[words]

Two quotes from two great thinkers. The first is from philosopher of science Karl Popper, from his intellectual autobiography Unended Quest:

Never let yourself be goaded into taking seriously problems about words and their meanings. What must be taken seriously are questions of fact, and assertions about facts: theories and hypotheses; the problems they solve; and the problems they raise.

The second is from man of letters G.K. Chesterton, from his hilarious novel The Ball and the Cross:

“Well, we won’t quarrel about a word,” said the other, pleasantly.

“Why on earth not?” said MacIan, with a sudden asperity. “Why shouldn’t we quarrel about a word? What is the good of words if they aren’t important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn’t any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn’t there be a quarrel about a word? If you’re not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are only things worth fighting about.”

What say you? Chesterton or Popper? I think I tend to side with Chesterton…

[a perpetual forge: anti-idolatry resources]

“The human mind is a perpetual forge of idols.” -John Calvin

The theme of idolatry has figured greatly in my meditations of late. Here are some resources I have found helpful in seeing how the Gospel smashes the false gods of our hearts so that we may worship the true God.

Tim Keller:

Gospel Realization

Gospel Communication

Gospel Incarnation

These three sermons on Jonah come from The Evangelists’ Conference 2007: Smashing False Idols.

The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry

This sermon comes from The Gospel Coalition Conference 2009.

C.J. Mahaney:

Discern Your Heart

This sermon comes from the New Attitude (now known as Next) Conference 2007.

David Clarkson:

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven

Clarkson was a Puritan pastor who lived from 1621-1686.

Martin Luther:

The First Commandment

This study comes from the Reformer’s Large Catechism.

[Christ-centered apologetics]

(Part two of a two-part series on Christ, the cross, and apologetics.)

Yesterday morning in my philosophy of religion class, we were studying a famous exchange between logical positivist A.J. Ayer and Jesuit philosopher Frederick Copleston. These two intellectual giants were tangling over the question of whether it was possible to have empirical knowledge of God. Copleston argued that one could, but the difficulty, Ayer maintained, was that intuitions or feelings of God’s presence were not quantifiable in terms of the five senses, and therefore not properly empirical.

“Because on Copleston’s view God doesn’t have a body, you can’t experience Him through the senses, although you may have a direct perception of Him with your mind,” my professor said. “Of course, you could experience Jesus empirically…”

I admit I kind of tuned out after this point in the lecture, because it set me off on a tangent resonating with my meditations on apologetics and the theology of the cross from this weekend. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between god and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Might it be the case that many of the “problems” in Christian apologetics and philosophy of religion come from trying to come to knowledge of God apart from His appointed Mediator? This was one of the prideful errors with which Luther indicted the theologians of glory. The thought stayed with me throughout the day.

How might this kind of Christ-centered approach to apologetics work in practice? Let’s consider the above problem of coming to knowledge of God’s existence and character. One might think, following Kant, that it is problematic or even impossible to know what God is like in Himself from our limited human perspective. It is not problematic, however, to believe that mere humans can come to the knowledge of an utterly transcendent God if that God Himself became a man. In fact it is utterly crucial that we have a God-Man Mediator in order to come to knowledge of God, as the context of 1 Timothy 2:5 is about coming to know the truth. Let us consider, too, the present tense of that verse: “There is one mediator.” Christ’s Incarnation is ongoing. As He sits at the right of His Father in Heaven right now, He is fully God and fully man. Is it strange to think, then, that He may reveal Himself to human beings? Christ’s Incarnation, Atonement, and ongoing Mediation mean that the epistemological and moral (because of the effects of sin on our minds) problems of coming to know God are not problems at all. Whenever God chooses to reveal Himself, He does. Scripture goes on to indicate that the way He does so is through His spoken word of the Gospel and His inscripturated word of the Bible, which includes the apostles’ testimony to their empirical experience of Jesus (Rom. 10:17, 1 Cor. 15:1-8, 2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Peter 1:16-21, 1 John 1:1-3).

Or take the problem of evil. A Christ-centered approach to evil would include some of the following points:

1. Jesus suffered for sin. If God Himself suffers evil in Christ, then our suffering is not meaningless.
2. The cross of Christ shows that God undermines the greatest evil for His good end.
3. The cross shows God defeating and destroying evil and bringing justice, inviting us into His Kingdom.

