Dallas Willard, My Mentor

Dallas Willard died today.  That's what the news says anyway.

But if you could talk to Dallas, I think you'd hear a different story.  When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the late summer of 2012, one of his reflections was, "I think that, when I die, it might be some time until I know it."  What he meant was that for the one who trusts and follows Jesus, death itself has no power to interrupt this life.  Jesus himself said that the one who trusts in him will never taste death.

Dallas was a philosophy professor at USC for nearly 50 years, where he specialized in philosophy of mind and logic.  He was a profound author on spiritual formation, or the kingdom of God, or as he often called it, "the with-God life."  He would often say that there are four great questions humans must answer:  What is reality?  What is the good life?  Who is a good person?  And how do you become a good person?  And his concern was to answer those questions, and live the answers.  And he was simply convinced that no one has ever answered them as well as Jesus.

Dallas Willard combined a rigorous intellect with a warm heart.  He was sincerely interested in people.  He was loving and respectful to others, even those who were not loving and respectful to him.  He spoke with the slow cadence of a southern preacher, but his words belied a man who had digested thousands of books. (He had four personal libraries of books including his home, his second home, his school office, and a garage).  He was honest and authentic.  He would say, "If you could find a better way, Jesus would be the first one to tell you to take it. And if you don't believe that about him, you don't have faith in him, because what you're really saying is that he would encourage you to believe something that is false."

Mark D. Roberts recounts a story that is characteristic of Dallas:

I’ll never forget one thing that happened during one of Dallas’ classes. He had been explaining what it means to live in the kingdom of God, when a member of the class shot up a hand. When I saw who had a question, I cringed. This man lived on the edge of sanity, as did many of the street people who attended Hollywood Pres. From experience, I knew that his question would be a distraction from the point. Sure enough, the man asked a question that asked Dallas to explain something he had just finished explaining. It was asked in a way that insinuated Dallas was misunderstanding the Bible. As the questioner droned on, the tension in the room – and in my stomach – grew.

Dallas listened patiently, gazing intently at the man with the question. Then he responded. I can’t remember his exact words, but I do remember the way in which Dallas answered this man. He spoke with deep respect for the man and his question. Dallas did not take offense at the way the question had been asked. Rather, after thanking the man for his question, Dallas explained what he had said earlier with clarity and greater simplicity. He seemed eager to help the questioner understand the answer. But, even more striking was Dallas’ obvious desire to offer deep love and respect to this man who was, in many ways, a misfit.

Willard was quietly subversive of nominal Christianity, always encouraging people to see the grand vision of discipleship that Jesus intended for His followers to embark upon.  His impact his hard to overestimate.  He was a significant influence in a renaissance of evangelical thinkers in contemporary academic philosophy.  In fact, three of the five philosophy professors at Talbot School of Theology were Willard's students.  He has been a mentor and friend to many of the most influential evangelical Christians of our time.  And countless others have benefited from his writings and teachings.

Although I've never met Dallas Willard, I've heard him speak live a number of times, and I feel as though I've had dozens of conversations with him.  He is one of the few people (who has written more than one book) of whom I can say that I have read all of his books--with the exception of one.  (I tried to read his advanced philosophical work, Logic and the Objectivity of Knowledge, but quickly realized that I lacked the requisite philosophical training).  But without ever having met me, Dallas Willard mentored me.  He's one of seven men I would count to be my mentors.  Through his various writings and teachings I learned from him things too valuable to repay.

To encapsulate what I've learned from Dallas would be far beyond the scope of this blog post.  But I will mention a few things I've learned from him.  More than anyone else, Dallas Willard helped me understand what it means to hear God speak.  Dallas helped me understand that God's communications with us always occur within the context of our relationship with Him.  In his book, Hearing God, he writes,

Our communion with God provides the appropriate context for communications between us and Him.  To try to locate communication within human existence alienated from God is to return to idolatry, where God is there for our use.  To try to solve all our life's problems by getting a word from the Lord is to hide from life and from the dignity of the role God intended us to have in creation. 

In his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas taught me to understand the nature and importance of spiritual disciplines for the Christian life.  He helped me to understand that being a disciple is learning to live life as Jesus would live it if he were in my place.  And he helped me to understand that discipleship is simply what it means to be a Christian--it's not just for "super-Christians."

In his book, The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas helped me to see the genius of Jesus' instruction manual for life in His kingdom--the Sermon on the Mount.  He helped me to see that the gospel is not merely a way to manage sin, but rather is an invitation to an entirely new kind of life--the eternal kind of life that he enjoyed on earth and is still enjoying.  He helped me to understand the value in slowing down and living a simple, unhurried lifestyle, with a genuine awareness of God's presence and kingdom.

