Hosken-News Blog

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Who Are You Trying to Impress?

status defined At Christmas time we hear over and over again that December sales make up fully one-third of retail sales and profits: it's make-or-break time for the economy. This year-end mad rush of buying and selling has taken over even in non-Western countries such as Japan and China. It's Christmas-redefined! With hardly any mention of Christ's birth, only a jolly old Santa Claus as a faint reminder of the original, real Saint Nicholas, throw in lots of sappy sentimental songs of jingle-bells and a white Christmas, office parties with drinking in excess, and we have the annual orgy of modern consumerism. So the question is: Who Are You Trying to Impress?

Are we trying to impress our family, our neighbors, our friends, or our coworkers by our extravagant gifts, parties, and decorations? Sociologists tell us that by putting on big feasts and giving costly gifts, people strive to enhance their status, their position in society, to "climb the social ladder." It reminds us of Christ's parable of the rich fool:

"The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What should I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:16b-21).

Our modern western society is infected with the plague of consumerism: just as in old times people died of the disease called "consumption," so are we dying of the modern form of consumption. We consume more and more, both literally and figuratively, to the point of our bellies being about to burst, just like our budgets are busted. Sexual libertinism has given us the disease of AIDS - Auto-Immune Deficit Syndrome, just like consumerist libertinism has given us the disease of STYDS - Shop Til You Drop Syndrome. People simply can't stop spending money: it has become their "raison d'etre" - their reason for existence. The resultant credit card debt is strangling families, leading to bankruptcy, family feuds, divorce, and violence.

In the same way that people can develop a sexual addiction, they can develop a food addiction: perhaps you've heard of people having such a hard time controlling their appetite for food that they undergo surgery to have their stomach "banded" - an actual steel band placed around the stomach to restrict the amount of food that person can consume. But then, sometimes even that can't stop them from overeating to the point that they break that steel band around their stomach! St. Paul wrote:

"Therefore, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us with patience run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Lest we spiritualize away this text by saying St. Paul wasn't writing about literally losing weight, consider verses 11-13 - "All discipline seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby. Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed." Clearly he is talking about disciplining our bodies: exercising our hands, our feeble knees, our feet, thus healing our infirmities. There is a spiritual dimension to physical problems such as overeating and lack of exercise.

What is the cure for this disease of STYDS, this plague of consumerism? King Solomon wrote - "Two things I have asked of you; don't deny me before I die: remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me; lest I be full, deny you, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God" (Proverbs 30:7-9). This isn't living in a monastery, but rather living in a "modestary"! Living in moderation is the "golden mean' between stealing or mooching off the government on the one hand, or on the other hand striving to be rich to the point that one only thinks of getting more and more money, buying more stuff, "building bigger barns," or consuming more and more food, drink, drugs or sex.

Hear and heed the Word of God Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ:

"Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? For what will a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever will be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:34b-38)

These are the very words that sixty years ago led me to kneel at the foot of the Cross and give my life to Christ. Will you heed them too, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ? He endured the cross, despised the world's shaming Him, and is now seated at God's right hand. Will you do the same? The eternal reward is worth this world's temporary trials and tribulations!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 16 Dec. 2017.)

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Saturday, December 2, 2017

The Seven Last Words of the Church

7 last words of the church What do church people often say when someone meekly suggests - "Maybe we should try to be real disciples, you know, like the early Christians"? The likely reply is - "We've never done it that way before!" These are infamously known as "The Seven Last Words of the Church." Why the "last words"? Because it's a sure sign that the church in question is stuck in the "same-old, same-old" habitual rut of culture-accommodating Christianity that's leading down the slippery slope to extinction. In reality, we actually have done it that way before: all Christians in the Early Church were real disciples.

Most of the "seeker-friendly" new techniques in mega-churches are pretty much hot air that will collapse when the emotional-high bubble bursts. To quote a source that I'm not going to identify because you might say - "Oh, well, that's not my flavor of Christianity!" (but if you ask real nice, I'll send you the link) - "It's premised on the assumption that basically 'all is well' inside the Church, and we just need to 'invite' and 'welcome' people to 'share' the love feast with us. As [one of their beloved leaders] once said, it’s the dead burying the dead and calling it renewal." This source continues (slightly edited to keep it anonymous) -

"The Church, and individual [Christians] in it, are supposed to be mustard seeds and leaven in this world. Or, as some prefer to say, 'salt and light.' We have a missionary imperative from Christ to convert the world. But there are at least five serious obstacles to evangelizing today, any one of which would already deal a serious blow to the endeavor.
* First, the privatization of religion.
* Second, the rejection of original sin and the assumption of universal salvation.
* Third, the widespread doctrinal and moral confusion in the Church.
* Fourth, the banality and irreverence of mainstream [Christian] worship.
* Fifth, the utter lack of ascetical demands.

