. But that’s for tomorrow…

Evil and the Justice of God (2006)

I’ve read a lot of books by N.T. Wright, and I had Evil and the Justice of God sitting on my shelf for some time now. It’s not that I had no interest in the subject. In fact, I believe I bought it because someone told me about Bart Ehrman’s (who I, frankly, cannot stand) book God’s Problem about a similar subject. It’s just that I had more important books to read, and I had more important N.T. Wright books to read. Boy, was I wrong. I read this book, and I loved it! Over the next couple of days, I will be reflecting on the book here. I hope to show you why the book is so good, and why I believe every Christian should read it (no joke).

As I stated the other day, this could really happen, and Charlie posts about this on his blog.

I am all for peace and non-violence, but I’m not necessarily sure that such a thing could be achieved outside of the community of faith in Jesus the Christ. The world’s way to peace tends to be through violence. We see much of this in Jesus’ day with the Romans (I don’t mean to give you a history lesson but hold on). The Romans claimed to give the earth “peace;” as you may have heard of Pax Romana. The way Rome did it was through violence. Whenever anyone stood up to create a “disturbance,” Rome sent its legions to bring about “peace” by bringing them to “justice” by massacring the rebellious because, as one person put it, dead people are a lot quieter.

However, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, brings about peace through justice, but justice of turning the other cheek, loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself, and carrying a soldier’s belongings an additional mile.

I’m not really sure that I would trust America or any legislative body to enact peace and non-violence. I fear that it still may be peace through violence rather than peace through justice.

All I’m saying is, if a Department of Peace and Non-Violence is created, Christians should not put their hope in such a department but remain hopeful in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we are back in the same place we were supporting certain politicians (e.g., Emperor Constantine among others), and it coming back to bite us. Please be cautious my Christian brothers and sisters.

This is in no way a new thought, but I don’t know about you, but, when I grew up in evangelical Christian circles, I knew that evangelicals vote Republican (or, at least vote on now Republican ideals). Why? Well, the answer is simple. Certain things - pro-life (however, only on abortion), capital punishment (see what I mean) is ordained by God, war against anyone that would prevent American (presumed Christian) ideals around the world, homosexuality is sinful, and…well, I’m having difficulty coming up with more.

Actually, I saw this most recently with a three-column spreadsheet of the issues and where each candidate stood on the issue “yes” or “no.” You’ve seen them. Column 1 - Issue, 2 - McCain (yay!), 3 - Obama (boo!). It was broken down into about ten issues, which was really the above four issues stated in a multiplicity of ways. The Iraq War was only mentioned once, and so was capital punishment. So, you can guess how the other two issues were posed throughout the last 8 statements (I think gay rights had five and abortion three). You don’t need to be a rocket-scientist to figure out the conclusion - the donkey lost.

I don’t think I would have been so perturbed if it wasn’t so reductionistic in two ways - (1) it didn’t make the answers as simple as “yes” or “no” and (2) it didn’t make the “important” Christian ideals as simple as abortion, capital punishment, war, and homosexuality. 

Christians should be politically confused.

“What?” Yes. Think about it - what about poverty? What about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? The Bible talks more about taking care of the poor than it does homosexuality. Feel free to prove me wrong. I’m not trying to be antagonistic but just making a point. 

What about life? “Well, yeah, we have that covered - we’re pro-life.” Well…kinda. But you believe capital punishment is OK. [You may be fine with that, but I'm not that comfortable playing God]. But you are quick to go to war. As Shane Claiborne says, I’m pro-life from “womb to the tomb.” That’s a good policy. 

What about justice? “Yeah, we have that. We got some conservative judges on the bench, and we can get even more this time around.” Not that kind of justice. I’m talking about dealing with third-world debt. I’m talking about, as Bono says, “Where you live shouldn’t determine if you live.” I’m talking about “loving your neighbor as yourself” (yes, Jesus meant that literally - doesn’t just mean American neighbors…what about global neighbors?). I’m talking about, “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6v8).

What about violence? Is it OK that “The US arsenal is the largest stockpile of nuclear weaponry in the world, equivalent to over 150,000 Hiroshima bombs…The US military budget is over 450 billion per year, and it would take the combined budgets of the next 15 countries to equal that of the US (Russia is the next biggest spender at around 70 billion, China at 50 billion, and the entire ‘Axis of Evil’ is less than 10 billion)” [p. 178; Claiborne, S., and Haw, C. (2008). Jesus for president: politics for ordinary radicals. Zondervan: Grand Rapids]. Does that bother anyone else? “Well, better us than them.” Whatever you say.

What about the environment? (”Whoa! Evan’s a lib.” I’m just a Christian.) I’m talking about, “God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good [or beautiful]!” (God said that, see Genesis 1v31; we usually skip that part because we are too busy trying to disprove those pesky evolutionists). I’m talking about, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24v1). As I’ve said to many Christians before, I don’t care if you believe or don’t believe in global warming, I do care how you treat God’s creation. One author said, How you treat creation reflects how you feel about the Creator.

I’m not saying, now Christians should vote Democrat. I don’t think it’s as easy as putting us in one party. In fact, some of the above Christian ideals that I mentioned aren’t seen as “American.” I’m saying we should be politically confused. 

The Christian life is not cushy, easy, and comfortable. We constantly deal with the tensions of being in the world and not of it. We constantly deal with the tension of already bringing the Kingdom of God to earth and not yet because we still wait for its consummation. We constantly deal with the tension of following Jesus as King already, and not yet because we wait for Jesus as King on earth over all things.

So, Christians should be politically confused. It doesn’t come down to abortion, war, capital punishment, and homosexuality. It includes thoughts on those things, but it includes, dare I say, the rest of the Bible (for church historians, which we all should be, what the early Church believed). The fact is, it doesn’t matter who you vote for on November 4th as much as it does matter how you vote November 3rd and 5th and every day of your life. So, vote every day with our lives and by standing by what we stand for.

We’re a politically confused bunch, aren’t we?

My recent trip to Birmingham, AL, has brought me to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. If you get a chance to visit, do it. It’s worth it. The Institute brought the harsh realities of segregation between blacks and whites in the American South.

As I walked the Institute, I saw images of blacks being hosed with high-powered fire hoses. I saw pictures of police letting loose dogs to attack demonstrators. I saw white people standing around two black teenagers hanging lynched in the trees, watching and smiling as if they were watching fireworks on the 4th of July. I saw images of the KKK, whites beating blacks, bombing their churches, and I thought, “Where were the ‘good’ people?”

(side-note: I know not every black person was innocent and white guilty. I know whites marched with Dr. King. That’s not the point. Just follow me here…)

Where were all the good people who thought segregation was evil? Where were they when black teenagers were being lynched for talking to white women? Where were they when the police of Alabama hosed down demonstrators and attacked them with dogs? Where were they when the Freedom Riders were being beaten to a pulp? Why didn’t the stop the oppression? Then it occurred to me - where am I when oppression happens around me?

I think of what a man in the Bible named James says that when you know that you should do something good and don’t do it, it’s wrong! Jesus also says that we must help the “least of these,” the down-trodden, the helpless (cf. Matthew 25:31ff).

Absence is a form of oppression. When I watch oppression happen and don’t do anything about it…that’s oppression in itself! When I watch the poor get poorer and the rich get richer and don’t say anything against it..I am the oppressor! When I consume more and more taking from others…I am the oppressor! You may not stop Darfur, third world debt, racism, war, or poverty; but you can start by sticking up for someone, or getting coffee with a hurt person, or buying a meal for a homeless man.

If we understand that we are all connected and Jesus calls us to love others as we love ourselves, we will realize –
Absence is oppression.