Redemption
What the Church is All About: The Case of World Vision
For years I have admired the work of World Vision–– the globe’s largest and most effective Christian humanitarian organization. Last year, God blessed them with nearly 3 billion dollars in donations which they used, in Jesus’ Name, to serve people in sixty nations.
Bob Pierce, who founded the organization in 1950, was a compassionate man I had the privilege of meeting in the 1970s. A few years ago, one of his staff served on a team I led to Mongolia. WV’s global headquarters is only a thirty minute drive from my home, and in the past year, I visited its gigantic warehouse three times to pick up materials for a building project.
However, on March 24, World Vision made a big mistake.
Then they reversed it.
Through this dramatic sequence of events, we have learned what the church is all about.
I’m sure many of you have heard what happened. Reversing sixty-four years of precedent and faithfulness to God’s Word, the World Vision board, on March 24, 2014, adopted a new employment policy which essentially condoned homosexual acts and same sex marriage.
This decision brought a swift reaction from many Christian leaders.
What the Church is All About: Salt & Light
God created the Church to proclaim his redeeming message to all people. We have an important prophetic role to be salt and light in our cultures–without which the ravages of sinful behavior would hurt the lives of countless people and keep them from friendship with God.
Sin brings darkness, confusion, alienation from a holy and loving Creator. Followers of Jesus, in all of our diverse expressions (small groups, churches, and other organizations) were meant to shine the light of God’s principles into every area of life–for the good of all people.
It’s good to have a conscience. It keeps you from hurting yourself.
Regarding the prophetic role of His Church, Jesus announced, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
When World Vision stepped away from the truth regarding human sexuality and marriage, a number of spiritual leaders brought swift and loving “light” to them.
Franklin Graham said: “I was shocked today to hear of World Vision’s decision to hire employees in same-sex marriages. The Bible is clear that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
“My dear friend, Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse, would be heartbroken. He was an evangelist who believed in the inspired Word of God. World Vision maintains that their decision is based on unifying the church – which I find offensive – as if supporting sin and sinful behavior can unite the church. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Scriptures consistently teach that marriage is between a man and woman and any other marriage relationship is sin.”
Dr. George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, also expressed his profound disapproval of World Vision’s policy change:
“Recognizing legally valid same-sex marriages is not a narrow policy change. It is a fundamental shift away from a normative biblical understanding of marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman. The policy change cannot be construed as anything but an endorsement of same-sex marriage.”
“World Vision requires its employees to practice sexual abstinence outside of marriage. If it now permits its employees to enter legally valid same-sex marriages, then it has explicitly taken a position opposite of Scripture.”
Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis wrote on March 25:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10).
“In other words, to treat regular homosexual intercourse as less dangerous than fornication, adultery, greed, theft, and drunkenness is to treat perdition as if it were a small thing, or not really coming. The same text that imperils active fornicators and adulterers and thieves and coveters, also imperils those who practice homosexuality.”
“Make no mistake, this so-called ‘neutral’ position of World Vision is a position to accept practicing homosexuals as following an acceptable Christian lifestyle…Over against this, the apostle Paul says they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. It is that serious. If it were not, God would not have given his Son to be crucified for our rescue. Therefore, World Vision has trivialized perdition and the cross.”
Russell Moore was quite candid when he said, “This is no surprise, on one level. The constellation of parachurch evangelical ministries founded after World War II have been running headlong, with some notable exceptions, toward the very mainline liberalism to which they were founded as alternatives.”
“But here’s what’s at stake. This isn’t, as the World Vision statement (incredibly!) puts it, the equivalent of a big tent on baptism, church polity, and so forth. At stake is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If sexual activity outside of a biblical definition of marriage is morally neutral, then, yes, we should avoid making an issue of it. If, though, what the Bible clearly teaches and what the church has held for 2000 years is true, then refusing to call for repentance is unspeakably cruel and, in fact, devilish.”
Finally, the president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, Dr. Richard Land, summarized, “The Bible is crystal clear on the issue of marriage. As God declared in Genesis and Jesus reaffirmed in Matthew’s Gospel, marriage is between male and female (Gen. 2:18-25; Matt. 19: 4-6). Furthermore, God condemns all same-sex behavior as sinful and immoral” (Rom. 1:26-27; I Cor. 6:9).
“Evangelicals cannot declare ‘neutrality’ on this issue, and it cannot be fudged or finessed. If you tolerate same-sex marriage and/or same-sex behavior as acceptable morality for Christians, then you have rebelled against biblical authority and departed from the orthodox faith of biblical Christianity.”
