Indonesian Christians Executed

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The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has just become informed that the three Christian men facing the death penalty in Indonesia have been executed by firing squad. The men were executed just after midnight on Friday, September 22, 2006, Indonesia time.

“Justice has once again been denied Indonesia’s Christians,” said Jeremy Sewall, ICC Policy Analyst. “I am deeply saddened at this news, and ask all concerned Christians to pray for the families of these men. This is a tragedy. This is not justice.”

After their execution was stayed last month by the Attorney General for Central Sulawesi, Mohammad Yahya Sibe, he was suddenly replaced. He was the one who had to give the order for the executions to proceed. The Chief of Police was also suddenly replaced and sent to another department. The appeal for these men that should have lasted months or even a year to process was denied within weeks.

Tibo, Riwu, and Da Silva, all Christian, were the only men charged in the Poso conflict, even though the conflict started in 1998 and went till 2003. This is a glaring injustice and hints of a massive coverup by the Indonesian government. ICC has personally investigated the Poso conflict. Entire Christian villages were attacked with government munitions and burned down using Indonesian government fuel trucks. Christian adults and children were beheaded. The Muslim community initiated the attacks and there was every indication that local Muslim government leaders were involved. Why were no Muslims ever charged in any of the attacks?

“These men were sacrificed as scape-goats so that the Indonesian government could wash their hands and walk away from the Poso conflict of 1998 to 2003. But if Indonesia really wants to show the world they value truth, they should re-open the investigation into this conflict and find those responsible for the violence,” stated Sewall.

“Please pray that the Christians in Poso will not seek revenge for these executions, and that instead they would trust God to administer justice in his own time.”

ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC delivers humanitarian aid, trains and supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US regarding the problem of persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State Department. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.

The spiritual Israel

From Saint Augustine’s On Christian Teaching:

“. . . This spiritual Israel is distinguished from the fleshly Israel, consisting of a single people, by the novelty of grace, not by nobility of race, and by mentality, not nationality. But such is the prophets profundity that while speaking about the former and indeed too the former he moves imperceptibly to the latter; and while speaking about the latter or adddressing himself to the latter he still seems to be speaking about the former and addressing himself to the former, not with the hostile purpose of begrudging us an understanding of the scriptures but with the healthy one of stretching our understanding. So when he says ‘I will bring you into your own land’ [Ez. 36:24], and a little later repeats it, ‘And you will live in the land which I gave to your fathers’ [Ez. 36:28], we should understand this not carnally, of the fleshly Israel, but spiritually, of the spiritual Israel. It is the church ‘without blemish or wrinkle’ [Eph. 5:27], assembled from all peoples and destined to reign with Chrsit, which is itself the land of the blessed, ‘the land of the living’ [Ps. 27:13]. And it is the church itself that should be understood as having been given to the fathers at the time when it was promised by God’s sure and immutable will, since what our fathers believed would be given in its own time was already given with the security of promise or predestination. Similarly, when writing to Timothy of the grace given to the saints, Paul says, ‘Not according to our works, but according to his purpose and his grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the eternal ages but has now been made plain by our savior’s coming’ [2 Tim. 1:9-10]. He said that grace was given at a time when there were not even people to whom it could be given, because in God’s disposition and foreknowledge what was going to happen in its own time had already happened; this he descrives by the words ‘made plain’. However, this could also be understood to mean the land of a future generation, since there will be ‘ a new heaven and a new earth’ [Rev. 21:1], in which the unjust will not be able to live. Therefore it is said to the saints quite correctly that the land itself, which will not in any way belong to the wocked, is theirs; because, in the same way, the land was actually given at the time when the gift was ratified.”

Isn’t that beautiful?

A Critique of Basic Theistic Existentialism (assignment)

(As presented in James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door)
Strengths. Theistic existentialism begins with some of the same propositions of classic theism. It starts with the existence and triune nature of God, and his character as shown in Scripture. God is infinite, benevolent, and sovereign. Theistic existentialism sees the universe as being created by God, operating according to the laws He set up, yet continually under God’s direction, an “open system.” Man is created in the image of God, and though corrupted by sin, yet he is offered eternal life through Jesus Christ. The difference between theism and theistic existentialism is what makes it existential; existentialism focuses on subjective, personal human experience.

1. Existentialism offers meaning to a life experience full of seeming contradictions; a world we can never fully understand. As such, it is a tremendous antidote to the poison of modern rational empiricism, which too often leaves no room for true faith. A belief, even a true belief, is worth nothing if it is only rooted in the mind (1 Cor. 2:4-7). For existentialism, paradox is something we can live with—even put our trust in. If we could perfectly understand God’s ways, would he not be too small a God? Existentialism prizes the act of faith “on the strength of the absurd,” as Kierkegaard puts it (Kierkegaard 65).

2. Existentialism finds ultimate meaning in relationships. Theistic existentialism realizes that adherence to a creed and a set of moral standards is not enough. True religion is acted out by showing love to others, and true faith opens a direct, intimate communication between the soul and God.

3. Existentialism affirms the transcendent nature of obedience to God. For the existentialist, following God is not simply obeying a moral code. Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling asks the question: ‘What if God Himself tells you to do something that seems immoral, such as when he commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?’ There is an obedience to God that is unexplainable, based only on the private communication of God with the soul; unjustifiable except to the one who has heard God’s voice. This has obvious good and bad implications for Christian relationships within the church.

Weaknesses. Theistic existentialism also has some drawbacks. Like its benefits, they are mostly questions of emphasis.

