Ten years ago today we were having a daily sports camp in the community of Jesús María, run by our friends Mike and Teo. In the photo below (click the image for a larger version), you can see the soccer players in the foreground, and if you look closely in the back to the right you can see the basketball court.
Of course, in the middle is the iconic water tower / sundial that became the logo for our community centres. At the bottom of it you can see a mural that presented the gospel.
The sports camp was a great opportunity to share the gospel not only with kids in the community, but also with their parents who came to watch.
If you’d like to read more, check out this post from back in 2013, Why a Sports Camp?
For me, the next two studies that we did in our Biblical Anthropology series were the most challenging – Justice and Partiality. I have no idea how many articles and books I read while I was studying for this topic, which of course also touches on the issue of racism.
I think that one of the reasons why these topics were so challenging was that we do always see truth mixed with lies in our world. Sometimes we think that when someone is talking about love, or justice, or equality, that they’re talking about the same things that we’re talking about. But so often the world changes definitions, or else smuggles in something else with the truth.
As Christians, we know that God is just, and that justice comes from God and His Bible. For example, we protect the innocent before the law, even though this means that some people will temporarily escape justice. Temporarily, because we know that someday God will bring perfect justice to all. There is a final judgement.
We briefly introduced a few terms that have become important in our world, such as Marxism, or neo-Marxism, from the antichristian philosophies of Karl Marx.
“Marxism” doesn’t explain all the philosophy of the modern world, but we only had time to quickly look at some key points.
For example, in Marxism, you’re not judged by your character in the end, but more by the group which you belong to – as oppressed or oppressor.
And I should probably clarify something. If someone today says that a white man is racist, they’re probably not using a stereotype or a generalization. Under this philosophy, the individual white man is not considered racist because all white men tend to be racist, but because he belongs to the group, in this case a group defined by skin colour. Do you understand the difference?
Neo-Marxism is a revolutionary system. Everything must be burned down and rebuilt. Reboot, restart, rebuild better. So if you sometimes wonder why many people in power seem to be doing things that destroy more than build, often this is the reason.
But in biblical justice, we should be punished for our own sin. And there’s a lot of teaching in Ezekiel 18 about this. We are judged for our own character and actions. In God’s law, and so in the human court, we are innocent until proven guilty. And the source of your value is not the group you belong to, but the imago dei. And salvation is in Christ, not in activism.
We are all descendants of Adam, and so we don’t judge people (before the law) based on DNA, or skin colour, or whatever it may be. We judge, in a limited sense, in the way God judges – the fruit tells you what kind of a tree you have. We don’t judge in a different way because someone is rich or poor, because he has power, or has no home.
Another key point here is the unity of the local church. This from Colossians 3:11 – “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free…” – and we could properly add, there is no man, woman, child, adult, Mexican, Canadian, rich, poor, whatever – “but Christ is all, and in all.” One Church.
Talking about justice in general, we believe that, in a sense, the law is king. The Latin term is lex rex. The prime minister, the scientist, the rich person, all are subject to the law. And the law must come ultimately from God’s Word. And so we could also say – veritas rex – truth is king. The truth, not the person in power, or the person with the scholarly title.
The famous Mexican revolutionary said, “I want to die being a slave to principles, not men.” Well, if those principles come from the Bible, from God’s Word, principles of justice, love, and compassion – then I would agree!
Truth is very important to the Christian. Honesty. Science. Logic. But the world rejects God’s truth to a large degree, and invents new “truths”, other “ways of knowing”. Standpoint epistemology.
The Christian accepts personal responsibility, and practises generosity and love. Many in the world today seem to want to give the government more and more control, so that they can be a saviour and a god. But where there is no absolute truth, when the law of God is rejected and limits are rejected, the lie with the most power behind it wins.
It is not the government that gives us truth, although it should defend the truth. The government does not give us rights, but it should defend the rights that are given to us by God.
That’s a lot to chew on for today. And I realize that some of these things have become even more a topic of discussion since we first did our study in Mexico. We need to keep thinking about these things and discussing them, with God’s Word as our foundation.
It may seem strange to some that Nathanael’s graduation took place before some of his final exams. But – be that as it may – Nathanael’s graduation ceremony is over, even though the exams are not! (Is that why they say, “It’s all over but the crying”?)
Anyway, Nathanael graduated with some of his class (“some” because, being at an “alternate status” school, many of the students were not from the area) on the 10th of June, at a special event at Zion Evangelical Missionary Church in Didsbury, Alberta.
Nathanael was on the grad committee, so he worked all through the year on various projects to make the grad a success. The committee came over the day before to work on the decorations for the banquet, and Nathanael in particular worked on PowerPoints and a unique banner for the event (which we ended up bringing from Mexico!).
The program was very Christ-honouring, and of course student-congratulating!
All four of us were there, along with Nathanael’s three grandparents.
Nathanael and the FamilyThrowing the mortarboards!
We enjoyed a delicious banquet afterwards. Nathanael – great job on the grad committee – oh, and on many years of school! And thanks to all the teachers and staff who worked so hard as well. 🙂
When we originally did our series on Biblical Anthropology, we didn’t include the segment on The Authorities – we ended up talking about it because we were going through Romans, and we arrived at chapter 13. 🙂
But now this segment has properly become an important part of the study.
