Total Depravity VS Utter Depravity

The recent horrifying news of the torture and slaughter of two American soldiers by Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq proves once again that the most reprehensible evil is still alive on planet earth.  For the Christian believer this is no surpise since many theologians from ancient times have recognized the doctrine of man's 'total depravity'.  The term means that the corruption from man's space-time Fall into sin has affected every aspect of his being; such that no person of Adam's race can attain salvation from God by deeds or efforts.  This is not to say man can do no good works or that he has no conscience or that he will always sin to the greatest extent.  But, it does mean every part of a man is marred by sin; mind, will, emotions, and physical nature.

To use the term 'utter depravity' is to make a stronger statement.  One who is 'utterly depraved' has descended deep into the cesspool of debauchery and been given over (and given himself over)to evil.  We might best illustrate this distinction by way of comparison.

'Total depravity' is embodied in the atheistic professor who at the same time promotes godless Darwinian evolution and still loves his family and desires peace on earth.  'Utter depravity' is encapsulated in a monster like Adolph Hitler who uses belief in evolution to justify his concepts of a master race and his maniacal genocide against 6 million Jewish inferiors.

'Total depravity' resides in the social drinking, hard-working business leader who uses cutthroat dishonest tactics against his competitors while still attending to church and donating large sums of money to charity.  'Utter depravity' possesses a Stalin who places the workers in the Soviet Union under the boot of the State as fuel for the economic engine of Marxism and murders 10 million people who get in his way.

'Total depravity' is ensconced in a man like Jimmy Carter who lusts in his heart after a woman who is not his wife and feels convicted of his sin.  'Utter depravity' produces a serial killer like Ted Bundy who brutally rapes and murders multitudes of women to satisfy his own twisted and perverse fantasies.

'Total depravity' is represented by American soldiers placing underwear on the faces of Iragi prisoners and taking pictures of those so humiliated.  'Utter depravity' exudes from demonized Al-Qaeda terrorists who behead, gouge out the eyes of, cut off body parts from and force them in the mouth's of captured American soldiers.

'Total depravity' afflicts the entire human race.  'Utter depravity' shows the depths to which our race's common affliction of 'total depravity' can take us apart from the salvation of God through Jesus Christ!  Thanks be to God there is deliverance through God's Son from 'total depravity' and yes even 'utter depravity' by His infinite grace!!  May it be so!

David D. Pettus
Assoc. Prof of Old Testament

 

Posted at 3:51 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Israel: The Apple (Pupil) of God's Eye?

Recently, I sat captivated as the new Prime Minister of Israel addressed the Knesset (Israel's national legislature) on CSPAN in Hebrew followed by a halting English translation.  As I listened to Ehud Ohlmert drone on about the state of Israel vis a vis the Palestinian question and terrorism etc., I was reminded of the Scriptures that speak of Israel as 'the apple of God's eye' (Deut. 32:10 KJV).  While the term 'ishon may be best translated 'pupil' versus 'apple', it still represents the nation of Israel as the focus of His covenant care and promise (the reflection in His eye).

While I watched the address, I realized I was witnessing a marvelous testimony to the fact that Israel was still the shining apple of God's eye and a confirmatory witness to His continued activity in the world today.  What other country has been reborn after nearly 2,000 years of national dissolution, exile, and persecution?  Further, what ancient nation has arisen from the ashes of history with their ancient tongue and religion restored?

None of the empires of antiquity that vied for control of the land bridge and trade routes through Israel exist today!  Egypt, the land of the Pharoahs continues today as an Islamic Arabic speaking state. Its ancient gods and language are now the peculiar province of Egyptologists and curious tourists.  Likewise the empires of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia in modern day Iraq and Iran have long since buried their gods and ancient languages in the silent mounds of entombed cities.

