Advent - Biblical Imagery: Angels

Angels are significant and show up all over the Old Testament and the New Testament. However, when they show up in the Gospel narratives, during the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, their presence is especially significant. When Angels show up in the Drama of Redemptive History, it is a cue to the rest of us that what is about to happen is very important. "Seriously dude, pay attention."

To begin, lets hold two ideas in our mind:

1. During the birth of Christ we see that Angels show up a whole lot.
2. The author of Hebrews tells us that the word spoken by Angels was steadfast (Hebrews 2:2). That is, in the Drama of Redemptive History, God oftentimes used Angels as a trusty means by which to communicate revelation.

Now lets put those two ideas together: Angels who are trusty show up a whole lot in the beginning of the Gospel narratives. The effect is rather superlative -- you can really, really, really trust that Jesus Christ "for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man." The birth of Christ isn't just additional divine revelation, it is Divine Revelation. Indeed, it is the Gospel!

Angels Show Up A Whole Lot

1. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, an Angel instructs Joseph (who had legitimate concerns about Mary's having become pregnant) to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife.
2. In the second chapter, an Angel instructs Joseph to flee blood-thirsty Herod and take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt.
3. After Herod is dead an Angel instructs Joseph that it is safe to return.
4. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, an Angel appears at the right side of the altar of incense before Zacharias; the Angel tells him that he and his wife are going to have a son (John the Baptist), and that this son will "make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
5. Also, later on the angel Gabriel greets Mary and tells her that God's favor is with her and that she will become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit and that she will bring forth a son, and that his name will be Jesus, which means "Jehovah [in the Old Testament this is the proper name of God] is Salvation".
6. In the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, after the birth of Jesus the Angels appear before the shepherds in the fields and tell them the good news that "unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Trusty Angels Declare Deliverance 

In the Old Testament there are many narratives where Angels show up to declare God's deliverance. In Exodus 3, an angel of the Lord shows up and tells Moses that the Lord is going to use him to deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt. In Judges 6, an angel of the Lord meets with Gideon and tells him the Lord is going to use him to deliver Israel from the Midianites. And later on in Judges, an angel of the Lord tells Samson's parents that their son will deliver Israel from the Philistines.

Since angels were used to reveal, call, and commission deliverers in Israel's history, it should come as no surprise that God uses them again to declare the Chief-Deliverer of the mother promise (see Genesis 3:15).

This Chief-Deliverer is Jesus -- "Jehovah is Salvation" -- Christ the Son of God.

Storytelling: Salvation

There are several ways to tell the story of Salvation. An "act" is a division of drama. It is a way to "unitize" the various elements of story. You can tell the story of Salvation with more than one narrative structure.

The Story of Salvation in a Single-Act

Title: The Glory of God
     All is unitized by the structure of the theme "Glory of God".

The Story of Salvation in Two-Acts

Title: Of God's Covenant with Man *
     Act 1 - Covenant of Works (made with Adam)
     Act 2 - Covenant of Grace (made with Jesus Christ, the Second Adam)
         
The Story of Salvation in Three-Acts

Title: A Trinitarian Story in Three Harmonious Acts
     Act 1 - God the Father Chose Us in Christ Before the Foundation of the World **
     Act 2 - Jesus Christ the Son of God is Sent:
          Serves the Father
          Creates a Place (Chosen Humanity) for Spirit to Indwell
          Accomplishes Redemption and Ministers to the Chosen
     Act 3 - Holy Spirit of God is Sent:
          Serves the Father
          Indwells the Place (Chosen Humanity) that Jesus Christ Prepared for Him
          Applies Benefits of Redemption and Ministers to the Chosen

The Story of Salvation in Four-Acts

Title: Sitting Down (Feasting) in the Kingdom of God in Four Scene Changes ***
     Act 1 - People Come From the East
     Act 2 - People Come From the West
     Act 3 - People Come From the North
     Act 4 - People Come From the South
         
* See Ephesians 1:4.
** See Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter VII.
*** See structure in Luke 13:29.

Updated - Law, Politics and the State

Excerpts from the Introduction and Chapter I of E. L. Hebden Taylor's The Christian Philosophy of Law, Politics and the State: A Study of the Political and Legal Thought of Herman Dooyeweerd of the Free University of Amsterdam, Holland as the Basis for Christian Action in the English-Speaking World (The Craig Press, 1966) [Originally posted 12/5/12]:

One of the great tragedies of the Protestant Reformation was the failure of the great Reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther to develop a doctrine of law, politics and the state upon truly reformed and biblical lines (1).

Lacking a carefully worked-out Reformed doctrine of law, politics and the state, it is hardly surprising that Protestant Christians have been powerless to meet the needs and challenges of modern society and to provide it with Christian answers to all its pressing problems (5).

