Book Review - Total Truth

Total Truth
Nancy Pearcey

So we decided to have a summer book club. What to read? We tossed around ideas of Foster’s Spiritual Disciplines, Edwards’ Spiritual Affections, but in the end we (by which I mean “I”) settled on this new worldview book by Nancy Pearcey, a past colleague of Chuck Colson (co-authored How Now Shall We Live), and a Francis Schaeffer devotee. I must say that I was totally ready for this to be a great book, guiding us into Christian patterns of thought, dethroning old, crusty worldviews and so on. But in the end we were disappointed.

Overview: The book is split into four main sections. The first deals with Pearcey’s philosophical theory, that Christianity has been relegated to the “upper-story” of the two-story split. The lower story is inhabited by things like science and hard facts. So, while we Christians are tolerated, we are not allowed to bring our Christianity into the public square with any validity. She traces this split through several areas and in the end does a good job proving her case.

The second section is the author’s attempt to dethrone Darwinism whenever it pops up its evolving head. Pearcey is devoted to the Intelligent Design movement, and it shows. This points to one of the arguments I have with the book: in a footnote, she explicitly states that asking “What does the Bible say about this?” is “not the way to do apologetics.” I beg to differ. Anyhow, her material on ID is helpful and I learned a few points which might prove helpful.

Section three attempts to decipher how the American church got where she is. Save the chapter on how feminism started the culture war, this is probably the most helpful section. If you need an overview of American church history geared toward understanding the present, read Iain Murray’s Revival and Revivalism – if you can’t find it, read this section of Total Truth. The chapter on women and the culture war would have been much more helpful if Pearcey was more Biblical in the way she thought about women – although she doesn’t say it, it’s fairly clear she considers homemaking to not be quite as high a calling as academia.

The last chapter, section four, seems to be written by a different author. For the majority of the book, she rarely quotes Scripture (although encouraging us to think Biblically), trying to convince the reader that we need to win philosophical battles using the words/thoughts/proofs of the other side. And now she quotes God’s Word left and right and tells us to expect to be derided and not taken seriously, that Scripture is the highest authority and that obedience is more important than anything other part of a Christian worldview. I wish this would have been the first chapter and that it would have guided her in writing the rest of the book.

Clearly Pearcey has done her homework and is able to outthink me like a racecar lapping a go-kart. She is a good, but not great, and engaging writer. But in the end, the book is flawed and its audience is extremely limited. It will accomplish real worldview shift only among undergraduates in science or liberal arts studies. It contains no help whatsoever for men and women slogging for Christ’s glory in blue-collar jobs and diaper-changing. If you’re not philosophically or scientifically inclined, there are better books. If you are philosophically or scientifically inclined, this book won’t be enough to help.

Finally, my biggest beef is that while Pearcey continually urges us to get Christianity out of it’s “cultural captivity” (in the upper story, remember?), she continually uses the thoughts and paradigms which got us there in the first place. And more broadly, she neglects the fact that, while the church might not be taken seriously and while the church might be anti-intellectual, Christ made the whole house. If we whine enough for Christianity to be counted among the world’s valid thought-patterns, we might be accepted into the circus. But is that enough? The point of Christianity is not to be one option among many, but to be the option. It is not enough to be taken seriously, to be included in the halls of academia. Christ is king and every knee will bow. Let us expect and labor for nothing less.

There's a mouse in the wall in my office. I don't think I can write a sermon like this, with all that scurrying and clawing and only a half-inch of drywall between me and the rabies maniac. It's just hard to be spiritual when your life's in danger. Oh well - the going gets tough...the rest of us just turn the music up loud.

Notes on Luther, 12

Back by no demand whatsoever...

Bondage of the Will, Ch. 5, paragraphs 3-5

3. Hey tough guy, what about Pharaoh, huh, huh? Luther is moving to consider Erasmus’ treatment of specific texts which we might point to for destruction of “free-will”, as Erasmus defines it. One of the first that comes to mind is God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 4:21. Erasmus claims that it is God’s patience with Pharaoh which will make him every more obstinate. Luther begs to differ.

