A few years back I put together some worldview discussion guides surrounding some contemporary films. I have posted them here on the blog under my print resources page, and thought I might as well link to them here: Hope they are helpful:

Worldviews at the Movies 

• Gattaca
• Signs
• Contact
• Lord of the Rings
• Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• The Matrix

The following are some additional notes which were given out along with the sermon "Making Something of Yourself" at the Inversion Fellowship on October 12th 2006.

Work out your Salvation? For it is God who works?

There is a beautiful tension found in the Bible which is highlighted in Philippians two. The tension I am speaking of is between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Many in history have fallen to one side of this great mountain; either by asserting man’s freedom and self generated moral ability (the error of Pelagius) or by emphasizing God’s sovereignty to the point of neglecting man’s duty to follow and obey Jesus (the error of Hyper-Calvinism). This debate is very ancient going back to the pay per view battle royals of Augustine vs. Pelagius, Erasmus vs. Luther, Beza vs. The Remonstrants, Whitfield vs. Wesley.1 This tendency remains in us and with us today when we are confronted by the Bible.

Before we begin, I want to firmly assert that what God has joined, we should not separate. For indeed in Philippians 2:12, 13 we see both our duty and God’s ultimate working lined up side by side flowing in the same line of thought. Paul did not hesitate to assert both truths in the Word of God; neither shall we. To examine this we will first look at each piece of the puzzle in turn, along with an associated error with holding one side of the coin while denying the other, and then move to a synthesis. I will say up front that my leanings are not towards the idea that man has ultimate self-determination over his life. My synthesis will be more in line with the reformed tradition, yet not in any way denying our responsibility to live life before God every day.

Verse 12—Work it Out

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Who is to work out their salvation? The Philippian church. In light of who Jesus is and what he has done, they are to live out that salvation in community in such a way that respects and honors the Lord. Paul makes it clear in the first part of verse 12 that we are to do this by obeying Jesus. Who is to obey him? We are. This is not controversial and it assumes that Christians can do this in their lives. But how do we do this? By what power is this accomplished in our lives? An ancient error in the church claims that human beings can simply do this of their own free will; by their own moral will power. We should not embrace this idea for it robs God of his glory and will only lead to us despairing in our failures. For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Rather, we should say “yes!” to following God and “yes!” to the way in which this actually occurs in our lives. For this Paul quickly appends verse 13 to his argument. Work it out! For it is God who wills and works in you according to his good pleasure.

Verse 13—It is God who wills and works

Paul makes it very clear that the working in us is the working of God. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work according to his good pleasure. The point Paul makes is that both the will to/want to/desire to and the power/energy to follow through come ultimately from God. He gives us a desire to obey Jesus and then, in his grace, he also gives us the power to carry it out. John Calvin, in commenting on this verse, makes this clear:

There are, in any action, two principal departments — the inclination, and the power to carry it into effect. Both of these he ascribes wholly to God; what more remains to us as a ground of glorying? 2

Who gets the credit for the inclination and the power to carry it out? God does. God does. All glory and praise and wonder for the reality that our lives are transformed goes to God alone. We revel in the fact that our community might live in humility like the Lord Jesus. We are amazed that our desires have changed from sin and self to God and others. The error on this side lies with thinking God is sovereign therefore I do not have any responsibility. This is a fatalistic view which is absent from the Bible. If God is in control and giving us the desire and power to live out our faith, it does not translate into a call to inaction because “it is all up to God anyway.” Those who have taken this view have made an equally serious mistake. God has called us to act and live, acknowledging his enablement, not to be a couch potato for the Kingdom because “God is doing his thing” We have looked at both sides of the coin, now let us look at the synthesis.

A synthesis of verses 12 and 13 “Because God works, we work”

The 20th century Scottish Theologian John Murray provides a wonderful synthesis of this passage so I will go no further to improve on what he has already so aptly said.

God’s working in us is not suspended because we work, nor our working suspended because God works. Neither is the relation strictly one of cooperation as if God did his part and we did ours so that the conjunction or coordination of both produced the required result. God works and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work. All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God’s working in us...We have here not only the explanation of all acceptable activity on our part but we also have the incentive to our willing and working...The more persistently active we are in working, the more persuaded we may be that all the energizing grace and power is of God.3

One last point must be made. It is our tendency to read things as referring only to individual salvation. Does this passage have implications for this? Absolutely! But Paul is writing this to a church, in the context of an exhortation to them to live a certain type of life together. The working out of salvation in fear and trembling and realizing that God is at work is well paraphrased by Gordon Fee in his commentary on Philippians: In your relationships with one another live out the salvation Christ has brought you.4

Combining the above synthesis along with a communitarian understanding of the working of the gospel in our lives provides a deep understanding for the church. In this understanding Jesus is the one who is glorified and not our own self-willed efforts. Our lives and our community is thereby transformed by the power of God. The result? We marvel and worship the God of our salvation—together. Then our lives shine like lights in a crooked and twisted generation so that others may see and savor and bow the knee to Jesus the unique savior of the world.

