Scribbling Theology:

Tag: Theology

• The Biblical Prosperity Gospel

  Posted at 4:24 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on August 19, 2022

  

  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

  – Jeremiah 29:11

  The prosperity Gospel has wormed its way into the folds of the church for decades. Where I live, on the Sunshine Coast, versions of it prevail among our many churches. Most churches I’ve been to wouldn’t say “trust in God, and you’ll be financially blessed” (though I have heard this on a few occasions). Instead, most churches default to preaching a prosperity, self-help, positive thinking hybrid message all tied up in the love of God and a love of self. I’m harsh, I know. It’s easy to sit here behind my laptop and bash on churches. Trust me, I know how I can come off. I just get frustrated with the shallow promises made by those in positions of influence over those desperately seeking substance and meaning. The Good News and good biblical preaching were never meant to offer cheap and easy answers to our challenging and complex lives. When I read the Bible, it meets us right at the crossroads of suffering and hardship. It never gives us one-liners to “speak into existence” or “manifest.” God never gives us meretricious promises to grasp on to. However, there is some truth to the hopeful expectation of prosperity and blessing. We find many such ideas in the Scriptures:

  The first case of prosperity and human flourishing appears in Genesis 1, where God blesses humanity and tells them to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). Though it is important to note that the blessing is one of posterity, not material gain per se. In Genesis 2, God gives humanity a garden with every kind of tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food (Genesis 1:29-30; 2:8-9) as well as gold, resin and onyx in abundance and rivers giving life to the land around them (Genesis 2:10-14). Animals dwell in peace with Adam (Genesis 1:30-31; 2:19-20) as humans (Genesis 2:21-25), and creation and God are in harmony with one another (Genesis 2:1-2). All is well. However, in Genesis 3, we have humanity taking more than they’re supposed to (Genesis 3:6). Greed, selfishness, and the desire to be like God takes over (Genesis 3:5, 22). Humanity’s connection to one another (Genesis 3:7) and the Garden are severed as they’re exiled from the presence of God (Genesis 3:24).
  
  From here, God sets up an entire story where He chooses a people to flourish and be blessed in Eden-like spaces so that God may freely dwell with His creation. Yet time and time again, these people fail at creating these spaces even as God promises them blessings, prosperity and abundance (Genesis 12:2; Deuteronomy 8:18; Jeremiah 29:11; Philippians 4:19). It’s important to understand that the promises of God, particularly when relating to the idea of wealth and prosperity, isn’t something New Testament Christians can necessarily expect to come true in the present age. God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). God does bless people beyond what they deserve. God does want good things for His people. Yet the very essence of the mission of God was to come in the likeness of sinful flesh (Philippians 2), in the brokenness of humanity as one who was with the poor and outcast, without splendour (Isaiah 53) so that we might lay our burdens onto Him as we meet head on the suffering of life (Psalm 55:22; Matthew 11:29; 1 Peter 5:7). Indeed, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13), yet what Paul means is that we are to learn to be content in every situation where we lack (Philippians 4:10-12). No matter the problem, Christ is enough.

  Finally, the abundant life God wanted for us in the Garden will be again experienced in the coming age, in the new heavens and earth. Humanity will once again flourish where death and sickness will be no more (Revelation 21:4). There will be no more thirst or hunger (Revelation 21:6), no more division between humanity (Galatians 3:8; Revelation 7:9-17), and rivers of life flow freely once more to give life to the land with the tree of life, providing fruit to heal all the people (Revelation 22:1-5). Once again, God can dwell with His people, and all is in harmony (Revelation 21:3).

  This blog is by no means an exhaustive theological reflection on this issue. However, even a small and concise overview like this quickly demonstrates that prosperity and human flourishing happen in a way the widespread prosperity, self-help gospel has come to fail so many people. You do not give $77.77 to a televangelist to get doubly blessed. You do not sow a financial seed into a project hoping to get that house or car you’ve been wanting. The real prosperity Gospel is God promising that the sufferings in this life are nothing compared to the glory we should anticipate experiencing in the next. Those in positions of influence who take advantage of those who can barely afford to feed their own families, who take advantage of those who are sick, depressed and broken – these prosperity self-help preachers are the most reprehensible of people and deserve nothing more than to meet God face to face.

  Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christ, Christianity, Flourishing, Gospel, Jesus, Prosperity, Spirituality, Theology

• Thoughts on the Mission of the Church

  Posted at 9:19 am by scribblingtheology, on August 18, 2022

  

  Whenever somebody asks, “what is the church’s mission?” they’re asking, “how is the local church supposed to act in the world, and why?” It isn’t hard to imagine then that there are so many ways to answer this question because there are so many local churches. In my particular tradition (Queensland Baptist), the church usually functions:

  1. As a place for people to come and listen to a sermon for twenty minutes.

  2. For people to come and sing to and about God.

  3. To catch up with coffee and tea afterwards while eating expired biscuits.

  Community engagement varies depending on the church and its theology. Some churches have huge community buildings with swimming pools, cafes, gyms, and sports centres. These churches typically have very little formal “evangelism” with those who come and go in their building, instead relying on relationships and ongoing conversations to perhaps one day influence them towards Jesus and the Kingdom. Other churches (usually smaller) have formal evangelism. They hit the streets, give out Gospel tracts, and awkwardly tell people they’re going to hell. Then there are those churches you hear about only in far-flung corners of the Australian underbelly. The kind that is ruthlessly preaching Jesus and baptising every chance they get and passionately serving their community’s needs.

