Just a short* post to herald my return to the world of internet writing no one actually wants to read, but feels obligated to because they were tagged on Facebook. It has been too long.
As this is being written, we approach (three hours!) the Christian celebration of the King of the Universe needing a probably teenage girl to wipe His butt. Flippancy aside, I'd like to reiterate in order to maximize "sinking-in....ness"1. The One Who had glory with the Father before the world was2 took on a form that required Him to poop in his drawers, lay in a first-century dog dish, and be taught how to walk. The one who upholds all things by the Word of His power3 subsisted on breast-milk and bedtime stories.
Typically, Christianity of various stripes emphasizes the humiliation and self-negation of the Cross, as rightly it should (factions too busy trying not to hurt gay activists' feelings to have a meaningful doctrine of atonement notwithstanding). The unfortunate tendency is to allow that to deprive the incarnation itself of its weight as a divine condescension. In temporal order, and in priority in the mind of God, what was Christ's first "emptying"? His taking the form of a servant.4 What's more, the incarnation is not only a stooping of God to the level of men (an aspect of Christianity in which it differs from all other faiths, in which one must climb to the level of the higher power), but absolutely vital for our redemption.
Because of Christ, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness.5 Because of Christ, we have a new Adam-and the free gift is not like the trespass.6 Because of Christ, we do not have the blood of bulls and rams offered repeatedly7, or a high priest who dies8, but an eternal Savior who is both man and God, priest and victim. And without the stable in Bethlehem, we have none of it.
This makes the incarnation a dividing line between (biblical) Christianity and all other faiths, including factions pretending to the title. Rome has gone back to a system of repeated sacrifices that perfect no one-when there is nothing to go back to. Modalism preaches a sacrifice of a priest that cannot continue to intercede. Islam offers a system where there is a transcendent God, a holy law, an eternal fire-and no mediation at all (for evidence of the results of THAT type of works-righteousness, witness the desperation with which the martyrs of the Jihad seek their own unique brand of propitiation.) America is presented with a worldview that denies the existence of anything to be propitiated, a marvelous display of "Romans 1-vision" if there ever was one. Christ-as-priest necessitates Christ-as-sacrifice, which in turn demands Christ-as-infant. It is true in many senses therefore, that Christ was born to die. But it is equally true that he came to live, just as we have, and as we are, yet without sin.
Truly, then, Christmas' joy is, if anything underestimated by Christians. We are utterly dependent, totally grateful, and truly worshipful for the gift of Jesus, fullness of God in helpless babe. As you go about your business this Christmas, try to see the celebration less as a tradition and a commemoration of a precious moment in a family long ago, less as a time for family bonding or a validation of the Trinity (although it is all of those things), and more as the dawn of redeeming grace and the coronation heralding the eternal kingdom.
Merry Christmas 2014
~JS
----------------------------
* turned out to be a total lie
1 Not a real word
2 John 17:5
3 Hebrews 1:3
4 Phillippians 2:7
5 Hebrews 4:17
6 1 Co. 15:22
7 Hebrews 9:25
8 Hebrews 7:23-24
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Friday, May 30, 2014
Notes from the Palatinate, or "attempting this on a tablet didn't work"
So, better late than never, Notes from the Shore makes its temporary transition to the travelog genre. Currently I am typing this from my friend Andy's computer in picturesque Hutschenhausen Germany, a burgh named for its love of "little hats". Hutschenhausen is near the slightly smaller but still rustic towns of Hauptstuhl and Landstuhl and is considered a suburb of Kaiserslautern, the nearest true city. Since Andy is an armed forces nurse, the folks I'm staying with have access to Ramstein air force base (of some renown in the metal genre). These locales are all part of Rheinland-Pfalz, the Rhineland state of Federal Germany, which is historically known as the Palatinate and was the 16th century cradle of second-Reformation Protestantism (Calvinism) in Germany. The opportunity to visit sites of historical significance to the reformation and to bicycle past land defended in the Thirty Years' War is certainly going to be difficult to forget. That being said, I thought I'd jot down some initial impressions after a few days in Western Germany.
1) Climatologically, the Palatinate is strikingly similar to Western Washington. Same diverse flora (although a lot more pigeons), same clouds, same temperature range...regrettably, same allergens. In fact, first impressions driving out of Frankfurt-am-Main made it difficult to tell I had left home, minus the apparently rampant graffiti and the occasional street sign in German.
