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Religious faith’s view of moral values of the West

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Al Ngu,   December 25, 2024

Peter Riddell has written on page 159 in his groundbreaking book “ Islam in context past, present, and future”, a hugely interesting perception and understanding of the interaction between western culture and Islam, and in some ways you can apply that to Christianity. What I’m trying to bring up is there is some similarities and contrast between Christianity and Islam in facing the Western culture.

Riddell expounded,  “the perception among Muslims or western culture would be decadent and debased is fueled by regular statements in the Muslim media, both in the Middle East and among mostly minorities in the west, that reflected and often exaggerated moral decay in Western society.”[1]

The following quote from invitation to Islam encapsulate the view: “Man in the West feels no obligation to protect women from the harms of society. This is why a man will allow his wife to be a stripper, a call girl, and even a prostitute. Honor knows no place in the West.”— startling alarming cutting statement of the West. What we see is not representative of the Western society at all of course, but nonetheless, these films are spread all over the country, continent, and in reality the followers of these movie vulture FAR exceed number of Christ followers, Christians. The point is, the gigantic influence mental, cognitive, intellectual on the society is beyond the grip of society perception and understanding an beats Christan influence hands down. Imagine in Genesis 11-God told Abrahm to “Walk before me faithful, and be blameless”, and here we are in our generation or before, we totally butchered many of the commandments of God thru Moses, and ‘blameless’ is a vocab that’s hard to find.

Genesis 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Now there is some truth to it. It is true Western culture has become so liberal that especially in the Hollywood movies and media that actually promote promiscuity of women and movies essentially play on the lustful desire of men in our society. What’s worse media like Disney who has been famed to promote children’s wholesome activities, now promote LBGTQ agenda and themes on that line. Go figure? That is a degradation of moral values. Of course we are not talking about regulating movies so that none of those will come forth, but excessive sensual stuff needs to be curtailed to say the least. In fact, the wind of Hollywood depends on the mood, political power, and the Christian influence on the society as a whole. They are all interlinked. The last straw is the blasphemous show what they did in the Olympics opening ceremony 2024 in Paris, totally obliterated any sense of good faith and sense in France, with putting the abomination figures on the most holy sacred “The Last Supper” of Christ to be turned into some LBGT transgender table! It’s that dark and irreverent to God that’s akin to the abominatio figure that’s prophecies to stand in the most holy place in the Temple as prophecies by Jesus himself in the bible.  You can only believe when you see that. Try that on the Islamic faith teaching with Paris done to Christan faith, there will be uproar even revolution! I heard that some decent actors like Mel Gibson and the like are putting together a new Hollywood broadcast to challenge the downright filth of the present.  What we are seeing is just not good to promote a healthy wholesome society. So in that sense, I will agree with what invitation Islam mentioned.

Riddell writes, “ no doubt Hollywood has a significant role in this process of stereotyping through his worldwide distribution of films, including sexually explicit material. However, this does not justify the broad extent of negative stereotyping on the west of the media around the world.” [2]

Everything is a balance, right? Yes I agree that the cultural backdrop of the west does not justify a total negative stereotyping on the West but mostly media around the world however there is definitely valid point, which in contrast Christianity has remained very silent and feeling helplessly in actuality in reality pretty much catapulted to the vast influence of Hollywood.

Riddell writes, “Western phobia refers to entrenched and endemically hostile attitude to the West, and to perceived cultural traits of the West.” He is right to say that this hostility to the West because of the downfall of moral values precisely.

Riddell  writes, “ The phenomenal phobia in capsule in common printed in common sense, the newsletter of Islamic party of Britain: “there’s nothing in western societies… The remotely resembles good behavior. They all walk in Haas, vanity and pump: insulin, arrogant and boastful.”

So I just thought about what Jesus said on exposing them.

Eph 5:8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

Granted Paul was talking about having nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, but rather exposing the deeds of darkness amongst God’s people in the context of Ephesians 5. But if you look into it, it’s not going to be too big to extrapolate that to this world outside the church, although I wouldn’t do it in the exact same format, nevertheless, the principle of doing that remains unchanged. Jesus rebuked Pharisees of their hypocrisy with some strong blatant words:

Matt 23 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

This is definitely something good serious reflection for all Christians today you find that the one is protesting about immoral deeds of a society mostly from the Catholic Church if there’s anything, for example the abortion issues on the public arena, bravo to them, as much as evangelical disagree their doctrines. But we Evangelical have remained pretty quiet sadly. But take it to a step further looking at what Islam has done even though the principle of such is definitely a doctrine issue. We are disagreeing with them on a whole host of things and how God is different from theirs, nevertheless, there’s something to be applauded in the conviction and bold speaking out in the public square, which is sadly much of a silence among the evangelicals, and reformed world.

[1] Peter Riddell, Islam in Context, (Baker academic, Grand rapids, Michigan:2003)  159

[2] Ibid

Choosing the lesser of two evils

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Choosing the lesser of two evils is really an exercise of wisdom in the normative priority, situational priority, and existential priority. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus criticized the teachers of the law and Pharisees as hypocrites, as they gave a tenth of the spices but they neglected the more important matters of the law call mark justice, mercy and faithfulness. So clearly there’s a different level of priority in the duties and the laws of God.

So choosing the lesser of the two evils is a very situational situation. For example Jesus said the Sabbath was made for men, not man for the sabbath so the son of man is the lord even of the sabbath in Mark 2:27-28. Situationally Jesus broke the sabbath to eat in the sight of the Jewish pharisees. And also in Acts 15:20, the Apostolic committee told the gentiles that they should abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the strangled animals and from blood which is not part of the law, but a situational priority.

Now we can apply the comparison contrast for “less than two evils” for example Nazis at the door knocking at the door, “would you hand over the innocent Jews?” You either lie or protect the Jews. It’s a matter of prioritizing seeking the greater good and the higher law. In the same situation in Exodus 1, Frame wrote about the Hebrew wives lied to Pharaoh in order to save Hebrew babies. And God praised the Hebrew midwives for saving the Hebrew babies, but if you look at it, the Hebrew midwives lied which is supposedly a sin. This clearly speaks of the lesser evil of the two, either to lie or kill the babies. Same case for Rahab who lied to the army of Jericho about the two Jewish spies that hid in her artic, because she feared God of Israel. It’s a common sense to know that killing babies is a far greater evil than to lie. If we extend that to the election we get to look at the casting our vote for example, for the lesser of two evils, and coincidentally, we are faced with policy of killing babies by abortion or looking at the character of another candidate some decades ago.

This is a well framed answer, but as a response, how do you ensure this approach is not susceptible to pragmatism or avoid the charge that it selects its ethics on the basis of each person’s situation?

