Why Gen Z is depressed

 

GEN Z IS DEPRESSED AND ANXIOUS say numerous studies.  They first noticed this in a count of depression in 2014.  There was a big jump from 2012. And it’s been going up rapidly every year. Why? Further breakdown showed that older generations didn’t increase, just Gen Z.  Some psychologists speculate that just after 2012 was when people began to do selfies and post them on social media.  Then you find your perfect life is less perfect than others. The historic graph is a startling hockey stick shape.  

But it is further noted that it is the progressives that are depressed and anxious and in English speaking countries, not China or Algeria.  Why? Because many in the older generations have religious faith.  The Christian, once they have seen grace grab hold of them and understand it deeply, that God is with you and in you, and nobody can take that away from you—that instills an assurance, a confident hope that things will turn out all right.  This life may slam you around and is full of misery, but God will use it and in the end take you home. That tragically, is what many progressive leftists miss.  Hence 26% of Gen Z is depressed or neurotic.  It’s worse in girls which are over 30% affected, but boys of previous generations have gone from 9 to 13% depression. So the progressives fearful of not being in control seek to demand everybody be woke, and entirely in agreement.  The misery of their politics trumps all else.

Suppose you want to raise an entrepreneur.  What quality would you look for? It is dogged confidence.  People who are close friends of successful entrepreneurs say, "the poor devil never knew when he was beat.." She just keeps on going.  If life deals a lemon, they make lemonade and then figures out a daquri. But this is opposite a depressed personality.

Christianity 101--How did it start?

                                 1 How Did Christianity Start?

 

Let’s think about history. How did the Christian movement manage to survive and thrive in the first hundred years?  How did it inspire the believers long term and how did their children not abandon it?  Other than the gospels (first 4 books on the New Testament) and epistles (letters of the New Testament), there is almost nothing written by these earliest followers of Jesus who were perhaps 10,000 people by 100AD. Besides God’s Old Covenant Word, what did those early churches have?

            There were no sermons, a later invention. It is thought the early church spread by quiet networking. Music was not a big thing in ancient Rome.  The early Christians met in their homes built around a central courtyard.  Worship services would remind one more of home devotions than a modern church . Nobody said, “Come hear our great preacher and our wonderful music this Sunday!”

            Jesus died about 33 AD and the first gospel, Mark, wasn’t written until at least 56AD.  For a generation, there was no written New Testament scripture. Yet we know apostles were travelling. Thomas went to India in 52 AD according to royal records. Even 100 years later, a church might own only a partial hand-copied gospel and a couple of epistles.  How did these people not wander away from their first beliefs? Secular historians presume their beliefs evolved or there was a secret text somewhere. That’s unlikely.  We know they had firm beliefs from the earliest days. Moreover, a confused person who doesn’t know what to believe will hardly bring about persecution by the authorities. Moreover, a religion won’t last if it doesn’t remind people constantly of what they are to do. The kids will walk away if it doesn’t solve or put in perspective life’s problems.

An answer is buried in Acts 2:23ff, Peter’s Pentecost address. “Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified…But God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (vs. 24)…And they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. (vs. 42-43), praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number…”(vs. 47)

            From the earliest days, Roman pagans claimed Christians believed the Resurrection.  This was attested to by Julio, the Prefect that succeeded Pontius Pilate.  He wrote home to Rome about a new group of Jews, harmless but weird.  They believed that their leader had risen 3 days after he died.  Romans snickered.  In 3 days a dead body will start to stink.  Roman soldiers knew death! But if Jesus was raised, why? Did Christians simply say he was sinless? That alone would only save a man from God’s eternal wrath and find him a place in heaven. The grave, Peter and the Christians insisted, “could not hold Him.” Hence Jesus must be God. This answers the first of the two fundamental questions of Christianity —“Who was Jesus of Nazareth?” The second question is “What does that mean for me?”  Jesus Died For My Sins. As soon as you claim this you have also said that Jesus is God.  A 3^rd party person can’t forgive 2 people who are at odds. That person isn’t part of what happened.  Only the offended can forgive.  Hence Jews say, “God alone could forgive all sins because all sins offend God.” 