2) Germans are big conservationists, and it is more noticeable than one might think...while also being less annoying. Residents are expected to carefully sort their recycling into several types and given one infrequently emptied garbage can to encourage doing so. Almost all windows and doors are designed to open for ventilation...because the house I'm staying in has no fans. Toilets have multiple flush settings, and I showered in something reminiscent of the scrubber/crematorium from "Gattaca" this morning. The tendency towards environmental protection yields fascinating synthesis between old and new, such as a farmhouse that proudly displayed a bevy of solar panels (complete with sign crediting them to BP) alongside the markings dating the structure to 1836. Riding the train to Landstuhl, trees and massive recycling centers were on evidence next to sprawling industrial apparatus of various types. One almost wonders if the ubiquity of the industrial age urges Germans on towards more green-mindedness. Speaking of trains, seemingly every German family owns a sedan or smart-car, and the various autobahn are bereft of the "unnecessarily large trucks! 'Murica!" phenomenon, while your nearest train station even in such a rustic setting as Hutschenhausen (I am five minutes' walk from the nearest cow pasture) is a twenty minute bike ride south. Yes, bike ride. Every inter-city highway in the country has an associated separate lane with yield signs marked for bicycles. While one wonders how much tax money is required of Germans with less enthusiasm for two-wheeled vehicles, this is likely a policy that is both green and healthy for people willing to take advantage of it.
3) Kaiserslautern is frankly a rather sketchy place, with a nudey-bar close to the train station and posters that attempt to synthesize Smokey Bear type slogans with a tireless campaign against venereal disease ("only YOU can prevent genital warts!"). Despite the eyebrow-raising moments, and the sense that "K-town" has seen better days, it is a place worth seeing. I had the opportunity not only to be photographed with two storied churches, St. Martin's and Die Stiftskirche, but also to see the inside of the latter, complete with 150-foot pipe organ and Protestant unity monument (die Stiftskirche was the first church in the Palatinate [possibly all of Germany, not sure] to hold a communion service open to both Lutherans and Calvinists...and it only took until 1828!). The chance to visit a Burger King was not only valued for the bathroom (almost all "public" restrooms in Germany require either a fee or being a paying customer), but because this particular edifice stood across from Church row, and in a similarly impressive building. The interior was also humorous, as one felt that there was an attempt at American decor that was almost there, but not quite (gratuitous amounts of NBA posters!).
4) Never let it be said that Germans don't take their politics seriously. Local elections in the Palatinate and the election of Germany's representatives to the European Parliament occured over last weekend, and there were posters for parties and candidates in abundance throughout the K-town area. German law requires that all parties receive the same money for campaign signs and that said signs all be the same size, which gave the opportunity to see propaganda running from the mainstream and reserved (the CDU's pictures of Merkel and "a stable Euro helps everyone" were particularly inspiring) to the...fringe (no, thank you, Marxist-Leninist party of Germany, I don't think I will vote to "destroy the EU" or "liberate women from oppression"). Probably the most interesting headline of the weekend was the story a copy of Die Welt keyed me into on the plane into Frankfurt: the acquisition of seven EU Parliament seats by an upstart organization known as "Alternative fur Deutschland", who in a rising tide of Euroskepticism on the continent, are giving voice to a cultural trend unprecedented in post-war Germany. The world will stay tuned on that front, I suppose.
That's about all for initial impressions, but there will be more to come, as the anniversary of Ehrenbreitsen fortress in the city of Koblenz is tomorrow, and my flight for London leaves early Monday. More on all of that when I get the chance.
~JS
1) Climatologically, the Palatinate is strikingly similar to Western Washington. Same diverse flora (although a lot more pigeons), same clouds, same temperature range...regrettably, same allergens. In fact, first impressions driving out of Frankfurt-am-Main made it difficult to tell I had left home, minus the apparently rampant graffiti and the occasional street sign in German.
2) Germans are big conservationists, and it is more noticeable than one might think...while also being less annoying. Residents are expected to carefully sort their recycling into several types and given one infrequently emptied garbage can to encourage doing so. Almost all windows and doors are designed to open for ventilation...because the house I'm staying in has no fans. Toilets have multiple flush settings, and I showered in something reminiscent of the scrubber/crematorium from "Gattaca" this morning. The tendency towards environmental protection yields fascinating synthesis between old and new, such as a farmhouse that proudly displayed a bevy of solar panels (complete with sign crediting them to BP) alongside the markings dating the structure to 1836. Riding the train to Landstuhl, trees and massive recycling centers were on evidence next to sprawling industrial apparatus of various types. One almost wonders if the ubiquity of the industrial age urges Germans on towards more green-mindedness. Speaking of trains, seemingly every German family owns a sedan or smart-car, and the various autobahn are bereft of the "unnecessarily large trucks! 'Murica!" phenomenon, while your nearest train station even in such a rustic setting as Hutschenhausen (I am five minutes' walk from the nearest cow pasture) is a twenty minute bike ride south. Yes, bike ride. Every inter-city highway in the country has an associated separate lane with yield signs marked for bicycles. While one wonders how much tax money is required of Germans with less enthusiasm for two-wheeled vehicles, this is likely a policy that is both green and healthy for people willing to take advantage of it.
