Today I found out that my friend Niki's mom has gone into a coma as a result of anesthesia from yesterday's surgery. Upon receiving the anesthesia she immediately flatlined. Although they were able to resuscitate her, and it appears that she has no brain detectable brain damage, she is totally unresponsive to anything. If you're reading this, please pray for Niki, her mom, and her family. They're all believers in the hope of the redemption of all creation, including our bodies (Rom 8.18-25).
Comas: a weird thing, to say the least. Yes, the person is alive in a very real sense but can't respond to the world around or move about. The thought came to me how very much this is like each and every one of us humans, the living dead. Try as you wish to deny it, but we are all conceived as dead to God by mere virtue (or lack thereof) of being human, just dry bones (Ezek 37.1-14). "You were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Eph 2.1,3).
I don't quite have the time right now, but the beautiful truth theologians call monergism (mono = one, erg = work; one person's work) gripped me in a strange way a year ago and has become one of the rocks upon which I stand, the rock from which the cross of Jesus was raised up. Essentially, it is this: man is totally dead to God and under his just condemnation and eternal shame. We have no ability or desire to reach for him apart from his calling and grace. Therefore all of salvation, all of faith, must come from him and be accomplished by him alone (Eph 2.8-9). Our only choice comes in our condemnation and sinfulness, not our rebirth and justification. Monergism stands over and against synergism (working together), which says that salvation involves some component of our own choice and doing--a key tenet of Wesleyan, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian traditions. Hopefully I'll have time to flesh out what this means, why I believe it, and why it has become a joy to me.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
"Have it your way."
Over the past year, I've been through a bit of a roller coaster ride regarding my affections for many modern churches. I grew up a very conservative and traditional Lutheran church (Missouri Synod), where the norm was baking having bake sales, wearing ties, and reading a liturgy based on the Authorized Version (that's the King James Version, for all you newbies). Amid many shortcomings, lots of things were/are good about it: daily memorization of Scripture (RSV) and Luther's small catechism; the place actually looks like it's sacred and not just my living room; hymns chock-full of solid, heart-warming doctrine. (Ah, for the days of singing Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott, #262 in the Lutheran Hymnal!)
When I went to college and Jesus drew me into a much deeper, truer relationship with himself, I wanted everything new and exciting. Consequently, I chose a church that was hip: everyone was young, the praise music was loud and electrified, and the sermons were entertaining. And I must say, they contributed to my growth as a follower of Jesus.
Yet something was missing: Christ Jesus himself. I found the preaching began to lack substance because it stayed too surfactory in order to be seeker-friendly. I got annoyed at the pastors' attempts to entertain rather than teach. I began to miss hymns and people older than thirty. And I got ticked that I couldn't express my newfound joy in monergism with others who viewed it as cold and unloving.
It was at this time I was introduced to a far smaller but, in my opinion, more passionate church last summer. I quickly became involved and became a member of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, whose desire is to be a "Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, burden-bearing, pilgrim people who are passionately committed to making much of God in all of life." Worship is lively and absolutely centered on glorious truths like Christ's propitiation and his making truly dead and blind men live and see. Pastor Kevin DeYoung is a solid expositional preacher who's not afraid to call a spade a spade. I've been able to build relationships with men of all ages. Twenty percent of the budget supports global missions and evangelistic efforts. I'll be the tenth member in recent years to serve the Lord in Turkey. It's sweet.
But I do know that people are coming to know the God and grow in his Spirit at all kinds of churches, even the "cool" ones. Part of my skin crawls when, like this past weekend, the first twenty minutes of the "message" were about the youth pastor's fishing escapades, enhanced by the ridiculous fisherman's outfit and tackle that he wasted the church's money on. I really do desire pastors to stop entertaining and selling the gospel as if it were a plan for improving your life, giving you purpose, and bringing out the best in you. It is, but it's not. Churches need to stop singing stupid stuff like "You alone are worthy of my praise" (as if I my praise were something extra special needed by God and that I'd be justified to withhold it from him, should I deem him not worthy of it). Honestly, church should bring out the worst in us instead, but heal us with the "best" of God if they are to be faithful in building disciples.