When you put all these together, you get [Christians] who don’t think they should bother other people about religion, who assume that most people are already fine, who are not even quite sure they know what they believe, have nothing especially attractive to invite people to, and are not living and promoting a way of life that would respond to the needs of any serious searcher.

[We must do] The stuff the saints used to do. The reason they converted the entire world to the Faith once upon a time. That’s what we have to do today: real worship, real doctrine, real morals, real demands. Then the Lord will give us real results. We can't expect any knights in shining armor to ride in to our aid. We’ve got to do the Lord’s work or no one will. And there's no time to waste."

Now and then I've referred to Rod Dreher's new book The Benedict Option. If I were to write a book like his, I'd probably title it The Discipleship Imperative because it's not just for monastics like St. Benedict and his followers and it's not at all an option. It's imperative: all Christians are called to discipleship! In Acts 11:19-27 we read how the Gospel was spread to Antioch by ordinary believers. This passage closes with the words - "The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." So the question we should ask is - "What were they before they were called Christians?" The answer is obvious, it's right there in the text: they were disciples. All real, true, genuine believers in and followers of Christ are disciples. And so, if you're not a disciple, you're not a real, true, genuine believer in and follower of Christ.

This collides head-on with our "liberal, democratic" cultural assumptions that you can have your own religion if you keep it to yourself and everyone else should keep their religion to themselves too; you and everyone else can believe whatever you want and behave however you want as long as you're not directly harming others. These are the assumptions that undergird the first three points above.

Real discipleship will result in a "sifting and winnowing" of the Church: the tares will be shaken out so that only the wheat will remain. As the prophet Daniel wrote - "Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves clean, and be refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise will understand" (Daniel 12:10). He was referring to a time of persecution, which results in purification.

This "sifting and winnowing" is a costly, painful process of refining by fire. The prophet Zechariah described it thusly - "'Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,' says the Lord of hosts. 'Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered... In the whole land, says the Lord, two thirds will be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. I will bring this third through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and I will test them as gold is tested. They shall call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The Lord is my God'" (Zechariah 13:7-9). Two thirds will fall away and perish. Only one third will remain.

The last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, also foretold this refining process - "For behold, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, leaving them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings" (Malachi 4:1-2). The "wings of healing" are not for everyone, there's no such thing as universal salvation where everyone will get to heaven eventually. Only those who reverence the name of Christ, the Messiah, and live righteously will experience this healing and wholeness.

We are right now living in a time of purging and refining from the sexual immorality that has been foisted upon us for several decades by "Hornywood, Calipornia." Women have been treated as sex objects far too long, so now they are finally coming out and exposing the phoniness of entertainment, business, and political "leaders." Here's what the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to the Apostle John -

"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 'The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things: I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works. I will kill her children with Death, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don't have this teaching, who don't know what some call "the deep things of Satan," to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you. Nevertheless, hold firmly that which you have, until I come'" (Revelation 2:18-25).

The time has now come for those who call themselves "Christians" to take a stand as real, true, genuine believers in and followers of Christ, as His disciples. It's time to get back to the basics, the traditions that have been handed down to us from the Apostles and the Early Church: "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thessalonians 2: 15). It's back to the basics!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 2 Dec. 2017.)

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Many Want To Be Transformed, Few Want To Change!

Many Want To Be Transformed, Few Want To Change How many people imagine themselves as a slim ballet dancer standing delicately on tiptoe, while in reality they are just piles of gluttonous protoplasm? The latest craze is "I identify as..." - people thinking that whatever sexual fantasy pops into their mind, that is what they really are, and you should be socially blackballed or even legally prosecuted if you don't play along with this charade.

Positive thinking won't help you leap over tall buildings in a single bound or magically change your age or sex or ethnicity. If I proclaim: "I identify as six-year-old, three-foot-tall Natasha in Russia, so you must kneel down to my level and speak to me in Russian!" - that doesn't change me from a 74-year-old, 6'2"-tall American man to anything other than a little crazy. But there is a sliver of truth in thinking positive thoughts rather than living under a black cloud of pessimism. Henry Ford once said - "There are two kinds of people: those who think they can't, and those who think they can. Both are right."