3) Kaiserslautern is frankly a rather sketchy place, with a nudey-bar close to the train station and posters that attempt to synthesize Smokey Bear type slogans with a tireless campaign against venereal disease ("only YOU can prevent genital warts!"). Despite the eyebrow-raising moments, and the sense that "K-town" has seen better days, it is a place worth seeing. I had the opportunity not only to be photographed with two storied churches, St. Martin's and Die Stiftskirche, but also to see the inside of the latter, complete with 150-foot pipe organ and Protestant unity monument (die Stiftskirche was the first church in the Palatinate [possibly all of Germany, not sure] to hold a communion service open to both Lutherans and Calvinists...and it only took until 1828!). The chance to visit a Burger King was not only valued for the bathroom (almost all "public" restrooms in Germany require either a fee or being a paying customer), but because this particular edifice stood across from Church row, and in a similarly impressive building. The interior was also humorous, as one felt that there was an attempt at American decor that was almost there, but not quite (gratuitous amounts of NBA posters!).
4) Never let it be said that Germans don't take their politics seriously. Local elections in the Palatinate and the election of Germany's representatives to the European Parliament occured over last weekend, and there were posters for parties and candidates in abundance throughout the K-town area. German law requires that all parties receive the same money for campaign signs and that said signs all be the same size, which gave the opportunity to see propaganda running from the mainstream and reserved (the CDU's pictures of Merkel and "a stable Euro helps everyone" were particularly inspiring) to the...fringe (no, thank you, Marxist-Leninist party of Germany, I don't think I will vote to "destroy the EU" or "liberate women from oppression"). Probably the most interesting headline of the weekend was the story a copy of Die Welt keyed me into on the plane into Frankfurt: the acquisition of seven EU Parliament seats by an upstart organization known as "Alternative fur Deutschland", who in a rising tide of Euroskepticism on the continent, are giving voice to a cultural trend unprecedented in post-war Germany. The world will stay tuned on that front, I suppose.
That's about all for initial impressions, but there will be more to come, as the anniversary of Ehrenbreitsen fortress in the city of Koblenz is tomorrow, and my flight for London leaves early Monday. More on all of that when I get the chance.
~JS
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, or "the importance of Scriptural harmony"
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.~Ps. 139:19-22
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?~Mt. 5:43-46
As you might have heard, Fred Phelps, head of the notorious Westboro cult (to dignify it with the terms "Baptist" or "Church" would smear said terms nearly as much as shying away from them for fear of association with the organization) passed to his "eternal reward" today, a reward which, it must be said, I can only speculate consists of permanent residence in the place with which he was most concerned in life. Just now, my friend Ryan mentioned that it would be the height of hypocrisy to "hate" Fred Phelps for "hating people"; a sentiment with which I can hardly disagree. But to stop there would be an oversimplification, and dare I say, fails to explore the reasons,which I am about to defend as (conditionally) righteous, that Christians are not among those mourning Mr. Phelps (indeed perhaps the only folks who are are certain media personalities, the proverbial false prophets in whose mouths Phelps has long been a lying spirit).
Few passages spring more readily to the lips of Sunday School teachers than the above quotation from Matthew 5. While it is a marvelous example of passages violently excised from meaningful context when monotonously chanted by apostates and cafeteria Catholics, guilt by association is no reason to treat Christ's words here as unimportant or trivial. In proclamation of the standard of righteousness entailed in the Father's law, a standard He came to fulfill on behalf of the totally incapable, Jesus announces that our enemies are our neighbors, that they deserve our prayer and that if we only love those from whom we receive blessing, we are no better than pagans. This line of the Sermon of the Mount, like the rest of it, is a man-slayer. All boasting is stopped in the shadow of the Law's mountain, all proclamation of our righteousness is exposed as menstrual leavings in Christ's demand that we show perfect love for our persecutors. And while each of us fail (in the flesh) to love the way Christ loved his enemies on the cross, it is certainly the heart's desire of every sheep to see hypocrites like Phelps, a man whose flesh would likely burn on contact with the printed words of Matthew 5, called to task for flagrant scorn heaped on the Lord's words here.
Yet, some argue, there can be no joy in the perishing of Phelps so (evidently) far from the true gospel, no sense of vindication in the hearts or minds of Christians, that a pernicious false teacher has passed, for by the measure we measure out we will be judged. Surely, goes this logic, if Phelps is indeed our enemy, Matthew 5 calls for, if not sackcloth and ashes, at least silent sobriety in the face of Phelps' passing? Would it not be Pharisaical to do otherwise? And here is where Ps. 139 rears it's ugly head.
It is hyperdispensational thinking at its worst to sever the writings of David from the teachings of the Son of David. The greatest rabbi who ever lived, the inheritor of the Davidic throne, the Logos incarnate, and the guy who just got done saying he came to fulfill the law in verse 17 knew full well that David actively boasted in song and prose of his "hatred" of the enemies of God. It is easy in the modern age of pagan friends, political correctness and what I will term "voluntary illiteracy" to refuse to square the circle of these two statements, to shrug off the elder as "OT thinking" "law not grace" etc. But to a truth-seeker, that will not do.
Scripture calls to love our neighbors AND to hate evil. Praying for those who persecute us can walk hand in hand with setting our face against false teachers of every stripe. If Paul desired that those troubling the Galatians would castrate themselves, (Gal. 5:12) it is right to feel a measure of vindication at the death of a man who made an art-form of "speaking against God with malicious intent and taking his name in vain". This vindication is not for ourselves, and must not be mingled with self-righteousness. But for the restraining hand of God, we might be as bad as Phelps or worse. But we can know with absolute certainty that the judge of all the earth manifests his justice in the fate of men, and that all the vitriol and blasphemy of men like Fred Phelps cannot prevent their going the way of all flesh.
