Demonstrating God’s Will

Flickr/Edward Zulawski

By Beth Snodderly

“In a cosmic battle for the rulership of this planet, God is deliberately overcoming evil with good until, in the end, Jesus will reign in his Kingdom of shalom. But until God ushers in that final perfect new heaven and new earth, there is a need for believers to engage intentionally in efforts to demonstrate God’s will for people, for societies, and for God’s originally good creation. Jesus’ followers serve as God’s display window, showing what Jesus’ reign is meant to look like. As pastor-theologian, Gregory Boyd, says,

As Christ gave his all for us, so we are called and empowered to give our all for others. As we abide in Christ and participate in the love of the self-sacrificial God, our lives are to manifest the self-sacrificial love of God to others. See “Living In, and Looking Like, Christ,” in Servant God: The Cosmic Conflict Over God’s Trustworthiness (Loma Linda: Loma Linda University Press, 2013), 407.    

Read more excerpts from my book, Chaos Is Not God’s Will at: Introducing International Development as Cosmic Battle

Links for Today (December 12, 2016)

By Beth Snodderly

Subversive Kingdom

The printed title of Ed Stetzer’s 2012 book whimsically conveys his main point—God’s Kingdom is upside down and backwards to the world’s expectations.

Succinct truths like these are punctuated throughout the book:

• “If you are a follower of Jesus, you have been made a citizen of this kingdom” (p. 8).
• “We are God’s ‘store window’ on earth where he shows off his kingdom (p. 186).
• “The kingdom’s work is done in small ways by people living as agents of the King” (p. 227).

The Devil Under a Microscope

From the book, Hope Rises from the Land, written in 1955 by Ralph Almon Felton:

• “They come from many miles to see the devil. Even African pastors, deacons, and deaconesses come to the laboratory of Alice Strangway to see for themselves real ovilulu (evil spirits). They watch the moving microfiliaria that causes so much blindness in Angola. How could there be a worse devil! What a collection of devils to be seen through one microscope! Rickets, pellagra, anemias, goiter, scurvy, diarrhea, and many more.”
• “Here are the red and blue stained parasites of malaria.”           
• “Three of my six babies left us because of these,” one mother sighs.

Read more about this book here.

Awakening the Christian Imagination

In his 2013 book, Evil and the Justice of God, N.T. Wright wrote:

"The Christian imagination … needs to be awakened, enlivened and pointed in the right direction. … Christians need to sense permission, from God and from one another, to exercise their imaginations in thinking ahead into God’s new world and into such fresh forms of worship and service as will model and embody aspects of it. We need to have this imagination energized, fed and nourished, so that it is lively and inventive, not sluggishly going around the small circles of a few ideas learned long ago." (p. 126)

And, speaking of imagination...

Why Imagination Matters

Over at Reknew.org, Greg Boyd talks about the flesh being “shaped by Satan’s web of deception that deeply infects our imaginations. … We need to imagine truth and savor it; only then can the flesh that holds us in bondage be broken. We need to see pictures of grace in our minds and savor them ….”

Could a Holy Spirit-fueled imagination help us envision creative ways to join together to fight such things as disease in Jesus’ name?

Links for Today (September 20, 2016)

By Beth Snodderly

Malaria and Genetic Engineering

“New gene-editing technology gives scientists the ability to wipe out the carriers of malaria and the Zika virus. But should they use it?” Ralph Winter used to talk about gene splicing and changing tigers to be non-carnivorous, but I don't think he thought through the implications of genetic engineering the way this article does.

The New Testament and the Warfare Worldview

Greg Boyd talks about the theme of “God striving to establish his sovereign will (his Kingdom) on earth over and against forces that oppose him. … Contrary to any view that suggests disease somehow serves a divine purpose, Jesus never treated such phenomenon as anything other than the work of the enemy.”

Cruelty in the Name of Jesus?

Roger Olson reports on a new book, Is Modern Unbelief Rooted in Christianity? that claims “modern unbelief was brought about not by modern science or irreligious philosophy [‘the Enlightenment’] but by the cruel depictions of God, and resulting cruel treatments of sincere people who simply disagreed with them, by Luther, Calvin, and other magisterial reformers and their followers. And it was brought about, at least in its beginnings, by Christian shaped (or at least Jesus-shaped) consciences reacting against those cruelties.” Read more about the crucial difference it makes to faithfully or unfaithfully represent God’s character to the world.

Beth Snodderly is the RWI's Theologian in Residence and Chair of the Board.

Four Types of Evil, Part II

Human evil and the evil of natural disasters cause people to lose their faith in God. Can this be prevented?

