The Josh Report: 2009

I'm currently reading The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It's not actually a divine conspiracy by him, but rather a book about God's Divine Conspiracy... i.e. our participation in His current Kingdom through which we combat, and are witnesses against, the current powers of this world. The majority of the book has been a sort of discourse on the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and it's been thoroughly enjoyable. Willard definitely has some unique opinions on interpretations of some of the Sermon on the Mount, but they make a lot of sense. I'll probably throw a short book review/outline on here when I'm finished. That should please my gigantic following of... um... 4 people (give or take).

EDIT: Okay, I finished so here it is... Sorry about the lame format but since I'm likely the only one reading this anyway I'll just plan to use it as a sort of highlights to refer back to later. Here goes:

The overall, simple and short summary of the Divine Conspiracy, or the OSaSSotDC as I like to call it, is that God's using "the Kingdom among us", or His current Kingdom of disciples on earth, to accomplish His plans and to combat the evil among us. Willard breaks this down with insightful explanations of the gospel and focuses heavily on true discipleship (or apprenticeship) to Christ. He concludes the book with a chapter on "A curriculum for Christlikeness" which, I presume, draws heavily on another of his books "Spirit of the Disciplines". Willard is well-read, intelligent and a gifted writer and even if you don't agree with all his conclusions you have to admire his insight into Scripture. Highlights or overarching themes in the book include the following:

On the gospel and the “Kingdom among us”: Willard believes that the gospel, as we usually hear and convey it, has little to no effect on our current lives. It has been reduced to guilt atonement alone; a sort of “get out of hell free” card. He believes that because of the miscommunication and misunderstanding of the gospel we tend to live our lives on earth as though they don't matter and that God's kingdom and our salvation is purely a future event. There is infrequently a gospel for life as we know it but instead ones for death or social action. This concept is similar to Lane and Tripp's concept in “How People Change” which states that the church has done a good job dealing with our past (sin) and our future (heaven) but has done a poor job explaining how the gospel affects the here and now.

Willard says on Pg 49 -

When all is said and done, “the gospel” for [those] on the theological right is that Christ made “the arrangement” that can get us into heaven. In the Gospels, by contrast, “the gospel” is the good news of the presence and availability of life in the kingdom, now and forever, through reliance on Jesus the Anointed. This was Abraham's faith, too. As Jesus said, “Abraham saw my time and was delighted” (John 8:56).
Accordingly, the only description of eternal life found in the words we have from Jesus is “This is eternal life, that they [his disciples] may know you, the only real God, and Jesus the anointed, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This may sound to us like “mere head knowledge.” But the biblical “know” always refers to an intimate, personal, interactive relationship.

On the church's current condition:
Pg 58 -

Must not all who speak for Christ constantly ask themselves these crucial questions:
Does the gospel I preach and teach have a natural tendency to cause people who hear it to become full-time students of Jesus?
Would those who believe it become his apprentices as a natural “next step”?
What can we reasonably expect would result from people actually believing the substance of my message?
The condition so eloquently deplored by numerous leaders already quoted in this chapter is nothing but the natural consequence of the basic message of the church as it is heard today. It would be foolish to expect anything else than precisely what we have got.
A saying among management experts today is, “Your system is perfectly designed to yield the result you are getting.” This is a profound though painful truth that must be respected by all who have an interest in Christian spiritual formation, whether for themselves as individuals or for groups or institutions.

On “the heavens”: Willard argues that God is not distant and removed. He states that speaking “from heaven(s)” more likely refers to the air around us. He speaks “out of thin air” and He is everywhere.

On the Sermon on the Mount: The sermon on the mount is not a collection of laws but rather a picture of a life devoted to kingdom living.

Pg 102 – Willard believes that the promises in the beatitudes are not rewards or results of the conditions mentioned (eg. Poor in spirit, meek, righteous) but rather in spite of those conditions. Jesus is the common source of blessing in each case. I personally don't believe the beatitudes are a list of bad or pitiful conditions, nor is it a list of admirable conditions, but rather a list of conditions... and the answer to those conditions, in each case, is Jesus.
Pg 116 -

We have already indicated the key to understanding the beatitudes. They serve to clarify Jesus' fundamental message: the free availability of God's rule and righteousness to all of humanity through reliance upon Jesus himself, the person now loose in the world among us. They do this simply by taking those who, from the human point of view, are regarded as most hopeless, most beyond all possibility of God's blessing or even interest, and exhibiting them as enjoying God's touch and abundant provision from the heavens.

I would add that they actually do this by taking everyone and exhibiting them in this way. Jesus' examples would likely be a cross section of the crowd. It includes those who are “successful”, those who are weak, those who are poor and those who are spiritual. As Willard points out (pg 133), the statements in the sermon on the mount are sufficiently impossible and crushing, even for the “successful”, that the only hope is to cast ourselves on Jesus.

On Jesus' teaching: Jesus often taught in exaggeration or overstatement to correct false views (such as the view that riches were a reward from God for righteousness). In this way He was correcting the prevailing practices found in the culture around Him.