Early Christians had some apostles right there teaching them (if one lived in Jerusalem).  They had the 5 functions of the church (worship, fellowship, discipleship, service, witness) just as today (Acts 2:42ff and the visible signs of the Spirit).  Yet they actually did have the New Testament.  This was not written scriptures, but “This is the New Testament in My blood.”  The Old Testament (covenant) was the Law.  But what if you messed up?  Then a sacrifice was required to make things right. Sacrifices were the atonement--a sacred act, ordained and commanded by God, with physical elements, which required the believer’s faith, worked forgiveness and sometimes brought about other inexplicable benefits from God.  What if you forgot some of your sins? There was a “clean-up sacrifice” at Yom Kippur to forgive all the sins of the prior year.  Jesus claimed in this New Testament, that He was the “forever sacrifice”--forgiveness from a God who loves you so much to come for you in your utter unworthiness. This new covenant brings you extraordinarily close to God.

  Jesus came forward with this New Covenant in the Lord’s Supper, a sacrament (consecrated act) like the OT sacrifices to remind that every day, every second, God was saving them. Was it really His blood and body they believed they ate and drank? They must have. The Romans were horrified by what they heard. Perhaps a Roman asked, what are you doing in there?” Christian: “We are eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ!” Cannibals!, the Romans thought—the worst form of barbarianism! But what if the Christian had said, “Well, we kind of figuratively think this.” The Romans would have just rolled their eyes and laughed had that been the case. In the Lord’s Supper, Christians became forgiven and then amazingly, bonded with God’s family of saved believers.  That’s why Passover is celebrated. Jesus picked up the Passover bread and announced flatly that it was His body, given for them.  (How could that be?  God made it mysteriously happen.) When someone was invited to share bread in that society, it meant, “you will be part of my family for the night.”  When we come to eat His body, we are pledging to be part of His family.  And then Jesus took the Passover cup of blessing and pronounced, “This is the New Covenant in my blood.”  He must have shocked his disciples. Asking someone to share the cup with you was what grooms did to ask a bride if she agreed to marriage! Week after week, the Christians did this, cementing themselves to each other and their Savior. 

So Christians were reminded and partook of forgiveness, but how does one progress in faith and draw near to God? It came by Baptism and the Spirit.  Like Lord’s Supper, baptism is a Sacred Act with elements requiring faith, forgiving sins—a sacrament. To be baptized one has to confess and turn away from sins. Years later, Paul would tell the Roman Christians (Rom. 6:3-4)  “we are buried with him in Baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.” Dead to sin, alive to God, our sins forgiven, we are again bonded to Jesus and to God’s family as in Communion. The Holy Spirit, given as God’s sealing gift in repentance at Baptism, will raise the believer and internally walk with Him. Early church fathers wrote that people were sealed by baptism. ‘Sealed’ i.e.,you aren’t getting away; you’re now a child of God.  God often comes during troubles, whether they are your own fault or not. The saving is all His doing. Nothing on earth beats such certainty.  Talk directly like a child to Dad, hang onto His words, pledge your life!

This established what became known as Orthodox (correct, ‘square’) Christianity. If all they’d had was the memory of their leader rising from the dead, within a generation that would have become a distant legend. If sacraments had no power, they would become dull rituals over time.  Christianity would have died out. Later, books were written by the apostles but then other fraudulent books came along too.  Which were right? Christians measured everything against the fundamentals of Orthodoxy.

But how did Christianity spread? Knowing God loved you and saw you from the very beginning, saved you, gave you faith to respond, and now puts His Spirit inside you, changes everything.  All the world was then and is now searching for God.  Christians weren’t. God found me! Sealed me forever!  Yet they faced huge troubles—we know by what’s been unearthed.  30 house churches have been discovered and plaques and stones with names on them-- church members.  2/3 of the names were of women who in those days were treated like sub-humans. Half the names were just a single name, likely slaves. The Hebrew word for struggle means also to wrestle.  When life is a struggle, one wrestles with God in prayers. “Why, God, did you do this?  Why did you make me this way? Help me, please.” Jesus wrestled with God as well, in Gethsemane.  Did God take away his death? No but Jesus became closer to God in his struggle.  God often does not heal a situation but brings one closer. A new door is opened as a new way of knowing God to be close arises.  Through our struggles we learn empathy for others, we become experienced in their difficulties too, we become a witness with love and joy, seeing God’s love for us and behind us all. That is how the early church grew and how modern churches can grow.  Share your life with others.  Listen to their situations. Share the Good News with Love and Joy. This is a kind of compassion that supersedes the worldly politics of doling-out favors.

