Christian Hedonism

"My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10, HCSB).   "Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21, NIV).  "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you."  --Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions   "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which only God can fill through His Son, Jesus Christ." --Blaise Pascal  "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and not tried." --Chesterton

Usually, the term hedonist refers to Epicurean philosophy or the naked pursuit of pleasure for its own sake (e.g., "eat, drink and be merry...").   I am following John Piper's lead in applying this to our walk with Christ.  Christ did promise a "more abundant life" (cf. John 10:10)!  Some believers may miss the boat chasing pipedreams or fantasies, even what the world has to offer with all the devil's enticements, not to mention crutches such as supernaturalism, escapism, cynicism, and humanism.  However, the more room for Satan entails that we open the door to our enemy the less room there is for God to fill this void  (e.g., 1 John 2:15, NIV: "Do not love the world or anything in the world...").  There is joy in living for Christ and joy doesn't depend on happenings like happiness does, but cannot be taken away just like our attitude.  Paul commanded in Philippians 4:4 to "rejoice always."  The point is that we will not always get everything we want, but what we need (not so-called "felt-needs").  He knows our needs!

Fulfillment is not in the abundance of our possessions or how many toys we end up with but in the "fewness of our wants!"  God knows us better than we do and is a primary concern is not our happiness, but using us for His glory and will. Jesus said that our "life doesn't consist in the abundance of [our] possessions."  Habakkuk 3:18, HCSB, says:  "[Y]et I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!" [though he virtually lost everything but God!].  The most satisfying life is one lived for Christ and fulfilling one's calling with one's spiritual gifts.  "For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised" (Heb. 10:36, HCSB).  God will reward us with a heritage:  "I am your shield; your reward will be very great" [or "I am your reward"]  (Gen. 15:1, HCSB)

Some believers see our walk as of walking around on Cloud Nine or Seventh Heaven or on some perpetual religious high, however, eventually God will test our faith, bringing us down to earth.  It's easy to have faith if one is always high, but "God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart [his motives]" (2 Chron. 32:31, NLT).   We are not called to wear our religion on our sleeves nor to parade and flaunt our faith (nor to privatize it either though--per Daniel's example!).  Character is only built through adversity and trial, not spiritual feelings. We can learn to rise above our feelings and be equal to the challenge!   God is more pleased with faith than feeling anyway (cf. Heb. 11:6).  We must learn to walk by faith (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7) than by our feelings which need not to be confused with facts.  The point of feelings is that they follow they don't lead (first comes fact, then faith, then obedience, then feelings).  Pascal pondered:  "If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?"

The devil likes to catch us on a spiritual high as well as when we are depressed or brood. He knows our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.  "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," according to Henry David Thoreau.  Carl Gustav Jung said, "The central neurosis of our time is emptiness...."  Depression or the doldrums aren't necessarily bad but a natural course when God is speaking to us and we need to heed His Word--don't go by feelings!  We note the "downcast" spirit in several psalms:  Psalms 42, 43, and 143, not to mention Nehemiah.  Often people don't know the reason or what is going on spiritually.  Anyone can experience a depressed funk and show one has feelings and it is a pity some have none!  It shows something is wrong and we need to do some soul searching--it's a warning sign or even an omen!  Note that when we are at our weakest Satan will tempt us and we should not "ignorant of his schemes" (2 Cor. 2:11, HCSB).  Sometimes it's good to feel not so good because we realize something is amiss or God is speaking to us.  We all experience trials, troubles, affliction, and adversity and it comes with the territory; but the Chrisitan life is not hard, it's impossible!  We can only live it by God's indwelling power, not the energy of the flesh. We have the power to live in the Spirit!

