Sixth Annual WPN Conference

How Christianity Invented Religious Freedom

Friday, January 24, 2020

10:00 am Dr. James Tonkowich, The Early Christian Roots of Religious Freedom 

1:30 pm Dr. James Tonkowich, The Christian Ideas that Drove America's Founding Documents

3:30 pm Dr. James Tonkowich, Current Attacks on Religious Liberty 

6:00 pm Banquet
Rev. Jonathan Lange, Christianity's Unique and Essential Contribution to Public Discourse

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PRESENTER

James Tonkowich, D. Min. 
is a Senior Contributor to The Stream, is a freelance writer, speaker and commentator on spirituality, religion and public life who has contributed to a wide variety of opinion websites and publications.
He is the author of The Liberty Threat: The Attack on Religious Freedom in America Today from St. Benedict Press and Pears, Grapes, and Dates: A Good Life After Mid-Life. Jim also serves as Director of Distance Learning at Wyoming Catholic College and is host of the college’s weekly podcast, “The After Dinner Scholar.”

CrossTalk: Serious Sin, Serious Forgiveness

The full and free forgiveness of sins stands at the very heart of the Christian message. Yet, today, both in the Church and in society at large, there is a great deal of confusion about the very nature of sin and why it needs forgiving at all.

That confusion starts with the shallow notion that sin is nothing more than disobedience to the ten commandments. To be sure, it is that. But unless you think more deeply, you will likely consider these commandments to be nothing more than a random list of rules.

When you think of the commandments as a random list of rules—whether given by God or given by the Church—you will never understand the enormous cost of breaking them.

Secular contempt for religion comes from the false idea that an ancient and out-of-touch hierarchy (the Church) is trying to impose morality on the rest of the world. But Christians who replace the arbitrary dictates of men with the arbitrary dictates of God don’t improve matters very much.

While it is true—even vital—to understand that God is the source of all morality, you will not understand the nature of sin until you understand that God’s commands are not arbitrary.

The truth is that the commandments start with creation. The human body, by nature, cannot tolerate certain things. If it gets too hot or too cold, you die. A long fall or a bullet can kill you. Poison will do you in. You don’t need to be told these things. You can learn them from experience.

But there are also dangers to human life that are less obvious but just as deadly. These we are told about in the ten commandments.

If you trust God, you will take his word for it. If you don’t trust Him, you may reject His guidance. But either way, breaking the ten commandments does the same irreparable harm to human life. “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17 ESV).

Now we are to the real point. God teaches the ten commandments not as an arbitrary list of “dos” and “don’ts” but as the very structure of human life. To break them is to break life itself.

Sins are like arsenic taken into the body. Once there, it inexorably works death. There is no antidote. Nothing can slow its destructive effect. Nothing can remove it from the body.

A single sin and death is inevitable. It is entirely impossible for sin to enter into a body without working death. Is that all there is to say? Are we simply destined for death? Yes, and no.

While there is absolutely nothing—not even God—that can stop the deadly effect of sin, there is a solution that only God can offer. He, and He alone, can absorb the deadly effects of sin in Himself. In fact, that is exactly what He has done.

“When Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me’” (Hebrews 10:5). In Christ, God has made Himself a body in which to absorb all of sin’s poison.

“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That will never change. But Jesus has provided a way to take that death into Himself. That is called “forgiveness.” That is the Good News at the heart of the Christian faith.

While sin is far more serious than you ever thought, Christ’s forgiveness is even more serious, still. “By believing, you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

CrossTalk: Lamps in the darkness

Thomas Edison gave us a tremendous gift of convenience. But by replacing oil lamps with electric light bulbs, he also deprived us of the daily lesson of lamps.

I was reminded of this recently in Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). The whole thing centers around ladies with lamps. I realized that they shared an experience that most of us have never known.

More than that, I realized that God Himself put oil lamps at the very center of religious experience. From Mt. Sinai until the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.—over 1,500 years—the priests of Israel entered the holy place twice a day to refill and to trim seven lamps.