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romas 12:1-2 - "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God." St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote - "How can the person who is conformed to this age, who is not transformed in the newness of his mind and who does not walk in the newness of this life but instead follows the life of the old man, obey Paul, who commanded you to present your body as a sacrifice living, holy and pleasing to God?"

St. Paul also wrote - "Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain, for he says, 'At an acceptable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you.' Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). In my last essay, I mentioned that God's grace is not merely a free gift. Much more, it is God's transforming energies that we must receive into our lives in order to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

St. John Chrysostom wrote - "Paul is telling his hearers that they must not relax just because God has sought them out and sent them as ambassadors. On the contrary, for that very reason we should hasten to please him and reap our spiritual blessings."

The phrase "in vain" is sometimes translated in Russian and Ukrainian as "darom" meaning "as a gift." In other words, "not in vain" is "not merely as a gift." Christian transformation isn't something that drops on you from heaven as you just sit back imagining it while doing nothing: transformation requires our active cooperation with God. These verses begin with "Working together" - but with whom? With God! It's "Synergism," best expressed in the words of St. Paul: "So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God Who works in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).

James, the step-brother of our Lord, wrote - "But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:22-25). Those who just sit back and listen to sermons, then go home and within 30 minutes forget the Word preached to them are deluding themselves by imagining they have become better just by sitting in a pew listening to nice, warm-fuzzy words.

Even in Old Testament times this tendency existed: "As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk about you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak to one another, everyone to his brother, saying, 'Please come and hear what the word is that comes out from the Lord.' They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them" (Ezekiel 33:30-32).

The point I'm driving at is that God's grace that in Christ is the light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world (John 1:9) has appeared, bringing salvation to all people (Titus 2:11), not just to a certain, special "elect" who do nothing, this grace must be received and acted upon. It doesn't just fall down on us from heaven and magically transform us while we sit back passively. It requires our co-working together with God, our "synergism."

We are not automatically damned because of Adam's sin, nor are we automatically "chosen" and "elected" because we were lucky enough to hold the winning number in a cosmic lottery. Each one of us is responsible for our own actions or inaction:

"When I tell the righteous that he will surely live; if he trusts in his righteousness, and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but he will die in his iniquity that he has committed. Again, when I say to the wicked, “You will surely die;” if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he will surely live. He will not die. None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done that which is lawful and right. He will surely live. Yet the children of your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair;' but as for them, their way is not fair" (Ezekiel 33: 13-17).

Imagine someone saying - "God, You're not fair!" Why? "Because I didn't get my freebie!" The idea of personal responsibility and the need to change one's behavior in order to receive something good has been driven out of our society's public consciousness. We expect things to be provided for us free by the state, which derives from the notion that we are a special, chosen people. I've seen poor people demand that they be given a free turkey for Thanksgiving Day. No, it's not the Lord Who is unfair, it's we, the supposedly "elect" who are unfair and irresponsible. We can't count on living forever in a land of abundance once the majority of people expect to be given a free ride. Then the printing presses won't be able to keep on printing "fake money" because it won't be backed by a GDP that's producing much at all.

Recall that in Romans 12:1-2 I quoted - "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God"? "Holy" means sanctified, consecrated or committed totally to God. The context for transformation is holiness! In the same context of holiness, St. Paul wrote - "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you; that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing" (1 Thes. 4:11-12). "The Christian life is by its very nature a growth process analogous to the growth of the body; perfection in good habits ought to grow as faith grows" - so wrote St. Clement of Alexandria. Good habits take effort and practice, they don't come automatically.

In his second letter to the church in Thessalonica, St. Paul wrote - "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: 'If anyone will not work, don’t let him eat.' For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don't work at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread" (2 Thes. 3:10-12). It is contrary to God's Word that we give food to people who refuse to work, or even look for a job. Many want to be transformed, but few want to change!

What will it look like when we finally decide to stop blaming God - "That's just the way God made me!" - stop trying to work the system for all the freebies we can get, and decide to really change? Here's what it will look like: "But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:15-18).

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 18 Nov. 2017.)