            More than tradition makes Lutherans love Word and Sacraments.  God comes in many ways, but there’s 2 places He promises--Word (Jn 1:1, Is 66:1-2) and Sacraments (I Cor. 11:23, Rom. 6:3-4).                                 

Christians have much in common.  97% of church denominations agree on 9 doctrines-- Triune God, Salvation by Grace through the death of the Jesus Christ who is both God and man, Virgin birth, Resurrection, real Heaven and Hell and 2^nd coming of Christ, Bible is God’s Word, use of Creeds, practices of Lord’s Supper and Baptism, holiness of the Church. (Baptists omit creeds yet believe in their content.) Doctrine means a belief considered absolutely true and key to faith.  Dogmas are teachings that are considered to be true. Adiaphora (Greek) are issues “free to choose”.  

Christianity and Judaism at Passover and Easter

 

Passover is begins with what Christians call Maunday Thursday but is not over until sunset Good Friday as Jewish days go from sunset to sunset. Then on Saturday comes the feast of Unleavened Bread and the next day begins the Feast of First Fruits.  Of course, Passover marks the 14^th of Nisan of the Lunar Calendar, so won’t  be a Thursday every year, and this year was the 27^th of March.  Christians have re-jiggered the calendar to make Easter Sunday. Passover celebrates the Liberation of God’s people.  Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrates the Separation/Uniqueness in being God’s people, his followers. (Leaven is earthly and unholy.  You clean house to get rid of any leaven) And First Fruits celebrates consecration to God as the first fruits of the barley harvest were sacrificed.  That Christianity was truly an outgrowth of Judaism is shown by the Messiah, Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God, who was announced on Palm Sunday, 10^th of Nisan, then observed for purity 5 days as he endured withering questions from the authorities, then was sacrificed on Passover.The Liberator from sin. The rite of Baptism reminds Christians how they are separated to be God’s children as per the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Jesus said, he was the bread of heaven. And he was the First Fruit of the Dead in the Resurrection, when Christians thrill at being consecrated to God.

       I hope I haven’t insulted anyone by what I have said.  It just proves how close Christians and Jews are in brotherhood.  When Jefferson quoted Christian author Locke, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…,” it should be understood that only a Judeo-Christian writer would think and pen such stuff.    

Pandemics and Christianity's story

 

Pandemics occur throughout history. In the Roman world, the pagans were quick to “get out of Dodge.” Listen to an early bishop Dionysius tell about what happened in the Alexandrian Plague of 250 AD.  “They thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, treating them with contempt until they died. (Works of Dionysius. Epistle 12) But the Christians had different ideas. “Many of our brethren…did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them assiduously  and treated them for their healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully…taking over to their own persons the burden of sufferings of those around them.” And this was no isolated incident.  The plague went on from 249 to 262.  At its height 5000 people a day died in Rome. Cyprian wrote from Carthage that Christians should serve not just their own but pagans who curse them. A hundred years before, we think perhaps the first pandemic of small pox hit the empire (165-180 AD).   The famed physician Galen fled Rome for his country villa. 1/3 the people died. But the Christians ministered without regard to themselves.

            Why? They had little knowledge of disease except that it was infectious. But Jesus had said, “I was sick and you looked after me.” (Matt. 25:36) He healed repeatedly (Matt. 4) and “sent His disciples to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick.” (Luke 9:2) Peter, Paul and Barnabus, and Stephen have examples in Acts of where they did this. And as Jesus never considered a healing complete unless it was also spiritual, so did the early Christians.  If a Christian dies, life just continues eternally. “Because I live, you too shall live.” “So then, whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s.” If a sick or dying person came to accept Christ’s love and forgiveness, then they had gained another brother to stand before the Son.  This had an enormous impact on the other Romans.  Fleeing the plague couldn’t compete with Hope in the face of death.  Plagues made Christianity grow and drew others to the faith.  Plagues made love and other spiritual gifts grow.  And the Christian community that survived was all the stronger from what they had gone through.

