Fear and Trembling: Theology

The futility of speculation

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:04:31 GMT

Two weeks ago, Dr Cook of Ninth and O Baptist church brought a fantastic sermon. There was one point, however, that struck both my wife and I simultaneously (I have been teaching her the scriptures for 12 years now and she has actually listened). Dr. Cook was teaching about the persistent widow in relation to prayer, and as expected, he brought the example of 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

One of the most basic lessons from this passage is that sometimes the answer to a prayer is "no." Dr. Cook went on to say that with Romans 8:28 in mind...

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^, have been called according to his purpose.

... that Paul "surmised" that this situation is God's will and it was for the good. The problem with this is that God spoke directly to Paul and told him exactly the purpose of his current trial and there was no guesswork involved (note: I am not implying some great error on the part of Dr. Cook, it was probably just a gaff or oversight. I did this from the pulpit all the time and was terribly annoyed by those who did crosswords when I was preaching but were quite excited to point out some misstatement that I made in a sermon). Why is this important? The importance of this point is that we do not enjoy the kind of special revelation that Paul received and when Christians enter into the speculation game about the specifics of their suffering there is no way of verifying one's theory without this kind of direct revealing from God. The end result is that we suffer great disappointment when our best imagined scenarios do not play out. In a convergence of topics, Dr. Moore made the point in his last lecture that Christians will often misuse the Romans 8:28 passage to justify that the good that God speaks of will find its fruition in our lifetime instead of in the larger narrative of history. For example, when Tracy was pregnant with Kaiser, she almost lost him in the first trimester. During this time many good intentioned Christians said to us that they were praying for us (a good thing) and that "everything was going to turn out fine." By "fine" they specifically meant that we would not lose Kaiser. On what basis could they make this claim? According to the scriptures, I have absolutely no promise made to me that my wife would never lose a child. In fact, there are various passages point to great difficulties for those who are in Christ.

Job's friends enter into the same speculation when great tragedy befell Job and his family. With the exception of Elihu, who did not offend God with his comments, they were all wrong. Job's other friends, in short, said that these great tragedies came upon him because of his sin. We know from the prologue to this account that this was not the case at all. It is as if we enter into some sort of strange divination to discern God's will (looking for signs, wonders and omens) instead of looking to the plain and revealed Word of God. Do terrible things happen to Christians? Do they suffer injustice? Do they get sick? The answer to all of these is yes and one can either trust that this is part of God's providence and purpose or you can run yourself ragged trying to chase down all the lose ends of this plan of God. I had absolutely no assurance that we would not lose our son before birth (or will not lose him in the future for that matter) but I do have assurance that God's sovereignty will bring about His own glory through those circumstances...someday.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

God's answer to Paul is good enough for all of us. Is this a cop out? no, this is an exercise of living faithfully when time are hard and you have not got a clue about what God is up to in your life. Its OK not to have a clue, this is what having faith is about. You do not understand all of God's activities, but you understand His nature and that is good enough for us.

Getting my brain fired up again.

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:18:52 GMT

I have been so focused on the physicality of our move to Louisville and the less noble, but still important, activities of setting up our new life, that I have had little time for the reading of the Scriptures and important books. More importantly, I have allowed myself little time for contemplation and prayer over this Word of God. After my last post I realized that I boredom should never have hold on a man who has before him such a task as understanding and preaching this revelation from God. Tonight I began reading from the set of Ancient Church Fathers that I received as a gift from my mother.

One of the problems that I face when reading is that when a text is particularly profound, my pastoral mind begins racing with its direct application to the Body of Christ. The first selection that I chose to read was the First Letter of Clement to the Church at Corinth. I am not too familiar with Clement, but setting aside some of the finer points of his theology for a moment, it is clear from this letter that he has the heart of pastor who was eager to use the patterns of scripture to resolve schism within the church. His letter is a glorious example of homiletics in that he clearly identifies the problems within the Corinthian church by comparing them to circumstances within the scriptures and then establishes that repentance in humility, as seen in the Scriptures, is the solution to such schism.