So what did we learn? Well, we know that all authority is instituted by God, and that God gives each authority its own responsibilities, and its limits.
When we think of authority, we often focus on government. But there are others as well – authority in the family, authority in the work world, authority in the church, and – often left out – self-authority.
Because authority comes from God, we respect our leaders, we pray for our leaders, and we submit to our leaders.
But in my study of Scripture, I believe that there are two situations in which we should not submit, or obey (but even here there are exceptions – read the full study for details!).
When we are asked to do evil, or when we are asked to stop doing good (according to Scripture).
When the authority is operating outside of its God-given sphere.
What is their “sphere” of authority? Well, God gives people authority over specific areas of life, right? If the government decides to tell our church what we should preach on, we don’t have to submit to that. The government doesn’t have that kind of authority over the local church. If your pastor tells you which school you should send your child to – maybe it’s wise counsel worth listening to, but you don’t have to submit to such an order. That is the decision of the parents, not the pastor.
We ended up with a list of seven applications from the Bible to help us as we navigate these issues. This is an important issue in a society where our leaders regularly praise the evil and prohibit the good. A culture in which governmental powers seem to be regularly expanding far beyond what God intended.
The next topic was technology. Like authority, technology ultimately comes from God Himself. And it has a purpose in time and space, because God Himself entered into time and space as a human being.
And it was fascinating to realize that the cross itself was human technology, invented for a cruel and evil purpose. But God used this human technology to bring us salvation.
Sadly, as human beings, we tend to use technology to exalt ourselves and rebel against God. But technology can also be used to alleviate suffering, promote life, and glorify the Creator.
We talked specifically about transhumanism, posthumanism and antihumanism, and the different types of artificial intelligence. You can go through the study itself to review all of that.
The final question was: What are you doing to my heart? Why do I really want this device (keep in mind that there may be many reasons, both good and bad)? Is this a potential idol in my life? Or does it increase the power of an idol in my life?
That brings us just past the halfway point of our review – come back next time as we look back at our studies on justice and partiality.
This past Saturday, we joined together with the youth group for a special birthday party and goodbye party for Nathanael! As you may know, he’s planning to work in Canada for a while, so this is one of the last youth events he’ll be at.
Above is the banner we printed, showing the theme. Chess! And making the next move, of course – to Canada. Our theme verses were Joshua 1:8-9.
Of course, one of Mom’s cakes was involved…
Those chess pieces are homemade chocolate, by the way.
There were some games…
And a potluck meal. Yum.
There was also a Bible study time (part of the normal youth group schedule), and a time of sharing and encouragement for Nathanael, and a time of prayer.
There was even some actual chess playing!
We’re so thankful for these wonderful friends – and brothers and sisters in Christ!
We’re continuing our whirlwind review from last time. The next topic we studied was “the Image” – otherwise known in Latin as the Imago Dei.
We were created in God’s image – the animals were not. We’re very special. And as we learned, this is a reality that persists even after the Fall. Even in sin, we still maintain an incredible value because of the imago dei. Every human being.
We also learned that human want to change this image – they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). Instead of becoming more like the true God, whose image we bear, we became more like blind and powerless idols.
But Jesus Christ came to show us the true image of God – the exact image – as God in the flesh.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Hebrews 1:1-4
That’s the story of Christmas! Everything in time and space truly matters, and has a purpose, because God Himself entered into His creation. And now we see the true and pure Image of God, sinless. And those who put their faith in Christ are being transformed into His image. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…” (Romans 8:29). “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
From there we went on to talk about God’s design for the family. According to the Lord Jesus, God’s pattern for the man and the woman and marriage and children in Genesis is the pattern that we are to follow today.
When the man rebelled against God, human beings began to experience shame and confusion about their own bodies. This is part of the fallen world. But God has given us commandments for the family and its gender roles. Those roles are different for men and for women.
We all experience sin and brokenness in this area. But God gives forgiveness and healing to those who turn to Him.
All of this information about the man and the woman and the image of God also related to our next study, “The Borders of Life”. We went through the various types of murder that the Bible talks about, relating them somewhat to modern law. We talked about the attacks that we’re seeing on life today, especially on the “borders” – the murder of babies in the womb (often called “abortion”), and the murder of our precious seniors through negligence and euthanasia.
One of the most important parts of that lesson for me, apart from some questions about specific kinds of murder, was the Bible’s teaching on suffering and death.
In Scripture, death is the enemy. A consequence of sin. Yes, for a Christian, death is a path to being with the Lord. But this comes at a time chosen by God, not by us. We are here on earth to serve as long as God permits, even if we can only serve through brief moments of prayer on our sickbed.
Suffering, for us, is full of purpose. It is not something to be avoided at all costs. In fact, we are even commanded to suffer for Christ. “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3). Listen to Romans 5 –
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
Every life has purpose and value, even a life that is deep in suffering. “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Of course it’s impossible to delve back into all these topics again – but that’s a summary of “The Image”, “The Family”, and “The Borders of Life”. Remember to check here for a more detailed discussion. We’ll continue starting with part 6 next time!
