The end does not justify the means

The end does not justify the means

WALLACE TOM Jr. (2015) Refuting Islam, The Christian Patriots Guide to Exposing the Evils of Islam, Bellingham, Fundamental Publishers.

The book review continues...

Chapter Five: Speak The Truth In Love

Mr. Wallace mentions the importance in defeating Islam in North America in some key areas. (39). These include (paraphrased) in the arena of the Muslim mind, in the arena of the skeptic's mind, and in the arena of the legal system. (39). Mr. Wallace suggests that those within the Christian Church should take a bold, yet loving approach:

'Truth shared with bold compassion is contagious'.  (41).

I will add that listening to Mr. Wallace's 'Fortress of Faith' radio broadcast from time to time, Mr. Wallace does take a loving approach, in boldness to people. He explains that one can have truth, but if it is stated with immoral methods, it loses levels of potency and validity. (41).

I agree when Mr. Wallace states:

'The pragmatist who believes the end justifies the means is often an immoral man.'  (41).

A key is therefore to present the truth and the gospel truth in love. To love one's neighbour as self (Matthew 23, Mark 12, Luke 10). The gospel of John mentions love within the Church as a command:

John 13:34-35

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Further from his epistles

1 John 4:20

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

'Speaking the truth in Love is essential'. (44).

Blackburn describes consequentialism which relates to ideas of the end justifying the means.

The view that the value of an action derives entirely from the value of its consequences. This contrasts both with the view that the value of an action may derive from the value of the kind of character whose action is (courageous, just, temperate, etc.), and with the view that its value may be intrinsic, belonging to to it as simply as truth-telling, promise-keeping, etc. (77).

The former would be virtue ethics and the latter would be deontological ethics. (77).

Consequentialism is not a New Testament ethic.

Deontology based on concepts of human duty, or what is right, or rights. (100). Virtue ethics takes the notion of virtue within ethics as primary. (394). This as opposed to views which look for a pragmatic good (paraphrased). (394).

New Testament Christian ethics and morality have the most in common here with virtue ethics and also to a lesser extent, deontological ethics. The Christian should always seek virtue, and what is right, but human duty and human rights with deontological ethics are not always as important as human virtue. For example, one has the legal right to be an adulterer, but virtue should prohibit it. Deontology may at times be more concerned with 'moral norms' whereas a Christian ethic, equated with some type of virtue ethic, views ethics as eternally being derived from the eternal, infinite God.

BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

WALLACE TOM Jr. (2015) Refuting Islam, The Christian Patriots Guide to Exposing the Evils of Islam, Bellingham, Fundamental Publishers.

John Calvin on the forge of idols: Problems of evil and suffering

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John Calvin on the forge of idols

CALVIN, JOHN (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), Beveridge, Henry (Translator), R Public Domain.

Cited

1.11.8

'Hence we may infer, that the human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.'

It has also been translated as:

'Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols....' (And like).

In other words, idolatry is a universal human problem and a continual human problem.

From Browning:

In the Hebrew Bible context, idolatry involved the cult of worshipping a statue of a god or goddess. (181).

Exodus 20:4-6

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

4 “You shall not make for yourself [a]an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Footnotes:

Exodus 20:4 Or a graven image

The second commandment.

Browning reasons that in the New Testament context the Apostle Paul reminds readers in 1 Corinthians 10, against idolatry in the form of possible 'civil ceremony.' (181). From 1 Corinthians 8, these idols are false entities, 'so-called gods' (181). Browning then mentions Colossians 3: 5 in the context of idolatry used in a metaphorical context (181) as in evil desires:

Colossians 3:5

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

5 Therefore [a]consider the members of your earthly body as dead to [b]immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which [c]amounts to idolatry.

Footnotes:

Colossians 3:5 Lit put to death the members which are upon the earth
Colossians 3:5 Lit fornication
Colossians 3:5 Lit is

The Calvin quote is of a metaphorical usage. It is profoundly true.

The metaphorical use is often the critique idolatry receives within the evangelical church. I am in agreement that this critique is often the correct one. I agree with the warnings from the Apostle Paul and John Calvin.

But I would caution that at times problems of evil and suffering are significantly negated when actual human needs, that perhaps God is not meeting at the time, within his holy and good plans, and purposes, are negated by the evangelical presenter. This in order to provide an evangelical Christian apologetic for God, in regard to problems of evil and suffering.

God meets human needs within his plans and purposes. This does not mean for example, that the blind person, does not actually need to have restored vision. Restored vision is more than simply a desire, it is a need based on human, ontological nature.

(Yes, I have had to counter an evangelical in church ministry, that made this type of argument)

BROWNING, W.R.F. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

CALVIN, JOHN (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), Beveridge, Henry (Translator), R Public Domain.

Consenting disciples

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From the New American Standard 

Matthew 28:18-20

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [a]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [b]always, even to the end of the age.”

Baptism class

TriCity Church states (paraphrased) in the Baptism Class book cited below, that proposed baptized persons (for membership) are asked to discuss their testimony with elders and the church. (22).

In the past, I have been a member of a Presbyterian Church of America (Canada) and am in basic agreement with core doctrines and therefore could be a member. But, in regard to infant baptism, having taken membership class in the PCA years ago, I realize that those in leadership view infants and young children baptized as disciples.

I can grant this premise, in a sense and context, that infants and small children would be disciples in training, or possible future disciples, or like.

The book counters the claim of those that support infant baptism from Colossians 2: 11-12.

That being that Old Testament circumcision is replaced by New Testament baptism. (26). The book states that in contrast Colossians in mentioning that there is circumcision of the heart for those that are baptized in Christ. (26).

Colossians 2:11-12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

The book's interpretation of a circumcision without hands, as spiritual, is more reasonable and straightforward than a speculative theology of infant baptism, also known as paedobaptism, or pedobaptism.

At the recent TriCity Church, Baptism Class, which I was asked to assist with by the overseer, as I am a baptized Mennonite Brethren and of course a Christian theologian; I coined this idea that unlike those that practice infant baptism to bring children into the new covenant (Is this required in light of God's election of persons? Ephesians 1-2), our church is seeking:

Consenting disciples 

(I realize that some churches practice infant and believer's baptism.)

These are those that can discuss their testimony with the elders and the church.

This theology fits better with a believer's baptism view.

I have also received infant baptism within the United Church of Canada.

'Baptism Class' (2014), TriCity Church, Port Coquitlam.

Baptism November 2016

Brief on marketing of Reformed churches (PhD Edit)

MPhil, Bangor University, 2003: The Problem of Evil: Anglican and Baptist Perspectives 

PhD, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, 2010: Theodicy and Practical Theology 

From the PhD

Reformed concepts are often not being taught adequately within the evangelical church. Reformed theology is likely often watered down in many cases as Reformed churches are marketing themselves as primarily evangelical as opposed to primarily Reformed. Church attendance can be so low in some cases that it is more marketable to avoid teaching and dealing with controversial Reformed concepts.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

FEINBERG, JOHN.S. (1986) Predestination and Free Will, in David Basinger and Randall Basinger (eds.), Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press.

FEINBERG, JOHN.S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House. 

FEINBERG, JOHN.S. (2001) No One Like Him, John S. Feinberg (gen.ed.), Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books.