Reflecting the Beauty of God through Art
C. S. Lewis once said, “[An] author should never conceive of himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom that did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom.”
Jerram Barrs has also said, “Our work in any field of the arts will be imitative. We will be thinking God’s thoughts after Him — painting with His colors; speaking with His gift of language; exploring and expressing His sounds and harmonies; working with His creation in all its glory, diversity, and in-built inventiveness. In addition, we will find ourselves longing to make known the beauty of life as it once was in Paradise, the tragedy of its present marring, and the hope of our final redemption. All great art will contain this element of being an echo of Eden: Eden in its original glory, Eden that is lost to us, and Eden restored.”
There was a time within Western culture that the vast majority of the visual arts were done by those within the church. Even those that did not claim to be Christian were often commissioned by the church and used overtly religious content. With the Reformation came a desire to live holy lives and with this renewed fear of idolatry came a renewed fear of the visual arts. Also, the visual arts were a way of teaching Scripture to those who could not read. A major component of Protestantism was teaching people to read the Bible for themselves. As such, Protestantism especially has removed a major form of emotional expression of the Gospel in favor of pragmatism and sometimes legalism.
From the standpoint of convenience, art may very well not appear to be a time-productive, but a lack of literally seeing the beauty and emotional outpouring of the Gospel message very often creates feelings of irrelevance and emotional barrenness towards Christianity. While producing visual arts may very well keep one isolated for lengthy periods of time, the visual arts can also be an expression of thought and emotion that cannot be carried out in words alone. Just as the Divine Creator develops awe-inspiring beauty within his creation, humanity too has been given creative tendencies which can be used to produce awe towards the Divine Creator himself. To refute these tendencies would be to nullify gifts that He has given His people.
As far as art form a moral standpoint, there very well can be a danger to it and it brings up many questions. Scripture states that the followers of God must not contain the invisible God within an image. Does this include Jesus as well? Scripture never gives an explicit, answer but the church has found a basis for visually depicting Jesus within His incarnation. Jesus is the image of the invisible God and thus this image is shown in reality and can be shown in art. So long as this artwork is not worshiped by either the artist or the viewer then it is not to be considered idolatry. An idol is thus something that takes the place of God, not a statue or painting. Art should also never be used in such a way that it detracts from the written and spoken word.
As a whole, the visual arts can very well be beneficial to expressing the Christian faith, but it does come with certain dangers, as does everything else. Every good thing can be twisted in such a way that it either hinders the message of the Gospel or it becomes corrupt in its nature. This corruption is especially seen within the current art culture. There is far less religious works and admiration for God’s creation and an increase in corrupt depictions of what is unholy. Rather than having a painting that expresses one’s desperate call toward God, a typical work of art shows one’s desperate need for sanctification due to a wealth of lustful passions, vulgarity, and violence within the content of the works. Visually, the modern art world has some great works of art but from a moral standpoint, much of it has become corrupted.
Being that Christians are to be a repentant and sanctified people, those who consider themselves artists should seek to redeem this art world. Very rarely is there any great works of art being displayed that teach Christian truth outside of the “Christian culture.” Right now there is much talk within Christian life about needing to become missional, that is, entering into the world with the intention of sharing the Gospel and redeeming that world as opposed to simply waiting for unbelievers to come to the church. This same missional stance should also be taken by Christian artists. Enter into the secular art culture and display the glory of God through the visual arts!
Where Is My There?
Through reading a book Nehemiah, one can see a model that we should all follow regarding having and following a God given vision. Nehemiah, when hearing the need of his people, says in 1:4, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” God called him to a specific task and he carried it out (to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem). He was placed in such a position in life that God had provided a way for that action to be carried out.
What Nehemiah experienced is what I hope to experience. I know that, just as Nehemiah, I have been shaped for a purpose. My experiences, abilities, and passions are not in vain, and I know God will use those to his advantage, I only seek to know what for. I want to see the artistic masterpiece that God is creating, but I’ve only seen portions of it.
As it is, I know I want to minister in an area of the United States that is not in the Bible Belt, likely somewhere up north between Seattle and New York (at least I narrowed it down to half of the US). I have now seen the need in New York for Gospel-centered churches, and I literally weep over that city. Scripture says of Jesus in Luke 19:41 “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” I still have not been given my Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that I am supposed to bear my cross for.
