Category Archives: Theology

Jun 01 2009
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Books, Leadership, Resources, Teaching, Theology

Notes From The Pepperdine Lectures – Monte Cox

Notes taken during Monte Cox’s presentation at The 2009 Pepperdine Lectures – “Christ, the Mystery of God” – Tuesday, May 5, 2009 – 7PM. Based on Colossians 2:1-7.

To download Dr. Cox’s PowerPoint presentation used during this lecture, go to www.harding.edu/cwm and look under the heading “Dr. Monte Cox’s ’09 Pepperdine presentation,” or click here.

  • “Pluralism drives the relativism that makes evangelism a four letter word.”
  • The book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is a good example of how people view spirituality today (pluralistically – just make sure you get a little bit of every religion and you’ll be ok).
  • Ministry in the North American context means you will encounter 1) postmodernism, 2) individualism, and 3) skepticism.
  • “Does the concept of ‘God’ belong in a religion class? Can a Christian teach a world religion class at a secular university? Some would say ‘no’ because of their Christian bias. We do, however, need to critique that question. How is a believer’s bias less valid than an unbeliever’s? The underlying assumption of that question is a biased one.”
  • Colossians 2:9 – “Son of God – fully human and fully divine?” Rejected by postmodern thinkers because that sounds too exclusive.
  • People today aren’t looking for a Savior – they’re looking for a spiritual life coach. They’re looking for a therapist. For many, that’s what Jesus is reduced to.
  • Jesus is seen by many as a highly evolved spiritual coach who can help … if you want Him to.
  • Colossians 2:2,3 – “All mysteries” are hidden in Christ. Not Christ plus something else!
  • Paints a picture of two people. One is a girl who gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and sees nothing but ugly. Another is a young man that gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and sees a suave ladykiller. Dr. Cox says both of them have a self-esteem problem – not just the girl. The problem is they get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see themselves instead of seeing Christ.
  • Recommends Christless Christianity by Michael Horton as a book we all should read. Read the first chapter of this book by clicking here.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:14 – “If Christ isn’t the Son of God and raised from the dead, we have nothing to say! Apart from Christ – the center of our faith and identity – we have nothing to say!”
  • “I do not want to be guilty of drawing lines [in terms of fellowship] where God hasn’t clearly drawn them Himself because I’m too conservative for that!” (Amen to that!)
  • Christ-centric theology is the key to the future of the Churches of Christ. (Amen to that too!)

Other good stuff from Dr. Cox concerning Church of Christ world missions (PowerPoint presentations):

  1. Around the World in 60 Minutes
  2. Missions and Money
  3. What the World Needs Now
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May 30 2009
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Current Events, Popular Culture, Teaching, Theology

Idolatry & Scientology

I’m in the midst of finishing up a lesson on 1 Corinthians 10. A good portion of this chapter is dedicated to warning the Corinthians about the pitfalls of idolatry – something I’ve been studying quite a bit lately.

Two questions:

1) What is your definition of an idol?
2) What, if any, are some common idols prevalent in United States culture today?

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Rex Butts has been discussing idols on his blog recently – check out those discussions here and here.

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I presented a lesson a couple of weeks ago that deals with concepts helpful in understanding what idolatry looks like today. The sermon audio, PowerPoint presentation, and a brief summary are posted here: What does it mean to have a Christ-centered identity?

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Speaking of idolatry, did you hear the latest news on The Church of Scientology?

If you aren’t familiar with Scientology, it’s a religion started by a man named L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard was quoted as saying things like this: 

“Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion.” (Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1978)

And guess what Hubbard did? He started his own religion, and made millions and millions of dollars! In fact, paying money to the higher-ups in Scientology is actually a requirement to be considered a Scientologists! Scientology is pay-to-play only.

And check this out:

“The only way you can control people is to lie to them. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.” (Lecture: “Off the Time Track” (June 1952) as quoted in Journal of Scientology issue 18-G, reprinted in Technical Volumes of Dianetics & Scientology Vol. 1, p. 418)

Need I say more?

For more quotable quotes from Hubbard, go here.

On to this morning’s news from CNN’s SciTech Blog:

The collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia has banned the Church of Scientology from editing the site. The Register reports Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee, or ArbCom, voted 10 to 0 in favor of the ban, which takes effect immediately.

Wikipedia’s innovative free-encyclopedia draws upon the knowledge of millions of users to create and edit articles on every conceivable topic. Edits appear immediately and do not undergo any formal peer-review process.