His book The Renovation of the Heart helped me to understand who I am, how I change, and how to become the kind of person Jesus is.  He helped me understand character--that the choices I make have real consequences in my soul and I was becoming a certain kind of person.  He helped me understand the nature of my own soul, my propensity towards sin, and the provision God has made for my transformation so that I truly can put on the character of Christ and experience genuine growth and maturation.

His book Knowing Christ Today helped me understand the importance of spiritual knowledge for all of life.  And finally, his book The Great Omission gave me a larger vision of discipleship.  I've also been shaped by numerous other articles he's written and talks he's given.  Dallas Willard has made a profound impact on my life, and he will continue to mentor me as I reread his books and listen to his teachings.  Although I don't agree with everything he wrote, I've been forever sharpened by interacting with his thoughts.  It's been a great conversation--one I'd encourage you to enter into--and one day it will continue in person.

I look forward to the day that I'll meet my mentor.

For more on Dallas Willard, see John Ortberg's excellent tribute to him.

The Most Offensive Verse in the Bible

Below is a post by Dan Phillips from the Pyromaniacs blog about how he'd respond to a questioner probing him about a topic they knew was offensive to non-Christians.  I thought his response was stellar!

In the Sunday School class at CBC we're doing a series called Marriage, the Bible and You. In the second lesson of the series, I brought up the subject of secular talk shows and how they like to try to beat up on Christians of any size, shape, and significance about whatever topic they think is most embarrassing and controversial. Of course, at the moment it's "gay" "marriage," or the topic of homosexuality at all.

In the course of the lesson, I remarked that I think — from the comfortable quiet safety of my study — that I'd take a different approach.

When Piers or Larry or Tavis or Rosie or Ellen or The View or whoever tried probing me about homosexuality, or wifely submission, or any other area where God has spoken (to the world's consternation), I think I'd decline the worm altogether. I think instead, I'd say something like,

"You know, TaPierRosEllRy, when you ask me about X, you're obviously picking a topic that is deeply offensive to non-Christians — but it's far from the most offensive thing I believe. You're just nibbling at the edge of one of the relatively minor leaves on the Tree of Offense. Let me do you a favor, and just take you right down to the root. Let me take you to the most offensive thing I believe.

"The most offensive thing I believe is Genesis 1:1, and everything it implies.

"That is, I believe in a sovereign Creator who is Lord and Definer of all. Everything in the universe — the planet, the laws of physics, the laws of morality, you, me — everything was created by Another, was designed by Another, was given value and definition by Another. God is Creator and Lord, and so He is ultimate. That means we are created and subjects, and therefore derivative and dependent.

"Therefore, we are not free to create meaning or value. We have only two options. We can discover the true value assigned by the Creator and revealed in His Word, the Bible; or we can rebel against that meaning.

"Any time you bring up questions about any of these issues, you do so from one of two stances. You either do it as someone advocating and enabling rebellion against the Creator's design, or as someone seeking submissive understanding of that design. You do it as servant or rebel. There is no third option.

"So yeah, insofar as I'm consistent with my core beliefs, everything I think about sexuality, relationships, morals, the whole nine yards, all of it is derived from what the Creator says. If I deviate from that, I'm wrong.

"To anyone involved in the doomed, damned you-shall-be-as-God project, that is the most offensive truth in the world, and it is the most offensive belief I hold.

"But if I can say one more thing, the first noun in that verse — beginning — immediately points us forward. It points to the end. And the end is all about Jesus Christ. That takes us to the topic of God's world-tilting Gospel, and that's what we really need to talk about."

I mean, why quibble about minor offenses, when we know how to take them right to the mother lode of all offense — that God is God, and we are not?

HT:  Dan Phillips, Pyromaniacs

The Mighty Intercessor

Below is a short and powerful message by Eric Ludy about intercession.  We desperately need the attitude shift he talks about!

Reflections on the Connecticut School Shooting

This past week our nation was shocked by the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  As pictures of the victims and stories of the shooting make their way through the news cycle, I'm hit again and again by waves of shock and grief and outrage and sadness.  It's almost too much to take in.  In particular, this shooting is outrageous because the majority of the victims were 6-7 year-old's.  I've been thinking about this shooting a lot, partly because it's difficult not to, and partly because I taught at church this past Sunday and felt compelled to address the shooting.  Below are some of my reflections as I've thought, prayed, and grieved over this tragedy.