World Vision made a mistake. It comprised God’s Word on a vital subject. Thus, numerous spiritual leaders turned on the “headlights” of reality and spoke to the issue.
Then an amazing thing happened.
What the Church is All About: Repentance
Within forty-eight hours of being exposed for its error, World Vision garnered the humility and courage to change course and make things right.
World Vision repented.
Here is the statement from president Richard Stearns:
“The last couple of days have been painful.” We feel pain and a broken heart for the confusion we caused for many friends who saw this policy change as a strong reversal of World Vision’s commitment to biblical authority, which it was not intended to be.”
“Rather than creating more unity [among Christians], we created more division, and that was not the intent. Our board acknowledged that the policy change we made was a mistake … and we believe that World Vision supporters helped us to see that with more clarity … and we’re asking you to forgive us for that mistake.”
“We listened to our friends, we listened to their counsel. They tried to point out in loving ways that the conduct policy change was simply not consistent … with the authority of Scripture and how we apply Scripture to our lives. We did inadequate consultation with our supporters. If I could have a do-over on one thing, I would have done much more consultation with Christian leaders.”
“What we are affirming today is there are certain beliefs that are so core to our Trinitarian faith that we must take a strong stand on those beliefs. We cannot defer to a small minority of churches and denominations that have taken a different position.”
“Yes, we will certainly defer on many issues that are not so central to our understanding of the Christian faith. But on the authority of Scripture in our organization’s work and on marriage as an institution ordained by God between a man and a woman—those are age-old and fundamental Christian beliefs. We cannot defer on things that are that central to the faith.”
Clear. Contrite. Honest.
A broken and repentant heart is a beautiful thing (Psalm 51:17).
After World Vision’s change of direction, Franklin Graham applauded, “World Vision has reversed their decision to employ individuals who are in same-sex marriages after an onslaught of negative reaction. In our country today, there is tremendous pressure on Christians, churches, and Christian organizations to lower our moral standards. God is clear in His Word, and His standards never change. I’m thankful that Christians across the country urged World Vision to reverse their decision, and prayed fervently that they would do so. Three cheers.”
George Wood likewise appreciated World Vision’s decision to change their decision and called on members of the Assemblies of God churches to accept the apology from World Vision and continue any support they had committed to the organization.
I wholeheartedly concur.
What the Church is All About: Compassion
Which brings us back to World Vision’s incredible strength where they are truly a light to all of us: serving the poor and needy around the world with joy in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Now they can continue to do so as salt and light in a fuzzy world with a clear, redemptive message of salvation from sin.
That’s what the Church is all about.
How Easter Changed the World–and Can Do It Again
This week we celebrate Easter–the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Two-thirds of our global population will take time to honor these events in some way with cross walks, worship services, family gatherings, or even Easter egg hunts (the only major exception being the Muslim nations).
Some may have not thought deeply about the impact of Jesus, but all have affected by it.
To the majority of people in the world, Jesus is an honored historical figure who was was the founder of Christianity–but that is about as far as it goes. Many have no idea that his death and resurrection has had an unsurpassed effect on the history of man. In fact without the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, life on planet earth would be incomprehensibly different from what it is today.
Easter changed the world–made it very different than what came before.
How different? Let’s take a look.
The essence of Jesus’ mission was to save the individual lives of every person who chooses to put their trust in him. He didn’t just point the way to a set of ideals or moral principles as many other teachers did. Rather, he promised when we were “born again by his Spirit” he would come to live inside of us, guiding and empowering people to live meaningful and godly lives.
At the age of fifteen I put my trust in Christ to forgive my sins and come into my life. He did. From the very beginning I experienced his presence, power, guidance, correction, and empowering which changed everything in my world. I was no longer “wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24)–but was set “free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). There was a new dynamite–dynamic–power–to live a productive life. Over the past two thousand years, it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ in millions, and now billions of people, that has altered the landscape of history through changing individual lives.
Similarly, no one altered the role of women is society more than the resurrection of Jesus. Prior to New Testament times, women labored in harsh, subservient roles, often nothing more than slaves to men and their families. Loren Cunningham and David Hamilton point out in their liberating book Why Not Women? that the Greek philosopher Cicero likened women to “slaves, dogs, horses, and donkeys”–all possessions to be used and cast away.