I believe these three points have been argued by Tim Keller, Carl Trueman, and N.T. Wright, respectively. None of them argue in an abstract and, what is in at least one sense of the term, sub-Christian way. Neither do they offer a clean syllogism for an answer. I think that is a good thing.

Well, this is just a thought, a starting point for further discussion. What do you think? Might a Christ-centered approach alleviate some of the perennial problems of Christian apologetics?

[an apologetic of the cross]

(Part one of a two-part series on Christ, the cross, and apologetics.)

The week of Easter is always a sweet time. With all of Christendom, we focus our hearts with rapt attention on those things that Paul said are of first importance, the heart of the Gospel: Christ’s death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection, all according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

In my meditations this weekend, I came across this sentence from Martin Luther: Crux probat omnia. “The cross is the test of everything.”  That set me thinking on what an apologetic tested by the cross–a defense of the Christian faith that is true to the mysterious, humiliating, glorious first principle of that faith–would look like.

These thoughts led me to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. Paul writes,

For the word of the cross is folly those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (vv.18-25)

The cross is a scandal, an offense to every human mind whether Jew or Gentile. What does this mean for the apologist? Do we then abandon the project of making a reasonable case for the Christian faith?

I don’t think so. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, Paul makes clear that God uses us as means in His destruction of worldly wisdom. I think the import of this text for those who would defend and commend the Gospel of the offensive cross is this: It is a critique of the motives of our own hearts. Do we study arguments and evidences for Christianity in order to make ourselves more respectable to the world? Are seeking to carve out a niche of comfort for ourselves in the face of skepticism? Are we capitulating to the City of Man instead of contending for the City of God? If this is what we expect from the apologetic project, we will be disappointed. Rather, as we soundly reason in support of the Gospel, we will only make clear that Christ claims the whole man–that the cross is indeed the test of everything, the mind as well as the heart. And though many will surrender to the claims of our King as we do so, the general opposition of the world will increase. Our folly and humiliation and weakness will increase. And so will the power of Christ upon us (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

In his Heidelberg Disputation, Luther famously contrasted the “theologian of the cross” with the “theologian of glory.”

19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened [Rom. 1:20].
20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.
22. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.

Would we use apologetics to avoid suffering the shame and ignominy of the way of the cross? Then we are apologists of glory. Would we proclaim the Lordship of Christ over every area of thought and life, and so draw the ire of the City of Man? Then we are propounding an apologetic of the cross.

[iconoclast!]

Iconoclast! I would bear
asdfthat name–
Smashing my heart’s high
asdfplaces and
Hacking her Asherah
asdfto bits.
Let no pagan-passion King
asdfAgag
Live in my consecrated
asdfseat of
Thought and affect.
asdfI stand
Destructive with that man
asdfof God,
Dread Samuel, bearing a
asdffell blade.

Where do you run for
asdfcomfort,
O my soul? At what
asdfaltars
Do you offer up
asdfyour plea?
What ghost-town Gilead
asdfhaunts my
Heart in search of balm?
asdfFrom forth
What broken cisterns gushing
asdfgood do
I expect? O idolatrous,
asdfGentile
Heart, be circumcised:
asdfBelieve.

[sound doctrine pt. 4]

Happy Christmas, everyone. Here’s my version of one of my favorite carols. Sorry about the sound quality.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll’d along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bow’d my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play.
And through the warp and woof of wrong,
They yet ring out their hopeful song.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play.
And through the warp and woof of wrong,
They still ring out their truthful song.

The Lord will come and make an end
Of all our woe and all our sin.
His heavy blow fell in that fray
When Christ was born on Christmas day.

Hallelu, Hallelu
Hallelu, Hallelu
Hallelu
Hallelujah

Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Music by John Calkin
Additional words and music by Jonathan McGregor

[the yct carnival and the limits of civility]

My school, Texas A&M, has been in the news lately for a demonstration held by the Young Conservatives of Texas. Our student newspaper, The Battalion, covers the event in this article, and CNN Online even hosted a video. As you can see, the event has caused quite a stir.