By Brian Lowther

Editor’s Note: Over the past few weeks here on the RWI blog, we’ve been exploring Ralph Winter’s Four Seeds of Destruction. Today, Brian Lowther continues his three-part series examining Seed #1: The Seed of the Problem of Evil. 

I ended my last blog entry by describing my hunch that I think God has called us, commissioned us, and prepared us to battle four types of evil: human evil, natural disasters, spiritual evil, and violence in nature. When we do, I think that says something about God, that he is not the source of these evils, that he does not condone these evils, and that he is actively and visibly opposing these evils through us. If someone could be convinced of this, and if he or she were acquainted with numerous examples of God’s people attempting to overcome the roots of evil (and not just the fruits of evil) as a demonstration of his will, I think he or she would be far less likely to walk away from the faith.

Here are a few examples to substantiate that hunch from the category of Human Evil, then some questions about the Evil of Natural Disasters.

1. Human Evil

My mentor, Dr. Ralph D. Winter often described the hopelessness of rescuing girls from human trafficking, “For every one you rescue, ten more will show up the next day to take her place.” His point was that rescuing enslaved girls—which he would agree is crucially important—wasn’t getting at the roots of the problem. He knew that the roots lie deep within cultural, economic and political systems. To adequately address these systems, members of the society have to be transformed from the inside out, and in his mind, the gospel offered the best means to do that. As the gospel is planted, gradually the Holy Spirit begins to transform human beings, who in turn transform societies. The result is a reduction in the amount of war, violence, murder, oppression, and slavery, and an increase in the amount of peace, selflessness, equality, safety etc.

Obviously, there are examples where the opposite is true, such as Nagaland where over 90% of the Nagas are Christian;[1] it is the most Christian state of India. Yet it is also considered the most corrupt.[2] But for every Nagaland there are perhaps hundreds or thousands of examples of the Holy Spirit turning people from darkness to light to sacrificially serve their fellow human beings resulting in the flourishing of society.

One example that comes to mind is the way children—especially female children—were regularly left to die of exposure or sold into slavery in the pre-Christian Roman Empire. Jesus’ treatment of and teachings about children led to the forbidding of such practices, as well as initiating orphanages and godparents. Another example is the way the ancient Greeks and Romans had little or no interest in the sick and the dying. But the early Christians—following Christ’s compassion for the sick—established institutions for lepers and the beginning of modern-day hospitals. Alvin Schmidt’s How Christianity Changed the World details dozens of other examples just like these, showing how the gospel changed human society for the better.

Now, back to my hunch: what do these things say about God? I think they say, if his followers are actively trying to conquer the roots of a certain evil, that evil must not be something God wants or intends in the world. God does not intend for the world to be full of orphans, slaves, sickness, etc. And this allows believers to trust in his goodness, which prevents them from losing their faith.

2. Natural Disasters

What are believers doing to overcome the roots of natural disasters? It’s hard to say, isn’t it? I think Christians are marvelously active in responding to catastrophes when they occur. I may even be able to find some good examples of believers helping to avoid a catastrophe through some type of early warning system. But I’d be hard pressed to find a theologically motivated initiative whose purpose was to address the roots of earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, volcanoes, or hurricanes.

Perhaps this is because we either don’t know what the roots of these problems are, or, if we do—such as the fact that earthquakes are caused by the movement of tectonic plates—there is currently no feasible way to address these roots.

I’m reminded of a few instances where people attempted such feats. In the 1960’s the U.S. Army drilled a deep well in the state of Colorado to dispose of waste fluids. After a year of dumping, a series of small earthquakes (almost 200!) broke out in the area. A connection was soon established between the waste well and the earthquakes. So the army removed the fluid and soon the earthquakes stopped. It begs the question, couldn’t geophysicists install wells like these along fault lines in earthquake hot spots, to set off smaller, controlled earthquakes and thus reduce sudden, larger ones? Apparently the answer is yes, in theory. But the financial outlay of doing so would greatly exceed the cost of recovery after a major earthquake.[3]

Another disaster eradication plan—also from the 60’s—involved dropping silver iodide from airplanes into the outer rain bands of a developing hurricane. The goal was to create a second eye to compete with a hurricane's powerful center, siphoning off some of its strength. They knew it wasn’t possible to stop a storm entirely, but even a small reduction in wind speed could significantly reduce the storm damage.[4] Over a decade they seeded the clouds in four hurricanes. The storms weakened a bit, but ultimately experts agreed that the results were just a product of a natural process.

As far as I can tell, neither of these projects were established explicitly by Christians for the glory of God. In fact, the only examples I can think of where believers are actively attempting to address the roots of a natural disaster are things like the Evangelical Environmental Network or the Regeneration Project, which are both attempting to address global warming.[5] Obviously, global warming is a contentious issue so I’ll stop here, because the important question to me for this essay is, what does our fighting the roots of the evil of natural disasters say about God?

If you discount these two organizations for just a moment, the answer is, it is our absence in fighting this category of evil, not our activity that is speaking for us and for God. Our inactivity implies that God created or at least approves all of the evil and suffering caused by natural disasters. Short of acting in these areas, we must insist, and insist very loudly that God does not cause natural disasters, and that the Bible gives evidence of another way to understand such events. Otherwise people will continue to walk away from the faith.

For a thorough and well written essay that explores the Biblical evidence that suggests another way to understand natural disasters, see Greg Boyd’s Satan and the Corruption of Nature: Seven Arguments.

Endnotes

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaland#Religion

[2] http://morungexpress.com/do-you-believe-that-nagaland-is-the-corruption-capital-of-india/

[3] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6759689/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/can-earthquakes-be-tamed/

[4]  http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5a.html

[5] http://www.newsweek.com/2016/03/18/creation-care-evangelical-christianity-climate-change-434865.html

Photo Credit: Nav A./Flickr

Brian Lowther is the Director of
the Roberta Winter Institute

Ralph D. Winter’s Four Seeds of Destruction

Why the Gospel we’re exporting around the world is destined to blossom today, only to fade tomorrow.

By Brian Lowther

Ralph D. Winter established the Roberta Winter Institute to address one major problem. Because of his background as a mission leader and a mission historian, he saw that Evangelical missionaries were exporting a gospel around the world that contained seeds of its own destruction. [1] He recognized that if we do not eliminate these seeds, we could expect people from the hard-won mission fields of today to abandon their faith tomorrow.

Helpfully, he identified four of the most serious “seeds of destruction.”

Ralph D. Winter’s Four Seeds of Destruction

1. The Seed of the Problem of Evil

He predicted that as the people of the newly won mission fields of today become acquainted with the traditional answers to the problem of evil, they will increasingly become skeptical of those answers and their faith in God will gradually collapse. The traditional answer to the problem of evil blames sin on humans, blames temptation on Satan, and blames everything else on God’s mysterious, divine plan. Natural disasters are called “Acts of God.” Deadly diseases prompt questions like, “Why did God take my wife?” In his mind, faith that rests on these approaches to the problem of evil doesn’t stand much of a chance.

His solution was to develop A New Story, a re-framing of the Biblical narrative that answers the problem of evil in a new way, rescues God’s reputation and places the blame for evil at the feet of Satan.

2. The Seed of the Creation Narrative Being Irreconcilable with Modern Science

Secondly, he predicted that as the people of the newly won mission fields of today inevitably become acquainted with the scientific worldview, their faith in God will gradually collapse. Because of his background as an engineer, he knew that the traditional creation narrative does not resonate with a good percentage of scientists or people born in a Westernized, Post-Enlightenment society.

His solution was to develop A New Story, a re-framing of the Biblical narrative that takes what science knows about the history of the universe into account. His story reconciles the Young Earth view with the Old Earth view in a way that he believed would be more plausible to the scientists of today and the believers of tomorrow.

3. The Seed of an Incomplete Mandate

Thirdly, he predicted that as the people of the newly won mission fields of today begin to evangelize and disciple others, they will eventually become disillusioned by the idea that the advance of God’s Kingdom consists primarily (or perhaps merely) of passing out tickets to heaven. He equated this truncated mandate with walking into a desolate, war-torn area and informing the survivors that democracy is all they need to fix their problems. [2] Beyond just saving souls, he saw through history—not just human history, but cosmic history—that God was also about reestablishing shalom in a corrupted creation and defeating the enemy who is responsible for that corruption. Without these larger aspects of God’s redemptive activity being communicated and demonstrated by the people of God, Dr. Winter foresaw a bleak future for the believers of tomorrow.

His solution was to develop A New Story, a re-framing of the Biblical narrative that explores the fuller mandate God has given his children to battle evil and restore shalom to creation.

4. The Seed of Violent Portraits of God

Lastly, on his deathbed he dictated a short essay [3] implying that as the people of the newly won mission fields of today begin to understand the Bible, they will become deeply troubled by the violent portraits of God in the Old Testament (e.g., narratives that depict God violently smiting his enemies, commanding merciless genocide, and causing familial cannibalism). These portraits seem categorically different from Jesus who tells his followers to love their enemies and bless those who curse them. We can extrapolate that some new believers—like so many other Christian communities throughout history—will use these harsh, nationalistic portraits of God to justify their own inclinations toward violence.