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Synergism: Interdependence and Responsibility

Synergism: Interdependence and Responsibility Before and just after a baby is born, he or she is completely dependent on the mother and father. Thus begins the cycle of synergism: first, the parents are responsible and the baby has little or no responsibility - only to breathe, eat and grow, which come with the package, naturally. With the passage of time, however, the child gains more independence and is given more and more responsibility. Finally, we reach the stage where roles are reversed: the adult child may become responsible for the elderly parents who are losing their independence. This illustrates the cycle of interdependence, or synergism.

State socialism, state control of all aspects of society, always and without exception leads to increasing control by the elite, the Party, and growing dependence of the rest of the population upon the crumbs thrown from the table of the elite who fare sumptuously, dress in the finest clothes and travel in limousines and private jets. So in practice it differs little from state capitalism, which more and more frequently borrows some of its practices from state socialism, and which makes the common people increasingly dependent upon the state by its army of social workers offering "free" social services: a modern form of serfdom.

In contrast, Synergism is based on the Christian principles of voluntary community and sharing of resources and responsibilities, creating true interdependence and equality of all members: "The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all" (Acts 4:32-33). Synergism is best expressed in the words of St. Paul: "So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).

This illustrates how God works in us when we work with Him. Of course, God is the senior partner and we are junior partners: without Him we can do nothing, but with Him we can do mighty things! This Scripture text immediately follows the passage that tells us to have the mind of Christ, Who emptied Himself and became a servant, even unto death on the Cross (verses 5-9). This is true servanthood: giving ourselves over to the will of God the Father.

James, a step-brother of the Lord Jesus, wrote the only Scripture text that mentions "faith alone" (sola fide), one of the hallmarks of the Protestant Reformation: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone" (James 2:24). To emphasize this, he wrote: "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead" (verse 26). Faith that does no good works is dead faith, not saving faith.

St. Paul again tells us how faith works out in practice: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6). Real, saving faith must be a faith that works, not a merely mental, passive, dependent faith that waits for God and others to do the work. And a few verses later Paul wrote: "For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only don't use your freedom as an excuse to gratify the flesh, but serve one another through love" (Gal. 5:13). Freedom or independence isn't a license to do whatever you want and can get away with; rather, it is the ability to give of oneself and serve one another in agape-love, divine self-giving love. Human freedom is limited by our finite human nature: if we try doing "stupid stuff" beyond the limits of our bodies and of society, we may end up crippled or diseased for the rest of our lives, in prison, or dead.

Ever since the beginning of Christianity and even before, people have struggled with the definition of God, Who is beyond all defining. This is the idea of a totally transcendent God Who is higher than the heavens and beyond the capacity of human minds to comprehend. In our Hosken-News of 24 September 2017 - "Dark" or Unseen Matter and Energy, we saw that 96% of the cosmos consists of matter and energy that our five senses and scientific instrumentation can't understand: we just know now that "it" is out there, very real but beyond our ability to comprehend.

This implies, however, that God and "spiritual" reality is not only transcendent but also is immanent - "God is everywhere present and fills all things" as one of the ancient saints said. This isn't pantheism, the notion that God = everything in the universe. God is a Person, both transcendent - above all things, and immanent - in all things. The Psalmist David wrote: "If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there" (Ps 139:8). God's love is everywhere, even in hell where those who reject it perceive it as a burning fire: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39).

God is not only everywhere, He is also "everywhen" - God is above and beyond time, and yet He is within time: the divine Logos became flesh and lived among us. God sees and knows the future just as well as the past because He is not limited by time and space, the four dimensions of our material universe. St. Paul wrote: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Rom. 8:28-29). God foreknows, He knows "in advance" because all events in our lives are always present to Him. For this reason, He is able to predestine our future because He is ultimately in control of the entire cosmos, both the seen and unseen universe.

And yet, we humans have limited free will, we can and must choose to respond to God's grace: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we must live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:11-13). God's grace is not just for a few elite or elect people, but rather it is available for all human beings. And His grace is not only a "free gift," it is also His transforming power to restore us to the image and glory of Christ, the second Adam, thus empowering us to do His will.

St. Paul also wrote: "...God our Savior, Who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave himself as a ransom for all; the testimony in its own time" (1 Tim. 2:3b-6). God desires that all humankind be saved, but we must receive His grace in order to be transformed: "He came to His own [the Jews], and those who were His own didn't receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become God's children, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:11-12).