And in conclusion, Christians seek joy in the Lord and contentment (cf. Phil. 4:13) rather than satisfaction of every whim or fantasy and basic happiness.  Those who chase fantasies are fools. Christians have dignity, purpose, and meaning in life that the secular worldviews cannot offer! We don't live for the hear and now or short term like secularists but in light of eternity; however, one day at a time (cf. Psa. 118:24)!  We're not pleasure-seekers but have learned to find it in God!  We have a different outlook on crisis and adversity:  we see opportunity and possibility in them and room for growth in our walk--that's why no one can steal our attitude!   And the answer to the question, "What's your pleasure?" is to please God doing His will of service with a smile, or practicing and applying everyday, practical holiness!   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Old Humanism

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep."  --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Humanism isn't a newfangled idea or concept but was an idea concocted or developed by the Greeks in antiquity.  They sought to make man the measure of all things or that everything is related to man and interpreted with him in mind (known as Homo mensura in Greek).  This was promulgated chiefly by Protagoras. The actual roots stem from ancient times (post-diluvian or after the flood aka the deluge) when the people sought to make a name for themselves (cf. Gen. 11:4).  Man has always had trouble with the truth because his pride gets in the way; he tends not to accept the authority of God and seeks to be his own man.  Sin is basically that:  the declaration of independence from God. As it is written (Rom. 1:28, HCSB):  "And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God...."  In fact, Voltaire went so far as to define God thus:  "Man has created God in his image."  And Sigmund Freud went on to insult God as being a "projection."   

By definition, humanism is the deifying of man and the dethroning of God!  Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed unashamedly that "God is dead," which meant that He either doesn't exist or is totally irrelevant.  They exalt man and ignore God or make Him irrelevant, even declaring Him dead. What kind of God dies?  But our God refuses to and will not die!  What they are doing is worshiping man, because man is by nature a religious creature that is hard-wired to worship someone or something and never can claim to worship nothing even if he's a self-proclaimed nihilist or atheist.  They are parading themselves and are braggadocious of their own achievements, not God's accomplishment, and in this way are very religious.  John Dewey, who co-wrote Humanist Manifesto [I], in his book Common Faith, posited that we can be "religious" without "religion" or claiming no official or affiliated religion.

It sounds offensive to say, "Glory to man in the highest!"  This is counter-intuitive but is what they are maintaining unawares.  Man is not worthy of worship but man cannot but worship someone or something.  Humanists tend to live in the here and now and refuse to let God into the reckoning.  Without God in the equation, man is without purpose and hope and is empty.  This void or God-shaped vacuum can only be filled by God according to Blaise Pascal!  Sartre said that unless one considers God in the picture, man is a "useless passion."  Christians, on the other hand, live their lives in light of eternity, not just for the mundane and the present circumstances--they can live above them and have hope for the future that lifts the spirit. Augustine of Hippo is known for maintaining that man is restless until he finds his rest in God.

Humanists live for themselves like animals in heat avoiding pain and seeking pleasure.  But Christians live for God and have a higher purpose in living that brings meaning and definition.  They have a destiny to live out and a reason for being.  I want to point out that even Christians can become humanists by letting their pride get in the way and becoming self-centered and selfish and losing track of the will of God, seeking short-term pleasure in life instead of a life defeating evil and the power of sin.   And when Solomon says that there's nothing new under the sun, he's right in that even Adam and Eve were humanists when they ate of the proverbial apple and sought their own wisdom, pleasure, and meaning in life independent of God's will and love.

We must realize that God has a purpose for everyone and Christians realize fulfillment in God only.  God even made the wicked for the day of evil.  When we have served our purpose God may call us home to glory, but we're all here for a purpose that we may not be aware of.   Paul said in Col. 1:16 (MSG):  "...[E]verthing got started in him and finds its purpose in him."  We are all here for a reason and must never say as the old proverb goes:  "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:32; Isa. 22:13; Luke 12:19).  Those famous words are in Scripture and man has always been guilty of this kind of thinking.

Julian Huxley wrote Religion without Revelation to point out that we can be good without God and don't need God or believe in absolutes to have ethics or morals.  That's basically what Satan has always tried to convince man since the Garden of Eden:  We can be good without God, or we can be as gods!  This is what's so deceiving of false religions because they may seem good on the outside and people are tricked into thinking that they mean well, but Satan knows how to insert just enough error to be dangerous and inoculate one from the truth and deceive with an element of truth.