Erasmus cites Origen and Jerome in his defense; this is too bad because, as godly as those men were, they were the harbingers of some horrible Bible-study methods (Luther calls it “absurd and clumsy”, and he’s not wrong). Luther points out how Erasmus’ version of Exodus 4:21 makes Pharaoh the hardener of his own heart, not God, which is the exact opposite of what the Bible says. This would also mean that God’s mercy and patience really equate to punishment, not opportunity to repent (if Erasmus is right about Ex. 4:21, anytime God is patient with you, it’s a sign that He’s out to get you…hmmm).

Luther follows Erasmus’ argument to its end: what if God does harden with His patience? Then it is God’s mercy which removes free-will from men. Then God’s mercy becomes a cruelty instead, a turn of thought the Scriptures know nothing of. Erasmus valiantly tries to redeem this odd version of God through his own logic, but Luther powerfully responds, reason storms and contends, in order to clear God of blame, and to vindicate His justice and goodness! But faith and the Spirit judge otherwise, believing that God is good even though he should destroy all men.

So, in the end, a defense of man’s free-will is a spiritual issue, coming from a heart of pride and faithlessness. While it may indeed be harder to believe what Scripture sets out plainly about God ruling over all the affairs of men, that type of hard faith is exactly the type the Spirit provides. Many things seem, and are, very good to God which seem, and are, very bad to us. Thus, afflictions, sorrows, errors, hell, and all God’s best works are in the world’s eyes very bad, and damnable. What is better than Christ and the gospel? But what is there that the world abominates more?

4. You still need an answer? How does Luther explain God’s action of working evil in men? To quote bad comics everywhere: What’s up with that?

First, Luther notes, God’s Word ought to suffice for us here. But in case reason demands more, here’s a shot: (1) God is omnipotent/sovereign (still with us?). (2) Satan & fallen man cannot will good, but are stuck pursuing their own desires. (3) Satan & fallen man are still under God’s omnipotence. (4) When God works with the ungodly, apart from regenerating them, He works with them as they are; ungodly cannot produce godly, so the result of God working through ungodly men is ungodliness. It is like a man riding a horse with only three, or two, good feet; his riding corresponds with what the horse is, which means that the horse goes badly.

God cannot suspend His sovereignty; He cannot pause being God, so He must rule even in Satan’s heart, even in the hearts of fools. As a result he sins and errs incessantly and inevitably until he is set right by the Spirit of God. There you have it.

5. Hard to handle – Working with evil instruments isn’t the same thing as hardening them, so next to consider is this act of hardening. What goes on when God hardens someone’s heart?

Luther makes sense of it like this: before conversion, our passion is totally directed inward, we are worshipers of the self, seekers of our own desire. When God acts in the world, He often does things that run contrary to this self-love tendency of man. When the most basic, deepest tide of the soul is fought against without the converting power of the Spirit, it is only reasonable to expect a hardening, a further turning from the One who’s trying to get me to deny myself. God doesn’t need to make new evil in man in order to harden them; He only has to interact with them while withholding Spiritual regeneration and *poof*, they’re hardened.

We again must believe Scripture when it tells us God does not tempt anyone with evil or do evil Himself. So we balance that with seeing that God is able to use evil instruments toward His holy purposes. Here, instead of adding more logical puzzles to the mix, let us worship the God who can even use His enemy’s plans for His own glory!

Short notes

Here's a great article forwarded to me by a friend, about the writer George MacDonald, the grandpappy of 20th century Christian fantasy writers (Lewis, Tolkien, Sayers, et al). While a pinch of salt might be useful in reading his doctrine of Imago Dei, there is some helpful thought here on imagination and the spiritual life.

