{"id":578,"date":"2018-05-25T23:59:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T06:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divergence.blog\/?p=578"},"modified":"2018-05-25T23:59:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T06:59:05","slug":"love-justice-and-the-end-of-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, Justice, and The End of Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Most evangelicals headed toward pastoral ministry, at some point, are asked to sit for what is called an ordination council.\u00a0 Normally this happens after graduating from seminary or Bible college.\u00a0 The purpose is ordination.\u00a0 If the council grants their \u201camen\u201d there is usually a follow-up ordination service and this person is then \u201cordained\u201d to the gospel ministry.<\/p>\n

In the tradition I grew up in (Southern Baptist), and was ordained, the council was made up of our Associational Leader (an SBC thing), other local pastors, and since our church was located near a seminary, professors were invited too.\u00a0 Each person can ask the candidate questions and based upon their answers and the consensus of the council, a decision is made as to whether they should be recommended for ordination or not.<\/p>\n

It is rare to have a candidate denied ordination.\u00a0 Most have already been involved in ministry for years as leaders and most have graduated from seminary or Bible college.\u00a0 It is usually a formality really.\u00a0 The council may recommend a candidate return for a second sitting if they are concerned about some of the answers, but in my experience, the great majority are recommended for ordination.<\/p>\n

When I was a pastor in the evangelical world, I was part of a few ordination councils.\u00a0 Here is one of the questions I would always ask:<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though they are both important, if you had to lean one way or the other, which assertion would you say sums up your eschatology:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Love wins.<\/li>\n
  2. Justice wins.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To my great disappointment, every time, I was told that \u201cjustice\u201d winning summed up their eschatology.\u00a0 To my even greater disappointment, a majority of the council agreed with them (or if they didn\u2019t, they never said so).<\/p>\n

    Since I knew I already had one foot out the door of that world, I wasn\u2019t about to argue with the candidate or the rest of the council.\u00a0 Especially since I knew where they were coming from\u2014the fact was\u2014I was in the minority and they were espousing the majority view in our tradition.<\/p>\n

    The answer of \u201cjustice\u201d did give me great pause however. \u00a0In reaction, one of my initial thoughts was, do you really want to stand before an Almighty and Holy God and believe justice wins<\/em>?\u00a0 For me, when that day comes, I will be hoping that love wins and not justice.\u00a0 Lord have mercy.<\/p>\n

    Another thought was never are we told that God is<\/em> justice.\u00a0 We are told God is just, but never that God is<\/em> justice.\u00a0 However, we are told that God is<\/em> love.\u00a0 And I have to wonder what type of eschatology allows for God not to triumph in the end.\u00a0 Perhaps I should have put for number one \u201cGod wins.\u201d\u00a0 If love wins, then God wins.\u00a0 I thought that was obvious.<\/p>\n

    Finally, I thought of 1 Corinthians 13.\u00a0 Are we told that faith, hope, and justice<\/em> remain?\u00a0 No, we are not.\u00a0 And the greatest of what does remain, is love.\u00a0 Love keeps no record of wrongs.\u00a0 Our western view of justice is the blind-folded lady holding a scale, but a scale is also a record.\u00a0 It records weight; it finds one side wanting.\u00a0 The picture is of one side losing to the other, of being \u201cweightier\u201d than the other.\u00a0 Love however finds both sides wanting; love takes us to a place where the record, the scale, is no longer the issue.<\/p>\n

    This is not to say that because love wins, there is no judgment.\u00a0 Judgment is coming (and is here now!).\u00a0 There will be an accounting.\u00a0 Repent.\u00a0 All things will, one day, be put right from the blood of Abel forward (even though we may not understand what \u201cput right\u201d means in eternity)\u2013that is my hope anyway.\u00a0 It is to say however, that love has a way of extracting a price no scale or record could ever account for or make sense of.\u00a0 Love has a way of making justice something other than merely calculative or legal and so transcends it.<\/p>\n

    Some might say I\u2019m opposing two things that are not opposed.\u00a0 My question though wasn\u2019t an either\/or proposition.\u00a0 It was: which way do you lean.\u00a0 I was trying to get a sense of a person\u2019s inclination.\u00a0 I realize justice is important.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think justice and love are opposed; I just think justice and any other attribute, quality, or aspect of God\u2019s character, if you will, is completely without meaning and incomprehensible without understanding first that God is<\/em> love.<\/p>\n

    I believe love will have the last word (thank God) and such has to be at the heart of any Christian eschatology.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Most evangelicals headed toward pastoral ministry, at some point, are asked to sit for what is called an ordination council.\u00a0 Normally this happens after graduating from seminary or Bible college.\u00a0 The purpose is ordination.\u00a0 If the council grants their \u201camen\u201d there is usually a follow-up ordination service and this person is then \u201cordained\u201d to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137,230,245,308,428],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eschatology","tag-justice","tag-love","tag-ordination","tag-southern-baptists"],"yoast_head":"\nLove, Justice, and The End of Days<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most evangelicals headed toward pastoral ministry, at some point, are asked to sit for what is called an ordination council.\u00a0 Normally this happens after\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love, Justice, and The End of Days\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most evangelicals headed toward pastoral ministry, at some point, are asked to sit for what is called an ordination council.\u00a0 Normally this happens after\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-26T06:59:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Justice, and The End of Days\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-26T06:59:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-26T06:59:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"Most evangelicals headed toward pastoral ministry, at some point, are asked to sit for what is called an ordination council.\u00a0 Normally this happens after\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/05\/25\/love-justice-and-the-end-of-days\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Love, Justice, and The End of Days\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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