• About
  • Audio
  • Credo
  • Essays
  • Pictures

to tell the truth

to tell the truth

Tag Archives: theology

From Van Gogh

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by Michael DeFazio in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, humanity, theology, van gogh

Van Gogh once remarked, “I prefer painting people’s eyes to cathedrals, for there is something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn and imposing the latter may be – a human soul, be it that of a poor beggar or of a street walker, is more interesting to me.”

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. Even if we habitually “go to church” (or to a mountain, a monastery, or seminary) in order to find God and feel close to him, we should know better than to confuse what exactly the Spirit has promised to inhabit. Certainly God reveals himself through these instruments, but we’ve been told quite clearly that the only things created in God’s image are people. While the primary meaning of this phrase refers to our calling as humans to rule on God’s behalf, surely it includes the residual truth that it is through one another, among other means, that God encounters us.

Advertisements

Without This There Is No Church

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by Michael DeFazio in Church, Missional Church

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

church, church planting, conversion, crucifixion, gospel, jesus, new testament, old testament, paul, salvation, theology

In the last post we highlighted the importance of defining the church properly by exploring the claim that what we believe about the church determines how we coordinate its life together. Today we’re going to dig further into the definition of the church rooted in teachings by the fine folks at Missio: The church is a networked family of gospel communities on mission. 

This definition requires further definition if it’s going to be helpful. What is the gospel? What is community? What is mission? Today we start with the gospel. Continue reading →

If Jesus is the only way… (1 of 4)

21 Tuesday Jul 2009

Posted by Michael DeFazio in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

apologetics, gospel, grace, jesus, salvation, theology, world religion

For the rest of the week I’ll be blogging on a very important question: If Jesus is the only way, what about people of other faiths and those who never hear the gospel? In our world the claims of Christianity seem very exclusive and arrogant. Are they? More importantly, what exactly has God revealed about these issues? I’ll be sharing my thoughts in four posts. For now, two preliminary points:

(1) Salvation is about more than what happens to us after we die.

Our question assumes that God is most concerned about getting individuals into heaven when they die. But is this really biblical? Two quick points: First, salvation is God’s plan for the entire universe – not just human beings. Salvation is about all of God’s creation being rescued from the disastrous effects of sin. Second, even from a human perspective, salvation isn’t just about “where we go” in the end. That is obviously important, but salvation is about freedom from the power of sin and death right here and now. Please understand, I’m not trying to deny the importance of the future, but I am trying to remind us that asking whether a person is “saved” has as much to do with how free they are from sinful ways of thinking and living as it does where they’ll go when they die. As my friend Tyler puts it, “Following Jesus isn’t about getting out of hell and into heaven. It is about joining God in his project to reclaim of all of creation for his kingdom.” This whole debate is fairly thoroughly infused with an unbiblical portrait of salvation. Just keep this in mind.

(2) We must all ask ourselves if we’re willing to submit to God’s authority and trust the witness of Scripture.

Like all hot-button issues, many of us come to this question with our minds already made up. And if they’re not made up, we at least know what we want the answer to be. Some of us sense our culture’s negativity toward “evangelism” (or our own distaste for it) so we look for excuses not to have to share our faith. This is not okay. Others of us feel that Christianity is under attack and we have adopted a posture of defensiveness and closed-mindedness. This is not good either. We will all be tempted to make Scripture say what we want it to say (or set it aside altogether). This is no less true of me than anyone else. Let’s keep this in mind too.

Tomorrow I’ll post ten theses about this topic as well as a summary conclusion. Then I’ll post answers to objections from those who think my position is too strict, and after that I’ll post answers to objections from those who think it’s too loose. Feel free to share any and all thoughts at any point in the discussion. Even disagreement is welcome, but be kind.

The Solution to Our Problems

09 Thursday Jul 2009

Posted by Michael DeFazio in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

crucifixion, discipleship, gospel, grace, jesus, new testament, old testament, paul, romans, salvation, sin, theology

rembrandts jesusI know this sounds cheesy, but I believe it’s Jesus. I think Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection saves us completely, and I know of nothing else adequate to the task. Yesterday I talked about how sin works – the process of corruption that results in our world of broken families, political instability, a crisis of spirituality, and injustice all around. Read that one first because without it this won’t make full sense. There I described this process as having five essential steps: we reject God (rebellion) and replace him with something else (idolatry), with the result that we come to increasingly reflect our new idols and thereby lose our full humanness (corruption); we set ourselves a trap from which we cannot escape (bondage), eventually giving in totally to sin or at least resigning ourselves to a “realism” that is actually hopelessness or nihilism (depravity or despair). Here I want to show how Jesus’ death and resurrection save us from this fivefold curse.

