This is the famous line from the 1967 hit movie that older readers will remember, “Cool Hand Luke.” Luke was a convict in a Florida prison camp, played by Paul Newman, who refused to let “The Man” break him and mold his thinking to conform to acceptable thought compliance in the camp. He was made to do meaningless tasks, such as digging a huge hole and then filling it back up in an attempt to make him yield to prison-camp group-think. I was reminded…

Do you know any such people? My daughter calls them “early adapters;” others, less charitably, “snake-oil buyers.” It has been said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” The snake-oil peddlers are looking for that “some-of-the-people” segment of the population, the “early-adapters,” the dry-swimming-hole diving people who will bite on their pitch. I can recognize these gullible marks immediately because it takes…

The job of judge in the United States system of jurisprudence is to be above the political fray and to observe conflicts and disagreements and render judgments, ultimately based solely on a fixed, external, permanent system of laws. In our country that is the U.S.Constitution. Since Brett Kavanaugh has, just as in the other areas of his life, performed so well within those traditional boundaries, he has had little if any opposition on his rise to becoming exceedingly successful in both his educational and…

After watching the Martha MacCallum interview with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his wife on Fox Monday night, I was impressed by several observations I want to share with you that I believe are worthy of taking a week away from “Theology for Dummies.” We will continue our search for our ideal job next week. As I watched the interview, my thoughts immediately went to the model for Christians for facing personal attacks, character assassination and slanderous, false accusations—Jesus Christ Himself, specifically at…

What was your dream job when you were a child? My son Jason wanted to be an architect at age ten. Today he and his wife Jen are the owners of Andrews & Andrews, Architects, and have designed and built houses in Washington State and the Midwest. He loves what he does and architecture utilizes his skill set perfectly.  That’s all he ever wanted to be. However, that is not true of all of us. I was nearly 50 years old before I found…

This was the question Jesus asked the  man by the pool of Bethesda who had been lame for 38 years (John 5:5). Notice He is asking the man whether or not he really wants to be healed, and indicates after He does so that his infirmity may have something to do with an habitually sinful lifestyle (“Go and sin no more”). Jesus comes to us today with the same question. This man’s spiritual condition was expressed outwardly by an easily observable physical infirmity, just…

Last week we looked at the only two ways God uses His law in our lives as described by Paul in Galatians 3:23-25: 1.) its external use as a fence to protect us from ourselves, in our relationships on the earth and 2.) its internal use as a mirror to show us our sin (James 1:23, 24), in our relationship with God. Paul describes this second use of the law in Galatians 3 as a paidagōgos, or “child-leader,” to lead us to Christ by…

In the past few postings, we have been exploring Question #2 of Theology 101, “What am I like?” Today I want to discuss the importance of the law of God, i.e., what God requires of us, in answering that question. As a matter of fact, God’s law, wherever it is found, Old Testament or New, is the main tool God has in helping us to answer it correctly. This “importance of the law” may be surprising and uncomfortable to many who have responded to…

Last week we discussed the second theological question in Basic Theology 101, “What am I like?” We found that the current defining characteristic of God’s only creature who was made “in God’s image” is that he is now, because of Adam’s fateful choice in the Garden, a sinner. Before we investigate the third theological question, “How does God relate to me?” it is important for us to grasp that being “a sinner” is not primarily an intellectual, theological concept. When Romans 3:12 says, “All…

Over the past few weeks we have begun to put some meat on the bones of Christian Theology 101 by beginning to answer the four questions that comprise its theological skeleton: 1) What is God like? 2.) What am I like? 3.) How does God relate to me? 4.) What is my purpose in life? In our society today, “black and white” or fixed, unchanging standards are out; nuanced, flexible preferences or “shades of grey” are in. On the other hand, in our postings…