That the glory of the Lord might cover the dry land as the waters cover the sea
My sweet wife and I have had a number of conversations lately about shepherding our children as they begin to engage technology, and this includes what we model for them. We need discernment in this area, so I’m eager to see the book that Tim Challies has written on the issue, The Next Story. Here’s a trailer for the book:
And I appreciated the interview that Matt Perman did with Tim (I linked Part 2 and you can get to Part 1 from there). Thanks for your work, Tim!
Can God bring good out of bad preaching? Here’s Jayber:
“In general, I weathered even the worst sermons pretty well. They had the great virtue of causing my mind to wander. Some of the best things I have ever thought of I have thought of during bad sermons. Or I would look out the windows. In winter, when the windows were closed, the church seemed to admit the light strictly on its own terms, as if uneasy about the frank sunshine of this benighted world. In summer, when the sashes were raised, I watched with a great, eager pleasure the town and the fields beyond, the clouds, the trees, the movements of the air—but then the sermons would seem more improbable. I have always loved a window, especially an open one.”
Notice how he speaks of “weathering” sermons, then talks a lot about the weather. Are there symbolic connections in this paragraph between bad preaching and winter and darkness? Are there connections between the word of God going forth to give life and summer? Is Jayber seeing a connection between better sermons being harder to believe? Is this a symbolic reference to a window at the end? Is good preaching a window on the world? What do you think?
If there’s no hell, God can’t be trusted because he doesn’t keep his word and therefore doesn’t do justice, and if there’s no justice, mercy has no meaning.
If you don’t understand what I just typed: “if there’s no justice, mercy has no meaning,” keep thinking about it. Look the words “justice” and “mercy” up in a dictionary (click them and read the definitions on dictionary.com).
In addition, if there’s no hell, the Bible’s big story doesn’t make sense.
How does hell glorify God? Glad you asked: let’s take a narrative look at hell.
Here’s the conclusion to the short piece linked above:
“In sum, hell glorifies God because
Here’s the whole thing.
It was my privilege to preach Mark 2:1–3:6 on February 6, 2011 at Kenwood Baptist Church, “The Controversial Jesus.”
He came in humility and obscurity. Born of a peasant girl. Having always existed in heaven with the Father, where he was worshiped and served by the heavenly hosts with all power at his disposal, he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant.
The hosts of heaven sang at his birth. Shepherds gathered to see the good news. Magi came from the east bearing gifts, and Herod sought to have him killed. The one born of heaven lived in obedience and perfection, submitting to his parents and obeying them.
The one known by the hosts in heaven was an unknown carpenter.
The one who made the world entered the world he made.
The one who sought the good of others had others seeking his death.
The image of the invisible God had his image bearers rising up to end his life.
The one with power to heal was rejected.
The one with authority to command demons was rebelled against.
The one who was the perfect embodiment of love was received with perfect hatred.
The one who supremely deserved to be accepted was rejected.
For my attempt to exposit this passage so rife with controversy, push your little button over these here words.
Are you a minister who wonders what people really think? I suspect that the words people say to me probably tend to be a lot nicer than the thoughts they keep in their heads. At Andrew Peterson’s recommendation, I read (listened to the audio book) Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow. Wendell Berry gives us Jayber’s honest thoughts on church: preachers, preaching, prayers, hymns, and silence in worship services. These will be posted one by one so they can be savored. Here’s what Jayber had to say about preachers:
“And a few of those young preachers were bright and could speak—I mean they could sound as if they were awake, and make you listen—and they were troubled enough in their own hearts to have something to say. A few had wakefully read some books. Maybe one or two of these might even have stayed on in Port William, if they could have lived poor enough. But they would have a wife and little children, and the economic winds would blow them past and beyond. And what, maybe, would Port William have done with them if they had stayed? Port William tends to prefer to hear what it has heard before.”
On January 30, 2011 I had the privilege of preaching Mark 1:14–45 at Kenwood Baptist Church, “A Day in the Life of Jesus.”
In Mark 1:15 Jesus claims that the time is fulfilled (perhaps interpreting Daniel 9:24–27?) and that the kingdom of God is at hand. It’s a bold man who claims that his coming marks the fulfillment of the time and the arrival of God’s kingdom.
These are deadly serious claims. Mark presents Jesus claiming that the culmination of all that has preceded has finally arrived. The whole history of the world has been building, Jesus claims, to this moment.