The first time, the “Anti-Obama Carnival” invited students to “throw away their nest egg” of retirement savings at a poster of Obama’s face. YCT indicated this was intended as a satirical attack on Obama’s “socialistic, liberal [economic] policies.” (CNN video) The policies, however, were not clearly displayed, and the carnival had the distinct appearance of an ad hominem attack. Lots of people were furious.

YCT responded to some constructive criticism, and a few days later re-worked the carnival. Students now threw their eggs “at a board with Obama’s policies listed on it, and underneath the policies were photos of Obama and other prominent figures of the Democratic Party.” (Battalion article) Despite this re-tooling, the crowd response was just as negative. Based on the Batt article and my own observations, the negative responses seem to fall into two main types:

The first response says, “Well, if all these guys can do is throw eggs at Obama, they must not have much of a counterargument to his economic policies.” This fundamentally misunderstands the obvious purpose of the carnival. It was a stunt, a marketing ploy, an attempt to engage people in conversation, not the conversation itself. Having spoken with YCT chairman Tony Listi at length about political matters before (we’re both University Scholars), I know that he can give a cogent apologia for a freer market than Obama proposes off the top of his head. You may not agree with their arguments, but they have them. These guys are not ignorant.

The second response cries “Foul!” and claims hate, pleads civility and champions respect. Check out the picture in the Batt article. I am all for a civil public discourse, but civility has its limits. It can quickly become opinion suppression if we’re not careful. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean the freedom to only say nice things. Shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater and abrasive political satire are emphatically not correlative.

Certainly, this means that means that people had the right to virulently protest the Anti-Obama Carnival, too. But even then the only protests mounted were against the style of the carnival, not its substance. Plenty of people were there pleading for a softer rhetoric, but no-one was there vindicating Obama’s fiscal policies. YCT was there saying, “This doesn’t work,” and they were the only ones even attempting to engage the issues and arguments.

This was not the case, however, with YCT’s first iteration of the carnival. Without the policies being the immediate subject of the attack, and Obama himself only by virtue of espousing such policies, the egg-throwing was distasteful. And this, I believe, lost them their audience and doomed the carnival’s second (and clever and cutting and legitimate) iteration.

But the greater issue revealed here is this: Obama has become something of a sacred cow, and that should worry you. Just imagine how different the reaction would be if this was the Young Liberals of Texas chunking eggs at a President Bush poster. Whenever satire is automatically off the table against someone, you should be concerned. If it is politically incorrect to criticize Obama, simply because he is Obama, civility may become a fast track to tyranny.

[vote as though not voting]

Make much of Jesus by voting as if not voting. Piper here.

[reasonable faith]

Dr. William Lane Craig, a brilliant Christian philosopher and apologist, has some great resources at reasonablefaith.org. I don’t agree with him on all points, particularly the way he conceptualizes divine sovereignty, but these Q&A’s on the witness of the Holy Spirit I find extremely helpful.

The Witness of the Holy Spirit

Counterfeit Claims of the Spirit’s Witness

[the power of words and the wonder of God]

Video from the Desiring God national conference this weekend is up here:

Conference Video :: Desiring God

I watched Sinclair Ferguson’s message on James this afternoon, and it was good stuff.

[total war]

So often I confute the Spirit/flesh conflict that Paul talks about with a Greek idea of spirit versus body. That was the error of the Gnostics in the first century church! (Think about this: If Spirit versus flesh means spirit versus body, then Paul is talking nonsense when he speaks of “spiritual bodies” in 1 Cor. 15.) I make sanctification into a process of my mind’s high reason mastering my body’s low passion… which is a deadly simplification. The reality is that the corruption of sin extends much deeper than just bodily desires. My reason, will, and affections are, apart from Christ, just as corrupt as my bodily senses. There are sanctified, “spiritual” bodily desires, like that of a husband for his wife, and there are fleshly desires, like lust for a woman not your wife. There are spiritual affections, like the “joy inexpressible and full of glory” that Peter talks about (see Jonathan Edwards for more on that), and there are fleshly ones like the anxiety against which Paul warns in Philippians 4. And there is godly reasoning that recognizes the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7), and there are “arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5).