Unlike The Exodus Generation

In the New Testament there are many, many direct allusions to themes and passages in the Old Testament. In fact, some are so shocking that they would jump up and bite anyone deeply familiar with the OT. In Philippians 2:14-17 we see just such a passage. Remember that the Philippian Christians were most likely Gentile converts, they were not Jewish. However, we observed in the planting of the church in Acts 16, that many of the first Philippian Christians were “God-fearers” before they heard the gospel. This meant they were believers in the God of the Jews and would have been very familiar with the Hebrew narratives of the Old Testament. Therefore, when the Philippians read verses 14-17 it would have registered powerfully with them as hopeful words in light of those stories. Let’s look at the verse and highlight a few of these allusions and then treat them in turn:

14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Grumbling or questioning—This is the description used for the Israelites who, after the Exodus from Egypt, grumbled and complained against Moses and against God. In 1 Corinthians 10:6-10 , Paul addresses this issue in the strongest of terms.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

The Philippians would know this narrative and would think—yes brother Paul, grumbling and complaining are bad things, bad things man, very bad things. When God is saving your butt, it is not a good thing to whine like a baby because you would like it done another way. When Jesus has died for you—gratefulness is the response. Grumbling is not fitting for such a people.

Blameless—The person to which all Jews trace their lineage is “Father Abraham” - you church kids know the song. Students of the Old Testament would know God’s word to Him found in Genesis 17:1,2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” The Philippians would have known—the way of the people of God is to “walk before him, and be blameless.” By their own willpower? No, it is God who is at work. We live in grace, not trying to manufacture blamelessness into our lives. We are sinners being transformed, predestined to walk before a God who has made us blameless (Ephesians 1:4, Colossians 1:21) in his sight. How has he done this? By the death of his beloved Son Jesus...who being in the very nature God humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Crooked and twisted generation—This is what Moses used to describe the stubborn disobedient generation of Israel who did not enter the promised land. Deuteronomy 32:5 reads, They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. Whereas the first generation of Israel after the Exodus is called crooked and twisted, the church is said to be the children of God without blemish in the midst of such a generation. This should greatly encourage the church. We are not the disobedient generation, but the ones purchased by Jesus, heading into the promised lands of God. 

Timothy—Young and Faithful Church Leadership

Timothy was one of the key leaders in the early church planting movement led by Paul the apostle. One thing I want you (y’all) to get is that he was a very young man. Commentators have varied in their understanding of Timothy’s age. But one thing is sure, when he begin in ministry with Paul he was very young. At the end of Paul’s life when his letters to Timothy were penned, he was still green enough to be called “neotēs” or young.5 This should encourage us to see our lives as significant and useful to the Kingdom of God in this season of our lives. Listen, Inversion, to a wonderful encouragement found in 1 Timothy 4:12.

• Let no one despise you for your youth (ESV)
• Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young (NIV)
• Let no man despise thy youth (KJV)
• And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. (The Message)

Who do we need to become to fulfill the second part of this verse which reads: Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Lead the church—lead the body of Christ, set an example of passion for Jesus and holiness of life, now, while you are young. No need to wait. Serve and lead my friends.

Being from Music City, I felt compelled to read this article in the Washington Post (See - 'Before the Music Dies' Diagnoses an Ailing Industry - washingtonpost.com). It is basically about a documentary film chronicling the commercialization of the music business which is driving the heart from music industry.

The documentary, Before the Music Dies, is a series of interviews of music lovers and old school musicians, commenting on the current state of affairs of the music scene. The message seems to be that music has sold out to the man, leaving hollow, marketed crap out there on the shelves for the consumer.

Some hope is seen in the new indie scene, digitial music, direct creation and sale to music consumers, but in the end the article finishes with a keen observation about modern culture. Here are the last few paragraphs, which I find a true song therein:

But even as Rasmussen says he's not terribly optimistic about the ability of talented new artists to find an audience, the film touches on new paths that are emerging to connect music and listeners: satellite radio, the Internet, file sharing, bands that handle their own distribution. There's even a scene celebrating an FM radio station that dares to go its own way -- Seattle's KEXP, where deejays get to pick their own tunes and play tastemaker.

Rasmussen believes that in this era, when the promise of infinite choice slams up against the reality of time-stressed lives, what listeners crave is "someone to tell them where the great new music is." As the movie quotes Bob Dylan, who in his dotage has taken up the role of radio deejay: "It's just too much. It's pollution."