Do you see this audacity? Do you see this boldness? This is no gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is a Jesus who comes declaring that the moment has arrived. This is a Jesus who has gone into action with decision and firmness and resolve. This is a Jesus who has come as a peasant but who nevertheless talks like he is the world’s true King.
Do you know this Jesus? No, I mean do you know him? He will not be domesticated. You cannot tame him. His sails will not be trimmed and his rough edges cannot be sanded away. He confronts us as he is. Do you know him?
To know him is to bow. To know him is to be awed by his magnificence. To know him is to be owned by him. To know him is to feel in the depths of your being that he made you, that he sustains you, and that he can therefore command you to storm the very gates of hell and expect to be obeyed.
If you think you can have him as you want him, you don’t know him.
If you think you can line him up next to the other authorities in your life, you don’t know him.
If you think you can decide which aspects of his character you like and which you’ll disregard, you don’t know him.
If you think that he’s weak, let me assure you, you do not know him.
If you think he is optional. You certainly don’t know him.
Let’s get this straight, shall we?
Jesus of Nazareth is Lord of the Universe.
You are either a loyal subject of the world’s true King, or you are a rebel who will be crushed.
If you’d like to hear more about Mark’s presentation of “A Day in the Life of Jesus” from Mark 1:14–45, this link’s for you.
“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”
C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, 26.
That line: “We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst” deserves much thought as we look around today.
A helpful reflection from Gunner on how we tend to respond to the vanity of our vaporous existence. Here’s a wisp of the breeze he’s fanning:
“My problem is that when Scripture talks explicitly about the brevity of life, it often emphasizes the opposite of our calls to ambitious action.
Take this morbid salvo from James: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:15).
How would you expect James to follow up that statement?
I believe the contemporary church has already answered that question (see above).
We are a people who can’t help but do. We hear something like, “Life is short,” and our immediate application is “Do better,” “Work harder,” “Sacrifice more.” Whether pleasure or service or mission, we remember that life is short and we instantly think: Act.
Now, this is all fine and good and (sometimes) scriptural. But it’s worth reminding that in James 4:13-16 James is rebuking presumptuous businessmen who are declaring precisely what we usually begin to declare in our hearts when we’re hit with the “Life is short” reminder.
“Life is short… I better start doing ____.” “Life is short… I better not waste my opportunity to ____.” “Life is short… I’m going to step it up and ____.”
But what does James actually say? “Your life is a vapor. Therefore, you should stop making ambitious declarations about what you’re going to do and instead acknowledge that God is the one in control. Wake up from your arrogance and remember — only with his explicit blessing are you going to do anything, much less do what you’re so confidently planning to do. You don’t even control tomorrow.”
Read the whole thing.
Rob Brunansky will be leading a seminar on making use of Accordance this Monday, February 28, 2011. Here are the details:
Accordance Training
Louisville KY, Mon. Feb. 28th
Half Day Seminar 8:30am – 12:30pm
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
1044 Alta Vista Rd.
Louisville, KY 40205
Schlegel Hall — Room 121
(800) 264-1839
Admission is FREE.
Just give these underlined words a smack.
From Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson (10):
“The present essay itself is, I suppose, unblushingly ‘classical,’ ‘traditional’ and ‘orthodox’; at least these are the epithets with which those whose sophisms are here subjected to analysis will no doubt attempt to dismiss it. But the student whose aim is to attain as much truth as possible will not be frightened by such adjectives. . . . As Morris R. Cohen has remarked: ‘The notion that we can dismiss the views of all previous thinkers surely leaves no basis for the hope that our own work will prove of any value to others.'”
Long the world waited for him to come,
At last, at last, Anointed Son.
So hear the bold words and see the great deeds,
Teaching with power and meeting needs.
Is he your Lord? Did you answer his call?
If not, friend, you have nothing at all.
But if he is yours, and you are his,
Sing now the gladness of his bliss.
On January 16, 2011 I had the privilege of preaching on Mark 1:1–13 at Kenwood Baptist Church, “The Baptist and the Christ.”
In this text John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus in the wilderness, and there are some interesting statements in roughly contemporary texts from Josephus that shed light on the symbolic import of what John was doing in the wilderness.
Josephus, War, 2.258:
“Besides these there arose another body of villains, with purer hands but more impious intentions, who no less than the assassins ruined the peace of the city. Deceivers and imposters, under the pretence of divine inspiration fostering revolutionary changes, they persuaded the multitude to act like madmen, and led them out into the desert under the belief that God would there give them tokens of deliverance. Against them Felix, regarding this as but the preliminary to insurrection, sent a body of cavalry and heavy-armed infantry, and put a large number to the sword” (italics mine).