Even though I have wept over New York City and mourn for its lack of faith in Christ, I’m not sure if I’m specifically called to that one city. I desperately desire a city that I too can weep over like Jesus and rebuild like Nehemiah. I pray that God will open my eyes to a place that I can marry, a city that I can love, build up, and devote my life to.
Jesus and Slavery
Being raised in rural South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union immediately before the Civil War, I have gained a rather horrid distaste for slavery. Also being a Christian, I have always been bothered by the use of slavery within the Bible. Does God support something as oppressive and immoral as slavery? Slavery in the New World often times meant the inevitability of being raped and abused, was it the same way for the Early Church and Israel? Are we in this age more “morally evolved” than our descendants? Such questions have always plagued me. Because of this wonder, I’ve decided to research the topic a little and share my findings (in other words, combine a lot of my resources especially from gotquestions.org and The Reason for God by Tim Keller).
The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1), but does not outlaw slavery altogether. Many have seen this to mean that the Bible authorizes all forms of slavery. What many fail to understand is that slavery in biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world. The slavery in the Bible was not based exclusively on race. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin. In Bible times, slavery was more a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay their debts or provide for their families. In New Testament times, sometimes doctors, lawyers, and even politicians were slaves of someone else. Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for by their masters.
The slavery of the past few centuries was often based exclusively on skin color. In the United States, many black people were considered slaves because of their nationality; many slave owners truly believed black people to be inferior human beings. The Bible most definitely does condemn race-based slavery. Consider the slavery the Hebrews experienced when they were in Egypt. The Hebrew were slaves, not by choice, but because they were Hebrews (Exodus 13:14). The plagues God poured out on Egypt demonstrate how God feels about racial slavery (Exodus 7-11). So, yes, the Bible does condemn some forms of slavery. At the same time, the Bible does seem to allow for other forms. The key issue is that the slavery the Bible allowed for in no way resembled the racial slavery that plagued our world in the past few centuries.
In addition, both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of “man-stealing” which is what happened in Africa in the 19th century. Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave-traders, who brought them to the New World to work on plantations and farms. This practice is abhorrent to God. In fact, the penalty for such a crime in the Mosaic Law was death: “Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death” (Exodus 21:16). Similarly, in the New Testament, slave-traders are listed among those who are “ungodly and sinful” and are in the same category as those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, adulterers and perverts, and liars and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:8-10).
Another crucial point is that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society. The Bible often approaches issues from the inside out. If a person experiences the love, mercy, and grace of God by receiving His salvation, God will reform his soul, changing the way he thinks and acts. A person who has experienced God’s gift of salvation and freedom from the slavery of sin, as God reforms his soul, will realize that enslaving another human being is wrong. A person who has truly experienced God’s grace will in turn be gracious towards others. That would be the Bible’s prescription for ending slavery.
Social historian Rodney Stark states, “Although it has been fashionable to deny it, anti-slavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe. When Europeans subsequently instituted slavery in the New World, they did so over strenuous papal opposition, a fact that was conveniently ‘lost’ from history until recently. Finally, the abolition of New World slavery was initiated and achieved by Christian activists.”
Christians began to work for abolition not because of some general understanding of human rights, but because they say it as violating the will of God. Older forms of indentured servant-hood and bond-service of Biblical times had often been harsh, but Christian abolitionists concluded that race-based, life-long slavery, established through kidnapping, could not be found in alignment with Biblical teaching. Christian activists such as William Wilberforce in Great Britain (btw, the movie about him entitled Amazing Grace is amazing), John Woolman in America, and many others devoted their entire lives, in the name of Christ, to ending slavery. At the same time the slave trade was so financially rewarding that many within the church greedily sought to justify it.
When the abolitionists finally had British society ready to abolish slavery across the empire, many in the colonies said the price of commodities would skyrocket catastrophically. This did not deter the abolitionists. The House of Commons agreed to compensate the planters for all freed slaves, a sum which equaled to half of all the British government’s annual budget. The Act of Emancipation passed in 1933, and the costs were so high to the British people that some have referred to the voluntary abolition of slavery in Britain as “voluntary econocide.”