  Recently, as social justice issues such as racism, gender inequality, and climate change have been turned up to eleven, churches, at least in my context, have struggled to engage meaningfully in the question “how is the local church supposed to act in the world, and why?” Some have defaulted to a more insulated view of the church. These people believe that the local church is only supposed to preach, pray, and encourage its members to live out their faith and engage with the community in their own time. In frustration with the first kind of church, other churches passionately leap at every chance they get to engage with social justice issues. They plant trees, feed the hungry, and advocate for human rights. However, this sometimes comes at the expense of telling people about the Kingdom itself. Finally, some people have opted out of the social justice conversation altogether. Instead, they focus on living out a private faith, and you wouldn’t even know that they follow Jesus unless you asked.

  As I sit and ponder the entire issue, I can’t help but feel empathy for both sides of the problem. On the one hand, preaching (2 Timothy 2:15), worship (Ephesians 5:19), and the traditional activities that make up our regular Sunday morning services are vital. In fact, it is a passion of mine to recover a fresh sense of the Scriptures, Christ-centered preaching, and sound theology in our local churches. However, traditionally, Christianity has been at the forefront of many social justice problems. In the past, they’ve been among the first to serve those in need in extremely practical ways. Why can’t we have the best of both worlds? It seems to me that good biblical, theological preaching would lead a church to want to care for creation (Genesis 1:26-28), feed the hungry, stand up for injustice, and protect the most vulnerable among (Isaiah 1:17; Micah 6:8) us as we proclaim the Good News (Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15).

  For me, the Gospel starts in Genesis 1 and ends in Revelation 22. When we talk to people about the Gospel and share Jesus, we try to distil the most essential information so that whoever is listening can walk away with enough to help them follow Him. However, unless the entire biblical narrative informs our understanding of our distilled version of the Gospel, the way we do church will always come out looking a little twisted. I believe that our churches are supposed to look like mini Edens where life and goodness flow. When people enter the doors, they should sense that God walks and dwells with His people (Exodus 29:45; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Revelation 21:3). Not just because there’s good preaching and worship, but because in the mini garden, humanity’s needs are being met, where we’re all one in Christ Jesus (Genesis 1:26; Galatians 3:28), where sickness and the corruption of this world are being tended to, there is no hunger, no thirst (James 5:14; Revelation 21:4), and creation is in harmony with those who are supposed to steward it (Genesis 2; Revelation 21-22).

  Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christianity, church, Jesus, Mission, Socialjustice, Theology

• Christian Nihilism

  Posted at 3:33 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on June 20, 2022

  

  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
      vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
  What does man gain by all the toil
      at which he toils under the sun?
  A generation goes, and a generation comes,
      but the earth remains forever.
  The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
      and hastens to the place where it rises.
  The wind blows to the south
      and goes around to the north;
  around and around goes the wind,
      and on its circuits, the wind returns.
  All streams run to the sea,
      but the sea is not full;
  to the place where the streams flow,
      there they flow again.
  All things are full of weariness;
      a man cannot utter it;
  the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
      nor the ear filled with hearing.
  What has been is what will be,
      and what has been done is what will be done,
      and there is nothing new under the sun.
  Is there a thing of which it is said,
      “See, this is new”?
  It has been already
      in the ages before us.
  There is no remembrance of former things,
      nor will there be any remembrance
  of later things yet to be
      among those who come after.

  ~ Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 ~

  John Piper has famously coined the term “Christian Hedonism.” Piper defines Christian Hedonism as, “the conviction that God’s ultimate goal in the world (his glory) and our deepest desire (to be happy) are one and the same because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Not only is God the supreme source of satisfaction for the human soul, but God himself is glorified by our being satisfied in him. Therefore, our pursuit of joy in him is essential.”

  Piper’s definition here has two key phrases I would like the highlight. 1. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. 2. “Our pursuit of joy in him is essential.” These two ideas are the essence of Christian hedonism, feasting on God and indulging in Him. What Piper espouses is a wonderful idea, and I thank God that Piper has been teaching this throughout his life and ministry. However, (and I’m sure that Piper addresses all this within Christian Hedonism), what if Christians find it impossible to find contentment and joy in God? While I believe our pursuit of joy and contentment in God is essential so that we glorify Him, there are seasons, if not entire lifetimes, where some of us experience the never-ending onslaught of suffering and angst the world has in store for us. God becomes distant and impossible to relate to at times. You feel like you could never glorify God, not even in your best moments. Jesus becomes an idea rather than the person you used to be swooning over. Where there was purpose and meaning, now is chaos and the unfamiliar. You begin to think like the Preacher, “vanity of vanities” – this all becomes meaningless suffering and grief. The cloud of uncertainty settles upon the heart as you wander through life like a lost bedouin. “Exiles”, the Bible calls us (1 Peter 1:1-2), and you certainly begin to feel like one. How do we make sense of all of this “vanity?” I propose Christian Existentialism Nihilism.

