Cosmic Abuse?

I am currently reading John Piper’s book The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. In his chapter on Joy and the Supremacy of Christ, he quotes a postmodern church leader as saying the way we interpret the cross is “cosmic child abuse.”

The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse – a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement: ‘God is love.’ If the cross is a personal act of violence penetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil.
(Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 182-83).

Piper does a nice job defending the essential doctrine of the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ, but another thing came to mind as I was reading the scriptures he presented. If we are going to view everything in the Bible through the lens of the one sentence “God is love” we must be sure we interpret that one sentence exactly as it was meant.

It seems to me that this leader has a misunderstanding of what love is. He seems to also ignore the fact that God is holy; He is angry at sin, righteous, and just. Grace and mercy do not mean anything if we don’t understand the wrath of God. God’s love does not mean He overlooks our sins, it means He showed us favor despite them because of what Christ did on the cross.

Here I just wanted to post the verses that Piper responded to this quote with and the verses that came to mind. Quite contradictory to the quote from this leader is the fact that when the Bible refers to the love of God, it ties it directly to the cross.

We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all…. It was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief. (Isaiah 53:4-6,10)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’ (Galatians 3:13)

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. (Romans 8:3)

I found it interesting that this author claims that penal substitionary atonement is actually a barrier to faith. Our Bible study last night revealed another verse very applicable to this very statement.

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ (1 Peter 2:7,8)

Here are the verses tying the love of God to the cross.

For God so loved the world (i.e. He loved the world in this way) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (Ephesians 5:2)

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9,10)

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood… (Revelation 1:5)

I give these verses as a study, not simply to point out a false teacher, but to encourage believers to dig deeper into the word. The death on the cross and the resurrection are foundational to our faith. Without them we are still in our sins and are to be pitied above all men (1 Corinthians 15:12-18)

A New Earth is a dangerous book

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle is likely to be a popular book for contemporary readers with a spiritual interest. Eckhart Tolle is also the author of the recent #1 New York Times’ best selling book, The Power of Now. A New Earth is the topic of discussion for a world-wide web event, sponsored by Oprah, which lasts for ten weeks beginning in March of 2008.

Oprah said on her television show that her “…goal in life is to get people to think for themselves, in a way that they know who they are…But the main point of the show all these years is to try to bring a sense of self-actualization to my audience, that’s what I’m trying to do. This book, and I’ve read lots of spiritual books over the years, this book is the best in it’s genre I’ve ever seen in terms of clarity and it’s ability to get people to see the light of who they are. And also once you see that you stop wasting time.”

This book that Oprah calls the best she has seen is a dangerous book because it will end up serving as a spiritual guide for persons who are seeking self-actualization. The problem is that the author’s goal is not just to help readers have better thoughts or be happier or relate better with others, but to provide a spiritual guide to help readers find truth. This is where the book fails. If the book simply offered self-help advice to improve ones behavior or to overcome bad thinking patterns, it would not be so dangerous. Many of the author’s illustrations and examples are true and helpful. But his spiritual conclusions are unacceptable.

1) The book misses the point of human existence. The author contends that the purpose of human existence is to bring the power of the awareness of the present moment into existence. He declares the reason for our existence is to bring the dimension of the consciousness of our own presence into the world and that we are to do that with the other people around us because the purpose of humanity is for individuals to be awakened.

2) The book also misleads readers by presenting all religions as equal. Tolle repeatedly refers to leaders from multiple religions like Jesus, Buddha, or Zen as if they were similar or equal. The result of viewing all religions as equal is that no religion ends up having a valid claim on truth. Tolle is upfront with his aversion to absolute truth. He embraces no absolute truth, truth that is true for all people for all times.

3) The book ends up mocking absolute truth. The writer says that the quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, and situations the more shallow and lifeless you become. In other words, making definitive, absolute statements marks you as a shallow person.

The author continues his reasoning by contending that churches have been correct when they identify relativism (a belief that there is no absolute truth) as one of the evils of our time. But in an ironic twist, while the author agrees that relativism is evil, he declares it evil because we have looked for truth in the wrong place. The author says truth cannot be found in doctrines or rules or stories. The discerning Christian realizes immediately that doctrines and rules and stories largely define the word of God, the Bible. The Bible is the story of God making the world and coming into the world to save it. The Bible claims to be the rule of life. The Bible tells us how to bring glory to God and to fulfill our purpose in life. The Bible is doctrine. Doctrine simply means teaching, and the Bible is full of teaching.

Tolle says that there is only one truth and all other truths emanate from it. The truth is inseparable from who you are, yes, you are the truth. In the ongoing mockery of absolute truth, the author writes that even the mental labels of good and bad are an illusion. Why? Because every thought implies a perspective and every perspective is limited and therefore the perspective cannot be true.

4) A New Earth also redefines spiritual terms. The word sin is in the book, but to Tolle, sin is not really wrong, it is more like a problem. Tolle resists labels of right and wrong and prefers to see people as simply having problems or dysfunctions that they can work on to make them better people.

Tolle promotes strange definitions of common terms as well. He defines love as the ability to recognize yourself in another. He writes that something is defined as true when it resonates and expresses your innermost being. He defines the foundation for a new heaven and a new earth as an awakened consciousness that is within you.

Interestingly the book does have a number of Bible references. Of the 31 footnotes in the book, over half of them are from the Bible. The frequent use of Scripture looks like an attempt for the author to validate his own words but in the end diminishes the words of Christ. The author refers to things like “the cares of the world” and “forgive them for they know not what they do” and the “kingdom of heaven.”

Many of the Bible verses in book appear to support what the author is saying, but are used largely out of context. For example, “poor in spirit” from the Sermon on the Mount is defined by Tolle as having no inner baggage and no identification with outside objects. The author writes that the “kingdom of heaven” is letting go of your identifications and suggests that heaven is inside of you. The author says that “God is love” is not absolutely correct. In a major redefining of spiritual terms, God is defined as “one life in and beyond countless forms of life.”

5) The most dangerous feature of the book is that it mixes excellent, insightful truth with dangerous, erroneous spiritual conclusions. In fairness to the author, he provides good insight into numerous issues. He provides good insight into parents who cannot let go of their children, as well as children who crave their parent’s approval in an unhealthy way. The author explains that much unhappiness stems from background experiences that continue to generate bad thoughts in the present moment for the thinker. These discussions are true and helpful.

The author has good insight into how pride (although the author would call it “ego”) often causes us to strike out at others, and in the end, we end up hurting ourselves. The author correctly compares TV addiction to drugs and alcohol, and also has good insight about the advanced maturity of children who have faced great difficulty. These insights and illustrations are excellent examples of the authors incredible insight. But without absolute truth, right and wrong, and good and bad, this insight is futile because it is remains merely subjected to ones own perspective.

6) Finally, it is disconcerting for the author to refer to human beings with a phrase that Christ and God used to refer to themselves. God said in the Old Testament He was the “I AM.” Jesus affirmed in the New Testament that He as well was the “I AM”. Tolle on several occasions refers to the readers and his own “I AM-ness.” He writes, “The presence that you are, the timeless I AM, can recognize itself in another.” Thankfully the author does not claim to be the great “I AM”, but will make some readers uncomfortable by using I Am phraseology in referring to human beings.

To borrow a few words from another writer, the danger of the book is that this new, positive-thinking spirituality is easily embraced by the empty souls in the post-modern world around us. Tolle’s “new spirituality” offers meaning without truth, acceptance without judgment, and fulfillment without self denial. In the end, Tolle attempts to offer a better life with self as God. For the Christian, this is not only unthinkable, it is impossible.