And all of these reside in me. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25)

Jesus paid the penalty for all my sins–sins of reason, emotion, and cupidity. And he broke the power of sin, even though it still abides in me in this life, so that my outer man, the fleshly man, is wasting away, and my inner man, quickened by the Holy Spirit, is being renewed day by day. So I can be confident to go after my sin in total war, on every front fighting in the power of the Spirit.

So with reference to this truth, I’m going to post a couple of things from my Art, Emotion, and Morality class on the blog–because Christian scholarship is spiritual warfare.

[uk update 3 // london, oxford, cambridge]

Whew! It’s been a while since my last update; I have a lot of ground to cover. Let’s see…

Two weekends ago, I went on a day trip to London and spent the afternoon at the British Museum. It is breathtakingly massive. I saw the Rosetta stone and Cleopatra’s mummy. My favorite part was the ancient Assyrian art, showing the old kings of Nineveh hunting lions and having battles and other such things. One panel even showed an Israelite king paying tribute to the Assyrians! That night, I went to see King Lear at the rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The performance was great and just being in that theatre was unforgettable.

Two Wednesdays ago, I went to a tea-tasting and found out a few things:

-White tea tastes like clouds. (How do I know what clouds taste like?)

-Suchongs taste like leather. (How do I know what leather tastes like?)

-Most teas sweeten as they cool.

So that was fun. The next night, I went to a lecture given by Oleg Gordievsky, an ex-KGB agent who turned into a British operative during the Cold War. After he was caught, he was put under house arrest in Moscow. He gave us an account of his crazy escape to Finland that deserves to be turned into a book/movie and talked about the current state of Russia.

Last Saturday I took a daytrip to Oxford, that other British university. It was amazing; the colleges were very similar to Cambridge, but Oxford felt like more of a “city”, whereas Cambridge has a laid-back college town vibe. The highlights were visiting the old divinity school, shopping at a used book store across from Christ Church College, and having an early dinner at the Eagle and Child pub where C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the rest of Inklings used to meet back in the day.

This past week I finished up my first module of classes. That means my Art, Emotion, and Morality class is over. My final paper was entitled “Fiction and Moral Education: Making Men With Chests”. The title comes from the first chapter of C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, “Men Without Chests”, which inspired my thesis.

My parents came to Cambridge this weekend! This August marks their 25th wedding anniversary, so they decided to vacation in the UK…which just so happened to allow them to spend some time with me! It was really special to be able to share the experience of Cambridge with them in person, so that they could catch would I could never express in words and pictures. Friday afternoon I gave them a tour of some of the colleges, and we caught half of As You Like It as part of the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival. Saturday morning we went “punting” on the River Cam. (See pic…it’s not us, but it gives you the idea.) Dad dropped their camera in the river and had to jump in the freezing water to retrieve it, which after briefly mourning the camera, made for some good laughs. Punting is really quite difficult…it took me about 45 minutes to get the hang of it! Saturday afternoon we took tea at the The Orchard Tea Room in Grantchester, which I visited once before as documented in update 2. On the way, we ran into my friend Justin, and we all hung out together having tea and scones and enjoying the idyllic location and the spectacularly warm weather. After church and brunch at the Pembroke College dining hall, the parents headed off to Edinburgh.

Backing up a bit, we had Bible study on Tuesday, hosted by my friend Drew. Drew, Justin, and I constituted the crew, and I taught on Isaiah 6 and the holiness of God. It was a good reminder to me that our Holy God reigns, seated on His throne… things are never out of His control. He is not taking counsel from anyone; He works all things according the counsel of His own will. Getting a full dose of 20th-21st century philosophy and being immersed in a community of students that is largely non-Christian can be a little discouraging until you remember exactly Who our God is. The study helped bring the three of us together in closer community, too. We hung out and talked for about an hour after Bible study was over. The Lord has really blessed me with the friendship of these two brothers.

Church at Eden Baptist the past few Sundays has been an incredible blessing. Thick, meaty, hour-long T-bone steak sermons on the patriarchs out of Genesis that consistently point forward to Christ and the cross from Assistant Pastor Marvin Wong have been rocking me. I’ve met some awesome, friendly people in the congregation as well.