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was a brilliant lawyer who had the gift of weaving a very convincing argument. He defined God as totally transcendent and sovereign over the universe, predestining humankind either to eternal bliss in heaven or eternal fire and damnation in hell, without any free choice by us. God loves the "elect" or the "elite" and has a wonderful plan for their lives - eternal bliss in heaven. But He hates the "damned" or the "deplorables" and has a horrible plan for their lives - burn in the fires of hell for all eternity. Thus the "elect" or the "elite" can do no real wrong because they are declared righteous by God, and they can rule over the "damned" or the "deplorables" who exist only to be exploited as expendable hardly-human resources.

But few people today realize that Augustine lived in the Greco-Roman Empire during the fourth century when the empire was ruled from Constantinople and the seat of Christianity was there. St. John Cassian (c. 360–435) was asked by the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople to refute the error in Augustine's teaching that after the fall, man was totally depraved, so corrupt that he could do nothing for his own salvation, by his own will he could not even believe ("the bondage of the will"), and that God simply predestined some men to salvation and others to damnation. In the thirteenth of his Conferences, with Abbot Chairemon, Cassian eloquently sets forth, at length and with many citations from the Holy Scriptures, the Eastern Orthodox teaching of Synergy, the balance between the grace of God on one hand, and man's efforts on the other, necessary for our salvation.

And few people today realize that at the end of his life, Augustine recanted of his earlier teaching on original sin, predestination and inherent human sinfulness, bringing it into harmony with the Eastern Church Fathers: at the beginning of his book The City of God, he wrote that Adam and Eve "merited this [death] by their disobedience; for by them so great a sin was committed, that by it the human nature was altered for the worse, and was transmitted also to their posterity, liable to sin and subject to death." Note that he does not state here that all mankind is totally depraved and inherits Adam's sin and guilt, only death; rather, mankind is only "liable (likely) to sin." This brings Augustine's later teaching into harmony with Eastern Christianity.

Sometimes I'm asked if I believe in predestination or free will. I often reply "Neither and both." A modern analogy is the question of whether light is matter or energy: if we test it for matter, it answers "I'm matter." But if we test it for energy, it answers "I'm energy." I believe that we can't accept God's predestination as the full description of our spiritual destiny, nor can we accept human free will as the total answer to our destiny. It's not "either-or" but rather "both-and." From God's timeless perspective of foreknowledge, He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. But from our time-bound, finite and human perspective, we have the ability and responsibility to choose to respond to God's loving and gracious offer of salvation to all mankind. It's Synergism!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 5 Nov. 2017.)

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The Kingdom of Eternal Happiness

There seems to be no end of televangelists, church pastors and roadside billboards preaching a "cheap grace" happy-clappy message of "Just say - 'Ah bleevin Jeezuz,' and you'll be guaranteed a home in the Kingdom of Eternal Happiness!" It doesn't matter, they say, which Jeezuz you bleevin: merely a great moral teacher, or a good man that God used, or a god-like being that appeared to be a human, just bleev! That's the magic formula to get free salvation and the secularized version of it: free homes, free food, free clothes, free TV, free phones, free education, free medical care, etc. ...until the money-printing presses burn out, the world heats up, and the hurricanes and floods take away the east, west and gulf coasts, leaving just the heartland of hard-working people who were taxed to pay for all the free stuff being handed out.

My point here is that a so-called gospel of "cheap grace" that whips up people into a state of euphoria by promising health and wealth on earth and eternal happiness in heaven is way out of sync with reality and with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for My sake, the same will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own soul? For whoever will be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:23-26). And about those televangelists, church pastors and roadside billboards, Christ said:

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree can't produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:15-21).

These wolves in sheep's clothing are like the "coyotes" who promise to guide illegal immigrants across the U.S. border in exchange for a hefty fee that the wolves/coyotes keep, even if the illegals die in the desert or are arrested and deported. Those poor people believed the lie of an eternal paradise of "free stuff" just across the river, but in fact were sold down the river. The false prophets stroke the "sheeple" with soft, sweet words and gentle music as the offering plates are passed and their bank accounts are filled. But preachers who tell it like it is, who preach the pure Gospel of Christ, are like the prophet Jeremiah, who said to Hananiah the false prophet:

"Listen, Hananiah: the Lord has not sent you; but you are making this people to believe in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I will wipe you off the face of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have spoken rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month." (Jeremiah 28:15-17)

But Jeremiah, for his inveighing against the false prophets who foretold lies that the Jewish people wouldn't be conquered and taken away as slaves, eventually was arrested, thrown into a well, and later sawn in two. He complained to the Lord:

"Cursed be the day in which I was born: don't let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought news to my father, saying, A manchild is born to you; making him very glad. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and didn't repent: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime; because he didn't kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great. Why did I come forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?" (Jeremiah 20:14-18)

The glory of the coming Kingdom as described in the New Testament is not the happy-clappy glory-halleluiah of the smiley-face "Ah bleevin Jeezuz" crowd. The Apostle John wrote about Christ's glory this way: "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Most assuredly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. Where I am, there will My servant also be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. Now My soul is troubled. What shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this time?' But for this cause I came to this time. Father, glorify Your name! Then there came a voice out of heaven, saying, 'I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." (John 11:23-28).

