Josh Benner

Category: Gospel

  • Mary too? Professor argues Mary carried Jesus without consent

    Came across a story this morning about a recent Tweet from a college professor at the University of Minnesota Mankato.

    Eric Sprankle talked about the virgin birth of Jesus and said: “The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powrful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.”

    “There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario?”

    First of all, he’s entirely missing the point. Second of all, he’s wrong. In the Gospel of Luke, Mary actually does say “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

    People have brought that up. But that doesn’t count, according to Dr. Sprankle who says, “The Biblical god regularly punished disobedience. The power difference (deith vs mortal) and the potential for violence for saying “no” negates her “yes.”

    Seriously?

    Christians believe that before the conception of Jesus, an angel of God appeared to Mary and told her that she had been chosen for this once in human history task of being able to carry the Lord.

    And this professor is essentially arguing that because of a power imbalance, she didn’t really have a choice?

    His Tweets are incoherent. In the first one, he says that God is all-powerful and all-knowing (both of which are true). But then he argues against the divine plan of an all-knowing God in choosing Mary to give birth to Jesus. She wasn’t chosen at random.

    And God is all-powerful. Men are not all-knowing nor are we all-powerful. We are unworthy of God. We are created for God. There is a power imbalance. We are not equal to God. And when I say the Tweets are incoherent, I mean that it’s incoherent to say that God is all-knowing and then to question his wisdom of morality and his plans.

    Sprankle’s definition of consent is so radical and limited that even giving consent doesn’t count. It’s intellectually dishonest. It’s referring to a once-in-human-history event. Also, this has nothing to do with sexual consent anyway!

    But if you continue to read in the gospel account, Mary continues to be perfectly happy with this situation.

    “My soul magnifies the Lord,
     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
    for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
    For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

    -Luke 1:46-48

    She didn’t give consent? Mary seems pretty ok with the arrangement. And it was through this act that the savior of the world came into the world to save the world from sin.

    One day we will all be held to account for our lives and actions. And there won’t be equality with God then either. God is awesomely powerful, righteous, and holy. We are not. We are sinful. We are so sinful that the only way we could be redeemed was for God to come into the world. The birth of Christ shows us that from beginning to end, Jesus had a divine ministry. Jesus came into a world that was so sinful that the world killed him. He did that so we could be forgiven. We are sinful and cannot make ourselves right with God. But Jesus came so that we could be with God. Not because we deserved it. Not because we are God’s peers. But out of his goodness and grace.

    Jesus did that to save sinners. Even sinners who mock the gospel and the righteousness of God. But we must repent of our sins and turn to Christ and trust in the life that he promises.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Lauren Daigle catches heat for punting on LGBT question

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    Lauren Daigle’s new album “Look Up Child” has been incredibly poplar. It’s been a #1 album on Christian charts but the incredibly talented singer has also been achieving mainstream success with her album reaching as high as third on the Billboard Top 200, a rarity for a religious album. She’s even appeared on the Tonight Show, Ellen, and Dancing with the Stars.

    On a recent interview with Domenick Nati, Daigle was asked if she believed homosexuality was a sin. The singer responded: “You know, I can’t honestly answer on that…too many people that I love (that) are homosexuals.”

    Within Evangelical circles, Daigle has been heavily criticized this week.

    She did have an opportunity to publicly defend the sanctity of marriage.

    But I can also appreciate that it was a difficult situation to be in. Because it’s an issue where it’s hard to disagree and not be viewed as hateful or bigoted. It’s an issue that warrants individual conversations rather than broad commentary.

    I do think she could have handled that question better than she did, but she was basically put in a no-win situation.

    I know many Christians would disagree with me.

    But I think we can make a mistake of weighing homosexuality ahead of other areas of sin, as if it’s preeminent. We can put it on a pedestal.

    Don’t misunderstand me. I do believe it’s a sin.

    And if you’ve ever listened to my preaching, I don’t think I’m someone who would be accused of taking sin lightly.

    All sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All are equally dead in sin apart form Christ. The gospel is not saving someone to heterosexuality but it is saving people to Jesus. The gospel is not “get straight and then get saved,” it’s to come to Jesus where you are. The starting point of the gospel is not to try to change a person’s orientation. It’s to love people unconditionally, and invite them into a relationship with Jesus.

    The Bible is clear that marriage is between one man and one woman. The Bible is clear that the only framework by which a sexual union can be morally engaged in is through marriage. The Bible is clear that anything outside of that is sin.

    But someone want people beating their chest in the public arena on this issue.

    It’s true that in the Old Testament, there were prophets who warned Israel of divine wrath and judgment. In the New Testament, Paul called out those who were distracting people from the gospel. Jesus railed against the sinfulness of the moral teachers. But these were groups within the Jewish religious communities.