But this cry for someone to synthesize information -- a way to identify and lead people to quality work -- conflicts with the rhetoric of the Internet, the notion that out there on the Web, democracy is pure and no middleman need exist.

That is the central contradiction in popular culture today, the celebration of unbounded choice even as overwhelmed consumers crave both art they can share with others and a reliable guide to sift through all the junk for them.

Emphasis added

Anyway, music folks may want to read...

Hard Right Turn: I think this last paragraph applies to American Christianity in two ways:

• We too pick churches like people in a shopping mall. We are consumers seeking the vibe that fits "me" and "us" - is the music to our liking, is the preacher entertaining, do they have something for "me?" - we even call it "church shopping." Consumerus Maximus may well be the new Western Deity.
• I think the Protestant mega-church has bought the story of offering "unbounded choice" at the church itself and in doing so somewhat splintered the spiritual life of the Christian family. The church has something for the kid, the teen, the young, the old, the in-between, the women, the man, etc. Everything is very targeted and marketed to the individual. Right or wrong, I am part of this world. What I see as a bi-product is an erosion in the cohesion in the family's life with God is lost while individuals consume various portions of the church pie. Mom is studying X, Dad Y, the kids Z. All going in different directions, wondering why no one connects at home.

What to do?

 

This is pretty funny stuff...Amazon apparently sold 1000 Xbox 360s in 29 seconds.
Apparently Amazon's servers were crushed by this...

Here is the story over at Yahoo: Xbox sale slows Amazon.com - Yahoo! News

Need a new computer monitor?
Try this one on for size...I would love to run Logos Libronix on one of these.

Ralphie had to wash his mouth out with a Zune
Really, this picture is really funny, and the Zune is taking a beating in the news.

 

Yes, you do live in the Matrix
If you think you are real, you might be mistaken.  Have you not heard of the simulation argument?  My refutation: If I were not real, I would not laugh at the picture of Ralphie above.  Yes, I am real.

There is a mistake in this illustration which recently ran in the NY Times along with an article chronicling a recent atheist gathering (mentioned in this POC Bundle).  Can you find the mistake? 

Hint Read Revelation 1...A to Z in Greek...

There is an interesting little deal about the state of friendship in our culture over at Christianity Today.  Here are a couple of exerpts:

As of 2004, the average American had just two close friends, compared with three in 1985. Those reporting no confidants at all jumped from 10 percent to 25 percent. Even the share of Americans reporting a healthy circle of four or five friends had plunged from 33 percent to just over 15 percent.

And it ends with a good poke at Christians in America today:

One wonders what it would take for the church, the new community, the friends of Jesus (John 15), to hold equal fascination for our lonely culture. To draw our culture to Christ, evangelical churches spend enormous amounts of money on slick marketing materials, enormous amounts of creative energy crafting "authentic" worship, and enormous amounts of intellectual capital on postmodernizing the faith. We're not convinced these strategies get to the heart of our cultural malaise.

Perhaps another "strategy" is in order. What if church leaders mounted a campaign to encourage each of their members to become friends, good friends, with one unchurched person this year?

Oh, but that would require so much commitment, sacrifice, and humility! Exactly.

Exactly - deep committed friendships with folks outside of the church sounds like a loving your neighbor kind of thing to me.

The Emergent Village has a page describing its values and practices.  One of the sentences on the page struck me as a bit strange.  It is under the headings:

2. Commitment to the Church in all its Forms:

Practices: 

To be actively and positively involved in a local congregation, while maintaining open definitions of “church” and “congregation.” We work in and with churches, seeking to live out authentic Christian faith in authentic Christian community.

I guess I can be committed to anything I want as long as I use the English language symbol "congregation" for it.   I guess I can sit in my jammies and spoke a peace pipe and call it "local congregation" and I would be faithful to practicing Value 2.  Strange, but a great example of postmodern allergies to closed "definitions"

See "The Rule of Pinky" for some more definition-phobia which has emerged in the last few years.

 

Matt Chandler from the Village Church has made a new friend in his congregation.  His name? None other than Ned Flanders.  For all of those who long to see the messy haired, untucked generation connect better with the suited up-tighty types this is a great read.

Here is the link: Ned Flanders and Me

 

Some interesting stuff around the net so I thought it was a good time to put together a little bundle.  Kasey and I were in Memphis all weekend with family so the blog has been a little slow.  Thanks for asking Greg :)

General News 

Marriage is on the down in France (shocker, right?) It seems that the French are disposing with the notion of lifelong commitment.  Here is the article from the Washington Post.  Another little tid-bit which shows up in the article is about the tax structure in France.

In France, the greatest financial and tax incentives target the number of children a couple has rather than the parents' marital status.

France, like other European states, needs to give people healthy incentives to have kids.  If something does not happen to make the Europeans reporoduce, the Islamic invasion - stopped by ideas and swords in medieval Europe - will happen without much resistance from the aging, non reproducing, socialist leaning European populations.  The ending of the article is also aw bit ironic...

