Peter Witkowski Apologetics

The Precedented Unprecedented

precedentThe interdisciplinary team working at Huanchaquito-Las Llamas recently disturbed the modern conscience with their latest discovery. The team led by Gabriel Prieto of the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and John Verano of Tulane University and sponsored by the National Geographic revealed that their Peruvian archaeological dig contained the, “largest single incident of mass child sacrifice in the Americas— and likely in world history.” The scientists and historians found the remains of more than 140 children and 200 baby lamas that had been murdered and mutilated some 550 years ago by the Chimú Empire. And less than a half mile away from where children’s hearts were ripped from their chests, the empire conducted their affairs of state. Calculated trades and negotiations took place just minutes away from unbelievable horror.
The pictures of the excavated skeletons lying face up with broken ribs are dark and disturbing. Though America is increasingly defined by violence, the mass premeditated murder of 140 or more children still disturbs the modern mind as evidenced by the magazine’s bold claims. And evil of this magnitude should be noted in the press and mourned.
But the Kristin Romey, one of National Geographic’s editors that covers archaeology and paleontology, missteps when she attempts to help audience appreciate the magnitude of the slaughter being studied. She writes,

The discovery of a large-scale child sacrifice event in the little-known pre-Columbian Chimú civilization is unprecedented in the Americas—if not in the entire world.

Romey’s captures the sentiment of the moment, but she wrong assumes that the sacrifice is unprecedented in world history.
In one sense, her claim is justifiable. The whole sale slaughter of 140 plus children at one religious event is noteworthy. But when compared against the annals of world history, academics cannot say this is unprecedented. If we go back only four years in the historical cannon of world history, we discover a far greater slaughter.
In 2014, the United States legally aborted 652,639 children (the most recent statistical year in file) according to the CDC. Americans aborted more than 1,788 babies per day in 2014 down. Such acts of horror took place down the street from hospitals, gas stations,  factories, restaurants, and government buildings. Clearly large scale infanticide taking place in close proximity to a nation’s established societal institutions  is not unprecedented in the Americas as Romey claimed.
Admittedly some will object to the comparison, pointing to the religious nature of pre-Columbian event. Few if any abort a child to appease the gods or to convince them to send rain. Few if any cut out the heart of their child to determine their future or to connect with the life force of the gods.
But the basic ideas that drove those men and women to murder children 550 years ago are still driving modern men and women today.
The Chimú people sacrificed those 140 plus children because they believed their deaths would benefit society by alleviating hardship and winning more wealth and happiness. Today, boyfriends and husbands, parents, and ultimately mothers abort their children for their benefit. They do not want to be saddled with having to care for the child’s physical, emotional, and monitory needs. Modern adults do not want to sacrifice their educational goals, their financial plans, and their personal peace for a child. Instead of sacrificing for the child, they sacrifice the child for their needs. As C.S. Lewis thoughtfully showed through his book, That Hideous Strength, modern science divorced from Christian morality often becomes  little more than cruelly efficient paganism. The Chimú people could kill 140 or more kids in one day at one location. We can kill 1,788 or more kids across 50 states in a day. We too rip apart the bodies of our dead children seeking to find brighter futures filled with medical advancements. For all of our advancements modern men and women apart from Christ are still quintessentially pagan.
As believers we should mourn the discovery at Huanchaquito-Las Llamas. But we must not leave our gaze in the past. We must fight against our nation’s annual sacrifice of children to the gods of ease, comfort, and wealth. We must support foster care and adoption. We must speak for the unborn. We must engage in the political community. We must do all that we can to end this slaughter.
We do not find fault God for bringing the Chimú government to end. If this is true, can we find fault with God for one day bringing our nation to an end?
God be merciful to us!
Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Who Should Mentor You?

neonbrand-423329-unsplashCoach. The term used to be reserved for people who filled out little league line-up cards and for the volunteer leader of the debate team. But no longer.

Though we are all grownup, we still get to get coached!

Every day,  we receive an assorted pack of twitter invites, emails, LinkedIn notifications, and Facebook messages from friends, acquaintances, and our unknown bud in South Africa (Who knew?) graciously offering to be our new life (ministry) coach. Essential these buds and buddets want to be our next mentor.

And they are not alone. Friends, pastors, and coworkers that we actually see in the flesh will often offer to mentor us or to help us grow in the faith. If we want a life or ministry coach, all we have to do is whistle and say, “hello.” Within second our coach will be emailing us his amazing life plan! (And people wonder while millennials have made “adulting” a thing. But I digress).

Coaching and mentoring is in vogue. I applaud this development. As believers we should all seek to learn from others and to seek to be equipped by others. The gospel calls the people of the church to lovingly invest in each other’s lives. But the question remains, “who should be our life coach?” Who should be our mentor, teacher, and encourager? Who should we sit down to coffee with when are marriage starts to fall apart, when our deacons threaten a vote of no-confidence, and when our kids declare that they are over church? Do I really need the guy from South Africa?