At this point I had to stop reading to consider some of these issues of repentance. One of the most striking features of this letter, that I juxtapose to my experience within the church, is that I have encountered many who find comfort in the fact that the people found in scriptures were sinful. Moses killed a man, Paul was a persecutor of the church and Peter denied Christ the night before he was crucified. These facts are certainly true, but shouldn't we rather take our comfort from the manner in which these men were redeemed from such sin instead of the fact that they sinned? The heart that attempts to justify itself will find company and solace among other sinful men, but the heart that seeks to be justified by Christ will take refuge in the repentance that is made possible in Christ. The emphasis should never be that these men were sinful, like us, but rather that there is possible redemption through Christ. On the surface, the identification of ourselves to men that have sinned appears to be humility, but in fact, it is an attempt to seek safety in numbers from the judgment of God. True humility goes further past the recognition of sin to seek out its cure in Christ!

JKK

Marriage Divine

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:02:02 GMT

Today's post is a summary of the Sermon that I will be delivering at a wedding this afternoon. Every time that I perform a wedding ceremony (15 or so), I personally meditate on the meaning of marriage so that the Word that I preach will have a blessing on all in attendance, not just the bride and groom. Marriage sermons are usually short and almost always ignored as a required ceremonial ornament like the Unity Candle, but it should not be so. Those who are married, those who are going to be married and those who are called to remain single should all have a deep understanding of the institution that God patterned after His relationship with His church. It is important to realize that God did not use the human institution of marriage as a metaphor to explain His relationship with His people, but rather, patterned marriage after this relationship with His people that is preeminent to all other relationships that Man can have.

Ephesians 5:22-33

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

It is commonly said that "To love someone else you must first learn to love yourself." However, I am not satisfied with having a common marriage. With half of all marriages ending in divorce, we should instead strive to have uncommon marriages that rise above the norm. This adage, with its appearance of wisdom, considers a good marriage to be merely a function of some sort of intangible psychological self-actualization, when in fact, marriage is so much more. Most people who has suffered through a divorce will attest to the fact that the dissolution of marriage is painful at levels beyond the psychological.

Pre-marital counselors are quick to set aside the idea romantic love in favor of dealing with the more common issues of everyday life such as finances, child rearing, communication styles and careers. There is no denying that these are critical issues for any married couple and it also a fact that if a couple has a mastery of these issues added to romantic love, then chances are, they will have a perfectly adequate marriage that is successful by any worldly standard. But again, are we aiming for adequate, acceptable, and normal, or are we aiming for blessed, Divine, and sacred? To experience the kind of blessing that marriage was intended to be, we must look to the teaching of Ephesians 5. Instead of moving below the idea of romantic love to deal with the mundane, we must first rise above to the kind of sacrificial love that is taught by the scriptures.

I will address the man first, since it is he who will be head of the this new household and thus sets the tone for the family. The scripture charges that the man must love his wife as "Christ loved the church as gave Himself up for her..." Where can a man learn this kind of love? From what depths of his soul can he reach to evoke this kind of sacrifice? Like faith, this kind of love is impossible for a man in his flesh. Also like faith, this kind of love is the gift of God by grace since it is He and He alone who is the author of such love. More than just providing an example, Christ creates this kind of love inside of us. To up end the common adage, "To love someone else, we must have the love of Christ in us first." It is this Divine kind of love that loves even when the recipient is not lovable for "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It is this Divine love that sets its own needs aside for the other as Christ provided His body as a sacrifice for the sins of the church. In the same way, a man who knows the love of Christ will set himself aside for the sake of his wife.

To the women the scriptures have an equally lofty charge, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." This is not a submission of bondage but rather the submission that leads to the freedom that Christ gives. Christian submission is a total giving over of self to the other. What is more glorious than being able to entrust yourself so completely to your spouse? Again, like love and faith, this submission is beyond what man can do in his flesh. This kind of submission come only from a heart that has been created by the Lord. This kind of submission is the submission that is the underpinning of salvation. Even though the women may not understand leading of the Lord or her husband, she can have absolute confidence that is for the good.