On Science - The New Atheism

It seems like there was a recent evangelistic rally for unbelief which took place out west in California.  Check out this site - the videos on the home page are priceless, here is the link: Beyond Belief 2006.  The New York Times ran an article on it as well...probably a good starting point.

Here is a description of the event from the conference web site.

Just 40 years after a famous TIME magazine cover asked "Is God Dead?" the answer appears to be a resounding "No!" According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, "God is Winning". Religions are increasingly a geopolitical force to be reckoned with. Fundamentalist movements - some violent in the extreme - are growing. Science and religion are at odds in the classrooms and courtrooms. And a return to religious values is widely touted as an antidote to the alleged decline in public morality. After two centuries, could this be twilight for the Enlightenment project and the beginning of a new age of unreason? Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific worldviews? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?

This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions. The conversation took place at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA from November 5-7, 2006.

Harmless for now; my hope is that these dudes don't get violent like the militant secularists of the 20th century (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot). 

Technology

The big news of the week is the PS3 launch...lots of interesting stories out there about people buying them just to sell on EBay.  Reviews have not been great so far. 

Oh yeah, the Zune launched this past week as well. Does anyone care?  You can read an interview with the richest dude on earth commenting on the zune here.

Continue reading "POC Bundle - 11-21-06 - The French, Atheism, and PS3s (and Zunes)" »

Justin Taylor has a great little post to help us how to think through arguments presented in the public square.  I highly recommend going to this post and doing the little exercise recommended.

Learning to love God with our minds...a good path 

There is an article running over at the Wall Street Journal about the practice of pastors preaching other people's sermons, buying them for a few bucks off of the internet.  This is becoming more and more common today.

There are two edges to this problem.  One is genuine plagiarism, taking another's ideas to be your own.  The other is a natural passing on of teaching - every teacher resembles his master and will no doubt garner phrases, language, and concepts from learning under them.

I think anyone who does teach or preach reads books, articles, sermons, commentaries, etc.  As I once heard Greg Laurie say: We all milk many cows, but make your own butter.  I know if I hear something really good taught somewhere (over coffee, in a home, in church, at a Bible study, on tv, radio, internet, etc) I will at times file the idea mentally and then adapt and use it in appropriate messages.  Every Christian teacher, every person that teaches, is not bringing something completely original to the table.  After all, if we are only teaching our own original ideas, we are not doing our jobs.  We are called to preach the gospel (Galatians 1) and the faith once for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3) so complete originality in ideas can be disastrous.

Personally, I know of no Christian who teaches who does not multiply the teaching which was given to him.  He does not have footnotes along the way and in every teaching conversation and setting.  Does a pastor who has read 10 John Piper books and uses the phrase or a paraphrase of "the supremacy of God in all things" need to cite Dr. Piper every time he uses the phrase in a Bible study or in other teaching settings?  I think this can get a bit overbearing if we are not careful. 

Yet this article describes a very different phenomenon.  Pastor's going online and buying a sermon for 10 bucks and then preaching it as their own.  This to me has a myriad of problems.  

• It short-circuits a process that God does in the life of the preacher - a pastor who is not wrestling with the text, with God, and with how to bring this to his own people is not experiencing the sermon before bringing it to others.  This is a great loss to the pastor's own life.
• It makes preaching a show - we see this is the case. Let the good communicator do the work for you...after all, excellence is what matters. 
• It makes men lazy and releases them from some good pressure.  I know I pray hard when I know that I have to bring God's word before others.  God, help me! should be the cry, not "O Great, Ed Young Jr. has a good one up this week!"
• It deceives the people of God and makes the moment of the sermon somewhat of a farce. 
  
• It emasculates the man of God.  The pastor says to himself - I cannot preach, I need to have one of those other guys do it for me.  How can this man be a prophet to bring the Word to a people?  He admits that he has nothing to say.
  
• I think the philosophy of ministry behind this is the same one that drives people to put up video screens across the nation of a "top notch communicator" instead of training and sending men to teach the Bible.  We can sell out quickly to the polish and presentation of men as the primary means of teaching the church.  We do not think the Word has any power.  I am all for excellent preaching; I work to develop my own craft, but belittling the ministry of the Word by making it dependent on the minister's "creativity" shows we have moved quite a distance in our view of preaching. 
  
• Additionally, some of the "creative preachers" out there selling sermons for big cash may commit a different sort of whoring than the one who is preaching them. 
  

