All Roads Really do Lead to Heaven

    But who is waiting for us there? 

    If there is a heaven, there must be a heavenly being that created it. That means there is someone looking down on us from the top of the proverbial mountain we are climbing. We all have a divine encounter waiting for us, the moment after we die. When we have lived our lives to their entirety—when we finish climbing to the top of the mountain—we will be there, in the presence of our maker. Universalists have definitely got that part right, but it may not be the comforting truth they think it is.

   Who is this god that waits for us at the end of our life’s journey? Who is he whom we draw inevitably closer to with each climbing step, day by day? Will he love us and accept us merely for having made the climb, or is there some standard, some requirement of us before we can enter into that restful, joyous afterlife?

   If we accept that merely making the climb gets us into heaven, then that would qualify the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Bin Laden—men who went to their graves only after sending millions of people before them to theirs. Do we seriously want a god who would give these men everlasting paradise? I have a sense of justice that makes that thought untenable, and I doubt I am alone. There must be some standard by which we enter heaven. Justice would seem to require it.

   Is it the sincerity of our belief, then, that will get us to heaven?  If we make the climb firmly convinced and striving for the divine, even if our views of God differ dramatically from culture to culture, will it be enough to see us through? Unfortunately, this is a purely illogical view. There is no practical example of faith for faith’s sake alone being strong enough to overcome all obstacles. I can believe with all my heart that I can fly with the pair of cardboard wings I cut from a Wheaties box—but that faith is not strong enough to overcome gravity.

   We must also keep in mind that Hitler and Stalin believed firmly in their own manifestations of faith. No one was sincerer about his faith then Hitler when he made possible the murder of 6 million Jews. He was walking the talk of what he believed about religion and the Jewish people. The sincerity of our faith is just not a valid claim to heaven. Faith is only as good as what it is placed in.

   So what belief is strong enough to get us into heaven? Can we rely on our good works? If it is possible to get into heaven not on the basis of the sincerity of our faith but of our goodness, we would first need to describe what “good” is. Stalin thought his communism was an ultimate good, worth killing 20 million of his own citizens for. Hitler believed the Aryan Race was good. If “good” is left up to our own discretion, Stalin and Hitler still get to enter heaven. There must be some absolute code of right and wrong that transcends what us so often selfish, twisted humans can come up with. And since it transcends our own understanding, we must believe that the divine creator made it for us—and will hold us accountable to it. He is less like a fan cheering us up the mountain, and more like the referee holding us accountable to play by the rules. And since it is a foul and harms the other players in the game, our heavenly ref will throw us out of the game if we violate the rules. For the first time, the Hitlers, Stalins, and Bin Ladens of the world don’t make the cut. We're making progress!

   This view of God as our heavenly judge leaves us with only three religions to follow: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Islam and Judaism are works-based religions. They hold that you have what it takes to storm the gates of heaven and enter victoriously. Haven’t we already established, though, how shaky it is to believe that the human race can do good? What if not only are we incapable of establishing our own right and wrong, but we can’t even keep the right and wrong revealed to us by God? Have you ever lied, stolen, lusted, coveted, or taken God’s name in vain? Have you failed to keep the five pillars of Islam? Yep, you’re out.

   That’s the problem with works-based religions. We can never be sure we’ll make heaven, and what’s more, the evidence and an honest evaluation of our hearts seems to suggest we won’t make the cut. At this point, we’re in dire straits.

  Is there any hope in Christianity? Here’s the standard Jesus lays out for us to “make the cut”. He says in Mathew 5:48: “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

   So . . . if we’re relying on ourselves to get past the gates of heaven, we’re done for.

   But that is where Christianity makes a break from all other religions. It doesn’t depend on us, but on what Jesus has done for us! He knew we couldn’t live up to the perfect standard it takes to spend eternity with our heavenly Father, so he came and lived a perfect life for us! He offers this life in our place, to pay for our sins. Where all other world religions say do, Jesus says done.