Many have tried to understand why so many political figures would act so selfishly to do away with the act. Why self-interest would they have in this act of abolition? Rodney Stark has argued that the only reason why this sacrificial behavior ever took place was because it was Christian leaders who were in the forefront of this movement. Many within Christianity had allowed this inhuman behavior to continue but being the “repentant religion” that Christianity is, many sought to correct this move.
Very much related to this topic, Martin Luther King Jr. realized that it was behaving more like a Christian would do away with such things as racial injustice. He believed that it was a deeper and truer Christianity that would help change the face of America. David L. Chappell believes that the Civil Rights was primarily a religious and spiritual movement as opposed to simply political. He argues that white Northern liberals who were the allies of the African-American civil rights leaders were not proponents of civil disobedience or of a direct attack on segregation. Because of their secular belief in the goodness of human nature, they thought that education and enlightenment would bring about inevitable social and racial progress. Black leaders were instead much more rooted in the Biblical understanding of the sinfulness of the human heart and in the denunciations of injustice that they read in the Hebrew prophets. The Civil Rights movement was a religious revival.
Alright, many might have read what I’ve stated and say, “What of the passages in Scripture that seem to be in favor of slavery?” What do you do with passages like Ephesians 6:5 which states, “slaves obey your masters”? Many times when people come across a passage like this they immediately disregard the Bible completely without understanding the text.
Often times when a passage like this seems so offensive, consider that it might not actually teach what it appears to be teaching. Many texts people find like this can be cleared up with a decent commentary that puts the issue into its historical context. Ephesians 6:5, for example, is often immediately understood in our culture to be parallel with the African slave trade, human trafficking, and sexual slavery practiced in many places today. To believe this is simply ignoring the cultural context of that passage.
In the first-century Roman empire, when the New Testament was written, there was not a great different between slaves and the average free person. Slaves were not distinguishable from others by race, speech, or clothing. They looked and lived like everyone else, and were not segregated from the rest of society in any way. Financially, slaves made the same wages as free laborers, and therefore not usually poor. Slaves could even buy themselves out of slavery which almost always happened, very few slaves remained slaves for life. Most could reasonably hope to be released within ten or fifteen years, or by their late thirties at most. Also, these slaves were not owned completely but only their time and skills were owned by the master for a temporary amount of time. There was, in essence, no difference between a slave and servant (the word is actually the same – δουλος). It must also be noted once again that when this form of servant-hood is in place, it must be done according to the moral teachings of Scripture so that none shall be oppressed.
Even with all of this said, many people still find this to be offensive. My advice in this respect is to simply consider that their problem with some texts might be based on an unexamined belief in the superiority of their historical moment above all others. To reject the Bible as regressive is to assume that they have now arrived at the ultimate historic moment. That belief is surely as narrow and exclusive as the views in the Bible that they regard as offensive. Essentially, I’m advising you all to beware of the thought that you have progressed above other cultures. In many ways, it is probably better that we do not have this type of servant-hood within our culture. However, being that we live in such an anti-servant culture, such a thought becomes offensive to us (to a fault). A common thought within this current historic moment is that we deserve to be served. Such a belief has caused us to detest the thought of all types of serving.
With that said, many would find that offensive and thus believe that I’m advocating slavery. By no means is that my intention! I’m merely expressing that just as Jesus came as a servant, we too should serve our fellow man and free the captives.
Humility of the Creator
Over years of debating religious matters with non-Christians one of the most common questions is the following, “If there is a God, He would never attempt to even acknowledge our existence due to our own insignificance. When examining the God and Creator of the universe who is infinite in every characteristic that He possesses and examining humanity’s own insignificance in the comparison to the grand scheme of all reality, why would He even bother with us?”
Just think about this concept a while, let it rattle through your mind. The infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful God of the universe humbles himself to work in the lives of people who have no significance in relation to Himself. In fact, these people are fallen depraved creatures who have rejected their Creator and often reject His various existence. Why would such an almighty God do such a thing? He had no need for us. We can do nothing for Him or provide something for Him that He does not already possess.
He needs no fellowship that desire is made complete in His Trinitarian nature, not to mention the heavenly hosts of beings which worship Him. Nothing we do puts Him in our dept, nothing we can ever do would mean God would require anything from us. He is God.
