Pastor upset to find Bible labeled as "fiction" by Costco

On November 15th, 2013, Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach was shopping at his local Costco in Simi Valley, California, when he was surprised to see a Bible in the Fiction section. On inspecting the $14.95 price tag, he found that, sure enough, it was labeled as Fiction.
Upset, Kaltenbach attempted to complain to Costco, but was unable to find an employee, so instead tweeted a picture of the Bible and its label.
Kaltenbach argues that this is a matter of tolerance. He claims that labeling a Bible as Fiction is tantamount to calling out Christianity as untrue, a claim not to be made lightly, and certainly one that should be avoided by a public company such as Costco.
There are four attitudes likely to be adopted on this news item: those who consider it a bold and proper stance for Costco to finally label the Bible for what it really is; those who hold that the Bible is an accurate representation of history, or at the very least, a legitimate and ancient system of belief, and should therefore fall in the category of non-fiction; those who would be willing to give religious believers their freedom to believe, but don't think that the Bible rises to the level of "non-fiction"; and finally, those who think that the whole affair is much ado about nothing, and couldn't care less what Costco chooses to label their Bibles.
In an increasingly Postmodern culture, rigid categories such as "Fiction" and "Non-Fiction" may be seen as increasingly too narrow, especially to classify a book as controversial as the Bible. More than ever, a distinction is being made between the categories of History and Religion. More and more people - professing Christians even - would consider the Bible to be a kind of "Religious Truth" without being a historical one. Only those at the extremes would continue to maintain that the Bible is either true or it isn't; that no shades of grey are permitted to enter the discussion.
Adding to this confusion is the fact that there is a very real argument to be made that the authors of scripture claimed to be transmitting actual history.
In the introduction to his gospel, Luke says, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” Luke 1:1-4
In his first epistle, the Apostle John stresses over and over the eyewitness and factual nature of what he writes, saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.…” I John 1:1-3
In his second epistle, the Apostle Peter writes, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty..” II Peter 1:16
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul goes to great efforts to establish the factual nature of the gospel message, saying, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me..” I Corinthians 15:3-8
Paul stresses this because, he says, if these things are not facts then Christianity is a lie and serves no purpose. He says, “…if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. “ I Corinthians 15: 14-19
Not only does the Bible claim that it is literally true, it admits that if it is not true, it is a lie and a vain faith.
If the Bible cannot be taken literally, it cannot be taken at all. It does not, by its own admission, leave anyone the option of an airy, poetic, spiritualized reading that sets it aside as historical fact.
The first century Christians certainly didn’t have that option. Of the handful of writers that composed the New Testament, most of them were supposedly executed for their beliefs according to early church writers, including Peter, Paul, and James. Men do not willingly suffer such abuses for what they believe is not literally true.
By the same token, the concept of scripture as Fiction is a mockery of those in totalitarian countries who, today, are imprisoned or executed for their beliefs.
When Christ began to teach things that people did not want to hear, many of his followers abandoned him.
“After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,’” John 6:66-68
G.K. Chesterton said: "When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to
turn away from him. But in heaven's name to what?"

