The Red Dragon in the Nativity

Gather around little boys and girls. It’s time for our annual reading of the Christmas story — this time with a twist.

I’ve seen many a nativity scenes and Christmas pageants over the years with wooden stables, sheep and goats, ox and ass, and Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus surrounded by shepherds and wise men. Interestingly, the Bible hasn’t a word about animals being present at Christ’s birth; but it does mention something far more dangerous than a rowdy sheep. Still, I have yet to see a Christmas pageant or nativity set with a giant, ill-tempered, seven-headed red dragon lurking in the distance waiting to attack.

The Book of Revelation includes its own lesser known apocalyptic styled version of the Christmas story and this one is probably not appropriate for small children. John of Patmos begins his story — or series of wild visions — in chapter 12. Grab a cup of egg nog, put the kids to bed and pull up a chair as we go through it together.  Open your Bible to Revelation 12:1.

¹A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ²She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

When Darkness Wins a Battle, We Still Win the War

I just got home from the most painful kind of funeral. A young man, in a moment of despair, took his life.  He was deeply loved, and will be deeply missed. I was his basketball coach years ago – a wonderful kid. These kind of funerals are becoming all too frequent. Here’s a piece I wrote a couple years back in a similar situation.  May it be an encouragement to others, and provide a Christian perspective on such tragedies. -JB

The forces of darkness are always around us.  Most of the time, if we’re fortunate, the dark cloud of death is not hovering over our home.  Though our number is coming, and many have already faced difficult seasons of suffering, pain, death and loss in our own lives.

Maybe cancer has taken a loved one long before their time. Maybe a car accident stole away a life in it’s prime. Maybe you lost a child before they even had the chance to be born. Darkness is real.  The world is broken.

This week darkness and death won a victory in Burnsville, as a young man, “16 years old, full of life, and smiles,” took his own life in a moment of desperation. The young man has been described over and over again with words similar to these by a Young Life leader:

“He was very involved in Young Life Ministry — committed his life to Christ at camp, spoke at their banquet, and was in a campaigner bible study 3 or 4 hours before he hung himself. He was a fun loving kid, hugged everyone he could pick up (and being a heavy weight wrestler, that’s everyone) and had a smile that lit up the room.  Kids, leaders, we all loved him.”

In the wake of this tragedy, many students connected to our youth group are struggling to make sense of it all.  

“The Invisible War” @ the MainStreet Huddle

We’re beginning a 4-part series on spiritual warfare in preparation for breaking new ground at MainStreet in the New Year.  Join us at the MainStreet Huddle this Sunday at 5PM as we explore Chip Ingram’s “Invisible War” series together.

Q&A: What do you believe about Spiritual Warfare?

Another question from a former student of mine — now in college.  Great question for Halloween!

Q: What do you believe about spiritual warfare and its affects on people, including believers? I know it is pretty open ended question and topic but I am not quite sure what type of answer I am looking for. Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

A: Here’s my brief input on the topic of spiritual warfare. Much more could be said — but I thought 7 points was a good start.  =)

1. The battle is very real. Satan’s most effective tactic against modern Western people is to keep them disbelieving in his existence altogether.  As C. S. Lewis has the senior devil Screwtape say:

“I don’t think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.”

2. The battle is rarely overt with outward manifestations (e.g., possession, exorcism, etc). It’s usually more subtle.

God vs. Satan: The Warfare Worldview (G. Boyd)

Every year around Halloween, I like to explore the topic of spiritual warfare — you know, angels, demons and the cosmic forces of evil. Here are some of the posts on this topic from the past.

Today I want to share Greg Boyd’s basic articulation of what he calls a “Warfare Worldview” — that is, how can Christians affirm that God is all-powerful and still believe that other evil forces (human and angelic) are working to thwart God’s will?  If created beings have genuine free will, then how can we be certain that God is really in control of this broken world? Here’s how Greg approaches these questions.

The warfare worldview is based on the conviction that our world is engaged in a cosmic war between a myriad of agents, both human and angelic, that have aligned themselves with either God or Satan. This is the view that is presupposed throughout the entire Bible, and it’s especially evident in the New Testament. For example, Jesus unequivocally opposed evils such as disease, demonization, and even natural disaster (i.e. when Jesus rebuked a storm) and saw them as originating in the wills of Satan, fallen angels, and sinful people, rather than in the will of God.

What Does Prayer Accomplish? (D. Kirk)

Daniel Kirk highlighted this significant debate from the Twitterverse the other day.  Here’s his thoughts — and I agree with him. -JB

Daniel Kirk wrote:

Yesterday in the Twitterverse the following quote was going around:

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

It’s alleged that this quote comes from Kierkegaard, though I haven’t seen a reference appended to it anywhere.

The first time I saw the quote, I jumped into a good conversation about it. Then after the third time I saw it, I was done.