On the sort of counterfeit Christianity common today: Willard states on pg 201, “Adult members of churches today rarely raise serious religious questions for fear of revealing their doubt or being thought of as strange.” I would add fear of being viewed as foolish and/or stupid to Willard's list as well.
Pg 76 –

Interestingly, “growing up” is largely a matter of learning to hide our spirit behind our face, eyes and language so that we can evade and manage others to achieve what we want and avoid what we fear. By contrast, the child's face is a constant epiphany because it doesn't yet know how to do this. It cannot manage its face. This is also true of adults in moments of great feeling—which is one reason why feeling is both greatly treasured and greatly feared.
Those who have attained considerable spiritual stature are frequently noted for their “childlikeness.” What this really means is that they do not use their face and body to hide their spiritual reality. In their body they are genuinely present to those around them. That is a great spiritual attainment or gift.

On eternal life: Everyone is now leading an eternal life. I am now leading a life that will last forever. Our lives now, in the present, in the kingdom among us, matter.

On confrontation of sin: pg 219 – Correcting a brother caught in sin is not a matter of hammering them and threatening what is “going to happen” if they don't comply or change their ways. It is a matter of restoration. The aim is to bring them back on the path of Jesus so their progress in Kingdom character & living can continue. Also, those doing correcting must recognize that they themselves are capable of the same sins and worse.

On condemnation: Pg 221 -

Now a moment's reflection is all that is required to make one realize how terribly powerful condemnation is. It knifes into vulnerable areas at the core of our being. That is why it hurts so badly and at the same time why we rely upon it so heavily. The decision to step aside from it, neither giving it nor receiving it, is a major turning point in one's life. If, as Christians often say, we really are “different” as followers of Christ, this is a point where it should be most obvious. We would not condemn, nor would we “receive” condemnation directed upon us.
Of course more than half the battle with condemnation is won once we have given up anger and contempt. Condemnation always involves some degree of self-righteousness and of distancing ourselves from the one we are condemning. And self-righteousness always involves an element of comparison and of condemnation. Jesus spoke to “some who were relying upon themselves for their rightness and were despising others” (Luke 18:9). The combination is not accidental. Contempt is a major part of condemnation in the usual case, and when we drop contempt from our soul and our bearing, condemnation rarely occurs, and never with its most devastating effects.

And on pg 227

When we enter the life of friendship with the Jesus who is now at work in our universe, we stand in a new reality where condemnation is simply irrelevant. There is before God, Paul says, “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). And as for the condemnation we may receive from others, I endeavor not to receive it, to just ignore or drop it. I have learned to look at it only while simultaneously holding in full view the fact that Jesus, so far from condemning me, died for me and is right now intervening on my behalf in the heavens. This helps me stay out of counter-condemnation, with its pain and anger.

Pearls before swine – Willard has a unique view on this passage of Scripture. He doesn't believe, as is commonly taught, that “casting your pearls before swine” refers to giving the gospel to those who refuse it. This teaching typically says if you present the gospel and it is repeatedly rebuffed, you should stop giving that person the gospel and move on, in essence not “wasting” your pearls on swine. Willard believes that this passage actually teaches us that we should not be pushing our valuable religious truths on unbelievers in situations which are inappropriate or do not warrant these truths. Doing this would, as the passage states, eventually illicit anger from the swine. Essentially it goes something like this:
Swine & dogs were, to Jews, unclean and/or evil. This makes them a good Jewish representation of the unclean gentiles. Pearls, as stated earlier, would represent religious truths of some sort.
In essence Jesus is brilliantly using foul and unclean, pigs/dogs, which also need food as domesticated farm animals, to represent unclean gentiles. As Jews were pushing unhelpful religious truths on the pagan pigs, these “pearls”, which are valuable yet inedible (ie unhelpful) get trampled underfoot. Eventually the pigs will get fed up and attack the only available food source...the Jews. This follows the section in the sermon on the mount on wrongly used condemnation.
This leads to the idea of hypocritical condemnation. This means not seeking the others true best, just as casting our pearls before those who do not need them, or can't use them, is a waste of time. Instead when trying to win the lost we must never be their problem. We must sit back and be an ally and resource to help them see their situation, not us, as their problem. This is where Jesus' teaching on being as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves comes into play. Snakes are watchful and observant; waiting for the right time to act. You rarely see a snake chasing its prey or thrashing about in order to impress it. Doves do not contrive. Doves are incapable of intrigue or guile. Doves are always honest and direct and harmless.

On Jesus as a partner: Pg 236 – Jesus is mediator of all our relationships. As Bonhoeffer states, “Me and Jesus” will interact with others, not me alone. No one on one, but rather always “Me and Jesus”. Human love is always selfish and wrong, loving others for Christ is the goal.