  
  Christian Nihilism is an oxymoron if ever there was one. On the one hand, you have Christianity that teaches us to be joyful, happy, and content in all things. Christianity teaches us that there’s a purpose, a plan, and meaning in the darkest places (true, by the way). On the other hand, Nihilism teaches us that life and suffering are ultimately random, meaningless, and chaotic. For proponents of Nihilism like Friedrich Nietzsche, the belief in God and the practice of religion is a crutch that humanity uses to make sense of a senseless existence. Christian Nihilism is an almost paradoxical embracement of both realities. As one walks through life through the seemingly purposeless and brutal sufferings that life brings us, we are to embrace the pain and grief it throws at us (allow the barbs of suffering to settle in your heart). Christian Nihilism is the idea that while joy and contentment in God might be ideal, they might never be experienced on this side of eternity. It is embracing the chaos while trusting that God will make all things work together for our good, even if the good isn’t always seen.

  
  In reality, this isn’t anything new. The Bible often speaks of the suffering and pain Christians are to go through. I suppose what I aim to do with this idea is to alleviate the burden of joy for those who are constantly pursuing it and only ever experiencing more pain and sorrow. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that Christian Hedonism is wrong. I’m just putting a new card on the table as I wrestle with a reality that I’ve experienced, and I’m sure many others do. Pursuing joy and contentment in God has been an extremely tiring journey that has yielded little fruit for me. However, I believe God is doing something in me apart from my effort and typical expectations. As I walk, I painfully groan with creation as I patiently await the new world.

  Now all has been heard;
      here is the conclusion of the matter:
  Fear God and keep his commandments,
      for this is the duty of all mankind.
  For God will bring every deed into judgment,
      including every hidden thing,
      whether it is good or evil.

  ~ Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ~

  Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Loss, Nihilism, Pain, Theology

• Jesus Wept: A Short Theological Reflection on Grief

  Posted at 1:03 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on May 31, 2022

  

  The darker the night, the brighter the star. The deeper the grief, the closer is God!
  

  Apollon Maykov

  Jesus wept. John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible and perhaps the most human. I love this verse because, as I’ve argued elsewhere, if you want to know what it means to be a human, look no further than Jesus. Here, we have permission to weep and lament over the brokenness around us. For Jesus, this was the death of Lazarus and the pain and anguish it caused those closest to him. Jesus didn’t stoically trust in God’s plan (despite knowing He would resurrect Lazarus shortly after). Still, neither did He lose all hope under the crushing weight of grief. Jesus responded as the perfect human should; He lamented with genuine tears without losing sight of the future hope. Like the Psalmist, Jesus cries out in distress as He trusts in God’s deliverance (Psalm 55:16-18).

  John 11:35 doesn’t just permit humans to grieve; it also shows us who God is. He is the kind of God who steps into our darkest moments. Yahweh weeps when we weep and feels just as burdened with the brokenness as we are (even more so). Despite some people’s tendency to pit the New Testament God against the Old Testament God, we shouldn’t be surprised to find the grieving God revealed in Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures.

  Perhaps the first time God explicitly grieves is during the flood account, where “the LORD regretted that he had made humanity on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6). Interestingly when I read this story earlier in my Christian journey, I always thought God was mad with everyone for being evil (which they were). So, he sends a flood to destroy the earth in a fit of rage. However, the passage suggests that the flood is in response to human sinfulness and God’s grief. Anger and grief aren’t mutually exclusive emotions. We can be highly irrational when we’re emotional, even when being emotional is the most rational response.

  Nevertheless, it is essential to note here that the passage highlights God’s grief as the emotional response, not anger. One can only speculate why. Some of my most grief-filled times have been because people I deeply loved not just broke my heart but went down a path I knew wasn’t good for them, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Here I can imagine God breaking down over the choices of the world as they were dominated by sin and, in turn, perpetuated sin into the world. Now, there are a lot of ideas and interpretations of the flood account (Genesis 6-9). However, there is one place I can land on here, and that’s this story is a commentary on all of our lives. All of us have participated in the brokenness and evil that has dominated this world since Genesis 3. God grieves for each, and every one of us as the renewal of the world edges closer and closer.

  God’s grief in the flood account may come as a shock to some. The destruction of the world and everyone in it doesn’t seem like an appropriate response to grief. This is difficult to reconcile with God’s character elsewhere in the Bible. I have no easy answers. I know that the Bible portrays God as one who is intimately involved with His creation (Genesis 1-3), that He is merciful, kind, and slow to anger (Exodus 34:6-7), and that He loves the world so much that He sent Jesus to rescue it (John 3:16). Yet, God deals justly with the problem of sin, and I believe that Genesis 6-9 is a window into what will happen when Jesus returns and ushers in the New Heavens and Earth. As I’ve argued here, the flood isn’t just about removing sin and the destruction of the world; it is about renewal and God rescuing humanity.