I believe that the American Church is facing a time of trial for which it is largely unprepared. When persecution increases it will be vital for us to obey the dictates of Matthew 5 and uphold God's standard of righteousness. We must treat all bearers of the Imago Dei as our neighbor, and know that our persecutors have not merited murder, repression, slander or wicked treatment: this is Decalogue 101. But it will similarly be important to know that God is fighting our battles for us, that evil is identifiable, and that the triumph of the divine justice is eternal, inevitable, holy and good. As sheep and goats separate into more distinct camps, we must know that sheep are not the only apropo animal metaphor for the redeemed, and as a certain Picard-Genevan expositor said, "even a dog barks when his master is attacked".
Bark.
~JS
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.~Ps. 139:19-22
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?~Mt. 5:43-46
As you might have heard, Fred Phelps, head of the notorious Westboro cult (to dignify it with the terms "Baptist" or "Church" would smear said terms nearly as much as shying away from them for fear of association with the organization) passed to his "eternal reward" today, a reward which, it must be said, I can only speculate consists of permanent residence in the place with which he was most concerned in life. Just now, my friend Ryan mentioned that it would be the height of hypocrisy to "hate" Fred Phelps for "hating people"; a sentiment with which I can hardly disagree. But to stop there would be an oversimplification, and dare I say, fails to explore the reasons,which I am about to defend as (conditionally) righteous, that Christians are not among those mourning Mr. Phelps (indeed perhaps the only folks who are are certain media personalities, the proverbial false prophets in whose mouths Phelps has long been a lying spirit).
Few passages spring more readily to the lips of Sunday School teachers than the above quotation from Matthew 5. While it is a marvelous example of passages violently excised from meaningful context when monotonously chanted by apostates and cafeteria Catholics, guilt by association is no reason to treat Christ's words here as unimportant or trivial. In proclamation of the standard of righteousness entailed in the Father's law, a standard He came to fulfill on behalf of the totally incapable, Jesus announces that our enemies are our neighbors, that they deserve our prayer and that if we only love those from whom we receive blessing, we are no better than pagans. This line of the Sermon of the Mount, like the rest of it, is a man-slayer. All boasting is stopped in the shadow of the Law's mountain, all proclamation of our righteousness is exposed as menstrual leavings in Christ's demand that we show perfect love for our persecutors. And while each of us fail (in the flesh) to love the way Christ loved his enemies on the cross, it is certainly the heart's desire of every sheep to see hypocrites like Phelps, a man whose flesh would likely burn on contact with the printed words of Matthew 5, called to task for flagrant scorn heaped on the Lord's words here.
Yet, some argue, there can be no joy in the perishing of Phelps so (evidently) far from the true gospel, no sense of vindication in the hearts or minds of Christians, that a pernicious false teacher has passed, for by the measure we measure out we will be judged. Surely, goes this logic, if Phelps is indeed our enemy, Matthew 5 calls for, if not sackcloth and ashes, at least silent sobriety in the face of Phelps' passing? Would it not be Pharisaical to do otherwise? And here is where Ps. 139 rears it's ugly head.
It is hyperdispensational thinking at its worst to sever the writings of David from the teachings of the Son of David. The greatest rabbi who ever lived, the inheritor of the Davidic throne, the Logos incarnate, and the guy who just got done saying he came to fulfill the law in verse 17 knew full well that David actively boasted in song and prose of his "hatred" of the enemies of God. It is easy in the modern age of pagan friends, political correctness and what I will term "voluntary illiteracy" to refuse to square the circle of these two statements, to shrug off the elder as "OT thinking" "law not grace" etc. But to a truth-seeker, that will not do.
Scripture calls to love our neighbors AND to hate evil. Praying for those who persecute us can walk hand in hand with setting our face against false teachers of every stripe. If Paul desired that those troubling the Galatians would castrate themselves, (Gal. 5:12) it is right to feel a measure of vindication at the death of a man who made an art-form of "speaking against God with malicious intent and taking his name in vain". This vindication is not for ourselves, and must not be mingled with self-righteousness. But for the restraining hand of God, we might be as bad as Phelps or worse. But we can know with absolute certainty that the judge of all the earth manifests his justice in the fate of men, and that all the vitriol and blasphemy of men like Fred Phelps cannot prevent their going the way of all flesh.
I believe that the American Church is facing a time of trial for which it is largely unprepared. When persecution increases it will be vital for us to obey the dictates of Matthew 5 and uphold God's standard of righteousness. We must treat all bearers of the Imago Dei as our neighbor, and know that our persecutors have not merited murder, repression, slander or wicked treatment: this is Decalogue 101. But it will similarly be important to know that God is fighting our battles for us, that evil is identifiable, and that the triumph of the divine justice is eternal, inevitable, holy and good. As sheep and goats separate into more distinct camps, we must know that sheep are not the only apropo animal metaphor for the redeemed, and as a certain Picard-Genevan expositor said, "even a dog barks when his master is attacked".