                Wittenberg, 1527, the bubonic plague struck again. It had been recurring every couple decades since 1347. Martin Luther had lost his 3 closest friends in grammar school, 20 years before, and some think grief was a contributing reason he wanted to join a monastic order.  But in 1527 he and Katarina stayed in Wittenberg to take care of the sick.  They cited Matt. 25, and wrote that “ [we and Jesus] are bound together in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as He Himself would like to be helped.”  Yet Luther added that there were circumstances that drive us to flee and that no one should judge another for what they have done. “We are here alone with the deacons, but Christ is present too, that we may not be alone, and he will triumph in us over that old serpent, murderer, and author of sin, however much he may bruise Christ’s heel. Pray for us, and farewell.” (Ag 19, 1527)

            I am humbled by all of this.  It makes my paltry gift of giving away an N95 mask seem tepid. (Construction guys have such things on hand.) And all my rationalization about being careful not to become infected and infect others seems rather fearful and cathartic. Wash hands and take precautions, even staying away from public meetings. But if someone needs my service, who am I to refuse to be like Christ? Who shall I refuse to pray with for His mercy? “Other people would not think this a time for festival,” Dionysius said of the epidemic in Alexandria. “Far from being a time of distress, it is a time of unimaginable joy.” Where is Jesus?  We are His Body here on earth at work.  The one who is sick is Him waiting for us to come.   

Sears

Martin Luther once said that a ploughboy, in a close relationship with God, could interpret and do God’s will better than a theologian.  Perhaps that is why there are more Lutheran small-businessmen than in any other denomination.

            Richard Warren Sears was born in 1863 in Stewartville, Minnesota, a rural town near Rochester that is just 5000 people even today.  The family moved to Spring Valley soon thereafter.  His dad was a wagon maker and blacksmith who did well and was on the town council.  But he lost his life savings in a market collapse, died 2 years later, forcing the teenage Richard to go to work for a railroad to help support family.  One day, his rail station had a merchant customer refuse a large order of watches.  Watches were considered a city luxury by farmers.  Richard made a deal to try to sell all those watches.  In six months, the super-salesman had sold every one and signed on a partner, Alvah Roebuck, who repaired watches.  They made money, moved to Chicago, then sold out.  Sears had observed that rural folks will buy only if it is cheap, the same observation of Sam Walton 80 years later.  He and Roebuck went into a mail-order business with Sears writing the catalog copy.  By 1896 it was 140 pages of folksy description.  Sometimes he was too glowing in his product descriptions and it came back to haunt him. “Honesty is the best policy,” he would say.  “I’ve tried it both ways.”

            Sears was targeting the most overworked market segment—farm wives.  His catalog held everything from dishes to clothes to kit houses (1904).  Using the postal system, he allowed them to buy things rarely seen in rural areas.  And by pressuring suppliers, he got prices very low.  And example is the cream separator.  They were typically $100.  Sears found one for $26 that was acceptable and came out with catalog models for $14 and $22.  Within a few years dairymen all over the country, formerly selling only whole milk, were selling cream separately with Sears separators. 

            But organizing and fulfilling orders was problematic.  When Roebuck fell into poor health and sold his share back to Sears (1895), Richard found a venture capitalist in his brother-in-law Rosenwald, who transformed Sears, Roebuck & Co. from a shapeless, inefficient, rapidly expanding corporate mess into the retailing titan of much of the twentieth century. He set up an assembly line to fill sales and a returns department. Richard Sears developed failing health in 1909 and quit his active role in the company.  He died in 1914 at his farm near Milwaukee.  His marketing genius lived on in the company through the 1970s. At its height around WW I, 5 million catalogs of 1200 pages held 100,000 items.  A good example of Sears’ impact was in refrigerators. There were once spring houses farmers dug to keep milk a second day, then ice boxes, but that required ice delivery. In 1918 Kelvinator invented a gas-cycle refrigerator.  Sears began to market it in the 20s and by 1930 was the leading marketer of refrigerators in America.  By the 20s the once rural marketing had turned urban as well with stores. FDR quipped that the way to cure a communist was to hand him a Sears catalog.  But the best indication of how influencial the company became was a story related by a Sunday School teacher.  The kids were asked, “Where did the Ten Commandments come from?” Answer: “From the Sears, Roebuck catalog!”

Lincoln--the inner man

President's Day. You think politics is divided today?  In 1861 it was so divided that South Carolina led 7 southern states to secede from the country (eventually 3 more) and our worst war took place.  This shutdown occurred when the only man who could have prevented it by his moral arguments was shut out of office for 5 months awaiting inauguration. 