How was Christ glorified? By dying and being buried, falling into the ground like a grain of wheat. The Apostle Paul stated that "through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22b). And Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi that Christ "emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave to Him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:7-11).

So the true glory isn't free, it costs us our whole life, becoming a "living sacrifice" in order to be transformed into Christ's image and likeness: "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1-2). Also, "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). The word "transformed" is the same Greek word as "transfigured" like when Jesus was transfigured and shone in His glory. This is our goal as Christians: it isn't cheap or easy, but it's worth it!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 21 Oct. 2017.)

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Our Post-Christian Society

The Kingdom of Eternal Happiness This article, "Our Post-Christian Society," appeared on 14 December, 2014, with the subtitle "Christianity, post-Christianity, and the future of the West" on the National Review website. The topic was perhaps somewhat prescient because much of what it told was coming has now come to be; in fact, we could say that we have now moved to an anti-Christian society. The author, John O'Sullivan, writes:

"It is often said that we live in a post-Christian society. That is true, but its meaning is generally misunderstood. A post-Christian society is not merely a society in which agnosticism or atheism is the prevailing fundamental belief. It is a society rooted in the history, culture, and practices of Christianity but in which the religious beliefs of Christianity have been either rejected or, worse, forgotten.

"In other words a post-Christian society is a particular sort of Christian society. It is quite different, for instance, from a post-Muslim or a post-Buddhist society (if we can imagine such things). At an emotional level, its Christian character explains why many agnostics and atheists nonetheless find Christian hymns suitable and comforting at occasions such as funerals and weddings.

"Intellectually, its dormant Christian beliefs — notably those about the nature of Man — underpin our ideas on politics and foreign policy, as for instance on human rights. Even the Enlightenment — which strong secularists like to cite as the foundation of Western liberal polities — is an extension of Christianity as much as a rejection of it. In short, though much of what Christianity taught is forgotten, even unknown, by modern Europeans and Americans, they nonetheless act on its teachings every day.

"But there are consequences to forgetting truths. One consequence is that while we instinctively want to preserve the morals and manners of the Christian tradition, we cannot quite explain or defend them intellectually. So we find ourselves seeking more contemporary (i.e., in practice, secular) reasons for preserving them or, when they decay completely, inventing regulations to mimic them. When courtesy is abandoned, we invent speech codes, which are blunter in their impact and repress legitimate disagreement along with insults. When female sexual modesty and male sexual restraint are discredited as puritanical, we draw up contractual arrangements to ensure that any sexual contact is voluntary on both sides."

I encourage you to read the whole article. We are repeating the cycle of Prosperity-Complacency-Corruption that occurred over and over with the nation of Israel in the Old Testament:

"You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. Make certain that you do not forget the LORD your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; be sure that you do not become proud and forget the LORD your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ...So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to create wealth. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors." (Deut. 8:10-14, 17-18)

Even with the warning "be sure that you do not become proud and forget the LORD," the Israelites did exactly that: time and again they fell into idolatry and depravity, borrowing pagan customs from their pagan neighbor nations. We too are prone to repeat the same cycle of Prosperity-Complacency-Corruption, thinking we have it made with our prosperity, only to fall into complacency by forgetting that it is God Who gave us the ability to create this wealth. Then we turn away from God and end up in the corruption of depravity that brings us to the edge of destruction. Lastly, like the Israelites, we call out to God for help, He comes to the rescue, and we begin the cycle all over again.

How can we break out of this cycle? Israel tried to escape the domination from Assyria to the north by forging an alliance with Egypt to the south, but that effort failed. Fleeing from the demon you know to the demon you don't know just doesn't work. The solution is to go back to the basics, to return to the fundamentals of our Christian faith. What are they?

