Godly fear

Over the past two nights I have been blessed enough to catch some chilling warnings on the Vision Radio network in the form of Rescued, an audio drama adapted from a John Bevere novel.

Rescued examines the vivid experience of hell and eternal judgement by a pastor during a near death experience. Without going into detail about the plot, the imagery, sound effects & first person narrative of hell, judgement and the lake of fire is a wake up call.

After hearing the first part last night I remarked to a friend that most Christians don't really believe in hell. What I mean is, we give mental assent to the Scriptural teachings on the afterlife, but because hell isn't a nice thing, we don't let it get very far into our theology.

As others with far more talent in communication than myself have expressed, an accurate realisation of hell magnifies both one's reverence for a Holy God who must execute divine judgement and a desperation to prevent one's self and others from meeting this terrible fate.

While the Word tells us to think upon the lovely things, we must at some point in time give serious thought to this unbearably dreadful destination and maintain an appropriate response in our lives. Indeed, what I'm saying is in order to have that eusebeia godliness and correct attitude towards God, we must also have the right attitude towards sin (ie; hatred) and hell (ie; horror).

If we merely condense it to a distant reality where severe heat is a daily occurence and strange fiends run around with pitchforks, godly fear will disappear out the window. Because a theology that points toward a God unable or unwilling to punish sin, eliminates reverence, cheapens grace and emasculates* efforts in evangelism.

You'll no doubt see many posts on godly fear as an aspect of eusebeia here in the future, because the people of Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe need frequent reminders of this part of Christianity that has been neglected in recent times.

To conclude with another insight provided by Bevere, the attribute ascribed to God the most strongly in the Scriptures is holiness ("Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty") and consequently reverence is one of the most important (perhaps the most important) aspect of our relationship with the King of Kings & Lord of Lords. We hear so much about God's love and His love is of great importance indeed, however I am growing in the opinion that God's great love is also a wondrous expression of His Glory (only a truly Magnificant Deity could love us in the manner that the LORD does). So whenever we rejoice in the greatest love the universe could ever know, we must never deprive the love-giver of the glory he deserves.

*I apologise if any readers find this adjective too strong (or perhaps confusing), however I think it comes close to explaining the state of evangelistic efforts minus the consequence of rejection.

Postscript

After writing this post I began surfing our links and found an amazing correlation at Christian Discernment Ministries' Herescope site:

"The Bible teaches that unbelievers will be condemned to an eternity in Hell (Revelation 20:14-15). If we really believed that, we would be spending much more time on our knees in prayer. And we would be pleading with people to make right with God with a sincerity and conviction that would convince many that we actually believed what we were saying."

So if that's not confirmation, I don't know what is...

A life pleasing to God - Christian research network

Here is an article by Mike Ratliff at Christian Research Network, looking at a few issues pertaining to life and the correct way to go about it.

http://mikeratliff.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/a-life-pleasing-to-god/

The Material Dilemma

Culture contrary to godliness #1





This will be part one of the series I mentioned in my post on Bill Muehlenberg's look at materialism in the church.

Casting our eyes back to to the sagely words of 1 Timothy 6, that tell us godliness is not a means of gain, but rather godliness with contentment is great gain, it is disturbing to note the trend of materialism amongst Christians today.

The real issue I am tackling here is that the church, in the West at least, has stopped short of drawing any line between Christian and pagan attitudes towards money, material gain and modern luxuries.

Since we are talking about Christian versus pagan attitudes it is worth calling to remembrance that worshipping God in a correct manner (as we define godliness in one sense) is largely dependant upon our attitude toward Him.

Simply speaking, should pastors be encouraging their congregants to "get ahead in life" or exhorting worldly material ambitions within those in their care?

It appears to me that the Bible does speak very clearly about God's desire for financial management in a range of situations. For instance, off the top of my head I know the Word forbade Israelites to lend money for interest (usury) and that it is probably not very godly to charge interest from fellow believers in light of other passages. We also see forgiveness of debt in the theme of the jubilee year and that Jesus told us, "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away" (Matthew 5:42 NKJV).