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The links are up for Sunday morning's sermon on Proverbs 12
mp3
pdf
Here are the two mp3 links for the past two Sunday night lessons on the Ascension of Jesus. There was some interaction with the congregation, so you might miss a little because we didn't pass a mic around. If you're interested in my notes, which aren't posted, let me know and I can send them to you.
mp3 (#1)
mp3 (#2)

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Tomorrow night we are finishing up our summer book club on Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth, a worldview compendium-type book. For several reasons, I am less thrilled with it than I would have liked to be (there are several positives too, though). So I had this question: What book(s), beside God's Book, have you read that has most radically changed your worldview? What author/speaker has done the most to help you see things the way God sees them?

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Finally, I have decided to tone down my pessimism about the upcoming Lion, Witch & Wardrobe movie. I still have great reservations, but I will give benefit of the doubt to the filmmakers, recognizing my inability to judge the merits without prejudice. Having said that, I am 3/7 of the way through the Chronicles again and am continually amazed. I just read Horse & His Boy on my day off - it strikes me that Narnia might be a picture of the church more than a picture of all creation. Because there are other worlds beside Narnia (Calormen, Archenland, etc.), Narnia's uniqueness must come from the reign of Aslan, rather than from simple existence.

Expensive

"Talk is cheap." Or so it goes, the idea being that actions speak louder than words, that people are tired of promises unfulfilled, etc. Here's the problem:

Proverbs 12:6 - The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them.

12:14 - From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him.

12:18 - There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

James 3:2 - ...if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

Indeed, John encourages us to love not just with words, but with actions (1 Jn. 3:18), and Proverbs has a lot of stuff to say about diligence and action. But I would like to petition you gentle readers to never think that talk is cheap. Our words are what God uses to draw people to comfort in Christ, to alleviate anxiety by pointing to the Savior, to bring needed truth, to be a fountain of love.

I'm working on Proverbs 12 for the sermon tomorrow. Here's a spoiler: those righteous in Christ are people who plan their words, who think through conversations, who devise clever and gracious ways to speak love to another, who delight to speak truth. Plan your words. God is profoundly concerned with what comes out of mouth. It is not cheap or unimportant; rather, our words are the bricks and mortar of the kingdom of God. The words of the church build the kingdom, right alongside the church's works.

Movie

It is so very rare that I get to recommend a movie, so today is a rare day.

Last night, I watched Primer, an independent film made for about $7000. It is something of a science-fiction/plot-twister kind of movie. Premise: four guys make stuff in the garage when they're not working. Two guys find that one of their inventions has the unintended consequence of making whatever's inside the box repeat the same minute over and over. That's right, time travel. But no big flashes or neon lights. The kick to this movie is when these two guys, Aaron & Abe, start doing some minor time travelling (supposedly for things like playing the stock market) and their lives start to unravel. Things start to happen between the two friends and their doubles and soon the viewer is just trying to play catch up, and that lasts pretty much for the rest of the movie.

Despite its low budget, it is a beautifully-made film, with understated (i.e., not over-acted) dialogue. Directly upon stopping the movie, I retreated to the internet to try to figure out the plot turns, most of which escaped me. I think I'm now ready for my second viewing.

So, go find it somewhere and watch it [caveat: it's rated pg-13 for corase language, which must have slipped by me]. It'll make you think, which is so very, very rare from the box of mindlessness.

If you're wondering why those pesky reformed folk keep picking on a nice guy like Joel Osteen, read on. Osteen is the pastor of the 30,000 member church in Houston, making the news by buying an old stadium and camping out at the top of bestseller lists with this self-help manual.

Mormonisticisms

Over our vacation, we spent a couple downs in Bloomington with some friends, one of whom is also a pastor in an RP church. That Sunday night, who would ring the bell but a couple Mormons. I am by no means a great thinker or debater, but two pastors and two Mormons? It's like providential batting practice. We had them there for about 40 to 50 minutes. Here are some things I tried and learned; some of this I already knew, some was new revelation.

1. Mormon elders are extremely well-trained, but there's a limit to their capabilities (as there should be when operating in an untrue system). When you hit their limit, when you catch them, they have their fallback: "This is what I know: I had an experience, I've been convinced in my heart that this is true." Once again this lays clear the truth that I cannot convert anyone with perfectly reasoned arguments because only the Spirit changes wills...not that it's not fun or useless to beat them, though.