Clearly there are different levels of sin, some sins are worse than the others. (Frame, Doctrines of Life, 225). Westminster larger catechism 151-52 tells us that some sins are worse than others. Jesus also said in Luke 10: 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Luke 12:47–48 (ESV)

47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Therefore we can legitimately argue for the lesser of the two evils and its completely found in scriptures, in fact, both from the Lord Jesus himself.

So this is clearly beyond just the situational perspective. Interestingly, the just concluded presidential election has torn Christianity apart in supporting them. I would argue we should vote for the lesser of the two evils. In terms of policy, one has only good and hardly any evil, and the other is literally overflowing with evils form abortion till 12th week, to transgenderism using tax dollars, and cheating using illegals to bolster their vote, of a level unseen or heard in any country that I know of.

The Supernatural Power & Providence of God

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Church must be built in the supernatural power of God. And I added ‘providence’ of God, that’s reformed redemptive theology, the ‘power’ of God is more Pentecostal or charismatic.  Regardless, whatever tribe you are from, it’s time to see all that God has for us, and indeed church planting growth, evangelism, and personal walk with God, we have to see our lives, and the kingdom of God moving forward in the lens of spiritual warfare, though not all of it, but it has to be pretty much front and center. This is a tremendous faith uplifting passage in facing war of Israel:

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 (ESV)

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’

This is right after the amazing exodus of Israel out of Egypt, through the raging Red Sea, and they were now in the wilderness led by Joshua getting ready to conquer the new land, Jericho. And of course, this is one event, albeit huge climatic one after the Red Sea Miracle, of huge miracle as Jordan River was similarly cut off for 3 million Jews to walk across on dry land like Red Sea. Can we say that for our daily life today? Not exactly, but the principles of facing daily life warfare remain, which I will expound later. But most importantly, I want you to see the words, “. 2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

Facing a larger enemy army than ours

2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

The first thing that hits me is that you see an army larger than your own. Frankly that’s how we feel many times, when we are facing an uphill task, a challenging life story, or trying to live close with the Lord in a very hostile society. Things do come up, and sometimes they do disappoint us, and at times we just feel exasperated looking at this mountain, this larger army. But this is precisely what God told us, when we go to war. This actually sets up the glorious opportunity for God to show forth his glory, as He said, “you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And God said it to give us heads up, its coming, and its larger than our ability. How far we have fallen in our weakness, our struggle thinking we can handle it, and how many times we have failed miserably and disappointed ourselves and others. All we need is God is with us. That’s all. That’s all we need to face however large an army facing us. No matter how strong and evil and powerful our enemy is, we have no fear, because the Lor dour God who brought us out of Egypt the the raging Red Sea, will do it again, and its nothing.

We are living in a spiritual warfare

2 “When you go out to war against your enemies”

It’s not if you go out to war, but rather it’s when you go out to war. For Israel that’s their specific mission to get into their promised land, Israel, but on the way, they are called by God to destroy and annihilate a bunch evil nations that have been bent on idolatry, evils, and godless like even child sacrifice. God uses their journey to destroy the evils. And seriously, on the way, it’s how God trained their hands for war (Psalm 144:1)[1], and emboldened their faith for the bigger work ahead of them. Nothing happens by accident, the fact that you go through some parts of life, that you find uncomfortable, don’t faint, because it’s precisely this moment, God is refining the crucible for purity and beauty.

Psalm 66 For you, God, tested us;
    you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
    and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
    we went through fire and water,
    but you brought us to a place of abundance.

The God that doesn’t show his supernatural power, is not the God that we read from the Bible. Old Testament is absolutely full of the miracles of God, and indeed the New testament are also full of the miracles and signs of God, especially through the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus raised the cripped, raised the dead, walked on water, opened the eyes of the blinds, cleansed the leper….and the list goes on.

The point I am making here is that Christians will live in a diminished worldview and hence experience of the supernatural, if our minds are bound to the traditional thinking of all signs and wonders have ceased, and so have the spiritual gifts. And what is happening is that we have thousands of millions of evangelical Christians walking in a subterrain of sub-supernatural, while we have a pocket of them walking in faith and proclaiming the power of God.

The point here is that we are now living to take the eland as Joshua generation were called by God to take the land. For them is the actual physical land, for us it’s to take and win souls that the Kingdom of God come on earth as its in heaven.  Matt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

No one thinks that God’s kingdom can come without a fight. As Jesus said: Matthew 11:12

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Warfare takes force, spiritual force, not a spiritual weakling. There are truly moments of strong force needed, which in our case, will be our prayers, evangelism, discipleship. Mainly warfare seems to be won on our prayers. That’s why I believe it’s good to pray 3 times a day, morning, noon, and evening. Muslims pray 5 times; Jews pray 3 times a day. Not to be sucked into legalism, but some structure helps us to focus. Jesus frequently withdrew to quiet places to pray especially in the morning. To move into the realm of supernatural, it will require a humbled soul, and soul that hungers and thirsts for the move of God. Paul prayed unceasingly for the churches. Paul is not only mighty in deeds, signs, supernatural, but primarily his prayers go deep. Jesus obviously prayed with loud cries of tears even to the Father, frequently, what a solace full type of life. Such dedication produces the powerful breed of the supernatural. Jesus in fact, fasted 30 days before tempted and tested by Satan, and then, only then, launched into the public ministry. If Jesus needed that, what more to say about us mortal feeble beings on earth following Christ?

To bring to our modernity, scriptures clearly say we are in a spiritual warfare, and we need to move in the supernatural. And that’s half of the book, the power of the Spirit, the charismatics gifts and the reformed teachings.

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

We should not go crazy in signs and wonders, admittedly, the apostolic signs and wonders and of course Jesus’s miracles, are not replicable in our days and age, although Jesus did say:

The Expectations and faith to move in the supernatural

John 14:12–14

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Burge commentary writes, “It is of utmost importance to note that the astonishing promise of 14:12 points to the future. Jesus must first go to the Father before the promise of remarkable works and realized prayer can come.” [2]

That means after Jesus been to the Father, we will see the promise of the remarkable and realized prayer come to pass.

Burge writes, “Note that the promise of 14:12 does not simply point to miracles. What Jesus has been doing includes deeds of humility, service, and love as well as miraculous signs. Jesus’ followers will do works that are “greater” even than these.” [3]

The “greater works” here not only means miracles, but also service, humility, love on top of miracles. This is a ‘wow’!

Burge writes, “This promise can hardly mean that the efforts of disciples will exceed those of Jesus, who, for instance, provided the stupendous miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. What is “greater” is that these works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. This is why the departure of Jesus is crucial, for only through that can the Holy Spirit become a reality to all who follow him (7:37–39).” [4]

These works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. How much and how depends on his calling and our seeking Him. The point is, it is there: we should seek him and ask.  Matthew 7:7–8 (ESV) 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

John 7:37–39 (ESV)

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[1] Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

[2] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (pp. 393–394). Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.

[4] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.