I am sure that many people are going to draw the line in different places on this, but we must draw a line.  I know I have influences on my life and preaching.  Ravi Zacharias, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and a host of others have all influenced me as I have listened to hours and hours of their teaching.  Not to mention my own pastors over the years from whom I have learned so much. I hope I am the better for it.  I also footnote every sermon I put together along with a bibliography. This is probably excessive, but I am a book geek and like to do it. Plus, I enjoy using my sweet EndNote software :)

I want to be influenced by others teaching in a deep way, many times it becomes part of who you are...but I always want to make my own butter in the secret places with God.

Your Thoughts?  Here is the WSJ Link again in case you missed it above.

(HT - Justin Taylor and Tim Challies) 

Borat is the top movie in a America right now. But some Romanians claim they have been exploited and mocked for the sake of a buck.  This is sad.

See this AP story: BREITBART.COM - Now Romanians Say 'Borat' Misled Them

I just finished reading a great review for a new book by Meg Meeker entitled Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know (Hardcover, Regnery Publishing).  In short the review encourages men, well, to be men.  Not passive, girly men, but men for the sake of their daughters. 

For one, I have two little girls, ages 5 and almost 3. I love those little girls with all my heart and want them to know, see, observe what a man is and what a knucklehead boy is.  I pray they see me love their mother passionately, walk with conviction, have both the tender hand of grace, and the firm hand of discipline.  More than anything, I want them to see my life and not think my prayers and exhortations of them towards our heavenly father are groundless.  Even writing these words humbles me to no end.

Basically the review communicates the reality that Dad's are essential to their little girls destiny.  A few interesting excerpts.

Reality on the ground: 

Simply put, children need their fathers as well as their mothers. This may sound like common sense, but it’s common sense that’s increasingly ignored. Today, more than one-third of American children are born out of wedlock. More than half of teenagers live in homes without married biological parents. Reversing this trend is critical to our society’s long-term health. Policymakers have taken notice, as they grapple with proposals and initiatives aimed at encouraging men to become more actively involved in their children’s lives.

On the need for our daughters to see manhood and masculinity:

Dr. Meeker’s advice to fathers is both reassuring and challenging. She urges men to spend time with their daughters, to listen intently to them, and to realize that they will set their daughters’ expectations for future relationships with men. It’s up to dad to show his daughter what a responsible, humble, courageous, and good man really is. 

Perhaps most encouraging, there is a great exhortation on men being, strong, courageous, men who lead, not just males who are hanging around like extra family furniture.

Dr. Meeker emphasizes that dads don’t have to give up being men to nurture their daughters — in fact, their maleness is their strength:

Most of you out there are good men as well, but you are good men who have been derided by a culture that does not care for you, that, in terms of the family, has ridiculed your authority, denied your importance, and tried to fill you with confusion about your role. But I can tell you that fathers change lives… You are natural leaders, and your family looks to you for qualities that only fathers have. You were made a man for a reason, and your daughter is looking to you for guidance than she cannot get from her mother.

I'll close with some great advice for parents.  Some I personally took to heart:

Many parents make the mistake of trying to stay in the background. Parents fear being too controlling or overprotective. We don’t want to embarrass our daughters… Every model for Playboy is someone’s daughter. Don’t let it be yours. Protect her beautiful body as only you can. She may hate it in the short term, but when she is an adult she will thank you. … Stay in the battle.

Yes indeed, men, battle for your girls.  Make them Daddy's girls, stand for your princesses.  Pray for each other and strengthen one another to this end.  Those little ones are precious gems to our Heavenly Father, let us model his love, strength, and sacrificial servant-leadership in our homes.

Good news for the UNC Football Program. When I was in school we were good at both football and basketball...then Mack Brown went to Texas. With Butch Davis hired - the future may look a bit brighter for the baby blue gridiron boys.

I was on staff with Athletes in Action at Virginia Tech when Davis brought the Miami Hurricanes out of a period of probation and back to national prominence.  Maybe he can help the 1-9 Tar Heels.  I'll have to get used to cheering for coach Davis after years of cheering against him as a Hokie!

For those of you in pastoral ministry (and those considering it) I highly recommend the following pdf from CJ Mahaney.  It is a chapter from a forthcoming book, Preaching the Cross. In fact, any Christian will benefit from the read...

The Chapter is entitled The Pastor's Priorities.

