Jehovah Witnesses and Colossians 1:15

A friend of mine once posed this question to me: Jehovah Witness's refer to Colossians 1:15 where it says that Jesus is "the firstborn over all creation" to show that Jesus is not God, but rather a created being. What's up with this passage? How can we show that Jesus is not a created being, and show that he's really God? Why should we care about this in the first place?

It was a good question, one that had me stumped for a while. But here is what I came up with, and I hope it can help you if faced with the same verse.

To start, let's take a look at Colossians 1:15 "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." If we look at that verse in passing we might get the idea that yes, Jesus is less than God with the word "firstborn" alluding to his creation.

But really if you take the verse apart its quite clear that He isn't. Firstborn is in no way first-"created". By just looking at the wording, "over all", we can see that he's the firstborn *over* Creation. Ancient Near East culture had the firstborn as a status not necessarily a birth order; thus Jesus would be the preeminent being over Creation which is certainly not counter-Biblical.

Scripture that shows Jesus is God:

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The "Word" being Jesus.

John 17:5 says: "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." Which clearly shows us that Jesus existed before Creation.

Why should this matter? Because if Jesus is in some way less than God, or even a created being; then he is quite plainly not God. If He wasn't God then He wasn't perfect (All have fallen short of God's glory) and if He wasn't perfect than His sacrifice was worthless. So yeah, its pretty important for us that Jesus is God :)

LAJ Pt. 3: Judge not lest ye be judged.

“Judge not, that you be not judged.” It is perhaps the most commonly quoted verse in the Bible. Found in Matthew 7:1 the verse addresses what is a common problem: hypocrisy and legalism. But one thing it certainly does not do is prohibit judging.

Judging has been given a bad name. It's become a four letter word. The word has become more offensive with the rise of the secular belief that “your truth is ok for you, my truth is ok for me.” The only way one can judge someone is if they have a set of morals and if everyone has different standards than no one has the ability to judge anyone else. But there just so happens to be a standard, and that standard is the Bible. A Christians morals will reflect that of God's perfect word.

Which brings me to my main focus: a Christian's judging of another Christian.

Before we move further, I would like to define judging. Some say it is condemning which in a way is true. The Greek word krino implies that someone who judges is putting themselves in the place of God. This is why Matthew 7 is so important, we cannot be hypocritical or condemning of our brother lest we put ourselves in the position of God. That should not be the focus of our judging. In fact when it comes to correcting another Christian the Bible never says we should judge them but instead we should rebuke and exhort them to do right(2 Tim. 2:4). So we should always be focused on correcting our brothers for their own good, not for our the sake of judgment.

Now how does the Bible suggest we deal with a brother who has done wrong? In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus tells us: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. “

But there are cases where a Christian sins against more than his brother. If a brother teaches or does something wrong that affects other Christians than it is our responsibility to correct him with the offended parties present. Perhaps this seems contrary to the verse in Matthew, but it is not: in Galatians 2 Paul openly rebukes Peter in front of the entire congregation for Peter's hypocritical actions. It was not quiet and behind doors because the offense was affecting the whole church at Antioch.

So in conclusion, no we should not hypocriticallly condemn our Christian brothers. However, we have a right and responsibility to show them when they've gone wrong. We need to remember that when we do show them that it is in love and teaching and not judgment and disdain. After all we're just as capable of making mistakes as anyone.

On top of all this we need to be open to rebuke. If a brother shows us that we are at wrong we should be open to his correction and willing to humble ourselves and change. We should not be quick to judge when we cannot take correction ourselves.

Update from Zach.

I hate how long it takes me to make a new post sometimes. My absence has been mostly related to the mad dash to finish my sophomore year. It's been quite the journey and the ending is doing a good job of summing it all up: Challenging and lengthy.

I've not been totally neglecting this blog, however. The Bible has alot to say about judging. In fact, the main reason I haven't posted the third installment is because I don't have all of the answers on the topic yet. Originally I thought we should correct a brother privately (Matthew 18:15-16), but I've recently found that this may not apply to all situations.

It's a fascinating topic really, and I hope my third installment will help get you thinking!

LAJ Pt. 2.: "Being apathetic is a pathetic way to be.."

My paper on C.S. Lewis turned out wonderfully by the way. It was done about an hour after writing my last blog. You may be wondering why I haven't written since then, well, it is because I took to heart what I wrote and caught up on a mountain of schoolwork that I had left undone. It truly was fulfilling. But let's move on to the second part of our series on Laziness, Apathy, and Judging.

