Author: Lisa Spencer

Then call me a Leftist

Lisa Spencer1 Comment

This is a rare post in which I share a glimpse of my political orientation. So here it is–I am a right leaning independent voter. Why right? Because I am in favor of lesser government control and inclined towards individual freedoms. I support capitalism as long as its done ethically and believe that businesses should be given every opportunity to thrive in order to fuel the economy. There are other positions as well but I think you get the idea.

At one point, I seriously considered just signing my name to the Republican party. But then the 2016 election happened and decided being an independent was more favorable to my conscience. I won’t go further into that.

While I am not on board with MAGA, I still consider myself a conservative. In the podcast I formerly co-hosted, I shared why my Christianity oriented me in this direction. You can listen to this episode and hear more about that.

But when it comes to the issue of immigration and refugee resettlement, some would call me a Leftist, especially those strongly committed to the MAGA agenda or otherwise strongly partisan all-or-nothing right wing agendas. Continue reading →

Rise of the Christian Ideologue

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I don’t think any Christian would want the claim of an ideologue. But as I observed discourse in the past several years related to social and political engagement, unfortunately I do believe there is a place where this happens.

What is a Christian ideologue? According to Webster’s dictionary, an ideologue is “an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.” Another definition: an impractical idealist; theorist. So here is my working definition;

A Christian ideologue is one whose Christian faith is so entwined with a particular social or political paradigm that becomes the chief lens and expression of Christian faith and judges how life should be according to this lens. The Christian ideologue is drawn to earthly solutions and sees them as the vehicle for Christian solutions. 

Now in fairness, I don’t think anyone who claims Christ as Savior and Lord, who submits to the authority of Scripture, and strives to live a faithful Christian life, signs up to be an ideologue. Rather, I see it as something happening over time, drip by drip, precept by precept, until a captivation has occurred. Continue reading →

On checking boxes and bible reading plans

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I confess, I have a love-hate relationship with checking boxes. On one hand, it gives a sense of accomplishment as I find with the logistics of event planning I have to do for my job. And who doesn’t love checking off that fun item from their bucket list?

But on the other hand, it’s a symbol of routine, something that needs to be done even though we’d rather not do it. Sadly, I held this perspective when it comes to Bible reading plans. So I wanted to share my own journey and change of heart, not as a prescription, but hopefully encouragement to those who share similar views.

I’ve been a student of Scripture for many, many years. From day one, back as a freshman in college in 1982 when I came to Christ, no one had to tell me to read the Bible. Before I even knew 2 Timothy 3:16, I instinctively knew that the Bible is how we learn about God, his character, his work, and his commands. Unfortunately, after a few years of zealous following, I embarked on a 13 year rebellious period from 1986-1999 (more about that here). When the Lord drew this prodigal home, the very first thing I did was go directly to the Bible. I even went to seminary in 2008 and earned a ThM!

So I write this as one who has a firm, strong commitment to learning Scripture, to knowing what thus has said the Lord. In the past 15 years, or so, I’ve had the conviction that knowing the narrative of Scripture is just as much, if not more, important, than random Bible versus. The compilation of 66 books tell a cohesive story of God’s creation, his plan for it, and rescue of it through his Son. We learn what salvation means! So I’ve been a strong advocate for understanding Scripture in context of each book, its genre and where it fits into the redemptive-historical narrative. Continue reading →

Some encouragement for 2025

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Despite my best intentions of keeping up with regular writings in this space, I have now come to the end of the year without posting anything since the beginning of the year. A few weeks ago, I had started on an end of year reflection and hope to have that out soon. But in the meantime, this quote struck me as  something to seriously reflect on as we head towards a new year.

As I’ve finished up another chronological reading plan, naturally the year ends on the book of Revelation. I decided it would be good to read through Triumph of the Lamb by Dennis Johnson. I love how the commentary is written in a narrative style and is so doxologically rich. As I wrote here several years ago, my perspective on the book of Revelation has changed drastically. I no longer see it as a chronological rendering, where are events and times are literal telling of what will happen in a defined end period of time that includes a pre-tribulation rapture and seven year tribulation period. Rather, I see the rich symbolism pointing out cycles of activity and judgements, the forward movement of Christ’s church amid cosmic tensions, turmoil and outright opposition, and Jesus’ ultimate triumph to bring everything back to the right order as was intended from the beginning of Genesis.

Regardless of your interpretation, one thing should be crystal clear–Jesus is at the heart of it. He wins! This is after all “a revelation of Christ” given to John about God’s ultimate outworking of his creation. I’m actually coming to the conclusion that ending the year with this reading, regardless of the reading plan, is a worthy endeavor especially as I observe the landscape of our current culture and it’s pulls on the Christian faith in varying ways. Continue reading →

Dear church, hold on like never before in 2024

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I did something in 2023 that I’ve not done before: followed a 365 chronological Bible reading plan. Honestly, in all of my years of Bible reading I’ve never been successful following a plan (well except in seminary where I pretty much had to). When I started in January, I had already read the first few chapters so I got a good start. I was motivated to keep at it. There were days I fell behind but then was able to catch up. I enjoyed it so much, I’m doing it again in 2024.

Needless to say, Revelation is the last book to be tackled. Because of dispensationalism’s vast influence on American evangelicalism, like many Christians, I believed the book should be read as chronological and as literal as possible. Woven into this interpretation was a pretribulational rapture and 7-year tribulation period.

Some years ago, I began to see that perhaps that was not the best interpretive approach for this book considering its apocalyptic genre and rich symbolism. It does speak to literal events, but not in the manner that has been made popular such as in the Left Behind series. I explain more about that here and here, if you’re interested. Greg Beale’s commentary was a game changer!

Update: it was suggested to me that the reference to the Left Behind series was a bit uncharitable and lends to a belief that Left Behind is a portrait of what all dispensationalists believe about the end times. Having studied at DTS, I recognize that this is not the case and there are definitely areas where some dispensationalists would disagree about how end times are portrayed in that series. Though at a minimum, all dispensationalists adhere to a futurist framework that interprets events in a chronological order and sees a 7 year tribulation period. At best, the Left Behind series is a pop-level rendering of what dispensationalists interpretations yielded even though they don’t fall into the sensational category. My point is that I’ve come to see things differently than the futurist, literal method that has a framework of a chronological order, rapture and 7 year tribulation period. 

Someone recently recommended to me Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation by Dennis Johnson, professor emeritus of practical theology at Westminster Seminary California. It’s very clear in the opening pages, that Johnson’s approach is very much like Beale, and in line with my shift. I was gripped from the beginning as he explains in a very user friendly way what this book is about. Continue reading →