(HT - Tim Challies)

 

Introduction

If you look out upon our world for long enough you will quickly realize that it is a bit perplexing. On one hand, the world is filled with great good. Love of family and friends, the beauty of the created universe, the joy of children, a good story,lives changing, and people working together to help one another remind us that there is something good going on here. Yet on the other hand, one need only be awake just a bit to see that we live in a very broken world. Various injustices are perpetrating by one person towards another, wars split nations, tribes and families. Disease and poverty abound and we all will soon die. The majority of human beings, throughout all time find life at once worth living, yet filled with problems and pain. If you talk to anyone: black, white, democrat, republican, atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, indie rocker or hip hopper; all will tell you that the world needs to change. Of course everyone has their own path to the perfect world in their opinion, but then you can’t get people to agree. We realize something needs to be done, but collectively we are at a loss of just what we should do. In a world where injustice is everywhere and whole communities wracked by disease and poverty, people in parts of Western Culture wrestle with how we should respond in while living in the midst of all our comforts, conveniences and excesses. In this short paper I want to look at a few things. First, we’ll survey the biblical mandate in the Scriptures to care about the poor, the outcast, and the oppressed. I will do this by making a brief comment about the vocabulary I am using and how I am using it. I will then do a quick survey of the biblical teaching on the issues. Next I will look at the historical situation of evangelical churches in America related to issues of social justice and ministries of mercy. Finally, I will wrestle a bit with how we might move forward and actually make a difference in communities in need.

How and Why I am using the term “poor”

Before we begin lets quickly clarify a term. In our culture there are a plethora of words which are thrown around in relation to folks that have, for one reason or another, fallen on hard times. People are called “at risk,” “disadvantaged,” “economically challenged,” “underprivileged,” “the have nots,” and the list could go on. In this paper I will most often use the term “poor” for the sake of clarity. By this I mean those at the lower end of the economic spectrum of society; people who struggle or are unable to obtain basic life needs. I want to say up front that people are poor for various reasons. Some are in hard times due to constraints external to themselves; oppression, injustice, sin done against them by others. Some are destitute due to the consequences of their poor choices. In our discussion we are not focusing so much on the causes of brokenness and poverty in the world but rather what should our response be? In some sense the problem of poverty will never be completed removed, indeed, Jesus said “the poor will always be with you.” Yet God does not call people to be passive when needs are all around us. Rather he calls us to love, to engage, to serve, to help others. We should help lead them to trust Jesus and follow him as a disciple. Whether well feed or hungry, whether in poverty or plenty, whether they caused their own problems or it was brought upon them, we are called to serve. So as we begin we must look first at what the Scripture teaches in regards to the poor.

The Biblical Mandate

To provide a real answer the question “What does the Scripture teach about the poor” would be far beyond the scope of this discussion. So it will suffice to say that we will only touch the very tip of the teaching of the Bible on the matter. But let it be certain; the Scriptures are full with a declaration of God’s compassion for the broken; both the spiritually poor and those without earthly means. So what follows is a sample of the teaching of both Old and New testaments on the issue.

Continue reading "Social Justice and Activism: How Does the World Change?" »

Yes, you can throw a party and blow your own buttocks up...yes, America did come from the good people over there in England.

Here is the story on MSNBC: Briton hurt after lighting firecracker in buttocks

New York City is moving to change the way we "define" gender. Instead of seeing people as males or females-New York is seeking to be cutting edge in allowing people to define their own gender, not based on their genetics and plumbing, but on preference.   Here is a little bit from the article New York Plans to Make Gender Personal Choice from the New York Times.

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery.

Under the rule being considered by the city’s Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that their proposed change would be permanent.

So this is beyond the "normal" sex change operation, to "become" the other sex idea...Now, just by saying "I'm a girl" a man can now act, live, and be legally recognized as a woman in New York City.  This is no less than insanity.  That a culture would sanction such ideas and all the attendant social realities is indicative of the times we live. Think about how parents would be defined, think about how adoptions, "gay" marriage, etc. would be construed.  Gay marriage debates become moot.  Just say you are a woman and marry the dude - done, easy, nice run around of all laws, constitutional articles etc.  How do you set up public restrooms?  Maybe we should just go all the way Europe and remove gendered restrooms all together.  And yes, I know there are movements for that...along with an idea to have a "third" restroom for the "trans" among us.

Many in NY and some mentioned in the article are rejoicing at the news.  One example is cited from an attorney who works for the NY Transgender Rights Org. Here is a direct quote from the article:

Joann Prinzivalli, 52, a lawyer for the New York Transgender Rights Organization, a man who has lived as a woman since 2000, without surgery, said the changes amount to progress, a move away from American culture’s misguided fixation on genitals as the basis for one’s gender identity.

“It’s based on an arbitrary distinction that says there are two and only two sexes,” she said. “In reality the diversity of nature is such that there are more than just two, and people who seem to belong to one of the designated sexes may really belong to the other.”

Is male and female an "arbitrary" distinction?  How do we think the God who made us male and female perceives such movements in the realm of men? (and women and man-women and woman-men)  No mind you I am not naive and I am aware of the instances of of sexual ambiguity at birth due to genetic problems, etc.  But should we take such rare abnormalities as normative examples and proceed to the denial of gender.  I take Mr/Mrs/??? Prinzivalli's last sentence to be non-sense in the clearest sense of the word.  Logically speaking, I simply have no idea what he/she/??? is talking about. 

