Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 87

On Leaving Evangelicalism

Chalk it up to being a millennial, but I do not enjoy being labeled. Of course “millennial” is a label. So is “evangelical,” and both describe me. I dislike them. I cringe when I hear the terms or am asked whether I would call myself either of these. I would not, except that they’re true so begrudgingly I do.

It’s the baggage I dislike, the misrepresentations of the values and theology I hold and the history out of which I come. I don’t like being associated with “them” – you know the ones. “They” are described with the same labels I am but are nothing like me. They are the embodiment of the worst things about being a millennial evangelical. They are lazy and entitled. They are tribal, nationalistic, and mono-cultural. They are arrogant, argumentative, and myopic. It’s no wonder I chafe at being labeled alongside them and many of my peers are discarding the labels altogether.

We often fail to realize that labels mean something, though. They represent a reality and a complex one at that. They communicate real history. They have a meaning, even if it has ben bastardized over time. They sum up theologies and value systems into a digestible bite. Labels are imperfect, yes. But as a rule they carry significant meaning.

(Aside: This is not a defense of labels as a whole. The term “label” is a neutral term referring to both helpful and harmful terms. I am speaking to the efforts of younger Christians, and a few older ones, to distance themselves from the label “evangelical.”)

What all that adds up to is this: If you choose to discard the label “evangelical” you must discard the meaning it carries as well. Those who have done so already will respond, “Exactly, that is precisely why I left, to do just that!”

To distance yourself from a label is to distance yourself from the baggage it carries, sure. But it is also to distance yourself from the history it carries, the values it carries, and the theology it represents. Evangelicalism has a complex past and present, loaded with richness and putridity. I understand the desire to remove one’s self from the latter, but not the former. To say “I am not an evangelical” while still retaining as much of the richness as possible s like a child disliking her name and saying “call me Rainbow.” Her name has not changed nor has her family. She is simply trying to distance herself from a reality she cannot change.

If we disapprove of what a label stands for we only have two options. Leave it behind entirely along with its circle of influence and imprint. Or seek to better represent it so that when people meet us their perception my change by a degree or two. If the label stands for good things at its core then it is worth doing the latter.

“Evangelical” means something good. It has come to mean many bad things too. It is tied to the gospel of Jesus, and it is perverted by people who have subverted it for their cultural purposes. Just because we do not like the latter doesn’t mean we should or can abandon the former. Rather we must represent the former so well that the latter ceases to be associated with the label. We must take up the identity, own the label (or at least accept it) because it is what we believe, and lead away from the baggage.

New Happy Rant: WE’VE GOT SWAG and Various Sartorial Tips

In this episode of The Happy Rant podcast Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas celebrate a major business agreement coming to fruition with missional Wear in the form of swag to the nines, life changing swag, heart warming swag, coffee drinking swag, public display swag. They also discuss the following:

T-Shirt style preferences
Christian Celebrities and their haircuts
A potential episode for “Designed Person” based on D.A. Carson, his barber, and his barber’s apprentice
Dealing with thinning hair

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, though, go to MissionalWear.com, search “Happy Rant” and load up not he awesome gear they have put together featuring our logo. Use the code “Rant” for discounts and specials.

Episode #114

Trusting God in a “Prove It” Culture

We live in a “prove it” culture, dating back several centuries. Once upon a time the supernatural was recognized as just as real as the natural, and spiritual forces were just as valid as physical ones. In much of the world this still holds true today, but not in the West. Enlightenment thinking brought with it a mind-set that man is central, the highest life-form. The fallout of that is that god (not God) is whatever people want him or it to be. And for many, it means that God does not exist. They see the lack of empirical evidence for God to be proof that He does not exist.

The argument against God’s existence is the most extreme response to mystery. Because the biggest questions of why and how cannot be answered clearly, the assumption is that no God exists to answer them. The world has evolved to where it is, there is little purpose to our being, and when life ends it ends completely. Many atheists came to that point of view through pain and suffering. They saw no rhyme or reason for it and could not reconcile it with a good and loving God, so their conclusion was that God simply could not exist.

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.

—Richard Dawkins

This response to the mystery of why leaves the asker no more satisfied than if there were a God he or she simply couldn’t understand. It plainly says that mystery exists because mystery exists—in this case the mystery of pain and suffering. Atheists find it satisfactory, at least to a degree, to have “eliminated” one source of mystery because it doesn’t fit their framework of the world. By their definition of “good” and in their understanding of “powerful,” a God who allows for or brings about pain cannot be a good God. Therefore He cannot exist. The end.