This Word is not only to the couple, but also unto this whole congregation of people. The Bible says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." and in Hebrews 13:4, "Marriage should be honored by all..." As Nathan and Katherine build the kind of marriage mentioned above, family and friends must respect the oneness of the couples flesh, not ever trying to separate one from the other. Specifically, parents understand that their son has left to become one flesh with his wife and that the daughter has left the headship of her father and gone under the headship of her husband. Friends must now understand that they no longer deal with one with out dealing with the other and the sacredness. Matthew 19:6, "...what God has joined together, let no man separate."

In the end, romantic love and everyday necessity is not ignored by the teachings of Ephesians 5. Matthew 6:33 reads, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." By striving after the uncommon marriage of Divine origin and purpose, all other aspects of the marriage are informed by, nourished by and strengthened by a love and power that far exceeds what we can do on our own. A covenant marriage in Christ creates a sum that is greater than its parts. Finances, children, sex, and even household chores become result of Divine love instead of ends in and of themselves. Can we limp along with common marriages? Yes, we can. But when someone gets a glimpse of God true intention for marriage, why would they ever settle for less?

Learning Ancient Greek... Really old school

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 05:01:02 GMT

When I was at SIU in the philosophy department, I took Ancient Greek for 2 semesters and it proved to be the most challenging class that I have ever taken. What I appreciated the most was the teachers style and approach to the language. First of all, he was a raging Atheist, but an honest academic. He stated clearly that the modern translations of the Holy Scriptures were, in fact, very accurate and reliable, but he did not believe a word of it. This is a position that I can deal with as a Christian for I know that belief comes not through human efforts, but is the gift of God through faith and a regenerated spirit. Too often I have to deal with the anecdotal position that the scriptures have been translated "so many times" from "so many languages." The general perception is that there are dozens of intermediary languages that are involved in making a modern translation when in fact the translations are made from first and second century text directly into the modern English. I have met with this response even within my own church (usually in reaction to something that I have taught that runs contrary to their previous beliefs.) I would like the proverbial dime for every time someone has run for the shelter of "unknowablity." You have to watch out for those closet Gnostics amongst us!

The second item that I appreciated was the method in which he taught language. Instead of a modern method of a being a supportive facilitator of language acquisition, my professor was a cruel task master that would make us go to the board on "chalk day" and do our translations. If we were incorrect he would mock us and encourage our peers to do the same. It was that sort of environment that ensured that I was prepared for classroom demonstrations of skill. I remember many late night sessions with fellow students at the Corner Diner in which we were both partners in learning and rivals fighting for the approval of our professor. Another exercise that we did was translating English sentences into the Greek. This might be questionable as far as usefulness, but it he would limit the sentences to period appropriate phrases such as, "Touch that sword and you will die where you sit." Old school baby...

I am now taking up the Greek again so that I can improve my exposition of the scriptures. I have purchased a variety of Greek primers and language tools to try and teach myself while down in the trenches of ministry. As with any language, it comes down to slogging through the self-discipline issues until a proper base of knowledge is created and once the curve is climbed you can begin mining the finer points of the language. I have purchased flash cards, audio vocabulary exercises, computer programs, text books and will wear a toga if it will help me get over that hump. You cannot call yourself an expositor of the scriptures without being able to read Koine Greek!

It is no wonder that Baptist congregations are not prepared to deal with the doctrines of grace.

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:20:58 GMT

I teach a Sunday School class for 20 somethings in my church and I use the Explore the Bible material provided by Lifeway Christian Resources, the publication arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. I picked this literature with the notion that it would be more thorough than the other Sunday School series that most of our classes use. However, I have found that, like any material that is written for the largest possible audience, it totally ignores passages of scripture that could be considered controversial. This previous Sunday, the material was dealing with 1 Peter 2 and the problem section is verses 8 and 9

"They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

The student book from the series did not address this potentially difficult passage. Regardless of what your view of this passage is, I can safely argue that it will at least generate some serious questions and a Sunday School teacher will be ill prepared to answer these questions with the provided commentary. I have also noticed that many of the study bibles that you find on the market follow this same pattern of silence. One of the most popular study bibles on the market has little to no commentary on Romans 9!