Those lamps were not just for lighting. They were a lesson. They taught about the nature of our human existence.

Every lamp has three essential components. It is a vessel made of clay. It is filled with oil. And, it is tipped by fire. The fire is the point of the whole thing. Without fire the rest of the lamp makes no sense.

Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. His is the light that was intended to shine from each and every human being. From the beginning, Jesus is the point of human existence. Faith is not an added “extra.” It is the essence of life.

In ancient days, fire and light always went together. Today, LEDs make it possible to have light without heat. But light from a burning lamp is always powerful and contagious.  Such is the light of Christ. It is not “tame” light; it is fire.

In a lamp, the light does not fuel itself. Rather, it is fueled by the oil. Throughout the Scriptures, oil is identified with the Holy Spirit. So, also here. The light of Christ must be constantly sustained by the Holy Spirit. Should the Holy Spirit depart, the light will go out.

That was the problem that the five foolish virgins were having. The made no provision to replenish the oil of the Holy Spirit. So, when the Bridegroom arrived, they had lost Christ.

It is a constant temptation to admire our own faith and think it could never go out. This is the reason the foolish virgins didn’t think to replenish their oil. The wise, on the other hand, saw that the more brightly the flame of faith shone, the more quickly it used up their oil.

Christians who experience the brightest burning faith, are those who should be the most intent on hearing God’s Word and renewing the Holy Spirit. They do not need less oil, but more.

The lamp is a vessel of clay fashioned to hold oil. In the same way, our vessel of clay was fashioned to hold the Holy Spirit. The LORD God formed Adam from clay and breathed into Him the Spirit of Life (Genesis 2:7).

Unlike any other animal in the world, human beings are deliberately made by the hands of God to be vessels of the Holy Spirit so that our clay might show forth the Light of Christ into the darkness.

As the days are growing every shorter and ever darker, light is needed now more than ever.

I suppose that’s why lamps and candles have always been a part of Christian worship. They are a constant reminder that our vessels of clay were made to be filled with the Holy Spirit and on fire with the Light of Christ.

We are born with our clay. The oil and fire are God’s gift through the preaching of His Word.

CrossTalk: Theodicy

“If God is good, how could he damn some people to hell just because they never got a chance to hear about Jesus?”

That’s a question that I have been asked over the years. Sometimes it’s an honest question. Sometimes it is not. Human beings are capable of deep compassion for people we have never met. We are also capable of inventing all kinds of excuses to avoid humbling ourselves before God.

Whether the question is asked in honesty or dishonesty, the conversation rarely leads to a satisfactory answer. So, today I want to put something in writing. It will not satisfy all people, but I hope it will satisfy the heart that is pious and compassionate about people you have never met.

The first thing that needs to be said about this question is this: It is a theodicy. That means it is an attempt to justify God. That is so backwards as to be nonsensical. God has sent His only begotten Son in order to justify you, not the other way around. Any God who needs our justification is not worthy of the name.

The next thing that should be said is that the question itself hides a number of dubious assumptions. First, it assumes that some people never got a chance to hear the Word of God. Yet everyone who ever asked the question already knows enough about God to ask the question. So, where are these people who haven’t heard?

If you meet one, let me know. I would be glad to tell him. Better yet, tell him yourself. If it’s a benighted tribe in Africa, fly there and tell them. Or take all the money you spend on yourself and give it to a missionary. It’s no good complaining that God is stingy with His word when you yourself are sitting on a pot of gold.

Second, the question assumes that people are damned because they don’t believe. That’s not what Christianity teaches. People are damned because they are in open rebellion against their Creator. Jesus comes to save you from this condition—and His salvation is received by believing.

It is the peculiar blunder of our day to think of faith as some sort of accomplishment on my part that makes God happy with me. No! Faith is the natural, healthy posture of any human being towards his or her Creator. Lack of it is a problem akin to a mental health issue—except worse.

Those that have faith in the true God have been healed of a deadly disease. Those who reject it can’t blame the Physician.