Such a framework that God has to fit in to will inherently limit Him. It demands that He make sense to us, and if He doesn’t, it is He who must change, not us. Most people don’t outright eliminate God; they simply diminish Him. Some view Him as lacking power—God is not omnipotent. Some view Him as distant—He kick-started the world and now lets it run on its own. This is a belief similar to Deism. While most Christians would not espouse it, for many, their lives indicate they are functional Deists. They believe in the existence of God but not His power or participation in daily life. In fact, most of us fall into this.

FORGETTING GOD

In the movie The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey’s character, “Verbal” Kint, says one of the great lines in recent movie history: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” While this is true, equally as true is the ease with which we forget God exists. We go through life as lords of our own little universes, solving problems with our own abilities and strengths and depending on external circumstances or therapies to massage our moods. We forget God until we are at wit’s end, then we cry out for help. We don’t need Him at work. We don’t need Him at school. We don’t need Him anywhere. Until we do. Then we seek to summon Him from on high or wherever it is that He waits until we beckon. We live most days as if we appreciate God’s good work in making the world and are glad He went home when He was finished, kind of like the contractor who built the addition on your house.

When we aren’t forgetting God, we’re often trying to release Him from responsibility for things we don’t understand by diminishing His knowledge of events or ability to impose Himself on the choices of people. Some theologians have questioned God’s foreknowledge, His ability to know what will happen in the future; because if He has that, it must mean He has determined the future, which would take away human free will. On a more personal level we often emphasize the evil of a person or the randomness of nature when tragedy strikes, and we ignore, intentionally or otherwise, the fact that God is omnipotent and that He Himself says, “I make well-being and create calamity.”

Of course none of our frameworks for God have any actual bearing on who He is. Each simply represents a framework, a box, into which people fit God to make themselves feel better about who He is.

Ultimately, these frameworks stem from hearts that cannot abide submitting to someone else as all-powerful. To do so would mean relinquishing control of their own lives and, just as difficult, their understanding of the world. If I believe that I am the most important being in the world, I will create a system into which the world fits and that suits my sensibilities. As a finite person, I will shrink the world to fit my finitude. And that most definitely excludes an infinite God.

This is an excerpt from my book, Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt is Not the Enemy of Faith. 

HAPPY RANT DOUBLE FEATURE: Talking Election Results and Talking NOT Election

Today we are releasing two episodes, one for those who want more election and Trump talk and one for those who downright sick of it and want more happy and less ranty. Of course you’re welcome to listen to both, and we encourage you to do so!

In the first episode we discuss the downfall of America, the end of the world, and whose fault it is. Or rather, the election of Donald Trump as president.

In the second episode we make up for all the politics by planning a TGC vs. T4G Royal Rumble. Who would Win? Who would be the champions, the managers, the up-and-comers. Listen to find out!

We’d like to thank Missional Wear (or Calvinist Swag if you prefer) for sponsoring. You can find a fantastic selection of apparel, art, mugs, pint glasses, and more there. And it’s good quality, artistically designed gear too! Check out their brand new design!. Use the code HAPPYRANT at checkout for a listener special deal – a free Happy Rant Sticker (or awesome discount, whichever they decide to roll with).

As usual we want to give a big shout to to Mark and Jacob of Resonate Recordings for doing all the heavy lifting to make us sound decent and get our voices to your earbuds. Be sure to hit them up for your audio editing and podcasting needs.

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

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Episode #112



Episode #113

Should We Make Peace with President Donald Trump?

I am not sure at whom this post is aimed or to whom it is addressed. I write as an evangelical who did not vote for Donald Trump and resisted his candidacy from the moment it became something more than a marketing scheme. I am in the minority among my fellow evangelicals (however that term is defined in polling statistics) considering that more than 8/10 of us voted for Trump. So I guess I am addressing my fellow evangelicals who now reside in a nation with a president we did not vote for and, to varying degrees, virulently opposed.

How can we make peace with President Donald Trump? I have seen numerous calls for unity and peace across social media and the internet. It’s a lovely sentiment, even biblical in a non-specific sense. But it rings hollow coming from people who voted him into office and don’t seem to see the incongruity of claiming to represent Christ while voting for someone who is antithetical to those values in nearly every way. It rings slightly less hollow from those who did not vote for him but are among the least-threatened by his presidency (white male American citizens).