This last concept would, I would suggest, be discouraged by many churches today. I myself am guilty of being asked for a loan of some money and hesitating because I questioned the wisdom of doing so, but when the person offered to pay interest I quickly declared I could not lend for profit to a Christian! The issue here I think is that we often expect people to take advantage of our kindness in the future if we are generous in the present.

I suppose a bit more faith in God would go a long way in this area. And in regard to material wealth in general, a lot more faith is needed.

The aim of this series is more or less to look at where the culture of the church and the culture of the world need to take different paths for the sake of godliness. In the case of materialism there is a huge chasm that needs to be created rather than crossed.

Our goal should be to identify how our attitude towards money/possessions affects our relationship with God and how we can subject our lives to His Word in this area. We must learn how to be content with food and clothing and give thanks to God for making simple provision to us.

And what better time to resolve this material dilemma affecting Christian culture than Christmas?

Change in attitude

We've noted before that Eusebeia has a great deal to do with one's attitude towards God and life.
So is the lack of godliness visible in today's Christian culture a sign that something has gone terribly wrong in our attitudes? I believe we are living in the last days, awaiting the return of the Lord in glory and if this is true, we need to look back at 2 Timothy 3 and examine what comes with the territory of having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.

Most of these things are based in the attitude: selfishness, ungratefulness, hatred towards those who do right, pride, haughtiness. Are these things prevalent in congregations today? And yet, we are instructed to turn away from people that display these attitudes. Is it perhaps because such things are contagious? Certainly we are warned in Proverbs in various places about what keeping company with fools, violent people and harlots does to one's lifestyle and reputation. So why not be wary of professing believers that are full of these symptoms.
Furthermore, if your pastor/teacher oozes pride and self-obsession, you are more likely to take these attributes onboard than the points in their sermon in many cases.

Of course before one goes too far in pointing the finger we must look at ourselves long and hard. Are your attitudes fertilisers or poisons to godliness? Are you thankful, humble, a lover of God and of men or a conceited, murmuring lover of pleasure?

I know recently I've been put through the strainer of testing, but there is a lot more of that to come before I bear any appropriate semblance to Christ. Even though I still make mistakes and do or say the wrong things (been happening a bit in last few weeks), I find that more and more the war of sanctification is fought within with these ungodly attitudes that persist in their attempt to control the heart. But let us all strive for more spiritual fruit and less fleshly weeds.

Break in Transmission

It occurred to me today that it has been two weeks since the last post.
I aim to resume posting tomorrow, God willing and commence a new series in the near future. My co-blogger should also be premiering shortly, as he has completed his studies for the year (and perhaps for good!).
It has been a hard couple of weeks and at times I have felt unable to post due to weight upon my heart, while otherwise it has mainly been a lack of opportunity to sit down and compose a quality post.

A big thank you to all our visitors, especially those making the journey from TeamPyro and Farmer's blog. We hope Eusebeian Way and the Eusebeia blog are useful to you in your Christian walk.

P.S. Check out our new links to Ray Comfort's blog for a good read and Rich's Alliance of Civilisations blog for those with an interest in Bible prophecy.

Thoughts on godliness from a bygone era

Here is an excerpt from Willem Teellinck's book "The Path of True Godliness" provided by Jim Bublitz at Old Truth.
http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.810

Since the book title is perfectly compatible with the focus of Eusebeian Way and the topics covered in the Eusebeia blog, it is an irresistable article to link to as something to explore. Also fascinating is the date of writing - 1621. Note the distinctions between Teellinck's point of view and the current-day perspectives we hear concerning godliness, holiness & sanctification.

Also be sure to read Jim's comment beneath the article, there is some good insight there into the author and his life.

We always need to look to the Scriptures for guidance in life, but on questions of godliness it is beneficial to look at the gap between interpretations of certain Scriptures (or perhaps merely the application) from the past and today and ponder what is really driving the change...