  Another notable passage where grief is mentioned in the Bible is in Isaiah 53:3, where “the arm of the LORD” is said to be “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” In the New Testament, this mystery person is revealed to be Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 8:14-17; John 12:37-41; Luke 22:35-38; 1 Peter 2:19-25; Acts 8:26-35; Romans 10:11-21). Even a cursory reading of the Gospels will demonstrate how Jesus was acquainted with grief. Perhaps we see this clearly in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus says, “my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” The author of Hebrews fleshes this out when he says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Finally, we see in Revelation that the suffering servant is the one who wipes every tear from our eyes in the new creation (Revelation 21:4).

  There is much to grieve about in one’s life—the death of a loved one, the state of the world, divorce. I have heard that life is just a series of traumatic events we learn to manage and grieve. You could have everything and still be “a man of sorrows.” As I survey the Bible, I see how God justly deals with sin but is genuinely grieved over the state of the world. In particular, I see Jesus in the Gospels, where God is most human, and humanity is most in touch with God – I am comforted to know that the grief I experience, the depression, and the sorrow, is not overlooked. It is shared in by a God who could easily transcend the sufferings of this life. Those who mourn are blessed, for God is near them (Psalm 34; Matthew 5:4).

  Other related blogs:

  
  Existential Christianity

  When Doing Normal Christianity Just Doesn’t Work

  BoJack Horseman: Nihilism and How the Gospel Heals Our Deepest Despair Part I

  
  

  Posted in Posts, Scribbling Scripture | 0 Comments | Tagged Christ, Christianity, God, Grief, Jesus, Loss, Suffering, Theology

• Now and Not yet

  Posted at 12:33 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on February 20, 2022

  

  In case you didn’t realise, Jesus has not come back. We still live in a broken world. Suicide and mental health are significant issues. Rape, murder, broken families, discrimination, inequality are pervasive in 2022. The world is not what anyone wants it to be. Christians flip through the pages of their bibles as they desperately cling on to promises and vague out-of-context passages to make it through another day. Prayer feels like we’re screaming into the wind, and the rest of us just lay staring, wondering if any of it matters. Why talk to a God that doesn’t seem to talk back? Why read a book that seems so abused, out of place, and irrelevant? Why gather with people I don’t like and are just plain annoying? Recently, I wrote, “to be human means to be so caught up in the person of God that you bring God’s presence into the world around us.” Yet, how can we get so caught up in who God is when it feels like years since I’ve experienced Him? How can we represent and mediate God’s presence when we often don’t even feel it ourselves?

  Our Reality

  In this present age, the Christian wonders about the Earth as an exile (1 Peter 2:11) as they painfully await the return of their King. Not all of us make it. Some of us lose faith. Everything that we are told feels like a lie. Life didn’t get better. The grass wasn’t greener. Why were we told this? We lived every day believing the depression would get better, that the bank account would get bigger, that we would get that job, that partner, that life. Jesus wants to bless us; he has a wonderful plan for our lives, right? Maybe. Define wonderful. Almost every character used by God in the Scriptures were alone, suffered, and were killed by other people. Not much of a life. Yet here we are throwing around the Gospel like it’s a cheap trick or pyramid scheme. What we need is a proper perspective on what theologians call the “now and not yet.”

  Now and Not Yet

  The “now and not yet” is the present tension, age, and context that we live in that theologians refer to when trying to apply the Bible. For example, the atoning work of Christ achieved many things, one of which was freedom from sin. However, as Christians, we might be free from sin’s power over us, but we aren’t free from the presence of sin and temptation. The removal of sin will happen in the future, and when we have present victory over sin, that is a foretaste of the new heavens and earth.

  Considering we’ve already alluded to it, let’s look at the famous verse Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This verse has been taken out of context more times than I can count and is applied often to the Christian life in unhelpful and toxic ways. I have seen this verse used as a way for Christians to believe that God would prosper them financially, and I have seen this verse used to give a grand destiny to a Christian who is a little lost in life. These are wrong ways to interpret and apply the Bible. First, we must start with the meaning the author intended for their original audience before extrapolating any modern implications.

  Furthermore, when we do get around to any modern implications, we must have interpreted the text through the work and person of Christ and then to us. Jeremiah 29:11 is a great verse, but it was written to the Israelites who had been conquered by Babylon, oppressed, and led off into exile from their home. For the original audience, Jeremiah is giving the people who have lost their national identity, home, and culture hope that Yahweh has not abandoned them. Despite their circumstances, Jeremiah promises that Yahweh plans to make them a great people once again. The problem is, this restoration never really happened in Israel’s history. Even when they returned to rebuild their home, they were still conquered and annexed by the Roman Empire as they still felt exiled in their land under foreign power. Israel was waiting for the messiah that would then free them from the shackles of Rome and bring in the utopian age that they had under David and Solomons reign. When Jesus finally comes on to the scene, Israel gets a saviour they weren’t expecting (hence the hate from the religious leaders of His time). Instead of military might, they got the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9). Instead of slaying their enemies, He dies for them (John 3:16 Romans 5:10). Instead of raising the religious leaders to higher places of authority, he raises the weak and marginalised. Jesus tried to correct their interpretation by explaining how what He was doing fulfilled the Old Testament and how everything in the Law and the Prophets were about Him (Luke 24:27; John 5:39).