Let me quote for you what the new enlightened atheists call one of "the bronze age myths" 

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

When reading this along side Mr/Mrs/??? Prinzalli's quote, I simply say - the old school has it right.  I love that bronze age truth.

This is worth the time to take to read...

Link: The Scandal 

 

This is just crazy stuff:

Introduction 

Followers of Jesus have always been a people of the Book. The written word of God has shaped the life, teaching and identity of Christian people from the time of Jesus onward. This was simply an extension of the long history of the people of God walking under the direction of the law, the prophets, and the writings of the Jewish Scriptures. Yet a question can arise at many points in a Christian’s journey. Why do we use these books as the authoritative Word of God and not other ancient writings which were prevalent in days past? The question may come from intellectual curiosity about the history of the Bible. It may come about as one learns the deep and rich history of the Christian church. Or as it came most forcefully in my own life, it may come through the interaction with a serious Roman Catholic believer who has different books in his Bible. This brings us directly to the question of the Christian Canon of Scripture – the accepted 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. This paper will be a short treatment of the history of the Bible and which books have and have not been considered authoritative and inspired by God. We will do this by first looking at a definition for the term canon. We will then look briefly at the history of both the Old Testament and New Testament canon. Next we will look at a few controversies surrounding certain Old and New Testament books before closing with a comment on the relationship of the church to the canon of Scripture.

The Word Canon

The Word canon simply means “measuring stick or rule.” The term has been used by the church to describe what counts as a measure or standard for the faith. Simply stated we use the term canon to describe the accepted list of books which have been included in our Bibles. The canon of the Bible actually can be considered in two parts as both the Old and New Testament canons were separately agreed upon in the history of the church. We’ll look briefly at the history of each in turn.

A Brief History of Our Canon

The Old Testament Canon

The Protestant Old Testament consists of 39 books of various types of literature chronicling the creation of the world, human being’s fall into sin, and God’s pursuit of a people for himself–the people who came to be known as Israel. These books consist of various genres ranging from historical narrative, prophetic writing, poetry, proverb and other wisdom literature and even apocalyptic portions. The Jewish people had divided the Hebrew Bible into the Law, the Prophets, and The Writings which contained the books we recognize as the Old Testament. Although the chronology and precise dating is not clear, we do know this was accepted in the Jewish community much before the time of Christ.1 Additionally, there was a Greek translation of the Old Testament in use by people throughout the Roman Empire. This translation, known as the Septuagint (or LXX)2 was used by the early church and contained additional writings to the Hebrew canon which have come to be known as the apocrypha.3 The additional writings were Greek works and were never acknowledged as part of the Hebrew Old Testament. The Jewish community after the fall of the temple in 70 AD confirmed this tradition, never accepting the apocrypha, the additional Greek works as canonical. Although there would be controversy in the future about these additional books, the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible stood solidly confirmed by both Jewish and Christian communities as early as the 1st century AD.

The New Testament

As the early Christian movement progressed forward in gospel mission, many writings began to circulate in the newly established churches.  One of the chief concerns of the apostles and the leaders of the church was to keep false teaching about Jesus and the gospel from leading the people astray.  From the early days of the church the apostles had circulated gospels containing accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus.  As time went on other sects began to circulate false gospels which incorrectly represented and speculated on Christ and his teaching.  Additionally, pseudoanonymous epistles also began to get around causing questions and confusion in the churches.  We know about these works because they are mentioned by name in the writings of church Fathers such as Eusebius of Caesarea and Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon.  The leadership of the church, already using the inspired writings of the New Testament, found it necessary to clearly identify these false writings by recognizing the true inspired works.   The motivation was not to invent “orthodoxy” by giving status to certain books and discarding others; the motivation was pastoral – to clearly identify the false teaching and rule them out for use by the churches.  The process was deliberate and it proceeded over time.   These false gospels and epistles were not in anyway “lost,” they were discarded intentionally.  More will be said on the process of identifying these books below, but let me just say what the process was not.  It was not a bunch of guys sitting in a back room smoking stogies and playing go fish with ancient epistles and gospels.   "I like this one for my agenda; I don’t like that one" was not the process which was engaged.  No, this was a concerted effort, led by the Spirit of God, whereby the books which were inspired by God were identified and the list clarified for the church.  One thing is certain; the church has been univocal on the canon of the New Testament with Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians in perfect agreement on the 27 books of the New Testament.  Though many partial lists have survived from the ancient world, we find the completed list in its current form in an ancient Easter letter from Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, which is dated to 367 AD.  There has been no change in the New Testament canon from this time forward.

Controversies and Questions

Though the canon has been established for some time, there have been controversies surrounding it in church history which have been revisited over the course of time. We’ll look quickly at the one main issue surrounding the canon of Old Testament and then make short comment about some issues with the New Testament.