Bark.
~JS
Thursday, March 13, 2014
A study of Marine Life, or "in which James fulfills the ambitions of his mother"
Once upon a time, my mother said that I should have been a marine biologist. I neither begrudge her statement nor fail to see the logic; at one time I had a great love of the wonder of God in creation, and had it not been for my constant and humbling failure at math and the natural sciences (but for which I'm sure I would have been rendered an insufferable nuisance to mankind), I may very well have embarked on such a career path. And so it is with the greatest of ironies that I explore the times and habits of a little-known specimen of marine life which I have previously referenced in these musings: the evangellyfish. (All apologies to Doug Wilson, from whom I am borrowing the term.)
The evangellyfish is a creature who similarly borrows the term "evangelical" from historical Christianity, evangelical being derived from evangelium, the term for the gospel that at one time separated Solas Christianity from pre-reformed or later Liturgical/Episcopal Christianity. However, the linguistic similarities are the demarcated zone of common ground between said sea life and the beleaguered unit known as "the Reformed". Major differences are as follows:
1) A belief that Church history begins with Billy Graham, or at the best, perhaps John Wesley.
Your average evangellyfish will have no conception of any Christianity predating America's 19th and 20th century revivals; and who can blame them? The history of American Christianity precedes these events by perhaps a generous two centuries, and given the state of Christianity, or perhaps it were better, "post-Christianity" in Europe, there is little to see as redeeming in Christian "historicism". However, the attachment, subconscious in the main, of "traditions of men" to "traditions at all" has rendered entire generations of Christians, the youth especially, impotent in the face of rank heresies such as Modalism in the UPCI, Mormonism, the egregiously humanistic wings of Romanism, the word-faith movement, and Open 'theism'. America stands poised to equip a nation of missionaries, politicians, philosophers and theologians with a deficit of tools, in that said nation will neither recognize the claims of aforementioned movements as old, nor realize that a consistent worldview from Scripture, namely Calvinism, stands in centuries-old armor to combat them. Moreover, said worldview has been paralyzed by the introduction of traditions of post-Weslyanism, unable either to move beyond human autonomy as a primary, or to understand that their views are traditional. As James White said to Dave Hunt, "there is no one more trapped in tradition than those who fail to acknowledge its impact in their lives".
2) A total rejection of God's sovereignty...except when convenient.
A dearth of Church history leads to a failure of Biblical soteriology. Statistically, the evangellyfish you encounter will likely recoil squidlike from any mention of man's deadness in sin, his incapacity to love God as he aught, and God's total freedom to love and save as he will. The questioner in Romans 9, thrusting injustice upon God, could hardly have found a better counterpart than the average American pew-sitter. The rule of faith is human autonomy...unless of course it's in the "big picture" of God. The hardening of Pharoah's heart and the opening of Lydia's, the resurrection of Lazarus and the crucifixion of Christ, the book of Revelation and the opening chapters of Genesis are open to God's utter control. The actions of men in time as moral agents, by and large, are not, Genesis 50 and and Acts 2 to the contrary notwithstanding. Evangellyfish want God to be God when Jesus is dying for them, and themselves to be God when that death is applied. They want God to be God when Ananias is slain, and themselves to be God when they go to the club (or buy shoes, or choose Robert Frost's immortal road). Many thinkers have sought philosophical justification for that road less traveled as a human creation, whether they be Molinist or classical Arminian, and yet they flee utterly from a literal reading of Acts 2 or Romans 9.
3) An eschatology that disavows alternatives.
Whether due to outright laziness on the part of preachers and expositors regarding the Old Testament as a foreshadowing of Christ, or a sincere belief that there is only one position because it is the only one one has heard, dispensational thinking latent or patent has crept into the evangellyfish mind. With it has come a dogmatic assurance that the book of Revelation reveals near-gnosis secrets incomprehensible to the initial readers of that Scripture, and a patient waiting for the end of the universe that similarly bears the gnostic fixation on rejection not only of materialism but of the material world. Political involvement, career ambition and intellectual pursuits fall by the wayside as the worst of the stereotypes of Christianity as a faith of "pie in the sky...by and by" come to fruition.
4) Man-centeredness in worship.
The average American parish consists of a dwindling congregation of the Old Guard, perceived as out of touch with the culture and unable to sustain itself biblically or procreatively, or a church that could perhaps paint the faint outline of a guitar upon its Crucifixion symbols. A game I enjoy playing is to eliminate all songs from a contemporary Christian music station (Spirit 105 is a great example) that contain the words "I" or "me" outside of a context of self-abasement , and see how much of the station is commercials. Or to put it another way, if you made a drinking game out of that, you would die. This quickest way to locate an evangellyfish congregation would be to ask the band to play in the back where no one could see them and omit songs including "I". The thought experiment is however, unlikely to happen. Similarly, an overemphasis on "community building" in Church ordinances, and alteration of parish names to conform to worldly standards are hardly infrequent. (Washingtonians: how many churches are you aware of that were named "x or y baptist" and are now some combination of "grace" "point" "way" "church" "free" "fellowship" etc.?)