I spent this afternoon in the Fellows’ Garden at King’s College, a lovely expanse of the most well-manicured grass you’ve ever seen, punctuated with two flower-and-tree islands in the center. I was doing some preliminary reading for my Political Philosophy class when Justin showed up, book in hand. We were chilling out on the grass reading when our friend James showed up…actually I didn’t meet James until this afternoon, but we are definitely friends now! James is a newly-wed and a Mormon, and he was writing a letter to his wife at home. The three of us got started talking, and we covered everything from faith and academics to marriage to William Tyndale to what we do for fun to the differences between Mormonism and Evangelical Christianity. It was a well-spent afternoon talking about the things that matter most. Please pray for more opportunities like this, and specifically for the opportunity to set the Gospel that we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24-25) clearly against LDS doctrine.

One of the biggest blessings of the past couple of weeks has been getting to talk to Jessica on Skype! The East Asia teams have been back safe and sound for a while now. If you get to hang out with any of them, ask them about what Father taught them this summer. I can promise you you’ll be blessed!

This weekend I’m planning on going to Paris with some guys…it should be a blast! I’m really excited.

Here’s some specifics for prayer:

-Pray for our Bible study this week. Drew is gonna be teaching, so lift him up for that. A couple of people e-mailed me for information about the Bible study that weren’t able to make it last week or got confused on the location… pray that we can get good info out and people will come.

-Pray for Eden Baptist Church, that their faithful ministry in this city would continue to be blessed by the Lord.

-Pray for James and our other Mormon friends on the program, and that the other Christians on the program and I will take opportunities to proclaim the Gospel.

-Praise the Lord for the community I’ve been able to find here at Eden and with Drew and Justin. Pray that we would build each other up and for our growth in grace.

-Pray for me, that my eyes would be turned from myself and totally on to Christ.

Thank you so much for your prayers and for reading and keeping up with me over here across the pond. Love you all in Christ.

Grace and peace,

Jonathan

[uk update 2.5]

Hey guys! This update is 2.5, because it’s gonna be brief. I wanted to say thank you for all the encouraging comments and for all of your prayers! I’ll post a fuller update sometime this week, but I wanted to get this out there for you guys to be praying for:

Tomorrow night at 7:30 my buddy Drew and I will be hosting our first weekly Bible study. We’ve been advertising over the program list-serv and telling our friends, and we don’t really know who to expect. I’ll be teaching on Isaiah 6:1-8, and we’ll be praying for each other.

I appreciate you lifting us up!

Grace and peace,

Jonathan

[uk update 2 // london, cambridge, edinburgh]

Hey guys! Well, this update is overdue, and I don’t have a ton of time, but I feel I should let you know what’s up with me…

Well, I arrived safely in London on the morning of Thursday, June 26. I spent the next few days being orientated by Arcadia University staff, getting to know 7 other peeps who applied for the Cambridge program through Arcadia, doing a crash course of Tube-riding London tourism (minding the gap, of course!), and catching a little Eric Clapton in Hyde Park for the Nelson Mandela birthday concert. I particularly enjoyed the architecture of Westminster Hall and Big Ben, and seeing Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. I also snuck over to Elephant and Castle to Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle, still faithfully proclaiming the Gospel in London. I even met a couple of people there who were on a church workday, improving the facilities!

Sunday saw us boarding a 1:15 train for Cambridge at King’s Cross station (watch out, Harry Potter fans!). When we arrived at King’s College, Cambridge, I was blown away: perfectly manicured grass with a copper-green fountain running in the middle, a striking Gothic chapel, and a lovely blue sky streaked with clouds made a very picturesque greeting for us indeed. Sunday night I caught the end of the Eurocup football (that’s soccer to us!) finals in a pub down the street, and then classes started on Monday. Monday night we had a fantastic formal dinner. Tuesday I spent the afternoon reading Titus Andronicus on the grass by the River Cam, and then trekked over to the Orchard Tea Room, a place frequented by such figures as Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein in the 1920s, for a pot of tea and a scone! Wednesday evening I enjoyed an Anglican choral service at the King’s Chapel, complete with blasting pipe organ.