When Christianity was in its early stages, Satan attacked the church with persecution of the believers. However, that only strengthened Christian resolve instead of destroying it. As it failed he switched gears to perversion. Solid doctrine was replaced for money-grabbing scams. The church became more focused on power and money than on defending the faith. Again this ultimately failed in the 16th century and Christianity not only survived again but was made stronger. But he wasn't done yet. Through the 20th and 21st century he has returned with a new weapon: Passivity. Although Christian morals are being attacked more than ever Christians simply don't care or don't want to put the work into doing anything.

This is the problem with the Christian church today. We've been told to sit down and shut up and we have. Christians are now supporting such secular and sinful things as evolution and homosexuality. We've been told that these things are normal and "factual" and we've bought it. Instead of standing up for ourselves and the Bible we have either switched the Bible to line up with them or ignored the Bible altogether.

83% of Americans call themselves Christians. With all the sin and corruption in our culture, this is a sickening stat. Either these people are lying or are truly that apathetic.

When Jesus came upon the Temple and saw that it had been turned into a place of business, he was righteously angry and kicked the wrongdoers out. When something corrupts the word of God than we need to stand against it.

Perhaps the strongest call against apathy comes from Ephesians 6:10-18:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Our armor is for a fight and we need to be ready for battle against evil. We prepare by studying the Bible and delving deep into prayer. We need to fight by standing up against things that are opposed to God and the Bible.

Don't lose faith! This is a fight we can win as we have the strongest warrior ever on our side: Jesus.

LAJ Pt. 1: Being Lewis'd is not an excuse.

Perhaps I owe you all an explanation. My last post was on March 14th, and before that I'd posted a new blog every weekend. Why the change? Well I got “Lewis'd”. “Lies!” you say, “That was almost three weeks ago!” Indeed it was. And a 500 word paper has no business taking three weeks to write. My second blog post was over 500 words and I wrote that in two hours. So what gives? The simple answer: Laziness and procrastination.

Its actually the perfect segue for this post about laziness and the first part in my new series about Laziness, Apathy and Judging (LAJ, for short). Interestingly they're all tightly connected and provide important lessons for all of us.

Laziness is something we've all exhibited and is something we've become very apathetic about. I'm sure we've all heard a thing or two about being lazy and then have gone home only to repeat our error almost immediately. The problem with laziness is that its so pervasive, affecting very important and even the subtlest areas of our lives. One day someone may skip brushing their teeth and wind up with a cavity, another someone skips considering salvation and winds up in hell. It's also cumulative. One day we stop watering our garden and the plants die. We then leave the dead plants and weeds take their place. By now its become an eye sore that will take a lot of work to bring back to its former beauty. (2 Thess. 3:11 is another example of this)

The odd thing is that our laziness almost always brings out twice the work that it would have taken to do the original task. Its really a pointless practice, but we continue to do it because of an underlying aversion to work.

Proverbs 10:4 says, “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” Chapter 13 concurs with “The sluggard craves and gets nothing but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied”.

Looking at those two verses we see a basic principle: If we don't work we gain nothing, if we do work we are bless with reward. As Christians the best example of laziness we can find is our personal walk with the Lord. It is built mainly though prayer and studying of the Bible. But are we in our Bible or praying as much as we should or could? I know that I am not.

We need to be able to eat spiritual “meat” as the writer of hebrews talks about in chapter 5 verses 11-14:

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Luke 12 tells us that Jesus expects us to be alert and prepared when he returns. We should be diligently following His words and prepared for His return, and we cannot do that when we are lazily falling in and out of sin. Our apathy has blinded us from the importance of diligence.

And with that, I have a Lewis paper to write! Hehe..

Plea from the Past- Joe Loconte

I'm in the middle of a long research paper about the life and writing style of C.S. Lewis. I've always known him to be a good Christian author, but the more I read the more I see how truly impressive he was. I suggest looking into some of his work, you won't be disappointed.

Why am I talking about Lewis? Because that paper is why I didn't have time for an original post this weekend. So instead I leave you with a powerful article by Joe Locente about the problems of being a passive Christian. Its a very revealing article (Plus for those of you with low attention spans, its a short as well). Hopefully I'll be back to regular posts next weekend. But until then...Enjoy:

To get a sense of how far, and for how long, liberal elites have strayed from America's bedrock moral and religious propositions, find a copy of Fortune magazine, circa 1940. An editorial in January of that year—the year of the Nazi Blitzkrieg in Europe—complained of a "declining emphasis on spiritual values."

