Original post at http://jmsmith.org/blog/delusional/

Hi Dojo readers,

This week a video has been making the rounds on social media among the MMA and BJJ communities.

It’s allegedly of a “5th degree black belt test” and is…

well…

I’ll let you decide for yourself…

Now those who have trained in any reputable style of martial art or combat sport realize immediately just how ineffective the above is when it comes to defending oneself or competing in any combat sport involving full (or even partial!) contact.

But to the untrained eye, who knows? Perhaps this is what “black belt” skill really looks like!

In fact, many martial arts schools profit greatly from the general ignorance regarding what constitutes legitimate martial art skill among the average soccer mom looking for an activity in which to enroll the kids, or the average cubicle worker who wants to get in shape or learn how to fight potential bad guys like Jason Bourne (both of which are perfectly legitimate desires!).

But that does not make the above techniques any more practical or effective (or even artistic!).

Yet, in terms of delusional martial artists, the above black belts are practically Anderson Silva, Rickson Gracie or Muhammed Ali compared to some of the other nonsense that circulates under the label of “martial arts”!

For instance, BJJ black belt Stephan Kesting (who is a utterly legit!), shares two of the absolute worst and most ridiculous martial arts techniques he’s ever seen taught…

And while techniques like that are laughable, many people continue to believe in such nonsensical martial arts concepts and even travel around the world to seek out various esoteric “masters” who claim near-invincibility through their ancient arts. The results, however, are predictable (and pitiful!) on the rare occasions when such claims are actually put to the test against uncooperative (and non-delusional) opponents…

Now here’s the thing: these people ACTUALLY BELIEVE that what they are learning is an effective martial art. They are not (for the most part) intentionally trying to scam or deceive people. They are true believers in the legitimacy of their art.

Likewise, they are DEDICATED. They spend years–even decades!–training and developing such “skills” and often take their training with deadly seriousness. They are not jumping from one fad to another, nor are they seeking mainstream popularity. Many of these people spend thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars on their training. They form close-knit bonds with their fellow students and the “masters” under whose watchful eye they train.

Yet none of this makes that in which they are investing so much time and energy any less ineffective.

These “martial arts” are dangerous, to be clear…but the danger is to the student!

It is the danger of misplaced confidence in a skill set that will most likely get the practitioner hurt should they ever be faced with the terrible reality of a violent physical confrontation.

And videos like the ones above remain the butt of jokes among legitimate martial artists and combat sports athletes. (There is even an entire web community devoted to debunking such claims within the martial arts world…it is called, fittingly enough, Bullshido!)

In fact, I was talking with my instructor about the first video posted above last night before our grappling class and he was saying how painful it was for him to watch such nonsense. As a professional martial arts instructor and school owner whose livelihood comes from teaching self-defense, he cringed as he watched such “black belt testing”, knowing that what was being demonstrated was in no way reflective of what a legitimate black belt should exhibit.

“Now you know how I feel when I hear much of the preaching on TV and radio.” I said with a grin.

We laughed about it…but it’s true. There is so much nonsense on Christian airwaves that claims to be effectively teaching and equipping people to understand God’s word. From the “Prosperity Preachers” to the “Prophecy Experts”, there is no lack of people publicly claiming the role of authoritative teacher when it comes to the things of God.

And unfortunately, they are often no less embarrassing to legitimate Biblical scholars, preachers and teachers than the “martial arts masters” above are to legitimate martial arts instructors. Not only that, but they are often, at least according to Scripture, even more dangerous.

Because rather than teaching physical skills that are ineffective against an earthly opponent, they are purporting to teach eternal truths that pertain to both the earthly and the spiritual realms.

They are claiming to teach the things of God.

Thus the stakes are literally infinitely higher.