The question I am confronted with is this:

SHOULD WE MAKE PEACE WITH THE PRESIDENCY OF DONALD TRUMP?

We thrive on turning complex questions, especially moral and political ones, into black and white, either/or issues. We draw lines and take sides. And in the end we simply stand on opposing sides of fences we have built and resent those who did not join us. I would like to avoid that if I can. So here is my answer: yes and no.

Yes we should make peace with the presidency of Donald Trump because the peace that carries a follower of Jesus through life has absolutely nothing do with human rulers or powers or circumstances. We will never be left or forsaken. The shepherd will lose none of his sheep. These are promises that offer peace when all around is falling apart.

Yes we should make peace with the presidency of Donald Trump because we cannot change it now. To resist the reality of him as president it to be like the kid who holds his breath until he passes out or the person who complains all winter about the cold. We lack the power to change it. We are not God. So we must find a way forward, to make peace in the sense of living each day as well as we can in a reality we wish was not so. In that sense it is no different than what we have done every day since Eden.

BUT NO.

No we must not make peace with Donald Trump’s presidency until he rights the wrongs he has committed, initiated, and empowered. How can we make peace with a president who rode threats and abuse and mockery and ego to the oval office? It may be too much to expect him to repent in the truest sense; that is a thing brought about by the Holy Spirit alone. But it is not too much to ask him to admit, to apologize, and to begin making changes. He must condemn the actions of his followers who feel permitted and enabled to spread hate and fear. He must admit that he was wrong. He must take active steps to correct the wrongs and protect the residents of our country – all of them. Until this happens we do not need to make peace.

No we must not make peace with Donald Trump’s presidency in that we cannot follow his leadership in many of the directions he has promised to go and the direction many of his followers now feel free to go. We cannot stand for the marginalization or expulsion of immigrants. We cannot stand for the abuse and harassment of women. We cannot stand for the rise of white supremacy or making America white again. We cannot stand for the explicit or implicit bigotry toward minorities that his candidacy has fueled. We not only cannot make peace with these false cultural values, we must clearly exhibit the values and standards of Christ in their face.

No we must not make peace with Donald Trump’s presidency in our own lives. And this I say to my fellow white evangelicals, especially men. We can easily go forward day by day with little to no affect on our lives, our livelihoods, our citizenship, our rights, or our general comfort. We live in peace and at ease and a blowhard bigot in Washington will have little to no affect on that. But it is not so for tens of millions of millions in this country, many of whom follow the same Jesus we claim to. Who is our neighbor? Anyone we can serve in the name of Jesus. So we must not let our status quo lives dull us to the fear and pain and threats on our neighbors.

WE WILL LIVE IN TENSION.

But we ought to have been doing that all along. Our home is not here, and this world is filled with pain and evil and suffering. We have felt comfortable here because we have lived in a uniquely bucolic combination of place and period in all of history. Now our respite must come to and end. The Judeo Christian ethic of yesteryear is falling. Our nation is in the hands of an overt counter-Christian. So we must be Christ as we have not felt the urgency to be prior.

We find our peace in this, we experience our pain in it (maybe for the first time), and we serve our neighbors in need whether it be protection and comfort or whether it be a clearer understanding of the Jesus they claim to follow.

You Don’t Graduate From Basics

One of my greatest temptations in my faith is to “graduate” or try to move on from the basics. I overrate my intellect. I think that progress means leaving truths behind instead of building on them. Without even trying I abandon the foundational realities of God’s character and work. But instead of moving from lesser truth to better truth this mentality moves me from perfect truth to lost, confused, and hopeless.

I feel this especially when crisis hits. Sometimes it’s personal crisis that makes me aware of it. Other times it’s something big and complex like a nation in turmoil. In either case I am confronted with the fact that my “progress” has progressed me into confusion, frustration, and turmoil.

When I reach this point one of the things that guides me back, that anchors me again in truth, is phrases from songs I learned as a child that echo in my head.

Turn eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father. 

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. 

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus.

Every hour I need thee.

When sorrows like sea billows roll . . . it is well with my soul

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.

There is no moving on from such truths. No graduating. They’re the truths on which faith hangs – statements of God’s presence and promises. They reflect the words of scripture and we can even hum along. They are earwigs of the best sort that lift us when we have fallen and give life light when life is dark.

