Josh Benner

Tag: judgment

  • Accountability isn’t judgmental, it’s Biblical: why the church needs standards

    Accountability isn’t judgmental, it’s Biblical: why the church needs standards

    Over the last few weeks, Jerry Falwell, Jr had a very public suspension from Liberty, during which time he revealed an affair his wife was having. Falwell resigned, then said he didn’t, then resigned again, bashed the university. This was the culmination in a long series of personal and moral failings from Falwell.

    But what’s interesting when a prominent Christian has significant moral failings exposed, is the excuses I see online. I see comments on news articles and blogs where people will ask “and you’re perfect?” “I guess you never sin?”

    Ironically, that is a self-defeating proposition. Judging people for having moral opinions is in fact a moral opinion where you’re being judgmental!

    But what’s more, the idea that it’s somehow especially loving, or pious, or enlightened to show indifference to sin is not a Biblical idea.

    Just for quick reference:  if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1). As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear (1 Timothy 5:20). My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins (James 5:19-20). Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17).

    We should be gracious. We should want to see people repent and restored. We should want to see broken people’s lives changed.

    But we should not ignore sin. Because when we do, we allow predators to run roughshod in churches and Christian organizations under the guise that that’s “loving.” It isn’t. It’s not loving to the sinner who needs people who love them and care enough to point them to truth and righteousness. And for powerful people, it’s not loving to others in their ministry or organization who can suffer and be victimized by unscrupulous morals and sin.

    Yes, there needs to be grace and forgiveness, but there also needs to be accountability. And sometimes there need to be consequences for a person’s actions. Leading churches, ministries, Christian organizations is a sacred privilege, not a right.

    What about “not judging?”

    A person might say but what about where Jesus says: “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1)? And doesn’t he also say “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?“(Matthew 7:3)

    But just a couple of verses later, Jesus also says “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

    Given the numerous Biblical passages which talk about pointing out sin and restoring sin, and encouraging people to personal holiness, the point of that verse isn’t that you should never have a moral opinion (which isn’t possible). The point isn’t about having a constant disposition of judgment, self-righteousness, comparison to others, and looking for faults. It’s not a command against thinking that immoral behavior is bad and that people (especially professing Christians) should live to a higher standard.

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

  • Wrath and judgment – did God command genocide in the Old Testament

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    When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
    -Deuteronomy 7:1-2
    In Deuteronomy 7, the Israelites are just outside the land and the Lord gives a challenging command. The Israelites are told to wipe out the nations who inhabit the land.
    It’s not a popular idea. It’s a notion that many find reprehensible and immoral. For skeptics and people who believe in other religions, it’s fodder for them to undermine the teachings of the Bible.
    God is using Israel as a divine judgment for cleansing the land against wicked nations who lived totally contrary to the will of God. It was divine mercy that God had allowed these nations to exist as long as they did. But their sin eventually reached a braking point.
    The judgment was divine and righteous judgment.
    In this judgment, everything needed to be destroyed. The people, but not just the people. Also their livestock, also their crops, also their gold and possessions.
    It was all given to the Lord. The point wasn’t plunder for the Israelite’s gain because victory was from the Lord and everything was given to the Lord.
    Part of the reason why they had to be wiped out was that it was trying to preserve the Israelites from idolatry.
    It’s a very challenging idea. It’s a very unpopular idea.
    For a student of the Bible, I’d like to include a few thoughts on this challenging passage.
    God is just. 
    The fact that God doesn’t wipe out anyone immediately due to their sin is evidence of God’s grace and mercy. No one deserves grace. We willingly sin and transgress against the holy and righteous God of the universe.
    This judgment wasn’t Moses’ idea, or later, Joshua’s idea. It was God’s judgment. It wasn’t the Israelite elders who decided they should do this. God decided.
    And it was ultimately God who was enacting his judgment.
    Judgment for a particular time and place
    It was not meant to be a worldwide judgment. It was clearing out the land. Once the Israelites were in the land, there aren’t any indications that they were supposed to become raiders just attacking other groups or committing violence for its own sake.
    This command was for the Israelites in the specific context of the Promised Land.
    Israel never followed through at carrying out this judgment 
    While it might seem unfair or unnecessarily harsh, The Israelites never actually fully enact the devoting of their enemies to destructing in the land.
    And it is to their own peril and difficulty as they will historically be plagued by idolatry and turning away from the Lord.
    Picture of future judgment 
    For anyone who will not bend a knee to God, there will be a day of reckoning. This is a foretaste of the final judgment. There is an eternal consequence for rejecting the Lord, because without his saving grace, we are dead in sin.
    Opposing the Lord comes with severe consequences.
    God is just.
    And no one dies who would have otherwise repented. No one goes to hell because they didn’t have enough time.
    It’s not because God is mean. Not because he’s unfair.
    But because he is holy and righteous. And God cares about his own holiness.
    The good news is that God has made a way for people to avoid all of that. It’s a matter of trusting in the gospel. Believing in the Lord.
    We can’t be good enough, we can’t earn it. Our only hope is Jesus. God with us. Who lived a sinless life so that all who believe in him could be forgiven.