Chasing after the Promise of Christ in Acts:   the power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us

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Acts 1:8 (ESV)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

I think the number one obstacle for Christian Church growth, expansion and advancement of the kingdom of God, is the lack of the excitement for evangelism in our churches today. And that results in a number of undesirable consequences: 1) No motivation for evangelism, 2) Nobody is even talking about Church growth or church expansion, 3) Even if anyone desiring to start a new church, he’s probably not looking at evangelism by some other church transfer growth. If it is goal of evangelism, there will be minimal. And that’s a sad state of the church completely different from the book of Acts early church pattern.

The reason for lack of evangelism today is due to a number of factors. First, it’s the fear of rejection. Somehow today it’s just not conducive for talking about God, and with the enlightenment and the secularized culture so strong in anti-God And the antichrist forces at work, we can’t even mention God or discussion of God in our corporate workplace, etc. There is just not a sense of excitement and openness for the gospel in our daily lives today in most places, especially in the city where we live, case in point, New York City. That openness and hunger is seriously lacking, and that really handicaps our effort for evangelism. If church growth or expansion is by transfer growth from other churches, and not primarily from conversion and salvation of unbeliever’s background or atheist or secular or backslidden Christian background, there is really no net growth of the kingdom of God and that is very alien to the call of God in Christ. Jesus Christ called us to make disciples of all nations. It does not mean to make disciple and re-disciple those who are already disciples.

There’ s a dying need to discover something, the potency and the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised us in Acts 1:8 that you shall receive power from on high.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We need to honestly question ourselves why we are not experiencing the power that Christ promised us before he ascended back to heaven, and sent his Holy Spirit to us. And you can see that the promise of receiving the power comes when the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and we see the purpose of the power is to be witnesses for Jesus in Judea, Samara, New York City, and all over the world. The fact that majority of us Christians and churches are struggling to reap the harvest of souls does make us wonder what happened to that promise. Or what happened to us? Many of us have given up and just gone on a non-power mode of living day by day. And that makes fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of all nations incredibly challenging, if not downright impossible. And because Jesus said, unless the “Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain”, that adds more to the futility, and also frustration and a sense of helplessness.

Frankly, that explains the state of the church today in America and many parts of the world. The only thing that brings in new growth, sort of triggering into the church is more for people invited to come to church through friendship, persuasion, through prayer and nothing straight through evangelism and reap in the harvest like what we see in the book of Acts by Paul. That’s why I am very intrigued and interested to analyze the life ministry of Paul in the book of Acts and to glean how God worked through him and pray that God will do likewise through us today.

(to be continued…)

How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day?

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How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day? How could the WCF’s teaching on the Lord’s Day be applied to your life, or the lives of those in your church to help in seeing the beauty of the Sabbath?

I will admit that it is a challenging and difficult process to take delight in the Lord’s day in the sense of what Westminster confession talking about keeping the Sabbath holy unto God By making preparation of our heart and ordering our common affairs beforehand, and observe a holy rest all the day from our works, words, thoughts and our worldly employments and recreations. But also, to be taken up the whole time in the public and private exercise of his worship in the duties of necessity and mercy.

This is a very strong dedication and setting aside the Lord’s day as a Sabbath day holy unto God that require essentially almost a complete holy rest from all our works so as to be taken up in worship on the Lord’s day. This practically is almost impossible because of the heavy schedule of bi-vocational seminary student and a full-time job so as to catch up all the assignments and paper and preparation on the weekend is crucial just to barely stay on top of it.

I would say Isaiah 58:13-14 helps me a lot in the perspective in terms of the word “delight”. Isaiah writes that if we turn back our foot from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure on God’s holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if we honor it, not going our own ways or seeking our own pleasures then we will take delight in the Lord, then God will make us ride on the heights of the earth.

To me this is insanely motivating and powerful to make us ride on the height of the earth just by putting pleasure on God’s Sabbath as a day of the Lord. I see this as God wanting our heart for a day that He sets apart every week instead of taking our own ways, this surely bring much pleasure to the heart of God. It’s like my way of God’s ways and if I submit to God’s way on the day of holiness called Sabbath day, He promised that we will take delight in him. I think it is more than just honoring the Sabbath day, makes us delight in the Lord, but it is the process of setting our time for God weekly is in in itself taking delight in God!

I believe we will grow overtime in it. Now the question of how we do that practically on the Lord’s Day i.e. Sunday is that I quite agree with Dr Duncan’s lecture saying that a great way of spending Sabbath day is have two worship services on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, that pretty much fill up and dedicate the day of the Lord and keep it holy to the Lord.

I look forward to writing on the height of the earth in the Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 58:13–14 (ESV)

13    “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

       and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

       if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

14    then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

       I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

How to explain and actually use “Election & Predestination” in our thinkings and ministry

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Some have argued that the topics of election and predestination should be avoided in preaching due to their complex and difficult nature, and even that they are a hindrance to evangelism. Do you agree or disagree? Provide rationale for your position.

I would say that it is not easy to talk about election and predestination in our evangelism correct, however there are some phenomenal truths that can be very appealing to the non-believers in evangelism. For instance God from all eternity by His most wise and holy council of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass and yet he is not the author of saying, and also he does not violate the free will of the creatures, neither is the liberty and contingency of secondary courses being taken away but rather established. That to me is a very appealing voice of the attribute and the character of God. Because he’s totally in charge in control and yet he gives us the free will to respond he doesn’t control his creation robotically. And also the liberty or contingency of the secondary causes are not taken away but rather established. That means what we do matter and we are not going towards fatalism.

JI Packer also expounded that the whole Bible is the outworking of God’s sovereign purpose for his world, the purpose that led him to create, the sin that disrupted, and his work of redemption is currently restoring. I think that’s a really appealing message that in this broken world which non believers will acknowledge, to know that God is currently restoring the world, it is a real message of comfort and encouragement and relevance of God. And the purpose of all this restoration is the endless expression and enjoyment of love between God and his rational creatures- love shown in their worship, praise, thanks, honor, glory, and service given to him, ending the fellowship, privileges, jaws, and gifts they give to them. Bible tells us that what God has done to advance God’s redemptive plan for sin damaged planet earth, and they look ahead to the day of its completion, when planet earth will be recreated in unimaginable glory. They proclaim God as the almighty creator Redeemer and do all constantly of the multifaceted works of grace that God performs in history to secure for himself a people, a great company of individuals together, with whom his original purpose of giving and receiving love can be fulfilled. God has shown himself absolutely in control in bringing his plan to the point and working out everything according to his own will and completing his redemptive project.

Considering the area of pastoral care alongside of preaching/evangelism (you hint at an answer, but aim it toward this question): How might you discuss election & predestination with someone faithfully attending your church, who did not grow up in a Reformed church, but who wants to talk to you about how they believe “election and predestination don’t have any practical use,” instead, they say: “these doctrines just seem to make people complacent in their faith”?