If you are pro-life you are . . .

IF YOU ARE PRO-LIFE YOU ARE . . .

. . . pro unborn lives

. . . pro born lives

. . . pro lives of all ages

. . . pro vulnerable and exploited lives

. . . pro lives of both genders

. . . pro lives of every race or culture

. . . pro quality of life

. . . pro equality of life

. . . pro human dignity

. . . pro opportunities to thrive for every life

. . . pro each of these things for your enemies

. . . pro each of these things for people who are not pro them

. . . pro God’s imagery in every person everywhere.

EXCEPTIONS TO THESE RULES: NONE

NEW HAPPY RANT: Jesus Juking Game 7, Jen Hatmaker, and a Jack Chick Chick Flick

In this episode Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin, and Barnabas Piper rant about only the most pressing of issues:

Jesus juking the Cubs’ victory in the world series
Consoling Cleveland fans (You still have LeBron)
The Jen Hatmaker kerfuffle (also: Barnabas tries not to get electrocuted by LifeWay HQ)
Ronnie and Ted’s love for Tiny Houses
Jack Chick chick flick – the film we’ve all been missing

We’d like to thank Missional Wear (or Calvinist Swag if you prefer) for sponsoring. You can find a fantastic selection of apparel, art, mugs, pint glasses, and more there. And it’s good quality, artistically designed gear too! Check out their brand new design!. Use the code HAPPYRANT at checkout for a listener special deal – a free Happy Rant Sticker (or awesome discount, whichever they decide to roll with).

 

 

As usual we want to give a big shout to to Mark and Jacob of Resonate Recordings for doing all the heavy lifting to make us sound decent and get our voices to your earbuds. Be sure to hit them up for your audio editing and podcasting needs.

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

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Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #111

New Happy Rant: Beards & Bibles, Casting Ronnie, and Fit Pastors

In this episode Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin, and Barnabas Piper rant about pressing and sundry topics such as:

Bourbon, Beards, and Bibles – i.e. the Sojourn pastor’s conference and Ronnie’s hipster festivities there.
Casting Ronnie as a small town mayor in the newly minted show Designated Person. The listener suggestions are myriad and amusing.
Fit pastors: those who insist on sharing their entire workout routine via photo and video and sometimes whole staffs that workout together.
Coining the term “Evangelifriends” and putting it to good use.

We’d like to thank Missional Wear (or Calvinist Swag if you prefer) for sponsoring. You can find a fantastic selection of apparel, art, mugs, pint glasses, and more there. And it’s good quality, artistically designed gear too! Check out their 500 Years of Reformation design on both shirts and mugs. Use the code HAPPYRANT at checkout for a listener special deal – a 15.17% discount for this week (what with it being Reformation Day and all).

 

We’d also like to thank your sponsor, Logos, the premier Bible Study and sermon preparation software on the market. Today they released Logos 7, complete with new features to take what was great before to entirely new levels. They offer an incredible library of resources, extensive features, and a suite of tools all of which will help serious Bible students, teachers, and preachers research and prepare. As a special offer for you, listener, use code HAPPYRANT7 at checkout to get Charles Spurgeon’s commentary on Philippians for FREE.

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #110

New Happy Rant: The Brett Favre of Politics, Our First Jobs, and Denominations vs. Networks

In this episode of the Happy Rant Podcast Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas rant about the following:

Is Wayne Grudem the Brett Favre of politics?
In the spirit of the previously popular #FirstSevenJobs, what were our early jobs?
Church Networks vs. Denominations
What exactly is an Evangelical Free church?
And of course #VoteRonnie

We’d like to thank your sponsor, Logos, the premier Bible Study and sermon preparation software on the market. Today they released Logos 7, complete with new features to take what was great before to entirely new levels. They offer an incredible library of resources, extensive features, and a suite of tools all of which will help serious Bible students, teachers, and preachers research and prepare. As a special offer for you, listener, use code HAPPYRANT7 at checkout to get Charles Spurgeon’s commentary on Philippians for FREE.

We’d also like to thank Missional Wear (or Calvinist Swag if you prefer) for sponsoring. You can find a fantastic selection of apparel, art, mugs, pint glasses, and more there. And it’s good quality, artistically designed gear too! Check out their new laser etched journals too. Be sure to use the code HAPPYRANT at checkout for a listener special deal – a sweet sticker featuring our logo.

Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #109