Sundae Conversations

On the topic of God and music, enjoy a piece of art painted by Sleeping at Last.  If you have yet to hear the passion that flows throughout their work, make sure you check out their latest album “Storyboards” as well as their prior albums.  Enjoy this song “Naive” by Sleeping at Last.  Really take time to listen to it and meditate on the words of the song and how they are sung.

Music has been important to humanity for as long as we have recorded history. From King David to Bob Dylan, music has affected the lives of the performer and the audience in deeply spiritual ways. But why? It almost seems impossible to explain why music is important and diverse. The United States itself has produced everything from ragtime, blues, jazz, rock, folk, soul, pop, rap, hip-hop, gospel and so many more genres with sub-genres of their own.

God made music, plain and simple. Though it may seem the majority of music on the radio today couldn’t be farther from God, just because man abuses music doesn’t destroy the validity of the vast collection of music.  This is music that is not only beautiful, but helps us admit our faults, relate to God, and more importantly glorify Him. If you walk into the average church in America there will undoubtedly be music playing before the sermon is presented and sometimes before the “worship set” even begins. We sing songs of praise to the One who blessed us with this melodic sound. Lifting our hands, humbling our hearts, and bearing our souls to our Father to show Him but a fraction of appreciation, gratitude, faith, and love compared to the abundant mercy, grace, and faithful love He has shown to us.

Music is this God-given expression of the soul, but like all things we’ve found a way to exploit and cheapen it. Why would we expect that the music we worship God through to be immune to the cheapening that occurs in the mainstream? Churches and the “Christian music” scene are just as much responsible for lowering the quality standard for music heard on a daily basis. Shouldn’t we offer God our best? Shouldn’t the instrumentation of a song be just as important as the lyrics, and vice versa? If music is stamped with the label “Christian” we automatically assume that it is divinely inspired by God. This seems to leave out the artists that carve their soul into every note and word, bringing glory to their Creator with their talents.  But these artists can be overlooked so easily by the eyes culture has crafted for us. Music is one way God’s light can shine in this world, but there must continue to be people to strive for the pureness in music were God is found. Then we need to stand up and claim that music as our own and not settle for a lesser quality inspired to fill the pockets of the rich.

This is a conversation written by Scott Fields.  Hopefully this will bring more clarity to weekly post topic and strengthen your own apologetics.

Question: Why is there a hell? Answer: Hell is a consequence of our evil. The primary function of hell is to separate us from God, who cannot be in the presence of evil. 

Q: What do you mean “our evil”? I’m not evil. A: All human beings, except for Jesus Christ, are evil. We all commit what is called sin, which is the breaking of God’s law and makes us enemies of God.

Q: Why isn’t Jesus evil? A: His nature was not just human, but part God because He is the Son of God. He is limited as a human but had the flawlessness of God.

Q: How can God love us and send us to hell? A: Because God is loving and just.

Q: So I have to just wait until I die and go to hell? A: No.

Q: Then, by all means, won’t you explain to me how not to go to hell?!

A: First, stop shouting. Second, you have to realize where you and God stand. You are God’s enemy, separate from Him, and you cannot make yourself right with Him.

Q: Where is the not going to hell part of this explanation? A: Patience. You remember that Jesus fellow who’s all perfect-like and the Son of God?

Q: Yes, what about Him? A: He took care of the whole “you cannot make yourself right with God” situation.

Q: How? A: He lived a life without sin for some 33 years and was executed. His execution was the manner in which all the sin of all people was paid for, by laying it on His back while He was being killed. Then He was resurrected on the third day after He died.

Q: So all people get to go to heaven because this Jesus dude died and came back as a zombie? A: No, no, no!! Resurrection is not the same as zombification! He came back as a flesh and blood human being fully restored to His physical form.

Q: Why don’t all people go to heaven if the not-a-zombie Jesus died and was resurrected for all their sin? A: Because what He did for you is a choice. You don’t have to accept the gift of being free of the penalty of your sin.