Jesus’ miraculous life elevated women to equal worth in God’s sight and complimentary roles in the marriage relationship. ALL of the women’s rights we enjoy, especially in the past two hundred years, were produced by the Christian faith. Even in Muslim societies today, women are second-class citizens. Not in the Christian West where women have all the same rights as anyone else. If you’re a woman, living in a Western nation, you can thank Jesus Christ for the freedoms you enjoy.
Also, though the Church has not always properly applied the teachings of Christ, it is also true that no group of people have made a more positive impact on the history of the world than the Christian Church. The “Church”–the “called out ones” (Greek = ekklesia)– transformed the Roman Empire, rescued “learning” from the destruction of the Middle Ages, raised Europe out of barbarism, pioneered the New World, and sent Christian civilization to the ends of the earth.
History would be unrecognizable today without the acts of God’s people in every century. Without the compassion, evangelism, humanitarian, and social justice works of the Church in scores of nations, the lives of millions today would be without hope.
One of the things we both criticize and take for granted in the 21st century is the positive role of human governments that were shaped by Christianity. Prior to the Christian faith being applied to civil government, people lived in perpetual fear of massacres and tyrants. Your town could be here one day and be burned to the ground the next. You could be alive one day and dead the next. Power and fear ruled human societies for much of human history.
But after the death and resurrection of Christ, the biblical role of civil government began to emerge through the Magna Charta, British common law, republican governments, democratic principles, and human rights. These things weren’t just the evolutionary march of history–they were incremental applications of Christ’s teachings to human governments.
Do you appreciate armies and police that protect us? Do you value the right to vote and elect your representatives? Do you appreciate the relative tranquility of a just social order? All of these things–which are not enjoyed in many non-Christian nations in the world–are the fruit of faith in Jesus Christ.
Most of the major milestones in human education flow from one fountain: faith in Jesus Christ. Did you know that we would have lost the great literature of Greece and Rome (and all of the ancient world) if it weren’t for the Christian monks who preserved that knowledge through finding, preserving, and copying all the ancient writings during the Middle Ages? Are you aware that the first universities in Paris and London were started by believers who had a thirst for knowledge and wisdom?
Did you know that the printing of the Gutenberg Bible was considered by TIME magazine the most important event of the past five hundred years because it made truth and knowledge easily available to the masses? Have you heard that the first one hundred and twenty universities in America, beginning with Harvard, were started by followers of Christ for the advancement of the Christian faith?
Even the development of human work, labor and industry, finds its zenith in the application of Christian truths. For most of history, and still in some parts of the world, there were only a few wealthy tyrants and teeming masses of poor people. For thousands of years there was no middle class and no freedom for individual initiative. During the Christianizing of Europe, this all changed as believers applied biblical concepts of labor and industry which eventually became free enterprise capitalism that led the world out of its mass poverty.
As Adam Smith wisely pointed out, the Wealth of Nationswas simply the fruit of applying the reality of Christ to economics. The large and growing middle classes, the endless business opportunities, the Protestant work ethic, extensive philanthropy, and the standard of living we share today is the fruit of the teachings of Christ. When you purchase your next gizmo or wonder drug, thank God that the free enterprise system you currently enjoy is built on faith from start to finish.
Rodney Stark in his marvelous book For the Glory of God rightly points out modern science was born of the Christian faith and not in opposition to it. It was Christian civilization that proposed that “design points to a Designer”–and that man was placed on the earth to discover God’s secrets in nature and use those discoveries to benefit people.
From Galileo to Faraday, from Pascal to Einstein, the leading scientists of both the past and present have overwhelmingly been people of faith who used their trust in Jesus Christ to unlock the mysteries of his creation. I recently visited the Kennedy Space Center and gazed in awe at the technology and scientific genius that put men on the moon. None of this would have been possible without believing in a God whose creation can be understood. That Creator is the resurrected Christ.
Francis Schaeffer pointed out in his landmark book How Should We Then Live?that the coming of Christ greatly influenced the arts–that prior to Christ’s birth, all music was played in minor chords, showing the incompleteness and lack of harmony in life. After Christ’s death and resurrection brought wholeness to individuals and nations, people began creating major chord music and realistic art–an expression of their reconciliation to God. Picture the totem pole faces and primitive art forms of pagan peoples. They always look wild, menacing, and evil.
Not after Jesus died and rose! He brought healing, peace, and completeness to thousands of lives who then reflected that wholeness in ever expanding art forms. It’s a long ways from lewd and angry totem poles to the Sistine Chapel–but Christ produced the difference. When lives are changed and brought into right relationship to God, they sing, paint, and give him glory in the arts. This is why more hymns and songs have been written about Jesus than any other person in history.