On prayer: Jesus, when dealing with Peter, demonstrated prayer love in this way: Jesus longed for Peter to come through his time of testing but left him to fail or succeed. He used no condemnation, no shame, no “pearls of wisdom” on him. He didn't force success by rewiring his brain. Instead he “requested, concerning you, that your faith might not die.” This is Jesus' perfect pattern for us to follow in our relationships.
Prayer is “talking to God about what we are doing together.”
Pg 244-246 – Willard argues for the idea (based on Moses changing God's mind about destroying Israel and Hezekiah's petition for deliverance from a God-induced sickness) that our prayers can change God's mind. While His overarching purposes are unchanging His intentions regarding particular matters in individuals lives are not...

On the Kingdom of God: The kingdom of God is the domain where what God prefers is what happens.

On the Lord's Prayer:
Daily bread: We know and trust God will be there tomorrow & will care for us then.... so we don't need to worry or “stock up”.

On heaven:

“The fires in heaven may be hotter than those in the other place. It might prove helpful to think occasionally of how, exactly, I would be glad to be in heaven should I 'make it.' I often wonder how happy and useful some of the fearful, bitter, lust-ridden, hate-filled Christians I have seen involved in church or family or neighborhood or political battles would be if they were forced to live forever in the unrestrained fullness of the reality of God...and with multitudes of beings really like Him.”

On discipleship or apprenticeship to Jesus: This can be defined or summed up as “How would Jesus live my actual life if he were me?”
“To enable people to become disciples we must change whatever it is in their actual belief system that bars confidence in Jesus as Master of the universe.” Pg 307 -

“One of the greatest weaknesses in teaching and leadership today is that we spend so much time trying to get people to do things good people are supposed to do without changing what they really believe. It doesn't succeed very well, and that is the open secret of church life. We frankly need to do much less of this managing of action, and especially with young people. We need to concentrate on changing the minds of those we would reach and serve. What they do will certainly follow, as Jesus well understood and taught.”

“We often speak of people not living up to their faith. But the cases in which we say this are not really cases of people behaving otherwise than they believe. They are cases in which genuine beliefs are made obvious by what people do. We always live up to our beliefs—or down to them, as the case may be. Nothing else is possible. It is the nature of belief. And the reason why clergy and others have to invest so much effort into getting people to do things is that they are working against the actual beliefs of the people they are trying to lead.”

On misguided church leadership: Henri Nouwen -

“We simply go along with the many “musts” and “oughts” that have been handed on to use, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord. People must be motivated to come to church, youth must be entertained, money must be raised, and above all everyone must be happy. Moreover, we ought to be on good terms with the church and civil authorities; we ought to be like or at least respected by a fair majority of our parishioners; we ought to move up in the ranks according to schedule; and we ought to have enough vacation and salary to life a comfortable life.”

The curriculum for Christlikeness:

A proper curriculum for Christlikeness is focused on apprenticeship and not merely on information. While we might be “educated” if we learn to “get the right answer” we won't necessarily be mature. We must bring disciples to “actually believe all the things they have already heard.” It is transforming right answers into automatic responses to real-life situations. “The ordinary members of a church have an immense amount of information about God, Jesus, what they ought to do, and their own destiny. It has come to them through the Christian tradition.” We must actually believe the things we “know” to be true. Believing them allows us to live as if they are true.

A curriculum for Christlikeness must not include the following as primary objectives:

external conformity to the wording of Jesus teaching about actions in specific contexts
Profession of perfectly correct doctrine.
Strategies of encouraging faithfulness to the activities of a church or other outwardly religious routines and “spiritualities”.
Seeking out of special states of mind or ecstatic experiences.

The two primary objectives of the curriculum:

Bring apprentices to the point where they dearly love and constantly delight in that “heavenly Father” made real to earth in Jesus and are quite certain that there is no “catch”, no limit, to the goodness of his intentions or to his power to carry them out. This is achieved by bringing God before the mind through
- His creation
- His public acts on the scene of human history
- Individual experiences of Him by ourselves and others.

Remove our automatic responses against the kingdom of God, to free the apprentices of domination, of “enslavement” to their old habitual patterns of thought, feeling and action. This is achieved by:
- The threefold dynamic or what Willard calls the “Golden Triangle” of Spiritual Growth. The three sides of the triangle are a) The action of the Holy Spirit b) Ordinary events of life c) Planned discipline to put on a new heart. Willard believes that these three facets, when working together, effectively produce a person “centered in the mind of Christ”.
- Planned disciplines to bring on a New Heart

Pg 356 -

“I had learned that intensity is crucial for any progress in spiritual perception and understanding. To dribble a few verses or chapters of scripture on oneself through the week, in church or out, will not reorder one's mind and spirit—just as one drop of water every five minutes will not get you a shower, no matter how long you keep it up. You need a lot of water at once and for a sufficiently long time. Similarly for the written Word.”

In order to fulfill the laws seen in the Bible we must focus on being a whole person, not on the actions. An apple tree easily produces apples and so it is with the heart. If you change the heart, actions will naturally follow (pg 142-143). Matthew 23:25-26 gives us a great example of this. In this illustration Jesus states that by cleaning the inside of a dish the outside naturally becomes clean. Cleaning the outside without addressing the inside is focusing on behavior and not on the heart. This is the same principle commonly talked about in Christian parenting books.