This is why we find in the pages of Scripture passages like the following, written by Jesus’ brother James to the early Christian communities:

Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

James 3:1 (NLT)

James knew that the responsibility that comes along with preaching and teaching people about God Almighty–the Creator of Heaven and Earth–the One who is above all and who has entered into human history for the purpose of redeeming and transforming the world from its enslavement to sin and death–is an incredible calling…and one that no one should ever enter into flippantly or out of any desire other than the one placed within them by the Holy Spirit who called and equipped them (this includes Christian bloggers and writers as well, I would argue!).

Teaching the Inspired words of God Himself to others is a task that should bring with it a sobering humility and a reliance upon the Body of Christ as a whole to help keep us from self-deception, pride and error. A teacher of Scripture should be willing to constantly question the truth of what they are teaching and to subject any claim they make to rigorous examination and potential refutation by others who are knowledgeable in the subject. (That’s one of the reasons why I founded Disciple Dojo, in fact!)

But like the devotees of ineffective and foolish forms of martial arts, a preacher or teacher can have all the devotion, passion and commitment in the world…yet still be deluded. The actual substance of what they are teaching can still be no more true or beneficial than that of the martial arts “masters” above.

Bogus martial arts teachers can make thousands of dollars writing books, producing videos and teaching seminars to those who have faith in their claims. They can gain a worldwide following and have people swear by the effectiveness of their techniques in countless testimonials. (If you doubt this, just pick up a copy of Black Belt magazine, particularly from the 80s or 90s and peruse the various ads found within its pages!)

Similarly, Christian preachers and teachers can amass thousands–even millions–of followers around the world who truly believe that what they are being taught is God’s truth and who are willing to give millions of dollars to ridiculously lavish ministries, because by doing so they are demonstrating their faith in a tangible way that will be acknowledged and rewarded by God himself. (If you doubt this, just spend a few minutes watching the Trinity Broadcast Network…or simply Google “Benny Hinn”!)

Yet none of this changes the fact that the substance of what is being taught is wrong, delusional…and perhaps even dangerous.

Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.

1John 4:1 (NLT)

Original post at http://jmsmith.org/blog/dwight/

Hi Dojo readers,

I realized the other day that not all of you follow JM’s Art of the Dojo on Facebook…which you totally should! That’s where I post all my latest artwork for people to follow along with as I go.

For those who don’t know, my two undergraduate degrees are in fine art, specifically drawing and painting (Associates of Fine Art, Reinhardt College [now Reinhardt University!] and Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Georgia), and I currently work full time as a portrait artist in order to help fund the ministry here at the Dojo…in fact, if you haven’t already, take a minute and check out the various galleries of my work by clicking the “Art of the Dojo” drop down menu right above this post! And if you see something you like, it’s probably for sale, so message me about it via the Dojo contact page!

I wanted to share the latest non-commission project I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. It started off with the series of ballpoint pen portraits I’ve been doing lately of various pop-culture icons and childhood heroes of mine such as…

These were all done entirely in ballpoint pen and were so much fun to do (stay tuned to my ballpoint gallery for more to come!), but as I was in Office Depot one day looking for new pen colors, I thought “I wonder what other office supplies I could use to do a portrait…?”

That made me think of all the great characters from TV and movies who work in offices, of course. If I did a portrait with office supplies, it would need to be of someone who’s synonymous with the office setting. There were so many great characters to choose from, as I am a huge fan of the original British version of “The Office”, as well as movies like “Office Space”…but I wanted to do something with a character who was more popular with mainstream American audiences (such a piece would probably be easier to find a buyer for, after all!), so the choice was fairly obvious…

But what medium should I use to do it in?

I had an old 3.5 ft square canvas that’s been sitting around waiting to be used for years that would be perfect. I thought about using paper clips, but I didn’t want to have to use any glue or adhesive. My next thought was using staples…which I tried. But the force required to staple them stretched the canvas too much (though I may try again in the future with a smaller or more sturdy surface). So I finally decided on thumb tacks. They require no glue and are fairly easy to remove and rearrange as needed.