Anyway, after my brief autobiography and perplexed rant, please read two articles that express my feelings and concerns well. Actually, my previous writing was more of a lead-in to these, which have the real meat I wish to communicate.
1. Eugene Peterson on today's evangelical "spirituality"
2. Killing the Buddha's post on the church growth movement, or some perils of it.
When I went to college and Jesus drew me into a much deeper, truer relationship with himself, I wanted everything new and exciting. Consequently, I chose a church that was hip: everyone was young, the praise music was loud and electrified, and the sermons were entertaining. And I must say, they contributed to my growth as a follower of Jesus.
Yet something was missing: Christ Jesus himself. I found the preaching began to lack substance because it stayed too surfactory in order to be seeker-friendly. I got annoyed at the pastors' attempts to entertain rather than teach. I began to miss hymns and people older than thirty. And I got ticked that I couldn't express my newfound joy in monergism with others who viewed it as cold and unloving.
It was at this time I was introduced to a far smaller but, in my opinion, more passionate church last summer. I quickly became involved and became a member of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, whose desire is to be a "Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, burden-bearing, pilgrim people who are passionately committed to making much of God in all of life." Worship is lively and absolutely centered on glorious truths like Christ's propitiation and his making truly dead and blind men live and see. Pastor Kevin DeYoung is a solid expositional preacher who's not afraid to call a spade a spade. I've been able to build relationships with men of all ages. Twenty percent of the budget supports global missions and evangelistic efforts. I'll be the tenth member in recent years to serve the Lord in Turkey. It's sweet.
But I do know that people are coming to know the God and grow in his Spirit at all kinds of churches, even the "cool" ones. Part of my skin crawls when, like this past weekend, the first twenty minutes of the "message" were about the youth pastor's fishing escapades, enhanced by the ridiculous fisherman's outfit and tackle that he wasted the church's money on. I really do desire pastors to stop entertaining and selling the gospel as if it were a plan for improving your life, giving you purpose, and bringing out the best in you. It is, but it's not. Churches need to stop singing stupid stuff like "You alone are worthy of my praise" (as if I my praise were something extra special needed by God and that I'd be justified to withhold it from him, should I deem him not worthy of it). Honestly, church should bring out the worst in us instead, but heal us with the "best" of God if they are to be faithful in building disciples.
Anyway, after my brief autobiography and perplexed rant, please read two articles that express my feelings and concerns well. Actually, my previous writing was more of a lead-in to these, which have the real meat I wish to communicate.
1. Eugene Peterson on today's evangelical "spirituality"
2. Killing the Buddha's post on the church growth movement, or some perils of it.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Thursday, July 7, 2005
In due time their foot shall slip...
Ah, I see there's a new page up at Christian CounterCulture. CCC is normally pretty sound, and is in fact written by a number of fellow Reformed/Presbyterian contributors. And even when I do disagree, we ought not disagree for disagreement's or philosophy's sake, but for Scripture's. But how the crap did this get in there? Obviously someone has taken the "highlighter approach" to God's word:
This simple but life- transforming truth [of God's love] has been kept hidden by some of the most famous sermons in the history of the Church. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was delivered by the renowned preacher, theologian and revivalist, Jonathan Edwards at Enfield, Connecticut in 1741:
Commentating on Edward's sermon, the academic Ola Winslow reflects, "Two centuries and more later, this is still a grim sermon on the printed page and delivered to a packed auditory under the strain of 1741, it would have been almost unbearable!"
Preaching like Edwards' has been all too representative of the portrayal of the gospel by the Church over the last few hundred years, and, by implication, of any popular understanding of the message of Jesus. And though today, for the most part, the worst of this ferocious rhetoric is a thing of the past, the residue of such portrayals of the gospel still echo across the world. People still believe that the Christian God is primarily a God of power, law, judgment, hell-fire and damnation. A God whose strapline is probably, "Get in line fast or I'll squash you!"
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Web sites worth your while
If you share my theological sympathies (Reformational Christianity), then you might enjoy what's posted on the following sites:
Monergism - Essays and books related to the fact that our wills are captive to sin and the devil (2 Tim 2.25) and that God's sovereign grace is our only hope. Salvation by works (synergism) is futile.
Jonathan Edwards - Entire essays, treatises, and sermons from perhaps America's greatest theologican. Dedicated to God's passion for making much of himself.