• This tragedy makes me want to lock my kids up, home school them through college, and completely shield them from the ugliness of this dark world.  But the miracle of Christmas is that God didn't do that to His Son.  God sent His Son to be born in this dark and desperate world, knowing all the while that a horrific death awaited Him--all because He loved us!  "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).
• God designed us to be shocked, disgusted, and horrorstruck at the idea of harm coming to innocent children for a reason.  The reason is so that we could understand a bit of the depth of sacrifice and love that God demonstrated when He sent His one and only innocent Son into this world to die for our sins.  "This is how God showed his love among us:  He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love:  not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).  That disgust and horror you feel towards evil being done to innocent children is a glimpse of the horror and disgust that the Father endured as His own innocent Son was brutally tortured and killed because of my sins. 
• There's a lot of blame being passed around.  From mental health to gun control to kicking God out of public schools, this shooting is being politicized from all sides.  People are looking for an issue to get behind so that they can prevent further instances of this kind of evil.  But this overlooks the biblical notion that we live in fallen, depraved, and wicked world.  Sin is real, and it will make it's presence known.  Not long after Jesus' birth, a wicked man named Herod had all the male babies in the vicinity of Bethlehem, 2-years-old and under, murdered in an attempt to kill Jesus (Matthew 2:16-18).  Evil is not new.  But sin is inconvenient to blame, because there's only one answer to evil.
• The answer to evil lies in the gospel.  Only as people come to know the grace, truth, and love of Jesus Christ, and are transformed by it, will our nation become better.  I think of the famous quote by Alexis de Tocqueville (author of Democracy in America):  "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there.  I sought in the fertile fields and boundless forest—in her rich mines and vast world commerce—and it was not there.  I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is good—and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
• A lot of people will ask why God let this happen.  That is a question we will probably never have the answer to this side of eternity.  We can give reasons why God allows evil in general: sometimes because it allows for greater goods like the spread of the knowledge of Himself, the salvation of lost people, or the existence of human freedom.  But although we can give these possible reasons why God allows evil in general, God does not tell us why he allows specific instances of evil to occur.  Instead, He asks us to trust that He knows best.  We do know that God's purposes are not restricted to this life, but spill over beyond the grave into eternal life.  God's knowledge is immeasurably better than our small and limited outlook.  We also know that the Bible seems to indicate that when a child dies before they have the capacity to knowingly reject Christ, God in His mercy saves them and they enter God's Presence immediately upon the death of their physical bodies.  And this is a far better situation than they were in before (see 2 Samuel 12:21-23; Matthew 19:14; Philippians 1:23).
• One day, Jesus will return and make all the wrongs right.  He'll completely and permanently eradicate sin and create perfect peace forever.  "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4).  Events like this stir us to long for that day like we ought to.  Come Lord Jesus, come!

"Spiritual, But Not Religious"

In his recent book, Bad Religion:  How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat exposes the spiritual roots of America's political, economic, and moral decline.  He argues that the problem is not too much religion (as the atheists would argue), nor is it intolerant secularism (as many Christians believe).  Instead, the problem is bad religion:  the slow-motion collapse of traditional faith and the rise of a variety of pseudo-Christianities that stroke our egos, indulge our follies, and encourage our worst impulses.

The problem lies in the fashionably "spiritual, but not religious" sentiment espoused by many teachers including Deepak Chopra, James Redfield, Eckhart Tolle, Paulo Coelho, Neale Donald Walsch, Oprah Winfrey, and Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love), and (I might add) Yann Martel (author of Life of Pi).  Douthat examines the roots of this view and finds that their "creed" shares the following four beliefs:

1. All organized religions offer only partial glimpses of God (or Light or Being).  Thus, we must seek to experience God through feeling rather than reason, experience rather than dogma, a direct encounter rather than a hand-me-down revelation.  As Neil Donald Walsch writes in his book, Conversations with God, "Listen to your feelings.  Listen to your Highest Thought .... Whenever any of these differ from what you've been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words."
2. God is everywhere and within everything--especially within you.  You can encounter God by getting in touch with the divinity that resides inside your very self and soul.  At the climax of his book The Alchemist, Paul Coelho writes:  "The boy reached through the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God.  And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul."
3. Sin and evil are largely illusions that will ultimately be reconciled rather than defeated.  There is no hell save the one we make for ourselves on Earth, no final separation from the Being that all our beings rest within.  Elizabeth Gilbert assures her readers, "There is no such thing in this universe as hell, except maybe in our own terrified minds."
4. Perfect happiness is available right now.  Heaven is on earth.  Eternity can be entered at any moment, by any person who understands how to let go, let God, and let themselves be washed away in love.  James Redfield writes, "At some point everyone will vibrate highly enough so that we can walk into heaven, in our same form."