I had my subject. I had my medium. It was time to start.

Once I sketched the initial proportions onto the canvas, it was simply a matter of sticking the tacks in place…

But it would take about 10,000 or so to cover the canvas. That’s a lot of repetitive thumb-tacking!

After about a week, however, I stepped back and looked at the final result. I was satisfied with this first attempt in the new medium of office supply thumb tacks. I uploaded the pics I’d taken along the way to an album on the Art of the Dojo Facebook page as well as Disciple Dojo’s tumblr page. And the response was great. Within the first day of posting it on tumblr, it got picked up and reblogged over 250 times, and the comments on Facebook were equally encouraging. But I wanted to share it here as well, for those who don’t use social media.

So here you go.  Dwight Schrute (from NBC’s hit show “The Office”, which just wrapped up its final season a few weeks ago) in 10,000 thumb tacks. I entitled it “Blatant Misuse of Company Property”…because that’s exactly what Dwight Schrute would deem it!

The finished piece is 3.5 ft square and weighs a few pounds (all those metal thumb tacks add up!). It would love to find a home, so if any fans of The Office out there want to get a piece of original art that celebrates their favorite Assistant-to-the-Regional-Manager, AND want to help support yours truly, for $600 this can grace your wall…or even better, your office wall (what better reminder to your bureaucratic underlings that they better not be slacking off than to constantly be under the watchful Schrute gaze??). 

Anyway, it was a fun project and I’m already thinking of what my next one will be…so head over to the Facebook page (if you’re a FB user) and give it a “like” so you can stay in the loop! Also, share this with your friends or on your favorite social media sites…word-of-mouth in the age of the internet is a huge help for unknown artists, and I’m very grateful for the support my work has received thus far!

And if you have any suggestions, or would like to commission something for yourself, be sure to drop me a line and let me know, or leave a comment below.

Blessings from the Dojo,

JM

Original post at http://jmsmith.org/blog/thayer-judgment/

Two years ago I was in India working with indigenous pastors. JM, Talbot Davis, and I were helping provide them with tools to understand and teach the Bible.

Whereas there are thousands upon thousands of books and tools available in English, there aren’t many at all for those whose native language is Oria (the official language of the Indian state of Orissa/Odisha). Ironically, though, as fortunate as I have been to take theological classes and have innumerable books available to learn from, there are some topics I will never understand as well as my brothers and sisters in Orissa.

When I read 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10, it is like nails on a chalkboard. I have a hard time reconciling how God can so radically pursue the restoration and redemption of all humanity – sending His own Son to die on a cross – yet also say that He will repay the trouble that the Thessalonian church is receiving by bringing judgment on the persecutors.

I suspect I am not alone in this feeling. However, as I reflect on the scripture and what I have learned from my brothers and sisters in Christ in India, I am beginning to see why these verses bother me: my view of the reality of evil and the character of God are slightly skewed.

The Kandhamal district of Orissa was the location of intense persecution where thousands of Christians were displaced, had their homes burned, and many were murdered.

Unfortunately, much of this persecution continues, and not just in Orissa. Every week Christians gather in the face of fear that they could be physically harmed for professing the name of Jesus. Christians in Orissa sometimes lose their jobs and are ostracized from their communities solely because they acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

After one of our teaching sessions, we sat down with 24 pastors who could speak English. We asked them how many of them had been persecuted for their faith in Jesus. Twelve of them, half, raised their hands. At random, Talbot asked one of the gentlemen who raised his hand how he was persecuted. He said that his father was killed and he was beaten because he was a Christian.

I’ve never experienced evil as unhindered as our brothers and sisters in Kandhamal. I’ve experienced evil in much more subtle ways throughout my life. In other words, when I try to intellectually and emotionally connect my understanding of who God is with His response to the situation of the church in Thessalonica (or indeed any evil), there is a disconnect. What they are going through is not a masked evil. It’s displayed in all its vileness. When I look at this situation through their eyes and not my own, I begin to see that God’s response to this, or any evil, is not disproportionate or unjust. In fact, He would not be acting according to His heart and character if He didn’t bring justice to evil in whatever way it is displayed, if He didn’t correct it and restore his creation to how it should be.