2. The god of the Mormons is a capricious, changing god. This was fairly new to me. Somehow we got on the topic of polygamy and they reported that the official Mormon doctrine had changed over the years. This I knew; what I didn't know was that the church claims that such changes come from god. So, the book of Mormon forbids polygamy; but ten years after its publication, Joseph Smith gets a new revelation from god, saying that polygamy is okay for a while. Recently, the high prophet got another revelation from god, now condemning the practice of polygamy. All this they reported with a smile on their face, oblivious to the implications of serving a changing god. Here I interjected Numbers 23:19 - God is not a name that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? - "Don't you see, guys? Your god could wake up tomorrow and decide all that stuff about salvation? I've changed my mind...all that stuff about loving you? Now I hate you. And the very changeable-ness of your god is proof of a false system. Just like little kids continuing to invent lies to support past lies, so the Latter Day Saints must continue to reinvent god to keep up with their false system."

3. In the end, the most tragic part of the night was our realization of that these two guys were trusting in their own works for salvation. They wouldn't say this, of course, but when we pressed them on it ("why will God let you into heaven?"), they mentioned both faith in Christ and a life lived as best they could - in fact, they often said things like, "We live as best we can so we can please god." This is not new - it's the same mistake most other religions have made: earning your own salvation. It is a sad thing. We spoke to them about the purpose of the law (not to measure up, but to see that we can't measure up and to draw us to Christ). We talked about the importance of properly-placed obedience (not to be made new, but because we are new). In the end, we passionately invited them to come to Christ for salvation apart from their good works, apart from their self-salvation.

4. I began the conversation by asking them what they thought about Jesus, which generally gets to the heart of the matter in conversations like this. "Do you believe Jesus is God?" I asked. "Jesus is god," they replied. "Do you believe he is the God, the second person in the Trinity?" "Uh, no. We don't believe in the Trinity. We believe Jesus is a god." This comes up with the JW's as well as many other false religions. If Christ is not God, the second person of the Trinity, there is no hope, no possibility of salvation.

5. Revelation is, obviously, a big issue. They do not believe in (1) the sufficiency of Scripture or (2) the inerrancy of Scripture. To prove this, they pulled out an extremely weak argument from John where an event is described in 2 slightly different ways (I can't remember the exact place). Anyhoo, they also believe the Book of Mormon had many mistakes, initially, but that they're all fixed now. But the problem remains of additional revelation. If the Bible wasn't enough, how can we be sure the book of Mormon is enough. Besides, Peter says the Scriptures we have are the "more sure prophetic word" which we should desire over any miracle or new revelation. What I tried to get across is the danger of receiving & wanting new revelation - it makes for a faith built on sandy ground.

Those are some of the things that came up; it was good to get a chance to proclaim the gospel in love to them and to pray for them later. Many of you know there are numerous other beliefs and practices of the Mormon church that could warrant disagreement, but I think it's important to stick to the facts of the gospel rather than trying to get them on baptism for the dead, etc.

Book Review - Ecclesiastes

The Guide: Ecclesiastes
by Gordon Keddie

I have no choice; niceties must abound or I can't write the review at all. See, Gordon Keddie is now no longer a pretty name, but a real face I must see at presbytery meetings (he's the pastor of Southside RP in Indy). So this is really a case of, "If you have nothing nice to say, keep your wide trap shut." Thankfully, I have nice things to say.

This 334-page paperback is a devotional commentary on the philosophically-God-centered book of Ecclesiastes. It is part of Evangelical Press' Guide series, which seeks to bring readers online to write questions and thoughts to the author and to have responses. After a short introduction, Pastor Keddie proceeds through Ecclesiastes, splitting his writing up into 25 chapters.

