Christine Darden with Antipas and Micah Harris

I was honored to be this year’s guest speaker for the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia’s MLK Day Service. In the picture with Micah and me is Dr. Christine Darden, one of NASA’s hidden figures from the book entitled Hidden Figures. Dr. Darden attended the MLK Day Service.

Dr. Darden is featured in the History Makers archives. As the archives report:

She received the Dr. A. T. Weathers Technical Achievement Award from the National Technical Association in 1985. She was awarded the Senior Executive Career Development Fellowship from Simmons College in 1994. NASA recognized Darden with the Certificate of Outstanding Performance ten times between 1973 and 2003. Not only has Darden received the NASA medals for equal opportunity and for achievement in leading the sonic boom program, she is also the recipient of the 1987 Candace Award for Science and Technology from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and the 1988 Black Engineer of the Year Award from the publishers of U.S. Black Engineer & Technology magazine.

Dr. Darden is an exemplary and humble human being who has made an indelible impression on our world. She has an outstanding legacy. And, she loves the Lord! Let’s follow her lead.

Grace and peace,

Dr. Antipas

Constantine’s Edict of Milan brought an end to the persecution of Christians, but that did not mean the Church was granted favor throughout the Roman Empire. What are the lessons for us today?

The impression is often left that with the Edict of Milan that Constantine issued in A.D. 313-314 which brought an end to the persecution of Christians, the Church was granted favor throughout the Roman Empire. Such was not the case. Constantine’s policy was only one of toleration. In A.D. 314, the coins that were issued throughout the empire during Constantine’s reign not only carried the image of the cross but also an emblem of Sol Invictus and Mars Conservator. These coins were issued year after year.

A third century silver disc of Sol Invictus (“Unconquered Sun”) that was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. Image © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons.

The state of affairs was therefore of toleration and not of favoritism for a number of years. Persecution of Christians came to an end but there were still problems to be faced. The years between A.D. 313-4 and A.D. 475 were a period of stress and weakness but also a time of strengthening. The Roman pantheon remained and was honored chiefly by those in the military. There were military units that were also religious orders. Sol, the sun, was considered to be the God who brought about important victories. Other military units honored Mars. Various cavalries and infantries had their favorites.

Not only was there still the continuing presence of the Roman pantheon of Gods and heroes, but returning soldiers from the Eastern defense brought with them the cult of Mithra and its initiation rites. Because Rome had its eastern border along the Euphrates river with its main fortress, Dura Europas, facing the Persian city of Ctesiphon on the opposite bank, there was an opening for eastern ways to seep into the Roman empire. Gnosticism, a dualistic spirituality which considered the material world as evil and the spiritual world as good or divine, seeped through to the West as early as the late second century but gained ground through the third and fourth centuries. Gnosticism had a leech-like character and attached itself to anything that looked attractive. The Christian faith was one. As early as A.D. 185, Irenaeus, The bishop of Lyons in Gaul, attacked the Gnostics in his writing, Against Heresies. It was not enough though it helped to retard Gnostic spirituality.

Gnosticism and Mithraism were not the only ones to cross over into the Roman Empire. So did Manichaeism which was perpetrated by a Persian mystic named Mani who itinerated throughout the Persian realms and into parts of Roman East Africa, North Africa, and eastward to the Indus river valley. The man who saw through the errors of Mani was once attracted to his teachings, none other than Augustine. Soon after his conversion to Christ Jesus from a garden experience and the mentorship of Ambrose in Milan, Augustine attacked the teachings of Mani.

Augustine was important for the Church in more ways than his apologetic and polemic writings. One other contribution was the account of his way to Jesus, The Confessions, which had a wide reading within his own lifetime and which has been widely disseminated throughout the subsequent seventeen hundred years. Beyond the inspiration of the dramatic impact of the power of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, Augustine was the first to develop an understanding of the church as a counter-culture. This was done in his later writing De Civitate Deo (The City of God) composed at the time of the weakening of Rome in the West and when the Vandals and Visigoths invaded the western European sector of the empire. This is critical for the next issue of this writing.

Os Guinness, Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin (Baker Books, 2000), 125 pages, ISBN 9780801064036.

Have you ever run into someone who was so gifted you felt intimidated? Os Guinness is such a person for me. When I read something that he has authored, I am always challenged. How can one man be so well read? Where does one get the skill to say so much in so few words?

Guinness was born in China, educated in England, and now lives in Virginia. His book, even though religious in character, carries endorsements from people in the political arena.

Even without the endorsements, I knew that Time for Truth would be a good book. It made Christianity Today’s list of the best books of the year, and I have found that to be a measure that assures value. The book is short. I finished it in a little over an hour, yet it is deep and challenging.

I have thought about what Guinness wrote a number of times since. I wondered how I might help the re-establishment of truth in our land. Truth is so vital. It is necessary for freedom—in ours or any land. It should be so important to us that those who do not walk in truth should face recall and removal from the public and private sectors in all of our communities.

Guinness described today’s ethic as a “little lust, pride, sloth and gluttony—in moderation—are fun and that’s what keeps your heart beating.” Not getting caught is our national ethic. Gray has become the color of truth. We constantly define deviancy down. The only thing that matters is power. Think about these words.