As N.T. Wright says in his For Everyone commentary on Thessalonians, we have a hard time thinking of God’s justice without the idea of improper retribution. This difficulty causes us to view God’s judgment in an inadequate light. He writes:

God is not a petty or arbitrary tyrant, who throws his political opponents into jail simply for being on the wrong side. God is the living and loving creator who must either judge the world or stand accused of injustice of letting wickedness triumph. People who have lived in societies where evil flourishes unchecked will tell you that it is a nightmare. To live in a world where that was the case for ever would be hell.[1]

Perhaps this topic will always cause me some unease. Perhaps it always should. I don’t want people to face the judgment of the Almighty God of this universe and stand condemned.

However, I also would find God unjust and capricious if He indefinitely allowed violence and injustice to continue for eternity without judging it.

He has given people the chance to submit to His authority and given them the ability to do so through the gift of His Holy Spirit. He never delights in the punishment of the wicked (Ezekiel 18), but He will bring justice to this world.

When we unmask evil and see it in its pure form, we begin to understand God’s reaction toward it and judgment of it.

Original post at http://jmsmith.org/blog/thayer-pilate/

Who was Pontius Pilate?

Why did he have power to crucify Jesus?

Why does Pilate say that Jesus is under Herod’s jurisdiction because He is a Galilean in Luke 23:6-7?

These are great questions, questions that come to the fore as we read through the Gospels and the Apostles’ Creed.

The difficulty we have in understanding these questions is understandable. We didn’t live 2000 years ago. The political climate is largely unknown to us without studying it. However, to the readers and hearers of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John this information was common knowledge. Therefore, the authors didn’t need to include much of this material in their letters. Fortunately for us, great scholars have given us the context of the time period when Jesus was crucified which helps explain who Pontius Pilate was.

When Jesus was born, Herod the Great was king of Judea and its surrounding territories. He was king from 37 BC – 4 BC. However, at his death in 4 BC, his sons fought over who was supposed to be the successor to the throne. They brought their argument to Rome, and Rome divided Herod the Great’s territory into three areas. Judea, where Jerusalem and the temple were was given to one of his sons named Archelaus. A second son called Herod Antipas was given a portion of territory – notably Galilee & Perea where Jesus & John the Baptist did much of their ministry. Finally, a third son, Phillip the Tetrarch, was given another portion of his father’s territory.

The first thing to notice is that there are two “Herods” who are referred to in the Gospels. The first, Herod the Great, is the father – the one that was alive during the birth of Jesus. The second, Herod Antipas, is one of Herod the Great’s three sons who received territory. This is the Herod that kills John the Baptist and whom Pilate sends Jesus to in Luke 23 (because Jesus was a Galilean, and therefore under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas).

However, Herod Antipas was not ruler over Jerusalem – where Jesus went during his last days. That was not part of his territory. This is where it gets even more confusing.

Archelaus Herod the Great’s son who was supposed to be ruler over Judea (and therefore Jerusalem) didn’t remain in power for very long. Because he couldn’t keep control of the people, in 6 AD Rome took his territory away  from him and installed their own Prefects to control the people. Pontius Pilate was the 5^th in this line of Prefects who were installed by Rome. His job was to keep the peace.

Pilate, however, had done several things during his reign as Prefect which caused revolt amongst the people. Since his job was to keep the peace, and his continued employment depended on it, it’s natural to assume that Pilate’s propensity would be to allow the angry mob who wanted Jesus crucified to have their way. After trying to pawn the situation off onto Herod Antipas failed, Pilate succumbs to the pressure of the crowd and has Jesus crucified.