            Abraham Lincoln was an anomaly in politics, a humble man of moral genius.  Jesus often taught that our actions must reflect our faith, but usually it’s the opposite.  Northerners and Southerners of the same church denominations split those churches over their own moral righteousness of their cause.  Lincoln was home-schooled by a mother who had only a Bible and a biography of George Washington.  Abe grew up without going to church and never did go.  Yet he had moral teaching, was moral by nature, and constantly quoted the biblical law (not gospel).  When he said “God” he often meant Providence. But he had humility and logical acumen, to figure out how morals must guide us.  In his campaign for President he said, “I come from nowhere.” (in a frontier log cabin) He believed his mother was illegitimate and she probably was.  His father was harsh and he had no important ancestors. Abe became a self-taught lawyer, failed in business, and the love of his life died.  He then married the prominent Mary Carter, who had money and famed ancestors.  She pushed him into politics because he was a master story teller and had good relations with all. But when he came home, she described him as ‘most useless, good-for-nothing man on earth’, a man who would just sit and read.  But Lincoln was thinking about life.  The issue of the day was slavery, the cruelty of which he had witnessed on many occasions. The one-term congressman wrote in 1849, “If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may of right enslave B, why may not B snatch the same argument…and enslave A? A is white and B is black—is it color then? Take care—by this rule, you are to be the slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own…You mean whites are intellectually superior? Take care again—you are to be the slave of the first man you meet with an intellect superior to your own.” In the Lincoln Douglas debates of 1858: “If slavery is good for negroes in the South, why not extend it to white men as well?” “Slavery happens when Liberty is destroyed. Our Union comes from the cause of Liberty.  Liberty and Union, now forever, inseparable.” Republican Convention: “We read in scripture that a man should receive the fruits of his labor.  Slaves are denied this God-given right.” “A house divided against itself cannot stand.  I believe this government cannot endure half slave and half free.” Douglas was a compromiser, who kicked the can of controversy down the road. Douglas won the Senate seat, but Lincoln became the conscience of the country. “The South knows that slavery is wrong. Why have so many slaves been set free, except by the promptings of conscience?” And concerning the Supreme Court Dred Scott decision on runaway slaves: “you can fool all the people some on the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Lincoln succeeded in making people confront the issue and the South reacted with paranoia.  Abolitionists had decried slavery for years but Lincoln made perfect sense to any farmer, frontiersman, or shop-owner.

            The result was the Republicans ran Lincoln in 1860.  The Democrat Convention split into North and South nominations, and Whigs nominated a border state guy. Lincoln won the lowest-ever 39.9% of the popular vote but won an electoral college majority. South Carolina, who had first brought slave culture to colonial America, seceded followed by 6 other states via state conventions.  Hence, 697 men, mostly wealthy plantation owners, in state conventions, voted ‘secession’ and  initiated the war. All the while Pres. Buchanan sat indecisive for 5 months as Lincoln awaited inauguration. More ironically, the South had held all the political cards yet threw the game in a temper tantrum. Abolition would have required an Amendment and southern Democrats held control of Congress.

            But what of Lincoln’s faith?  As the war wore on and the toll skyrocketed, Lincoln agonized. “To anyone who reads his letters, speeches, and conversations, it is hard to believe that whatever his religious state of mind before the war, he acquired faith before it ended.”(historian Paul Johnson)  He began reading his Bible daily, talking about his prayers, “The Lord is always on the side of right. But it is of my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.” “I am but a fallible man.” Second Inaugural Address: “With malice toward none, with charity to all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” So while everybody else seemed to be claiming to be an Agent of God’s Will, “the Elect Nation” or as a general called himself “a dictator for righteousness,” Lincoln remained humble.  As Sherman put it, “he invariably did the right thing, the God-fearing thing.”

What is marriage

We attended Steve’s son and daughter-in-law’s wedding Saturday and Diana’s brother preached.  I had to laugh,  Pastor Dyer had all the Baptists convinced he was a Baptist because of his causal to the point delivery and yet the Lutherans were thrilled to hear him explain marriage as designed by God.  And all the guys from the call committee at our Lutheran church wanted to immediately vote to call him.  Ha!