Examining His greatness and our inferiority, it is not wonder that many non-Christians reject such a God. Such a God that would humble Himself defies all human logic. God has no need for us, why even acknowledge us?
While many might find this concept to be a stumbling block, the Christian finds this concept as a cause for rejoicing! The almighty God and Creator of the universe humbled Himself to not only care for us but to become one of us! God entered human existence by humbling himself to become a man, be born of a virgin, live the sinless life, be rejected by men, die on the cross, raise from the grave, ascend into heaven, and be glorified in all grandeur at the right hand of the Father – all according to the Scriptures.
Oh what a cause for rejoicing! Our Emmanuel, God with us, has come and brings salvation to all who believe and accept Him as Lord!
Philippians 2:5-11 states, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Being Nicodemus
Christians come in all shapes and varieties. One such example is him who has been consumed with religion. Religion in and of itself is not inherently evil, but it can often become a stumbling block to the gospel message. We will take a look at this by examining the famous passage in John 3:1-10.
(1) Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. (2) This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (3) Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (4) Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (5) Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ (8) The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” (10) Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
We see within this passage a very religious person coming to Jesus by the name of Nicodemus. He was by all means perceived to be righteous by others and by himself. However, he came to Jesus with a question that according to Jesus he should already know (e.g. “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”).
Nicodemus, being the pharisee that he was, would have memorized the Torah at a very young age. He taught the things in Scripture and yet did not understand what he was talking about. This problem is a common problem that many “hyper-religious people” often have. He had heard these teachings his entire life but he never understood the true message. Even his understanding of Jesus’ statements is hyper-religious as seen by his extremely literal interpretation of Jesus’ every word.
What was it Nicodemus was missing? Even though he knew the Scriptures, he did not know them. You see, this idea of becoming “born-again” is not a new concept. Let’s take a look at some passages that Nicodemus should have known, the first being Deuteronomy 30:6.
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
This concept of becoming born-again is simply not a new concept in Scripture. Jeremiah 31:33 is another example.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Ezekiel 36:26 is yet another example.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
We now clearly see that this concept should not have been new to Nicodemus being as he was a teacher of such Scriptures. What was it that blinded him to the truth? Pride is the most clear answer and this pride could very well be within himself.
Being as all of us are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God, even the most religious person cannot escape from sin apart from Christ. For the hyper-religious person, pride in one’s own apparent righteousness becomes a stumbling block for even feeling the need to seek Christ. Jesus refers to this type of person differently than he does most. When working with someone who needs mercy, he gives mercy. For someone who thinks himself righteous, he humbles him. He does this in Matthew 23. As an example from that passage, here is verses 27-28:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
We see here Jesus humbling the religious person who thinks himself righteous. Often times the best way of building someone up is to first tear them down. With that said, very often the “Christian who is better than everyone else” needs to be torn down as well. We are all in need of Christ and his mercy. All of us. Being born in a Christian home does not stop our need. Going to church does not save us.
Nothing we can do saves us apart from faith in Christ given to us by his grace and his grace alone. Through Christ and Christ alone can our hearts be made right with God. We all need to seek after Christ an his mercy continually and continually repent before God.
But for the person like Nicodemus, possibly even you who are reading this, he knows these things. He may have even heard it his entire life. Does that mean he has experienced the mercies of God? Has his eyes been blind to these truths? How do you know that you are not just like Nicodemus?
Preaching Fit – Prayer and God’s Will
I recently had one of my “preaching fits.” For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, there are times that when I am in an attitude of prayer that I preach to myself. That may sound odd to some but these “spiritual experiences” happen when I am in a truly repentent and humble attitude before God willing to hear anything He would have to say. I end up getting the chills and begin preaching to myself. During these times I end up saying things and bringing out points in Scripture that I have never even thought about before. Recently I have been trying to record some of these points. I thought I’d share my most recent experience with you all:
Very often in our lives we do not pray to God not because we do not have time but because we know exactly what He will tell us. We fear that when we come before the Holy Father He will tell us exactly what we fear to hear. We fear that we will have to turn from sin, forgive our brother, or live out the life that He has called us to live.