A Biblical Perspective on Extraterrestrial Life

A Biblical Perspective on Extraterrestrial Life
Since the UFO craze began in the late 40’s and early 50’s, there have been some few prominent Christian ministers and theologians who have ventured to guess at whether or not intelligent biological life exists elsewhere in the universe. Successful world evangelist Billy Graham made some statements affirming his belief in aliens in his book Angels, God’s Secret Agents. Renowned Christian philosopher William Lane Craig speculated that aliens may exist in the August 2008 episode of his “Reasonable Faith” podcast.
On that episode, Dr. Craig made the very relevant point that whether or not aliens, in the classic science fiction meaning of the word, exist has no real bearing on the Christian faith. If little green men should touch down tomorrow on the White House lawn, all the premises of Christianity would hang together just as they did prior.
That said, there is a fairly solid case to be made against the existence of intelligent aliens if one takes the Bible to be truthful.
The first argument comes from the creation account. This is a much debated account both within and outside of Christian circles, but the gist of the account tends to be that the earth is the central focus of creation, with special emphasis on human beings themselves. If this seems unlikely in the vastness of the universe, keep in mind that size does not necessarily equate with significance - as any particle physicist could tell you. This point alone does not make a strong argument against other intelligent life forms in the universe, but when added up with the whole of the argument, it hangs together.
The second point flows out of the first. If taken at face value, the creation account (Genesis chapters one and two) indicates that the world, and the universe around it were created in perfection. This is not the picture given, however, in the book of Romans where Paul says:
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”
What happened between the creation of the Genesis account and this creation of the Romans account that groans in corruption? What happened was a fairly significant event Christians refer to as “The Fall.” This occurrence, in which humans rebelled against God, not only affected human nature but, according to Paul, affected all of creation. In fact, no matter how one views scriptural accounts, it is clear that the entire universe flows from order to entropy in such a way that the entire structure is headed toward an extinction event that scientists call “heat death.” Paul, who could hardly have known about the ins and outs of entropy and heat death in the first century, does a fairly good job of describing just that in the Romans passage. This flow toward entropy, which the Bible attributes to the Fall of Man, would include any poor aliens that happened to be elsewhere in the universe. This hardly seems fair if humans were the ones who rebelled and not the aliens.
In fact, the entire redemptive story is decidedly human focused. God came in human form, died, rose, and ascended to heaven where he will reign for eternity in a human body. In this story human beings appear to get special treatment over and above extra terrestrials.
Finally, scripture makes it fairly clear that all of creation is scheduled to be destroyed (because of its corruption due to The Fall) and replaced by a newly perfect heaven and earth. These hypothetical aliens would presumably be swept away in this fiery holocaust without a second thought.
Now it should be made clear at this point that the Bible certainly does affirm the existence of a sizable number of spiritual beings that are both intelligent and fairly alien to humans, and while these beings have interactions with the physical realm throughout scripture, it would be a stretch to equate them with science fiction aliens. The Bible and the Christian faith don’t seem to leave much room for extra-terrestrials.

Babel: a Biblical study of Language. Part 1: Overview

I am going to be using this blog over the next several weeks as a method of gathering my thoughts on a subject that I am interested in exploring and discovering the true implications of: language.
I am no linguist, myself.  For the purpose of this study, I wish I were.  My focus will be specifically on what the Bible has to say on the subject of language, its origin and its purpose. 
I believe this study is necessary because of some of the current philosophies that are being popularized by the post-modern movement.
The main tenant of Postmodernism is that truth is determined by the individual, that we each make our own realities by our beliefs and ideas.  While this may seem very empowering at first, it actually has the effect of isolating each person from the other.  If everyone you meet is living in their own self-constructed universe that is alien to your own, then any connection you make will be superficial at best.
As it regards language, the Postmodern ideal is 'deconstructionsim.'  Rather than interpreting texts in the traditional way, deconstructionism assumes that each person uses language uniquely according to their own personal experiences.  The purpose of deconstructionism is to determine what the meaning behind a text is based on what we know of the author of the text.
The other thing that postmodernism does to language is to say that every person will interpret a text as to what it means to them.  So that what YOU get out of the Bible and what I get out of the Bible when we read it are two separate messages, and I have no right to tell you what it actually means.
Finally, Postmodernism leads us to the conclusion that our individual universes are constructed from language.  For this reason, whoever controls the language controls the universe.  The practical result that we see from this is a focus on controlling the language that you and I use in the everyday.  Certain commonly used words and phrases suddenly become taboo as our language is subjected to 'political correctness.'  Businesses adopt and frequently update their mission statements, which they make their employees memorize and carry around with them.
Now you may have noticed that the first two postmodern ideas regarding language contradict the third.  Furthermore, the first two ideas render language practically useless for the purposes of communication.  However contradictions do not greatly bother a postmodernist.  Because truth is determined by my say-so, if I say that two contradictory ideas can co-exist, then they can.
Hopefully, you can see how this devaluing of language impacts the Christian Faith.  Our knowledge of God comes through the word of God as delivered by the Holy Spirit.  God does not speak to us in an audible voice, as He did to people prior to Moses.  He does not speak to us through prophets as He did to Israel.  He is no longer physically present in the person of Christ Jesus.  Our whole knowledge of God comes from the Scriptures.  This, by the way, is no bad thing.  When God spoke audibly, very few people were privileged to hear him.  The prophets were only good for as far as their voice projected.  In the flesh, Jesus could not be everywhere.  And in all these epochs, only a portion of God's plan was revealed.  We are privileged in our day to have ready access to a written statement that details God's plan from the very beginning to the very end.  But if truth is what you make it, and language is unstable at best, then the Scriptures become a novelty to be made what we wish them to be.
In order to address this issue, I wish to examine what the Bible has to say on the subject of language.  If we know that, then we will know how the medium through which God speaks should be addressed.