Let's get the negative out of the way: the design/layout sort of irked me. Because, I think, EP is trying to reach a newer, hipper crowd (which I suppose I'm not part of), the book has a much different layout than you're used to. Each page has a header running up the left side of the page and the bottom right pages have a large "weblink" icon behind the text. That's all to say, the layout didn't do anything for me. However, I did like the extras sprinkled into the chapters, where Gordon pulls out some great quotes and thoughts from really smart dead guys.

Positives: Pastor Keddie's writing is at the same time easily digestible yet dense and wry enough to keep your attention. Being a non-native Enligh speaker (He's Scottish :) ), he throws out great phrases that kind of give you little smiles. The chapters are short enough to make the book usable for devotions, which is what I did, or even family worship.

Content-wise, the book is outstanding. He does a great job dealing with the text both academically and pastorally. There are some really hard things to understand in Ecclesiastes (11:1 - Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days...anyone, anyone?) - and the book seemed to read my mind. Whenever I scratched my head a little, he explained what I didn't understand. Practically, Ecclesiastes speaks to deep issues that trouble deep thinkers - yet Keddie shows how each deep question makes a difference for our living and our faith. This wisdom book is something of an evangelistic philosophical work, showing people how ridiculous life is without God (i.e., "under the son") and how blessed and real it is with Him, all of which comes out in this commentary.

Should you buy it? Yeah. It would make a good read for Bible study, for devotions, or just for fun. I would especially recommend it to anyone who digs philosophy and wrestles with questions the rest of us would drown in while perhaps neglecting to realize the real-world implications of ideas. A final note: I greatly appreciated the last chapter, wherein Gordon relates his own conversion story after hearing a sermon from Ecclesiastes 12 - a great cause for rejoicing.

Short notes

To celebrate our 6th anniversary, we went to dinner last night, then to Barnes & Nobles to pick up a CD. Although the wife dawdled too long amongst the books and felt too rushed to select a musical goodie, I found mine. It is Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil or Vespers. It is, hands down, the best choral cd I have (yes, it is the only choral cd I have, but it's great nonetheless).

The liner notes say that Rachmaninoff wasn't the closest friend the Eastern Orthodox Church ever had, but this work goes a way to displaying something of his spiritual side. Designed to be used in an all-night Orthodox Church service, the selections are mostly Biblical texts and mostly Psalms (!), and all in Russian (I think). It is almost devastatingly beautiful...I can almost feel my sermon prep getting better.

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The sermon from Sunday morning is up: Proverbs 11:9-31, "What difference does Christ make?"

mp3
pdf

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As we work through the wisdom of Proverbs in the preaching series, I have an apocryphal addition: The wise know their food and keep it; the foolish leave their Snack Packs in the church refrigerator for over a week and expect the pastors to have more self-restraint than they. It was tasty.

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If you're not a fan, you should be. If you are a fan, did you know you can listen to NPR's Car Talk on the internet whenever you'd like? I would try to figure out why this show about car repair is so great, but that would probably ruin some of the mystique.

Worried

In a role I rarely find myself in, I now proclaim myself a "diehard" (don't really like that word) fan of The Chronicles of Narnia, able to offended at the slightest change in cinematic form. I have seen the previews for the upcoming films and I am worried. Here's why.

These 7 short books have been great sources of grace to me in my life. From my dad reading them to us when we were little to rediscovering them in high school and reading them once a year since...I never fail to be amazed. I read Lion, Witch & Wardrobe again yesterday and, despite being a somewhat distant reader, I never fail to get goose bumps whenever they say, "Aslan is on the move." Teary eyes and the whole bit...every time Aslan is called good and terrible at the same time.

During my college years I re-read The Last Battle. Finally coming to the Narnian version of heaven ("farther up, farther in!"), joy flooded my heart. At a point in my youth, I often had trouble falling asleep because I was scared of a housefire (I think the fire in the Black Stallion got to me). Despite holding to Christ for life, I still had fear of death sticking to the back of my mind like gum under a picnic table. And, like nothing else had done, Lewis showed heaven to my heart. I wasn't scared anymore - not that I wanted to die, but the thought of heaven, of a world like this only perfect and more colorful, this beats fear any time.