  So when I read Jeremiah 29:11 as being fulfilled in Christ, I believe that Jesus and, in turn, His people, the Church, the true Israel (see: Matthew 3:9; Romans 4:13-14; Galatians 3:18, 29) see this played out in new ways. Does Jesus have plans to prosper His people? Yes. When will we see this prospering? We taste it now when we’re blessed with financial provision, food, clothes, that promotion, but the promise sees its complete fulfilment in the New Heavens and Earth. This interpretive move is what we call the now and not yet. We taste the prosperous age now, at times. Yet we inherit it fully when King Jesus makes all things new.

  Final Thoughts 

  Jeremiah 29:11 is one of many examples I could give to highlight the importance of understanding the now and not yet reality of the time we live. We cannot over-realise our expectations of the promises of God, and yet we cannot under-realise them. God genuinely wants His people to prosper, yet life isn’t without its brokenness and sin. Jeremiah promises that God will prosper His people in the next age, which will come to pass. Yet, for now, we groan with creation as we anticipate His return and taste the bittersweetness of life.

  Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christ, Christianity, Exile, Interpretation, Jeremiah 29:11, Jesus, Theology

• Being Human

  Posted at 5:02 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on February 17, 2022

  

  The glory of God is man fully alive, but the life of a man is the vision of God.

  – Ireneaus

  The French theologian John Calvin once wrote, “Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.” It seems that even the great Protestant reformers who were famous for their emphasis on God’s sovereignty in history and salvation never intended for us to lose understanding of what it meant to be human. John Calvin seems to go even a step further as he stressed the importance of understanding ourselves to understand the Grand Creator of the universe. To me, this is a fascinating notion. All the theology and doctrine about God only make sense if we first understand who we are. This means, for the Christian, that we need to be deliberate in 1. knowing what it means to be human and 2. what it means to be “you” specifically. In this post, my goal is to reflect on these ideas and perhaps together, we can come to understand what it means to “John Doe the Human” and, in turn, catch a glimpse of the Creator Himself.

  To Be Human

  I already feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. The doctrine of man, understanding and defining humanity is an enormous endeavour that philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, psychologists, and biologists have sailed for many years. Unfortunately, these disciplines rarely get along. Notably, within conservative evangelical circles, there is a distrust of the sciences in a bid to uphold and champion sola Scriptura. However, hermeneutics and the doctrine of scripture is not the topic of the blog. We will not get into age-old debates on science vs religion (many of you by now should know where I sit on these issues). We are here to reflect on what it means to be human, and as someone who has studied theology, that’s where my mind goes to when I begin to make sense of who we are (and I think it’s a pretty safe bet).

  Over the last century or two, science, particularly in human biology, has made a lot of progress in what makes up a human materially. However, what makes up a human (cells, bones, tissue etc.), and what it means to be human are related but separate issues.

  In Genesis 1, we have God creating the cosmos, and on day 6, He creates humanity “in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26).” There’s much to be said about the image of God. However, one doesn’t need to be a high theologian to know that something about humanity is tied up in the person of God. Human’s were “very good.” I can imagine God sitting back as He looks upon the male and female completely wrapped up in His very good creation as He eagerly awaits their flourishing. In turn, I can imagine humans walking with God in the cool of the day and then going out into the world to extend God’s loving, transformative presence into the natural world. One scholar understands the image of God as humans having been “put in the world to mediate God’s presence.” This, I believe, get us to the meaning of what it means to be human. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we are to bring God’s presence into our spaces, transforming the world around us. Therefore, to be human means to be so caught up in the person of God that you bring God’s presence into the world around us. Being human is functional, not just an ontological thing.

  Jesus, The Human

  If bringing God’s presence into the world is at the heart of what it means to be human, then we need to look no further than Christ Himself to find a man fully alive. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was the cornerstone of the new living temple (John 1:14, 1:51, 2:18–22 and 4:20–24), a place in the ancient world where heaven and earth come together. Instead of a temple made of stone, this would be made of flesh and spirit. Jesus would be the First Stone, and His Church would be the living stones built upon the First (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-7). Jesus acted. Jesus was about bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. Jesus did this by telling people to turn from their idols and sin (Matthew 4:17, 6:19-24), forgiving sin (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12), healing the sick (Mark 1:41-42), ministering to the marginalised (Matthew 19:14; Luke 4:14-30, 10:27-37), and dying so that we can be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Romans 5:8-11). This is a hard act to follow, perhaps. Jesus is a pretty amazing human (I have anxiety just thinking I could match up to this). However, here’s the point. Jesus, through His Spirit, is creating a new kind of humanity free from the burden of sin (Romans 6), but He hasn’t finished (we live in what’s called “the now and not yet”). The brokenness, sinfulness, and failure that still corrupt us is something God anticipates as He, over time, conforms us to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). The fully alive human is Jesus, and we become fully alive in Christ when we’re in step with His Spirit (Galatians 5:16), and while this is something we strive for, it isn’t a perpetual state of being on this side of eternity. Sanctification is a process, and becoming like Jesus takes time, and so does bringing God’s presence into the world. Remember, the Kingdom of God is a mustard seed that slowly grows and blooms. You play a significant part in nurturing that growth and inviting others to rest upon its branches, just don’t expect it to reach maturity today or perhaps even tomorrow.