Even worse in when Baptist literature makes a statement such as "The only work that you can do to earn salvation is having faith" This leaves a pastor with the difficult task of undoing what has been written in the literature in addition to the natural resistance to Grace that all men have. It is no wonder that when a pastor tries to preaches though Romans 9 or Ephesians 1 and 2, that he is met with confusion at best and hostility at worst. Where can I find literature that does not appeal to the lowest common denominator? Must I write it all myself? What is the theologically minded, time limited, pastor of a small rural church to do?

Let me recommend a blog

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:27:47 GMT

This blog belongs to Dr. Mark DeVine of Midwestern Baptist Seminary. I first met Dr. DeVine at a Founders conference in St. Louis a few years ago and I had a short conversation in which I mentioned something like, "You know it is a shame that most orthodox theologians quickly dismiss Karl Barth as a liberal without seeing that there is something to be gained from him." This may not seem too groundshaking but in some circles this kinda like saying that I like to wear dresses on my day off. Dr. DeVine responded with enthusiastic agreement and I realized that this guy was OK.

Dr. DeVine was also a speaker at this conference and I quickly saw that he was a man between the two worlds of being a preacher and being a professor. He presentation began in an academic vein as if he was speaking to a gathering of peers, but it was not long before he began to ramp up and by the end he was in full on preaching mode. This was encouraging to see and set me to thinking about how much of me was preacher and how much was theologian. My original resistance to going to seminary was that I understood my own tendency to use academic pursuits as a self-indulgence and was afraid of sidetracking my ministry. In the end, I realized that I can be both. Our seminary professors could use a little more preacher in them and our preachers could certainly use a big helping of theologian.

Anyway, many of you might not see the immediate relevance of some of his post, but read them carefully and think about what many of our churches are going through right now. His audience is probably not the masses but I have confidence that you masses can benefit more than you realize. This, I suppose, is the preacher side of me. What good is all this great thinking without bringing it to the rank and file Baptist?

I am impressed by the fact that this issue is being addressed by the SBC

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:31:05 GMT

I have written in general terms about Christian ethics and the need to develop an active ethic as a tool for Christian living. At times, a quick overview of the landscape of issues would lead one to believe that conservative, evangelical Christians, like myself, have a limited scope of issues that are dealt with on any serious level. It is easy to see that right to life issues are well developed in our literature and our position on abstinence programs are well publicized in the media, but other issues such as the environment or racism might be less known and are certainly less developed. This article that I found from the ethics branch of the Southern Baptist Convention is a refreshing change of pace and encourages me to believe that the SBC is developing a more varied and complete ethic.

A few years back the SBC passed a resolution in favor of the death penalty but the press coverage did not do justice to the complete text of the resolution. The public perception, and mine as well, was that it was a blanket statement in favor of capital punishment, but upon further investigation I see that the statement was actually more nuanced than this and addressed the important issue of social justice and the lack of equal application of capital punishment. The resolution gave voice to the fact that poor and non-white people receive more death sentences, but that certainly was not the focus of most reports. I will say that the SBC should have been more diligent and effective in its communication of the resolutions complete message. I would also have given more weight to the social justice aspect and toned down the absolute nature of the first. This however, is a different issue.

Ultimately, if conservative evangelicals do not address ethics issues that have been traditionally the domain of liberal Christian groups, we undermine our legitimacy in the arena of social ethics. I am not sure I would go as far as to ask "What would Jesus drive?" but it is probably a step in the right direction. I also think that this more complete ethic would demonstrate that the Christian ethics are not synonymous with the Republican Party platform. I vote Republican almost exclusively, but I think that hooking our proverbial cart exclusively to the Republican (or Democratic) horse, will always come back to bite us.