 

Here are several points and a few I would add myself about marriage.  We may think sitting at a wedding is just a 30 minute casual church affair and the groomsmen may think that if they can tolerate the money suits, the bridesmaids smile and look cute in their dresses, then it will soon be over.  But this wedding  is holy ground because wherever God’s Word is, that is holy ground (think Moses).  God put two people together just as he noticed his bride in the church on earth and noticed that he had the groom by his side in heaven.  And he put the two of them together.  Marriage is like the church’s relationship with it’s Lord and the church is like a marriage.  Do you doubt this? Then look at Genesis 2:7-18.  Adam was surrounded by all of creation and had a perfect relationship with God.  Yet astoundingly God says, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Now how could busy and spiritual Adam possibly consider himself alone, but God knew he was missing something special and specific. It was not good that he be alone spiritually, emotionally, socially or physically.  And 2:18 ends with the solution of a “helper”.  Those who know their Hebrew note that the word can also be translated “compliment”—like two puzzle pieces that fit in each other’s voids perfectly.  And the two represent the fullness of God’s character. The Hebrew scholars tell me that the words for "man" and for "woman" is the same word, just masculine and feminine endings. 

 

Astoundingly, God doesn’t create a woman and let her roam around until Adam finds her like the animals.  In Gen. 2:21-24 He causes a sleep to befall Adam, takes a rib and makes it into woman.  And then He brought her to Adam.  Talk about an arranged marriage! And she is so close to him, so complimentary to him that a man will forsake his family to become one with the woman.  In a similar manner, God brought his Son to mankind when they were yet evil and sinful, died for them and brought mankind together with His Son in the Holy Spirit.  Pastor Dyer asked the congregation to pray for the newlyweds and made them swear to it.  (Which caused my Baptist friend to say, “hey, Baptists are wary of oaths but this time we were convinced.”) And the groomsmen and bridesmaids were charged with supporting this new couple.  And the family came up to gather around Chris and Amy and pray in front of us great cloud of witnesses. Wow!

 

Man alone completes a woman and woman alone completes a man.  I know this because Jesus said it in Matthew 19:4-6.  Love is the centerpiece of the relationship. (So much for loveless arrangements and shacking up) It takes a man and a woman, not 2 men or 2 women or 3 women and a bunch of kids.  (So much for “gay marriage” and the nanny state as dad) Children do not complete a family, they come to it and expand it.  The husband and wife are the priority relationship and other relationships are subject to it.  Hey, I didn’t say this.  Jesus did.

 

It was a good thing Diana’s bro stopped when he did.  Otherwise we were about to storm the popular culture.  A friend told us, “It was like renewing my vows.” A pretty powerful homily, a pretty powerful belief, I would say.

Mark

This is Easter week and this article is what we call Christian apologetics. I was at our home bible study Monday this week. Pastor Tom made note that some skeptics argue that since Mark was the first gospel published and since it doesn't quote Jesus saying he was the Messiah, then maybe the rest of the gospels were Christian propaganda pieces written later by other writers. Ha! I had never heard this argument, but I can imagine it is a favorite with the historical critic skeptics of Christianity. It offers a nice rationalization for their skepticism. Since by nature I am a skeptic, I always enjoyed mixing it up with those guys. And this is for your Easter enjoyment.

Say you accept the Mark account but disbelieve that Jesus is Savior and Lord. My question is, have you read it closely? For example in Mark 1 at the baptism of Jesus, God's voice says, "this is My beloved Son." and then in Mark 12:6 Jesus told a parable about a landlord who finally sent his "beloved Son" and then tennants killed him. (meaning himself and the Jewish people) He finishes with the quote, "the stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone; this came about from the Lord." Meaning that he, the beloved Son was that rejected One who was the chief cornerstone of salvation. And 'Lord' means YHWH, i.e. God's name. YHWH, "I am that I am" was also abbreviated "I am". When before the Sanhedrin, ruling council of Jews, they asked him in Marks account, "Are you the Christ, the Blessed One?" And he said, "I AM. [yikes!! Did you hear that!!] and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven." Son of Man is the guy who appears to God the Father, the Ancient of Days, in Daniel 7 vision of heaven. [Any questions?] And then even if a bonafied skeptic doesn't want to believe this, note what happens to the high priest and council in the next verse, They tore their clothes upon hearing this blasphemy (someone claiming to be God or having His power) and condemned him to death for that reason. Hey, pay no attention to what I say, just notice the behavior of those who were experts in Judaism.