Q: Why would anyone not want to accept that gift? A: Because it requires faith and most people today rely solely on facts which do not hurt, help, condemn or save you.

Q: And those who don’t accept the gift are going to hell even though their sins were paid for? A: Yes. The gift is that God separates your sins from you. Offering the gift only goes half the way, the rest is faith on your part.

Q: Why doesn’t God make an exception for those who don’t accept the gift? A: Because He loves them. Also, an exception would negate Christ needing to die on the cross.

Q: So sending people to hell is loving them? A: Yes. It’s like telling someone the truth even when it hurts them. You do it because the truth is more important than a lie. You cannot call yourself loving and a liar at the same time. If God wasn’t just He couldn’t be loving. He’s telling them the hard truth, that they were sinners and they didn’t accept the gift He offered them to remove the penalty of the sin.

Q: But what if you sin after you accept the gift? A: The gift doesn’t stop you from sinning, it removes the penalty of sin and makes you a son of God. You will most definitely sin again, but that’s why you are a son of God. After you sin, you apologize and change your ways. Being the son of God has the distinct advantage of God being with you to help you wherever you are. He is your strength, comforter, Father.

Q: So I’m God’s son? Like Jesus? A: Yes.

Q: But what about women? Please, tell me there are women in heaven! A: Yes, there are women in heaven. The gift was offered to everyone and all those who accept the gift are one in God. “Son” is more of a title of rank, which doesn’t discriminate because it is for those who are one in God. If you think about it, God told all those misogynistic he-men to go take a hike because women are equally as important to Him and loved by Him as men are.

Q: The God who sends people to hell is just and loving in doing so, but all those who accept the gift He offered are His sons and will be with Him when they die?

A: Yes.

One of the common arguments against God is:”how can a loving God allow disease, poverty, hunger, death, or send good people to a place like hell? I can’t believe in that God.” “Good people” is the basis and mistake of this entire argument. The truth is that “good people” are about as real as fairytales. We lost the ability to “be good” and walk with our creator at the beginning of time. He gave us the law, and at some point or another we all have broken it and fallen short of God’s perfection. But God has a plan. Christ came as a redeemer, a husband, and a sacrifice, paying the price for our brokenness. He tore the veil, yet mended us back to The Father, the way no other sacrifice could. God had to send His only Son to do this because of His very distinct nature.

LORD, God, King, Creator of everything. We must first understand that all creatures are under the rule of God. You cannot control God nor can you ignore Him. The fracture in humanity is the remnant of the first humans breaking the law. The consequence of breaking the law is permanent separation from the Lawmaker, as a statute of His law. God is actually limited as a flawless and perfect Being, and cannot be in the presence of evil. Just as He expelled Satan from heaven at the beginning of time when sin entered his heart, we too deserve an eternity in Hell and separation from a perfect God. But there is another part to God’s nature…

In the Old Testament, God gave the Jews a name for Himself in Exodus 34:5. It is YAHWEH. This name is so revered that Jews reading the Torah would replace the name YAHWEH with only the consonant letters meaning LORD, as a form of reverence. Rabbis would even wash their entire body before speaking the name Lord. When God gave the Jews His name, He also listed several characteristics of Himself. They range from gracious, slow to anger, and faithful. Yet, the very first trait mentioned is “compassionate”. We know that God is loving, but the word “compassionate” takes it a step beyond. Compassion is simply yet beautifully defined as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” We see this represented in the Old Testament as God justly punishes the disobedient people of Judah through their capture and exile to Babylon. Still, through His prophets, He promises to restore His people that he loves back to their land, alleviating their suffering. God’s love and compassion even burned so deeply for His people and all of humanity that he would willingly give up His son to be killed for our sake. Through Christ we could be made new and be able to be in communion with God.