Why do some people reject the Physician’s cure and others receive it? That is the real question. And it cannot ever be answered for someone else. It can only be answered for yourself. You can go to the library and read a Bible. You probably have several in your own home. If you read it, it will tell you to go to church. So, go.

Find a church that teaches every last word of the Bible and attend worship and Bible study. If you do, God will bring you from unbelief into the true faith (or He will keep you in the true faith if you already have it). If you are not doing this, the real question is neither about God nor about noble savages on the other side of the globe.

Rest assured that the God who gave His only begotten Son to be crucified for the sins of the whole world loves every person on the globe more than you could even imagine. He does absolutely everything to save them that could possibly be done. He has also done everything to save you. Believe it, or not.

CrossTalk: God sets the solitary in families

The most universal fact of human existence is that every single person who has ever lived has both a mother and a father. There are no exceptions to this rule. While biologically true of all animals, this has special significance for human beings.

Feelings of family connectedness are among the most powerful of human emotions. The bond of love between father, mother and child is unparalleled among animals. Even where those bonds are broken, our deepest longings testify to the profundity of our loss.

None of this is accidental. “God sets the solitary in families” (Psalm 68:6a). Creation itself teaches that the family structure of father, mother and child is integral to the very image of God. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female created He them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply” (Gen 1:27-28).

God said, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We are created for relationships. First comes parent and child. Marriage of husband and wife is equally profound. Family is the basic building block of all society.

Christian thinkers have observed that the God-given triangle of father-mother-child is nothing less than an echo of God’s own nature. From eternity, God is not solitary, but He is a community of Three.

While these words are true, they also expose raw nerves. Contrary to our deepest yearnings, family brokenness is everywhere. We all experience it. If we ourselves are not missing father, mother or child we all love someone who is.

We live in a time and place that has forgotten the importance of family and does more to attack family bonds than to protect them. The devastation of this inattention to family is getting harder and harder to ignore. Our hearts ache for ourselves, friends and loved ones who suffer in the wake of broken relationships.

One response to this intense pain is to deny the importance of relationships lost. We desperately try to convince ourselves that families are really not that important. We attribute our pain to something else and numb ourselves to avoid further hurt. But it doesn’t help. Eventually, reality breaks through our defenses and the devastating pain returns with a vengeance.

Jesus knows and cares. Never forget that He is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. He knew your nature before He even created it. So, His atonement for the sins of the world is also for the healing of relationships broken by sin. This is the great news of Christ’s Church!

Christ gives His Church on earth for two present blessings. First, by Jesus’ blood and forgiveness Christians can forgive one another fully and completely. Relationships that were once destroyed are fully retrievable in Christ. There is always hope. Loneliness is not inevitable.

Second, even where the reconciliation of God-given relationships is rendered impossible by unrepentance or by the finality of death, still there is hope. “God sets the solitary in families,” is not just a statement about being born. It is also a promise for all who are reborn.

By Baptism, God is begetting new Children and building a new family of God. This family is no cheap substitute. The family of God in Christ Jesus is the true family that God intended all along. Holy Communion is about a new community made possible through the blood of Jesus.

The Holy Christian Church is here for the lonely. It is God’s place of healing for everyone devastated by broken relationships.

CrossTalk: Love your enemies

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28 ESV). These are some of the most counter-cultural words ever spoken. Christians are not called to mirror the world. They are called to mirror God. They are called to love their enemies because God loves His enemies.

Lest we misunderstand these words, we should start by defining two terms. First, what is an enemy? It’s probably not what you think. When most people think of an enemy, they think about a person they do not like. That gets things backward. Enemies intend to do you harm whether you like them or not.

Your feelings about a person are completely beside the point. If you happen to dislike someone who hasn’t done anything evil to you, that says more about you than about him. Jesus expects everyone to know better than that. So, He doesn’t even address it here. He only wants to talk about your attitude toward those who are intent on hurting you.

As for those who are good to you, it takes no special gift and no special faith to like them. Jesus says, "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” (Luke 6:32).