Probably not. But we do need the man or the women who is sold at for the Lord. We need to place ourselves under those who place themselves under the authority of God revealed in the Scriptures. Notice how Paul begins the letter of 2 Timothy 1:1-2

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.  To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

All the advice of Paul flows from the will of God to declare the truth that we have life in and through Christ Jesus. We need mentors like Paul. I do not mean we need modern day apostles to come to our house for meatloaf. We need men to lead men and women to guide women who understand that their authority and that the resources for life-advice is the Scriptures. We need mentors who will declare the Word of God to us without fear, lovingly encouraging, rebuking, and admonishing us. When we find mentors of this caliber would should listen to them because following them increases our understanding of God.

However as we seek out such mentors and seek to be such mentors, we must remember that titles mean little. The validity of someone’s counsel does not depend upon their title of Pastor, Associational Missionary, or SBC President. We should not view someone to be an authority because he or she grew a tiny church into a large church, raised lots of money, or built up a wealth of connections that he or she is parlaying to gain positions of prominence and notice. We should only listen to the names behind these titles and success stories if they have placed themselves under the authority of the Scriptures.

The validity of our wisdom does not come from our schooling, our number of twitter followers, or from being on the church staff. Our wisdom is only wisdom if it reflects the message and content of the Word of God.

Many distinguished leaders in the SBC ranks encourage pastors (especially young pastors) to run up and down the organizational ladder for advice, counsel, and wisdom. But these distinguished leaders often forget that titles are empty awards handed out by partially blind men and women that may or may not reflect spiritual realities. Organizational hierarchy cannot be universally equated with personal holiness and with godly wisdom. Age and years of ministry service do not reveal that the veteran in question submits to the authority of God. Evil men and women regularly move in and out ministry circles eager to share all kinds of demonic and worldly wisdom.

We should be more concerned about our potential mentor’s understanding of the gospel than about his or her titles, degrees, and influence. We should seek out men and women who know that Jesus is their authority and who confess him in all that they do.

Do you know this kind of man or woman? Are you this kind of man or woman?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

God Doesn’t Have An Affinity For Affinity Group

All Christians want to be a part of growing, dynamic and thriving church. We all want to be part of a movement where the 150 seat sanctuary is replaced with a 2,000 seat sanctuary. We want to part of a movement that plants hundreds of churches. We want to drop our Pastor’s name and the water cooler and know that our coworkers will know who we are talking about.

Sadly a majority of Baptist Churches are trending the opposite way. They are remodeling their large 2,000 seat auditorium to seat 500. Most SBC churches lack members. The members that do attend suffer from a severe case of biblical illiteracy and lack passion and gospel fervor.

To remedy the situation, some Baptists leaders have tossed forth the idea of Affinity Groups. This new spin on the old church growth game teaches churches to form small groups around their communities’ interest.  The deer hunters would meet in room A; the single moms would meet in the old social hall, and the Hispanics would meet in the Mrs. Sammy’s old Sunday school class. People are grouped into Bible study groups based upon hobbies, societal designations, and racial norms. These smalls groups should facilitate communication and relationship because all the members have a least one noteworthy similarity. Those who bound over their shared experiences are more likely to feel a connection to their group and by that connection that should feel more connected to the church. The end result being more church growth, more people, and more money.

The Problem With Affinity Groups

Though basic elements of the Affinity Group idea resonate with the common sense notion that birds of a feather flocking together, Affinity Groups do not belong in the local church because they stand opposed to the witness of the gospel.

The gospel seeks to unify a diverse and holy people. The people of the church are not bound together by mutual sports interest, commonality of social standing, or by their race. The church has never been composed of just college football fans, or upper-middle class white folks who drive GMCs, or black deer hunters. Rather the church is made up of all of these people and more. The church should be filled with all kinds of sports fans, all kinds of social classes, and all kinds of races. Colossians 3:11 proclaims,

Here there is no Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian , Scythian, slave, free: but Christ is all and in all.

The church does not exists to place people into groups based upon their earthly interest or genetic markers. The church exists to abolish those boundaries. The church exists to encourage both the old and the young to worship together. The church exists to bring about racial and social reconciliation at the foot of the cross. What binds the church together, what draws people into our church and keeps them in church is Christ. He is all and in all.

We should not come to church because everyone looks, thinks, and acts like us. We should come to church because everyone loves, depends upon, and looks like Jesus.  The unity of the church is the unity of the cross. If glories of Jesus do not compel people to church, why we would think that people would come to church to hang out who look and sound like us?

And if people do come simply because we have a divorce, single mom’s tea-room for women 60 and over or because they share our love for Cubs baseball, have we done our church a service? Have we done anything more than fill our churches with people who love the world more than Christ?

Are All Groups Bad?

Now I do not believe all small groups are evil. Paul instructs women to train women. Paul also personally mentored many people including Titus and Timothy. Jesus worked with the twelve disciples. Churches have to freedom to create small groups within the church to facilitate discipleship and spiritual growth. The church should be about such intense training. But such groups should never be the draw or the focus of the church. And such groups should be driven by the gospel and not the trends of our secular culture.

Final Thoughts

The church assembles not to divide people from one another but to unify around the gospel. What brings people from all age ranges, cultures, nationalities and skin color to church is Christ. What keeps people in church is Christ. God is more than glorious enough to be a draw people to himself. He does not need our help to build his church.

At the end of the day, we can safely conclude from Scripture that God does not have an affinity for Affinity Groups. He has an affinity for his Glory which transcends all earthly measures and interests. How about us?