    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. His hobbies include working out, watching sports, and photography. Josh and his wife Kari live in Minnesota.

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  • The danger of bad Biblical teaching

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    Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
    -James 3:1

    Words matter.

    We can use words to bless, words to harm, words to boast, words to give instruction, and words to deceive. Through words we can tell a person that we love them, or that we hate them. Through words we can compliment or tear a person down.

    When the Prophet Isaiah had a heavenly vision of the throne room of God, and beheld the holiness of God, he said in Isaiah 6:5: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

    Words were part of the original sin. In the garden, the serpent, twisting God’s words: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    God had never said that. He said they could eat of any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Genesis 3:2-3).

    Eve also gets it wrong. God had never said they couldn’t touch the tree. Twisting God’s words. Further provoked into sin by the devil In Genesis 3:4-5, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

    When Adam and Eve are confronted with their sin, they use words to blame in Genesis 3:12, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

    Words matter.

    In the first part of James 3, James zeroes in on teachers. He gives a warning to teachers that they will be judged with greater strictness. The reason why carries into verse 2 that we all sin in many ways, but one of the ways common to us all is that we stumble and sin in what we say.

    There is danger in bad Biblical teaching. It can lead people astray. It can teach people falsities, because the God who is revealed in scripture is the eternal, immortal, wise God. He’s the King of the universe, the creator of all things, he spoke the universe into being.

    There’s not a canvas where we are painting and where we can make something look however we want it to look.

    God is God. He has revealed himself in his scripture, his nature, his holiness. And so sound teaching about God matters. Teaching truth about God matters. Understanding God -in terms of how he has revealed himself in the Bible – matters.

    And not all churches do that. And not all teachers do that.

    Not many should be teachers because teaching necessarily involves words. Teaching about God’s word, teaching about God’s gospel necessarily involves words and language, and in talking, it makes it easy to say things that are untrue.

    We can’t be fast and loose with God’s gospel. We can’t make God who we want God to be if that’s not true about how God reveals himself in scripture.

    Unbiblical teachings that resort more to our feelings than to truth.

    Doesn’t God just want me to be happy? Not at the expense of sin!

    Words matter. How we approach the word of God matters. Like the serpent in the garden, twisting the very words of God.

    So it is true that there is a warning given to those who teach. And anyone who does teach from the word of God should question his motives, should be humble before God, and prayerful about the text. It should be taken seriously.

    We should be careful in our approach to God’s word.

    But regardless of if someone is a teacher or not, all of us should still use discernment in listening to what our teachers say. In listening to that which is in accordance with scripture. Of being fed by sound Biblical preaching. And that’s true here, and thats’ true if you ever move to a new community. And that’s true of any teacher who you might watch on tv or who you might podcast. We should be discerning with the Bible teachers we listen to.