So I don't think a movie will work. While it sorta did for Tolkien's vision, I deeply doubt cinema's ability to capture Narnia's heart. The sense I get from the previews is the WETA-workshop-look-how-cool-we-can-make-everything kind of movie. Unlike Middleearth, Narnia is an explicit and blatant metaphor for the kingdom of Christ. Sin and regeneration, death and resurrection, heaven and hell - more than can be accomplished by movie-makers not completely devoted to a Christ-centered vision.

I'm certainly open to the accusation of overreacting. What do you think?

Wisdom

A great little commentary on Proverbs by Derek Kidner has some great introductory material. One of the chapters covers the subject of wisdom and I thought you'd be interested in the different words Proverbs uses for wisdom:

1. Instruction: Often used in conjunction with correction. "The two terms together can be summed up as discipline; they give the reminder that wisdom is not to be had through extra-mural study: it is for disciples only."

2. Understanding/Insight: Captures the idea of discerning between two things, usually good and evil, righteous and wicked.

3. Wise dealing: "good sense, practical wisdom, savoir-faire...Its supreme expression is in the unworldly triumph of the Servant of the Lord (Isa. 52:13)."

4. Shrewdness & Discretion: the power of forming plans. "...the godly man is in the best sense a man of affairs, who takes the trouble to know his way about, and plan his course realistically...he knows the ropes."

One of the ways I've tried to view Proverbs is as the promises God has made to Himself concerning those being conformed to the image of Jesus. This is the wisdom He has planned for me, even me! A great thought and some good, specific ways to pray for wisdom (James 1:5).

Book Review - Beyond the Summerland

Many of us wince a little when we see contemporary Christians attempting more explicitly Christian art. Though it's been done in the past, we rarely see effective and beautiful art consciously submitted to Christ's lordship. This is the trepidtation I had going into Beyond the Summerland, by L.B. Graham, the first in a new fantasy series (Binding of the Blade, I think) published by P&R - not typically known for their fiction.

I happily report that Summerland is a very good and effective book. It resides more in the tradition of Tokien than Lewis, as Graham attempts to create an entirely different world (Lewis & Rowling both used worlds that touched or integrated into our world), the world of Kirthanin. It's a world populated by men, dragons, Great Bears, and Malek (boo, bad guy) and his cronies: Malekim, Black Wolves, Vulsutyrim (giants), & the Grendolai. The hero, Joraiem, is a young member of the ruling class who travels to the Summerland for the purpose of meeting the others of his class from all areas of the land; this group then faces challenges because of the rise of the bad guy and his baddies. The book is suffused with the Christian faith, the good guys speaking often of Allfather's grace & providence, placing hope in His promises of resurrection and restoration, and so on. Malek is clearly a symbolic Satan, one of the Titans who fell from grace when he tried to take more power for himself.

Without going into too much of the story, here are the negatives: the dialogue of the book often feels forced and/or too American and modern (here I was struck with the linguistic genius of Tolkien and the languages he created for Lord of the Rings). The book is also a little slow to get started; but as this is the beginning of a series, that seems okay.

Positives: overall, this is a great read. While it makes me appreciate Tolkien's true genius a little more, Summerland accomplishes what I think it meant to, a Christian fantasy that's a really good story, too. There's a lot of great characters (the bears are cool), some good romance (if you're into that kind of thing), captivating action scenes, and even a surprise ending. Probably the best thing I can say about it is that I plan to buy the next one when it comes out.

This is a book I can wholeheartedly recommend, especially to parents looking for something exciting yet not lascivious for their Potter-passionate kids. If you like Tolkien or Narnia, you'll dig this one.

P.s. - last night, Pastor Long led us in a meditation of Psalm 18. It struck me that this is a great psalm for those who love to read fantasy. It's a great song of victory & deliverance - a great idea would be to read this Psalm after you finish reading Narnia or Tolkien or Summerland to the kiddies.