    I’m not arguing for cultural relativism. God is righteous and God has a righteous standard to approach him: Jesus. My point is that in the Bible, within the faith community, because it was a faith community, there was a common and agreed upon standard to which to hold people accountable and question people for disregarding.

    God’s moral will is still righteous, and holy, and good. And immorality should be addressed. But in the context of desiring to build relationships, does calling out everyone’s individual sins need to be the starting point? Or is the issue not about one particular sin but a sinful nature and a life that is sinful and opposed to God apart from Christ?

    The disease for all of humanity is sin and the cure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    I have no doubt that she does have relationships with people who are homosexual that she genuinely loves. It’s a complicated subject. It’s a hard balance to maintain relationships and to hold to fundamental Biblical truths which many dislike. Because those relationships are important. And publicly coming out with a hard line position against homosexuality could be harmful to relationships. She’s a singer not a theologian.

    I can appreciate not wanting to alienate a lot of people (not just in terms of record sales and popularity), but also not wanting to turn people away from a message.

    Much of our society has made up its mind on this subject and so a traditional Biblical view will make a person seem hateful and homophobic. The idea that you can “love the sinner, not the sin” has been rejected by much of the culture.

    However we love the sinner, not the sin in all sorts of other areas of life. Why is there no room to love people while morally disagreeing on this issue?

    I know some are extremely critical of Daigle. I don’t see what that really accomplishes. Frankly, the vast majority of people will never be in the position she’s in with the platform she has. I’ve heard people say that she’s not even a Christian based on her response. That seems a bit heavy handed. The Apostle Peter denied even knowing Jesus on Maundy Thursday.

    The starting point needs to be the gospel.

    Since she was asked, I do have criticism that she basically avoided the question. If she doesn’t have an opinion on that issue, she needs to study the clear Biblical teachings on the matter. If she does think it’s wrong but didn’t want to say it, she should have more backbone than that.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • The true test of love

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    Everyone loves love.

    But not everyone agrees on what love is.

    Much of society associates love with tolerance and acceptance.

    And while we can agree that love is good, truly having love for people is challenging. Yes, it’s easy to love family and good friends. Jesus addresses that in the Gospel of Luke: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that (Luke 6:32-33).” 

    The Bible shows us what love is on the cross. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”

    In 1 John 3:16-17, the Apostle John says:

    By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

    -1 John 3:16-17

    It’s easy to agree with that. It’s easy to see the virtue in that.

    But what an incredibly difficult picture of love that is. I don’t think that it exclusively means dying (the second half of the passage talks about helping those in need, which assumes someone is alive to do that).

    Being apathetic to what people do, and calling that love, is easy.

    Just saying you love people is easy.

    Actually loving people is hard. Actually serving people is hard.

    And perhaps the truest test of love is how we treat those who are hardest for us to love. Again, it’s easy to love those who are nice to us. It’s easy to love those we like.

    But we’re sinful. And we all have those who are harder for us to love. Who is it who is hard for you to love? Maybe it’s someone who believes differently politically. Maybe those of another religion. Maybe it’s those who are rich or those who are poor and on the bottom of society’s rungs. Maybe it’s criminals or those who battle an addiction or have a mental disorder. Maybe it’s more than one of these groups.

    Again, it’s easy, in theory, to agree that we should love everyone.

    But whoever it is who’s the hardest for you to love is who you need to love. It’s a message that makes no sense to the world. And it’s a message that Jesus died to bring to the world.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

    Let’s connect!
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Instagram

  • Difficulties as seasons for joy

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    In his book “Above the Line,” Ohio State’s football coach Urban Meyer talks about his coaching philosophy. One of the things Meyer talks about in his book is what he calls “the R factor.”

    And by the R factor, Meyer is talking about the Response Factor. In the book, Meyer says: “We don’t control the events in life, and we don’t directly control the outcomes. But we always have control over how we choose to respond.”

    While this is certainly true on the football field, Meyer goes on to talk about how this is also true in life. (more…)

  • American missionary killed: the cost of the gospel, the necessity for wisdom

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    An American missionary, John Allen Chau lost his life on a remote island off the coast of India last week.
    His goal was to share the gospel with the Sentinelese tribe. Their island is a protected area, which is isolated from the outside world. The tribe has also been violent towards visitors in the past.

    Chau attempted going to the island and the Sentinelese shot arrows at him, forcing Chau to flee. But he returned again, tragically losing his life.

    I’m conflicted about this story. It is certainly very unfortunate that this man lost his life. I appreciate that he had a desire to go somewhere and share the love of Jesus with people who didn’t know it. (more…)