1. Theistic existentialism, especially as seen in Kierkegaard, arises out of a reaction to the modernism, and overreacts in some respects. For example, existentialism sees a disjunct between the ethical sphere (moral principles) and the religious sphere (transcendent relationship with God. This is a symptom of the ravaging effect of Kantian ethics.

2. Another symptom is that existentialists have less faith in the absolute truth of Scripture. While perhaps this springs from a just reaction to a lifeless and static version of Christianity “with no loose ends, ambiguities, or historical developments” (Marsden 119), it is still a big problem. Handicapped by modernism, existentialists cannot accept the factual and historical aspects of Scripture, but feel the need to interpret it figuratively. Here they share some ground with theological liberals. Thankfully, unlike the liberals, most existentialists do not deny the central truths of the Atonement. However, there exists the tendency in existential neo-orthodoxy to ‘mythify’ the Gospel to the point of nullifying its power and making the story of Christ merely a model for how we are to love one another—which, if you think of it, also destroys the central good of theistic existentialism, the emphasis on a personal relationship with God, for which faith in Christ is vital—even if you don’t know who Christ is, as in Kierkegaard’s example of Abraham.

3. The magic of Existentialism’s subjectivity has a flip side; it deemphasizes the role of Scripture as God’s primary means of self-revelation, choosing instead to begin with human experience. The experience is important, but one ought to view it in Biblical parameters. It is my opinion that the Christian Existentialists do view it this way, for the simple reason that they have been saturated with Scripture and draw their worldviews from it. In the absence of this kind of revelation, they would never have been able to come to their conclusions. The problem is that they do not give the words of the Bible enough credit.

4. The individualistic emphasis of existentialism makes more sense under the Old Covenant than under the New Covenant. Since God’s plan of redemption has now been revealed to the world and the Holy Spirit’s work is documented in Scripture. The New Testament explains many of the mysteries of the Old Testament, as well as resolving Abraham’s ethical dilemma (Heb. 11).

A Consistent Ethic of Human Life

Why do Christians who oppose the death penalty generally tend to be pro-abortion? Seems fundamentally inconsistent if they really have a consistent ethic of human life. Unless that ethic is utilitarian. Which doesn’t make sense if they call themselves Christians.

Thoughts?

How can those who have displayed a flagrant disregard for humanity be more worthy of life than those whose only crime is to be alive?

A comprehensive Christian worldview: Abraham Kuyper

How are we to develop a comprehensive worldview? Abraham Kuyper provides some insights.

“From a special principle a peculiar insight [must] be obtained into the three fundamental relations of all human life: viz., (1) our relation to God, (2) our relation to man, and (3) our relation to the world.” (Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, Grand Rapids, Michigan: W.B. Eerdmans 1999 p. 19.)

Note the “special principle.” This is the idea at the core of a worldview which directs it. Kuyper provides specific examples of three worldviews.

“This was the case with Paganism, which in its most general form is known by the fact that it surmises, assumes and worships God in the creature. This applies to the lowest Animism, as well as to the highest Buddhism. Paganism does not rise to the conception of the independent existence of a God beyond and above the creature. But even in this imperfect form it has for its starting-point a definite interpretation of the relation of the infinite to the finite, and to this it owed its power to produce a finished form for human society. Simply because it possessed this significant starting point [it was] able to produce a form of its own for the whole of human life.” (Ibid., 20)

According to Kuyper, the starting point for any consistent worldview is a conception of the relationship of the divine to the human.

“It is the same with Islamism, which is characterized by its purely anti-pagan ideal, cutting off all contact between the creature and God . . . As antipode, Islam was possessed of an equally far-reaching tendency, and was also able to originate an entirely peculiar world of human life.” (Ibid.)

We have seen how Islam refuses the divinity of Christ because they cannot see how anything can be both God and man.

“The same is the case with Romanism. Here also the papal tiara, the hierarchy, the mass, etc., are but the outcome of one fundamental thought: viz., that God enters into fellowship with the creature by means of a mystical middle-link, which is the Church;–not taken as a mystic organism, but as a visible, palpable and tangible institution. Here the Church stands between God and the world, and so far as it was able to adopt the world and to inspire it, Romanism also created a form of its own for human society.” (Ibid., 21)

But the Protestant movement, endowed as it is with so much truth, has not developed itself into such a profound life-system

“Protestantism alone wanders about in the wilderness without aim or direction, moving hither and thither, without making any progress . . . And why did we, Christians, stand so weak in the face of this Modernism? Why did we constantly lose ground? Simply because we were devoid of an equal unity of life-conception, such as alone could enable us with irresistible energy to repel the enemy at the frontier. This unity of life-conception, however, is never to be found in a vague conception or Protestantism winding itself as it does in all kinds of tortuosities…” (Ibid., 19)

There is, however, a comprehensive and consistent Christian worldview, and Kuyper finds it in what he refers to as “Calvinism.”

“Calvinism takes its stand with a fundamental thought which is equally profound. It does not seek God in the creature, as Paganism; it does not isolate God from the creature, as Islamism; it posits no mediate communion between God and the creature, as does Romanism; but proclaims the exalted thought that, although standing in high majesty above the creature, God enters into immediate fellowship with the creature, as God the Holy Spirit. This is even the heart and kernel of the Calvinistic confession of predestination. There is communion with God, but only in entire accord with his counsel of peace from all eternity. Thus there is no grace but such as comes to us immediately from God. At every moment of our existence, our entire spiritual life rests in God Himself.” (Ibid., 21)

More to come . . .