In the light of Israel's rise from the ashheap of nations who are no more, how does modern man miss this unimpeachable evidence that God is still at work in the world today; raising up and throwing down nations according to His sovereign will?  I am at a loss to explain such skepticism, but mindful of the prophet's frustration against ancient Israel herself for failing to heed God's warnings of judgment.  Indeed, Isaiah cries out about his own people 'hearing but not understanding and seeing but not perceiving' (Isa. 6:9).  And the apostle Paul relates the blinding power of the god of this age on people who have rejected Christ's gospel of forgiveness (2 Cor. 4:3-4).

Unto those of us being saved, however, the miraculous reality and centrality of the modern day state of Israel on the international stage testifies to a God who is alive and well on planet Earth and still engaged in fulfilling His covenant promises to His chosen people Israel--the apple (reflection) of His eye--and I might add to His Church as well!! Posted at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Judas' Betrayal in the Earliest Church

There is at least one thing all can agree on about the 2nd century gnostic Gospel of Judas.  It definitely portrays Judas as a good man, a-no-'the' truly spiritual apostle.  The positive picture painted of Judas as 'the obedient disciple who only followed Jesus' instructions when he turned him over to the priests', radically differs from the tale that was told by the primitive Jerusalem church.  

According to the book of Acts (chapter 1), between Jesus' Ascension (40 days after his resurrection) and the Day of Pentecost (some 10 days later), a striking and important event occurred in the embryonic Jerusalem church.  The remaining eleven disciples met, prayed and cast lots in order to secure a divinely approved successor for their traiterous brother, the apostle Judas.  

Although Luke-Acts was not written until the mid 60's A.D. (still 100 years before the Gospel of Judas), we find much in this tradition (story) recounted by Dr. Luke in chapter 1 pointing to a provenance (origin) within the environs of Jerusalem in the early 30's.  First, the obvious pragmatic necessity of replacing Judas with another Jesus follower with apostolic credentials to complete the 12 attests to the historical antiquity of the story and its rationale.  Further, the Aramaic reference to the field the priests purchased with Judas's blood money as Akel Dama or 'Field of Blood' inscribes a designation of Judas' field by the early first century Jerusalem community, using the spoken tongue of its citizenry.  Thus, in order to record the Aramaic name, Luke must translate the earlier term for the benefit of his letter's later Greek-speaking recipents.

This remarkable text gives us unique insight into how Judas was seen by the other apostles at a very early date (not more than a century later per the Gospel of Judas) but less than two months after he gave Jesus over into the hands of the Jewish Sanhedrin for his ultimate crucifixion.  How do these early apostles and followers of Jesus interpret the actions of Judas?  Do they see him as the enlightened, obedient follower of Jesus found in the Gospel of Judas. Not even close!  They remember him alright, probably with deep emotion as the one "who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus" (v. 16).  These early Christ followers saw the betrayer Judas as the man who entrapped their Lord and whose tragic end was already predicted in Davidic Messianic prophecies latent in the book of Psalms (vv. 16-20).  To the early apostles, Judas' work was devilish, but not unforeseen by the Lord.  For them, he becomes a tragic warning to those who would claim to be converts while actually practicing evil (like Ananias and Sapphira ch. 5 or Simon the Sorcerer in ch. 8).

Indeed, during this Easter season he remains a tragic warning for us all as well.

Hallelujah!  He is Risen!  He is Risen, indeed!!

Posted at 2:52 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

More Nails for the Da Vinci Code Coffin

The spate of recent works purporting to have discovered a massive effort by later Catholic Christianity to suppress other (equally valid) models of earliest Christianity continues unabated. From the popular novel and soon to be movie, The Da Vinci Code to mass marketed books like NT scholar Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, the foundations of orthodox Christianity are being incessantly pummeled. In the face of the onslaught by these revisionists, a number of orthodox scholars have produced cogent and decisive defenses against these new ‘conspiracy theorists.’ (see recently for example Liberty professors Dr. Ed Hindson or Dan Mitchell's critiques of the Da Vinci Code’s premises, and NT scholar Ben Witherington’s blog Misanalyzing Jesus which dismantles Ehrman-who it should be mentioned rejects the scholarship behind The Da Vinci Code). I believe these erudite men and many others have already made the coffin for the revisionists, placed them in it, and tightly nailed them inside. For my part, I simply hope to add a few more nails.