As a solution we can utilize resources like Greg Boyd’s forthcoming book, Crucifixion of the Warrior God to build into Dr. Winter’s re-framing of the Biblical narrative a new way to reconcile the violent-tending God of the Old Testament with the self-sacrificial enemy-loving God revealed in Jesus Christ.

A New Activity

In addition to addressing these seeds of destruction through his New Story, Dr. Winter knew that we couldn’t just go out and share a story. That story would have to be backed up and empowered by action. That fuller mandate would have to be obeyed. Therefore, he identified and championed a specific New Activity for the Body of Christ to focus upon: disease eradication.

Why Disease Eradication?

Perhaps the most strategic way to battle evil, restore shalom to creation, and rescue God’s reputation is to address the world problems that are causing the most human suffering. Many of the great human problems such as spiritual darkness, poverty, injustice, and illiteracy have already significantly caught the attention of the Body of Christ. Some of the resulting efforts are focused on addressing the roots of these problems, not just the symptoms. [4] And, while treating the symptoms of disease has always been a hallmark of Christianity, where are the Christian organizations devoted to addressing the social, microbiological, and genetic roots of disease with an eye toward eradicating those diseases, not just healing them?

Conclusion

In the end, we in the Roberta Winter Institute believe that the chief reason the burgeoning mission fields of today will collapse into gospel resistance tomorrow is because these seeds of destruction are unknowingly exported with the gospel like rats on a cargo ship. Where is the wisdom in zealously building a widespread movement to Christ on a foundation of sand? This will continue to be a problem until and unless we eliminate these destructive seeds and obey the fuller mandate God has given us as disciples of his son.

Join us as we explore and expand upon these ideas in the weeks and months ahead here at www.robertawinterinstitute.org.

Endnotes

[1] “When the Church Staggers, Stalls and Sits Down (In the Middle of a War!),” by Ralph D. Winter, Mission Frontiers Magazine, May-June 2008 - http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/when-the-church-staggers-stalls-and-sits-down-in-the-middle-of-a-war
[2] “Beyond Unreached Peoples,” By Ralph D. Winter, November 2004. Published in Frontiers in Mission, pg. 186
[3] “Let’s Be Fair to the Bible,” Unpublished essay by Ralph D. Winter, May 2009
[4] For more on this, see: http://www.robertawinterinstitute.org/blog/2014/7/4/who-is-addressing-root-causes-of-the-biggest-human-problems

Photo Credit: Richard Thomas/Flickr

Brian Lowther is the Director of
the Roberta Winter Institute

Blessed are the Peacemakers

John Bennett/Flickr

By Beth Snodderly, D.Litt. et Phil. 

God wants his children to be known as peacemakers. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

Greg Boyd wrote in a Sept. 2010 ReKnew blog that, “A number of scholars have argued that the whole point of the book of Revelation is to vindicate God’s sacrificial lamb-like way of overcoming evil. That is, God’s way of defeating evil by being willing to die, rather than conquer with violence, looks like it loses throughout history, but all will see that it triumphs in the end.”

One of these scholars is Sigve Tonstad, author of the book, Saving God’s Reputation. He points out that as a deceiver, “Satan wins support for his cause and programme by something other than what he truly represents. If this is the case, simple demolition of the deceiver will not suffice unless or until his true character has become manifest” (p. 129). If God were to simply demolish the devil, those who have lent their support toward the evil one by believing his lies would then continue to believe the lies about God’s character.

Erich Sauer (The King of the Earth, p. 73), writing after the violence of World War II, explained his view that Satan’s area of power had been granted to him legally before his fall. (“The whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” 1 John 5:19.) Sauer believes it is God’s plan to take back the rulership of the world from Satan in a way that is “legal” and that reflects God’s justice. This meant, according to Sauer, that God would have to take the rulership of the world back without force, through the free choices of human beings who have to decide for themselves which ruler to follow. This was obviously a big risk for God, as Gregory Boyd points out (Satan and the Problem of Evil, p. 86). By creating humans and putting them in charge of the world, God was setting up a counter Kingdom and throwing out a challenge to Satan. The serpent’s insinuation to Eve was Satan’s initially successful response to that challenge. But God struck back with a long-term plan, first mentioned in Genesis 3:15, to defeat the dark prince of this world and restore the world to what it was originally intended to be, under the rule of the Creator-King.

Satan has to wait until humans give him an opportunity to act (Trevor Ling, The Significance of Satan, p. 38). God likewise has chosen to limit himself to acting when intercessors and his obedient people pray, “let your kingdom come; let your will be done” (Matthew 6:10).

Beth Snodderly is the RWI's Theologian in Residence and Chair of the Advisory Board.