Thursday saw about 200 of us head off to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend. Friday I hiked in the Trossachs, beautiful heather-covered hills over-looking Loch Lomond where my thieving, murderous, but dashing ancestor Rob Roy MacGregor used to roam. Friday night we had a 4th of July party in the University of Edinburgh debate hall, and Saturday I saw most of downtown Edinburgh, including John Knox’s house and the cathedral where he ignited the Scottish Reformation, the Scottish Parliament building, and Edinburgh Castle. Sunday we headed back to Cambridge, stopping on the way at the ruins of Fountains Abbey, a monastery built in the twelfth century.

Today saw classes resume in rainy Cambridge, and I spent the afternoon in the library and a coffee shop across the street reading Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Phiosophicus, a short but intriguing and important text of 20th century philosophy, in one sitting. The cool thing is, he was studying under Bertrand Russell at Cambridge when he wrote it!

My time in the UK has been fantastic so far, and praise the Lord for safe travel. My heart, however, has been a battleground where temptation, anxiety, and unbelief have raged. The Lord is faithful, though, and He has preserved me for His name’s sake. Praise Him for that! He is growing me by teaching me to trust Him more everyday, and not to lean on things like my emotional state, which ultimately can’t support the weight of my need. Only the cross of Christ can. I was unfaithful in the first few days with opportunities to share the gospel, but I have repented of that, and the Lord has graciously provided more. He has also started to grow friendships, including some with brothers and sisters who are on the program, and that has been invaluable. Here’s some specifics you can pray for:

-Protection from spiritual attack. That I would be strong in the Lord to go to war everyday in the fight for faith.

-For my friends Zach, Armando, Jane, and Keshia that I’ve gotten to have spiritual conversations with.

-That I would be sensitive to opportunities to speak the truth of the gospel and trust the Holy Spirit to give me words.

-For my friend Justin, a brother that I’ve gotten to spend some quality time with.

-For church this Sunday. I’m planning to go to Eden Baptist Church, a Reformed Baptist church in Cambridge. The past two Sundays I’ve not been able to attend church. Podcasted sermons are a great resource, but they can’t match the (comm)unity of the Body!

-For my Art, Emotion, and Morality test on Thursday…it’s coming so quickly!

-Pray that I would not just have conversations about the gospel, but get involved in people’s lives while I’m over here. (1 Thess. 2:8 )

Thank you for your prayers. Grace and peace to you; our God is good and faithful.

[every man a soldier, every life an epic]

I don’t normally watch a movie more than once in theaters. But today I saw Prince Caspian for the second time. I think it’s a fantastic flick, and what really gets me is the size of it. It’s a BIG movie: the armies, the battles, the minotaurs, the stakes… everything about it is huge. Musing on the film over the past few days, I found myself wishing I was part of some epic struggle, to be an honorable soldier in a noble cause. Then I realized how foolish this was… because every day, if seen rightly, we go to war:

1. Against indwelling sin that abides in our flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13

John Owen writes,

The saints, whose souls breathe after deliverance from its [i.e., sin's] perplexing rebellion, know there is no safety against it but in a constant warfare.

2. Against philosophies, ideologies, worldviews, and heresies that are contrary to true knowledge of God.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

This is the task of apologetics, and it begins in our own hearts, taking every thought captive.

3. Against spiritual forces of evil.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:10-12

Paul identifies two great ends of the struggle which the forces of evil endeavor unceasingly to short-circuit: the believer’s endurance (6:13), and the bold proclamation of the Gospel (6:18-20).

4. Against complacency, to remain faithful to Christ in daily life.

Paul uses warfare language extensively in his two letters of encouragement and exhortation to the young preacher Timothy.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12

C.S. Lewis has written that the Chronicles of Narnia are not intended as allegory in the same way as, say, Pilgrim’s Progress. But for the Christian reader, or viewer, the resonance of the stories’ characters and themes for the life of faith is undeniable. What I love about the Chronicles is not that they provide escape to a fantastic world so much as they remind us what is important in the actual world.