This my friends, is why soteriology matters. When the law is not unkeepable by mortal hands, then eschatology and covenant theology suffer (the Jews did so much better than we did!). When the point of salvation is our response rather than God's condescension, worship is about adulation of a band and Church history is about "making a decision for Christ'...regardless of whether that was ever the gospel was presented in aeons past. I do not condemn those in the average mileau of American protestantism, or even world Christianity to perdition, and I don't claim that the modern fate of the American Church is irreversible or irredeemable, but the tentacles of the evangellyfish have wrapped snugly around the body too long to stay silent. Lest you fear the future, know that God has made you a moral actor and agent of eternal reformation. The next time you hear the same empty or infuriating platitudes, the next time you despair of American Christianity, know that there is something you can do. When you meet your local evangellyfish, shake their hand/hug them, buy them a coffee....and tell them that Jesus is bigger than they imagine, and that his gospel has been more than a pamphlet.
In Christ,
~JS
The evangellyfish is a creature who similarly borrows the term "evangelical" from historical Christianity, evangelical being derived from evangelium, the term for the gospel that at one time separated Solas Christianity from pre-reformed or later Liturgical/Episcopal Christianity. However, the linguistic similarities are the demarcated zone of common ground between said sea life and the beleaguered unit known as "the Reformed". Major differences are as follows:
1) A belief that Church history begins with Billy Graham, or at the best, perhaps John Wesley.
Your average evangellyfish will have no conception of any Christianity predating America's 19th and 20th century revivals; and who can blame them? The history of American Christianity precedes these events by perhaps a generous two centuries, and given the state of Christianity, or perhaps it were better, "post-Christianity" in Europe, there is little to see as redeeming in Christian "historicism". However, the attachment, subconscious in the main, of "traditions of men" to "traditions at all" has rendered entire generations of Christians, the youth especially, impotent in the face of rank heresies such as Modalism in the UPCI, Mormonism, the egregiously humanistic wings of Romanism, the word-faith movement, and Open 'theism'. America stands poised to equip a nation of missionaries, politicians, philosophers and theologians with a deficit of tools, in that said nation will neither recognize the claims of aforementioned movements as old, nor realize that a consistent worldview from Scripture, namely Calvinism, stands in centuries-old armor to combat them. Moreover, said worldview has been paralyzed by the introduction of traditions of post-Weslyanism, unable either to move beyond human autonomy as a primary, or to understand that their views are traditional. As James White said to Dave Hunt, "there is no one more trapped in tradition than those who fail to acknowledge its impact in their lives".
2) A total rejection of God's sovereignty...except when convenient.
A dearth of Church history leads to a failure of Biblical soteriology. Statistically, the evangellyfish you encounter will likely recoil squidlike from any mention of man's deadness in sin, his incapacity to love God as he aught, and God's total freedom to love and save as he will. The questioner in Romans 9, thrusting injustice upon God, could hardly have found a better counterpart than the average American pew-sitter. The rule of faith is human autonomy...unless of course it's in the "big picture" of God. The hardening of Pharoah's heart and the opening of Lydia's, the resurrection of Lazarus and the crucifixion of Christ, the book of Revelation and the opening chapters of Genesis are open to God's utter control. The actions of men in time as moral agents, by and large, are not, Genesis 50 and and Acts 2 to the contrary notwithstanding. Evangellyfish want God to be God when Jesus is dying for them, and themselves to be God when that death is applied. They want God to be God when Ananias is slain, and themselves to be God when they go to the club (or buy shoes, or choose Robert Frost's immortal road). Many thinkers have sought philosophical justification for that road less traveled as a human creation, whether they be Molinist or classical Arminian, and yet they flee utterly from a literal reading of Acts 2 or Romans 9.
3) An eschatology that disavows alternatives.
Whether due to outright laziness on the part of preachers and expositors regarding the Old Testament as a foreshadowing of Christ, or a sincere belief that there is only one position because it is the only one one has heard, dispensational thinking latent or patent has crept into the evangellyfish mind. With it has come a dogmatic assurance that the book of Revelation reveals near-gnosis secrets incomprehensible to the initial readers of that Scripture, and a patient waiting for the end of the universe that similarly bears the gnostic fixation on rejection not only of materialism but of the material world. Political involvement, career ambition and intellectual pursuits fall by the wayside as the worst of the stereotypes of Christianity as a faith of "pie in the sky...by and by" come to fruition.
4) Man-centeredness in worship.