  Last Thoughts

  G. K. Chesterton once wrote that “every man has forgotten who he is. One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.” A significant theme in the Scriptures is how humanity has forgotten themselves and who they’re supposed to be. We have forgotten our God, we’re separated from Him, and therefore, we’re subhuman. However, Jesus invites us to be united to Him once more. I can think of no better definition for the Christian journey than to, as the ancient Greek maxim says, “know thy self” as we look at the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

  Posted in Scribbles | 2 Comments | Tagged Christ, Christianity, Human, Identity, Jesus, Spirituality, Theology

• 2021 – 2022

  Posted at 4:58 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on December 30, 2021

  

  This year was a mess. I moved three times, got two new jobs, lost friends and made new ones, graduated from bible college, all the while working on my mental health, finances, and just generally keeping my life together. For most of us, this year has been strenuous. There’s been uncertainty around Covid-19 and vaccines; the world has had to radically re-evaluate how we live our lives as we’ve endured loss and hardship. I sit here only days away from the end of the year considering what comfort or insight (if any) I could offer. I’m at a loss. There’s no guarantee 2022 will be any better. Covid, I think, is here to stay. We may be moving to an endemic, yet the world we’re entering will be different to the one we left behind in 2019. I can’t predict what this new world will look like. What I can say is that spirituality, mental health, identity, and questions around humanity and community will be more important than ever before. Therefore, I believe it will be paramount to our journey through the new year to deliberately stop and not just throw ourselves into old patterns and cycles of being. We need to take stock of ourselves and of those around us and rally. If we go back to work, back to being a parent, back to whatever it is we do without thought and time we will certainly come to the end of ourselves in unhealthy ways.

  Sabbath: Rule and Rest

  On the seventh day, God blessed the work He had done and rested. When the Bible uses sabbath language, there is a lot of theological nuance at play. Sabbath means to rule and to rest. Ruling simply means to walk in that which God has called us. In Genesis 1 and 2, God has given the mandate for humanity to take care of the earth and to multiply (Genesis 1:28, 2:15). This only scratches the surface of what it means to rule, but simply put it means to partner with God in bringing about His loving kingdom through and over the earth. This is tied into what it means to image Him.

  It’s hard to imagine that an all-powerful God needs to do something so mundane as rest. Nevertheless, here we have the creator of the universe taking a moment to bless and appreciate what He has achieved. God sees the sky, the land, every creature and human and He smiles, delighting in that which He has made even as He foresees the mess it will all become. Likewise, we can also sabbath, taking stock of our own achievements even if they are as small as getting out of bed. We can stand in front of the mirror and echo that which God has already declared: we are good.

  Community: Church and Relationship

  We are good. We. Individually you are good and image bound (Genesis 1:26), but the emphasis of the Bible is that collectively humanity is made in God’s image and together our potential is limitless (for good or for worse). The importance of meaningful friendship cannot be stressed enough. Other people, though they don’t define us, through God’s providence sanctify us and form us. During this season more than ever we need people around us to encourage us (Hebrews 3:13), correct us (James 5:19-20), and to guide us. Ideally, this is done through the local church. We come together throughout the week to minister to one another, to carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and to speak life. However, I am painfully aware of how difficult it can be for some of us to find a church to settle into. Not all of us fit the mould so well.

  Meditation: Scripture and Wisdom

  To borrow from the Bible Project, “Scripture is ancient Jewish meditation literature.” Scripture is a source in which we see the Good News, God, and Jesus most clearly. Having a relationship with God and Jesus certainly transcends Scripture, however, it is in the pages of the Bible that we can intelligibly make the most sense of Him. It is important to note that the Bible isn’t something we can simply pick up and understand. Yes, one can read the Bible and start off their journey well and come to grips with the most fundamental aspects of the Faith. Yet the Bible takes a life time of meditation and practice to embrace as you come to understand its complexity and allow God to use it to transform you. At its most basic level, the Bible is wisdom for the human to flourish in relationship with God, other humans, and the world around them. We must, therefore, take the time to allow what God is teaching us to seep into our very bones.

  Worship

  All of this would be utterly futile without God Himself. As we rule and rest, as we’re built up in community and love others (or struggle in isolation), as we meditate on the wisdom of Scripture, this must drive us to worship. 2021 has caused many of us to question God’s purpose in the pandemic, it has caused some of us to question His motives, and even His existence. Sabbath, community, and meditation create space for us to sit across from God and meaningfully engage with Him in ways we might not have if we just continued on in the way we have during 2021. That engagement might look like the Psalmist who dumps their depression and burdens on the Lord (Psalm 88), it might look like praise and joy. Whatever that engagement is, God is big enough to handle it. Pour a whisky, or sing aloud with joy, God wants to meet you there. Climb a mountain, or lay in bed, God wants to meet you there. Laugh or cry, God wants to meet you there.

