Josh Benner

Category: Faith

  • Difficulties as times for joy: the Bible and suffering

    Difficulties as times for joy: the Bible and suffering

    We face trials in life that our beyond our control. But we do have control over how we respond. In the Bible, in the book of James, he says, “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).

    We face trials, we face difficulties. It’s not that we find joy in the trials themselves. The point isn’t when a person breaks their arm, they should celebrate! But to find joy through what God is doing. What God is doing when things don’t go to plan.

    Count it joy. It’s getting more at our thoughts than our feelings. The call here isn’t to put on a happy face when we’re struggling. It’s not to live a lie if we’re in a tough season. But through trials, through difficulties, that we should still find joy in God.

    There are purposes as to why. James 1:3-4 says, “For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

    To be steadfast is to be resolute and unwavering, to persevere. Testing of your faith produces steadfastness. When we are tested, we have an opportunity to grow in faith. We have an opportunity to trust God, to trust his purposes, to trust his goodness.

    And there we have part of the reason why we should count tests and trials as occasions for joy. Not because of the difficulties in themselves, but because they produce steadfastness. We grow in strength.

    A person might ask, “Well if God is so good, why does he make us go through the trials at all?”

    Several reasons. The most obvious, based on this text is that God uses trials to make us perfect, and complete, lacking nothing.

    But this also gets at the purpose of life on earth. And that purpose is not to have a total life of ease without any difficulties ever. We live in a fallen world. And even as children of God, we are not insulated from the effects of the fall: from health problems, from broken relationships, from lost jobs, and disappointments.

    We live to know God, and facing trials doesn’t hinder knowing God and experiencing him. In fact, trials are meant to enhance that relationship.

    If following God meant that you didn’t face any trials, and everything was totally smooth sailing and the way we thought it should be, then God wouldn’t be God, you would be. If everything went the way we thought it should go.

    We grow through tests and trials. Or at least, we have the opportunity to grow in trials. We can keep our focus on God, we can turn to him for joy. Without knowing the answers, we can place our trust in him when we’re struggling. Or we can sit down and feel sorry for ourselves.

    We can grow in faith through being tested. We never grow if everything is always smooth sailing and status quo. It is in the struggles, when we are forced to rely on God and God alone and to trust him that we grow.

    Some of us won’t. And I don’t say this to mock, but some people who either don’t really have a relationship with God or who don’t really have a strong faith, in the struggle, will be like plants that aren’t strongly rooted in the soil, and in a challenge, totally become uprooted.

    God doesn’t test us so that we can fail. He tests us so we can be perfect and complete lacking nothing. So that through having a greater reliance and trust on him, we can grow in holiness.

    God is trustworthy in our trials.

    Trials are not the time to distance yourself from God and His Church. That’s the last thing you should do! It is in the trials that you should more and more be living for God, trusting God, growing with God.

    In facing trials, it’s important to have Godly people in your life. People to talk to, to pray with, to share your struggles with, to be encouraged by.

    Again, it’s not if but when we face trials. It’s inevitable and just actively being aware of that is valuable. We can rejoice in the good times. But we can also rejoice in the struggles because God is working in us. It is in the trials that we are most enabled to grow. Muscle fibers have to be torn before they can grow back together and form stronger muscles.

    If things are going really great right now, rejoice in that. There are trials in life, trials in families, there are trials in churches. God is trustworthy in our trials.

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  • What does it mean that Jesus is God’s son?

    What does it mean that Jesus is God’s son?

    Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to God as his Father. 

    In the Old Testament, there were appropriate forms in which to address God and Father was not one of them. The first Jewish person to refer to God as their “father” was Jesus. There are a few texts which refer to God as being the father of Israel. But that’s not how individuals addressed God.

    Today, it’s so much a part of our vernacular. It’s so ingrained in our thinking of God as our heavenly father that it can be easy to lose sight of how radical a statement that Jesus is making to the Pharisees. Jesus refers to the God of creation as his father. 

    But Jesus was making a radical claim and a theologically loaded statement. 

    But what does it mean? Jesus is uncreated and eternal. He’s God and has always been God. John 1:1 tells us: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How does Jesus have a father? 

    Let’s consider several aspects of fatherhood and what that means.

    D.A. Carson brings up that when we think of fatherhood, we tend to just think of it biologically. A man and a woman procreate and have an offspring, and the man is the father of the child. I’m influenced on this subject by Carson, Michael Horton, and Louis Berkhof among others. 

    I want to give five reasons for how Jesus is the Son of God. 

    1. Incarnationally

    In one sense, the fatherhood of God and sonship of Christ relates to the incarnation where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is eternal and uncreated. But he was not eternally a man. In the union of Christ’s humanity and divinity, he was born.