A major premise of the revisionists asserts the rewriting of the New Testament by three centuries after Christ for apologetic reasons--to support the male-dominated beliefs and hierarchy of the Catholic Church. No doubt proof of their claim would be a traumatic if not fatal blow inflicted on the defenders of orthodox Christianity. But can this view that the NT text has suffered intentional dramatic alteration be sustained? Methinks not and I offer two pieces of evidence from the NT itself indicating that the text could not have been rewritten in the manner the revisionists prescribe.

In his recent epic film The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson brought to the world’s attention that the language Jesus spoke during his brief life on earth was not Hebrew or even Greek, but the tongue of Aramaic. In recreating Christ’s Passion, Gibson wanted to strive for linguistic accuracy, so he had Jesus speak in Aramaic and let the movie audience read the words of Christ using English subtitles. THE POINT IS JESUS SPOKE IN ARAMAIC IN THE EARLY FIRST CENTURY A.D. AND SO DID HIS FIRST JEWISH FOLLOWERS!!

But, strangely when you turn to the writings of the New Testament, you find them written in Greek; the common literary language of much of the known world from the time of Alexander the Great's conquests, and perfectly appropriate for transmitting the inspired Word of the nascent Christian faith to its Greek speaking and reading converts. Why is that important? Because the revisionists claim that the NT text was rewritten to promote an agenda hundreds of years later! If that is so, then why do we still find places where the original spoken Aramaic is recorded in the Greek text?

Both Matthew and Mark record the oft-called ‘Cry of Dereliction’ where Jesus cries out from the Cross “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”, but they do so in Aramaic ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!’ and not in Greek only transliterating the Aramaic characters (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Indeed the inspired evangelists have to translate these passion-filled words of Christ for their Greek speaking Christian readers who wouldn’t understand Jesus’ spoken tongue. Thus, they have intenionally preserved the very words of Christ on the Cross as originally uttered.

If the NT text is radically altered centuries later (either by sloppy scribes-Ehrman or church council-Da Vinci) as the revisionists say, why would these Aramaic words still exist in the text? Would they not have been rewritten in Greek or even Latin? It seems to me much more reasonable that this preserved Aramaic saying represents clear evidence of Christ’s Passion (death on the Cross) including the Lord’s own interpretation of the horrific event as remembered by apostolic witnesses. With deep reverence, these men preferred to record these holy words of Christ, his ipsissima verba, if you will, as they were originally spoken rather than translate them into Greek; perhaps because they recounted their Lord's self-identification as the Davidic Messiah portrayed in the Psalm from which Jesus quoted.

Consider also, the enigmatic switch from Greek to Aramaic by the beloved apostle Paul who virtually closes one of his Greek epistles (1 Corinthians A.D. 56-57) with the Aramaic saying, Maranatha. The words literally mean “O Lord come!” or possibly “Our Lord has come!”, depending on how one divides the Aramaic letters.  Whichever translation is chosen, the phrase clearly confesses either the first or second coming of Christ designating him by the term Lord--the Aramaic word used for the Jewish God by the prophet Daniel (5:23)--which Paul equates with the Greek word kurios (meaning Lord) and applies to Christ in this benedictory passage (1 Cor. 16:22-24). Paul here may preserve an Aramaic confession of faith (or prayer) pronounced by the members of the infant Jewish Church worshipping their risen Lord in their native tongue, which like the Aramaic Jesus saying from the Cross has to be translated for the benefit of his Greek speaking recipients in the Corinthian church. Again, how could this term be the product of revisionists centuries later? Is it not more plausible that Paul, an Aramaic speaking Palestinian Jew (Acts 22:3) inscribes here one of his own confessions of faith which was also confessed by the earliest Jerusalem(?) church and translates it for the sake of his Gentile Greek speaking brethren--the letter's recipients?