God is a caring Father Who loves the whole world: He is not an angry demi-god who hates you and has a horrible plan for your life. We reject the idea of a god who would damn 95% of humanity to burn in hell forever. God loves all of humankind so much that He sent His only-begotten Son so that anyone and everyone who believes in and receives Him will have eternal life.

We believe that God's Son is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One promised to Israel, born of the Virgin Mary. He lived an exemplary life doing good: healing the sick, feeding the poor, driving out demons, teaching His followers how to do the same... and then the authorities, the jealous powers-that-be, arrested and executed Him by the cruelest method of torture known to man: crucifixion.

We believe that Jesus Christ then rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent us the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit now fills us with divine power to purify us from our depravity and transform us into the likeness of the glorified Christ.

We believe in one baptism for the remission of sins that joins us into the Body of Christ on earth, the Church. We believe that by partaking of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ mystically enter into us and we into Him - we regularly renew our participation in the Body of Christ. By this we are members of one family, we vow to love one another and build up each other in the faith and in practical good works.

These are the basic Christian truths that undergird Western civilization. We need to forge alliances not with the latest passing political fad; rather, with those who can honestly confess the above truths as found in the Nicene Creed, the only statement of faith that is accepted by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and most Evangelical Protestants.

This month marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther began by attempting to bring about reform within the Roman Catholic Church, not to lead a rebellion against it. Then he appealed to the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople with the plea that he was returning to the original Orthodox faith. After many centuries, the Roman Catholic Church is recognizing that many of Luther's complaints were legitimate. So it's time to stop fighting and to see what we agree on, instead of what we disagree about. This is how we can restore our post-Christian society and rebuild it on its foundational truths!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 7 Oct. 2017.)

Saturday, September 23, 2017

"Dark" or Unseen Matter and Energy

My last essay - Is Reality Really Real, or Is It All in Your Head? included an image of Albert Einstein with the quote - "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." He was referring to the idea that what we in the modern age have been trained to consider as "reality" is the material universe that we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell, but all of that is just a tiny portion of what's really real.

Add to these five senses the instrumentation of detecting electromagnetic and atomic radiation that we have on earth and can launch into or with which we can peer into deep space, and we seem to be able to detect and measure the contents of the whole universe. Astronomers and physicists have determined that the universe is about 13.5 billion years old and that it is expanding at an ever greater rate of speed.

But in all these explorations we've come across clues of something "out there" that we can't detect or measure, all we can observe is its effect on the known universe. Scientists often call this "something" dark matter and energy, and as the illustration here points out, dark matter according to their estimates makes up about 23% and dark energy makes up about 73% of the universe, for a total of 96% of everything that exists. This leaves just 4% of the universe as what we call "material reality" - what we can observe with our five senses and all our scientific instrumentation and mathematical calculations.

A French researcher has called this unknowable matter and energy "unseen" or "invisible" rather than using the word "dark" which can imply a negative or evil connotation to this unknowable stuff. Could this be what causes some plants to develop structures that follow precise mathematical patterns and what enables birds to migrate along routes they have never flown before? A strictly materialist universe governed only by random chance could never produce the structured complexity we see all around us. Lisa Randall, Professor of Science at Harvard University, is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist who thinks that unseen matter and energy could actually harbor forms of intelligent life far beyond our abilities to comprehend.

This is consistent with what we read in Hebrews 11:3 - "By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible." The unseen, invisible force in the universe, the Word of God, is the creator of the visible universe. This Word of God is the Logos, the logic or informational patterning in the universe, as St. Paul wrote - "For by Him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things are held together" (Colossians 1:16-17).

So the ancient theologians were right: the Logos is both transcendent (above and beyond the universe) and immanent (interpenetrating everything that exists in the material universe), or as they said - "He is everywhere present and fills all things." The Apostle John wrote - "In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome it" John 1:1-5).
But not only the Logos exists before all things, Who is the Light that enlightens all mankind, that divine spark that differentiates humans from lower animals. There are also dark forces "out there," as St. Paul wrote - "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).

We are involved in a cosmic battle in a realm that our material senses cannot comprehend. There are spiritual forces all around us, angels and demons, who are fighting for control over our minds and spirits, as St. Paul explained - "For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

If we allow ourselves to be taken captive by the spirit of this age, we'll come out as losers in this great cosmic battle. Living just for material wealth, ease and pleasure is a losing proposition. If, however, we give ourselves to serving Christ, we will be on the winning side: the darkness will not overcome the Light!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 24 Sep. 2017.)