Marcion Was a Red-Letter Christian

I just ran across a great article entitled "Why I'm Not a Red Letter Christian."

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Christianity Today article entitled "When Red is Blue" may be helpful. It contains a letter by Stan Guthrie with a response by Tony Campolo. The letters are tremendously revealing, both in their content and in the apparently disingenuous nature of Campolo's response.

Just to be fair, here is Campolo's earlier article, "What's a 'Red-Letter Christian'?" The attendance list in the second paragraph will speak volumes to many alert readers.

gotquestions.org gave a helpful response entitled "What Are Red-Letter Christians?" They make the following observations:

All politics aside, there are some problems associated with the Red Letter Christian movement. The first concerns the group’s open theology. Bringing together various faith backgrounds is very tolerant and progressive, but theologically untenable. Founders of the movement include those who believe that we must earn our way to heaven and those who distrust the inspiration of the Word of God.

The second problem involves the group’s piecemeal approach to Scripture. To concentrate on certain parts of the Bible to the exclusion of others is unbalanced and dangerous. “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Epistles, for example, were written to instruct us on the practical outworking of Jesus’ teaching and are just as inspired as Jesus’ own words. Paul’s words should not be considered inferior, as the term Red Letter Christians implies.

A third problem relates to their interpretation of Jesus’ words. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was not trying to write national government policy. He was presenting Himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law (Matthew 5:17) and the Savior from sin for all who would believe in Him. He clearly separated Himself from all political movements and paradigms when He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

While it is true that Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and we need public discussion on all moral values, not just abortion and homosexuality, we must handle God’s Word honestly and guard against those who undermine the sufficiency of Scripture and the sacrifice of Christ.

That sounds about right.

Scorpions in the Shower

Nestled in the breathtaking beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains is a wonderful Christian camp. It’s a place of simplicity, with well-maintained buildings and a friendly staff that somehow make the place feel like home from the moment you set foot there.

It’s also located in the middle of the range of the Plain Eastern Stripeless Scorpion. Like most scorpions, the Plain Eastern Stripeless is not aggressive and stings only when threatened. Even then, its venom is not much worse than a bee sting: oh-so-painful, but far from fatal to anyone not allergic to its toxins. Still, anyone in his right mind does everything possible to avoid being stung!

In the wild, the Plain Eastern Stripeless makes its home in leaf litter or under fallen trees. It loves cool, damp places. It also, however, has a Houdini-like ability of getting into seemingly inaccessible places in its search for prey and suitable shelter. Therein lies the problem.

At most camps, there’s nowhere that better fits the description of a “cool, damp place” than the showers. This mountain paradise is, alas, no exception. That wouldn’t be a problem, except that the showers are in the bunkhouses, so lights can’t be left on without keeping everyone awake all night. That means that first thing each day, camp counselors must make sure the bathroom is clear of scorpions before anyone takes a shower.

One morning I had to get up long before dawn to take a friend to the airport. I couldn’t turn on the lights without waking everyone else, so I put on my flip-flops, quietly gathered my things, and made my way to the bathroom. That’s when I discovered that the batteries in my flashlight were dead.

There I was: sweaty and smelling none-too-nice after a hot Tennessee night, but with no way to know if scorpions might await me in the shower. In retrospect, I can’t believe I didn’t just turn on the lights even if it would have awakened everyone in the cabin! But what I did was advance slowly into the room, feeling my way to the shower and shuffling my feet as I went, in hopes that the sound and vibration would be enough to scare any nearby scorpions out of my path.

I didn’t want to encounter any creepy-crawlies that morning, but what I wanted didn’t matter. Either they were there, or they weren’t. My wishes and preferences counted for nothing. What mattered was reality.

The same is true of spiritual reality. It doesn’t really matter what we want to believe is true. What matters is what really is true. It’s perilous to advance into eternity on the strength of our hopes and preferences rather than trying to discover what really does lie behind the world we see around us.

The message of the Bible is that God has revealed Himself to us, both by giving us His Word and by sending us His Son. He has given us a message that centers on a moment in history and a man named Jesus who demonstrated His love for us through His life and teaching and through His suffering and death on a cross.

Soldiers well acquainted with death oversaw His execution and used a spear to make sure that He was well and truly dead. People who knew and loved Him gathered up His body and took it away for burial, knowing He was dead with the same certainty I knew my daughter was gone when I held her lifeless hand.

Three days later, some of those who loved Him rose before sunrise and headed through the darkness for the place where He had been buried. When they got there, they discovered that the tomb was open and empty, and a messenger from God told them that Jesus had risen. In the weeks that followed, Jesus appeared to many, sometimes one-on-one, sometimes in small groups, and at least once before a crowd of hundreds.

That experience marked the disciples like nothing before had ever done. Most of the twelve men Jesus had chosen were executed, still proclaiming with their dying breath that Jesus had both died and risen again. An unparalleled event at a single moment in history changed their lives forever, as countless lives have been changed since.

The truth mattered to them. Either Jesus had died and risen again, or He hadn’t. They staked their lives and all of eternity on the factuality of that event. The Apostle Paul later commented that if the resurrection never happened, the Apostles were more to be pitied than anyone in the world. What counted most was not the strength or sincerity of their hope or faith, but whether or not what they believed was true. As eyewitnesses, they knew it was.

What awaits us in eternity is a question infinitely more important than whether or not there are scorpions in the shower. Isn’t it worth taking the time to examine what really awaits us rather than advancing blindly in the hope that the way we have chosen is safe? If you haven’t already done so, I hope and pray you will.