From these early primitive Aramaic confessions we can already construct portions of an orthodox Christology. His Aramaic ‘Cry of Dereliction’ preserves his original cry of agony as he suffered a terrible death on a Cross and while dying revealed himself as the promised OT Davidic Messiah, the Savior of both Jew and Gentile. Paul’s benedictory statement likewise shows that the very earliest believers called Him Lord-the Aramaic term for the Jewish God- and confessed His soon return from the earliest days of the Jewish Aramaic speaking church. 

There is not a hint in these early to mid 1st century A.D. texts of Jesus the family man; married with children.  Rather, these texts speak of a Jesus who identified himself as the Davidic Messiah who after he suffers on the Cross returns and establishes God's everlasting kingdom for he is God incarnate.  At the end of the day, orthodoxy is after all just as the ‘unrevised’ Scriptures have always said and the latest form of revisionist Christianity remains dead in the coffin with I hope two more nails in its lid.

David D. Pettus, Ph.D.
Assoc. Prof. OT
Liberty Theological Seminary/DLP

 

 

 

Posted at 2:40 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Academic freedom takes a hit at Liberty?

Thus reads the headline on the editorial page of Sunday's always supportive (of Liberty that is) hometown newsorgan, The News & Advance (3/19/06).  The editor's charge refers to the recent refusal of Liberty officials to allow the gay rights group 'Soulforce' on Liberty's campus to promote their stated agenda of ending religious bias against gays and other non heterosexual practitioners.  The group was on a nationwide bus tour dubbed 'Equality Ride' that deliberately targeted 19 religious schools and military academies that ban the enrollment of nonheterosexual students presumably on religious grounds.

The editor bemoans the fact that these gay rights activists whose only 'real crime' was a desire to discuss homosexuality and religion were arrested and handcuffed as they attempted to come on the Liberty campus.  Actually, to correct the esteemed editor, their only 'real offense' was trespassing on someone else's property without permission.  They were not arrested for exercising free speech, only for the location in which it was exercised.  Indeed, anyone who visits the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention will routinely encounter 'Soulforce' aficianados passing out their literature in public access areas outside of the convention centers to any and all who will take it.  This is their right as Americans and I gladly affirm their right, just as I relish the freedom to share my own Christian religious beliefs with others.  But, that right to free speech doesn't extend into the convention center.  They do not have a constitutional right to disrupt a private meeting and when they do so they have been and should be arrested for it!

As an academic, who has observed and even experienced the lack of openness to conservative theology and politics from left leaning institutions of higher learning, charging Liberty with a lack of academic freedom is both 'tiresome' and 'laughable'.  Students at Liberty are exposed to a variety of viewpoints within the academic disciplines, yet these viewpoints are also analyzed from the standpoint of a Christian worldview.  Yes!  Liberty is a Christian University and proud to be so!  The students are not forced to accept the conclusions of such Christian analysis, but they frame the learning experience at Liberty and at least here they are exposed to it.

To purloin the editor's words, the only 'real crime' that Liberty is guilty of is that the type of academic freedom that he espouses doesn't exist at Liberty.  I suspect the academic freedom the editor envisions has already produced the radical excesses of professors who can't be fired even if they equate a sitting president of the United States with an Adolph Hitler--a position that is neither historically defensible nor morally rational.  I am grateful that the accrediting associations still recognize the academic validity and stimulating diversity that religious colleges bring to the Academy.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Editor.  How about that Liberty University debate team!  Pretty good for students who have received mindless indoctrination are they not?

Dave Pettus

Posted at 2:44 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Universists: A Religion of Know Nothings?

No!  This is not as the headline suggests a religion born out of a book titled Religion for Dummies, it is a faith based on 'uncertainty' concerning matters of religion.  Universists haven't a clue about the numinous, but their religious practice says let's talk about it anyway.  Finally, at long last some 'agnostics' have founded a church!  What is their creed (i.e., their essential articles of religious belief)?  Apparently only this, "I confess that I know that I know nothing!"  While this is brief and to the point, one wonders how the Universist can confess that he/she is certain that he/she is uncertain?  Does the Universist know this uncertainty with absolute certainty?