Wikipedia officially prohibits use of the encyclopedia to advance personal agendas – such as advocacy or propaganda and philosophical, ideological or religious dispute – but the open format makes enforcing such policies difficult.

According to Wikipedia administrators speaking to The Register:

Multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.”

To read the full story: Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology

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Have you seen the Scientology video worshipping Tom Cruise on YouTube?

This video being on the net is not authorized by The Church of Scientology.

An anti-scientology group known as Anonymous continues to post it online so that the general public may be aware of what Scientology is all about (you may also be interested in Anonymous’ formal declaration of war).

Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Scientology mini dictionary (needed to decode Tom’s rhetoric):

*KSW (short for Keeping Scientology Working): A policy written by Hubbard in the 1960’s that requires all Scientologists to follow his words and his rules exactly.

*Orgs: Orgs is an abbreviation for ‘organizations’ and describes all churches of Scientology throughout the world.

*David Miscavige: He is the current leader of Scientology. He’s the equivalent of the Pope to the Catholics.

*Out-ethics: Any behavior that violates any of Hubbard’s rules of conduct.

*Put ethics on someone else: Making others conform to Hubbard’s rules of behavior.

*Criminon: Scientology front group that tries to recruit through the prisons.

* SP: Suppressive Person. Anyone that doesn’t like Scientology and/or criticizes Scientology.

*PTS/SP: Another Hubbard term to define behavior that goes against Scientology rules.

*LRH technology or ‘tech’: All the Scientology policies, rules, mandates, procedures.

 

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May 19 2009
1 Comment
Devotional Thoughts, Discipling, Leadership, Personal Growth, Resources, Teaching, Theology

Notes From The Pepperdine Lectures – Brian Simmons

Notes from Brian Simmons’ keynote presentation at the 2009 Pepperdine Lectures – “The Triumph of the Cross” covering Colossians 2:8-15 – Thursday May 7, 11AM.

  • Starts out polling the audience about their fears – more people in the audience are afraid of spiders than anything else.
  • Tells a story about a college girl in a class he was teaching sitting on the front row. He noticed a spider dangling over her head during his lecture. He decided to ignore it instead of calling her attention to it and making a scene.  The spider eventually dropped down onto her head and got in her hair. Other students noticed and once someone told the girl a spider was in her hair, she jumped out of her seat and started freaking out running around pulling at her hair screaming and crying until she ran out of the room. They didn’t see her back in class that day.
  • The next time the class met, she came to the door and opened it up, and before she crossed the threshold she stuck her head in the room, looked around, and asked, “Are there any spiders today?”
  • Spider as an illustration: there are only a few spiders in the United States that can actually hurt us. Black Widows and Brown Recluses are bad, but 95% of the spiders we encounter can’t hurt us at all.  That doesn’t keep people from being afraid of them though.
  • The girl gave that tiny spider authority over her – the spider couldn’t hurt her, but the girl treated it like it could. All the power it had over her it had because she gave it power over her.
  • The same thing was going on in Colossae at the time of Paul’s writing – Christians had given authority to something small that really didn’t have any authority over them – only the authority they gave it.
  • If sin has power over us, it’s because we’ve given it power over us.
  • Christ and _______ (insert whatever you’d like) is not the gospel!
  • Tells real people’s stories he’s encountered – 1) Dan is a drug dealer who got a bunch of kids hooked on meth. Came to Jesus, but doesn’t feel forgiven, so he slipped back into his old lifestyle. 2) Mary is a woman who came to Jesus, but still struggles with doubt – doesn’t feel saved.
  • Dan and Mary don’t believe they’re saved, because they need Jesus and a feeling. That’s adding to Jesus!
  • Colossians 2:23 – people give power to things that don’t have power
  • The Cross has triumphed over the powers and authorities of this world!
  • Colossians 2:9 – Christ is so much more powerful than the thing that’s victimizing you!
  • You don’t need Christ and a “really, really, remorseful feeling.” You just need Christ!
  • Colossians 2:15 – Christ “disarms” – this word is used to describe a battlefield encounter where the victor defeats his opponent, takes his weapon, holds it over his head, and gives a victory shout. He completely dominates his opponent. That’s what Christ does to sin!
  • “In my house, I’m the spider-killer!” Tells story about his daughter screaming in the middle of the night because a spider was on her wall. He, as daddy, entered her room with a tissue, smashed the spider, wadded it up in the tissue, and triumphantly flushed it down the toilet. “I triumphed over the spider!”
  • Triumph = a complete conquest.
  • Christ has not only triumphed, but has rescued us as well! Why do people have such a hard time believing this?
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