These four beliefs compose the core of the bad religion that has been so fashionable as of late and, according to Douthat, is the core of America's spiritual woes.  I suspect that many well-meaning Christians might even be tempted to believe various forms of these beliefs.  I think of the popular Christian authors Rob Bell, Brian McLaren,William P. Young (author of The Shack), and Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz:  Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality), each of which espouse one or more of these beliefs in a Christianized form.

My church has been teaching through the book of Colossians, and I've been impressed by the similarity of the cultural pressure faced by the church at Colossae and the American church.  For both the Colossian church and the American church, the problem was not an outright denial of religion, but a new form of religion that seemed spiritual and tolerant.  The problem was and is syncretism:  the blending of religious ideas and the denial of claims to exclusive truth.   The problem was and is an over-individualization of spirituality detached from the organizational church and orthodoxy.  In response to this, Paul encouraged the Colossian believers to be faithful, knowing that Christ is supreme.  He forcefully announces the supremacy of Christ stating,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.  (Colossians 1:15-20)

He warns the Colossian believers to not be taken "...captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ" (Colossians 2:8).  And he reminds them to hold fast to Christ, not self-made religion (Colossians 2:19, 23).  And he reminds them to hold fast to Christ in connection with Christ's body--the local church (Colossians 2:19).  We desperately need this reminder of Christ's supremacy and need to resolve to be faithful to Him no matter the cultural pressure.  "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The Juvenilization of American Christianity

In his new book, The Juvenilization of American Christianity, religious historian Thomas Bergler traces how over the past 75 years American Christianity has become juvenilized by the influence of youth ministries. Bergler shows how this juvenilization has breathed new vitality into the American church, but at the cost of widespread spiritual immaturity, consumerism, and self-centeredness, by popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy. He concludes the book by offering some constructive suggestions about how juvenilization can be tamed. This is an important study with some serious take-aways for doing ministry, especially youth ministry. Below are a few excerpts of his Christianity Today article which introduces his study:

Juvenilization tends to create a self-centered, emotionally driven, and intellectually empty faith.

Today many Americans of all ages not only accept a Christianized version of adolescent narcissism, they often celebrate it as authentic spirituality. God, faith, and the church all exist to help me with my problems. Religious institutions are bad; only my personal relationship with Jesus matters. If we believe that a mature faith involves more than good feelings, vague beliefs, and living however we want, we must conclude that juvenilization has revitalized American Christianity at the cost of leaving many individuals mired in spiritual immaturity.

As the line between adolescence and adulthood continues to blur, eliminating youth ministries would only weaken religious formation of youth without doing much to counter spiritual immaturity among adults. And instead of naively thinking we can eliminate juvenilization, we should instead work to tame it by helping local congregations build an intergenerational way of life that fosters spiritual maturity.

Pastors and youth leaders can begin by teaching what the Bible says about spiritual maturity, with a special emphasis on those elements that are neglected by juvenilized Christians. Church leaders also need to ask hard questions about the music they sing, the curriculum materials they use, and the ways they structure activities.

We need to ditch the false belief that cultural forms are neutral. Every enculturation of Christianity highlights some elements of the faith and obscures others. We must be vigilant and creatively compensate for what gets lost in translation when we use the language of youth culture. For example, if we sing songs that highlight the emotional consolations of the faith, what can we do to help young people also embrace the sufferings that come with following Jesus?

I believe one key is to renew our commitment to the church as an intergenerational family, in which each person has a unique role in helping the others toward our shared goal of maturity in Christ (Titus 2:1-15; Eph. 5:21-6:4; Col. 3:18-4:1; 1 John 2:12-14). Adults need children and adolescents to draw out their committed love and provide concrete opportunities to care for others. Adolescents help adults reconnect with the passion of a life devoted to Christ, what he called the first love of the Christians at Ephesus (Rev. 2:4). Young people need adults in their lives who are modeling a vibrant spiritual maturity. One reason no one wants to grow up in America is that many adults don't make their life stage look very attractive.

Teenagers can legitimately follow Christ in adolescent ways, including participating in age-appropriate youth ministries. But those ministries must also help youth catch a vision for growing up spiritually. Churches full of people who are building each other up toward spiritual maturity are not only the best antidote to the juvenilization of American Christianity, but also a powerful countercultural witness in a juvenilized society.

Christians Should be Happy

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) preached his first sermon at the age of 18. His thesis was that "Christians should be happy" and he explained why in three points:

• #1: Our bad things will turn out for good.
• #2: Our good things can never be taken away from us.
• #3: The best things are yet to come.

A simple sermon, and a profound reminder.

(HT:  Erick Cobb)