In conclusion, we'll never arrive at objective truth (true regardless of whether it's believed and apart from personal input or perspective) unless we start with God in the picture, as Athanasius said, "The only system of thought into which Jesus Christ will fit is the one in which He is the starting point."  We must not begin with man and explain the universe or explain away God, but must begin with God and explain everything else: reality, man, the world with all the academic disciplines, current events, and history.  The Bible starts out with the opening words, "In the beginning God...." for a reason, and it's theological as well as rational.  Even without realizing it or becoming atheists, they are practical atheists are really maintaining:  "Down with God; up with man!"  Au contraire!  The divine viewpoint should be:  "All the world is relative to Christ," according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Carl Henry said, "The Christian belief system is relevant to all of life."  Soli Deo Gloria!

God Is Here

"But no one asks, 'Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night'" (Job 35:10, HCSB).
"Yes, You are a God who hides Himself..." (Isa. 45:15, HCSB). 
"'I was sought by those who did not ask.'  I was found by those who did not seek Me.  I said:  Here I am, here I am..." (Isa. 65:1, HCSB).
"What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor his manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God."  --Blaise Pascal

Jesus' name is Immanuel or "God with us" as interpreted.  Christian faith can be reduced to knowing Christ and making Him known, done by living for Christ and having a consistent testimony that isn't jeopardized.  We know God well enough to recognize His presence and the moving of the Spirit.  Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is about the God who is there!  It's not just believing in God, but God in us!  We must believe in God as He is and not as He isn't; i.e., in truth!  There is another Jesus, another gospel, and another Spirit to beware of (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).  We don't just believe there is a God but believe God!

The point is that God resides in every believer via the presence of the Holy Spirit, and Christ in us is the hope of glory.  We are His heart to spread love, His ears to listen to those in need and troubled, His hands to do His work, His voice to speak up for Him, and His mind to think His thoughts and explain or defend God to the unbeliever.

One prof wrote GODISNOWHERE on the blackboard and asked his students what they saw:  most thought it meant that God is nowhere! It should be:  God is now here!   We see what we want to see or are conditioned to see, and if we have no faith in God we will not believe He is here!  Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place!  As Francis Schaeffer postulated:  "He is there and He is not silent."  Don't rule God out of the picture, for only He sees the big picture! God is ubiquitous or omnipresent and has no interstellar address!  He literally fills the heavens!  His immensity refers to the fact that all of His attributes are everywhere present, not limited or bound by space or time.  Think of God as dwelling in another dimension in which we are unaware.  But we know He exists because of the things He does just like we know the wind exists by its effects.  This explains William Cowper penning his hymn:  "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform."

We need not wonder of God's whereabouts, for He's always as close as the mention of His name--He is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to everyone who diligently seeks Him (seek and you will find!). When the skeptic asks, "Where is God?"  Reply, "Where isn't God?"  The believer sees God in all of creation from the sub-atomic to the interstellar with everything in its order and design according to the Designer.

God is both transcendent and immanent!  He is"not far from each one of us" (cf. Acts 17:27), yet He dwells in the heavenly spheres (cf. Isa. 57:15). He is present through the ministry of the Spirit and works in each of us according to His will.  Since God created the time-space continuum, He is not obliged to be limited to it nor defined by it but can suspend its power and act outside its forces.  Christians are more fortunate than contemporary believers who didn't have the resident Holy Spirit and the complete canon of Scripture to be our plumbline.

In summation, we should all be like famed Bro. Lawrence, a French Carmelite monk, who practiced the presence of God even doing the mundane chores of dishwashing and wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, a good-read and classic study in the discipline of one's prayer life.  NB:  "... [A]nd the name of the city from that day on will be: Yahweh [the LORD} is There" (Ezek. 48:35, HCSB). I'll close quoting Francis Schaeffer again:  "He is there and He is not silent."     Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Fatherhood Of God

Adolf Karl Gustaf von Harnack wrote What is Christianity? downsizing the faith to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.  This is both right and wrong depending upon the premise.  If we are saying that we are all His offspring as Paul said in Acts 17:28, then we are all fellow brothers (love our fellow man!) and members of the human race and it is true that there is one God who is God of all regardless of faith, but this is not a justification for universalism.  God is our Father as believers and this is the Christian covenant name for God though He was the Father of Israel and urged them to call Him Father as well (cf. Jer. 3:19); however, the Pharisees thought Jesus was presumptuous to call God His Father.  