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod - The belief & practice page has enough reading material to keep one occupied for a year, especially with the entire Book of Concord online.
Christian Counterculture - Monthly topical essays from a grace- and Scripture-saturated perspective. From The Discerning Reader.
Desiring God - The online resources of pastor John Piper. Contains the text of every sermon since 1981 or so, along with recent audio sermons and lots of other stuff.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version - Site dedicated to informing you about the way the Bible should be: faithful to the original texts in both thought and word, readable, and elegant. (Although I still use my NASB '95 study Bible)
Monergism - Essays and books related to the fact that our wills are captive to sin and the devil (2 Tim 2.25) and that God's sovereign grace is our only hope. Salvation by works (synergism) is futile.
Jonathan Edwards - Entire essays, treatises, and sermons from perhaps America's greatest theologican. Dedicated to God's passion for making much of himself.
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod - The belief & practice page has enough reading material to keep one occupied for a year, especially with the entire Book of Concord online.
Christian Counterculture - Monthly topical essays from a grace- and Scripture-saturated perspective. From The Discerning Reader.
Desiring God - The online resources of pastor John Piper. Contains the text of every sermon since 1981 or so, along with recent audio sermons and lots of other stuff.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version - Site dedicated to informing you about the way the Bible should be: faithful to the original texts in both thought and word, readable, and elegant. (Although I still use my NASB '95 study Bible)
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Simul iustus et peccator
[Please note: This may be somewhat rambling and Faulkneresque in its stream-of-consciousness style, but I merely want to put some thoughts down. My apologies up front.]
"At the same time righteous and a sinner." These words are sweet and true, but, oh, how often they sound like blasphemy to my ears! Lately there have been some sins from my past that have come to life, frustrating me to no end. While I sin, I am sometimes strangely complacent; yet afterwards, I freak out so much as to shrink back from a holy God, forgetting entirely that he is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
I crave assurance that I belong to Christ both now and eternally and that I am indeed in his hands, never to fall. Consequently, in my natural state, I want something concrete, something I've done or am doing, to point to as proof of my salvation. I want to look at the killing of some sin (Rom 8.13) and my sanctification as a source of relief--and indeed they ought to be. But I'm not like that; secretly I want more of myself. It's like looking to when "I received Christ into my life" or when "I said a prayer" or when "I made a confession of faith." Yet Scripturally this is a total bastardization of grace. The right way is saying and believing in when God breathed new life into me. "The Sacramentarians [Anabaptists] usually denied infant baptism and instead practiced believer's baptism. Adults made their own pledges to God and were then baptized in response to those pledges. Luther rightly objected that that turned God's action of giving grace in baptism into a man-made ritual centering on human declaration" (from the introduction to Galatians in the Concordia Reference Bible). Isn't this what we want? Confirmation from something we've done?
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matt 7.21-24)
This teaching is known to many, understood to precious few. Until recently, I thought this passage is law, i. e., what we must do to enter the kingdom ("he who does the will of My Father"). But this cannot be so. For these men pointed to what they did in fact do in the name of Christ as their grounds of assurance, but they were utterly rejected. It simply cannot be that anything we can do will stand to give us hope. This does not give the glory to God. Everything commanded us in sacred Scripture only kills, brings death, and condems (2 Cor 3.6-9). But the gospel brings life!
Oh, how quick I am to neglect Christ and his merits before God and trade my Christianhood for wishing to be a Jew! I trade the purpose of the law of Christ (Gal 6.2), which is identification with God and his character, thus worshiping him (indeed, this was also the purpose of the Mosaic law under the old covenant), and twist it into a way of becoming right before God. "Not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end [telos: culmination, fulfillment] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom 10.3-4; cf 2 Cor 5.21). Jesus of Nazareth perfectly met every one of God's covenant demands in both letter and spirit, thereby doing away with the old covenant.
"To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly [that's me, ungodly!], his faith is credited as righteousness" (Rom 4.5). Is it really this simple, that I only need believe--and that with a faith given me entirely from God before ever I asked for it (Eph 2.8-9)? Yes, for only this can be true, Christ-centered and -exalting grace! Soli Christo gloria!
