Introducing Anya Mae Ravatsås

On July 26. 2011, at 2:54 PM, the Lord was pleased to make this precious addition to our family. Our first child, Anya Mae is 3430 g and 49 cm  (7 lbs 9 oz and 19 in.) of pure cuteness. My wife was amazing, delivering her at home in water without medical intervention. They are both strong and healthy.

Do judge! (1Cor 5:12-13)

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. (1Cor 5:12-13)

Matthew 7:1 has become one of the most quoted verses in the entire Bible. “Do not judge so that you will not be judged”. It’s commonly used as an attack against Christians who are willing to say that the Bible condemns certain sins. If someone ever throws this verse at you, ask them if they think it’s wrong for you to judge others. When they say yes, ask them to kindly stop judging you. And if you feel up for it, try to explain to them the difference between judging someone and telling them what the laws are.

We understand from the context of Matthew 7, that the kind of judgment Jesus is talking about, is a self-righteous hypocrisy that sets up a higher standard for others than for self. But that doesn’t mean we have to stop differentiating between right and wrong. To the contrary, not only do we have to differentiate, but when someone claims to be a christian, and consistently acts in a way that brings reproach to the name of Christ, then the church is not only authorized but commanded to judge them. Not with an arrogant attitude, and not with a higher standard than we use on ourselves, but with humility, concern and genuine fear for the eternal destination of their souls.

When it comes to those who are outside of the church, they are not under the church’s jurisdiction. We are not commanded, or even allowed to pass similar judgments on them.

If you think about it, that should be quite obvious. You can’t kick someone out of the church if they’re not in it. And excluding someone from the church is as far as our authority goes. Once someone is outside of the church - whether they are under church discipline, or they have never been part of the Church - God has it from there. The church doesn’t make eternal judgments. It doesn’t decide who goes to Heaven and Hell. That is God’s office.

When to bind, and when to loose? (1Cor 5:11)

But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1Cor 5:11)

It is time to look at what kinds of transgressions that would warrant disciplinary action from the church. Just to make sure, Paul again specifies that this is for those who call themselves brothers. And then he goes on to give a list of six specific categories of sinners. We’re going to look closer at them.

• Immoral people: (gr. “pornos”) The literal meaning of the word is a male prostitute, but in the Bible it is used of all kinds of sexual immorality (which in itself implies that all sexual immorality is of the same nature as prostitution).
• Covetous people: People eager to have more, especially what belongs to others. Covetousness is really a form of the next sin, which is Idolatry (Eph 5:5, Col 3:5)
• Idolaters: Idolatry is when God is not of primary importance to you. You don’t determine this by your ability to manipulate yourself into a certain state of emotion, but rather by what you tends to fill up your mind, what your actions are aiming toward and what gives you comfort, security and pleasure.
• Revilers: A reviler is one who assaults and abuses with words. He will make harsh insults and accusations, intended to humiliate someone or damage their reputation.
• Drunkards: No further explanation is needed, except perhaps to point out that any compulsive or addictive behavior, that inhibits your sound judgment, would be a form of this sin.
• Swindlers: (gr. “harpax”) It can mean a swindler, robber or extortioner. Basically anyone who by violence, threats or deceit takes something that rightfully belongs to another.

Keep this list in mind, and let’s go to a couple of other passages:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor 6:9-10)

For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Eph 5:5)

What I want you to notice here is how well the list of sins that qualify for church discipline correlates with the list of sins that disqualify a person from inheriting the kingdom of God. Not because we earn our entrance there by avoiding certain sins, but because sins of that type are symptoms of a heart that has not been transformed by God.

Church discipline is about the church on earth accurately reflecting who has their names in the book of life and who doesn’t (Matt 18:18). We do not want to include those who God has excluded, but nor do we want to exclude those who God has included.

Spiritual discernment is rarely cut-and-dry. It would be nice if it could be condensed into a six-point checklist that applied to every possible situation, but that’s just not the case. Paul gave us six examples of sins that qualify for church discipline, but without doubt there are more. (for example he left out murder from the list). And we can’t really apply a one strike and you’re out policy to the ones he did mention either, because that’s not what God does. He gives grace and second chances to those who are repentant.

So when Jesus teaches about this in Matt 18, he makes sure to set up a “procedure” that gives the sinner several opportunities to turn:

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matt 18:15-17)

Possibly it was this Peter had in mind when he asked in verse 21: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Maybe seven times sounded very generous to Peter, but Jesus was not impressed, and went on to tell the parable of the king who settled accounts with his servants to help Peter put forgiveness in the proper perspective. We commit a great sin if we throw a repentant sinner out of church because of an unwillingness to forgive, no matter how great his guilt is. We can not withhold forgiveness from our fellow servants, and still expect to be granted forgiveness ourselves.

The "Christianity" of the Oslo terrorist

Yesterday I posted my response to the claims that the Oslo terrorist was a Christian. Many others have written about this much better than I have. One I want to point out is Tim Challies, who offers an excellent analysis on his blog Another one is the piece below, written by my friend Conrad Myrland, who has taken the time to analyse what the terrorist says about his own faith in his manifesto. He has graciously allowed me to republish it on this blog

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The terrorist who committed the horrible atrocities in Oslo and Utøya 22 July 2011 recorded his faith as "Christian" in the Facebook-profile he designed short time before the attack.

He has therefore being portrayed as a "Christian terrorist" or a "Christian fundamentalist" in both Norwegian and international media.


NO RELATIONSHIP TO GOD OR JESUS

But this is how the terrorist describes his own Christianity in his 1500 pages "manifest":

If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian. (Quote page 1307)

He is saying that he doesn't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. So HE IS NOT a Christian, according to Jesus and the apostles. He is NOT a Christian according to the New Testament. HE IS NOT a Christian, according to the doctrine of the church(es) through two millenniums.