  Let the start of the new year be a time of transformation. Let us mourn for that which we have lost, and celebrate that which God has called us to. Be painfully human, but radically dependant on the grace and love of God in Christ as we eagerly anticipate His return in a time that is so full of brokenness.

  Posted in Scribbles | 1 Comment | Tagged Christianity, Jesus, Theology

• My Reflections On Vaccines

  Posted at 7:42 pm by scribblingtheology, on December 6, 2021

  

  Wuhan, China 2019 – the first reported case of Covid-19 emerged, the first seed of a global crisis that would, in the coming years, kill over 5 million people. At the time, I didn’t give much thought to it. I had heard of epidemics and killer viruses before. None of the worst ones had ever reached Western shores in my lifetime, why would they now? It wasn’t long, however, before Australia was thrown into restrictions and lockdowns; people hoarded toilet paper, and thousands lost their jobs as only businesses deemed “essential” could stay open. All in all, Australia has had it pretty good. We’ve only had around 200 thousand cases in total and less than 2 thousand related deaths. Compare that to the U.S. and other countries and Australia has suffered very little. Nevertheless, as the virus took life after life, we all scrambled for a vaccine. One study suggests that in an unprecedented move, over 92 billion U.S. dollars (worldwide) have been poured into vaccine-related products and research since the start of the pandemic. As a result, vaccines were fast-tracked and mass-produced, allowing for an estimated 42.7% of the world to be already fully vaccinated against the original strains of the virus. Australia, in particular, has been pushing three major vaccines; AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna. As of now, 86.7% of Australia’s population between the ages of 16 and 80 is fully vaxxed. This is a little snap-shot of where we’re at as a nation.

  I’m not a doctor and I’m not an expert in vaccines and pandemics. I’ve just finished my degree in ministry/theology and that’s where my first love lay, so my reflections will be mostly theological in nature. Until now, I have been hesitant to blog about my own thoughts on the issue of vaccines, but here we are. I look forward to the fire and pitchforks.

  1. Vaccines are not a Gospel issue (or anywhere even close). The Gospel (Good News) is about how God and humanity can be reconciled to God in Christ Jesus (Colossians 1). It isn’t about public health, potential government agendas, and global depopulation. Mandates are an important issue for us to work through as citizens of Australia and even as the Church. However, your status in the Kingdom is not dependant upon the reception or rejection of the vaccine – it is dependant solely on the grace of God and the atoning work of Jesus. This leads me to my next point…
  2. Vaccines are not the mark of the beast. Getting the vaccine won’t identify you on judgement day as a child of Satan or whatever. The book of Revelation is highly figurative, rife with Old Testament imagery that would have made sense to its contemporary audience. Vaccines were not even in the mind of the author (the Apostle John) as he wrote it (they weren’t invented yet). Please go to a Bible college or seminary. Read a good book or three, attend a rational local church where the pastor loves the Bible. In fact, let me give you some good places to start when reading up on Revelation and the mark; just click here, here, here and here.
  3. Vaccine mandates are not akin to the Holocaust or Nazi Germany. That this needs to be explained is mind-blowing, but here we are. I’m no history buff, but it seems to me that Nazi Germany became a thing, that Jews and other races were thrown into camps and gassed because of racism and xenophobia, not because Hitler and The Third Reich were genuinely concerned by a pandemic that was wiping out the global population. Restricting unvaxxed people doesn’t seem like segregation, at least not in the traditional sense. If I were in government and health professionals were telling me that Covid-19 was killing people around the world, I’m not entirely sure I’d be making different decisions. Believe me when I say I am extremely uncomfortable with some of the mandates and how it affects people’s lives. I know many people who won’t get the vaccine (a choice I honour) who won’t be able to see loved one’s who are sick or even be able to catch up with me for a coffee come mid-December. I’m not sitting here smugly believing I’m superior for getting the vaccine (though I do believe it is, perhaps, the wiser choice to make), I am burdened for my brothers and sisters in the Church and in Australia who have a particularly hard road ahead of them.
  4. Mandates need to be heavily scrutinised and reformed. Over the last few days and weeks, I have seen mass protests where thousands, even hundreds of thousands, all over the nation and globe have been protesting against the unvaxxed mandates. It warms my heart. I believe in the people’s right to protest peacefully. I don’t believe the government has always handled this entire situation well. The people deserve vulnerability from their leaders, clear communication, and a say in how this is all handled.
  5. How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the Good News (Isaiah 52:7). As the Church we should be heavily praying for our leaders, preaching the Gospel, and planting churches so that God revives the hearts and minds of our nation before we protest and lobby. Before we try to preserve our earthly kingdoms, we need to be about the work of bringing God’s Kingdom to earth through the work that God has prepared for us in advance.

  A final thought. Bad theology and sin lead to disunity in the Church during a time where unity is needed more than ever. Christians can differ on taking the vaccine, but they can’t break fellowship over it. Coming to the Lord’s table is a time where we remember and demonstrate Jesus’ atoning death until His return. We must lay aside those things that so easily cause us to hate one another, and place Jesus and His mission at the centre of our lives and meetings. As of today, I am double vaxxed. I say this with a certain degree of trepidation as I lay at the foot of the King. If you decide to not get the jab, I will never stop meeting with you, worshipping with you, and loving you in our shared calling to take the Gospel out to all nations which include our own backyards. You will always be welcome in my home. I will trust that the Spirit has led you to reasonable conclusions about this issue, I simply encourage you to consider the above points.