Topics of election and predestination should be avoided in preaching due to their complex and difficult nature?

I would say that while election and predestination is highly mysterious, and we cannot deny it as its plainly written in the Bible. And WCF has really articulated it beautifully, though, hard to swallow sometimes, because, the reality is its still hard to understand fully, but we have to remember that we are his creature, and He is God. And He reserves the right to mystery that He hasn’t revealed, and He has the perfect right to reveal what He chooses to His creatures, as in: Deuteronomy 29: 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

An important point is that God doesn’t violate our free will. WCF: “God does not violate the free will of the creatures, neither is the liberty and contingency of secondary courses being taken away but rather established.”

That settled, I would then focus on the restoration of this broken world, as JI Packer puts it, “The whole Bible is the outworking of God’s sovereign purpose for his world, the purpose that led him to create, the sin that disrupted, and his work of redemption is currently restoring.”

God’s sovereign purpose and work now is the work of redemption that’s currently restoring what’s been destroyed by sin, and it’s that restoration, we believers in Christ, we are honored and called, to take part in. And it’s the highest calling for all of us all.

God’s covenant with us enables us to experience Christ’s salvation for us

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First of all the distance between God and humans is so great that we can never have any fruition of him as our blessedness and reward except by God’s condescension upon us, which he has expressed by way of covenant. So, God has chosen to relate with us and to reveal himself to us through a covenantal way like the Abrahamic covenant, Mosaic covenant, and eventually the new covenant by the son of God our Lord Jesus Christ himself. All these covenants are in fact the covenant of grace not of law. So, covenant is the means whereby we enjoy God as our blessedness and reward. Therefore, our justification and sanctification in life completely depends on the revelation and the relationship of God with us through the covenant which is the only means we can enjoy his blessings and reward.

Our justification is completely dependent on Christ’s fulfillment of the covenant works which is the first covenant God made with man whereby life was promised to Adam, and in him his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. That covenant of works points to the terms of conditions on which the blessings of the covenant continues. Man by his fall has made himself incapable of life by that covenant of works, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; Whereby he freely offered unto sinners life in salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring them of faith in him, that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those who are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe. Now this is a huge promise because fallen man like all of us will not be able to be willing to believe in Christ if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, those of us who are the elect. In the covenant of grace, there is blessing despite disobedience. The covenant of grace conditions are fulfilled by Jesus on our behalf. Our faith is required of us in the covenant of grace but it is not the basis of salvation. It is merely the means to receive the blessing which Jesus has obtained on our behalf. Therefore our obedience is tied up with Christ’s fulfillment of the conditions.

The only way we can go on in our lives sanctified is by and through the mediator of our Lord Jesus Christ to stay in grace. Like Westminster says we are brought into this covenant by grace and stay in it by our mediator our Lord Jesus Christ. Our ongoing sanctification depends on our obedience to Christ. Our obedience can only follow from the active and passive obedience of Christ because Christ fulfilled the conditions of the covenant of works, our salvation is by grace alone and by faith alone in Christ who has obeyed perfectly the covenant of works on our behalf.

This is hugely encouraging to folks in church to understand that it is not by our effort to continue to be sanctified and walking with Christ but it is rather Christ has already won the battle on the cross by his perfect obedience, and that we are drinking in that benefit and walking in him by the Holy Spirit, commonly called abiding in Christ. And then we are justified by Christ because he fulfilled all the conditions of the works of covenant which our forefather Adam failed. And now we can continue to be sanctified because of his complete obedience that our obedience is tied up with Christ fulfillment of the conditions and because he has fulfilled it, we can be overcomers in our Christian walk with God.

My cultural conditioning and cultural context in church planting

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

I come from a culture in church upbringing of charismatic evangelical church background, and later in involved in planting churches. From the childhood days, I grew up in a Methodist church background with my mom. I would say the charismatic worship in churches have impacted me a lot since university days.

My wife and I have sensed the call of God in planting church and pastoring. It has been a real joy and challenging in the midst of it.  It is without any shadow of doubt it is the Lord who directed our path as a family in doing rather radical things. We are from an international church planting movement, and we have planted churches back in Malaysia, and then God called us to come over here in the US to continue the ministry as a bi-vocational ministry , very much like what’s called tent-making ministry of Paul in the NT. We have seen churches successfully planted and pastored, however the latest one in Manhattan has stalled. So with that background, I have struggled to understand the culture here in New York, and also what I should be doing.  Saying all these we with our children had moved from Malaysian culture to Californian culture, and just over 10 years ago, to the New York culture, it has to be the Lord who strengthens us and been our hope.

In trying to reach out to New Yorkers, it really depends on which part of the city you live in. The city is notoriously expensive, and for any church planting, finance is of the utmost in one’s head immediately. From what I see, most church planters raise funds, forgo their own vocation professional jobs, and heavily depend on the more lucrative income from their wives., without which it is undoable for the cost of living.  I will list down some of the major cultural adjustment contextualization.

The Culture of Bi-Vocational Ministry

That’s my background and working as an engineer and doing weekend pastoring. Coming to do that in NYC, I can see why church planters flopped. First, it is such a vast city, the transportation commute just takes too long to do any ministry, and hence Keller in City to City has emphasized the need of cultural immersion, i.e. living in the neighborhood where you want to plant. And that’s also in full time capacity, and I see that that’s beyond my reach, just because we are not financially able to do that also considering the school factors for children. So we ended in Long Island to pastor a weekend church in Manhattan, it has been not the most effective. I struggled in this church plant model. I think if we live among the people neighborhood, even with just mainly a weekend ministry, it would have been much more doable. The cultural be with your people is so very important.

Theological & Philosophical Understanding & Equipping

This has been a real joy in worshipping the Lord in the house of God and sustained me a lot in facing setbacks, struggles with ministry, work, relationship etc. It’s the source of encouragement and strength in worshipping that I would never forget.  In the midst of struggling , I have to say the church planting culture that my church movement sent me, is not in line with the style in New York, because you need finance and group support for launching a church, which I have neither. So I was kind of parachuted into Manhattan, and living far away in Long Island, making that church plant incredibly challenging. That’s a huge cultural shock for me, although we had some college students who came and started our church together, but the theology and philosophy of church plant was largely absent from my mind in the American context.

But I would say the lack of theological understanding especially the sovereignty of God in reformed tradition and to be able to see and preach the redemptive narrative of God in Christ are the two most important transformations I received since coming to New York and having met Tim Keller whose sermons are full of these two. After listening to many of his sermon for years, I began to see why it’s so attractive and compelling for people to come to church.

First the divine sovereignty of God

This subject is not something I have ever heard or learnt from my cultural background. My background belongs to the Arminianism theology, with a passion to spread the love of God in Christ and making disciples. And pastors, almost all, do not have formal education training in seminary schools. It’s all about your calling and in trusting God, to plough the land for sowing the seed of the gospel and nurture a church.