Real religion pervades the whole of life: our social, political and industrial and educational no less than our personal and private lives. In fact, it is precisely in his political and business life that a true Christian will seek with God's help and guidance to live up to his Christian convictions, for it is precisely in political and business life today that the power of Satan, sin and selfishness is so great (17).

What then does the Calvinist mean by his faith in the ordinances of God? Every aspect of life, Kuyper answers, has a law for its existence, instituted by God himself. These laws or ordinances we may call laws of nature, provided that by this term we mean, not laws originating within nature, but laws imposed upon nature. From this doctrine of God's sovereignty over all aspects of creation, Kuyper developed his conception of sovereignty in each orbit, applying it especially in his political and social philosophy. Ultimate sovereignty belongs to God, while derivative sovereignties belong to the various spheres of human society, so that these spheres are coordinately, rather than subordinately, related (50).

 By means of his doctrine of sphere sovereignty [sphere sovereignty maintains that Jesus Christ is the covenant head of creation, and possesses absolute power and authority, however, he delegates "partial sovereignties to men" in the family, church and state]  Abraham Kuyper has provided Christians with a weapon against both the rugged, selfish individualism of the nineteenth-century laissez-faire variety and the suffocating collectivism of the totalitarian Communists variety (55-56).

According to Kuyper it is God's common grace which makes human culture possible. Human society would have been utterly destroyed if the common grace of God had not intervened. As such, common grace is the foundation of cultures, since God's great plan for creation is achieved through common grace. it is not spiritual and regenerative but temporal and material. It is based upon and flows forth from the confession of the absolute sovereignty of God, for, says Kuyper, not only the church but the whole world must give God the honor due to him; hence the world received common grace in order to honor him through it. Thus Kuyper upholds the catholic claims of Christianity and urges its validity for all men (60-61).

Additional excerpts from Chapter II [Added on 12/16/12]:

For Dooyeweerd all philosophic and theoretical or scientific thought proceeds from presuppositions of a religious nature. The starting pint, not only of all practical but also of all theoretical activity, proceeds from man's religious depths. Such a starting point can be found only in man's heart or transcendental self. All the issues of life arise out of the human heart which is the concentration point of our entire human existence. Out of it arise all our deeds, thoughts, feelings, and desires. In our hearts we give answer to the most profound and ultimate questions of life, and in our hearts our relationship to God is determined. The heart or transcendental self of man may never be identified with any of our vital functions such as feeling or even faith. it is deeper than any vital function and it transcends the temporal world altogether. It is as far from the body as it is from the mind. The heart is the point where man decides his relationship with Almighty God. It can never be neutral. It loves God or it is hostile to him. It is being renewed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit, or it still lives in apostasy. As a consequence, theoretical and scientific thought can never be a neutral and autonomous activity (66).

Dooyeweerd maintains that only the Word of God can provide us with a true point of departure and thus enable us to "see" the facts studied in the various sciences in their proper order and relationships. The facts do not "speak" to us unless we see them in their order. If the scientist or philosopher refuses to be taught by the Word of God what this order of the creation is, then he will be forced to substitute some principle of total structuration of his own devising. Such an apostate thinker will then be forced to seek his ultimate principles of explanation and point of departure in one aspect of the created universe rather than in the Creator of the Universe. For this reason Dooyeweerd speaks of all non-Christian systems of thought as being immanentistic  in character, because they refuse to recognize the ultimate dependence of human thought and science upon God's revelation (72).

The self or heart of man exists in three fundamental relations: in relation to cosmic time, in relation to other selves, and in relation to God. apart from these relations, the selfhood is an empty abstraction which dissolves itself into nothingness. But as we have already seen, the selfhood cannot receive its positive content form its relation to cosmic time alone, because in its radical unity it transcends time. The temporal order of becoming with its diversity of aspects, can only turn away our view form the real center of human existence, so long as we seek to know ourselves from it. Neither can the selfhood receives its positive content from other selves, because when viewed in themselves alone, all selves are equally without content. They all refer beyond themselves for their fulfillment. As Dooyeweerd points out, 'The ego of our fellow-man confronts us with the same riddle as our own selfhood does." For Dooyeweerd, as for Calvin, the self's relation towards God is the determining one. . . . Self-knowledge is thus in the last analysis dependent on our knowledge of God (75-76).

Advent - Biblical Imagery: Firstborn

Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

The firstborn son was significant to Israel. The Lord told Israel to sanctify and set apart the firstborn (Exodus 13). Yahweh instructed Israel the firstborn sons of animals/livestock and the firstborn sons of Israel were to be set apart. Yahweh is the Creator and Master of the Universe, he declared Israel as his own special people, this meant Yahweh claimed every firstborn son that passed through the matrix of any womb. Period.