The terrorist has created a Christianity in his own image.

It reminds me of a note to self I made 12 July 2011: When you study Christianity you will either become proud to partake of its uniqueness and its blessed effect in the Western world, or you will be humbled by it's great God. The former path leads to hell. The latter to eternal life.

The great danger is that many people in the West has the terrorist's kind of "Christianity".

Dear reader: Is this the Christianity YOU follow?


NO RELATIONSHIP TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is mentioned twice in 1500 pages (according to a limited search). One time as a name of a local church, the second time where the terrorist declares that a personal relationship to the Trinity is not important. (See further down.)

A person with no relationship to the Holy Spirit is NOT a Christian.

The great danger is that many people who regard themselves as Christians is in the same situation as the terrorist.


PERVERTED UNDERSTANDING OF THE CROSS

Moreover, a Christian will always have somehow an understanding and a personal experience of the cross. This is the terrorist's understanding of the cross: European Christendom and the cross will be the symbol in which every cultural conservative can unite under in our common defense. It should serve as the uniting symbol for all Europeans whether they are agnostic or atheists. (Quote page 1307)

This is such an affront to Jesus and the cross on which he died, that no words can describe it. The terrorist believed in the supremacy of Europe, and hated marxists and Muslims. This should disqualify him as a Christian in itself. The one who hates, is a murderer, and has no eternal life. Moreover, there is no little dot in his manifest suggesting that he was a Christian with a personal relationship to God the Father, Jesus the Son and The Holy Spirit.


A PERVERTED UNDERSTANDING OF MARTYRDOM

The terrorist believed in "fighting for the cross". It was a fight for the perverted cross, and therefore also a perverted fight. He writes on page 1360: If you want to fight for the cross and die under the “cross of the martyrs” it’s required that you are a practising Christian, a Christian agnostic or a Christian atheist (cultural Christian). The cultural factors are more important than your personal relationship with God, Jesus or the holy spirit. Even Odinists can fight with us or by our side as brothers in this fight. Followed by the quote from page 1362: You don’t need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus to fight for our Christian cultural heritage. It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christianatheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter)).

No true Christian martyrs throughout the centuries would have accepted a definition of martyrdom anywhere like this. Christian martyrs die because of their loyalty to Jesus Christ, being ready - because their Savior and Lord lives in them - to forgive their killers, even love them.

Dear reader! May God's grace bring all of us under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and renew our hearts by His Holy Spirit every day.

God bless you! One day he will sweep away every tear from the eyes of those who belong to Him!

Conrad Myrland
conrad@myrland.com

How antinomianism causes hypocrisy (1Cor 5:9-10)

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. (1Cor 5:9-10)

Let’s take a moment to deduce what is going on here; Earlier in the chapter we learned that the Corinthians were not only tolerating sin in Church, but were actually celebrating it. Here we see that Paul has written to them about this in the past. And that upon receiving that message from him, the Corinthians had limited it to only demand a higher standard of unsaved people, while still allowing for immorality in the church.

As easy as it is to point out the blatant hypocrisy in that, recall our discussion on antinomianism from chapter 4. antinomianism, as you may remember is the doctrine that says there is no longer any value in obeying God’s commands because we are free from the law. Antinomianism is grace abuse. And it is a very short leap to go from antinomianism to demanding a higher moral standard for unsaved people. Since the unsaved are not under grace, they would still be under the law, so if you are going to be consistent you’ll have to go there. You really can’t avoid it.

Anders Behring Breivik - Fundamentalist Christian?

In the wake of the bomb in Oslo, and following massacre at the Labour Party youth camp at Utøya, I've noticed a very peculiar thing about the coverage of the event in American media. Many of them seem to be perpetuating the idea that the terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik is a fundamentalist Christian.

While I suspect that this misinformation is being perpetuated on purpose by a small group of secularist journalists who intend to exploit this tragedy to spread their agenda of hatred against Christians, I still feel obliged to make one clarification to my American friends, and help them see this through Norwegian eyes.

Breivik has authored (largely by copying and pasting) a 1500 page manifesto, where he uses some rhetoric around preserving our christian culture and heritage. European journalists, even the most left-leaning of them, understand what this means. We are immersed in the idea that our nations are "Christian nations", because we have state churches. They understand that the Christianity he talks about is the same Christianity they practice themselves when they take their children before the priest to get sprinkled, and when the go to Church on Christmas eve to get into the proper Christmas mood. It's what Norwegians do. They don't mean anything by it, and the moment they are out of those church doors they proceed to go about their secular lives as usual. This Christianity does not spring from a sincerely held faith in Christ. It's just a wholesome tradition that is closely tied to our national identity. And who knows, maybe there even is a God out there who will look on us favorably for jumping through these hoops, right?

This type of nationalistic Christianity lends itself perfectly to this type of abuse. Increasing numbers of Arab immigrants are spreading Islamic culture, so what is the remedy? We need to fight for our Christian cultural heritage!

And so it was that the name of Christ was dragged into this atrocity. Breivik may see himself as a Christian. It's a delusion he has in common with most of the Norwegian population. It seems he might even at occasions have prayed. Most people tend to do that whenever they're in a pinch, even if they don't really believe anyone is listening.

But I can say one thing for certain. Breivik does not have anything in common with the people who are generally labeled fundamentalist Christians. These are people who let the teachings of Christ have genuine influence in their lives. They love their enemies, bless those who persecute them, and the sword with which they spread their message is the Word of God. And they all share my disbelief and disgust with the atrocities that have been committed.

Please feel free to spread this around as a counterweight to the false information that is being spread.