Mom's Counsel Biblical

"Think before you speak."  Many of us first heard this counsel from our mothers.  It is actually biblical: "The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil" (Prov. 15:28).

Education Reform

Doug Wilson speaks a lot of good sense on the education front.  It does offend many of our idolatries, however, so brace yourself if you are going to venture into reading some of that wholesome educational food-for-thought.  Read any and all of his posts on education.  Hit the title here to read a recent post that is helpful.  We need to be in this discussion far more than we are today, taking our brains off the couch for ten minutes once in a while.

A Carnival of Pillage

Hear Wilson and Calvin on the collective wisdom of our government and her citizens.  Click on the title of this post to take you to the link.

"There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Ps. 36:1).

By What Logic or Necessity?

Chapter I in Book 1 of Anselm's Why God Became Man raises the question upon which hangs the whole work.  The question is this: "By what logic or necessity did God become man, and by his death, as we believe and profess, restore life to the world, when he could have done this through the agency of some other person, angelic or human, or simply by willing it?"  Or, more briefly: "By what necessity or logic did God, almighty as he is, take upon himself the humble standing and weakness of human nature with a view to that nature's restoration?"

Why God Became Man

St. Anselm (1033-1109), bishop of Canterbury, is perhaps most famous and known for his setting forth of the ontological argument for God's existence in The Proslogion.  It is simply this: That God is that than which nothing greater or better can be conceived.

He wrote during his mature years what has come to be a very influential work: Why God Became Man.  In the preface to this work, he tells the reader how he's arranged the work into two books and what each book is about.  Book 1 provides the objections of unbelievers who repudiate the faith because they suppose that it militates against reason and the answers of the faithful to such objections.  Anselm asserts that "it proves, by unavoidable logical steps," that without Christ it is impossible that anyone could be saved.  Book 2 proposes that even if nothing were known of Christ it can be demonstrated "with no less clear logic and truth" that the aim for which God made humanity--that "the whole human being should enjoy blessed immortality"--makes it inevitable that the outcome for which man was originally created should become a reality.  And this outcome, moreover, could only come to pass through the agency of a God-man.  And so, he says, "it is from necessity that all the things which we believe about Christ have come to pass."

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Emily and I are wrapping up reading through Calvin's Institutes this year. And how healthy it has been to trek through the thick theology of the great Genevan reformer. The scope and breadth and depth of this work are truly astounding and breathtaking. It was the life's work of rare theological and pastoral genius. I commend it to every Christian. It is not just for pastors and theologians or historians! It is one of the great pieces of Christian literature of all time, graciously bestowed upon the Church for her profit.  It is a shame so few have read it.

So please, for the love of God, the good of his Church, and the sake of your soul—take up and read! Working through thoughtfully and prayerfully such Christian classics would be, so I judge, an important component of the much-needed reformation in the superficial and anemic American church. So love God with your mind and read great books. And Calvin's Institutes is surely tops on the list of great books.

Uttering Words

Praying aloud is a practice that used to be commonplace in the Church until fairly recently, as far as I'm able to discern.  Today, however, we don't utter audible words.  Luther urges uttering words to help us soar upwards.  I confess that I need this aid or my weak mind quickly strays.

"No one should depend on his heart and presume to pray without uttering words unless he is well trained in the Spirit and has experience in warding off stray thoughts.  Otherwise the devil will thoroughly trick him and soon smother the prayer in his heart.  Therefore we should cling to the words and with their help soar upward, until our feathers grow and we can fly without the help of words.  I do not condemn words or the spoken prayer, nor should anyone spurn them.  On the contrary, they are to be accepted as an especially great gift of God.  However, it is wrong when the words are not employed for their fruitful purpose, namely, to move the heart, but are only mumbled and muttered with the mouth, on the false assumption that this is all that is necessary."

Notice how in his recommedation of "uttering words" he warns of making them the heart of the matter.  They must be "employed for their fruitful purpose, namely, to move the heart."  O Lord, teach us to pray.

Lifting Up of Heart and Mind to God

What is the essence of prayer?  Luther taught the common person that "prayer is nothing else than the lifting up of heart or mind to God."  He continues, "But if the lifting up of the heart consitutes the essence and nature of prayer, it follows that everything else which does not invite the lifting of the heart is not prayer."  Luther says this in an exposition of the Lord's prayer, urging heartfelt prayer at a time when mindlessly mumbling through beads had become one of the marks of piety.  And so the average Christian had a distorted view of prayer.  The heart of the matter is the heart, and lifting up our hearts to God alone moves and pleases him.

"This people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men" (Isa. 29:13; cf. Mt. 15:8).

Kiss the Son

Conservative Christians ordinarily make quite a big deal out of being Bible people.  They say that we should all obey the Bible and go no further.  This is good and right.  But one of the problems, for example, is that conservatives ignore quite a lot of the Bible. 

Take Ps. 2:12: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him."  Now, let me ask some difficult questions for conservative American Christians: Should Obama be told to kiss the Son?  Should he be required to obey King Jesus and submit to his righteous rule?  "Uh, ur, but, but what about the separation of church and state, the separation of church and state, our inviolable notion of the separation of church and state?"  So no doubt many would stutter and mutter while holding a big fat Bible.  Well, what does the psalmist say?  "Now, therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way" (vv 10-12).  Does this include twenty-first century rulers?  American Presidents?  Of course.  To whom do the apostles say this psalm refers?  To King Jesus (see Acts 2 and Heb. 1, for instance).  And should David, a mere pointer to the ultimate King, David's greater son and David's Lord, receive such regard but not the one to whom the psalm was ultimately pointing?  The apostles upset the world with their preaching for a reason: the were preaching Jesus as King (Acts 17:6-7). 

May God grant deep repentence in the church in America.  And I mean all of us. We're in this stinkin' mess together, and we need to pray to the Lord of Hosts to deliver us.  We continue to want to separate what God has joined together.  Jesus is Lord of all.  This is not difficult.  This is, after all, to our shameful neglect, the basic Christian confession and the center of the Gospel.  And somehow we've lost it and don't see it.

Reason Clothed and in Her Right Mind

In Calvin the Christian we see reason clothed and in her right mind.  Speaking of the mystery of the Sacred Supper, Calvin says, "I rather experience than understand it" (Institutes, 1403).  In context, he means, understand it comprehensively.  But he's not afraid to speak of experiencing something in the Spirit that is real and solid which he does not seek to explain fully with words.

Here's another example of Calvin's reason clothed and in her right mind.  "For as Christ's whole Kingdom is spiritual, whatever he does with his church must not be subjected to the reason of this world" (Institutes, 1404).  Well said.

Oh for the modern Church to be delivered from the insanity of rationalism, to be clothed and recover her right mind!  Lord, save us, from Reason with a big R and from so-called reason that will not sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus with clothes on and a sound mind—subjected to the Word of God and Wisdom incarnate.

One with Christ

Calvin on the Sacred Supper is without doubt in my mind dead on.  His view, amid the muddle, clarifies and illuminates.  It also tends toward nourishment and vivification and communion, which gets at my chief concern with understanding the Table aright. 

I give Calvin's summary from an extended discussion in Book 4 of what Scripture teaches concerning the Supper over against what today is called the "memorial view":  

To summarize:  our souls are fed by the flesh and blood of Christ in the same way that bread and wine keep and sustain physical life.  For the analogy of the sign applies only if our souls find their nourishment in Christ--which cannot happen unless Christ truly grows into one with us, and refreshes us by the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood.

The Holy Supper

As often as we celebrate the Table of the Lord, we engage in proclamation of his death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26).  This simple truth is worthy of extended meditation.  Our celebration of the Holy Supper is a proclaiming of the Lord's death till he returns.  This simple truth lands on me this morning with more weight and force than previously it had. 

As the saints gather on Sunday, we do so in the name of the risen Christ, celebrating the resurrection and all that flows from it.  But our celebration of the Supper centers on the death that proceeded it.  The Table reminds us ever and always how the cross came before, and comes before, the crown, even as we enjoy new life in Christ.  And this cross, this substitutionary sacrifice, we proclaim as we celebrate the Supper.  An implication: we are bearing witness to unbelievers as we celebrate the sacred meal.

Two Touches

Here is another solid, soul-strengthening sermon by Pastor O'Donnell on Mt. 9:18-26.  It is full of resurrection healing and hope.  This kind of hope must be part of our Christianity or we're not Christians.  The hope proffered to faith in this sermon is the stuff of the endurance of the saints amid trials and tribulations.  I might add that this sermon by O'Donnell is a model of weaving counseling ministry into the preaching ministry. 


Enjoy this sermonic food for the hungry soul, for the weak soul, for the weak body.  In fact, enjoy it twice.  Or more.  After all, sermons are food, not just information for the notebook or for the nod of the head. They are to strengthen the heart, and by faith this one will.   


Click on the title of this post for the link to the sermon.

Initiation into the the Society of the Church

Here is a definition of baptism that I like a great deal. It seems to me to embrace the biblical data on the matter, and is not truncated as it often is when people speak of baptism today. It is Calvin's definition. And if it seems like I'm slavishly following Calvin of late, please just note that it is his 500th birthday and I simply want to honor his memory. Besides, the Institutes have been my breakfast every morning, alongside my daily reading from Scripture, during this past year because of a reading plan to mark the quincentenary of the reformer's birth.

So, here it is, from Book 4, Ch. 15, Sect. 1: "Baptism is the sign of the initiation by which we are received into the society of the church, in order that, engrafted in Christ, we may be reckoned among God's children."

Just Laugh at His Stupidity

In Calvin's Institutes, Book 4, Ch. 14, Sect. 4, Calvin continues his discussion of sacraments.  In doing so, he speaks of how outward signs that God has ordained render more certain to man the truth of God's promises.  The rainbow, for example, is set forth as one such sign of God's covenant faithfulness to never again destroy the world by flood.  In the course of this discussion, there is this marvelous statement that speaks to the naturalism of our day (and the naturalists who hold to it) just as it spoke to the naturalism of Calvin's own. 

Calvin on rainbows and naturalists:

If any philosopher, to mock the simplicity of our faith, contends that such variety of colors naturally arises from rays reflected upon a cloud opposite, let us admit it, but laugh at his stupidity in failing to recognize God as the lord and governor of nature, who according to his will uses all the elements to serve his glory.

So how ought we to respond to the naturalists of our day who stupidly speak of rainbows oh so scientifically, as though they are disproving the existence and providence of God?

"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).

Are Calvinists Arrogant?

Calvinists, particularly newborn or young ones, are often charged with arrogance. And for a moment, I want to grant the charge. Maybe it is true that Calvinists are more arrogant, manifested to other Christians precisely when a God-centered and grace-soaked gospel and vision of all things is first embraced. Consider this. Maybe Calvinists really are more arrogant. But maybe they were more arrogant before ever they knew the grace of Christ. Perhaps God has chosen some of the most arrogant people on the planet for at least two reasons. First, God's choosing the proudest would highlight his grace, and his freedom and sovereignty in bestowing it. Choosing the worst sinners makes it clearer that such sinners couldn't save themselves (and it certainly wasn't their humble reliance on God that moved God to save them). Second, the proudest of the proud need more humbling, and there is nothing to flatten an inflated self like comprehensive grace, grace top to bottom, front to back, weighty grace, pouring forth from eternity.

So maybe the charge that Calvinists tend to be more arrogant is true. And so they (before becoming Calvinists, of course) are the ones to whom God has often determined to make known the riches and fullness of his grace--to display it more fully and to lay low what is too high. I was and am a proud man. And nothing but sovereign grace could overcome my high arrogance. An Arminian gospel, which I do not believe to be biblical and find repulsive, would make a wretch like me more, not less, proud.

That No One May Boast

Ephesians 2:8-9 deals a death blow to man's pride and vaunted powers: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not from you: it is the gift of God, not from works, that no one should boast." The "and this" in verse 8 is neuter and singular in the Greek. The syntactical problem here is that there is no neuter antecedent, which is unexpected. Both grace and faith are feminine and singular in the Greek, and the periphrastic participle rendered "you have been saved" (or "you are being saved") is masculine and plural. So what is the antecedent? Oftentimes "and this" has a conceptual antecedent in the New Testament. And that seems most fitting here in Eph. 2:8-9.  So the antecedent is a by-grace-through-faith salvation. None of it is from man: all of it is the gift of God. And, yes, this includes our faith. It too is a gift of God. 

Why, one might ask? Does it have to be taken that way? I think that grammatically it makes the most sense, though the grammar is not decisive. Context and theology are! There is another factor in the context—God's aim. God is bent on ensuring that no one might boast (v. 9) in the way he bestows salvation. Leaving a little room for man to glory in his self-generated faith would devastate God's purposes in salvation. If the decisive factor when a person comes to faith in Christ is self-generated faith—to any degree whatsover—then man is decisive, even if he says he is only receiving the free gift, and has reason for glorying in self. If salvation hangs ultimately on man's decision, upon whom does it ultimately rest? Yep, you got it. And it's disgusting, isn't it? God will have none of it. So the whole of his by-grace-through-faith salvation is a gift—including the faith—that none should boast. Except, in the cross of Christ and the free grace of God.

The Ultimate Youth Pastor

Check out Ignatius, the ultimate youth pastor. When Emily and I first watched this some months back, we enjoyed many belly laughs and rolls on the floor. Unfortunately, there is too much truth to this satiric piece as relates to American youth pastors. Hit the title of this post for the link. And enjoy.

With Calvin in the Theater of God

This past weekend Em and I attended Desiring God's National Conference at the Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. We had a wonderful time. It was singularly refreshing and renewing. It stoked the furnace of zeal for God's glory in all things. All of the speakers were on their game, if I may put it that way. The messages by Wilson, Storms, and Piper are particularly worthy of a hearing—more than once, each. The panel discussion was, as usual, rather stimulating. I've attended all but one of these national conferences since they started, and this one was, I think, the best. The title above gives the link to the messages.

Father of Mercies

Doug Wilson's sermon four Sundays ago (8-23-9) on Col. 3:12-14, entitled Father of Mercies, was outstanding. The Word is applied with good biblical sense and wisdom. Very helpful stuff indeed, including to help one think through stewardship and economics. This one is worth listening to multiple times. Click on the title of this post for the link (N.B. Christ Church sermons are not available for free for very long; as new sermons get added, old ones get taken off.)

By Sword, By Famine, By Pestilence

It is recorded in Ezek. 6 that idolatrous Israel would "fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence" (v. 11). Thus, says YHWH, "I will spend my fury upon them" (v.12). The upshot of the fury: "And you shall know that I am YHWH, when their slain lie among their idols" (v. 13). Question. Do our naturalistic tendancies blind us from seeing and knowing YHWH when he works his sovereign will among us, especially when he sends his fury? Another related question. Are we functional deists?

Exegesis Paper

The following outline is the basic method for doing an exegesis paper as taught by Prof. G. K. Beale in his Principles of Interpretation course at Wheaton College:

1. Dependent prayer.
2. Survey the historical context generally and particularly.
3. Confirm the limits of the passage.
4. Provide a provisional translation. Also compare 5 or 6 major translations and note differences.
5. Note textual problems.
6. Note grammatical problems.
7. Note syntactical problems. Do a sentence flow.
8. Note lexical problems.
9. Note exegetical relation (logical) problems. Do a discourse analysis.
10. Note parallel relation problems.
11. Note OT/NT problems.
12. Note historical-cultural background problems.
13. Note figurative problems.
14. Note genre problems.
15. Note theological problems
16. Produce a rough draft.
17. Consult secondary literature.
18. Provide a finished translation.
19. Produce the final form of the paper.

Canonical Context is the King's Servant

It is generally acknowledged that "context is king" in the interpretative enterprise. That is to say, extracting meaning from a text is accomplished well really only when the context is duly heeded. But I wonder if the canonical context is considered as it ought to be, not least given the theological awareness of divine intentionality in inspiring a canon of 66 books, 39 of which were penned before the coming of Christ, 27 after.

What I mean is this. As God's revelation unfolds and plays out (including inscripturated revelation and incarnate revelation), there is more context for understanding texts. So "thicker" or "fuller" meanings are possible and even probable and intended (though not necessarily intended by the human author). The wider and fuller context provided by the whole canon, and particularly by Christ's coming, makes plainer, clearer, brighter, and fuller where texts were heading according to divine intentionality, that is, as they were given by God to address not only the immediate context but also to speak beyond it in fuller and brighter ways. So increased and fuller and brighter understanding is precisely due to the enlarged and brighter context of the whole canon. Giving a proper place to the canonical context and divine intentionality of texts may help with some of the muddles in hermeneutical debates about use of texts and authorial intent.

Blood on the Hands

YHWH's word to the man called to speak in his name: "Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand" (Ezek. 3:17-18).

Methods and Industry

It ought to be said repeatedly that for all our methods and industry, it is God who must bestow light. For in his light alone do we see light. And lest this be misunderstood, it ought also to be said that God's ordinary means for bestowing light is through sound methodology and assiduous labor. Yet, God is not bound by them. He is free to bestow light on whom he will. Our methods and labor are futile without God's free favor. And so we are utterly dependent even as we break our brains and beat our bodies.

Sentence Flowing

For those who want to see the "syntactical bone structure" (as Prof. G. K. Beale calls it) of a text, a sentence flow is a method to do this. The following summary steps to take is taken from Gordon Fee's New Testament Exegesis (3rd ed., pp. 41-58):

1. Begin with the subject, predicate, and object to the extreme left.
2. Subordinate by indenting all adverbial modifiers and adjectival and noun clauses under the word or word group being modified.
3. Coordinate by lining up corresponding elements directly under one another.
4. Isolate structural signals (i.e., conjunctions, particles, relative pronouns, and sometimes demonstrative pronouns), either above or to the left, and highlight in order to draw lines from the structural signal to the the element(s) to which it is related.
5. Color-code recurring words or motifs in order to trace themes or ideas crucial to the flow of the argument.
6. Trace the argument by annotation.

Greatness, Humility, Servanthood

Piper's sermon two Sunday's ago on greatness, humility, and servanthood is helpful and searching. Helpful, I say, because humility is so often misunderstood (and we all easily slip into this) in our man-centered day and culture. Searching, I say, because pride lurks within and, at every turn, there the old man is puffing himself up before God. To listen or watch, see Greatness, Humility, Servanthood.