Chris Thayer

Sermon Title: “Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, Was Crucified, Dead, and Buried” – http://www.gsumc.org/Media_Resources.ihtml?id=686621

Original post at http://jmsmith.org/blog/aldersgate/

On this day in 1738, a young, dejected, legalistic (and possibly OCD) clergyman from the Church of England who had recently returned from a failed stint in the new colony across the Atlantic known as “Georgia” went to a Bible study on Aldersgate street in London where someone read from the preface of a work by Martin Luther.

This clergyman felt, quite inexplicably, his “heart strangely warmed.”

And the world would never be the same as a result.

“Millions of many colors, climates, and tongues, inhabiting the four corners of the earth, have lived richer, happier, nobler, and more serviceable lives because, in 1738, fire from off the altars of God purged and illumined the soul of a downcast and disillusioned English priest.”

– J. Wesley Bready, author of England: Before and After Wesley (Hodder & Stoughton, 1939).

Yet most Christians today (even most Methodists) would be hard pressed if asked of the significance of “Aldersgate.” This is a shame (especially to us Methodists).

Because of the experience of the Holy Spirit and the inward transformation he wrought in the heart of this diminutive preacher and his brother during the course of that week 275 years ago, the Methodist movement would go from being a sect of well-intentioned legalists in England to a Spirit-empowered revival that spanned continents.

It would stretch from the coal mines to the halls of Parliament. It would transform society by fanning the flames of abolitionists like William Wilberforce (to whom John Wesley wrote his final letter from his deathbed, encouraging the younger politician to continue the fight against the slave trade with all his might).

It would empower women who had been called by God and gifted by the Holy Spirit to serve in capacities that had often been off limits to them through much of the Church’s history (though not all of it, and not in the pages of Scripture itself).

It would give birth to Christian movements and revivals that today encompass MILLIONS of followers of Jesus in denominations as varied as Anglican, United Methodist, Wesleyan and Pentecostal.

In short, the experience at Aldersgate would change the world.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege of taking a Summer course at Cambridge University through Asbury Seminary (as a UM student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary–which had FOOLISHLY and SHAMEFULLY been removed from our denomination’s list of accepted seminaries shortly before–I audited the course as an elective). The course was on early Methodist history with an eye toward renewal of our denomination today and was taught by Dr. Paul Chilcote.

We spent each day studying the development of early Methodism and how it may apply to current efforts at denominational renewal. We also got to visit many of the places where such events took place firsthand. It was a fantastic experience and it emphasized more than anything just how far we United Methodists have drifted our distinctive spiritual heritage.

I believe the solution to our decline as United Methodists will not be found in more sub-committees, inquiry boards, conference proposals or delegate wrangling (though some good might come from such things…after all, God can speak through a donkey if He needs a message conveyed; I’m sure he can also speak through a plenary address).

Rather, it will be found as the same Holy Spirit who strangely warmed the hearts of John and Charles 275 years ago on Aldersgate street once again warms the hearts of all who seek to follow in their footsteps, as they themselves followed in the footsteps of the Savior who first blazed the trail.

Happy Aldersgate day and blessings from the Dojo,

JM
The memorial on Aldersgate St…where hearts were “strangely warmed”…Charles’ organ (the man was a hymn-composing machine!)
Standing in John’s original pulpit… The memorial statue of John erected by the Church of England outside of St. Paul’s Cathedral At John’s house in his study (the chair on the right is one he invented to simulate reading while riding on horseback…which he did for hundreds of thousands of miles his entire life!) John’s tomb…And what course on early Methodist history and origins would be complete without a day of open-air preaching in downtown Cambridge? (My fellow classmates had never seen open-air preaching that wasn’t some guy screaming into a bullhorn or holding big “turn or burn” type signs…so I decided it was time they saw that it didn’t have to be that way!)