The most pressing issue facing a man is the separation from God as a result of the weight of his sin. God used the sacrifice of His Son to relieve that weight to bring you back to Him, but He cannot help you if you do not allow Him to. Salvation is a choice that begins with recognizing why you needed Christ and then accepting Him as your Lord and Savior. There is a consequence to all action and inaction. That of denying Christ is the penalty of breaking the law. “But that’s not fair”, some may say. The only reason why this may not seem fair is because it doesn’t support the subjective idea of human goodness. The reality is, we shouldn’t be upset that a loving God would send people to Hell, because not even one of us deserves Heaven. But because God is love, which is only possible through Him being just, He created another way. The only way to walk with our creator once again.

*definition provided by dictionary.com

A quote from Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

If you are interested in more thoughts and views dealing with the subject of denominational differences, you should take the time to check out Brian McLaren’s book A Generous Orthodoxy.  You can get it for around $10 on amazon, which is a great deal for the amount of information captured in the book.

Lately we have both had the continual pleasure of meeting people that we don’t have a lot in common with, leading to some really fantastic conversations.  As these conversations grow deeper, it seems that most of the time the subject of faith is brought up and personal preferences are discussed.  Sometimes they are common to our own and sometimes they are not. Sometimes they strengthen our beliefs and some times they create tension. These two options don’t necessarily correlate and are mostly related to doctrine and denomination.

Major Doctrine:

Major doctrine deals with the undeniable truths: our humanity, sin, pardon through Christ, and thus becoming a child of God. Simply put, major doctrine deals directly with salvation rather than the issues that follow it. This is important to understand because many tend to confuse other doctrines by placing them in this group. 

Minor Doctrine:

Doctrines which do not fit into the first category are considered minor, which are those ideas not directly influencing salvation. They deal with interpreted truths which are inferior to the major doctrine and last as long as the way in which you interpret them. Examples of this group could be thoughts on free will vs. predestination, baptism styles, or spiritual gifts. While these ideas are important to our spiritual life and our perspective of who God is, believing one way or another in these areas will not directly affect your salvation.

A New Perspective:

You might be asking yourself why that quick theology lesson was necessary.  Well, as mentioned at the beginning, we have enjoyed the pleasure of meeting people with different views on faith and doctrine than ourselves.  This can be a problem in the church when the differences lead to disputes among believers who make up the Body of Christ.  Like the As Cities Burn lyric says, “if we are the body, how did a pretty man get so ugly, how did he get all these spaces between each limb?”  The solution is we need to stop taking things so personally. We try to create change by forcing our minor doctrinal opinions on people, leading to disputes among believers. This is saying “you are wrong, I am right”, which is really just judging others. Instead of wanting to destroy denominational differences, we should learn to delight in denominational differences. We should understand that some people choose particular minor doctrines because of the type of person God created them to be, and find their own perspective of God through that doctrine’s eyes. In other words, God created us differently. These differences bring balance to our faith and hold us accountable to our own minor doctrines. This will bring us one step closer to what Jesus has in mind for the body of Christ.

This is part one of a series of posts on issues of the church relating to entertainment:

The pastor of my church said “I apologize” regarding his lengthy sermon today. I glanced at my watch and the sermon ended minutes after the 12 o’clock hour with all the wind down announcements and such of the service still left to go. I object to the idea that my pastor should feel the need to apologize for not meeting some expected length of time with a sermon. What if we only gave God a specific time to do anything in our lives?

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” - Ecclesiastes 3:1. And “For the revelation awaits an appointed time…wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” Habakkuk 2:3

God acts on His own time and fitting Him into a schedule is foolish and it inhibits our ability to grow in His Word through His appointed teachers. No pastor should be an entertainer.

- Scott Fields II

TRUE STORY.  A local church was having a youth service and a Wednesday evening prayer service at the same time.  This was later discovered…

Youth Pastor: “It’s better to be somewhere in a dangerous place serving God than safe in America in a church sucking up the AC!”

Pastor: Opened prayer service by mentioning how cool it was in the sanctuary

This blog is a result of conversations and questions about life and spirituality between Scott Fields and Michael Schmitt. The original meetings were over caramel sundaes at a local McDonalds .