If I may put it provocatively: the quote is a cop out. It transforms prayer from a dangerous act in which we summon the God of all the earth to act now upon the earth over which God is sovereign into something that’s just for shaping our little hearts. This is the worst sort of existentialism working itself out in a theology of prayer. The real thing isn’t that God would be intimately involved in the real world, acting on behalf of those upon whom God has set God’s name. No, the real thing would be getting ourselves aligned with some transhistorical God who won’t be bothered to engage the lives of God’s people.

If Kierkegaard is right, Christianity is not worth believing, and prayer is not worth doing.

GOLF & GOD (6): The Mind Game

Every golfer knows that what goes on between the ears is just as critical for success as all the other mechanics that go into a golfer’s game.  In fact, long after you have mastered the mechanics of a smooth, skillful golf swing, the mental game continues to be the greatest obstacle for the advanced golfer.  

Tiger Woods and every other professional golfer is most haunted by the subtle attacks of the mind. These guys have mastered the swing techniques and skills of the game. But one bad shot or one poorly played hole can set off a chain reaction and downward spiral into mental weakness and lack of confidence.  A short 15 inch putt that typically gives us no problem can suddenly become worrisome and anxiety-inducing.  The cup gets smaller and smaller in our mind’s eye.  We get caught up in what we call a “mind game” and end up choking.

Halloween and the Sexualization of Evil

Keri and I are picking out our Halloween costumes for this year, and I thought I’d repost this annual reflection. Peace, JB

“Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14).

Christians have always had a tough time with Halloween. The danger usually associated with the message of Halloween was its association with the occult — the glorification and celebration of evil, death, Satan, witchcraft, blood-sucking vampires and the like. Clearly the people called to “live in the light as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7) have no business dabbling in this sort of darkness. Christians living in the bright new day of the Resurrected Son are called to “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12).

I have always appreciated C. S. Lewis’ balanced approach to the topic of Satan and the forces of darkness, warning that: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”  So, reasonable and balanced Christians and church leaders have attempted to recognize the real evil standing behind the folk religion of Americanized, materialized, sugar-laden Halloween by offering alternatives to dressing up as goblins, witches and vampires.  The Harvest Party and other family-friendly gatherings that celebrate the true Light’s victory over the powers of darkness have provided alternatives to trick-or-treating.  (Read Ben Witherington on “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?”)

Well, one wonders if even the creative mind of C. S. Lewis who wrote at length from the point of view of the “devils” in The Screwtape Letters could have anticipated the sneaky way our culture (or the Devil) would try to put a new spin and sexy veneer over the dark focus of Halloween’s evil under layer.  Lewis has the senior Devil named Screwtape write to Wormwood, his devil in training, instructing him on how to try to keep humans (called “patients”) from even believing in their existence (since they can do more harm when their “patient” is  unaware of them):

“I don’t think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.”

Well, take a trip to the nearest Halloween Costume Outlet store today and you will find that old Screwtape and his junior devils have taken it a step further. You would have to be blind or living in a cave somewhere to not have noticed the trend in costumes the past several years. The cultural forces at work (driven by the sexual forces within) have managed to add an entirely new kind of darkness and evil to the traditional favorites.  I speak of the overt sexualization of Halloween costumes.

A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Words (& Millions of Dollars)

From the DI archives.  A while back I was researching the ways our brain processes messages in preparation for a series of messages I gave at a weekend youth retreat based on “The Matrix” movies. Here’s some of my reflections on our image-based culture. -JB

“What we’ve introduced at MTV is nonnarrative form…We rely on mood and emotion. We make you feel a certain way as opposed to you walking away with any particular knowledge.”

-Bob Pittman, founding chairman of MTV, quoted in Dancing in the Dark

As we try to become, as Greg Boyd calls it, “Detectives of our Minds,” we must step back and realize that the primary mode of messages we receive everyday come in the form of IMAGES. Your perceptions of the world — yourself, your friends, your values, your aims, aspirations and desires, your doubts, fears, and beliefs — are being most effectively shaped by the thousands of images you encounter daily, and how your brain interprets them.

For example, you probably don’t shop at Abercrombie & Fitch because of an article you READ on the superior quality and style of their brand. Rather, you have see enough commercials, magazine ads, billboards, and catalog images to convince you that this is what’s hot and desirable in fashion.

Or, consider how movie makers draw viewers out on opening night. They don’t use long, lengthy written reviews for viewers to read and decide it sounds good. Rather, they spend millions on action-packed, alluring “Movie trailers” that capture our imaginations with moving images to draw us in. What websites do we like to spend the most time at? Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. Why? Because we love sharing images and watching videos more than reading some long, boring, tall guy’s blog post.  <wink wink>

We have moved away from a text-based culture to an image-based culture.