More than Conquerors? Part II

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:27:14 GMT

Again, as is in the previous post, these observation are as much an indictment on my own leadership as an indictment of the modern American church in general. I have in recent months been faced with some fundamental questions about the methods that are used to motivate believers and lead them into a closer walk with the Lord. There seems to be two different, but equally pervasive schools of thought. The first is the theology of "prosperity." This line of thought is probably best represented by pastors such as Joel Osteen. In his book, "Your Best Life Now", Joel Osteen brings his particular brand of biblical interpretation to bear upon Matthew 9:17.

"Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

This is a simple passage that does not take well trained theologian to understand. The Lord is speaking about the new birth in Christ. Man is regenerated in Christ, not merely "patched" or fixed. Joel Osteen, however interprets this as people who do not have a large enough "vision" to accept all of the material blessing that God wants to give us. In the same chapter he relays a story of man, upon viewing large expensive homes, states that he will never live in a house like that. Osteen comments that he "thought to himself" that of course the man would not have a large house with thinking like that. This is an example of a Christian leader using the promise of individual material blessing in this life as a way to motivate people to his particular brand of "Christian" action. My church, in general, understands the problem with this sort of teaching and is not swayed by this particular "wind of doctrine."

It is the second school of thought, however, that plagues my way of thinking and teaching and it is this that I want to examine in depth. This second manner comes down to sowing a culture of fear. Before I go any further I want to make clear that the fear that I am talking about is not the fear of Almighty God, but rather a fear of everything else. This is much more prevalent, I believe, and it is hard to pick just one representative, but I guess Jerry Falwell would be a good choice. I want to make it clear though that I am just as guilty as Falwell. The Bible clearly teaches about persecution and rejection, but the question is this: how are we supposed to respond to this persecution and rejection? Practically any group that is based around a particular conviction (whether it is Greenpeace or The Southern Baptist Convention) creates an "us vs them" atmosphere that emboldens the rank and file to action. We spend our time and efforts shadow boxing with false threats that ultimately cannot be won by redeeming the culture through our own strengths.

What do we lose by fighting the wrong battle? We lose out on the assurance of our salvation. Positionally we are secure in Christ yet we act in way that is quite insecure. I am categorically against homosexual marriages, abortion, and the removal of Biblical references from public life and can defend such positions from the scriptures, but what am I "for"? If I am preoccupied with Egypt how can I take hold of the Promised Land? When we ask the question about what we are supposed to "be" in Christ, it is then that we realize that our answers are not as well founded and that our spiritual health is waning.

"³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

¹⁰Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, ¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

2 Peter 1:3-11

More than Conquerors?

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:07:16 GMT

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Romans 8:37

This passage from Romans 8 has been with me for several weeks and I have thought about its content as I look closely at how I live my life, lead my congregation and raise my family. Is the life I live lived in accordance with the assurance of salvation that I have? What does a life lived in assurance look like and what kind of leader, father and husband does it produce? I think this issue also has ramifications for how the church operates in and interacts with the world since it essentially deals with a Christian's self perception. Here is my point in a more direct fashion: We are told that we are more than conquerors and that we can have full confidence in God's salvation, but yet we live as a people that are insecure and fearful.

In the next few post I would like to explore some of the way that this fear and insecurity is reflected in our lives. A careful examination of chapter 8 shows a specific emphasis on persecution and hardships but the not in the manner that one might think. Ultimately this persecution and hardship is diminished by comparison to our salvation in Christ. Why then do we emphasis the persecution? Why then are we Christians pre-occupied with the world's opposition to the Gospel instead of God's favor for those who are in Christ?

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31

Freedom in Christ

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 03:57:45 GMT

I have preached an entire series on the Church Covenant of my local church. This statement is an ethical statement that is meant to embody the principles of church membership as put forth by the scriptures. Such statements can be an important document to assist in establishing expectations for new members and a document to help us hold each other accountable to a commonly held standard of behavior.