Mark also has those interesting passages about how we are to forgive others so that our Father in Heaven will forgive us. (11:25-26) Who can forgive? Well if Joe and John have a disagreement and Leroy comes along and says, "I forgive you," Joe and John will look at him weirdly. What 3rd party, some Leroy, can come along and forgive my fight? If I hit you, only you can forgive me. Or God who has power over all things, can forgive. So when Jesus claims to be able to forgive sins or says to the woman he healed in Mark 8:34 "Daughter your faith has made you well" how does a mere man, a Leroy, know about someone else's faith? Can he read her mind? Shall we go to Darfur or some other place with horrible strife and say, Leroy says you are forgiven and Leroy knows your faith is good? That's idiocy! Or Jesus really is Who He says He is.

Mark 8 is the best. Jesus asks his disciples and Peter in particular who they said he was and Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ" Christ, Messiah, anointed one was to come to save the people from their sins according the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus took the title Son of Man (of Daniel fame) and explains how he must suffer and rise again(of Isaiah fame). Then Jesus launches into troubling words, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,and follow Me...whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save it." Now that means that Leroy ain't your savior and only Jesus is. And that we have to give ourselves up to trust in Him. Functionally that is God because only God can save according to the Old Testament scriptures. "Jesus" means "God saves" and Is. 43 says, "I, even I AM the Lord [YHWH] and there is no Savior apart from Me." And Jesus says in Mark 16, "in My name you will cast out demons" and in Mark 13:13 "You will be hated by all for My name's sake." Now what would cause people to go into a rage over a silly old name unless the name mean that God incarnate in Jesus Christ is the only savior? That blows all those schemes about getting into heaven because we are going to prove to God that we have been a good person and have been sincere, etc. The gospel, "good news" is that we are saved only by God's mercy and grace that comes through repentance--which is our only hope. That is Jesus's first and central message (Mark 1:15).

And then again, he says "the Son of Man is Lord [God's name again!] of the Sabbath." He tells his followers in Mark 8:38 that He is judge of the world.

But maybe one of the more interesting reasons for believing that the Salvation of the world comes through this Jesus is that Mark spends 6 chapters out of 16 on his death and resurrection. Why would you spend almost half the book talking about how someone died if they were just a teacher? Wouldn't you expound on their teaching? For example, Tycho Brahe, the tremendous Danish astronomer of the 16th century whose careful measurements of the planetary motions allowed Johannas Kepler to postulate his theory of planetary motion, had a most unusual death. Does anybody remember it or do they remember his discoveries instead? Kepler had an interesting death too. Recall it? The point is that no one even considers this important. We study their scientific discoveries and ideas. But Jesus's death was the punch line of the book--the atonement for all of mankind's sin. (And in case you are interested, Brahe died of bladder explosion when he went to a party given by the King of Denmark in his honor and drank too much.)

Okay, so the gospel of Mark has fewer words of Jesus, just tells more about what his actions were. If this is the gospel Least indicative of Jesus's divinity, what must the others testify to!

Anything less than this ain't much "good news" because we would flunk.

Self-Evident Truths

Leaves falling. Thanksgiving soon. Football and pumpkins. The political season is over and a lot of folks are glad to turn the page. Even the President went on vacation. Soon it will be time to shop for Christmas. Yet it will be a slim holiday for some. Unemployment is high. Here in town the American Legion Children's Home is close to closing and both kids and staff are in limbo. Retail sales are not flush for businesses. Yet I am reminded of a friend's comment years ago after he lost much of his life savings. "Well, the dog still licks your hand and the grandkids still climb up in your lap." There is more to life than money and politics.

That is why I am conservative. There is more to life than government and security. The progressive left sees man as just a higher animal to be ruled by an elite, who in turn answer only to God(Nature/Science). That is the Old Order. Judeo-Christian thought upended this. The Almighty comes down to save His people and form a close relationship with them. Luther and then Locke thus argued that it was God over people over the government they would construct, not God over government over people. That became the American Experiment. And so it is that "We the People, in order to form a more perfect Union..." made a constitution that limits the government's powers and the government's help. Conservatives want public servants, not public dictators.

Is that risky? You bet it is. We risk failure, both individually and together. Yet we relish the opportunity that comes only with risk. Such willingness to risk comes only from knowing Providence looks after us. We still keep government safety nets, but don't wish them to become a trap for serfdom. Then, having achieved some success, we aid our neighbor as we surely will this holiday season. Tough times are not our shame or distress. They become our finest hour. Mark my words and mark your Thanksgiving. We shall see this during the holiday season. We are still the people of the Self-evident Truths.