We all know and have been taught that prayer is supposed to change things. We thus often come before God with our requests in hope that He will change our circumstances in life. However, the thing that we most often overlook is the fact that the number one thing that prayer changes is us! We forget that prayer is how we communicate with God. In other words, we can easily remember that we can speak to God but we forget that He is supposed to speak with us. Instead of praying that God would change His will, why do we not pray that God would change our own will? 1 Thessalonians 5:17 simply states, “pray constantly.” We are thus required to not only be asking God for what we want but we should be constantly seeking the will of God in our lives.
Renewed Interest in Blogging
I write this post in hopes that it will be the first of many to come. I have neglected my blogging for an extended time now, and I wish to renew my vigor in this method of broadcasting thoughts. This renewal comes in part because I need to organize my thoughts. With that need, why should I hide such thoughts from the rest of the world?
From this point, I will not only put my thoughts for theological ideas but my life … which is still largely theological ideas and practicing such ideas. A major emphasis I now wish to have is the functioning of the corporate church and church planting. You ask, what is the point? As I wish to one day start my own church, why not use this method to gather my thoughts?
Well today’s blog deals with three things: church planting, a mission trip, and seminary.
I have for some time now been greatly interested in the possibility of doing church planting; that is, starting my own church. There are so ma ny components about church planting that I absolutely love and other components that I absolutely fear. The fear is not a bad thing however. This fear is something that is motivating me more than anything in such a way that I have been preparing for the possibility of doing such a ministry.
Because church planting is considered by some to be quite possibly the hardest ministry of them all and the one which requires God’s provision the most, I want to make certain that my call is indeed from God. In order to make sure I do indeed wish to do this, I am going on a mission trip in October to New York City to help with a new church plant in that area.
This mission trip will actually be the first one I’ve ever attended. The reason for this is that I’ve seen many people go on mission trips more for bragging rights, a vacation, etc. than seeking to truly serve people and to bring glory to God. If my intentions were not for His glory rather than my own, I wanted no part of it. Now I think I am finally doing a mission trip for the right reason. I’ve always wanted to go to New York City, but I’m actually more excited about serving the church and learning from the experience. Now I just need the money for the trip and am hoping I will receive the help needed for such a trip. Hopefully I will receive enough money from individuals and my church to pay for it. Whatever happens I know that God will provide if it is meant for me to go.
[insert awkward transition into new topic] Well now I am officially a Masters student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Today I spent several hours at Starbucks simply drinking coffee and reading a book for class. Reading this book is partially what motivated me to write my blog tonight. How, I’m not sure. What I was reading in a nutshell was that churches in need of revitalization are in need of good leadership with strong vision. I wrote notes about some of my thoughts regarding this topic which made me decide to enter those thoughts into a blog. I will enter those thoughts at a later time.
Reading this book has made me excited about the next several years I will be in seminary. The text was very motivating for me and renewed my zeal for being a new ministry student. May God be glorified during my next several years of study in school, may I learn much which will enable me to further His kingdom, and may God truly grow me in such a way spiritually that others seek to praise His name!
Often times.
Something I’ve recently noticed in just observing others in regarding seeking God is acting as if God needs to fill out a job application. When God does not fit our requirements we either seek another God or we mold God into the image we wish him to be. If God is indeed God then would our desires actually change his character or affiliations?
Often times we want God to be all love and mercy forgetting mercy is to those who do not deserve it. If one deserved mercy then mercy would then cease being mercy.
Often times we want God to be a wishing well for our desires. If our desires do not come true then apparently we are not worshiping the correct God. Would not a true God enact his own desires as he wills?
Often times we want God to leave us alone yet we want him to be sovereign. We want God to take control of situations we do not like yet we do not want him to take control of the things we like.
Often times we want God to be a loving Father, but we do not want to be obedient children. We think that if we cry and scream loud enough God will actually do what we want.
Often times we want God to speak and yet we do not listen to his words. If we are actually expecting God to speak to us then why do we not listen to him when in prayer and when reading his Word… assuming we pray and read.
Often times we expect God to do what we want him to do because we supposedly deserve his blessings. We seem to think that if we do what we are supposed to do (pray, read the Bible, be a good person, etc.) that God is supposedly now in our dept and owes us something.