By Jeremy Bell
I am going to highlight a theocentric perspective using Psalm 68 as well as the connection to it from Ephesians 4: 1 – 16. All scripture is God breathed, written through His uniquely made people. People use it to learn to be people of God. Scripture is NOT people breathed to uniquely create God. Theocentric perspective is simply believing that God reveals, and people understand. It rejects that people understand and reveal to themselves, God.
Defining Religion and Faith
Religion is a system of beliefs that have their foundation on specific moral beliefs and philosophy. Faith is trust and confidence in someone or something. While true Christianity is faith, not religion, it certainly has strong enough moral implications that have developed it into a religion. Gwyneth Paltrow has stated that ‘Religion is the cause of all the problems in the world. I don’t believe in organized religion at all. It’s what separates people. One religion just represents fragments, it causes war. More people have died because of religious conflict than any other reason.’
Popular Beliefs on Religion
This sentiment has been around for a while and we sentimentally sing John Lennon’s song, Imagine, every New Year’s Eve, reminding us that if there were only no religion, there would be peace. Celebrities and the media jump at the chance to promote a religionless society and have even begun to praise the communist societies that have outlawed religion. If I read it right, the idea is that each one of us has a personal moral code that would allow us to live in harmony with each other if only there wasn’t some external system that directed us otherwise.
Peace is certainly attractive, and if you think celebrities and the popular media have the answers, I simply encourage you to follow the patterns of results and keep digging into the so-called truths they keep promoting. Find out how deep their philosophies really are, know what you’re grounding yourself in.
Facts Confront Beliefs
The problem I have is that what they’re promoting and telling us just isn’t true, even on a basic fact checking mission. According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, out of all 1,763 known, recorded historical conflicts, 7%, had religion as their primary cause. Matthew White did research and wrote a book titled ‘The Great Big Book of Horrible Things’. It states that 11% of the world’s deadliest atrocities can be attributed to religion. This should give every person reason to reconsider religion and its’ role in society. Certainly, the proponents of religion should take encouragement from these actual facts.
One thing is true, religion separates people. But is this too simplistic? Certainly, moral rules do this, and we want them to, don’t we? Even anti-religious people don’t want to mix with violent people. Would Gwyneth Paltrow feel comfortable not being separated from the rapist or murderer? I won’t answer for her, but societies across time across geographies, and even across religions do want to separate. God is going to separate, but He will do it after the first death, He will do it justly, and He will do it according to the heart of a person. He’s the only one who can, He made it and was intimately involved with it for the entirety of its’ life.
Great News About Christianity
I am biased, I am Christian. My faith is in Jesus, my trust and confidence. I do practice religious things and follow the moral teaching of what is found in the Bible. Not perfectly, but in practice with the hope of improvement. Allow me to quote directly from Wikipedia some facts regarding the religion of Christianity.
‘Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the history and formation of Western society. Throughout its long history, the Church has been a major source of social services like schooling and medical care; an inspiration for art, culture and philosophy; and an influential player in politics and religion. The cultural influence of the Church has been vast. Church scholars preserved literacy in Western Europe following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
During the Middle Ages, the Church rose to replace the Roman Empire as the unifying force in Europe. Many of Europe’s universities were also founded by the church at that time. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries. The university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting, born from Cathedral schools.
The Bible and Christian theology have also strongly influenced Western philosophers and political activists. The teachings of Jesus, such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, are among the most important sources of modern notions of human rights and the welfare commonly provided by governments in the West. Long-held Christian teachings on sexuality, marriage, and family life have also been influential and controversial in recent times.
Christianity played a role in ending practices such as human sacrifice, infanticide, and polygamy. Christianity in general affected the status of women by condemning marital infidelity, divorce, incest, polygamy, birth control, infanticide (female infants were more likely to be killed), and abortion. Official Catholic Church teaching considers women and men to be complementary (equal and different). Women have played prominent roles in Western history through and as part of the church, particularly in education and healthcare, but also as influential theologians and mystics.