1. Jesus reveals to us that God is truly Love and as such can be trusted safely. Remember the root problem of sin is that we doubt God’s love, we fear that he’s holding out on us, so we rebel against him and take our fate into our own hands. If God is love, this rebellion is altogether unnecessary. Continue reading →

How do we know God exists?

06 Monday Jul 2009

Posted by Michael DeFazio in Uncategorized

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

apologetics, church, God, jesus, real life church, son of God, theology

This past week I began a 3-week class at RLC called “Ask Anything.” It’s a Q&A format centered on whatever people want to talk about, but each week I’ll tackle one of the “big questions” lots of people seem to be asking. I’ll post my reflections on those questions here on the blog each week. We started with a question that seems foundational to many: How do we know God exists?

First we have to acknowledge that we don’t know for sure that God exists, any more than we know for sure that he doesn’t. Absolute certainty about whether God exists or not is impossible.

Some say God doesn’t exist because God’s existence can’t be proven “scientifically.” But if anything like what we mean by the word “god” does exist, there is no way science could answer the question one way or another. Others might say that God has to exist because we’ve experienced him; but there is no way to know for sure that our experience matches the reality we’re claiming is behind it.

It is impossible for us to find a place or perspective from where we can look down and determine God’s existence either way. This would only be possible if God were below us, which would make him something other than God.

Instead of certainty, we are dealing with probability. Those who affirm or deny God’s existence are looking at the world, gathering information, and making an educated guess about the best explanation for what they see. Some think the world is best explained by the existence of a God. Others think the opposite. But neither position is inherently more logical, and both involve faith – a risky commitment we each have to make given our limited knowledge and perspective.

Within this, there are many reasons I think it more likely that God exists than that he doesn’t: Continue reading →

Life Journal 004 // the God of Jonah

26 Friday Jun 2009

Posted by Michael DeFazio in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

creation care, God, grace, jonah, life journal, old testament, prophets, salvation, theology

jonah whaleFollowing the Life Journal reading plan, yesterday we reflected on the prophet Joel and today I’d like to take a quick look at Jonah. Let’s make some observations about the God revealed in Jonah.

The God of Jonah changes his mind. Actually, the text says God repents (3.10). That’s the word used there, I believe. It’s translated “relent” but that’s only not to tick off the Calvinists. I’m not trying to be argumentative (thanks to today’s NT reading), but this verse doesn’t sit well with the picture of God whose plans are set in stone, less still one who controls every little thing. The picture of God here is radically relational – he genuinely interacts with us, so much so that our actions call out unplanned responses from within him.

The God of Jonah does things we think are wrong. I love 4.1: “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.” Continue reading →

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • Israel Tour Travel Journal
  • My second book is available!
  • Pauline Pilgrimage Travel Journal – part 2
  • Pauline Pilgrimage Travel Journal – pt 1
  • In Defense of Corporate Church
  • Catechism Making a Comeback?
  • What Atomic Bombs and Ministry Have in Common
  • Social Justice and the Lord’s Prayer
  • Beyond Theology, Becoming Missional
  • In-credible Church

Categories

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this blog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Top Posts

  • Seven Deadly Vices and Corresponding Virtues
  • St. Anselm's "Satisfaction" View of the Atonement
  • Two Types of Idolatry
  • Why was Abraham circumcised?
  • Top 10 Books of 2008
  • What is "ideology"?
  • Everything I know I learned from Jesus.
  • Israel Tour Travel Journal
  • My Favorite Books on Christian Pacifism / Nonviolence / Peacemaking
  • Don't hate your doubt.

Topics

2 kings alan kreider America american culture anger apologetics atonement basketball bible books christendom church church history church planting conversion crucifixion dallas willard daniel discipleship ed stetzer elisha ephesians eschatology evangelism faith family genre God gospel gospel of matthew Gospels grace heaven hell hermeneutics idolatry industry isaiah jesus joel Life Groups life journal malcolm gladwell martyrdom ministry n.t. wright narrative NBA new testament obedience old testament one-liners patience paul politics prayer pride prophets quakers real life church resurrection Revelation romans salvation sin sinning like a christian small groups son of God Sports theology thomas kelly trinity william willimon world religions worship

Archives

  • November 2016
  • October 2012
  • May 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • July 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • January 2011
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • September 2008
Advertisements

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.com

Facebook

Michael DeFazio
Michael DeFazio

Twitter

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel