I am regularly reminded of how close I came to nihilism in my government school and amoral eduation system, that great gift of free education to our parents and still going strong today for so many poor souls.
In The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzche held that the idea of good and evil was an unnatural addition (essentially Hebraic and Christian) to man's world , and a disturber of man's life and peace...abolish good and evil, and man will be free (Rushdoony).
This kind of thinking is what all of my educators were dripping with in the 60s and 70s. Refusing to show where this kind of thinking led, we were taught that we could study all subjects void of any god, especially the LORD of the Holy Scriptures. Slowly, I began to quietly ask myself, "but then, how do we know what is good and what is evil?" And quietly I began to conclued that there were no absolutes, and that therefore real life must be pursued in a vacuum of any judgment - except the judgment of meaninglessness and ultimate absurdity.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the contrary is true: absent the fear of the Lord, there is no hope of wisdom, for there will be nothing to make sense of anything.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Do Not Grow Too Comfortable With God
What is it that causes covenant members to wander off from the faith? What will tempt you to determine it isn’t that important in your life to call upon the living God every day, to renew your covenant with the Father through Jesus Christ each Lord’s Day, to humbly confess your sins and to plead His promises for your life and for your family at all times?
The seductions of the world, the flesh, and the devil come in all shapes and sizes. The one thing that they all have in common is this: they always promise more than they can deliver. You want sex outside the covenant vows of marriage – it will ruin you. You want to find your satisfaction in riches – you will be pierced with many sorrows. You want to run with the cool crowd and so you will join them in words of filth and blasphemy – they will cast you off as soon as they are done with you.
But the seductions and the Tempter are far more subtle than even those. He will whisper, “obeying right now in this little way or in that little way doesn’t really matter – go ahead – you can always confess later.” He will tantalize you with trivial but tasty pleasures late into Saturday evening so that you are too exhausted to go to church on Sunday or too tired to pay attention or care if you do go. He will razzle and dazzle you with the smoke and mirrors of technology so that the simple singing of psalms seems boring and irrelevant. He will keep you satisfied with bumper-sticker one-liners for your theology so that deep, thoughtful and challenging theological studies will appear to be useless and unimportant.
Like the proverbial frog in the kettle, you may have grown accustomed to being quite distant from your heavenly Father – maybe this week – maybe for quite some time. If you are in this way, know this – I have prayed for you, if not by name, by category, and have asked the Lord of Hosts to shake your world that your conscience may not be hardened by such seductions. As the Psalmist warned and wrote – “Today, If you will hear His voice, “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”
Never grow too comfortable with being in the presence of our God – for He is a consuming fire.
The seductions of the world, the flesh, and the devil come in all shapes and sizes. The one thing that they all have in common is this: they always promise more than they can deliver. You want sex outside the covenant vows of marriage – it will ruin you. You want to find your satisfaction in riches – you will be pierced with many sorrows. You want to run with the cool crowd and so you will join them in words of filth and blasphemy – they will cast you off as soon as they are done with you.
But the seductions and the Tempter are far more subtle than even those. He will whisper, “obeying right now in this little way or in that little way doesn’t really matter – go ahead – you can always confess later.” He will tantalize you with trivial but tasty pleasures late into Saturday evening so that you are too exhausted to go to church on Sunday or too tired to pay attention or care if you do go. He will razzle and dazzle you with the smoke and mirrors of technology so that the simple singing of psalms seems boring and irrelevant. He will keep you satisfied with bumper-sticker one-liners for your theology so that deep, thoughtful and challenging theological studies will appear to be useless and unimportant.
Like the proverbial frog in the kettle, you may have grown accustomed to being quite distant from your heavenly Father – maybe this week – maybe for quite some time. If you are in this way, know this – I have prayed for you, if not by name, by category, and have asked the Lord of Hosts to shake your world that your conscience may not be hardened by such seductions. As the Psalmist warned and wrote – “Today, If you will hear His voice, “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”
Never grow too comfortable with being in the presence of our God – for He is a consuming fire.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Heaven and Earth Together
"Since where God dwells, there heaven is, we conclude that in the life to come heaven and earth will no longer be separated, as they are now, but will be merged. Believers will therefore continue to be in heaven as they continue to live on teh new earth." - Anthany Hoekema, quoted in Heaven, by Randy Alcorn.
The point to notice is what Alcorn is making throughout his book. Heaven, separated from earth, is not our final "resting" place, but more of a rest stop before the final resurrection, a resurrection that will include the resurrection of creation.
While I find Alcorn's eschatology confusing and scattered, he has excellent insights on the doctrine of heaven. A very worthwhile book.
The point to notice is what Alcorn is making throughout his book. Heaven, separated from earth, is not our final "resting" place, but more of a rest stop before the final resurrection, a resurrection that will include the resurrection of creation.
While I find Alcorn's eschatology confusing and scattered, he has excellent insights on the doctrine of heaven. A very worthwhile book.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The Blood on Our Hands
There is so much blood on the hands of our nation because there is so much blood on the hands of the church; we cannot simply blame “them” for federal funding for abortions. Rampant homosexuality throughout our country is the fruit of rampant homosexual (and heterosexual) sin accepted and approved in the church. Our country is filled with broken families because our churches encourage families to break up, refusing to teach men to be husbands and fathers with a backbone who love their wives like Christ and serve sacrificially, and refusing to teach women to respect, submit to, and honor their husbands while embracing their roles as helpmeet. Our country refuses, from the President to the congress to the Supreme Court, to listen to the voice of God and refuses to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ because the church tells the state that she has no prophetic voice to speak to them.
Our present administration and congress may soon implode in its left-wing demented policies and declining popularity (or not). But the worst thing for the church to do is what she is currently doing – hoping for more of the same except from right-wing, demented policy-makers. But until we bow the knee in this and every regard, Washington will never bow the knee. Judgment begins in the household of God and that means that every individual application the Lord brings to mind is part of the answer.
The antithesis is not between the conservatives and the liberals. It is between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The real antithesis is between those who will live as Jesus commanded and those who will not, both as individuals and as societies, be it family, church, or civil. All of these must repent, but the church must lead the way.
Our present administration and congress may soon implode in its left-wing demented policies and declining popularity (or not). But the worst thing for the church to do is what she is currently doing – hoping for more of the same except from right-wing, demented policy-makers. But until we bow the knee in this and every regard, Washington will never bow the knee. Judgment begins in the household of God and that means that every individual application the Lord brings to mind is part of the answer.
The antithesis is not between the conservatives and the liberals. It is between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The real antithesis is between those who will live as Jesus commanded and those who will not, both as individuals and as societies, be it family, church, or civil. All of these must repent, but the church must lead the way.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Lessons and Carols Meditation - 2009
Pondering over the birth of the Savior is a good thing to do – and in this Service of Lessons and Carols that is exactly what we are doing together. Through these well known and oft read passages and through these old and familiar carols and choral pieces, the point is to join with our sister Mary and with the cloud of witnesses that have come since in honoring and pondering and worshipping Jesus who came in the flesh on the first Christmas.
Each year I take the opportunity to consider the words of Christmas sermons from St. Augustine who lived, preached, and wrote in the 4th century as Bishop in an area which today is known as North Africa, an area ruled in unbelief. A land that would do well to hear again the words from their departed saint. And we would do well to listen and ponder with him as well.
In one of his Christmas meditations, Augustine plays with the wondrous fact of Christ’s double birth – something I had not pondered before.
He writes: Christ begotten of the Father without a mother, Christ begotten of a mother without a father – two wondrous facts! The first begetting, eternal; the second, temporal. And when was He born of the Father? What is that – “when?” Regarding the first case, you are asking when – a case in which you will not find time? No, here you must not ask “when.” But regarding the second, you may ask “When.” “When was He born of a mother?” is a legitimate question; not so, “When was He born of His Father?”
He was born, yet is not bound to time. He was born from eternity – eternal, coeternal. Why do you marvel? He is God. Consider His divinity, and the cause of your marveling vanishes. And when we say, “He was born of a virgin,” this is something extraordinary – you marvel. He is God! You must not marvel. Let your surprise yield to thanksgiving. Have faith; believe, for this really so happened. If you do not believe, then this happened and yet you remain and infidel. He deigned to become man: what more do you ask? Is it not enough that God has been humbled for you? He who was God was made man. His was a poor little hut; He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger – who would not be amazed?
Augustine writes these simple yet profound thoughts – let me play with them for a moment with you.
First, everything about God is marvelous and in fact impossible to believe without faith. Some would say that we make Christmas so hard to believe and Christianity so hard to embrace in our modern world when we demand a confession that Jesus was born of a virgin. And yet, this is no harder to believe than to believe that Jesus is God, the Father is God, there is only one God, and yet they are two of three separate and distinct Persons of God. This is no harder to believe than the profession that God created all things from nothing by the power of His Word. This is no harder to believe than the doctrine that God has wonderfully predestined everything that comes to pass and yet we remain responsible individuals with real choices and real consequences before us.
Second, the miracle of the virgin birth is not simply about proving that Jesus must have therefore been God. More importantly it is a testimony to us that the Savior of Men, while having Himself to be a man, had to come from a new line, a new race – and so Jesus is referred to as the Second Adam. The Seed in the uterus of Mary was not from Joseph, nor any son of the First Adam. She was with child because this one was conceived of the Holy Spirit. A New Creation, a New Man, a New Way was coming forth. You and I, we need this new way – we need to be brought from the old race, the Old Adam, and be placed in the New Adam and the new Humanity. Only there will we find everlasting life and life removed from the curse of the old Adam.
All of these things require faith to believe – and that faith, like all faith, has to be rooted in an object – in this case a person. Let me spare you the lesson in apologetics and simply get to the point of meditation this evening. Pondering is a means by which God grants faith and grows that faith, matures that faith, and empowers that faith into a life of action – a life changed by these radical and wonderful truths.
Friends. Christmastime comes and goes as the years go by. Your life has come and in a few short years it will go by – it will whisp away like the smoke from one of those candles at your centerpiece on your table. What will never change – never go away – never end? This fact – God the Father sent His only and ever-begotten Son to save the world. Believe this and believe on Him – and you will be saved. What was only a whisp of smoke will be transformed into a sweet aroma of worship before the Lord. A life that would have only been used of God in revealing His wrath against unbelief and rebellion will have been transformed into an object of His mighty grace. This is the saving story of Christmas, of Jesus sent for you – if you would believe and come.
He has come to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. Therefore, join with the everlasting song – Joy to the World, the Lord is Come.
Each year I take the opportunity to consider the words of Christmas sermons from St. Augustine who lived, preached, and wrote in the 4th century as Bishop in an area which today is known as North Africa, an area ruled in unbelief. A land that would do well to hear again the words from their departed saint. And we would do well to listen and ponder with him as well.
In one of his Christmas meditations, Augustine plays with the wondrous fact of Christ’s double birth – something I had not pondered before.
He writes: Christ begotten of the Father without a mother, Christ begotten of a mother without a father – two wondrous facts! The first begetting, eternal; the second, temporal. And when was He born of the Father? What is that – “when?” Regarding the first case, you are asking when – a case in which you will not find time? No, here you must not ask “when.” But regarding the second, you may ask “When.” “When was He born of a mother?” is a legitimate question; not so, “When was He born of His Father?”
He was born, yet is not bound to time. He was born from eternity – eternal, coeternal. Why do you marvel? He is God. Consider His divinity, and the cause of your marveling vanishes. And when we say, “He was born of a virgin,” this is something extraordinary – you marvel. He is God! You must not marvel. Let your surprise yield to thanksgiving. Have faith; believe, for this really so happened. If you do not believe, then this happened and yet you remain and infidel. He deigned to become man: what more do you ask? Is it not enough that God has been humbled for you? He who was God was made man. His was a poor little hut; He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger – who would not be amazed?
Augustine writes these simple yet profound thoughts – let me play with them for a moment with you.
First, everything about God is marvelous and in fact impossible to believe without faith. Some would say that we make Christmas so hard to believe and Christianity so hard to embrace in our modern world when we demand a confession that Jesus was born of a virgin. And yet, this is no harder to believe than to believe that Jesus is God, the Father is God, there is only one God, and yet they are two of three separate and distinct Persons of God. This is no harder to believe than the profession that God created all things from nothing by the power of His Word. This is no harder to believe than the doctrine that God has wonderfully predestined everything that comes to pass and yet we remain responsible individuals with real choices and real consequences before us.
Second, the miracle of the virgin birth is not simply about proving that Jesus must have therefore been God. More importantly it is a testimony to us that the Savior of Men, while having Himself to be a man, had to come from a new line, a new race – and so Jesus is referred to as the Second Adam. The Seed in the uterus of Mary was not from Joseph, nor any son of the First Adam. She was with child because this one was conceived of the Holy Spirit. A New Creation, a New Man, a New Way was coming forth. You and I, we need this new way – we need to be brought from the old race, the Old Adam, and be placed in the New Adam and the new Humanity. Only there will we find everlasting life and life removed from the curse of the old Adam.
All of these things require faith to believe – and that faith, like all faith, has to be rooted in an object – in this case a person. Let me spare you the lesson in apologetics and simply get to the point of meditation this evening. Pondering is a means by which God grants faith and grows that faith, matures that faith, and empowers that faith into a life of action – a life changed by these radical and wonderful truths.
Friends. Christmastime comes and goes as the years go by. Your life has come and in a few short years it will go by – it will whisp away like the smoke from one of those candles at your centerpiece on your table. What will never change – never go away – never end? This fact – God the Father sent His only and ever-begotten Son to save the world. Believe this and believe on Him – and you will be saved. What was only a whisp of smoke will be transformed into a sweet aroma of worship before the Lord. A life that would have only been used of God in revealing His wrath against unbelief and rebellion will have been transformed into an object of His mighty grace. This is the saving story of Christmas, of Jesus sent for you – if you would believe and come.
He has come to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. Therefore, join with the everlasting song – Joy to the World, the Lord is Come.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Keeping Christ at Arm's Length in the Public Square
For any number of reasons, some Christians argue that we ought not to bring our religious beliefs into the public square (as if that statement were not in itself a religious belief). And yet God, in His providence over all things, has kept our nation singing, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and “He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found,” over the loudspeakers of shopping malls and public meeting places. In some ways, even the idolization of Santa is just filling the void left in a culture trying to keep Christ away from its need to celebrate, to be in awe of something transcendent, and to receive a gift it doesn’t deserve.
Is Christmas a Gift to the World?
Our nation does not need more sentimentalism, more commercialism, or more materialism. But our nation does need the gift of Christmas. We need nothing less than a Spirit-wrought reformation and revival and probably something the like of which has not been seen on these shores. And so why not celebrate Christmas? What happened in an animal stall on the outskirts of Bethlehem is the answer to all our problems, individual and communal. O come, o come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. Savior of the nations, come. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!” These are not simply Christmas carols. They are the prayers and petitions of the saints to God today: “come and save us from our sins.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)