God is both the Almighty God and our personal Father. NB:  When we call God Father, we are appealing to His authority and position, not His superiority over the other co-equal members of the Triune Godhead, which entails the God the Father as an eternal relationship to God the Son--He always was the eternal Father and didn't become the Father.  In short, addressing the Lord as Father shows respect for His authority, use of a protocol in prayer, a feeling of familiarity and intimacy.

We have special access to His throne room as believer-priests.  We can gain entree via the virtue of the intercession of Christ on our behalf and because we are now legitimate sons of God and members of the royal family of heaven.  Our Father is called the Heavenly Father in Matthew and Jesus taught us to pray to Him with this rubric.  The Jews felt estranged from God and not in a fellowship like we are and addressed Him mainly as LORD God or as Lord. That is still His official title and the covenant name He will be known by (the YHWH, the Tetragrammaton is known as Yahweh) but God has opened the door to us to readily enter on family terms.

Behold what manner of Father we have:  He gave up His one and only Son to suffer and die for us; He is the Author, Planner, and "Purposer" of our salvation; or that creation was from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.  He wants us to feel right at home with Him as if He were a human natural father. Because of Christ's intercessory work on our behalf we have the privilege to go right to the top and God always has an open-door policy of quick access.  The parable of the Prodigal Son shows what patience and longsuffering the Father endures for our sakes.  It is true that no matter what we've done, we are still His children and He may chastise us but we will not be disowned as His children.  No one in Scripture is unborn, unadopted, or disinherited from God's family.  Learning from the prodigal son, we find out that God is waiting for us to repent and return to His grace.

God the Father is in the business of remolding us in His image since it was tarnished by the Fall.  What He does is take away everything that doesn't look like Jesus much the way a sculptor removes pieces of marble until it forms the image he so desires--he chips away at everything that doesn't look like the subject!  Sometimes we may have to go through the school of hard knocks but the best way to learn is directly from the Word applied to oneself.  

Note that with humans there is no guarantee that their children will turn out to be regular chips off the old block or as misfits, but with God, we are all guaranteed a future and heritage that won't fade away--a permanent legacy and home with Him.  The story of the gospel could just as well be:  Criminal gets pardoned of a capital crime by the judge who pays his penalty and adopts him as his son to live with him in his house.

We know that we are progressing in our faith when we feel comfortable addressing God as Father.  Some believers have not yet learned to see God in this light, while others only see Him in that manner thus putting God in a box:  He's more than our Father--He's the Judge, the Savior, the Lord, the Author!  He's the one who had the purpose behind it all and planned everything from eternity past!  When we say, "I like to think of God simply as my Father," we are putting Him in a box or labeling Him and restricting our spiritual growth and awareness.  Also, it is erroneous to construe God as a projection of some need for a father-figure, as psychologists would have.

Some people have had a history of experiences with their earthly father and cannot picture God in this manner, in fact, many so-called enemies of the faith have come from broken homes or estranged father-son relationships.  It used to be that Father knew best, but in today's society he is the object of ridicule and satire, parodied, and ends up being the butt of jokes.  This is merely a sad commentary on our time, not a reflection of how good God the Father is.  

It is our society that is sick and sinful not the Bible for portraying God as our heavenly Father.  Parents together stand for God's authority over children in the home and it is sometimes called in loco Dei or "in the place of God."  There is a direct correlation between one's relationship with one's father and how one sees and relates to God the Father, whether there is a reconciliation and healed fellowship or not.  You cannot have an estranged relationship with one's father and claim to be at peace with God the Father.     Soli Deo Gloria!