Myth Busting: Breaking a Lamb’s Leg (Re-blog)

Break a leg?

I’ve heard this teaching more than once about how shepherds would break a sheep’s leg to not only keep it from wandering away, but to then nurse the sheep back to health and thus gain its love. Each time I heard this teaching, red flags would pop up in my mind. Firstly, the teaching in not biblical. Do we really want to take an extra-biblical idea like this and apply it to Jesus? Secondly, it makes no sense. Anyone who knows anything about animals knows that harming an animal does not create a sense of love and trust, but rather the exact opposite.

I was going to write my own article on this teaching, but I found that several others have already done a good job with it. See the links and article below….

Related articles: The Shepherd Breaking His Sheep’s Legs- Myths That’ll Preach; The malignant myth of the leg-breaking shepherd; Shepherds break a lamb’s leg on purpose?

Dare to Disciple

Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

It is well-known in Christian circles that before the shepherd placed the lamb on his…

View original post 1,002 more words

The Fallacy of Theodicy

Theodicy: a defence of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil

We ought to reject all attempts at theodicy. God did not need sin, death, and evil to bring about His plan for creation. Sin, death, and evil did happen, but not at God’s command or decree. And, we take comfort in the fact that God hates sin, death, and evil, and He will redeem His creation from it all.

Excerpt from an article written by David B. Hart titled Tsunami and Theodicy….

“Christians often find it hard to adopt the spiritual idiom of the New Testament—to think in terms, that is, of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, of Christ’s triumph over the principalities of this world, of the overthrow of hell. All Christians know, of course, that it is through God’s self-outpouring upon the cross that we are saved, and that we are made able by grace to participate in Christ’s suffering; but this should not obscure that other truth revealed at Easter: that the incarnate God enters ‘this cosmos’ not simply to disclose its immanent rationality, but to break the boundaries of fallen nature asunder, and to refashion creation after its ancient beauty—wherein neither sin nor death had any place. Christian thought has traditionally, of necessity, defined evil as a privation of the good, possessing no essence or nature of its own, a purely parasitic corruption of reality; hence it can have no positive role to play in God’s determination of Himself or purpose for His creatures (even if by economy God can bring good from evil); it can in no way supply any imagined deficiency in God’s or creation’s goodness. Being infinitely sufficient in Himself, God had no need of a passage through sin and death to manifest His glory in His creatures or to join them perfectly to Himself. This is why it is misleading (however soothing it may be) to say that the drama of fall and redemption will make the final state of things more glorious than it might otherwise have been. No less metaphysically incoherent—though immeasurably more vile—is the suggestion that God requires suffering and death to reveal certain of his attributes (capricious cruelty, perhaps? morbid indifference? a twisted sense of humor?). It is precisely sin, suffering, and death that blind us to God’s true nature.”

Read DBH’s full article by clicking here.

Jesus, the Perfect Human

Jesus is 100% God and 100% man.

Jesus (a man) cannot reject or hate the Father. He cannot reject the Father because He too is God, and God is not divided. God is perfect and without sin.

Jesus, not being able to reject the Father, is not disqualified from being a full and true man.

Therefore, it is not a required condition, in order to be fully and truly human, to have the ability to reject God.

Therefore, true love for God from humans is not only possible if humans have the ability to reject and not love God, as some would argue: Love is only real if it is chosen.

If it’s not true for Jesus, it’s not true for mankind.

We should not decide what is required for one to be truly human by looking at ourselves, then applying those requirements to Jesus.

It should be done the other way around: What is required for Jesus to be a human (the perfect human) is also what is required for us to be humans.

Those who argue for human free will often state that humans need free will in order to truly love God — it’s not true love if it isn’t chosen.

The major flaw with that thinking is that it’s not true for Jesus. Jesus cannot reject the Father. Jesus loves the Father perfectly. Jesus is 100% man.

Do humans have free will? Yes, but only after being freed from the slavery of sin. True free will is when sin is impossible.

If you were completely free from sin, you would be unable to hate God. You would be a perfect human, like Jesus.

The Good Death of Innocence

Innocence-Lost

“Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Adam and Eve were forbidden from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That phrase, “knowledge of good and evil”, as defined by the bible, refers to maturity and wisdom (Deuteronomy 1:39; 2 Samuel 14:17; 1 Kings 3:6-9; Hebrews 5:12-14). Was the prohibition of knowing good and evil a permanent one? No, but Adam and Eve, or the first humans, had to mature to the point where they could partake of it. The tree of life, like milk, is available to the babes, but the knowledge of good and evil, or solid food, is only for the mature.

A sixteen year old girl losing her virginity at a drunken high school party loses her innocence. What comes after is shame and, unless some healing takes place, self destruction. She dies to her innocence but is not resurrected into something better. Her death to innocence becomes a permanent thing leading to corruption. It’s a bad death.

A young woman who loses her virginity on the first night of what will become a life long marriage however dies to her innocence to then be resurrected into a mature woman who knows the fullness of goodness, love, pleasure, and soon motherhood. Her death to innocence is a good death as it leads to a more glorious state of being.

When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge prematurely, they died, not to be resurrected into mature humans ready to move out into the wilderness to increase and multiply in a good and glorious way, but rather they died a bad death which led only to corruption. We, who come after, are under that curse of bad death.

Jesus began His mission in a hostile wilderness where, while being tempted by the serpent, proved His wisdom and maturity. He went on to die a good death to then become the first man to be resurrected into a true and perfect human. We who come after are resurrected into that same perfection.

Our bad death becomes a good death to innocence leading on and on to perfection.

Related reading: Predisposed to Rule

Are You Projecting?

chickenhateyou I notice in my life that when things are going well, I am working hard, and my conscience is clear, I have no negative thoughts towards others. If other are doing well, I congratulate them, and if others are doing poorly, I try to offer help. But, when things are not so well for me, my attitude to others is opposite. Why is this?

In the opening chapters of the book of Revelation Jesus comes to evaluate seven churches. For most of the churches, He has some good things to say, and some bad things. They are encouraged for what they are doing right, and are warned to fix what they’re doing wrong.

And this is the healthy way to deal with issues in your own life. Every once and awhile you need Jesus to come and evaluate your life, to tell you what’s good and what’s evil. And though it might hurt some, you need to fix what Jesus says needs fixing. Doing this is the quickest path to a clear conscience and joyful carefree living.

The unhealthy way to deal with your issues is to compare yourself to others and point out all their faults in order to make yourself feel better about your own faults. In the short term this way is easier. I can always find someone worse off than me and quickly justify my own actions in relation to theirs. “I thought I was bad, but look at that guy.” This is projection — calling out and hating in others what’s really going on in you.

Whenever I encounter someone complaining about another without offering any kind of solutions, over and over, month after month, year after year, I know that person is projecting. They are unwilling to deal with an issue in their own life and so they’ve found someone worse than themself to project onto, thus making themself feel better. “I don’t have to deal with my issues until that other guy, worse than me, deals with his issues.” In the long term, projection will only lead to emptiness, bitterness, and foolishness.

Let Jesus come and evaluate your life. And even though it may be difficult, change what He says needs changing. Trust that He has your best in mind. Ask Him for help because He won’t let you down.