The love of Jesus Christ–as demonstrated on the Cross of Calvary–has made the greatest mark upon the world. “God is love,” and Jesus’ horrific sufferings on behalf of sinful people showed the world once and for all that God cares for each one of us and provided a way out of our guilt and self destruction. For two thousand years, followers of the loving Christ have carried his compassion and care to peoples everywhere.
Nations have been won through his love; The majority of hospitals and compassion ministries around the globe have been launched in his Name; When there are earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, and typhoons, God’s love through his people runs to alleviate human suffering via the Red Cross, World Vision, and thousands of other agencies. Where would our world be without the love of Christ as expressed through his people?
Jesus was not just a good man who founded a great religion. He was the Son of God, sent on a mission to transform the world through changing individual lives. I want you to imagine for a moment what your life would like if he hadn’t died and rose again!
You’d be powerless in your sins, separated from God forever. If you’re a woman, you’ve had no rights or future. Your family would be broken and dysfunctional. You’d have no worship or fellowship. You’d be living under a tyrant, without education, and in miserable poverty. You would be fearful of nature (creation), your art forms would express those fears. You would lack faith, hope, and love in this life–and the next.
Unfortunately, that description fits the circumstances of some people alive today–who have not heard of Jesus and the wonder of his love. Let’s be faithful to take his Good News to them.
The so-far turbulent 21st century needs to once again focus on the greatest Person of history–Jesus Christ. During this holiest of weeks, we need to pray that mena nd women, families, and whole nations will look to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of their sins and power to live wholesome and effective lives.
We must never forget that Easter–the death and resurrection of Jesus–radically changed the world for good.
Let’s ask Him to do it again in our generation.
Michael Vick, Redemption & a Fox News Gaffe
Let’s start the New Year by being fair and balanced.
Most of you know that I enjoy Fox News for its overall Judeo-Christian outlook on life and current events. Fox is a breath of fresh air in the media world where left wing ideologies and a secular view of reality usually prevail. In past columns, I have shown this is one reason that Fox has become the leading cable news station in America.
Nearly fifty percent of Americans watch Fox News.
Recently, however, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, made a huge gaffe on the Hannity Show. Let’s examine his blunder, and use the occasion to talk about about football star Michael Vick, redemption, and the truth as it applies to people and animals.
Tucker Carlson, a staunch conservative, is confused. Maybe some others are too.
Here’s what happened.
On Tuesday night, December 28, Tucker Carlson, a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, was substituting for Sean Hannity on the Hannity Show. While moderating a panel discussion, Carlson used the occasion to criticize President Obama who had recently commented on the outstanding play of NFL quarterback Michael Vick.
Here’s what Carlson said: “Now I’m a Christian, I make mistakes myself and I believe fervently in second chances. But Michael Vick killed dogs and he did it in a heartless and cruel way and I think personally he should have been executed for that. He wasn’t, but the idea that the President of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs?”
“Michael Vick should have been executed.” “Murdered dogs.”
What? Talk about a jumbled worldview.
But before we get to that, here’s a little background.
Vick was a football superstar who was sentenced to 23 months in prison in 2007 for running a cruel and inhumane dogfighting ring and lying about it. He lost his fortune, spent nearly two years in federal prison, and came out saying that he was sorry for his errors, had given his life to Christ, repented of his sins, and wanted to live a changed life.
Since that time, Vick has lived what appears to be a repentant life–even speaking to over sixty animal rights groups around the nation and profusely apologizing for his past behavior.
Besides that, Tony Dungy, a committed Christian and former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, began discipling Vick upon his release from prison, encouraging him in his faith. Vick then was picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles and given a second chance by Roger Goodell the commissioner of the National Football League.
This year Vick had a monster season–leading the Eagles into the playoffs and earning Pro Bowl honors. President Obama commented on his success because it is an amazing story of failure, heart-break, repentance and redemption.
And Tucker Carlson said he should have been executed!
I’d call that the gaffe of the year.
To his credit, a week later he came back on the Hannity Show and back-tracked a little. Here’s what he said in a second go-round: “This is what happens when you get too emotional, and I did. I’m a dog lover … I love them and I know a lot about what Michael Vick did. … I overspoke. I’m uncomfortable with the death penalty under any circumstance. Of course I don’t think he should be executed, but I do think that what he did is truly appalling.”
“I overspoke.”