  I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

  Ephesians 4:1-6

  Posted in Posts | 1 Comment | Tagged Christ, Christianity, church, COVID, Jesus, opinion, Spirituality, Theology, Vaccines

• What I’ve Learnt After 100 Blogs and 7 Years

  Posted at 8:05 pm by scribblingtheology, on October 31, 2021

  

  This is my 100th blog, so I thought I would look back and consider what I’ve learnt over the almost seven years I’ve been blogging.

  1. Blogging isn’t always easy. There are days or weeks where I can smash out blog after blog, and there are sometimes months where I have no motivation at all. I had told myself that I’d only write when I wanted to, not when I “had to.” I never want blogging to become a chore; it’s always a therapeutic outlet.

  2. When I consider the first blog I have ever written and contrast it to the many blogs I’ve done over the years, my writing style and theology have had an enormous but gradual evolution. When I first started writing and studying God’s Word, I believed the Earth was created in 7 literal days. I thought that the millennial Kingdom would be a literal future kingdom and that anyone who didn’t believe in the same atonement theory as I, was probably a heretic. However, now I think that Genesis requires a particular nuance and theological hermeneutic to interpret correctly. Now I believe that the Kingdom was inaugurated by Christ and carried on by His Church into the New Creation. Now I think that the atonement is about a lot more than Jesus taking on God’s wrath.

  3. One of the things I’ve tried to learn and embody in my day to day life is that just because you disagree with someone or even if you think they’re a heretic, it doesn’t mean we’re not supposed to love them. We’re all heretics to someone, and while I believe there are orthodox ideas we all should hold to, I’m not arrogant enough to think I know anything but Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2).

  4. Deconstruction is a friend, not a foe. Long before I became a Christian, I had always considered myself open-minded and willing to ask hard questions about anything and everything. When I became a Christian, I thought those days might have been over. However, they were only just beginning. Deconstructing some of what I thought were fundamental ideas in the Faith weren’t always easy. There were friends and other church members I was always afraid of offending. Most of what I worked through was done in secret, away from the people and places I feared would judge me the most. Looking back, these people and places should have been the safest, most embracing of all. Some were. Many were not. In the future, I would love to see churches planted that fosters a healthy deconstruction culture while still holding true to Jesus.

  5. I still have so much further to go.

  To wrap this short reflection up I will leave you with a tantalising degustation of my 5 favourite blogs:

  1. Salvation is Liberation: Part I
  2. Christian Deconstructionism: The Good and the Bad
  3. Existential Christianity
  4. The Deep Blue Church
  5. Gaining Wisdom

  Posted in Scribbles | 1 Comment | Tagged Christ, Christianity, God, Jesus, Spirituality, Theology

• God in Infamous Culture

  Posted at 7:16 pm by scribblingtheology, on September 3, 2021

  

  Recently, I was asked the question, “where do you see God in pop culture?” Here was my reply:

  
  In pop culture? I’m not sure that I do see God per se… I know that I see God in infamous culture. What do I mean by that? …. well, the world has a severe rape culture, I see God meeting victims in their shame and brokenness and their victimhood healing those wounds in this life and the next. I see a racist culture where God works to reconcile the oppressed and the oppressor through the Cross. I see entire cultures and people riddled with mental health problems amid a pandemic to which God wants to give transformed minds.

  
  I’m not a very good Christian. Sometimes my language gets the better of me, lust and sexual desires get the better of me, hatred, pain and anger overcome me. There are some good reasons as to why this is the case. Mostly, however, I am a broken-hearted man, a sinner that has been trapped by darkness, and perpetuates sin. I am a man that Jesus redeemed through His atoning sacrifice. But I can sniff rubbish a mile off. Where do I see God in pop culture? I don’t. God transcends it and walks intimately with those who desire Him in it and works to save those who are trapped by it.
  We all jump on the next hype train, the new fad, the new bee’s knees when in reality they’re all meaningless distractions from that which matters most – God and real authentic spiritual connections with the people around us. Many of these people live in insufferable pain and hardship. At the same time, we toddle along to the movies and drink our lattes (something I do all the time).

  
  The aim of life is to live it in such a way that we’re all moving from Genesis 3, longing for Genesis 1 and 2 while eagerly anticipating a more glorious Revelation 21. We lament the loss of our Garden and the separation we had with the Father, as we rejoice in the reconciliation we have in the Son. At the same time, we hunger and thirst for the final day where God will make all things new. The story of the Bible grounds me even if it’s sometimes snatched away from me. The story of the Bible pierces every culture, especially that of the infamous. God wants to partner with us in bringing the Gospel that saves, heals, and brings about new life to those who have none. Christian, it’s time to be different. It’s time to be not just counter-cultural, but in the infamous culture that we all like to turn a blind eye to and trivialise.

  Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christ, Christianity, God, Jesus, Spirituality, Theology

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