    Luke 1:31-32, where the angel Gabriel is telling Mary of the son whom she is to bear. 

    behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David

    And Jesus was indeed born, as we learn in Luke 2:7: unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord

    In his humanity, Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit through the will of God.In the beginning was the Word. Jesus always was, but he was not always human. 

    How can an eternal being be born and fully man is a divine mystery that we cannot fully understand. But he was born, and in that sense, he is the Son of God. 

    The word became flesh. That’s not saying Jesus simply took on a human body like he was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, but that he became flesh. He became a man. 

    So he’s the son of God, incarnationally. But that’s not the only sense in which Jesus is the Son of God. 

    1. Ethically

    You also have sonship in a moral sense in the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says: 

    love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High (Luke 16:35). 

    In that usage, he’s saying that, in one sense, it is acting like God which makes us like a son. 

    Follow me for a second. 

    Again borrowing from Carson. Prior to the industrial revolution, most people went into the same vocation as your parents. If your father was a farmer, you were a farmer. If your father was a fisherman, you were a fisherman. If you father was a blacksmith, you were a blacksmith. 

    You did what your father did. You were trained by your father. Some people still go into their parent’s line of work now, and that’s all well and good, but it’s not culturally assumed today that everyone will just follow in their father’s and mother’s footsteps. 

    But our heavenly father is perfect and righteous. We are not. But Jesus ties acting like our father in heaven to sonship. He does the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:9: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God. 

    And that goes both ways. In Acts 13:10, Paul calls a magician named Elymas a “son of the devil.” Now Jesus is the one who truly is perfect. In his ministry in the world, he truly lived as God because he is himself divine. Fully man, fully divine, and without sin and he is morally the Son of God. 

    1. Royalty

    Jesus is the royal Son of God. 

    In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel in the Davidic dynasty are sometimes referred to as God’s son. The king didn’t refer to God as his father. But he is proclaimed to be God’s Son. We see that in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 talks of the kings of the earth and their opposition to God. But then talks of a king whom God has called his son. 

    Psalm 2:7: I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 

    In the Old Testament, this is applied to the Davidic kings. We see this language in 2 Samuel 7 when the temple is dedicated. 

    2 Samuel 7:13-14. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

    But the kings are still ultimately sinful in their leading of the people. In Jesus, he is the true royal son who came into the world and preached of the kingdom of God. 

    1. Israel 

    Israel collectively is referred to as God’s son. 

    Jeremiah 31:9, God calls them his firstborn: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. 

    Reminder that Ephraim refers to Northern Israel. Exodus 4:22-23, Moses has been sent by God to command Pharoah to free the Israelites. 

    Moses is told: you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.

    With Israel, they had the law and failed to keep it. Jesus kept it perfectly. Moses gave them the law on a mountain. Jesus gave the new law in the Sermon on the Mount. 

    They were in the wilderness and sinned. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and did not sin. 

    The Book of Hosea refers to Israel when it says “out of Egypt, I called my son.” That same verse will be applied to Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. 

    He is the greater Israel. 

    1. Image of God 

    Jesus is the Son of God in the sense that he is the image of God. The image of God goes back to creation. 

    Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

    Goes on to say in verse 27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

    It’s not until the New Testament that Adam is referred to as a son of God. We see that in the genealogy of Christ in Luke 3:38. Man is created in the image of God. But humanity is also sinful and fallen. 

    Romans 5:10 says: if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

    We don’t have time to quote the whole passage, but Paul is building an argument. 

    In verse 12, he says: just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

    Then he says in verse 17: because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 

    So what Paul is saying is that sin entered the world through Adam and that Jesus is a new Adam who is without sin and comes bringing grace. Jesus is the greater Adam and the truest example of the image of God. 

    Colossians 1:15 says: He is the image of the invisible God

    Hebrew 1:2-3 says: in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

    In that sense, Jesus is the true son. I’m giving all of these examples, because Jesus as the Son of God means something. It’s not a haphazardly chosen title. 

    It points us to the gospel 

    The sonship of Christ and the fatherhood of God points us to the gospel. 

    We are God’s children, created in his image who had forsaken God through our sin. 

    Jesus is the perfect Son of God who was forsaken so we could be forgiven for our sins. 

    As radical as it is that Jesus addressed God as his father, he invited us to do the same when he taught the disciples how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. 

    your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (Matthew 6:9)  

    The Apostle Paul says in the opening salutations of all of his letters: grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    The fatherhood of God is bestowed upon the people of God because Jesus is the true Son of God. 

    Jesus is the son of God who allows us to be adopted as God’s children and to approach God as our own father. 

    John 1:12 says: to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

    The adoption language is used by Paul at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians. 

    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:3-5) 

    That’s the Good News of the Gospel. The Son of God allows us to call God our father. 