   The Lord is compassionate and gracious; He does forgive transgressions. But yet at the same time, because He is a righteous judge, He can’t leave the guilty unpunished. (Exodus 34:6-7) That is why Jesus had to die for our sins, the just for the unjust, so that he could bear the penalty we deserved and we could go free! That is how God can be both a righteous judge and a compassionate forgiver.

   This the amazing good news that we as Christians get to share with the world! If you confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved! For those of us who already have confessed Jesus as Lord, we are called to be trail guides to others following behind us up the mountain! We need to stop worrying that we will be called “close-minded” or “intolerant” (Check out this post, btw, for a true definition of tolerance), and stand unashamedly for this good news! There’s still some people standing at the crossroads. They’re asking for the ancient paths, they’re asking where the good way is; they want to walk in it (Jeremiah 6:16).

   Can we help them find it?

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me”. John 14:6

Facts, facts, facts!

“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them.”

This is a quote taken in the middle of a humorous passage from Charles Dicken's Hard Times, where a school master is railing about the importance of facts, and facts alone, in the training of his little charges. While of course this school teacher probably missed the importance of human emotions like love, compassion, and fear, he got it right that when humans reason, the best course for them is to be well grounded in facts.

No matter what issue we are approaching, whether it be politics, healthcare, social issues, or theology, our viewpoints should be factual and well grounded, rather than vague, emotion-driven responses to life experiences. This flies in the face of Post-modernism, which says that ultimate truth is unknowable and that humans should base their perception of truth off their experiences. If you feel like a woman even though you are very clearly a man, your feelings determine your truth, Post-modernism would say.

We as Christians, however, know ultimate reality. There is absolute truth, and it is Jesus Christ. We don't need to cry like Pilate "what is truth"? Instead, grounded in our firm faith in Christ, we should hunt for truth and speak it boldly to one another:

"As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ."

Ephesians 4:14-15

Perhaps this is why gossip and slander are such a big deal to God. We are no longer like the old man who is caught in webs of deception and trickery; we are new creations with an understanding and hopefully a yearning desire for truth. This should be especially true of our theology, but it should leak out into every aspect of our lives. If we really do believe in absolute truth, then we can be absolutely certain that there is truth to be found all around us.

For instance, the topic of vaccines is a blossoming issue in our homeschool circles, and it is time we all did some serious study on the benefits/risks to vaccines, so that we can approach the issue with a factual, well-balanced viewpoint. I would encourage all of us to give a fair hearing to both sides of the debate, but to not accept what either side is saying at face value. Hold them both to the refining fire of truth. If the facts don't back up their claims, then reject their argument.

Don't even accept someone's experience as a way to justify their argument. For instance, in his viral post about the failure of courtship, Thomas Umstattd Jr.'s main argument against courtship is founded on the experiences of his grandparents and their "going steady". It worked for them, so why shouldn't it work for us? He doesn't point to the differences of our grandparent's culture compared to ours and how divorce was not often considered back then--not because the couples were so happily married after their dating experience, but because divorce was still considered a harmful evil. You will also notice in his post that he has a lot of broad statements about how "Each year I waited for courtship to start working and for my homeschool friends to start getting married. It never happened. Most of them are still single. Some have grown bitter and jaded. Then couples who did get married through courtship started getting divorced. I’m talking the kind of couples who first kissed at their wedding were filing for divorce."

His statements are frightening, but we have no basis to know whether they are really true or not. He gives us no specific examples of these divorces or these bitter and jaded singles. While I am sure he has some friends who have been divorced or are bitter and jaded, how do we know if they were really pursuing courtship or marriage in a God-honoring way? Could there have been more at play than just the "failed" system of courtship?

Again, someone's experiences doesn't make their argument automatically true.

This truth-driven approach to every viewpoint you form may put you at odds with people. Like Joel Belz, journalist for World Magazine, says, "Nothing spoils a good story like a whole lot of research." It's way easier to accept hearsay than to search out the truth behind it, especially if that hearsay aligns itself with our beliefs, but let's refuse to compromise and stand unashamedly in our pursuit of truth. We're Christians; it's our calling. I couldn't agree more with Belz's encouragement to us all in the subtitle to his article I read last night: "Let's be vigilant not to spread fake news as fact."

With so much fake or horridly-slanted news out there, let's hold each other accountable to diligently pursue and speak truth into every aspect of our lives, whether that truth agrees with our viewpoints or not. As Christ's representatives, truthfulness should be our witness. Let's live it out!

Family Force 5: A Force for Christ or Post-Modernism?

I recently had a chance to see the band Family Force 5 (FF5) in concert. They were one of eight bands at The Rock and Worship Roadshow, put on by the amazing Christian humanitarian organization Compassion International. I confess I had very little clue of who the band was going in to the concert. The only song I had ever heard from them was “Walk on Water”, which I liked almost enough to put on my I-pod. Almost. The lyrics lacked a direct reference to Jesus, but it was clearly implied that He was the one they were singing to. The chorus was all about “walking on the water” trusting Christ wouldn’t let us sink and was everything He says He is. What’s more, the music was catchy and upbeat, and really pulled me in. The only thing I had against the song, then, was that it just sounded kind of cliché.

Needless to say, armed with only this bite-sized sampling of their music, I was curious to hear more from FF5. When they were announced on stage, I clapped cordially enough and even stood up, feeling the anticipation that buzzed through the crowd. Then, in one ear-grating explosion of music, I got my chance to get to know FF5 up close and personally.

Things started going downhill fast.

First, the music was loud—as in blow-you-back-a-few-feet, bass-reverberating-in-your-chest kind of loud. Secondly, it was quite foreign and funky music, somewhere close to chaotic. You could barely hear a word they were singing, and neither could you find the lyrics floating around on one of the giant screens above, behind, or to the sides of the band to clue you in. You were left with a vague sense that the band was, indeed, trying to communicate something to you by the way they sang passionately into their mics.

Given you couldn’t hear a word they were saying, you were left with watching their dance moves. They could dance, that was for sure! I almost imagined that Michael Jackson had been reincarnated. There was no moon walking going on, but plenty of similar, jaw-dropping foot work. Even while watching them dance around the stage, though, my fascination turned to unease. Their dancing at times could have been easily interpreted as sensual. Their skin-tight jeans and constant flipping of their long hair didn’t help with that interpretation.

Then, to top things off, FF5 couldn’t seem to get enough of themselves. The main singer and another band member each took a turn at grabbing a camera from the production crew filming the event and turning it to focus exclusively on them, close up. The lens must have been literally inches from their faces as they yelled into the mic they held in their other hand.  The main singer also laid down on the stage at one point, holding out his feet towards the audience to touch—as if his feet had earned the right to be idolized because of their incredible dancing.

Finding myself disgusted by the band, no matter how cool their dancing was, I turned my attention to the crowd. Some looked equally disgusted, sitting in their seats with arms crossed.  Others looked confused, caught somewhere between trying to dance along with the music and searching around for lyrics to learn what in the world the song was about. Finally, there were a lot of fans going out of their minds dancing along to the music—quite comically, some of them. I envied them and wished I didn’t have these rising qualms inside me so I could join in their dancing. But my qualms remained even after Family Force Five disappeared off the stage, and they eventually organized themselves into a burning question.

What in the world was Christian about FF5’s performance?

I took that question home with me, and decided to do a little investigating on it. My first place to start was Googling Family Force 5 with the only (literally, only) line  that I was able to pick out from their perfomance: “Crank it like a chainsaw”. The search results gave me the words to FF5’s song, “Chainsaw”*:

Yeah, they like the way I do this
When I crank it like a chainsaw
Yeah, they like the way I do this
When I crank it like a chainsaw

Full throttle heavy metal
Set the bar next level
Wasteland gettin' all janky
Soul Glow, chainsaw

Lay in the cut with them elbows back
Engine smokin' just like this track
Shirt be soakin' from all this sweat
Catch my breath, chainsaw

Now hear me roar
I'm an apex predator
From the sycamores, let's get Skeletor
Chainsaw, chainsaw

Watch and learn, watch and learn
Get that thang crankin', yeah, slash slash burn

Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it, crank it, crank it back
Crank it, crank it, back back

Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it, crank it, crank it back back
Crank it, crank it, crank it back back

Crank it like a chain, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it like a chain, crank it like a
Crank it like a chain, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it like a chainsaw, chainsaw

Fresh flannel shirt, country bumpkin
Lumberjack your moves, a.k.a. Paul Bunyan
Run yun yun-yun-yun yun-yun-yun yun-yun
I make it run I make it run I make it run run
Chainsaw

Drop it, drop it, drop it, down low
Chop it, chop chop it, chop, here we, here we go
Beats so sharp that they're callin' me Jaws
I'm your boss, baby, crank it like a chainsaw

Chainsaw

Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it, crank it, crank it back
Crank it, crank it, back back

Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it, crank it, crank it back back
Crank it, crank it, crank it back back

Chained out (Chained out), head hunter (Head hunter)
Cyberpunk, yeah, I'm a blade runner (Blade runner)
Turned up (Turned up), automatic (Automatic)
Full tank, you ain't gotta think about it
Chainsaw

Chainsaw
Yank it, crank it, swank it,
And you put it inside whatever you ride
Turn it all the way up and hear you crank it
Chopped the block no ginsu
Wilderness but I'm chivalrous

From Texas but no massacre
Unless it's a beat we killing it
Chopping down trees, can't you see
Watch some things fall
Bows to my knees I mean
I crank it like a chainsaw
Do it to these trees
I'll see these things y'all
Burn it up now burn it down
Now let me see you chainsaw

Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it, crank it, crank it back
Crank it, crank it, back back

Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Bows to the knees, yeah, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it, crank it, crank it back back
Crank it, crank it, crank it back back

Crank it like a chain, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it like a chain, crank it like a
Crank it like a chain, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it like a chainsaw, chainsaw

Crank it like a chain, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it like a chain, crank it like a
Crank it like a chain, crank it like a chainsaw
Crank it like a chainsaw, chainsaw

My first thought about the song when I read these lyrics was, “Nihilistic”. I found their claim at being an “apex predator” and a “head hunter” that "slash slash burns” things to outweigh their promise that they were “from the wilderness but I’m chivalrous, Texas but no massacre”. My second thought was “post-modernistic”. There’s no way this disjointed, schizophrenic song could be anything but a product of that worldview. But how could that be? Wasn’t this, after all, a Christian band? Weren’t they the same Christian band that made that pretty good song I had heard on the Christian radio station Air1 about trusting Christ?

I decided to see what FF5 said about themselves on their website. On their “About” page**, I heard a lot about their “hip-hop hues, guitar bludgeoning, smoov R&B melodies, eye-winking pop-culture references, stentorian grace, personal reflections and infectious optimism”, but not a single word about their faith. Not a single reference to Jesus, let alone God. The closest I got to anything Christian was this quote about two-thirds of the way down their long “About” page:

“On the joyous, celebratory ‘Let It Be Love,’ Jacob [FF5’s lead singer] delivers a couplet that is all-encompassing: ‘It’s not about the stand you take/but the grace we give/It’s not about the name we make/but the life we live.’ It’s a sentiment that transcends attitudes, belief systems and the spiritually empty things humanity puts entirely too much emphasis upon.”

Ah ha, that’s all good, just as long as you don’t put Christianity under that title of “spiritually empty things”. You see, lacking is a strong cry to reject the things of the world and turn to the love and grace of Christ! In fact, here is the worldview of FF5, taken again straight from their page about themselves:

“[FF5] have come to party positive with big beats and rapidimente rapping while offering moments of sincere inspiration. Producers Riley Friesen and Seth Mosley ably captured the band’s forward-in-all-directions worldview for maximum joy and reverence.”

I am not quite sure what is meant by “forward in all directions worldview”, but it would not seem to be consistent with Jesus Christ, who is “The way, the truth, and the light, no one comes to the Father but through me”. (John 14:6) Still, though, perhaps none of the actual band members had written all that about themselves. I wanted to see a direct interview where they were asked about their faith face to face.  I found such an interview on YouTube***. The reporter asked them directly what role their faith played in their music. Their answer, after a moment of awkward silence, was “A big one,” followed by nervous laughter and more awkwardness.

One of the band members (the lead singer, looked like) then elaborated:

“You write songs with experience and what you’re going through. And I think, um, this last record we, we were, uh, really writing out of that. And so some of our songs like “Let it be Love” and “Walk on Water” are our more faith driven songs. And you know, they’re what we were feeling at the time. Then you also have, like, stuff that’s like berserk and’s like ‘ah we’re just going to go crazy and have a good time.’ So . . .”

Pay careful attention to his words about “writing songs with experience” and “that’s what we were feeling at the time”. These are both cut and dried tenants of Post-Modernism, the belief that your own experiences and feelings define truth for you—because ultimate truth is unknowable. Your identity isn’t fixed in Post-modernism. In fact, it jumps around from identity to identity as you continually find your truth from each different revelation you have given to you by your experiences. Think of pop singers who have switched from identity to identity like Miley Cyrus (Can you believe she used to be the innocent Hannah Montana?), Justin Bieber, and Brittany Spears. And now, apparently, FF5 as they switch from their Christian Identity to their pop, secular hip-hop identity, or maybe even to their Nihilistic identity in “Chainsaw”.

Another telling sign of Post-Modernism is its avoidance of any absolute truth. Since truth is relative to your experiences, it would be wrong to try and force any overarching truth on anyone. As a result, you have to be intentionally vague and non-intrusive in whatever truth you personally hold to. So, for instance, if you are a Post-modern artist, your works are highly random and impressionistic. You randomly fling paint on your canvas, because it is not important (and even detrimental) that you paint a clear picture of something real, but that your audience is allowed to interpret their own truth as a result of gazing upon your random art.

If you are a post-modern music band, your work will also be highly disjointed and vague. It won’t speak to absolute truth, but will allow you to form your own conclusions. That sounds remarkably like FF5’s “Chainsaw”, and the majority of their songs. If we really agree with Christ that you will know people by their fruit (Mathew 7:20), then we need to look with careful discernment at the rotten fruit hanging from FF5’s spiritual tree and reject them as being a Christian band. They are a Post-modern band who may personally hold to faith experiences, but don’t think Christ is an absolute truth worth devoting all their music to. It is sad that a sincerely Christian organization like Compassion International allowed this band to tour with Christian greats like Steven Curtis Chapman, Francesca Battistelli,  Passion, and Rend Collective—as if FF5 was just as valid as these artists who actually sang of absolute truth,  who actually worshiped absolute truth.

This is not about criticizing FF5 because I have a different taste for music than they do. This is about the discernment we as Christians need to have. It is our duty to guard each other from false prophets, and that’s what I am doing here. Please, be wary of Family Force 5, and approach listening to them with a healthy dose of salt. Or, even better, steer clear from listening to them at all, until they are willing to truly let Christ be the absolute truth worth writing and living their music for.

¹⁵ “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? ¹⁷ So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Mathew 7:15-20

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* http://www.metrolyrics.com/chainsaw-lyrics-family-force-5.html

**http://familyforce5.com/about/

*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQbYDjg0Bts