Similarly Antiquities, 20.168–170:
“. . . called upon the mob to follow them into the desert. For they said that they would show them unmistakable marvels and signs that would be wrought in harmony with God’s design. . . . there came to Jerusalem from Egypt a man who declared that he was a prophet and advised the masses of the common people to go out with him to the mountain called the Mount of Olives . . . For he asserted that he wished to demonstrate from there that at his command Jerusalem’s walls would fall down, through which he promised to provide them an entrance into the city” (italics mine).
Josephus, Antiquities, 20.188:
“. . . the dupes of a certain imposter who had promised them salvation and rest from troubles, if they chose to follow him into the wilderness” (italics mine).
These texts also shed light on something Jesus said in Matthew 24:26–28,
“So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (italics mine).
See also Josephus, Antiquities, 20.97:
“During the period when Fadus was procurator of Judaea, a certain imposter named Theudas persuaded the majority of the masses to take up their possessions and to follow him to the Jordan River. He stated that he was a prophet and that at his command the river would be parted and would provide them an easy passage” (italics mine).
John Piper has a fascinating post today on how Brad Pitt stumbled over God’s concern for his own glory.
Does the Bible teach that God seeks his own glory?
Let me invite you to consider the evidence for the claim that God’s glory is his own ultimate purpose, the main theme of the whole Bible, the linchpin in the Bible’s theodicy, and the theological centerpiece of every single biblical author.
There’s a lot of evidence for the idea that God seeks his own glory. This book has not exhausted it, but if you have trouble with the idea, how about joining me on a guided tour of the whole Bible? At many points I’m not sure I’ve done it justice, but the journey will repay all the effort you can give it.
I enjoyed Justin Taylor’s interview with Makoto Fujimura on art and the illumination of The Four Holy Gospels.
JT gave this breakdown of the interview:
00:00-2:00 What is an illuminated Bible?
2:00-2:45 Why was this Fujimura’s most “exhausting and “exhilarating” project?
2:45-4:55 Why does he think this will be the project he will be remembered for?
4:55-5:55 Brief overview of Fujimura’s life before he became an artist
5:55-8:20 Growing up in a non-religious but highly creative home
8:20-11:50 Being an agnostic moralist at Bucknell, and the impact of the KJV and poetry and literature as a preparation for faith
11:50-13:15 Meeting his wife and moving to Japan
13:15-19:30 How the Lord used missionary friends, a pastor, and William Blake’s poem Jerusalem to bring him to faith in Tokyo
19:30-21:30 How unbelieving artists can be haunted by beauty and alienated from the beauty they create when they don’t have room for transcendence
21:30-24:00 His double exile—his conversion and evangelism changed artists’ perception of him, and people in the church didn’t understand the importance of art, and the founding of the International Arts Movement
24:00-27:15 What Fujimura would say to pastors who like art and want to encourage and influence arts but who “don’t really get art.”
27:15-30:55 What Fujimura would say to artists who feel like their creativity is in tension with creedal theology.
30:55-36:00 What Fujimura would say to people who want to be affected by art and to grow in their appreciation for art but don’t know what to do, and how The Four Holy Gospels might help
Earlier Crossway had produced this video, which takes you inside the studio:
The Four Holy Gospels makes me feel even more honored that Crossway published my book.
May the Lord bless Crossway for their evident commitment to excellence and to the elevation of people’s minds and hearts as image bearers of the one true and living God. For more on “rehumanizing” culture, do check out Fujimura’s work at the International Arts Movement.
Patrick Schreiner recently posted this:
Here is the beginning of Clifford May’s article on the persecution of Christians in National Review. The subtitle says it all: “the most important story not being told.”
Imagine if Muslims in Europe were being arrested for nothing more than peacefully practicing their religion. Imagine if Muslims in South America were being sentenced to death for “insulting” Jesus. Imagine if mosques were being bombed and burned by terrorists in a growing list of Christian-majority countries.
Now here’s what you don’t need to imagine because it is all too real: In recent days, Christian churches have been bombed in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, and the Philippines. In Indonesia a mob of 1,000 Muslims burned down two Christian churches because, according to one commentator, local Islamic authorities determined there were “too many faithful and too many prayers.” In Iran, scores of Christians have been arrested. In Pakistan, a Christian woman received the death penalty for the “crime” of insulting Islam; the governor of Punjab promised to pardon her — and was then assassinated for the “crime” of blasphemy.