However, and this is a big however, a church covenant can also be used to constrain the freedom that we have in Christ. As a bookend to the recent series on the church covenant I am going to preach expositorily through the entire Letter to the Galatians. No other book so clearly portrays the freedom of Christ as something to protect with great zeal.

The question remains though, "What is freedom in Christ?" I have struggled with this issue lately because of what I have seen happening in American Christian culture. Frankly, it is the issue of Christian culture itself that seems to be the problem. Instead of culture or set of external mores and values, the Christian is called to "live by faith" and "walk in the Spirit." A life of faith is not blindly adopting a set of commonly held beliefs of some particular local church body, it is about the inward change that comes from regeneration and Christ being expressed through that particular person. Our common beliefs should then come through the revelation of the Scriptures through the Holy Spirit, not by some sort human socialization that we mistakenly call discipleship.

Galatians deals with the two extremes of this position. Paul is talking about the legalism of the judiazers on the one extreme and the licentiousness of some on the other extreme. I hope that the close study of Galatians will help reveal what "freedom in Christ" looks like in the daily lives of men and women of faith. There are always those who fear licentiousness so much that they fall back into a written code and there are those who rebel so strongly against particular rules of Christian living that they reject any attempt to verbalize a working ethic.

It is freedom in Christ that I want to preach and most importantly it is freedom in Christ that I want to live. To always be constrained by cultural norms is to be at the mercy of the "brother of weaker faith" As much as we should not be stumbling blocks for these weaker brothers, at what point does it become a tyranny of those with lesser faith? At what point is a whole body of Christians constrained in their maturity because of their dependence upon the written Law? I pray that Galatians will reveal this to me and the the Lord gives me the clarity of thought and speech to explain His Word.

Christian ethics and the teenager

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 05:23:21 GMT

Sunday's sermon dealt with the issue of how to combat sexual purity issues. I preached this in anticipation of the four week series of youth group meetings on the topic but it was truly meant for all ages. I first made it clear that sex is good. Giving our children complexes about sexuality may have some short term effect in some people, but in the long term it diminishes sexual health once the children are in covenant marriages.

Another fruitless battle is the attempts to stop all provocative imagery and music from coming in contact with our children. I firmly believe that all due diligence must be taken to make the computer, TV and other devices safe for children to use, but at some point they are going to be exposed to sexuality in the wrong context and our focus has to be on preparing the mind and the heart to deal with it when they do come into contact

Tonight, Martin Hoagland and I started to got though "scenarios" with some of the young men in our church. We are doing so because it is much easier to make the right choice when you are in the right frame of mind than when you are all worked up in the backseat of a car with your girl. It is certainly "natural" for this to happen in those situations, but there are a wide variety of responses to these situations that are dependent upon the value structure and spiritual maturity that are developed long before.

We have been very frank with the youth about these issues and I hope that they are getting the sense that we have struggled with these issues since we were their age, sometimes we were successful and sometimes we were not. The times that we had failures were often minor, but other times have lead to serious consequences and great despair. I hope to lead the whole church through the process of thinking and praying through an ethical issues such as this one and show that it can be done for all dilemmas that we are faced with.

Christian Ethics Part II

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 15:31:48 GMT

In my previous post I finished my entry with a discussion of Christians ethics and the presuppositions that I have as a foundation for those ethics. The last presupposition that I make is that the revelation of God is prepositional. This prepositional revelation removes divine revelation from the grip of a pure mysticism. God's revelation is supernatural to be sure and the reception of that revelation comes through the mediation of the Holy Spirit, but God also employs plain language as the medium of His revelation. When I say that the revelation is prepositional I mean that God employs sentences in human language to communicate truth and this stands in opposition to those who would depend upon "feelings" or emotional states of various kinds to judge right and wrong.