P.s.s. - Um, just realized that the second in the series (Bringer of Storms or something like that) was released June 1. True to my word, it's on its way.

Vacation Books

Here I am in the middle of vacation...I thought I'd give you some very short notes on books I've read or are reading lately.

Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince - Another good book by Rowling; I sure wish, though, parents would read it before they let their kids read it. As Harry grows up, so do the books: there's some fairly harsh language in this one. Amazing storytelling, too.

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis - A really amazing book of which I'm sure I understood very little. Lewis retells the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche (which I don't know much about) into a mythical story about two sisters. Anyway, there's not much I can tell you about the book till I read it a few more times, but it's definitely worth your time.

The Life of John Brown by John Brown and William Brown - John Brown of Haddington was a Scottish pastor in the 18th century. This is a remarkable life story, of an orphan teaching himself Greek, Hebrew & Latin while plowing fields. The book includes some autobiographical fragments, a large portion of his "last words", some notes from his son, and pieces of his shorter writings. A couple thoughts: First, the writing isn't all that good and the book isn't well organized at all - yet it retains some power. Second, the religion of John Brown - or at least the religion he puts forth in his writings - seems quite odd or over the top. He is so often denegrating himself, casting himself in the worst possible light. This helps him exult more in Jesus' love, but it makes him seem like a religious manic-depressive. Lately, I've been pondering what good and bad self-esteem is. If I, as a pastor, met someone who spoke himself/herself like Brown wrote about himself, I would take them to the Scriptures and learn about definitive sanctification, about being a new creation in Christ.

Notes on Preaching

I'm reading through The Imperative of Preaching by John Carrick (pub. by Banner of Truth). It's really good so far. The one thing that's really stuck with me so far is his discussion of the indicative and imperative in Scripture and its relation to preaching. The indicatives are the statements of fact - these ought to be the major part of each sermon. The imperatives are the directions based on those facts - normally we call this application.

Carrick really helped me by pointing out that, Scripturally, there's not just one indicative and one imperative, but two of each, going something like this:

Ind - Jesus died an atoning death and was raised from the dead to seal salvation.
Imp - Repent of your sins and confess Jesus as Lord.
Ind - In Christ you are a new creation, made holy by the power of the Spirit
Imp - Act like the new creation that you are!

This put into words how I have typically tried to structure sermons; Paul's words from Philippians often ring in my ears: Let us live up to what we have already attained. The "attained" is the indicative, what is presently true. The "live up" is the imperative - an application not desperate, but founded upon present reality.

I include this here not because you all are preachers, but to help you listen to sermons better and because it may help you read Paul's letters a little better.

Coming and Going

Got back last night from our family conference; it was really a time blessed by God. I had a great time with the junior high kids - I think they received the lessons on the Lord's Prayer very well. Two of the sermons by our speaker, Denny Prutow, can be found here.

Today I'm flying out to Pittsburgh for a meeting of the Youth Ministries Committee for the denomination. This is a new assignment for me and it's good work, so it should be interesting.

This is all to say "sorry" for the lack of substantial posts recently. I'm working on it, really.

FYI (pronounced fee-yiii)

We're taking off in the morning for our presbytery's family conference. So, I'll miss you for another week...and they told me summer is supposed to be the easier time.

If you think of it, pray for my time with the junior high kids. I'm pretty pumped about teaching them.

Music

Now for something lighter...Raul Midon popped up on NPR a couple days ago. He's a great guitarist, songwriter & singer. I suppose it falls into the R&B arena, though his guitar playing is aggressively percussive & flamenco at the same time. Here's a video of his performance at the Kennedy Center - looks like a great performer, too. He plays solo, but does this great mouth trumpet thing - if you close your eyes, it could be a trumpet or flugal horn.

Anyhoo, open the video on your computer and watch a few minutes.