We live life every second coram Deo, ‘before the face of God’. Our every action, word, thought is endued with eternal consequences. Our lives matter; they are significant! When you read your Bible, or pray, or share the Gospel with a friend; when you write a poem, or critically analyze the worldview presented in a movie; when you relate differently to a parent or friend or boyfriend/girlfriend because of the principles of Scripture- you go to war, noble, broken Christian, with the power of the Holy Spirit, in the greatest cause of all: the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said,

From the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven has been coming violently, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12

Who are these, the “violent”? John Gill comments,

[Those] being powerfully wrought upon under the ministry of the Gospel; who were under violent apprehensions of wrath and vengeance, of their lost and undone state and condition by nature; were violently in love with Christ, and eagerly desirous of salvation by him, and communion with him; and had their affections set upon the things of another world: these having the Gospel preached to them, which is a declaration of God’s love to sinners, a proclamation of peace and pardon, and a publication of righteousness and life by Christ, they greedily catched at it, and embraced it.

O that we would be violently in love with Christ, and wage the good warfare because of it!

[mohler on manhood]

Examine yourself.

[new attitude]

I’ll be there! Hope to see you in Kentucky…

[text + context]

Audio and video from Mark Driscoll and company’s latest conference, Text + Context, is up on the web here.

I watched the first video, ‘Putting Preachers in Their Place’, this afternoon, and it was awesome. A couple of intriguing thoughts from the lecture:

1. God brought the universe into existence by preaching a sermon. His Word is powerful and effective and always accomplishes His purpose!

2. Read through the book of Acts and see how absolutely central the purposeful preaching of the Gospel was to the early church.

3. If the Word is not preached, there is not a credible local manifestation of the Body of Christ.

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

[(comm)unity pt. 4]

‘Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.’ Ephesians 4.25

So what does (comm)unity look like? Sharing levity and gravity, purpose and pleasure, laughter and tears: in a word, life! ‘This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously–no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.’ C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”

To recap, then:

1.) (comm)unity is rooted in the character of God.
2.) (comm)unity is commanded of the Church.
3.) (comm)unity comes from genuine love for one another.
4.) Genuine love for one another comes from valuing Christ supremely.
5.) (comm)unity is a means for reaching the lost.
6.) (comm)unity is, ultimately, a means to joy in God.
7.) Therefore, (comm)unity begins and ends with God’s glory.

All of this rests on the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Though (comm)unity doesn’t just ‘happen’ and we must work at it, it depends not on us, whose righteousness is filth and efforts are ineffectual, but on God ‘who cannot fail or fall.’ [George Herbert, "The Holdfast"]

Sources:

C.S. Lewis. The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses.
D.A. Carson. “The Supremacy of Christ and Love.” 2006 Desiring God National Conference.
Francis Schaeffer. The God Who Is There.
George Herbert. The Temple.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
John Piper. “The Supremacy of Christ and Joy.” 2006 Desiring God National Conference.
Jonathan Matthews. Sermons on John 17.1-5 and 17.20-26
Marc Sandhu. Sermon on John 17.6-19.

[(comm)unity pt. 3.B]

3.) (comm)unity is a means, not an end in itself.

B.) It is, ultimately, a means to joy in God.
‘…these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.’ John 17.13
‘Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.’ Philippians 2.2
‘So receive [Epaphroditus] in the Lord with all joy…’ Philippians 2.29a

Jesus says He is telling His disciples these things for their joy in the middle of praying for their (comm)unity and the (comm)unity of all who would believe through their word. Paul said his joy in Philippians would be complete if they would come to complete (comm)unity. And Epaphroditus, whom the Philippians sent to minister Paul for his joy, Paul sends back for their joy. Epaphroditus, like Timothy, is an expression of the mutually-loving, Trinity-displaying (comm)unity between Paul and the Philippians, and the result of his return is joy in the Lord. When we enjoy authentic Biblical (comm)unity, we are enjoying God, glorifying Him in our joy and our obedience. When the Gospel is preached by believers in (comm)unity, God is glorified in His saving purpose, and unbelievers are converted and drawn in to enjoy the (comm)unity of the Church. (comm)unity, then, ends just as it began– with the glory of Christ! ‘For from him and to him and through him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.’ Romans 11.36

[(comm)unity pt. 3.A]

3.) (comm)unity is a means, not an end in itself.
A.) It is a means to reaching the lost.
‘I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me…and loved them even as you loved me.’ John 17.20-21, 23

Our love for each other is an apologetic to the world of Christ’s authenticity as Messiah and God’s love for the Church. In the practice of (comm)unity, we share ‘not only the gospel of God but also our own selves,’ which is the Biblical and effectual method. [1 Thessalonians 2.8]

[(comm)unity pt. 2]

2.) (comm)unity is rooted in the character of God.
‘Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.’ John 17.11b
God has existed as three mutually loving, mutually glorifying, happy Persons united in one Godhead from all eternity. This is what gives our concepts of love and joy and (comm)unity meaning. As the Body of Christ, the representation of God to the world, we are called to embody this love and joy among ourselves. ‘Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.’ Ephesians 5.1 And it is impossible to display the loving unity of the Trinity as a single individual; it can only be done together.