  • Christian comedian break silence 8 months after sexual misconduct scandal

    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    After an eight month hiatus from the public eye, popular millennial Christian comedian broke his silence through social media on Wednesday. Last November, Charisma News broke a story detailing numerous allegations of sexual misconduct carried out by Crist.

    Before the sexual misconduct scandal, Crist had amassed millions of followers online, had a popular standup tour, was a few weeks ago from the release of a Netflix comedy special. He had become a social media sensation among evangelical millennials for poking fun at the Christian subculture.

    Crist notes the overwhelming support he’s received from fans.

    With a scandal of personal sin, I feel like there are two primaries camps where Christians find themselves. And I think that this is interesting, not just because of Crist, but because it’s a microcosm of how we view sin. 

    On the one hand, you have the cheap grace crowd. When this scandal first came to light, I remember seeing posts online which totally overlooked the severity of what Crist had done and said things like “no one is perfect,” “well all make mistakes,” “Christians aren’t supposed to judge,” “I guess you must be perfect.” 

    For this group, there’s no real need for repentance or transformation. Christians often get painted as being too judgmental and critical. I actually think a larger issue in Christendom is that we’re often too dismissive of sin and quick to excuse it away under the guise of grace. 

    But that overlooks the victims. Crist was a predator who used his fame to exploit women. That’s a truly terrible thing for a person to do. I’m not suggesting that Crist is irredeemable. That’s the good news of the gospel. No matter what a person does, no matter what sin a person commits, there can be grace through Christ and what he has done. But we can’t mitigate sin itself.

    When Crist’s misconduct came to light last November, he said at the time:

    “While I am not guilty of everything I’ve been accused of, I confess to being guilty of this—I have treated relationships with women far too casually, in some cases even recklessly. My behavior has been destructive and sinful. I’ve sinned against God, against women and the people who I love the most. I have violated my own Christian beliefs, convictions and values, and have hurt many people in the process. I am sorry for the hurt and pain I have caused these women and will continue to seek their forgiveness. I have also hurt the name of Jesus and have sought His forgiveness. Over several recent years, I have privately sought and received regular professional treatment for my sexual sin and addiction struggles.”

    Another camp that people can fall into is being cynical. Not believing that he’s truly repented and that he’s working to change. This view is also dangerous. All are sinful and need to repent and to turn to Christ.

    The reason why it’s easy to be cynical is that people so often let us down and fall. It’s easy to be cynical because much of our society is cynical. We paint in broad brush strokes. We judge people from the past based on the values of today. If a person commits a sin in the eyes of the popular culture, the mob comes after them. It seeks to bring punishment instead of forgiveness. The mob seeks to punish, to tear people down, to assume the worst. Christians can be tempted to fall into this too.

    I think that the appropriate response is in the middle. Yes, there is grace and we should rejoice in that. But talk is cheap. True repentance and true faith bear fruit. So I think we should take a person at their word when they apologize and seek help and seek to change. But we should also expect to see the fruit of that in their life.

    To specifically critique today’s statement from Crist, I wish he would have more specifically called his actions “sin,” and talked about repentance and dependence on his faith. In many ways, I think his initial statement was better than what he said in his video. I also would have liked to have seen him specifically apologize for what he did instead of vaguely referring to “a lot of poor choices in my personal life” which “hurt myself, that hurt other people, and embarrassed myself.”

    Crist goes on to say “the most embarrassing part of this whole thing is the biggest hypocrite was me.” I can think of more embarrassing aspects of this scandal.

    I’ve been a fan of Crist for a few years. One of the first dates my wife and I went on after getting married was seeing hi perform stand up. It’s truly my hope that he has changed.

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  • What wisdom has to do with struggles

    It’s In the opening chapter of the Letter of James, in talking about the trials we face, James says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

    What does wisdom have to do with trials?

    God gives us wisdom to trust in him in the face of trials.When we’re in trials, the onus isn’t on us to figure it all out on our own, to understand all that’s going on.

    We aren’t called to have the answer for all of our trials and struggles. We are to consider and to count it joy when we are in trials because of the work that God is doing. But seeing his purposes, seeing God in the struggles, for that, we do need wisdom.

    There are numerous Proverbs that talk about God granting wisdom. Proverbs 2:6 says “The Lord gives wisdom.” He points us to his promises, his goodness, his salvation. He can point us to the hope that is found in the gospel and grant a peace that surpasses all understanding.

    James continues in verse 6: But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

    I used to live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. The water and waves are constantly changing, even through the course of a day. Sometimes the waters can be very calm and still. On a day when there’s no wind, it’s incredible how still the water is. It’s like a mirror. Other times the water is really choppy. And the imagery of waves that James is using: to be walking in doubt, constantly varying and changing. One moment walking in faith, the next moment doubting God’s goodness, or his plan, or his existence. The winds of situations blowing us too and fro, totally out of control in our faith, totally depending on conditions instead of cultivating an internal relationship and pursuit of God.