    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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  • Meaning of the bronze serpent: the gospel in Numbers

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    In Numbers 21, the Israelites experience victory over the Canaanites but soon fall back into grumbling and complaining.
    God brings a plague of snakes upon the people. It’s a divine judgment.
    Their grumbling against God was to their downfall. But the people beg for mercy.
    8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
    -Numbers 21:8-9
    Moses prays. God tells Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. So God doesn’t simply take the snakes away. He also doesn’t prevent people from continuing to get bitten by the snakes.
    But once bitten, a person could respond by faith in the Lord by looking to the serpent on the pole.
    It’s an odd story. A number of questions might come to mind.
    Isn’t that idolatry? Making this bronze serpent?
    In the Golden Calf episode of Exodus 32, Moses is on the mountain receiving instruction from the Lord. He’s there for 40 days and the Israelites get restless. They take their gold and melt it into the image of a cow.
    Why is it ok with the bronze serpent?
    It’s a totally different situation. Most importantly, because God told them to do it this time.
    Secondly, this wasn’t idol worship because they weren’t worshiping the serpent.
    The serpent didn’t represent God to the people.
    There are many wonderful gospel themes in this scene.
    The Israelites sin against the Lord.
    And so God brings a plague of snakes upon the people as divine judgment.
    And yet, once the people repent and the bronze snake is made, it is in looking to that by which people are healed.
    A symbol of death becomes a symbol of life 
    Snakes were bringing death, but looking to this particular snake brought the promise of healing.
    A symbol of judgment the Lord then uses as a symbol of victory.
    The cross was the greatest symbol of judgment and condemnation in the Roman world.
    A brutal punishment. And yet, it is to the cross that we see Christ’s victory over sin.
    Perhaps you look at the story and think “but why a snake? Aren’t snakes bad in the Bible?”
    Yeah, so are people, but it is through a man that we are saved. The Lord Jesus, both God and man.
    The gospel 
    In a person being healed because of looking to the snake, it took what they were doing out of their hands. It was entirely the work of God.
    So too we see this in the gospel. It is not based on us, or how good we are. We are totally helpless to heal ourselves from the disease of sin. It is looking to the cross, to looking at what Jesus has done, to trusting Jesus by faith that we can have salvation.
    It’s foolishness 
    The serpent doesn’t make sense.
    The world is confounded by the gospel and the message of grace, the idea that we can be freely forgiven based on what someone else has done.
    The world is offended by the message of salvation by grace.
    Paul says in 1 Corinthians that the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).
    We want to save ourselves. We want to see how we measure up and to feel good about how good we are.
    The gospel is that you cannot earn it. You look to what Jesus has done.
    Salvation for the undeserving 
    The Israelites were grumbling and complaining and blaspheming against God, and yet God saves them.
    Jesus came into a world where people condemned him, polluted against him, betrayed him, and killed him.
    While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
    In both looking to the serpent and the death and resurrection of Jesus, what people needed was faith.
    In the Gospel of John, Jesus will make specific reference to this event in Numbers. John chapter 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, the Pharisee.
    Jesus says “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14)
    Moses literally lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole.
    And Jesus was literally lifted up on the cross.
    There, Jesus compares himself being lifted up to the bronze serpent.
    For the Israelites who were afflicted by the serpent’s bite, life was found by looking to the bronze serpent. For us today, eternal life is found by looking to Jesus.
    The main idea of our passage this evening is that: Opposing God brings death but true life is fond by faith.
    Are you trusting in Jesus?
    We’re infected with the venom of sin. And it’s a killer. There is nothing we can do on our own to take out that poison. The only antidote is found in looking to Jesus.
    Look to him. Love him. Live for him.

    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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  • Can a loving God allow hell to exist?

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    Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

    Originally published: November 14, 2016

    Hell is a tough doctrine.

    In his book the Problem of Pain, CS Lewis sums up what I think many would agree with: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”

    We’re fine with the idea of a loving God, but we’re less accepting of a God who judges.

    With the idea of hell, It can seem unfair. We can feel tempted to justify why hell doesn’t exist. Or maybe we think that hell is really just for people who are really, really bad. (more…)