If there is one thing that I have learned since my conversion it is that I cannot trust many of my "feeling" since they are a direct reflection of my natural tendency for self preservation and advancement. God's revelation in the Holy Scriptures then give me a objective truth by which I may make judgments. A solid rock in which to stand, you might say. There can be no ethics or morality without objective truth that is not dependent upon man. When a person makes statements such as "I should do action x or y" there is an appeal to this objective truth that is transcendent of us. Despite the claim of many to be devoted to cultural relativism, when these relativist fall prey to the cultural norms of another group of people they cry foul and appeal to right and wrong in an objective sense.

My point of these two post on Christian ethics is that individual Christians and local churches must do a better job making judgements based upon the revealed revelation of God in the scriptures. The outsider might look at the modern evangelical church and say that they are "judgemental" but when rhetoric clears, the evangelical churches will swallow pretty much anything or any activity in the name of "love." Most churches have very immature and ineffective positions on most social issues. Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, drug and alcohol use, the death penalty, abortion (and other reproductive issues), sexuality, financial ethics, and a host of other positions seem to be well represented in the teachings of the church but when the surface is scratched on most Christians you will find that their opinion on these various issues are knee-jerk reactions based upon cultural norms rather than well reasoned Biblical positions. This shallowness of thought is what leads to the paralysis of the church to actually affect these issues through our ministry.

Is there a Christian ethic?

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:56:39 GMT

The topic of Christian Ethics has come up with two theologically minded friends in the past few days. Locally with a man that I have had many fruitful discourses with over a wide range of topics and on the Internet with a man that has just became one of my MSN spaces friends, John Ellis. Both men have brought up Christian ethics in the context of actual application and not as an academic exercise. For example, John is teaching tenth graders in a religion class and is struggling to teach young minds in a relativistic world and my other friend was speaking about Christian ethics in the church (of all places!)

First, Christian ethics cannot be separated from application since application is part of the definition of ethics. I define Christian ethics as: Courses of human action that are guided by the pattern of Jesus Christ as and by the revealed Word of God. Ethics finds its foundation in the character and nature of God himself. Day to day a man must make moral decisions that are beyond whether or not a particular action is beneficial to self and moves on to whether or not a particular action is right or wrong. The Christian in Christian ethics is the source of moral truth and the ethics is the process by which we discern the truth and the truth's corresponding action.

I make several presuppositions. The first presupposition is that the Bible is the Word of God. I say that the Bible is the revealed Word of God because the Bible teaches that it is the revealed Word of God. I am sure that many would quickly realize that this is circular logic, and in fact it is, but anytime you place something as your highest authority that authority cannot finds its justification outside of itself. For example, if you are a humanist, you might say that everything should be based upon reason or logic. If you were to ask the humanist why they trust in reason or logic, they might respond, "Because it is reasonable and logical to do so" There is nothing above God and His Word by which He may be judged as truthful. I believe that logic and reason are of the utmost importance to ethics but logic and reason are subject to God and not the other way around.

The second presupposition is that the revealed Word of God may be known. The most common escape route for those who desire to follow the flesh is that "no one can really know the truth." Unfortunately this statement is often made by those who claim Christ as Lord and Savior. We do in fact, see through a "glass darkly" but I am convinced that even though we do not have a perfect knowledge of the Word of God (or even of its interpretation) we do, in fact, have a sufficient knowledge for both Salvation and for living a Christian life.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 1 Timothy 3:15-17

I am going to continue this line of thought in a second post because I have a several more presuppositions and I want to cut up this elephant of Christian ethics into smaller bites for the reader. I will say, however, that it is a powerfully life changing idea that we have been given the ability and the resources to make moral judgement. Being truly human means acting in accordance with a nature beyond our animal instincts of pain, pleasure and self preservation. The right action is often not the most personally beneficial action.

I feel like a squirrel who has found a giant pile of nuts.

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:30:57 GMT

The UPS man brought three heavy boxes to my doorstep yesterday. Within the boxes were a set of books that I have been wanting for a long time. My mother got them for me as a Christmas gift had them sent directly to my house so I did not have to cart them home on Christmas eve.

Here is the link and description from Christian Book Distributors. For those of you who do not know, this is the best source of Christian books anywhere.