Leaving philosophical problems aside, what could be the driving force behind such a novel view of matters of the spirit?  The soon to be physician and founder Frank Vox opines, "Universism seeks to solve a problem that has riddled mankind throughout history: the endless string of people who claim that they know the truth and the way."  It is the illusion of religious certitude that divides humanity into warring camps and Vox has the 'prescription'.  The budding young medicine man has the perfect pill for humanity, the ailing patient, namely a strong dose of uncertainty regarding matters of faith and religion.  

While quite ready to admit the sinful failings of followers of revealed religion (Osama bin Laden immediately comes to mind), I for one can't see how replacing the certitude of belief with 'religious agnosticism' can unite humanity?  It seems to me that agnosticism about matters of religion must ultimately extend to agnosticism about the basis for societal morals and ethics as well.  How would this possibly "unite the world" as Universists' hope?  It can only lead to confusion.

The Universist seeks a religion without "blind faith in prophets or their writings."  As a professor, an academic who studies (and believes in) one particular set of prophets and their writings found in the Bible, I state for the record that I don't exercise only blind irrational faith.  These prophets have provided cogent and even impressive evidence for my beliefs about God through the medium of historically fulfilled prophecy and the founder's (Christ's) historical resurrection from the dead.

Instead of an online Sunday School class of rambling chats about the meaning of life, let me suggest a more excellent way for the universist.  Rather than embracing religious uncertainty, test the spirits of the prophetic religions.  Examine them carefully and see if you can find one that is willing to predict 150 year before the fact as Isaiah did, the coming of Cyrus the Persian and then await historical verification.

"Who saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid." (Isa. 44:28)

In response to Vox's Universism, I'll take Christianity as a 'rational religion' of 'Know Somethings' any day and I ask the Universist to join me.

Dave Pettus

A story in the Religion Section of the Lynchburg, VA News & Advocate, March 4, 2006 is the basis for this blog.

Posted at 2:18 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

St.Valentine-phooey! Cupid is in my Brain!

With Apologies to St. Valentine:

While munching my pita sandwich, I read an article that will forever change my view of love and St. Valentine's Day.  All my life, I have been under the delusion that the acts of love I did and received from beloved others on that sacred saint's day of love were acts of volition-the tender results of love expressed or responded to.  How could I have been so deceived?  But, today I have been enlightened.  I have experienced another Aufklarung.  I now know the awful truth and that truth has set me free!!

Cupid is real!  He does shoot arrows that command those so wounded to fall deeply under the spell of love but he does it in my brain!!  The arrows that force me to go buy chocolates or roses for my wife are brain secretions, just neurotransmitters--the same chemicals that cause addictions!!  So says Dr. Jennifer Berman commenting on new research on brain chemistry and love on MSNBC's Scarborough Country.

And, ideally, we would be able to control our brains, but unfortunately, what all the research and what you are alluding to is, our brains control us, and there are real neurobiological reasons for our behavior.

Just think of how liberating this will be for me!!  Next year, if I fail to remember to celebrate St. Valentine's, I can now chalk it up to 'love neurotransmitter malfunction'.  What a relief.  And think of the broader societal implications of such reductionism.  The stalker can claim his 'love neurotransmitters are in overdrive' and just need adjustment.  The spouse who abandons home and family can claim the same.  No need for legal measures there!

Wow!  The theological implications are staggering as well!  Think of the new hermeneutical twist on John 13:35.  'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have 'biochemical neurotransmitters of love' one to another.  On second thought, the 'love neurotransmitters' must fire on their own.  Oh well.  My 'love neurotransmitters' are commanding me to go and get the chocolate my wife's 'love neurotransmitters' commanded her to give me.  I guess I'll have to go now.

Dave Pettus

P.S. For the full story on why love commands you go to  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11368992/

Posted at 1:46 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink