60 Minutes Interviews Christopher Hitchens

60 Minutes aired the interview of Christopher Hitchens on March 6th, 2011, describing him "outspoken and outrageous." Hitchens died December 2011, leaving behind a wife and three children. Rather than soaking in a sort of joy over his death as well as the death of perpetuating atheistic ideas, Christians would glean well from the debate tour from Pastor Doug Wilson and Hitchens in 2009, "Collision" (DVD, Rent). Wilson seems to soak in Christ's death and resurrection, and wilts in a tenderness of bold debate with Hitchens. Wilson hoped, prayed, and involved himself in the life of Hitchens in a way to defend the internal hope of Christ for the eternal repentance of a sinner like himself.

Hitchens has finished his last debate, which is the debate with death. Death always wins. No matter how many arguments, rebuttals, philosophes, or solutions - death always conquers. Hitchens debated other people's claims of truth to be revealed as right. If Hitchens is right, and death beat Hitchens, then how much more right is death?

If death is right, then Hitchens has been wrong - at least in his last debate. We are able to deny the divine of life, but never the debate of death. Therefore, if we continually lose the debate of death, could we also be losing the debate against the divine who gives life?

Teaching is Like Building Roads

Every day we examine roads asking ourselves, “Is this road going to get me to my destination and is it safe?” Coming upon a road we see differences with our eyes – smooth, bumpy, or destructive. We must see the same with teaching. Are we making the roads for our student’s minds to travel on smooth, bumpy, or destructive?

Imagine the three various road types. Smooth roads tend to be clean, steady foundations, clear lanes, helpful signs, proper materials to travel upon, adequate strength, and enjoyable. Bumpy roads may be gravel, sporadic holes, large cracks, less visibility, fewer signs, and a little more stressful. Destructive roads contain massive obstacles such as rocks, stumps, cracks, gaps, and incredibly frustrating and confusing.

Our teaching embodies one of the three roads and our students feel the difference, whether they articulate the feelings or not. Without a cohesive theme, ample signs, clear lanes, and a real destination, our students will be left destroyed or detoured. They will find their way to other roads, unless they are the types who enjoy the four-wheel drive roads. Even then, four-wheel cost more in the end, shorter rides, slower advance, and macho spirit of achievement.

Regardless of the road type, what is the destination? Where are the students driving? When will they get there? How? Why? With what? Teachers are to be humble, sweaty, smart architects of the educational road aimed (telos) at God the Father, Son Jesus and Holy Spirit. Paul directs Timothy to steward his own life by faith in God to teach people the truth of the gospel. More so, Paul instructs Timothy to be the utter representation of dirt – receptive, growing, and bearing fruit (Mark 4:1-10).

Timothy is to receive Jesus’ teachings as truth and by means of love. In doing so, Timothy is to teach and defend the truth to his world by means of love. Hence, “The aim (te√loß) of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith (1 Tim. 1:5).” Purified by, conscience guided by, and faith in someone else who is the way, truth, and life - Jesus the Christ (John 14:6).

Why? “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions (vv. 6-7).” Paul commands Timothy to make a clear road for his students to the final destination of God by the road quality of love.

Teaching is like building roads. The type of road is just as important as the character of the builder and the destination. Let’s build roads (an aim - te√loß) to Jesus the Christ, smoothing the drive through all subject categories (math, history, Bible, etc.), and so love people humbly as this God-man, Jesus the Christ (Phil. 2:5).

Just Dirty

Following a few circles of conversation about marriage life, sex talk in the church, expositional preaching, crusades to kill topical sermons, keeping the church holy from crude talk, arrogant attitudes and the like, has left a bitter taste in the mouth - like drinking bad cups of coffee likened to dirt in luke warm water. Sometimes for us readers and watchers not in the war zone of high profile vs. "I am not a high profile" pastor comes across like a five year old daughter screaming in the ear of the three year old sister to stop poking. Some readers believe they are watching an enormous, historically cataclysmic dispute finding a larger dot on the World History chapter timeline. Therefore, people must jump into the fight, panic how close they get to either side, and even start killing with words, blogs, articles, book rebuttals - all done because we desire a discerning attitude.

Please don't mind us, you know, those not in the battle of being editors, large church kingdom owners, and large charisma types - those of us trying to avoid association to either side of your war. We do not worship you or the one's you battle, rather, we worship Christ. Therefore, though you may witness people following either side and you recognize that as sheep being led to the slaughter, we still trust only the One who was led to the slaughter on our behalf. We are gleaning from both sides of the war, not with pajamas and a computer in a dark dungeon of our parent's basement. Rather, we are working hard to spread the gospel among people through small business, church planting, friendship circles, Bible study discussions, and learning which wars to avoid.

We have all noticed you all have the corner market on God's word, fearlessly pursuing Him with a religious ferver, brilliantly glowing like a pyromaniac's eyes on July 4th during the Civil War. Enjoy the bloodshed you spill and what flows out of you. We all know you mark it up to be another star to your  pearly clean authoritative suite of holiness. Stand tall please, because if we see you slouching, it may interrupt our meal along the curb - we need room to eat off the ground so you can stand tall on your soap box. When the reporters come, we understand the picture of you needs to be pure from us, so we will step aside as the picture is taken. But thank you for your words of encouragement to be holy which means to be set apart. We pulled application from your sermon on the gospel implications to set apart ourselves from those on holy soap boxes of life. Say cheesy!

We agree, church just needs to be a place where you do not talk or think about the gross things of life. All that needs to be outside the pulpit, church walls, and small groups. You know, the Catholic church kind of has the corner market on that, maybe we should learn from that discernment. Just come to church, in a little confessional box, between the pastor and parishioner, confess those naughty details, walk out in front of the church like a new cleaner person, head held high as you sit, and the priest returns to the soap box of an expositional reading of Matthew according to the Mass schedule. Now we can all walk out saying to each other, "Boy, he is so holy, I must follow him, the priest."

Rather, not us or him, but Jesus the Christ the one who crushed Satan's temporary soap box of Genesis 2 and took the dirt of Adam's and Eve's sin in the public, humble confession in the beautiful garden of the painful cross promise of Genesis 3:15.

You are right, we should not raise up the applications from scripture from a public forum such as a pulpit or Bible study. These arenas need to have an A+ rating from the city's health inspector, because if not, if they find a rat, they will just need to do anything to shut it down or kill that pesky rodent. This makes us guess that 99.9% of the world's 7 billion customers can only eat from one or two restaurants of God's word since there is apparent dirt on the tables of most of the other establishments.

Our families will be so pleased that we finally found the soap to clean our skin was under your feet the whole time. Now, how much for your gracious soap? We need cleansing from being just dirty.

The Abyss of Gospel Unclarity

Abyss' leave people scared of the deep unknowns. Greater the unresolved mystery of a dark hole results in the greater fear in coming close. Many times leaders, pastors, authors and churches present the gospel as an abyss. The gospel seems to be deep but unclear, dark, unhelpful, confusing, never ending, and scary. Naturally people grab onto anything seeming to be a functional savior from the terrifying fall. The adventurist spiritual people avoid grasping onto functional saviors such as the wall; rather, they become ignorantly confident in the direction down attempting to smile. Joy becomes an existential philosophy, claiming the study of God is inapplicable to life; therefore, one needs to create a different reality in their mind to escape the true reality of falling into an abyss someone has labeled either 'Christianity' or 'gospel.'

The surrounding people may hear horrific screams or psychotic versions of joyful laughter. People will either run from the screams or become just as crazy and leap into the abyss. Amazingly, God peers down to the earth and provides a savior from themselves. He not only sees, but he also understands, sympathizes, empathizes and realizes the gravity of the situation. Unlike the gods of history making fools of humanity - forcing people to please them through sacrifice, and more so pushing people into the abyss - God becomes foolish for humanity, sacrificing God the Son, finding pleasure in Jesus' life-death-resurrection-ascension and capturing people from the fall and fear of the abyss. How beautiful are the savior's hands that grab and not push.

A stumbling block for the existential, abyss-falling Christian is trusting in something else than their own fall into the abyss. Falling can become erroneous, confident spiritual life - comfortable, status quo, one direction, based on self decision, and even a prideful rejection of another way of life. To change from the fall to the rescue is a humbling experience, whereas one must affirm falling was a bad, dark and lonely decision.

God is clear, helpful, mysteriously knowable, real, loving and provides a practical solid foundation - not an abyss of Christianity. Why else would Paul say, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for the Jew first and also to the Gentile" (Romans 1:17). More so, Jesus' statement of "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me" (Luke 9:23). We will never be ashamed of the one who took our shame, and we will follow him when we have denied ourselves any priority in the decision to follow him. Fall into the savior's, real hands!

That's good news.

Functionally Therapeutic vs. Joyfully Living

In Christian counseling, one level of wisdom exists to stay functionally Christian. Another level exists to repent of staying functionally Christian. The first is therapeutic, the second is abandoning the therapy - that no matter the wisdom given in counseling to help stay functional does not make one Christian or stay Christian. The gospel delivers us from a therapeutic functional Christian life and deepens great joy in trusting Jesus to make us Christian (Romans 5:1-2).

Does one need to function in the world? Yes. Does one need to have a job, friends, health, or wealth to operate in God's world? Yes. But, the job, friends, health, and wealth are not the foundation to our belief. If they are ripped away, our foundation is destroyed and life is revealed to be pointless. Why? Because life's point was the functional aspects such as the job or house, which both are temporal and not eternal. There is no hope in functionality (habits, disciplines), unless the discipline is faith in Christ who is our hope.

However, we are able to see the functions in their true light as a work based on faith in Jesus. When the functions are ripped away, Jesus is not. The suffering happens in the functions but not the faith. The gospel of Jesus crushes the Christian therapy to deliver foolish wisdom for our joy in him (1 Corinthians 1:17-21).