Since coming to NYC, I heard enough of Keller’s sermons that I sensed that aspect of who God is missing with me. To see God as sovereign brings a lot of fresh air, comfort and edification to my heart, because I being to realize that, even in the time of failure (my church plant failed), and time of waiting, there is a sense of which, I can rest in Him, and wait for his timing and way to launch. That’s what calmed me down, given me rest in Him.  And that’s the divine providence of God out of his goodness and grace. This changed my outlook tremendously, about life, ministry, and families. It’s hard for people not to be hardened and discouraged at times when things are going tough, without the assurance of the sovereignty and divine providence of God. That’s why many blame God when they don’t get what they asked for after long time, without such understanding and hence trust in the almighty God and all wise God.

Second, the entire theological education

From my culture background, theology training is not held high, because its very practical driven theology, and  experiential type. As long as you love the Lord and serve him, you are good to go, regardless of whatever your theological trancing is. While heart condition is number one in all things with God, knowledge of theology is right there  number two, and without the word of God theology, a good heart can only operate on a far diminished form from the richness of the word of God which has great transformation power. I would say therefore this has brought tremendous blessing to my life. It’s also about that time, Tim Keller brought in RTS to New York city, and when I heard that, I was overjoyed and joined the 3rd cohort. It’s an incredible blessing that I could get my theological training in the fold of Tim Keller. I would say that’s really the divine providence of God, and looking back, that’s probably the best thing happened to my life for a long time. To me, that’s really a turning point tin my life and our ministry. And above all, my own relationship with the Lord has taken on a breath-taking wider horizon, simply because I now know Him much better.

Thirdly on the area of worship

I see that my background worship differs quite substantially from reformed worship which is generally the case with most professors and student in RTS, though there are some charismatics, and Baptists etc. I would say, this is a strange culture, and I do see the beauty of singing hymns, as theology is rich, and combining it with the more contemporary songs with hands lifting and expression of celebration is what I look for. Worship is a place of where we meet God corporately on Sundays, and this can be the most beautiful moment that can be and should be built upon. I do know the regulative worship in PCA, and certainly some charismatic worship songs tend to run too shallow theologically, and this is where I, after all my training in school, would be able to discern and adapt what’s best theologically, and worship tune wise. I think my desire and planning is to see a church that combines both styles of worship, Word based centered, and Spirit empowered.

Fourthly the New York culture is really a very busy hectic culture driven by work in an expensive city.

So for us to reach out to them, I love the most from what Keller teaches as in adaptation to the culture (seeing the common grace), and later the confrontation of their culture idols to meet their real needs. To bring in the redemptive messages to show them what they hope for can never be fulfilled by their normal ways unless they come to the God who created us. This is easy said than done, and requires a lot of relationship building etc. As all known too well, work is among the idols

I do see the possible opening of the gospel and that’s through the daily burdens of life.  There is value system in my background that’s totally different from the post Christian America today.  And to meet the New Yorkers, the personal touch of it doesn’t come easy, obviously a lot of community building is required, and this needs manpower and time.  

Fifth is the area of prayer

This is an incredibly important and powerful area form my church culture background. I see there is hardly any organized meetings for prayer. In our backgrounds, we hold prayer meeting once a week, and we poured our hearts to God together and believe God will do the rest. It’s a real uplifting times as we spend time together and humble ourselves before God. People see the hearts of leadership, and that goes a long way. I would love to gather folks together regularly for prayers. Prayer needs to be seen by people and so we can all ray together, instead of just listening to one person praying. The corporate prayers, or break into small groups prayers, has been. So conducive for church growth and touching the people outside.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I thank God for my upbringing culture. To be able to continue to develop the call of God and in the culture, God has put us in, is the most exciting thing and I look forward to what the Lord has for us coming up. I see the charismatic spiritual gift culture that I received will fit in very well, if operated like 1 Cor 13, coupled with good God centered expositional messages, I foresee a great future reaching the folks right in New York city or anywhere else.  The strength from my cultural background has propelled me and family gone that far with God in this land, however, it will take the next move of God to see the Spirit of God working .

Myth Becomes Fact: A critical analysis on God in the Dock by CS Lewis

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Introduction

CS Lewis believed that myths, despite originating from various cultures and religions, often contain elements of truth and longing that resonate with humanities innate spiritual yearnings. He saw myth as a natural language through which deep root spiritual realities could be communicated. Lewis draws upon with the logical motif and narrative to illustrate and reinforce Christian concepts and themes. For example, in the Chronicles of Narnia, he uses the mythical realm of Chronicles of Narnia to explore fundamental Christian ideas such as redemption, sacrificial love, and the battle between good and evil. By weaving Christian themes into familiar mythic landscapes, Lewis invites readers to engage with profound truths in a captivating and relatable way.

Myth, Imagination & Supernatural & Aesthetic Experience

In that essay, Lewis analyzed two types of faith viz, the intellectual faith, and the religious or faith or trust in God which experiences the numinous (supernatural). He equates that the intellectual faith is the precondition for numinous faith. He calls it the feelings aroused by numinous is awe, very much like the awe of God in the OT.[1]

He finds the seed of religious experience in our experience of the numinous. In our age like our own such experience does occur and but, until religion comes and retrospectively transforms it, it usually appears to the subject to be a special form of aesthetic experience. [2]

By that he means if we don’t have religion in our life, what’s really the works of the transcendent God would simply be labelled as something beautiful without God. He argues that faith does not come from the experience of the philosophical arguments alone, numinous experience alone, but from historical events that transcends the moral category, which demand their presupposition the existence of God.

The Apologetic Value of Myth

CS Lewis writes, “Taking the point in particular the old myth of the dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history and happened on a particular date, particular place, and definable historical consequence. We passed from history to a historical person crucified by Pontius Pilot, so that myth became fact.” [3] 

All that’s like the transcendent God coming down to earth, is just to too good to be true, and yet it is really myth became fact. And if that happened, that will energize the whole base of humanity to move closer to knowing and experiencing transcendent God. It’s also part of the curiosity and inquisitiveness of human nature to be drawn with something fascinating, something beyond us.

I think the beauty and power of mythical thinking in apologetics is to open and provide a way for us to connect to the mysterious and mythical element of the transcendent God. Too often, case in point, Easter just becomes a commercial social celebration gathering with Easter bunnies etcetera because people lost touch with the mythical and the mysterious aspect of the dying God on the cross. We must communicate that to the unbelievers in the world so that they can appreciate Good Friday and Easter that it is not just a ceremonial process in the good old Christian customs but rather it is part of the greatest mystery and myth of Christianity that a God-Man was crucified in time and space. This is not only good for apologetics for non-believers but this is hugely beneficial and essential for Christian flourishing too.

