Eureka Christian Church

Reflecting Christ's Light from Our Doorsteps to the Ends of the Earth

Other Theological Questions

by on

How do I respond to people I completely disagree with?

How can I respond in a faithful, caring way to people I completely disagree with?

Disagreements are a difficult part of our human experience, but for Christians and for the church, they have always been with us. We need only look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians or the writings of fourth-century Christians about the relationship between Jesus and God during the First Council of Nicaea to see that Christians have disagreed strongly with each other about many things throughout history. So, your question is a good one; “How do I respond to, or affirm someone with whom I disagree?”

One suggestion I will offer is to remember that the view that someone holds that differs from yours is not the only thing that determines who that person is. Regardless of whether you disagree with who that person votes for, their views on social issues, their faith or absence of belief, or any other concern, you may still be alike in more ways than you are different. In a 2009 TED talk, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke about the danger of a single story, or the danger of allowing only one part of a person’s identity frame our perception of that person. Here is a link to that TED talk, and I highly recommend it.

If you are someone who believes in the mission of the church, Michael Kinnamon and Jan Linn write about the implications of covenant relationship in their book Disciples: Who We Are and What Holds Us Together. They write,

This means, of course, that a church built on covenant must accept, even value, a diversity of perspective. The commitment we make is not always to agree, but to walk together as we attempt to discern where God would have us go. If the church is a purely voluntary association, then when we disagree we can simply take our marbles and leave. If, however, the church is a covenantal society constituted by God’s initiative, then we stay at the table, especially when it is tough to do so.” [1]

These are challenging words from Kinnamon and Linn, but for me they describe part of the “heavy lifting” of discipleship.

[1] Michael Kinnamon and Jan Linn, Disciples: Who We Are and What Holds Us Together (St. Louis: Christian Book Publishers, 2019), 14.

by on

We are special, with one-of-a-kind DNA. What does this mean for me?

Of all the millions, billions, and trillions of atoms floating around the universe, God made us here and now with a one-of-a-kind DNA and a brain to gather memories. We are special. What does this mean for me?”

Your recognition that God has made us and that we are special is true and Biblical. And you are wise to ponder what that means for your life. Does your life have purpose and if so, what might that purpose be?

The Psalmist recognizes that we are made by God when he says in Psalm 139:14-16, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” Another Psalm that speaks to the issue of God’s recognition of us is found in Psalm 8:3&4. Here the Psalmist ponders the great wonders of the universe and our existence in that universe, “When I look at your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” These passages from Psalms help us realize that we are wondrously made by God and he/she continuously has us in mind.

However, we might then ask, as you are doing in your question – so what?

In Colossians the apostle Paul tells us in 1:16, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible…everything got started in him (Christ) and finds its purpose in him (The Message).” Therefore, it appears that we can look to Jesus Christ to find our “so what,” or our own purpose(s) here on earth. Again, we turn to the apostle Paul for help. He writes in Ephesians 1:16, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone (The Message).”

In terms of specifics, I believe we need look no further than the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew chapters 5 – 7 to discover how God wants us to live our lives here on earth. There is plenty of “purpose” and Jesus explains this to us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us to be salt and light for others, to go beyond the ten commandments by paying attention to what is in our hearts, to love our enemies, to pray to God and depend on him rather than worry about anything, and to treat others the way we would want to be treated.

A good book that will help you continue to explore and discover God’s purpose for your life is, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

by on

Are there people beyond earth’s atmosphere? Or organisms?

Are there people beyond earth’s atmosphere?  Or organisms?

The short answer to your question is that we do not know.  Philosophers and scientists—plus regular people like you and me—have been asking this question probably for all of human existence.  So far we have no proof of life beyond earth’s atmosphere, but that does not mean it doesn’t exist.  NASA has a fun website called Exoplanet Exploration that you might want to visit.  You’ll especially want to explore The Search for Life on the site.

In college, I took a class called “The Search for Extraterrestrial Life,” and we explored this question using something called the Drake Equation.  The Drake Equation gives us a way of trying to gauge the probability of whether or not we might ever discover life on other planets within our own galaxy.  (Keep in mind that astronomers estimate there are 100-200 billion galaxies in the universe; we’re just talking about one, our Milky Way!)  The Drake Equation involves coming up with estimates for:

  • the average rate of star formation in the Milky Way
  • the number of those stars that might have planets
  • the number of planets per star-with-planets that could support life
  • the number of those planets that would actually go on to develop life at some point
  • the number of those planets that would develop into intelligent life
  • the number of those civilizations that could develop technology we could detect (such as radio signals that go out into space)
  • the length of time such civilizations would exist

Multiply all that together, and you come up with a potential estimate for the number of civilizations in our galaxy that we might be able to communicate with someday. 

Some Christians believe (or perhaps they fear) that if we were to find life on other planets, it would somehow lead to a crisis of faith because it would call into question the creation stories in Genesis.  I do not share this concern.  The creation stories found in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and 2:4-25 both proclaim God as the Creator.  For me, discovering life beyond the bounds of earth would merely mean that God’s creative work extends beyond what we know.  But I believe that already!  Of course God’s creative work extends far beyond what I can possibly imagine or even comprehend!  Finding life on other planets would become for me just one more indication of God’s magnificent, creative power. 

I believe and proclaim that God is the Creator of the universe—the heavens and the earth; the moon, the sun, and all the stars in the sky. 

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established.
Psalm 8:1, 3

by on

What do angels look like?

What do angels look like?

The word most often translated in the Bible as “angel” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “messenger.”  Angels, then, would be ones who are sent to share a message from God.  We definitely see this in the Gospel of Luke when the angel Gabriel is sent to tell Mary about the coming of the Christ child (Luke 1:26).  The Gospel of Matthew tells us that an “angel of the Lord” appears to Joseph in a dream to deliver the same news, but that angel is not named (Matthew 1:20).

Sometimes angels have names.  Gabriel, for example, as we’ve already seen, presented most often simply as a messenger.  Revelation describes another named angel Michael, who is depicted as a warrior (Revelation 12:7).  Other ancient books not included in our Bible name different angels such as Raphael and Uriel.  And many other references to angels do not include names, such as the angels who appear to the women at the empty tomb (Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:5, Luke 24:4). 

In the Bible, angels serve several functions.  Messengers and warriors, of course.  But also as members of a heavenly council/court surrounding the throne of God (1 Kings 22:19-22) or coming down to earth from heaven (Genesis 28:12).  Sometimes angels are described as a heavenly army (Deuteronomy 33:2), an image which carries over into the New Testament as we see in the proclamation to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:13).  Angels are also considered to be guardians or protectors (Genesis 3:24, Revelation 2-3).

What do these angels look like?

  • Sometimes they are described simply as regular people, such as the three visitors who came to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 18:2) or the man who wrestled with Jacob at the River Jabbok (Genesis 32:24).  This is what the Book of Hebrews is referring to when it says we may have “entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2). 
  • Often, angels are described as being dazzling and radiant—wearing equally dazzling, radiant clothing.  We see this in the resurrection stories at the end of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Matthew describes the angel who comes down to share the news of Jesus’ resurrection with “an appearance like lightning, and clothing white as snow” (Matthew 28:3). 
  • The Book of Daniel in the Old Testament describes an angel whose body “was like beryl gemstone, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, with a voice like the roar of a multitude” (Daniel 10:6).  
  • And then there are the angelic beings called cherubim and seraphim.  Cherubim are pictured as winged creatures, part human and part animal (Ezekiel 10).  Seraphim, likewise, are winged creatures with six wings each and voices like human beings (Isaiah 6:2-3).