Jesus was the firstborn son of Mary. According to Exodus 13, Yahweh already had dibs on Jesus. Jesus, however, was a firstborn in more than once sense--Jesus was unique and set apart trifecta.

1) Jesus -- Firstborn and set apart because he is the firstborn son of Joseph and Mary

First, Jesus was set apart because he was the firstborn son of Mary, a faithful and holy daughter of Israel. The angel came to Mary and told her that the Spirit of the Lord would be upon her and that she would bear a child, the Christ, the hope and Salvation of Israel. This child was her firstborn, Jesus the Christ.

2) Jesus -- Firstborn and set apart because he is the only begotten Son of God

Second, Jesus was set apart because he was the only begotten Son of the Father (Psalm 2:7; Hebrews 1:5; 1 John 4:9). As the Creed says, Jesus the Son of God is "God of God - Light of Light - very God of very God - begotten, not made - being of one substance with the Father - by whom all things were made." The author of Hebrews emphasizes the uniqueness of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Incarnate God-man, whom the Father set apart, when he rhetorically asks,

For unto which of the angels said he [God the Father] at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

3) Jesus -- Firstborn and is set apart because he is the Lord's "Christ" (the promised Messiah)

And third, Jesus was set apart because he was the Christ, the foretold Messiah and Anointed One. After his birth, Joseph and Mary took the infant Jesus to the Temple to present him before the Lord. At the Temple they were greeted by a man who had the Holy Ghost upon him. That man was Simeon, to whom God had revealed:

That he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:26).

Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, was the Promised Christ, the Messiah. Simeon glorified God that he saw the Christ before his death. This child was the promised hope and salvation of Israel. The Angel of the Lord told Mary that her child was going to be the Son of the Highest, and that the Lord would place him as firstborn upon the Throne of David.

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:31-33).

The Lord placed the shepherd boy David on the Throne of Israel. He was not a firstborn, nor was he even one of Saul's sons. However, the Lord appointed him to the position of firstborn and ruler of Israel. The Lord rejected wicked Saul (1 Samuel 16) and appointed David to be King.

Jesus Christ was not the firstborn. Adam was the first man. But God appointed Christ to be the Firstborn, the Second Adam and King. The Lord rejected wicked Adam because he rebelled against Yahweh. When Adam fell and was cursed with death, all of mankind died in Adam. We are, however, made alive in Jesus, who is appointed firstborn and set apart as our Christ, our salvation (1 Corinthians 15:22).

It pleased God the Father to ransom sinners by the life, death, and resurrection of His only begotten Son, the incarnate Jesus Christ, who was the firstborn of Mary. Christ was set apart and sanctified. If you are in Christ, then you are empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit and are also set apart and sanctified. Not because of anything we have done, but solely because Jesus Christ is the sanctified firstborn.

Evangelical Urgency: For Now Wicked Men Capable Subjects of Mercy . . . But Not Later

From Section III of Jonathan Edwards' "The End of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous" (Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2., Banner of Truth Trust, 1995 reprint):

We ought now to seek and be concerned for the salvation of wicked men, because now they are capable subjects of it. Wicked men, though they may be very wicked, yet are capable subjects of mercy [CCS, emphasis]. It is yet a day of grace with them, and they have the offers of salvation. Christ is as yet seeking their salvation; he is calling upon them, inviting and wooing them; he stands at the door and knocks. He is using many means with them, is calling them, saying, Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? The day of his patience is yet continued to them; and if Christ is seeking their salvation, surely we ought to seek it.

God is wont now to make men the means of one another’s salvation; yea, it is his ordinary way so to do. He makes the concern and endeavours of his people the means of bringing home many to Christ. Therefore they ought to be concerned for and endeavour it. But it will not be so in another world: there wicked men will be no longer capable subjects of mercy [CCS, emphasis]. The saints will know, that it is the will of God the wicked should he miserable to all eternity. It will therefore cease to be their duty any more to seek their salvation, or to be concerned about their misery. On the other hand, it will be their duty to rejoice in the will and glory of God. It is not our duty to be sorry that God hath executed just vengeance on the devils, concerning whom the will of God in their eternal state is already known to us.

Trinitarian Reading: Fred Sanders' "The Trinity" from Mapping Modern Theology edited by Kelly M. Kapic & Bruce L. McCormack

Fred Sanders contributes the chapter on "The Trinity" in Kapic and McCormack's Mapping Modern Theology: A Thematic and Historical Introduction. Starting with Hegel and ending with the contemporary "surge of interest in all things trinitarian" (22), Sanders outlines what people have been saying about the Trinity for the past 200 years. A the story goes, many theologians chose to criticize the doctrine of the Trinity: when those criticisms are at their worst, Sanders' history accounts for a twisting and honest denial of the deposit handed down; and when those criticisms are at their best, Sanders' history accounts for theologians who were trying to find new modes of expression (oftentimes faulty) for presenting a doctrine considered pre-modern and antiquated. This history, however, has a plot change (according to some).