Wonder & Delight because of the mythical radiance from God

We are also telling unbelievers and the Christians that if and when they choose to believe in Christ, they need to understand that it is not a mere assent to the intellectual story of Christ death on the cross, but it is essential to embrace the mythical and mysterious aspect of such crucifixion of a God man. To be convinced the supernatural that is that even possible naturally.

The mythical aspect of the gospel as Lewis puts it, “claims not only our love and our obedience but also our wonder and delight because of the mythical radiance resting on theology as God chooses to be mythopoeic and myth pathetic, therefore we want to respond in light manner.” [4]

And that is to respond not only with obedience and with love but also with the wonder and delight. So the apologetics to the non-believers and even believers is the aspect of wonder and delight in the God who speaks to us in such intensity and passion.

Christianity likened to modern English Monarch with the form, but the reality abandoned

CS Lewis writes on his friend, “ Corineus advanced that…Modern Christianity basically just believes a modern system of thought which retains the vocabulary of Christianity and exploits the emotions inherited from it while quietly dropping its essential doctrines. He compared modern Christianity with the modern English monarch, the forms of kingship have been retained, but the reality has been abandoned. [5]

This is conceivably the saddest that has happened and is happening in reality in our culture in our days today and for millennia. That’s because people adopted the tradition of Christianity the forms and the shapes and all this but abandoned the orthodoxy the essential doctrines. And this is all happening towards churches that have gone liberal jettisoned core doctrines of the holy scripture that in inerrant word of God. That becomes an inherent problem why many unbelievers are confused because they don’t see any real difference between the church and the world. 

Lewis’s friend is contending that why would educate it enlighten pseudo-Christians insist on expressing their deepest thoughts in items of the arcade mythology which must hamper and embarrass them at every turn? [6]

What he’s called is mythology are the so-called historical essential doctrines of the church from the Bible come if you call them as such, you have not read the bible. And these Christians they are absolutely precious and the fundamental core of the entire Christianity let alone cutting them off. I take it that people feel the historical essential doctrines of the Bible are outdated somehow and they want to jump on the modern or postmodernism bandwagon, but that’s exactly and Antichrist book as described in the Bible.

The scariest thing and upsetting thing is what CS Lewis called the “clergyman becoming intellectual prostitutes or preach for pay”- and thereby created what he called as the darkening of conscience among thousands of men. [7]

The biggest problem what I see from the here is that the misconception of the modernity calling historical orthodoxy doctrines of the word of God as myths. I get that more souls removed from the historical orthodoxy in church and with the postmodernism and modernism pounding on our philosophy and the culture on a daily basis, it won’t be hard to imagine that there is a disdain from the culture towards anything historical orthodoxy push appears to be binding to them. So Lewis sort of rides along with them taking on what they call as myth and expound what is really important on ‘myths’, those doctrines.

To combat that criticism of Christianity holding on to the old historical doctrines, Lewis warned of dropping to a darkening of conscience of men and women who don’t know real Christianity anymore.

He, therefore, in a very radical way, creatively asked the question, “If they want to cut off from this what is called vestigial mythology, would not be would it be,  “Much easier for the mother of invalid child if she put it into an institution and adopt someone else healthy baby instead. Life would be far easier to many a man if he abandoned the woman he has actually fall in love with and marry someone else because she’s more suitable.[8]

So if the nonbelieving world think that our Christian orthodoxy doctrines are like myth, Lewis argues, “Even assuming (which I almost certainly deny) the doctrines of historic Christianity are nearly mythical, it is the myth which is the vital and nourishing element in the whole concern. ” So Lewis arguing that his friend once us to move with the times, very much like today. society wants us to move with the time and not wanting to stay with historical orthodoxy of Bible. Lewis right the time actually move away. But in religion, we find something that does not move away. It is the myth that abide, it is what he caused the modern and living thought that moves away. I think that is absolutely correct to say that I will modern thoughts and modernity and philosophy keeps moving and changing and moving. The only thing that is absolute is the historical orthodoxy word of God. For example he quoted the pagan revival of Julian apostate, the Nix, the monism of Aus, the deem of, the dogmatic materialism of the great vans. They have all moved with the times. And the thing that were all attacking remains. The myth has outlived the thoughts of all its defenders and all its adversaries. It is the myth that gives life. This apologetics is powerful because Lewis is arguing that the very thing that modernity all the idioms and religions they have been attacking Christianity orthodoxy scripture all moving, they all moved along with times. In other words, position on religion and believe kit, moving there is no certainty or concreteness about it. In comparison, it is the religion, so-called myth of the historical orthodox doctrines they stay and never change very much like the Lord God never changes. The meet is outlived of thoughts of its defenders and all its adversaries. It’s the myth that gives life.

Lewis talked about we are not knowing the abstract meaning at all, but tasting it. But We were testing turns out to be universal principal. The moment we state this principle, we are admittedly back in the world of abstraction. It is only wow receiving the myth as a story that you experience the principal concrete.


So he is saying that the idea of me as an abstraction as an abstraction, and it is only when we take the myth as a story that we can experience the principal concrete. Another words, the so-called myth of Christianity must be received as a story so that we can experience the principle of the story concrete.

He wrote that myth consents thought, incarnation transcend Smith. The heart of Christianity is a myth, which is also a fact. The all myth of the dying guard without seizing to be miss, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the Earth of histories. It happens – at a particular date, in a particular place, forward by definable historical consequences. We passed from Boulder, die. Nobody knows when away, to a historical person, crucified, and punished by pilot. By becoming fact, it does not seize to be a myth, that’s the miracle.


So Lewis is arguing that the heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. I would agree that truly Christianity is a myth because to have the God of the universe Hung on the cross and bleeding 2000 years ago for redemption of mankind, does sound very much like a myth to many, who have not believed in the gospel. I love that. He said the myth of the dying guard on the cross does not seize to be myth, and it comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the Earth of history. I definitely agree that it is a mess because, Jesus, came down from heaven of legend and imagination to the Earth of history. He actually happens a particular time and place and a date. To combine as a fact for the crucifixion of the dying guard on the cross is a powerful testimony of the incarnation of God and the suffering of Christ for humanity. Luis calls the crucifixion national seize to be made: that is the miracle. I hundred percent agree that the myth is the miracle.


Lewis wrote that he suspects men have sometimes derived more spiritual sustenance from myths. They do not believe then from the religion, the profession. There is so much truth in it and shame on many, who profess some kind of believe in Christ in the religion of Christianity have been changed in transformed in the lives because there is no personal conviction. It is what is called the Christianity or Christian by name or cultural Christian. It is fascinating for him to write that, actually more spiritual sustenance for Smith, and I think that is relatable because myth is fascinating supernatural thing of people that you don’t even know whether it’s true or not but certainly it sounds pretty profound. So Luis wrote that to be truly sent to historical fact of the dying on the cross, and also receive the, with the same imagination, imaginative embrace which we accord to all myths. For myth and fact merges on the cross.