The average American parish consists of a dwindling congregation of the Old Guard, perceived as out of touch with the culture and unable to sustain itself biblically or procreatively, or a church that could perhaps paint the faint outline of a guitar upon its Crucifixion symbols. A game I enjoy playing is to eliminate all songs from a contemporary Christian music station (Spirit 105 is a great example) that contain the words "I" or "me" outside of a context of self-abasement , and see how much of the station is commercials. Or to put it another way, if you made a drinking game out of that, you would die. This quickest way to locate an evangellyfish congregation would be to ask the band to play in the back where no one could see them and omit songs including "I". The thought experiment is however, unlikely to happen. Similarly, an overemphasis on "community building" in Church ordinances, and alteration of parish names to conform to worldly standards are hardly infrequent. (Washingtonians: how many churches are you aware of that were named "x or y baptist" and are now some combination of "grace" "point" "way" "church" "free" "fellowship" etc.?)
This my friends, is why soteriology matters. When the law is not unkeepable by mortal hands, then eschatology and covenant theology suffer (the Jews did so much better than we did!). When the point of salvation is our response rather than God's condescension, worship is about adulation of a band and Church history is about "making a decision for Christ'...regardless of whether that was ever the gospel was presented in aeons past. I do not condemn those in the average mileau of American protestantism, or even world Christianity to perdition, and I don't claim that the modern fate of the American Church is irreversible or irredeemable, but the tentacles of the evangellyfish have wrapped snugly around the body too long to stay silent. Lest you fear the future, know that God has made you a moral actor and agent of eternal reformation. The next time you hear the same empty or infuriating platitudes, the next time you despair of American Christianity, know that there is something you can do. When you meet your local evangellyfish, shake their hand/hug them, buy them a coffee....and tell them that Jesus is bigger than they imagine, and that his gospel has been more than a pamphlet.
In Christ,
~JS
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Self-esteem without a Self, or "Hearts don't have neurons".
This blog, after returning from a sloth-induced hiatus, continues to jump the shark by indulging in the oft-decried practice of self-reference. E.g., today I posted this on everyone's favorite social network:
"Why is it that our society has glorified humanity to a greater extent than any in the past, yet bemoans the ever-present failure of man's self-esteem? It's because a society built on moral relativism has no exterior framework, no objective values by which to esteem the self. Culturally, we have become a chorus of yes-men with no conductor, an octopus grasping for meaning with no brain to discern it, a disembodied assembly of hearts, pumped by the hand of the State. Once, the Roman Emperors wished one neck upon mankind, the more easily to cut it; millenia later, Kant and Marx have delivered it."
Some thoughts to expand on this topic, and to make it at least somewhat scripturally relevant seem in order, otherwise such statuses consist of little more than philosophizing for it's own sake. I have long noticed atension self-contradiction between two aforementioned phenomena in modern society. Everywhere one looks, the individual (or so it is said) man is elevated onto a podium, and exalted as a, nay THE God. "Rights", we cry, "rights! Marriage rights, drug rights, privacy rights, reproductive rights, rights to live and rights to die! We have a RIGHT to (x)!" One need look no farther than Texas pro-choicers chanting "Hail, Satan" to drown out the opposition, or gay marriages, e.g., covenants centered on sodomy, taking place on floats in the Rose Parade to realize that from the Christian perspective, this self-exaltation is prevalent, anti-God, and in your face. The creator has no rights, his creatures do. Moloch-worship lives, folks.
"And yet", some of us puzzle, "people don't seem to be happy this way...they provide themselves with all the reason to love their (sinful) natures and lifestyles in the world, and yet, they constantly fear the loss of their precious self-esteem. Confusing". Well, one reason is scripturally evident: all reprobate persons are "god-suppressing ones", as the Greek would have it, and the image of the Father on their souls tells them that "those who do such things deserve to die". (Rm. 1:18-31). But I think that in our time, there is a more philosophically subtle reason that this has become more and more evident in the lives and attitudes of unbelievers.
While the atheist philosophers of the Twentieth century merely inserted their ideological constructs in the place of the Most High, whether they be "science", "pure reason", "the classless state" or "racial purity", in the end, even the hollow shell of Theism and moral absolutism that these bore was not only evidently hypocritical to many observers, but repugnant to the Enemy, who abhors good and can only mock. In the end, each of these systems degenerated into the moral soup (or rather, immoral cesspool) of modern Western Civilization, a witches' brew appropriately given a catch-all term: "moral relativism". "Well that might be *your (science, reason, logic, most-good-for-the-most-people, truth, personal experience), and it's great for you, but I have mine, so butt out!", cry the relativists, all failing to realize that in doing so with no Theism they have shot all those principles, the fabric from which reality itself is woven, in the head. After all, what is "science and reason"? What is "the most good for the most people"? What is "truth"? In fact, what are people and what is mind? Who can say? Certainly no one can with finality. And herein lies the Romans rub: mankind was not made that way.
Stripped of the objective standard God gave us, (his word), but desperately urged by the residual and unceasing Imago Dei they still bear to find a substitute, the reprobate find it in each other, each failing to grasp that each man and woman they use as a distorted mirror is trying as desperately to catch the "truth" of their neighbor as they are. Ultimately, human relationships are twisted into a mix of fear, loathing and desperation, as each person's "truth" is simultaneously infallible right and deadly threat. And in our time, Satan, seeing the sort of vacuum that he most enjoys filling (a throne with no God on it), has decided to insert that most Western of tropes: the State.