Original post at http://jmsmith.org/blog/piper-evans/

Hi Dojo readers,

Some of you may know about the tempest in a teapot generated by a Tweet sent out by John Piper in the wake of the Oklahoma tornado tragedy. If you’re  not aware of it, here’s a quick summary:

A massive tornado claims the lives of over 50 men, women and children in Oklahoma, many inside buildings that collapsed.

John Piper tweets the following:

Based on Piper’s responses to previous national tragedies, some prominent bloggers write scathing rebukes.

For example, one such blogger whom I often enjoy reading, Rachel Held Evans, chides Piper for having “abusive” theology that blames the victims, telling them such a disaster was “deserved”:

Piper’s god is like an abusive father, filled with unpredictable rage. His family must walk on eggshells, afraid of suddenly enraging him. Should he be provoked, this god will lash out with deadly, earthquakes, tsunamis, violence and war.  When his family cries out in anguish, he reminds them that they deserve no better. They are despicable, rotten to the core, so even in their pain they are doing “better than they deserve.” The fact that any have been spared merely proves his “love.”

This theology is, in a word, abusive, for it blames the victim for whatever calamity, abuse, or tragedy she suffers and says it is deserved.

According to this theology, the children who died in Oklahoma this week got what they “deserved.” The victims of the Boston bombing got what they “deserved.” The people caught in the Twin Towers on 9-11 got what the “deserved.” The victims of the Holocaust got what they “deserved.”

[read Rachel's full post here]

In the era of Christian social media blogging, such polarization is to be expected of course. In fact, it has almost become the norm unfortunately.

To be clear, John Piper DOES hold to a form of strong Calvinism that seems even to many others in Reformed traditions as hard to swallow at times. And he HAS made statements in the past about God’s goodness and glory being conveyed through such terrible suffering and natural disasters. So, like other controversial public Christian figures such as Mark Driscoll or Pat Robertson, Piper’s public comments will always be met with less-than-generous scrutiny by bloggers who have theological axes to grind with him in general.

That is understandable.

But what troubled me from nearly every response I read on various Facebook and Twitter feeds which were critical of the tweet was that they all assumed that since it came from Piper, his quoting of a single verse from Job MUST be a implying that God was judging the victims.

However, when I first read Piper’s tweet, my initial response was nothing like those of his critics. Now this may surprise some readers, since I have not hesitated to criticize some things Piper and others in the Neo-Calvinist wing of evangelicalism have said in the past. And as someone who does not share his underlying high Calvinist theological framework, I often find myself disagreeing with his presentation of the love and sovereignty of God. Thus, given Piper’s previous controversies, it may have been wiser on his part to communicate his point in a different way, but in this case I thought that the quote from Job was a poignant and utterly appropriate thing to post in light of such a tragedy!

You see, the verse in Job has nothing to do with God’s “judgment” or the “deserved” destruction of the wicked. It is simply the soul-shredding news Job receives which absolutely crushes him, leading into an entire book’s worth of questions, frustration, grief and anger. He can’t understand the meaning or purpose behind such needless and devastating tragedy…and that is one of the main themes of the entire book.

The news Job receives of his family’s demise is some of the worst news one can imagine receiving…yet it is EXACTLY the news that hundreds of family members in Oklahoma received that very day.

Thus, my initial thought was that this was a tweet from a pastor meant to validate and encourage people to respond in the same manner as Job all those centuries ago: Unapologetic and unrelenting questioning of God accompanied by a refusal to settle for anything less than God Himself showing up in their lives to do with His presence what could not be achieved by theological platitudes or philosophical argumentation.

This is how I read it.

But is this what Piper meant by tweeting it? Or was I, like Evans and other critics, reading my own assumptions into a single tweet?

I don’t know.

And that’s why I felt the need to point out on various posts and discussion threads that none of us did, and that unless Piper clarified his point, we should not rush to conclude the worst.