Yes, the editors of this icon of free-market capitalism lamented a drift away from the transcendent truths that helped bring American democracy into being. Even more remarkable, Fortune's lay prophets directed their anger at the nation's religious leadership. "We are asked to turn to the Church for our enlightenment," they wrote, "but when we do so we find that the voice of the Church today is the echo our own voices."

The issue at hand was the reflexive, militant pacifism of liberal Christianity during the 1930s—at the very moment when political pacifism was emboldening international terrorism and fascist aggression. Contemporary liberals, especially those who claim the moral high ground of the gospel, might recognize their spiritual godfathers in this withering critique of flaccid Christianity.

Fortune's editors took aim at the emotional pendulum swing of church leaders following the Great War. Ministers by the thousands had blessed the conflict as a holy crusade. But the horror of trench warfare, the flawed Treaty of Versailles, the failure of the League of Nations to keep the peace—all of this sent many believers into a psychopathic gloom. A 1931 survey of 20,000 clergymen found that 54 percent would not sanction "any future war or participate as an armed combatant." Nearly half refused to serve as military chaplains. Pacifism became the cherished doctrine of liberal Christianity.

By the late 1930s, the political consequences of this new dogma were disastrous. Ministers rationalized German re-armament, cheered the betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich, downplayed Hitler's vicious anti-Semitism, and claimed that America's hands were too soiled to defend democracy outside its own borders.

The editors at Fortune could see nothing principled in this position—no matter how much it was dressed up in religious language. They took it as evidence of spiritual corruption: "So long as the Church pretends or assumes to preach absolute values but actually preaches relative and secondary values, it will merely hasten this process of disintegration."

It is difficult to read these words and not think of today's religious left and its strident opposition to America's war on radical Islam. Most of their criticisms parrot every half-truth, slander, and mindless slogan from the secular political left. Like the ministers of the 1930s, they obsess over America's shortcomings. They refuse to admit any positive results from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They pretend that Islamic radicalism is a valid political protest movement, a child of U.S. foreign policy, and that it can be mollified through clever diplomacy.

Their posture is epitomized by the Rev. Jim Wallis and Sojourners magazine, which, shortly after the terrorist attack of 9/11, produced a manifesto called "Confessing Christ in a World of Violence." The document, signed by scores of church leaders, rejected the "crude distinctions" being made between Islamic radicalism and Western democracy. Even as human remains were still being recovered from Ground Zero, theologian Stanley Hauerwas saw a t­errible day of reckoning ahead: "I think that when America isn't able to rule the world, that people will exact some very strong judgments against America—and I think we will well deserve it."

These are the voices of the disillusioned. To them, American democracy is a moral ruin. American capitalism is a wretched offense to the ethics of Jesus. And U.S. foreign policy is the most fearsome threat to global peace and security. Pacifism is their policy.

Despite the pious talk of the religious left, their prescriptions depend more on secular values—on a utopian view of human societies—than on biblical values. Like their predecessors, they are on a dead-end street called appeasement. The editors of Fortune offered a way out of this spiritual abyss: "The way out is the sound of a voice, not our own voice, but a voice coming from something not ourselves. . . . It is the earthly task of the pastors to hear this voice, to cause us to hear it, and to tell us what it says. If they cannot hear it, or if they fail to tell us, we, as laymen, are utterly lost."

—Joe Loconte is the editor of The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16483

Jesus and the rich young man. Pt. 3

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

This verse is one of the more misused passages in the Bible. The general interpretation is that Christians need to sell their possessions and give the money to the poor. Some have told me that I shouldn't even buy a car, but instead use a bike and give the excess to missions. My question to them is, how far do we go? Why get a bike when you could walk? Why rent an apartment when you could live in a cave? The line of reasoning behind this "poverty" doctrine is absurd!

Let's look at the verse's context: Jesus had just asked him if he had kept all the commandments. The man replied that he had and asked what else there would be between him and eternal life. We came to find in Pt. 1 that the commandment he was missing was the first: no other gods before the True God.

This is what's important! Our money cannot be our god, just as anything else in our life can't be our god. But with our entire world revolving around riches, money tends to play a big part in our life. When we get a paycheck, we're happy. When we have to pay a fine, we're depressed. It consumes us and it shouldn't.

God gives and God takes away and ultimately- though we think its only 10%- all of our money is provided by God and is therefore His. With this in mind, our focus should not be on our money but on the things that God wants us to do.

If you have a nice car, then praise God for it. If it gets in a wreck then praise God again! He has a better plan and "things" mean nothing.

So in conclusion, being wealthy is not a bad thing, just as long as understand that our true treasures belong in heaven.