The Early Church Fathers, 38 Volumes

Broken into three sections, this authoritative collection of writings by the Early Church Fathers is essential for understanding patristic thought. Series I of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers consists of eight volumes of the writings of St. Augustine, the greatest and most influential of the early Fathers, as well as six volumes of the treatises and homilies of St. Chrysostom. The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Series II contains in fourteen volumes the works of the Greek Fathers from Eusebius to John of Damascus and the Latin Fathers from Hilary to Gregory the Great. The Ante-Nicene Fathers represent the first primary sources of Christian history following the canon of the New Testament, and include writings from the Apostolic Fathers as well as various third and fourth century sources.

Needless to say, when this big pile of theological goodness arrived, I immediately wanted to take a sabbatical and hole up somewhere and start reading. I opened up the boxes and immediately went to the Augustine volumes. I discovered an entire volume on Augustine's Anti-Pelagian writings! On the surface this might not sound too exciting to those of you who are my congregation members, but this book directly addresses the exact same questions and dilemmas that we have heard in our Sunday School classes in the past few years and it was Written in 415 AD. If nothing else, text like this should illuminate how long these issues of God's grace have been debated and give us enough historical perspective to remove the heightened emotional states when discussing the matters among ourselves. Are you troubled by the Bible passages about predestination and election? That's fine, lots of people, including myself have been rocked to the core by these teachings, but I would encourage those who have been troubled to put serious effort to work through the issues to come to a conclusion. I firmly believe that there was a great blessing for me on the other side of all that work. That is the essence of Philippians 2:12-14, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

If you want the "easy" version of the Christian life, head over and read Joel Osteen. "Brother" Joel will make sure that you are not bothered by all of that scripture and unpleasantness of difficult issues. I am quite sure that "brother" Joel has never quoted this passage of scripture before and if he has, he surely provided a more sanitary explanation. My only warning is that the "easy" Christian life might not be a Christian life at all.

"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

I glad to see I am not the only Christian that is leery of "the snip"

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 13:59:57 GMT

Here is an article about Christian families that are suspicious of "family planning" methods and have elected to go the natural route. Last year I preached a series of sermons on sanctity of life issues and came to the conclusion that many forms of birth control can cause the implantation failure of fertilized eggs which, by the biblical definition of life, can be considered an abortion. IUD's and The Pill stop fertilization most of the time, but not always.

There is also a pervasive attitude in society that can be best summed up in the often used phrase, "Don't they (expecting parents) know what causes that?" People with more than 2.3 children are looked down upon, pitied and sometimes we even make people angry. This attitude is just as prevalent IN the church as out of it! Yes, I have 4 children and if it were not for my wife's difficult pregnancies, I would want even more.

Every time I have contemplated the "snip, snip", as it is so flippantly called, I get this sinking feeling that I am not doing the right thing. I question my motives and whether or not getting the surgery could be considered living faithfully. I am far from making this teaching of "the full quiver" (from Psalm 127), one of my dogmatic sermons, but I would certainly give warning to any person considering such measures and ask them to prayerfully consider what they are doing. This goes for the birth control pill, IUD's, vasectomies, or even condoms. The context of this, of coarse, being a man and a women in a covenant marriage. I am not addressing pre-marital sex at all, that is a different topic.

Am I being "Catholic" about this? No, I am just trying not to overreact to my theological problems with the Catholic Church. Catholic theologians are not always wrong, just mostly wrong. I have come closer, for example, to the Catholic position on marriage. Southern Baptist have a much higher divorce rate than Catholics and even atheist (source Here) and much of this can be contributed to our underdeveloped teachings on divorce and remarriage. Except for not letting divorced men be deacons (a questionable practice) there is little said about divorce and even less actually done about it. Baptist need to round out their teaching on sanctity of life, divorce and remarriage, and pre-marital sex, and even marital sex! It is not good enough to just preach "Don't do it or else", your church body must uphold these issues as important and, while avoiding legalism, preach and teach strongly, accurately and in as great of detail as the scripture allows.