I could provide dozens more examples of the persecution and, in many cases, “cleansing” of Christians in what we have come to call the Muslim world. If the situation were reversed, if such a war were being waged against Muslims, it would be the top story in every newspaper, the most urgent item at the U.N., the highest priority of all the big-league human-rights groups.
What we have instead is denial.
The hypocrisy is Satanic.
Denny Burk has this on the latest example:
If you haven’t done so already, please pray for Said Musa who awaits execution in a prison in Kabul, Afghanistan. His crime? Converting to Christianity from Islam. Said Musa is married and the father of six young children. He has been a Christian for eight years. Compass Direct News reports:
“In the two-page letter, a copy of which Compass received in late October, Musa addressed Obama as ‘brother’ and pleaded with the international community: ‘For [the] sake [of the] Lord Jesus Christ please pray for me and rescue me from this jail otherwise they will kill me because I know they [have] very very very cruel and hard hearts.’
“Musa wrote of being sexually abused, beaten, mocked, spat on and deprived of sleep because of his faith in Jesus. He wrote that he would be willing to suffer for his faith in order to encourage and strengthen other Christians in their faith.”
After you pray if you have a Twitter account, please post one of the following messages to President Obama:
Mr. President, speak wisely and boldly, in private if necessary, for Said Musa, imprisoned in Kabul. http://dsr.gd/ezR3jW @BarackObama
Mr. President, please persuade the Afghan govt. not to execute our brother Said Musa. http://bit.ly/bQ5RLQ @BarackObama Prov. 24:10-12
Read more here:
“Afghan Convert to Christianity to be Executed within Days” (The Christian Post)
I’m a day late for a Valentine’s Day post, but I have a great excuse! Last Wednesday my sweet wife heroically gave birth to our fourth child, first little girl. When I reflect on our years together and on the gift of marriage I am almost speechless.
Poetry is pitiful compared to the real thing, but I must try to communicate the shaza-ay-am-kind-of-feeling I have when I think of how I prayed and yearned for a help-meet suitable before I met the gift. How grateful I am that she walked out of that hospital hale and healthy with a perfect little baby girl.
Words fail, but they strain against the burden. Praise God for all this mercy.
Long Did I Long
Long did I long
To know you my love.
From youth did I seek thee,
Best gift from above.
And now that I have you,
And know you so fair,
A happier man can’t be found.
Anywhere.
I’ve just re-read Daniel J. Brendsel’s essay, “Plots, Themes, and Responsibilities: The Search for a Center of Biblical Theology Reexamined,” Themelios 35.3 (2010): 400–12, which has me more convinced than ever that the center of biblical theology is the glory of God in salvation through judgment.
I’m going to paste my notes on Brendsel’s essay below, and if you’d like to know why I prefer my proposed center to his, please see God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment (for a shorter version, see either my article on the subject or this summarizing presentation).
Here are my notes on Brendsel (my outline doesn’t correspond entirely to his, and I have reformatted some quotations, summarizing other parts):
Daniel J. Brendsel, “Plots, Themes, and Responsibilities: The Search for a Center of Biblical Theology Reexamined,” Themelios 35.3 (2010): 400–12.
1) Introduction: Assumes that the search for a center is not an obsession but a responsibility and
2) provides a rationale for the search for a center
3) refocuses what the object of the search is, and
4) discusses the process of the search
2) The Rationale for the Search
2.1 if a center exists, it has massive heuristic value for understanding the parts in light of the whole
2.2 the search for a center is driven by a prior conviction about the unity of Scripture
2.3 Paul’s reference to “the whole counsel of God” in Acts 20:27 seems to imply a core deposit that will inform the Ephesians as they continue to study the Scriptures in his absence
“The search for a center is the search to provide heuristic lenses for the people of God in their interaction with scripture (and the world)” (401).
3) The Object of the Search
3.1 Problems with the term “center”
3.1.1 few have defined what they mean by the term (citing me as an exception: “the concept to which the biblical authors point as the ultimate reason” for God’s activities and as “the theme which all of the Bible’s other themes serve to exposit.” [402])
3.1.2 Many centers have been proposed, and they all threaten to steamroll diversity3.2 Plot, Themes, and Responsibilities
It is helpful to focus on the narrative of form of Scripture, but this should not keep us from searching for a center because
3.2.1 “Narrative is not an option over against ideas—the latter is intrinsic to the former” (403–404), and
3.2.2 “plot-line alone might not sufficiently summarize the message of scripture, nor describe its fundamental heartbeat, because not all scripture is narrative.” (404)“storyline can be an effective means of communicating the whole counsel of God when the key concepts and commands arising from the storyline itself are also explicitly noted and highlighted. An adequate proposal for a center to biblical theology, or more preferably, to use the language of Acts 20:27, a sufficient summary of the whole counsel of God, will link these elements together—plot, theme(s), responsibilities—in its formulation.” (404).