"Oh, who can say where truth is!", idolaters cry, wringing their hands and ignoring their previous claims that it didn't exist, "we've got to compromise". This compromise, they say, IS the truth that does the most good for the most people, but "truth" and "good" and "people" are determined by those most unscrupulous of idolaters, the bureaucrat and the politician. Accepting the premise of relativism at face value, yet motivated by some unspoken sense that they can game the system, the charlatans of the modern state steadily introduce whatever truths afford them the most power, wealth and fame, and inevitably, moral stagnation and perversion are the result.
A brief case study of ancient Rome should suffice: 1) Men worship idols. 2) Men become idols. 3) Only some men retain the power to stay idols. 4) Divine judgement and societal ruin. And so here we are, Americans. The philosophers of the past have convinced us that we have moved beyond such petty superstition as Emperor worship and polytheism. Have we? The psychologists of the present have told us that the source of self-esteem is societal. Is it? The Historians of the bleeding edge are now telling us that any link between the end of Rome or Greece and their sex practices is outmoded and prudish (while teaming with their buddies, the philosophers and psychologists, to tell us to embrace said practices). Is it?
Christians, we know better. The Bible teaches better. God gave us minds, and he gave us selves, but he gave us a standard for our minds (his word) and a standard for our selves (his law). Don't settle for the wisdom of the world. Know that the only ethical source of self-love is love of God.
In Christ,
~JS
Some thoughts to expand on this topic, and to make it at least somewhat scripturally relevant seem in order, otherwise such statuses consist of little more than philosophizing for it's own sake. I have long noticed a
"And yet", some of us puzzle, "people don't seem to be happy this way...they provide themselves with all the reason to love their (sinful) natures and lifestyles in the world, and yet, they constantly fear the loss of their precious self-esteem. Confusing". Well, one reason is scripturally evident: all reprobate persons are "god-suppressing ones", as the Greek would have it, and the image of the Father on their souls tells them that "those who do such things deserve to die". (Rm. 1:18-31). But I think that in our time, there is a more philosophically subtle reason that this has become more and more evident in the lives and attitudes of unbelievers.
While the atheist philosophers of the Twentieth century merely inserted their ideological constructs in the place of the Most High, whether they be "science", "pure reason", "the classless state" or "racial purity", in the end, even the hollow shell of Theism and moral absolutism that these bore was not only evidently hypocritical to many observers, but repugnant to the Enemy, who abhors good and can only mock. In the end, each of these systems degenerated into the moral soup (or rather, immoral cesspool) of modern Western Civilization, a witches' brew appropriately given a catch-all term: "moral relativism". "Well that might be *your (science, reason, logic, most-good-for-the-most-people, truth, personal experience), and it's great for you, but I have mine, so butt out!", cry the relativists, all failing to realize that in doing so with no Theism they have shot all those principles, the fabric from which reality itself is woven, in the head. After all, what is "science and reason"? What is "the most good for the most people"? What is "truth"? In fact, what are people and what is mind? Who can say? Certainly no one can with finality. And herein lies the Romans rub: mankind was not made that way.
Stripped of the objective standard God gave us, (his word), but desperately urged by the residual and unceasing Imago Dei they still bear to find a substitute, the reprobate find it in each other, each failing to grasp that each man and woman they use as a distorted mirror is trying as desperately to catch the "truth" of their neighbor as they are. Ultimately, human relationships are twisted into a mix of fear, loathing and desperation, as each person's "truth" is simultaneously infallible right and deadly threat. And in our time, Satan, seeing the sort of vacuum that he most enjoys filling (a throne with no God on it), has decided to insert that most Western of tropes: the State.
"Oh, who can say where truth is!", idolaters cry, wringing their hands and ignoring their previous claims that it didn't exist, "we've got to compromise". This compromise, they say, IS the truth that does the most good for the most people, but "truth" and "good" and "people" are determined by those most unscrupulous of idolaters, the bureaucrat and the politician. Accepting the premise of relativism at face value, yet motivated by some unspoken sense that they can game the system, the charlatans of the modern state steadily introduce whatever truths afford them the most power, wealth and fame, and inevitably, moral stagnation and perversion are the result.
A brief case study of ancient Rome should suffice: 1) Men worship idols. 2) Men become idols. 3) Only some men retain the power to stay idols. 4) Divine judgement and societal ruin. And so here we are, Americans. The philosophers of the past have convinced us that we have moved beyond such petty superstition as Emperor worship and polytheism. Have we? The psychologists of the present have told us that the source of self-esteem is societal. Is it? The Historians of the bleeding edge are now telling us that any link between the end of Rome or Greece and their sex practices is outmoded and prudish (while teaming with their buddies, the philosophers and psychologists, to tell us to embrace said practices). Is it?
Christians, we know better. The Bible teaches better. God gave us minds, and he gave us selves, but he gave us a standard for our minds (his word) and a standard for our selves (his law). Don't settle for the wisdom of the world. Know that the only ethical source of self-love is love of God.
In Christ,
~JS
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