Character is no longer the issue, it is how we appear that counts in today’s world. Guinness, who knew President Clinton personally, discusses him and his behavior at length. He concludes, “that the credibility of the presidency has been severely weakened. Only a solid succession of presidents with character and integrity will decisively repudiate Clinton’s dishonest style and reestablish the standards of America’s founders.” Guinness sees our American way of life as being imperiled.

Guinness reviews three phases in history: the religious phase, which reigned up to the Enlightenment; the European civilization phase, which rose to prominence with the Enlightenment and ended with World War I; and the last phase, American leadership. With the postmodern disregard for truth as foundational requirement, this leadership by America is now in jeopardy.

If you want to be challenged and impressed with well written, apt words, this book is for you. I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

Then they said to one another, “Come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had bricks for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.

Genesis 11:1-9 NKJV

The building of the Tower was an unparalleled time of communication and technology. A time when not doing God’s will, filling the earth with God’s glory, was popular. The majority chose to do things the it wanted to. Even those with a godly heritage embracing anything other than what God wanted.

Unparalleled? Perhaps that time so many generations ago is similar to what is happening right now in America. I have been thinking about all the confusion that is going on in our nation. How foolish we must be appearing in the eyes of other nations around the world.

When God came down and looked at what was going on at Babel, He confused the language of the people. I have a feeling in my heart that God is looking down on America and all her sin and is sending a spirit of confusion on our nation. What does this mean for us as Christians? What does it for us as pastors? I believe we need to be in prayer, not only for our nation, but also for the Church. All the events that are happening are pointing to the soon return of our Lord. It seems as His coming gets closer there is more pressure on the True Church. Our people need to deeply know the Lord so that regardless of what may happen before the Lord calls us to Himself, we are ready always to give a reason for the hope that is in us. We need to fearlessly stand up against the adversary, for the worst he can do is kill the body. This is a time for great trust in our God and reliance upon Him.

I pray that we as spiritual leaders will search our hearts so that nothing stands between God and us. In this day of confused leadership, we must stand as “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). As the people we minister to see us sensitive before God, so they will follow us and they will search their hearts and draw closer to God.

PR

The word paraklesis has some rich meaning in the New Testament (see “parakaleo,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Abridged in One Volume), G. Bromiley, ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985), especially p. 781). When it relates to the proclamation of salvation, exhorting men to be saved, it implies speaking in the name of God and in the power of the Spirit. In the sense that it is used here, paraklesis is exhortation and admonition. Paraklesis is an urgent entreaty that is neither critical nor polemical, but serious and has been infused with the power of the Spirit. With this in mind, this column is intended to bring a word of encouragement to pastors, ministers and all those in Christian leadership.

In this 1995 book by B. J. Oropeza, a Pentecostal/charismatic examines the holy laughter phenomenon. This well-documented and well-researched book attempts to present the background and beginnings of the holy laughter movement and well as guidelines for discerning true renewal.

In the introduction, Oropeza says there are no easy answers to the many questions the holy laughter movement has raised. Chapter 2 is a brief history of the movement and profiles of the major players. “Uncovering the Teachings of Rodney Howard-Browne,” Chapter 3, appears to be relatively fair, but this author has no personal contact with Rodney Howard-Browne (and it appears that Oropeza has not either save his extensive research). Oropeza concludes that Browne is a “simple Pentecostal Preacher” who is not a part of the Word of Faith movement, but needs to clarify and/or practice more of what he preaches.

Chapter 4 attempts to cover the teachings of the Vineyard prior to 1995 and its association with the prophetic and eschatological aspects of the Kansas City Prophets, the Third Wave, the Kingdom Now and Latter Rain movements. Most Pentecostals will likely take exception to Oropeza’s eschatology in regards to what is the “Last Days Revival.” Many charismatics will also be uncomfortable with what appears to be a sweeping guilt by association Oropeza establishes between these separate movements and the holy laughter movement. If using similar phrases or Scriptures connects otherwise theologically divergent movements, all charismatics would be similarly indicted with all of charisma’s abuses.

Chapter 5 is a closer examination of the laughing, weeping, shaking, and animal noises which have been associated with the holy laughter renewal. Then Chapter 6 attempts to evaluate these phenomena in light of Scripture. Of special interest will be Oropeza’s evaluation of being “slain in the Spirit” and his refutation of being “drunk in the Spirit.” This excellent chapter is concluded by saying, “If we are to critique the Holy Laughter phenomena correctly, we must do so without assuming that it is wrong because it violates our own personal sense of propriety. Moreover, it is not enough to say there is no biblical evidence for it. We must show why it is contrary to Scripture, or why it undermines the Christian faith, or why it offends the biblical sense of propriety in worship” (p. 130).

In Chapter 7, Oropeza takes a look at the cultural backdrop of the church at Corinth to whom Paul wrote so much about the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit. In light of the pagan, hedonistic society of Corinth and Paul’s corrective against these elements moving into the church, Oropeza draws conclusions for today based on Paul’s intent. He writes, “Paul never doubts that the Holy Spirit is in fact touching the lives of the Corinthians, despite their disorder. Although other cults spoke in tongues and prophesied, Paul never questions that, despite the disorder, the Corinthians are still speaking in tongues and prophesying by the Spirit of God. . . . When God wants to touch lives, disorder is not going to stop him” (p. 143).

Chapters 8 and 9 are a brief chronicle of Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Century revivals and the spiritual phenomena attached to them. Oropeza examines some of the connections contemporary renewal leaders have claimed exist between these past movements and the holy laughter movement.