3.3 Two Important Precedents
“there are two important precedents for this fusion of plot, theme, and responsibility as a way of summarizing scripture to be used as a heuristic tool by God’s people. The first comes from Jesus himself, the second from the early church.” (405)
3.3.1 ““Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45–47). Note two things: (1) Jesus presents a concise summary of “the scriptures,” offering what could be considered the core of what “is written.” (2) This core consists of a plot (the story of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection, and a proclamation beginning in Jerusalem and moving outward), a theme (repentance for the forgiveness of sins), and responsibilities (repentance, proclamation).” (405)
3.3.2 “second, ante-Nicene theologians (esp. tertullian and irenaeus) spoke of a “rule of Faith,” which they viewed as being both derived from and serving deeper reflection on scripture.” (405)“The rule of Faith offers four important parallels with the present proposal.
First, it seeks to offer a narrative digest of scripture.
Second, it combines plot (moving through creation, fall, redemption, and restoration), themes (creation, sin, salvation, etc.), and responsibility (as a creedal statement).
Third, it was used as a kind of framework or guide for further fruitful reflection on scripture, a kind of heuristic lens through which the people of God may discover truth.
Fourth, as Paul Blowers has argued persuasively, ante-Nicene theologians were not interested in using the rule merely as a useful guide for biblical instruction and interpretation or as a way to fend off error, but also in the formation of Christian identity, that is, in shaping believers’ “storied” existence as themselves part of the biblical story. In other words, the rule of Faith was formulated and passed on within the context of pastoral care for the people of God.” (406)4. The Process of the Search
4.1 Validation Tests for Selecting Key Points
Citing Beale:
“Proposals for a center must be
(1) “more overarching” than other proposals;
(2) related to the other major themes of the NT;
(3) “integrally related to major old testament themes,” resting ultimately upon “a broad storyline” and rooted in Christ; and
(4) individually examined.These four tests can be condensed into two broad criteria: comprehensiveness and integral relationship to the major themes of scripture, especially the Bible’s plot-line and the death and resurrection of Christ.” (407)
4.2 Objections:
4.2.3 historical and cultural factors result in the identification of “major” themes
Answer: some themes are consistently identified across cultures and history4.2.4 “the idea of comprehensiveness might be rejected on two fronts:
(1) there is no basis for relegating some elements of scripture to mere sub-categories under other more comprehensive themes, and
(2) even if there were a basis, it is extremely difficult to know what to subordinate under what.” (408)Answer to the first: this criticism can be applied to any proposal that recognizes a cluster of broad or major themes, since even if they reject a center they are nevertheless presenting a hierarchy of themes.
Further,
1) selectivity is inevitable
2) complaining that some things are at the margin while others are central is more a description than a criticism
3) those who criticize proposals for the center should do so on other grounds: for instance, that all themes should be treated equally, that another proposal is better, or that some passages contradict the proposal.
4) Scripture itself prioritizes some parts of the Bible over others—e.g., weightier matters of the law (Matt 23:23), Micah 6:8, greatest commandment, Jesus’ claim that the Scriptures testify to him.Answer to the Second: Factors to help us in the search:
1. “repetition and representation in diverse portions of scripture, while certainly not sufficient in and of itself, is a significant consideration.
2. Climactic portions of the biblical narrative would be key places to identify clusters of important events and ideas.
3. Integral relationship with other major themes has been shown to be a valid area for examination.
4. And related to this is whether or not parallel suggestions have been made in the history of interpretation, which could be either different expressions of or perspectives on a substantive core, or the seed form of something one is trying to develop.” (409)Purposes and agendas cannot be denied and should be acknowledged up front (410).
5. Conclusion
“What basic, general hermeneutical lens ought we to provide for the people of God? Perhaps we might suggest the following: The triune God is actively engaged in increasing (and incarnating) his presence among his people, a presence that entails for his people the responsibility of worship, in the fourfold story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.” (412)
The whole essay is here.
At 2pm On February 16 at 2pm you can tune in at www.engagingyourworld.com for a live interview with Tom Crouse about God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment.
UPDATE: Rescheduled for Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 2pm, Lord willing.
