In February, a global conference of Methodists voted to keep its traditional marriage stance. This included disallowing the ordination of openly gay clergy and not officiating same-sex weddings.
While the international Methodists voted to affirm traditional marriage, most American Methodists and clergy hold to progressive views on LGBT issues. (more…)
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.
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A few weeks ago, the Episcopal diocese in America voted to remove gender pronouns for God in updated versions of their Book of Common Prayer.
I think many in our world believe in a gospel of “you’re ok.”
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about liberal Christianity.
They place a strong emphasis on love. And love is obviously important. The greatest commandment that Jesus gives is to love God and to love our neighbor. Not just to love our neighbor, but to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
But here’s where liberal Christians get it wrong.
They emphasize love to the exclusion of other aspects of God.
God is love. But he is not only love. God is also holy. God is also wise. God is also just and a judge.
And when we hold up love as the only aspect of God that matters, it will ultimately lead to affirming that which is blasphemous.
The gospel is not there to tell us that we’re all ok. Actually, it’s the opposite of that message. We are not called to love sin. Nowhere in the Bible is sin seen as a good thing. The Bible teaches that all of humanity is sinful. In fact, we are so sinful that the only way that we could be reconciled to God was for God to bear the cost of our sin. Jesus did that on the cross.
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
Absolutely, we see the love of God in the gospel. But we also see his justice. Sin has an eternal penalty apart from Christ. And while he went to the cross to show his love, it also shows the cost of sin. Let us not take sin lightly.
When we try to decide what is good apart from God’s moral law, it ends up becoming merely the opinions of men. As the common refrain in the Bible’s book of judges goes: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).”
God is love but he is also wise. And just as we can’t pick and choose who to love (we are called to love everyone, to want what’s best for everyone, to have concern for people) we also cannot pick and choose which aspects of God’s wisdom and morality we want to like. It’s all true.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessedness is not in pursing worldly goals, it’s not in “following your truth,” it’s not in doing what makes you happy. It’s having a desire for the righteousness of the righteous and holy God who created the universe.
And because God loves us, he doesn’t desire for us to be kept the same when we come to him. It’s not a difference of opinion between us and God in regards to sin. It’s truth and falsity.
jrb
