The way of life: It's your choice

[T]here is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carry the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life ... or death. It shall be life. So will it be.

 

-- Ten Bears in The Outlaw Josey Wales

And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

 

-- Jeremiah 21:8

The Way of God

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. -- Matthew 22:16

And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? -- Mark 12:14

And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: -- Luke 20:21

And [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. -- Acts 18:26

What marriage used to mean

'In publicly advocating that the king’s marriage was indissoluble, Fisher argued that “this marriage of the king and queen can be dissolved by no power, human or Divine.” For this principle, he said, he was willing to give his life. He continued by noting that John the Baptist saw no way to “die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage,” despite the fact that marriage then “was not so holy at that time as it has now become by the shedding of Christ’s Blood.” Like Thomas More and John the Baptist, [Bishop John] Fisher was beheaded, and like them, he is called “saint.”'

Read the whole thing, here, from Archbishop of Denver Samuel Aquila.

However consequential Jesus has been for human history, zeal for Muhammad's message and its success have been at least comparable

From a follower of NT Wright, here:

"The real Jesus must have been . . . consequential. Jesus left such an impact on the early Christians that they were willing to suffer and die for their testimony that he’d risen from the dead. A failed prophet or revolutionary might have attracted lasting admiration at best, but what could’ve happened to make devout monotheistic Jews worship this man after his death?"

For a false prophet in the opinion of Christians, Muhammad's message has built quite a following in the world despite being a younger religion in the history of humankind. It's laughable not to notice how successfully Islam has revolutionized vast swaths of the globe despite having no divine man who rose from the dead to worship, and how many have died in the cause of pressing its case on an unbelieving world in the past and in our own time, through war and through martyrdom. 

Worldwide the 1.6 billion adherents of Islam face Mecca five times a day in something more than "lasting admiration", and now equal more than 70% of the global Christian population, while Hinduism's practitioners equal another 50%. Together the Muslims and Hindus outnumber the followers of Christ by over 20%.

Consider how many Muslims have martyred themselves in suicide bombings just in the period since 1982, as tracked by the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, here. There are in excess of 4,600 cases. Compare that with the number of Christians martyred until the time of Constantine, which my late teacher Robert M. Grant in a seminar on the apologists back in the day once put at no more than 5,000.  

Jesus was no more comprehensible in his time than Noah was in his

From a disciple of NT Wright, here:

  The real Jesus must have been ... comprehensible. Jesus was a first-century Jew from Galilee, and so we should expect his words and deeds to fit within this historical and geographical context. His message must have been understandable and on some level plausible to first-century Jews in order to have gained a hearing among them. This is why it’s so hard to see Jesus as a pagan myth or a Cynic philosopher; these portraits simply don’t make sense in Jesus’s Jewish context.

On the contrary, Jesus' frame of reference came entirely from the last episode of worldwide judgment in Jewish mythology.

 

Did Noah's warning of impending doom "make sense in Noah's 'Jewish' context"? No. Did he "gain a hearing among" his peers? No, they all perished. And with what social convention did Noah comply in building and entering the ark? None. He was by all accounts crazy.

As it was in the days of Noah . . ..

-- Luke 17:26

They don't call him NT Wrong for nothing.

In Paul's mind, the Council of Jerusalem boiled down to one thing, about which Acts 15 says not one thing

Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

-- Galatians 2:10

A Methodist imagines a more demanding form of discipleship would look like the church of the post-war

You know, when families were bigger, more people went to church, more came weekly, more prayed, perhaps at least at every meal because families ate together then, more attended Bible study or Sunday School, and more tithed of their time if not of their treasure.

Now all that looks like an impossibly lost ideal.

Seen here:

"Discipleship has some built-in defining characteristics that are much more demanding than occasionally showing up. People who haven’t shared in public worship for two years should not be called disciples. Those too busy to pray, who have no time to meet with other Christians for accountability and spiritual practice, who neglect a sacrificial commitment of time or money should not be called disciples. Those who do meet to debate carpet colors, criticize the pastoral leadership, snipe over music styles, and decide who isn’t welcome are not disciples. Those who only pay attention to the parts they like and that make them feel comfortable and lovable are not disciples. Come on! Why would anyone want to be a disciple if the key qualification is breathing?"

There's that dying vision of discipleship, at least in America, and then there's discipleship, the kind Jesus taught which the church has from the beginning safely stored away in a box reserved only for its true believers, its fanatics.

"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." -- Luke 14:33

When you drop this first demand, all the other dominoes fall . . . eventually. 

The tragedy of our times is that we are incapable of being disciples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seen here, where asceticism is kept as the way of the true Christian life, followed by the very few, whereas the imminently coming judgment, for which Jesus' asceticism was originally prescribed to permit the disciple successfully to navigate it, goes wholly unmentioned:

You know, I recall the words of St. Gregory the Dialogist. He asked which is more correct: to zealously keep the fasts and be ascetic but proud, or to be humble and keep almost nothing? ... Gregory the Dialogist says, no. Let there be pride, but the person should labor ascetically; and the Lord Himself will find a way to humble him. However, there are few of us who zealously observe everything. ... [T]he tragedy of our times is that we are incapable of being disciples. ... Specifically the will for asceticism is paralyzed. Everyone knows and understands all this very well but they can hardly do anything about it. It is because this web has ensnared all of us, and only the Lord can somehow interfere and change it all. Thus have we gotten stuck in these nets—and this includes you and me. ... God looks at the man, at how he forces himself. ... We all have different passions, different inclinations. If we force ourselves, the Lord will reward us.

The tragedy of our times is the same tragedy which has afflicted Christianity since its inception: the failure of the kingdom to come, and the failure of the parousia.

With two hours to go to the end of the world there's no sign of a fireball let alone any heat

'Twas the night of the eschaton

and all through the house

not a creature was stirring 

in fear of a megaton . . .

Uh oh, the world's ending again . . . TOMORROW!

And I thought I was going to a piano lesson as usual.

Glad I found out, and just in the nick of time, too.

Story here, about eBible Fellowship's Chris McCann.