Continue reading "One Bible - Many Books..." »

With yet another scandalized church leader in the news, I think we are afforded an opportunity to reflect upon our own lives. I have found Mark Driscoll's and John Piper's exhortations to be both strong and helpful in thinking about such things.   

When doctors, lawyers, truck drivers, nurses, janitors, stock brokers sin...the repercussions for families, lives, and homes are severe.  Yet the scope of people affected by a ministers failure extend even more broadly into many lives.  

Years ago a pastor friend of mine game me a little quote about ministry: Your sins will affect people differently, there is a greater hypocrisy in them.  Pastors are just men, no more, no less.  But their calling is one that requires a particular vigilance and prayer. 

Read the links above yet then take courage and walk forward in his mission...

A few quotes I ran across today which I wanted to share: 

Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but, through you, I am more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you for paying my debt, bearing my punishment and offering forgiveness. I turn from my sin and receive you as Savior. Amen.

- Timothy Keller

Observed Duties maintain our credit but secret duties maintain our life

Flavels Touchstone of Sincerity, Works Vol V, p 520. - quoted in Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, Banner of Truth Edition (Carlisle:PA, Banner of Truth Trust, 2001) 65.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

G.K. Chesterton, "What's Wrong with the World?” (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1910. Reprinted, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994), 37.

In the coming weeks I will be trickling out (without a production schedule) a blog series I am calling The Nature of the New Atheism - There has been a bit of a buzz in the media as of late about certain thinkers and leaders many are calling the New Atheism (See Wired Magazine Article - The Crusade Against Religion). 

Recently I have finished a book featuring the thoughts of Bad Religion front man Greg Gaffin, read some of the recent articles on the net and ordered another book by the atheist crusader Sam Harris.  I was thinking of reviewing books, engaging the articles, etc. but then had a bit of a different idea this morning.  What I propose I do is to cover some of the main ideological thrusts from the contemporary (really not all that new) atheistic front in our culture highlighting the books/works of various thinkers along the journey.

So in brief, here is my proposed outline with a brief abstract for each of the five stops on the path.  These entries I hope will be written well, but they will not be research papers handling all the breadth and depth of each topic.  My prayer is that they would serve as food for thought and dialog for us in these important times.

1. Naturalism as the overarching meta-narrative - the atheistic worldview has philosophical naturalism as its foundational story.  The view holds that our world is a closed system of cause and effect with nothing existing "outside" of nature and therefore nothing acting upon the world.  No gods, devils, angels, demons, non material human souls, universal ethical truths existing at all.  This is the story from which they spin both their rhetoric and scholarship.
2. Man de-centralizing man - For millennia human beings have thought that they inhabited a special and unique space in the cosmos.  Man, as it were, sat upon a throne at the top of the chain of being, a crowned creature in a world of matter, energy, things living and without life.  The atheistic project has sought to take man off of this throne and remove his crown.  Human beings are but a fortunate convergence of time + matter + chance - a combination which has deceived us into thinking we were special, that we had souls, that consciousness was spiritual, even made in the imago dei.
3. The primacy of the brain and “evolutionary wiring” - With the advent of neuroscience and the continued creation of computational devices which mimic "thinking" (think...your computer) much is being said today which reduces all consciousness to the function of specialized matter, localized inside your skull.  Ethics, language, sin, and religion are now matters of localized brain function brought into play by the work of evolution.  Over the years we were fashioned into "meat machines" whose brains foster all these illusions upon us.  Morality, God, that you are a soul not just a body etc. are just projections of human brains.  This area goes sci-fi really quickly - so we'll have some fun with this one.
4. The Fear of Religion and Anti-Religious crusading - With our world embattled by Islamic terrorism, the secularist is now setting aside his postmodern tolerance (well, only a few loud ones are) to rant against the evils of religion.  Not simply the religion which blows up one's self in the name of Allah, but ALL religions of every stripe.  They are outmoded evolutionary hang-ups that we need to grow out of and become enlightened naturalists who will bring utopia to the earth...or at least get us colonizing space before we blow ourselves to smithereens. 
5. Why Atheism is not the major boogy man it once was - Really, atheism is not the big bad enemy it was in the 19th century Europe and America.  There are new enemies now at the gates of belief.  It remains a formidable element of thought in our culture which we must engage (ie - why I am even writing this) but there are other views which I believe hold more challenge in the future of Christian Orthodoxy. I will discuss the challenges facing atheism and the new boogies in the final post.
   

Now, I just pray I can complete this sucker before Thomas Reid turns 1 in August of 2007.  Seriously, I hope I can crank these out over the next month or so.  Pray for me will you - I promise I have too much to do than try and write this stuff - but what do you do with an idea that grips tightly onto your soul...

Should be fun.