Heavy

I read a thought-provoking article in Books and Culture from a couple issues ago. Kevin Corcoran, philosophy professor at Calvin College, reflects on the doctrine of universalism in an article entitled “Dark Thoughts.” Universalism is the doctrine which holds that all humans will eventually be saved. They do not claim salvation for all in this life, but eventually, perhaps after countless ages, God will bring all humanity to dwell with Him, presumably through Christ's work on the cross.

First things first: this is not a Biblical, reformed doctrine. I do not hold to universalism or its cousin, annihilationism (those dying apart from Christ will simply be destroyed into nothingness). Corcoran speaks disapprovingly of double predestination, which would be the exact opposite of universalism and happens to be what Scripture teaches (2 Peter 2; Exodus 10:20). Second, Corcoran does not believe in universalism, but would sure like to – more on that later. That aside, I have two notes about the article.

Corcoran puts forth a possible reasoning for universalism: If God is God, His purposes will be fulfilled. God's purposes, according to the author, is for humanity to “flourish.” Humanity's flourishing would be impossible if a significant portion of said humanity was in hell. Thus, God has reason to save all mankind, even those who lived all their earthly life in rebellion to His Kingship. The fault, I believe, in this reasoning is the assertion that God's main purpose is to make humanity flourish; theologically speaking, God's main purpose is to glorify His name, to show His holiness and greatness above all gods (Matthew 6:9). Problems abound when we mistakenly place mankind as central in God's plan. Of course humanity plays a wonderful role, being made to reflect God's glory, being made in His image, etc. But Romans 9 makes clear that God can be glorified by the judging of wickedness as well as the redemption of the wicked.

Getting past the negative, then, I was struck with how seriously the author was struggling throug this issue. He tells the story of a dear, Jewish friend of his who passed away recently; understandably, he recoils at the notion that his friend is suffering eternally. In his classes, Corcoran challenges his students to wrestle with the idea of hell:

Sam, so far as I know, did not die in Christ. Is he damned? Forever? It's a question that pricks the heart when someone you know and love—someone who, so far as you know, did not embrace Christ—dies. It's an important question, one that I tell my students ought to keep them awake at least a few nights of their life.

Have we wrestled enough with hell? Has it kept me up at night? Toward this end, of dealing honestly and Biblically with an extremely hard idea, I would recommend Ted Donnelly's book, Heaven and Hell. I clearly recall several nights when I was only able to read one or two paragraphs before I couldn't handle any more.

Finally, as you wrestle with hard issues, take comfort in the God of all things. He is good and He will always be good. His glory, not our comfort, is the highest goal and should capture the prized place in our hearts.

Back Home Again

It's so good to sleep in one's own bed. Even if my mattress has permanent indentations that match my body...it's nice to be home.

Synod went well; it was a relatively quiet week. There were no grand theological debates (although I think those are coming in the next few years). What there was was a good bit of talk about vision and purpose and plans for the RP Church as a whole. As of right now, there's no one really tasked with setting forth an encompassing vision. It had fallen for a while to the finance committee, but that doesn't seem to be lasting. The Home Mission Board did some work on it, though; they recommended synod adopt a vision for planting 20 new churches by 2020 (2020 vision, it's called). Although the final wording of the recommendation didn't have the same strength of language (it went from calling evangelism and church planting our highest priority to making it a renewed priority), it was good for the church to commit itself to a good plan like that.

So here are some prayer requests for our denomination, if you're so inclined:
1. Pray that we might be blessed with many new pastors in the coming two decades. The fields remain white for harvest and we must continue to importune God to grant us laborers for those fields.
2. Pray for the current new churches and those yet in the womb (which includes our church).
3. Pray for those appointed to the committee to revise the Directory for Worship. This will not be an easy task, but a very important one.
4. Pray for peace and unity among our churches; pray also for peace and unity across denominations.

This week I'm preparing my lessons for the junior high students at our family camp next week. [spoiler] I have decided to move through the Lord's Prayer, focusing both on improving our communication to God and the wonderful theology underlying our great prayer-example. As I work on it this week, I hope to post some quotes from cool books I'm working with.