Myth: a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

The definition of myth. It’s a story of. The early history of people that involves supernatural beings. This is a really important take because. The whole of redemptive narrative of God in Christ Jesus is supernatural and therefore in the eyes of the world, in many ways, it’s a myth. Just to clarify myth has been sort of misconceived commonly that it is something that is not true, but the definition of myth is something supernatural which can be true or. Not true. So when Louise talks about the dying God on the cross does not cease to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history, is a profound statement. He’s able to connect something that is most profound in the world which is the death of the transcendent God on the cross and that is definitely supernatural because the death of God is impossible but that is the death of a human in Christ Jesus who is both God and man. Baloise brilliantly connects the myth nature crucifixion of Christ on the cross 2 an actual event in space and time in history. He’s contrasting the myth legend of boulder die nobody knows when or where, to a historical person crucified under Pontius pilot. That myth became fact on the cross. However that myth does not cease to be myth and that is the miracle. The word miracle is the exact word needed to describe the event because of what happened on the cross it’s nothing less than miraculous and definitely myth became fact. The problem with the very materially wired world today is not able to see the myth the mythical aspect of the cross, but merely seeing the human dying on the cross. Besides frankly even many who believed Christ died on the cross for humans sins and received Christ as believers, have no head much lively spirit spirituality in this earthly world. Louis rightly said a man who disbelieved the Christian story is fact but continually fed on it as Smith would come up perhaps, be more spiritually alive than one who ascended and did not think much about it. The key problem is those Christians or supposedly born again Christians who believed the story of crucifixion but didn’t think much about it, has not brought much transformation to their lives. On the other hand, however, those who did not believe in the Christian crucifixion as fact but just believed it as a myth, Lewis argued, are perhaps more spiritually alive. There’s a real danger of just assent to it as intellectual knowledge but without absorbing and soaking in the mythical aspect of the Christian narrative redemption story.

I would argue that the word myth in in the Christ redemption narrative story it’s really equivalent to supernatural or miracle. It is indeed without a shadow of doubt Christianity without supernatural is a human story devoid of the divinity, taking the two most potent events in Christianity which is the incarnation of God into this world Christmas, and the son of God offered as a sacrifice to redeem mankind on the cross. Both prominent events are profoundly supernatural and hence mythical. So for us to communicate this to the non believers, we have to convey the mythical aspect of the entire redemption story.

Lewis writes, we must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting in our theology. We must not be nervous about parallels and pagan idols: they ought to be there dash you’d be a stumbling block if they weren’t. We must not, enforce spirituality, withhold our imagination welcome. If God chooses to be a mythopoeic dash and is not the sky itself a myth dash shall we refuse to be Mr. pathic? For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: perfect myth and perfect fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also I will wonder and delight, address to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher.

I would agree that God has revealed himself in a very mythical manner or what he called his mythopoeic call mom by us examining the incarnation and crucifixion and resurrection. And the fact that Christianity is so mythical and supernatural, louis is right to say that we must not withhold our imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic and is not the sky itself a myth, shall we refuse to myopathic? So he’s right that we are only paint attention to myth or call myopathic because God chooses to be mythopoeic, by even just looking at the sky itself it’s a mystery and myth, the entire creation of the world it’s in such amazingly profound complexity that beyond any human engineering imagination. Therefore it is actually a myth that became fact. For anyone to approach Christianity without touching the supernatural or the myth it’s not can you to know the real faith and religion in Christ Jesus the transcendent God who created the world.

I love the fact that Lewis brought in the sense of imagination to cross the bridge from what is natural in the material world to the supernatural world which he calls it as myth. I would only critique do is in the sense that he did not bring the word supernatural in his apologetics discourse, although he’s alluding to it big time through the word myth. The entire Bible is a myth in a sense because it is totally supernatural starting from Genesis all the way to Revelations. We can’t even pass the first chapter of Genesis without believing in and acknowledging the supernatural work and power of God as he called out the different creation and speak them into being and create them actually ex-Nihilo. In other words he created everything out of nothing. That is supernatural and therefore isn’t that a myth?

I would argue that bringing mythical imagination into the apologetics of believing in Christ the Son of God the savior of the world, we will enrich and still with the mind of the folks whether they believe in Christ or not. For Christians it will be a challenge and stirring of hearts and challenging them to stretch themselves into the supernatural by faith. There are plenty of Christians today who do not quite believe in the supernatural and the whole aspect of faith has not really been exercised or taught much. So this paper is to help the unbelievers to cross the bridge from the natural to the supernatural. Lewis said that a mere intellectual assent to the doctrine of Christ crucifixion and resurrection will not sufficiently build a complete born again story.

I think it is particularly powerful when Lewis described that the heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact referring specifically to the old myth of the dying God without ceasing to be myth, comes down from heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens at a particular date, particular place ,followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from time, nobody knows when or where, to a historical person crucified under Pontius pilot. To me this is particularly powerful when Lewis described the entire incarnation of the Son of God from the heaven, the legend, in imagination to the earth of history is a supreme myth and that is nothing short of the miracle. And also to see a God the dying God on the cross is another supreme myth that became miracle. The power of myth is so powerful that it transcends even a pure intellectual assent to a religion people professed. Like he said man have sometimes derive more spiritual sustenance from myths they did not believe then from the religion they professed.

That shows how much power is contained in the very sustenance of myth even though they don’t really believe in it, because the very myth contains so much supernaturally charged mystery and power that overwhelms the mere intellectual assent to a religion. And that to me is very powerful in apologetics in driving people to search for the supernatural and not being content with the natural full of intellectual discussion and apologetics. That’s why I believe that intellectual apologetics does not cut it, although I believe the transcendental approach of apologetics by Vantil is in the route of supernatural or myth and that’s why it cuts it as well.

Lewis writes, “It is not reason that is taking away my faith: on the contrary, my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions. The battle is between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on the other”.[9]

Lewis writes, “I start thinking I am going to choke, and I am afraid they will start cutting me up before I am properly under. In other words, I lose my faith in anesthetics. It is not reason that is taking away my faith: on the contrary, my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions. The battle is between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on the other.[10]

Lewis writes, “Christians need to be reminded that what became fact was a myth, that it carries with it into the world of fact all the properties of a myth. God is more than a god, not less; Christ is more than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic- and it’s not the sky itself a myth- shall we refuse to be myopathic? For this is the marriage of heaven and earth; Perfect myth and perfect fact; Claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder in delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher”.

-I think Lewis just made Christianity so much more alive and personal, something not only to be obeyed and followed in obedience, and with love, but indeed with wonder and delight. That’s a huge contribution to humanity understanding of Christianity because no one, even though rejecting Christianity or just being ignorant, will reject delight and wonder in a religion. To deprive Christianity of wonder and delight is to make the God of miracles and love and passion into a stoic idle that doesn’t speak or move.