"If by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. . . . For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners [aorist passive indicative], even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous [future passive indicative]" (Rom 5.17,19). Ah, the beauty of grammar! Note that our righteousness is not from ourselves; we are made (or declared) righteous by God (passive voice). The indicative mood indicates certainty or actuality; this is guaranteed! Because of Christ's perfect obedience to God's covenant stipulations, God has counted Christ's very right standing as our very own right standing, all in one declaration, one fell swoop! Christ's righteousness has been given to us as a gift--given to me!--and it is in him and his work alone can we rest or find hope. This is the gospel, and I won't even pretend to know it well or embrace its depths. But God's Spirit is doing something, and I know that Christ is our hope, our firm rock. He has obtained for us all that we could never attain, and it is to this we can point before God and say, "Behold the Man! He is my righteousness, my holiness, and he alone. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
"At the same time righteous and a sinner." These words are sweet and true, but, oh, how often they sound like blasphemy to my ears! Lately there have been some sins from my past that have come to life, frustrating me to no end. While I sin, I am sometimes strangely complacent; yet afterwards, I freak out so much as to shrink back from a holy God, forgetting entirely that he is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
I crave assurance that I belong to Christ both now and eternally and that I am indeed in his hands, never to fall. Consequently, in my natural state, I want something concrete, something I've done or am doing, to point to as proof of my salvation. I want to look at the killing of some sin (Rom 8.13) and my sanctification as a source of relief--and indeed they ought to be. But I'm not like that; secretly I want more of myself. It's like looking to when "I received Christ into my life" or when "I said a prayer" or when "I made a confession of faith." Yet Scripturally this is a total bastardization of grace. The right way is saying and believing in when God breathed new life into me. "The Sacramentarians [Anabaptists] usually denied infant baptism and instead practiced believer's baptism. Adults made their own pledges to God and were then baptized in response to those pledges. Luther rightly objected that that turned God's action of giving grace in baptism into a man-made ritual centering on human declaration" (from the introduction to Galatians in the Concordia Reference Bible). Isn't this what we want? Confirmation from something we've done?
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matt 7.21-24)
This teaching is known to many, understood to precious few. Until recently, I thought this passage is law, i. e., what we must do to enter the kingdom ("he who does the will of My Father"). But this cannot be so. For these men pointed to what they did in fact do in the name of Christ as their grounds of assurance, but they were utterly rejected. It simply cannot be that anything we can do will stand to give us hope. This does not give the glory to God. Everything commanded us in sacred Scripture only kills, brings death, and condems (2 Cor 3.6-9). But the gospel brings life!
Oh, how quick I am to neglect Christ and his merits before God and trade my Christianhood for wishing to be a Jew! I trade the purpose of the law of Christ (Gal 6.2), which is identification with God and his character, thus worshiping him (indeed, this was also the purpose of the Mosaic law under the old covenant), and twist it into a way of becoming right before God. "Not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end [telos: culmination, fulfillment] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom 10.3-4; cf 2 Cor 5.21). Jesus of Nazareth perfectly met every one of God's covenant demands in both letter and spirit, thereby doing away with the old covenant.
"To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly [that's me, ungodly!], his faith is credited as righteousness" (Rom 4.5). Is it really this simple, that I only need believe--and that with a faith given me entirely from God before ever I asked for it (Eph 2.8-9)? Yes, for only this can be true, Christ-centered and -exalting grace! Soli Christo gloria!
"If by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. . . . For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners [aorist passive indicative], even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous [future passive indicative]" (Rom 5.17,19). Ah, the beauty of grammar! Note that our righteousness is not from ourselves; we are made (or declared) righteous by God (passive voice). The indicative mood indicates certainty or actuality; this is guaranteed! Because of Christ's perfect obedience to God's covenant stipulations, God has counted Christ's very right standing as our very own right standing, all in one declaration, one fell swoop! Christ's righteousness has been given to us as a gift--given to me!--and it is in him and his work alone can we rest or find hope. This is the gospel, and I won't even pretend to know it well or embrace its depths. But God's Spirit is doing something, and I know that Christ is our hope, our firm rock. He has obtained for us all that we could never attain, and it is to this we can point before God and say, "Behold the Man! He is my righteousness, my holiness, and he alone. On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
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