The Gospel calls us to love one another, and that–according to 1Corinthians 13:7 (which has nothing to do with weddings, contrary to popular usage!)–such love “always trusts, always hopes.”  Even when it’s a tweet by a famous preacher who we often find ourselves strongly disagreeing with!

The longing for unity that our Lord prayed for in his final hour before being dragged to the execution stake (John 17) MUST extend to our blogging.

It MUST include our responses to those in the Body who get on our nerves or exasperate us at times.

It MUST give them the benefit of the doubt until it is clear what they mean.

Then, and only then, if we feel the need to rebuke or reprove them for it, by all means let us do so! But let us do so with a spirit of charity and grace (neither of which preclude speaking candidly or even forcefully at times, by the way!).

As my friend and occasional Disciple Dojo contributor Olatunde Howard put it in his article series “Publicly criticizing other Christians online“:

When one of my children come to me to simply expose the sin of their brother or sister, to expose their erroneous view without attempting to lovingly reconcile the one in error to truth, THE VERY ONE TELLING HAS AN ERRONEOUS VIEW OF ME. I as a father take no pleasure in disciplining or publicly exposing my children UNLESS IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO BRING THEM TO TRUTH AFTER THEY HAVE KNOWINGLY, WILLINGLY, AND REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO LISTEN TO MY OTHER CHILDREN. It would seem to an outsider that my children merely want the honor of their father when they tell on each other, but I know that many times this is not so. Many times the one “exposing the error of a sister or brother” is only doing so because of some personal offense he or she experienced. What they really want is not my honor, but their vengeance. In other words, IT IS PERSONAL.

Again, the one telling with this attitude has an erroneous view of me, the father of the one they are telling on. They have a wrong view of me, and a wrong view of how I see their brother or sister. I’m not saying that my children never simpy want my honor. I am also not saying that a person cannot be genuinely zealous for God’s honor. I am saying that my children best honor me when they have the same attitude about their brother and sister that I have. It is the same for God’s children.

The one in error is your brother or sister, or one whom you should want to be your brother and sister, whether they sit with you in a pew, work next to you in a cubicle, or you’ve never met them in your life; even the ones who are famous and who impact millions of people on the internet. Their fame, web pages, blogs, postings, or online comments do not change who they are: ones for whom Jesus died to put them in a right relation with God, and give them right views of God.

If flesh and blood children in the same household can be so false and unloving towards each other, how much easier is it for us to negate a person we’ve never met, whose lives we do not know, whose full theology we may not even know? Yes, as of right now, they may have a hellishly wrong view of our Father. But we should make sure in exposing their wrong view, we do not join them, online or offline. All of my children, at one point or another, have had wrong views of me. We have all had wrong views of God, and it is highly likely that we still have them as we are reading these very words.

Treat those who are in error concerning God as God Himself is treating all of us on earth right now; those online and offline; those who are famous authors and those who are bloggers and commenters of bloggers. We will all give account to God of every word, written and spoken. Therefore, we should speak and write as the Spirit leads, speaking and writing the truth in love for edification, or conviction leading to salvation.

Thus, not knowing Piper’s exact intent in posting the Job quote, we who follow Jesus should seek clarity from Piper himself rather than assuming we know what he intended and rebuking him for it. This is what, as N.T. Wright once wrote (in response to a debate between him and John Piper, no less!) that we urgently need: “a Christian ethic of blogging”.

But the temptation to speak out against our theological opponents is strong, and any of us who’ve ever publicly rebuked a fellow Christian for something has likely crossed the line at some point in our zeal.

This is why it behooves us as a community, as a body, to be on guard against our own righteous indignation and to wait and weigh our words carefully and prayerfully before we hit the “publish” button. I say this to myself as much as anyone else.

Fortunately, as Derek Oullette pointed out in a beautifully written response to the situation (which I highly recommend reading!), Piper followed his initial tweet up with another one:

I’m glad he clarified some, and to this tweet I offer a hearty and sincere “Amen.”

Blessings from the Dojo,

JM