The second term we must clarify is the word “love.” Love is not passive, but active. It is not merely to refrain from revenge, or to suppress your feelings of rage. Neither can it simply ignore someone who bothers you. Love goes way beyond tolerance. It involves action. Love goes out of its way to do good.

St. Paul teaches this in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful... Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

Because love requires that you involve yourself with a person to do positive good, it cannot be faked or forced. When Jesus says, “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return,” He calls us to a live of genuine love, care, concern and kindness.

If you thought loving your enemy was a little over the top to start with, by now you will really be scratching your head. Loving your enemy is not anything that you can achieve. It can only be a gift from God.

Loving your enemy can only begin when the One whom you have treated like an enemy loves you. Every sin, every rebellion against God, every rejection of his will for your life treats Jesus as an enemy. Yet, even though we have so treated Christ, he does not respond by hating us back.

The truth is, “[w]hile we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). How can this fact not melt our hearts? God, in Christ, has done for you the very thing that Jesus calls Christians to do. He has loved those intent on doing Him harm.

He does this not because you have first done him well, not because you have first promised to amend your ways, not because you were less evil than someone else, but purely because you needed His love.

There is only one way to thank Him for this undeserved kindness. That is, to receive His love and forgiveness in humble repentance. When you thus receive Him in faith, He gives you "the right to become Sons of God" (John 1:12).

When God the Father makes you His son by adoption and faith, He gives you a heart like the heart of Jesus. Then, and only then, do you love your enemies “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:45).

CrossTalk: God loved the world in this way

John 3:16 is known as “the Gospel in a nutshell.” It is a beloved passage of Scripture and has probably been memorized more than any other passage: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (KJV).

God’s love for the world moved Him to act. He loved the world in a certain way, by doing a specific thing. Namely, this is the way that He loved the world: “He gave His only-begotten Son.” So, God’s love is more than a feeling in the heart. His good will toward the world led Him to action.

The same is true of human love. Love shows itself in action, not merely by pleasant emotions. When you love someone—be it a son or daughter, mother or father, husband or wife—true love cannot remain inactive.

Don’t kid yourself that you love someone if you are unwilling to do heartfelt kindnesses for them. Selfish demands are the opposite of love. True love does specific things that are objectively good for the loved one and repents of any actions that hurt the loved one.

The flip side of this is also true. For the person who is being loved, it will not do to reject the good things a person does for you or the gifts he gives to you. The surest way to stifle love is to reject the kind and selfless things that a person wants to do for you. If someone is loving you, the only way to truly receive his love, is through humble thankfulness.

So, just as God the Father expresses His love for the world by giving His only begotten Son, the only way that we receive God’s love is by receiving His Son. To reject the Son is to reject the love of the Father. It sounds crazy, but that is exactly what countless thousands do.

By the pure deception of the devil, many people see Christ and His word as the enemy. They see the infinitely good gift of God the Father and run from Him as though He were a monster, come to destroy them.

So, God’s loving kindness goes even further. Rather than becoming angry with the person who is rejecting His Son, God pleads with you and explains sincerely, “I did not send my Son into the world to condemn you. I sent Him so that you might be saved through Him.”

Don’t run away. Whatever Satan is telling you about God’s evil intentions for you are lies. Don’t let those lies prevent you from receiving the Father’s love. These are the comforting and beckoning words of God the Holy Spirit. Even the faith to believe in Jesus is given as a pure gift of God by the Holy Spirit.

I suppose that is why this passage of Scripture is so beloved. It speaks of the Gospel of the Triune God so clearly and so plainly that it beckons all to believe.

God the Father’s love moved Him to give the gift of His Son. Far from sending His Son into the world for condemnation, God sent His Son into the world to die for the sins of the world. The gift that God the Father gave into the world is not simply His only begotten Son, but His Son lifted up on a cross to pay for your sins.

It is God the Holy Spirit Himself who brings you to believe this. He fights through the devil’s lies and gives you faith that receives the love of God in the Person of His Son.