    AND WE SEE PART OF THE PROBLEM IN VERSES 7 AND 8:

    FOR THAT PERSON MUST NOT SUPPOSE THAT HE WILL RECEIVE ANYTHING FROM THE LORD; HE IS A DOUBLE-MINDED MAN, UNSTABLE IN ALL HIS WAYS.

    James says that the person who’s doubting is like a wave of the sea, and here that person is called double-minded. Trusting God, not trusting God. Trusting God, not trusting God. Trust, no trust, trust, no trust.

    We are following God or we are not. If we keep jumping between trust and doubt, we can’t expect to grow in wisdom or an insights of our situations.

    The point isn’t that the slightest feeling of doubt ever means that God is not going to respond or be there. But if doubting and failing to trust God is a way of life, and just part of our outlook whenever things aren’t going exactly as we want them to go, there’s no blessing in that. And through a trial, there can be ebbs and flows of emotion. We might thrash at first, but when we’ve had some time, to know that God is at work. Trusting in God needs to be our general disposition

    So when we face trials, we are able to turn to God to seek wisdom, through faith without doubting. When we turn to God in doubt, then we are doubting his goodness. Again, God’s purpose is not to give us a life totally free from any difficulty. We will have that one day, but he is growing us in holiness until that time.

    This actual trust is what separates the men from the boys, when it comes to faith. K.A. Richardson talks about how there is no middle ground between faith and unbelief. We aren’t called to be double minded but to be single minded and totally focused on God.

    We trust God in struggles and that trust is part of what helps us grow in faith.

    But our overall disposition when we come to God needs to be to trust him. Not to be wishy washy, one week trusting in God, but keeping him on a short leash if we don’t get the immediate result we want, or the answer we want, to the relief we want. But even in spite of confusion, even when things don’t make sense, to keep on turning to God and looking to God.

    Maybe you’re in a tough place with work right now. Your boss doesn’t seem to appreciate you. You’re overdue for a promotion, but it’s where God has you now. In that trial, in that period of frustration, to turn to God.

    Trials are opportunities where we can grow with God or turn from God. Trials are situations where we can grow in holiness or fall into sin, depending on the choices we make.

    Turning to God in wisdom of how to live, and wisdom of how to approach life, and the wisdom to recognize that God is good, always. And while trials and seasons are not always what we want, they are always intended for good.

    We need to be intentional about staying in faith, not being moved by the current of life. Not being double minded, playing both sides with God, but having a steadfast trust in what God is doing in our life.

    Originally published December 5, 2016

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  • Megachurches, televangelists among churches who received loan money

    Megachurches, televangelists among churches who received loan money

    American Catholic Churches received roughly $1.4 billion dollars in government bailout money as part of . Megachurches like Chicago’s Willow Creek and Harvest Bible Chapel, First Baptist Church of Dallas, and Life.church from Oklahoma all received millions of dollars. Televangelists like Joyce Meyer, Jim Bakker, and Jimmy Swaggart also received federal money.

    Theologically, I have issues with churches taking federal loans for several reasons. It sets a bad precedent. I don’t think a church should depend on federal money to operate. Yes, this is an extreme situation and all sorts of private businesses also received loan money to help protect employees. Churches should have some money already in savings for an emergency situation. Also, people were still able to financially give money to their churches during the pandemic. But this is also the fault of the government for making loan money available to churches. Of course there would be churches who would take the money.

    Over 10,000 churches and religious organizations received funds in the paycheck protection program.

    Some of the Catholic dioceses who are receiving money had previously had to pay out settlements in the wake of sexual abuse scandals. Churches like Willow Creek and Harvest have both been rocked by scandals as Willow’s pastor stepped down amid sexual misconduct allegations in 2018 and Harvest fired their pastor in 2019 in the wake of vitriolic comments coming to light when he was already on leave due to various allegations of ministerial abuses. For those churches, it strikes me similarly to bankrupt states wanting federal bailouts for issues that existed long before covid.

    For televangelists who received money, many of them live lavishly. Jim Bakker who went to prison for fraud associated with his ministry in the 1980s was sued earlier during the Coronavirus outbreak for selling a bogus “cure” for the disease. His church took hundreds of thousands in loan money. Televangelist Joyce Meyer is worth millions of dollars and her ministry reported having $12 million at the end of last year but received between $5-10 million in the federal loan. Again, I blame the government for giving that money just as much as I blame these huge ministries for receiving it.

    Yes, it should be understood that the vast majority of churches who received money are not megachurches and do not have scandals. I have no doubt that some really were in need of help.

    But I also feel like this undermines the spiritual issues of churches and funding. If a church cannot afford to operate, either their members are not supporting the ministry of the church, which is an issue a church needs to address; or it means that a church is trying to do too many things. But the answer should not be federal loan programs, pandemic or not.

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