Christians have made a myriad of contributions to human progress in a broad and diverse range of fields, both historically and in modern times, including the science and technology, medicine, fine arts and architecture, politics, literatures, music, philanthropy, philosophy, ethics, humanism, theatre and business. According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes a review of Nobel prizes award between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.’
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, July 3). Role of Christianity in civilization. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:57, July 27, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Role_of_Christianity_in_civilization&oldid=1096237373
These all sound like gifts to me. I hope this gives some perspective and things to consider while preparing to hear or read this Psalm. Here is Psalm 68 and Ephesians 4: 1 – 16. Patterns are color coded in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization.
[ Psalm 68 ]
Let God arise!
Let his enemies be scattered!
Let them who hate him also flee before him.
As smoke is driven away,
so drive them away.
As wax melts before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
But let the righteous be glad.
Let them rejoice before God.
Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.
Sing to God! Sing praises to his name!
Extol him who rides on the clouds:
to Yah, his name!
Rejoice before him!
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows,
is God in his holy habitation.
God sets the lonely in families.
He brings out the prisoners with singing,
but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
God, when you went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness… Selah.
The earth trembled.
The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai—
at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
You, God, sent a plentiful rain.
You confirmed your inheritance when it was weary.
Your congregation lived therein.
You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.
The Lord announced the word.
The ones who proclaim it are a great company.
“Kings of armies flee! They flee!”
She who waits at home divides the plunder,
while you sleep among the camp fires,
the wings of a dove sheathed with silver,
her feathers with shining gold.
When the Almighty scattered kings in her,
it snowed on Zalmon.
The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains.
The mountains of Bashan are rugged.
Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains,
at the mountain where God chooses to reign?
Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever.
The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands.
The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.
You have ascended on high.
You have led away captives.
You have received gifts among people,
yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens,
even the God who is our salvation. Selah.
God is to us a God of deliverance.
To Yahweh, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
But God will strike through the head of his enemies,
the hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness.
The Lord said, “I will bring you again from Bashan,
I will bring you again from the depths of the sea,
that you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood,
that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.”
They have seen your processions, God,
even the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
The singers went before, the minstrels followed after,
among the ladies playing with tambourines,
“Bless God in the congregations,
even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!”
There is little Benjamin, their ruler,
the princes of Judah, their council,
the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
Your God has commanded your strength.
Strengthen, God, that which you have done for us.
Because of your temple at Jerusalem,
kings shall bring presents to you.
Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds,
the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples.
Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver.
Scatter the nations that delight in war.
Princes shall come out of Egypt.
Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.
Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth!
Sing praises to the Lord— Selah—
to him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old;
behold, he utters his voice, a mighty voice.
Ascribe strength to God!
His excellency is over Israel,
his strength is in the skies.
You are awesome, God, in your sanctuaries.
The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people.
Praise be to God!
[ Ephesians 4: 1 – 16 ]
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all, and in us all. But to each one of us, the grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he says,
“When he ascended on high,
he led captivity captive,
and gave gifts to people.”
Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
More Christian Religion Facts
Robert Woodberry is a sociologist and teacher of religion at Baylor university. He published a thesis there where he stated the following: ‘“The work of missionaries turns out to be the single largest factor in ensuring the health of nations. The positive effect of missionaries on democracy applies only to conversionary Protestants.
Protestant clergy financed by the state as well as Catholic missionaries prior to the 1960s, had no comparable effect in the areas where they worked. Areas where conversionist Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are, on average, more economically developed today with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment — especially for women — and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.
There were and are racist missionaries and missionaries who do self-centered things. If that were the average effect, we would expect that the places where the missionaries had influence to be worse than the places where missionaries weren’t allowed or were restricted in action, and we find exactly the opposite on all kinds of outcomes.”’
Irrespective of what you believe personally about war and people’s rights; irrespective of how you feel about Christians and your experiences with them, God is going to separate. What side do you really want to be on? What stance are you really taking when you work against religion; when you work against Christianity? Wickedness breeds wickedness and God takes care of it whether you agree with His methods or not. He will win. Don’t follow your own delusion of joy. Don’t miss out on the goodness and the life of the Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Reliable Fundamentals for Healthy Discipleship Ministries.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.