That may be true–but it goes much deeper than that. I listened carefully to the second interview with Carlson. I was looking for a number of “rays of truth” that should have come our of his heart when given a second chance himself.
They did not come, and I was greatly disappointed.
Tucker Carlson, a professing Christian and visible news commentator, appears confused about some very basic and important concepts. And I have a feeling that he isn’t the only one. Let’s clarify those ideas and strengthen them in our own hearts and minds.
First, human beings are not animals. This is the lie of evolution that Mr. Carlson has at least tacitly bought into. It’s okay to love pets and enjoy them immensely. But they are not human beings and shouldn’t be treated as such. Pets do not have souls, are not morally accountable to God, and do not go to heaven or hell. That’s why killing an animal is vastly different than taking the life of a human being. Sane, biblically-based societies have always understood that difference.
In past time periods this truth was learned on the family farm. People took care of their animals for the meat, milk, eggs, or work they could provide, but when they died (or were killed for food) there were no funeral services and gravestones.
Animals are animals–a lower level of creation. It is wrong to abuse them. But it is equally wrong to elevate them to human status. Tucker Carlson has lost track of that reality.
I have a “farm boy” friend who once demonstrated this truth to me. We had two older dogs that we needed to get rid of because we were moving from the area. My friend offered to take them and simply shoot them. He had done it many times before. He told me it was quick, humane, and besides, “they were just animals.” It was just like a vet putting down a horse or dog.
He was right.
Animal lovers–don’t cast any stones! This is the truth: Only a secular society elevates animals above their God-given place in creation. On this particular point, Tucker Carlson needs to re-think.
Secondly, because animals are a lower, non-immortal order of the created world, you cannot murder them. Murder is the taking of innocent human life.
In my daily Bible reading this morning, I was reading in Genesis 9 where the Bible spells out both the difference between the human and animal worlds and the basis for capital punishment in the case of human murder. Following the global flood, God spoke these amazing words to Noah and his family:
“Multiply and fill the earth. All the wild animals large and small and all the birds and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them in your power. I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. But you must never eat animals that still have their lifeblood in them. And murder is forbidden. Animals that kill people must die, and any person who murders must be killed. Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God’s image” (Genesis 9:1-6).
First notice that following the Flood, God allowed people in a fallen world to eat both animals and plants. Prior to the deluge it appears that human beings were vegans. But not after the Flood. Now human beings could eat cows, pigs, chickens, fish, and other animals.
This required killing them–not murdering them.
According to God, you can’t murder an animal. We must not mix up important concepts and words.
And God clearly tells us why. Only human beings are made “in the image of God”–which includes moral accountability and immortality of the human spirit.
The words of God also contain another important truth that Tucker Carlson needs to re-consider: capital punishment. Notice that in Genesis and many other places, the Author of justice and compassion says that murdering a human being is so bad, so unjust, that it deserves the penalty of taking the life of the aggressor.
It’s the right and humane thing to do. In fact, in Exodus 20 when God gives the Ten Commandments to Israel, twenty verses after God says “You shall not kill,” he inaugurated capital punishment for the sin of murder in the Hebrew nation (Exodus 20:13 and 21:12).
Man is a special creation. He is made in God’s form and likeness. His spirit and soul are eternal. If a human being destroys that life, he deserves to have his own life taken.
Tucker–re-think being “uncomfortable” with capital punishment.
Third and finally, the Michael Vick story is a wonderful, true-life tale of redemption. Michael Vick grossly messed up, was convicted by a human court for his cruelty to animals, and served two years in prison for his crime. It cost him millions of dollars, his career, his reputation, and two years of his life.
While in prison, he came to his senses, asked God and others to forgive him, and when he was released did everything possible to show his repentance. Looking at the evidence of a humbled and changed life, the National Football League re-instated him and gave him a second chance. So did millions of American football fans.
Michael Vick took advantage of that second chance and once again rose to greatness–this time a wiser, contrite man, aware of his failings and sins. We should forgivehim. We all need forgiveness and second chances in life. It’s true that forgiveness and trust are two different things. We are called to instantly forgive because God forgives us without reservation. Trust, however, takes time–where a person needs to prove whether they have really changed.
Right now Michael Vick deserves our forgiveness and is earning back our trust. President Obama was right to praise him. Tucker Carlson was wrong to say what he said.
And all of us need to anchor ourselves to God’s righteous and unchanging principles. Human beings are special; animals are animals; capital punishment is for human beings who commit murder; redemption is marvelous!
Let’s learn from the Fox gaffe. We all need a second chance.