The Myth of Incarnation, Predestination & Election

“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.” – C.S. Lewis, Miracles, 173.

Lewis calls Incarnation as the “Grand Miracle”. All the miracles in OT prepare for the Grand miracle—Incarnation. Incarnation of God into a human is mind blowing to any sane educated folks, unless you reach into the dimension of faith. There is no way for anyone to understand and hence believe that without being supernaturally touched by the Spirit of God, and what’s called regeneration of our soul/spirit by the Spirit. And that’s why it’s the biggest stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks who seek wisdom (1 Cor 1:22-25). It is something humanly impossible and outrageously scandalous in the minds of all civilizations, and that’s why Jesus took the Roman world, the Jewish nation by storm, when he finally resurrected from death. It is such outlandishly extravagant that, God precisely demonstrated his love and grace beyond even the best poets can conjure up a love story of such magnitude and power. That’s all in the eyes of many unbelievers a myth. And if we can tap into it, and explain with conviction, it will be apologetically powerful. Not only that, when one gets into, he deep reflection of such act of God, there is nothing but just sheer deepening of our souls, and understanding and affection for Christ. And that’s transformative.

God chose Israel not because of something in Israel (Deut 7:6–8), but He refers to his promise to Israel’s ancestor, Abraham. So, we have to go to Abraham:

Genesis 12:1–2  Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

 Why did God choose Abraham? It’s a mystery, and myth. Because no one really understands. I concur what Dr Hoffecker said that God sees something in a man’s heart that we don’t. Like God told Samuel that man looks at the outside, but God looks at the inside. (1 Sam 16:7).

Therefore things that we don’t know, and hence tend to speculate, best left to the transcendent God who knows it all even before the foundation of the earth (Eph 1:4), He has destined us to before saved. Paul wrote that he was chosen and called by the Lord even before he was born (Gal 1:15-17).

So, all these to speak of the mystery of God and an important verse to explain this all is:

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)

29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

We must settle in not knowing and understanding the predestination which is. Major pillar doctrine of Christianity, and that belongs to the category of mystery, and in the sight of artists, unbelievers, they become myth. So, there is enormous untapped power and potential in the mythical thinking and projection like Lewis has so elegantly and powerfully captured them. Of course, there are also many ungodly myths from of old, but that doesn’t cancel the good myths that Christian can take hold of, and develop them to enrich our own spiritual life and also connect with the non-believers mind set apologetically.

Conclusion

I think the apologetic value of myth is tremendous as per CS Lewis, taking the point in particular the old myth of the dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history and happened on a particular date, particular place, and definable historical consequence. We passed from history to a historical person crucified by Pontius Pilot, so that myth became fact. All that like the transcendent God coming down to earth, is just to too good to be true, and yet it is really myth became fact. And if that happened, that would energize the whole base of humanity to move closer to knowing and experiencing transcendent God. It’s also part of the curiosity and inquisitiveness of human nature to be drawn with something fascinating, something beyond us.

I think the beauty and power of mythical thinking in apologetics is to open and provide a way for us to connect to the mysterious and mythical element of the transcendent God. Too often, case in point, Easter just becomes a commercial social celebration gathering with Easter bunnies etcetera because people lost touch with the mythical and the mysterious aspect of the dying God on the cross. We must communicate that to the unbelievers in the world so that they can appreciate Good Friday and Easter that it is not just a ceremonial process in the good old Christian customs but rather it is part of the greatest mystery and myth of Christianity that a God man was crucified in time and space. This is not only good for apologetics for non-believers, but this is hugely beneficial and essential for Christian flourishing too.

We are also telling unbelievers and the Christians that if and when they choose to believe in Christ, they need to understand that it is not a mere assent to the intellectual story of Christ death on the cross, but it is essential to embrace the mythical and mysterious aspect of such crucifixion of a God man. To be convinced the supernatural that is that even possible naturally.

The mythical aspect of the gospel as Lewis puts it, claims not only our love and our obedience but also our wonder and delight because of the mythical radiance resting on theology as God chooses to be mythopoeic and myth pathetic, therefore we want to respond in light manner. And that is to respond not only with obedience and with love but also with the wonder and delight. So, the apologetics to the non-believers and even believers is the aspect of wonder and delight in the God who speaks to us in such intensity and passion.

[1] CS Lewis, Is Theism Important? –God in the Dock, ( Zondervan:     ) 187

[2] Ibid, 187

[3] CS Lewis, God in the Dock (Zondervan:    )

[4] Ibid

[5] CS Lewis, God in the Dock, (Wm. B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids) 54

[6] Ibid, 54

[7] Ibid, 54

[8] Ibid, 55

[9] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, (Harper Collins: New York, 2001) 138

[10] Ibid, 140

“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact.”

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Lewis writes, “Myth transcends thought, incarnation transcends myth. The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens- at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by a definable historical consequence. We passed from history to our historical person crucified under Pontius Pilot. By becoming fact, it does not cease to be myth; That’s a miracle. I suspect the men have sometimes derived more spiritual sustenance from myths they did not believe then from the religion they’re professed”. That’s a huge insight to the call not to stop at Easter resurrection, but truly dwell on the mystery of a resurrected Christ bodily, I see Lewis’s exhortation of dwelling in the myth of Christ must be grasped by Christians today to be able to truly walking in the Spirit.

Lewis writes, “ A man who disbelieved the Christian story is fact but continually fed on it as myth would, perhaps, be more spiritually alive than one who assented” and did not think much about it”. There is so much truth to that because there are many people who just intellectually assented to the story of salvation and even believed in it but did not think much about it and which means it never changes their lives much at all. Compared to a person who disbelieve the Christian story but believe in the myth that came with it is, definitely potentially more spiritually alive person in a spiritual sense.

Lewis rightly says that those who do not know this great myth became fact when the virgin conceived or, indeed, to be pitied. I think America today is awash with people who don’t believe in the myth of Christianity but merely assented to it intellectually on a superficial level and that’s why we have this Easter bunnies overwhelming the resurrection of Christ. To the point that even White House refused any religious themes to Easter celebration this year.

Lewis writes, “Christians need to be reminded that what became fact was a myth, that it carries with it into the world of fact all the properties of a myth. God is more than a god, not less; Christ is more than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic- and it’s not the sky itself a myth- shall we refuse to be myopathic? For this is the marriage of heaven and earth; Perfect myth and perfect fact; Claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder in delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher”.—I think Lewis just make Christianity so much more alive and personal, something not only to be obeyed and followed in obedience, and with love, but indeed with wonder and delight. That’s a huge contribution to humanity understanding of Christianity because no one, even though rejecting Christianity or just being ignorant, will reject delight and wonder in a religion. To deprive Christianity of wonder and delight is to make the God of miracles and love and passion into a stoic idle that doesn’t speak or move.

(Lewis, God in Dock, “Myth Became Fact.”)