[(comm)unity pt. 1]

1.) (comm)unity begins with the glory of Jesus Christ.
‘For I have no one like [Timothy], who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.’ Philippians 2.20-21

Timothy, as the Apostle Paul’s loving emissary to the church at Philippi, is a model of authentic Biblical (comm)unity. Timothy does not seek his own interests. The text tells us this plainly. And he does not even have the Philippians’ interests at heart primarily. Timothy’s central concern is the interest of his Lord, Jesus Christ. And He is very interested in His Bride. ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.’ Ephesians 5.25-27 In other words, a focus on (comm)unity will never produce true (comm)unity; neither will a focus on loving one another. The final and only stable foundation for love among the members of the Body resulting in (comm)unity is the glory of Christ and His own love for the Church. So working backwards from the principle of (comm)unity, we see that…

(comm)unity
|^|
genuine love and concern for one another
|^|
a dominating concern for the glory of Christ

This order makes the best sense of the book of Philippians, with Paul’s frequent affirmations of the ultimate value of Christ [1.21, 1.23, 3.7-10, 4.13, 4.20] and his evident joyful love for the Philippians [1.3-11, 1.24, 1.27, 2.12-13, 2.19-29, 4].

[no offense]

“He also said to the crowds… ‘You hypocrites!’”- Luke 12:54-56

most of us have a pansy notion of what it means to be Christ-like. i know that until quite recently, i did. i thought to be sweet and understanding, to be silent and avoid contention, to give a winning smile and a kind word- this was to imitate Christ. but in recent weeks i have been challenged by a perfect storm of Scripture, lecture, and conversation- an orchestration of God shaking my very theories of love, communication, and Christ-likeness.

i guess it all started with a sermon by my pastor, chris osborne, on galatians 4:11-20, especially vv. 16-19. bro. chris contrasted the ‘love’ of the judaizers with paul’s love for the galatians: the judaizers loved so that they may be loved in return; paul loved so that Christ would be formed in the galatians. i realized that the desire to be liked is what drives my communication with almost every human being i encounter. i am not even willing to chance “becoming their enemy by telling them the truth.” when in conversation someone maligns Christ or His Church or expresses opposition to the principles found in His Word, i silently shake my head. my motivation is utterly selfish: i want them to like me, so i do not offend them. if i cared for them, i would share with them the truth.

further down the page in galatians, paul is not afraid to be downright caustic about the judaizers: “i wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!” his anger is not sinful; his motivations are pure. paul cries out with such passion because of zeal for God’s truth and love for the galatians. this mirrors the actions of Christ Himself. we are used to stories of Christ calling out the pharisees for hypocrisy. i cut the intro verses in such a way that you can see Christ also calls out the crowds in a strong, offensive manner for their failure to recognize Him as Messiah.

Christ is love.
Christ is offensive in the name of truth.
ergo, love is offensive in the name of truth.
“[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”- 1 Corinthians 13:6

in early february, my linguistics prof took one day to go off on the subject ‘what is right speech?’ she said things like, “using your language to love people is not achieved by making a list of words you do and do not say.” of course, she was talking about using curse words. noting the strength of language used by paul in the third chapter of philippians, i am inclined to agree with her, at least to a point (and with a point). she also asked us to consider the fact that every time we open our mouths, we are in danger of offending someone. who do you choose to offend and why?

when she said this, i realized that every time i remain silent and do not use an opportunity to proclaim the truth of Holy God, i offend Him. and i would much rather offend a person in conversation than my Almighty God.

“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”- Luke 12:51
“We should be zealous in making known the truth, for though divisions will be stirred up, and a man’s own household may be his foes, yet sinners will be converted, and God will be glorified.” -Matthew Henry

peace.