The retrieval of the doctrine of the Trinity is oftentimes oversimplified--as are all pocket summaries--and attributed to Karl Rahner and Karl Barth, the latter who was able to successfully "put the Trinity back on the agenda of self-consciously modern theology, specifically among the liberal mainstream of academic theology in Europe and America, and specifically among those for whom history and experience were decisive modern categories dictating the conditions of Christian thought" (41). For many, Barth is a theological hero. They believe he conducted theological CPR on the dying doctrine of the Trinity; it was as good as dead until Barth worked his magic fingers and rubbed Church Dogmatics Awesome Sauce on the blue corpse and said, "Rise. Be resurrected."

Sanders is not so easily convinced. He doesn't really see this as a plot change or a paradigm shift. He doesn't think the historical evidence points to motif where retrieval can be interpreted as a form of resurrection. Rather, Sanders believes it was a normalistic retrieval, what some call conservation.

There is an oft-told tale of how the doctrine of the Trinity was marginalized in the modern period, until a heroic rescue performed by one of the Karls (Barth or Rahner). But for theologians like [British Methodist William Burt] Pope, [American Presbyterian Charles] Hodge, [Dutch Calvinist Herman] Bavinck, and [American Episcopalian Francis J.] Hall, as for most Christians, there was no need for an absolute retrieval of a completely lost doctrine. Retrieval is a normal part of responsible theological method, and theologians were actively engaged in a kind of low-level, ordinary retrieval throughout the modern period, a retrieval so incremental as to be indistinguishable from conservation (44). 

Sanders ends his historical analysis of what people have been saying about the Trinity during the past 200 years with a suggestion for how theologians riding the wave and wake of modernity might navigate forward:

As trinitarian theology continues to be discussed and developed, theologians will do well to carry on the modern trinitarian project by articulating this classic Christian doctrine in such a way that the doctrine is not an opaque monolith of inherited terminology, but is transparent to history, transparent to human experience, and transparent to biblical foundation.  

Trinitarian Reading: The Holy Trinity by Robert Letham

Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (P&R Publishing, 2004).

In the Preface, Robert Letham confesses that although interacting and dealing with a wide spectrum of theologians, "from East and West, from Roman Catholicism as well as Protestantism," this book "is written from a Reformed perspective" (ix). It should come as no surprise for a book on the Holy Trinity to be written from a Reformed perspective, it is, after all, well documented that John Calvin broke from the "Western" theological mold in his writings when he emphasized the persons of the Trinity instead of the traditional/Augustinian emphasis which highlighted "divine essence." Letham notes that it is "tragic" that Reformed folk have failed to flourish and follow Calvin's lead. Calvin leaned into the doctrine of the Trinity, and Letham would like to see more Calvinists leaning together with and like Calvin; Letham would like to see more Calvinists share Calvin's Trinitarian posture. (Calvin was true to his Western/Augustinian tradition, but he did so with an openness to the Eastern/Greek emphasis. Letham says Calvin preserved the theological deposit handed to him--he conserved it--yet he contributed to its flourishing through maintaining a type of kinship through grafting in Eastern/Greek sensibilities.)

In order to consciously share the same type of posture towards the doctrine of the Trinity we must understand both the doctrine of the Trinity and its historical development (flow through different contexts). "To think clearly about the Trinity, we must grapple with the history of discussion in the church" (2).

The history of discussion in the church has centered around what are considered errors of traditional emphasis in the doctrine of the Trinity: the West is criticized for overemphasizing the "divine essence" and of slipping into modalism, and the East is criticized for overemphasizing the persons and slipping into subordinationism of the Son and Holy Spirit to the Father. But these aren't just apparent errors. There is more tooth to them than mere conjecture . . . particularly in the West, Letham says:

Today most Western Christians are practical modalists. The usual way of referring to God is "God" or, particularly at the popular level, "the Lord." It is worth contrasting this with Gregory Nazianzen, the great Cappadocian of the fourth century, who spoke of "my Trinity," saying, "When I say 'God,' I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." This practical modalism goes tandem with a general lack of understanding of the historic doctrine of the Trinity (6).

Letham suggests that the remedy for these errors is an all out, full recovery of the doctrine of the Trinity which follows the trajectory set by Calvin. This recovery, however, is not a remedy administered "top-down" from the Ivory Towers. It is a grassroot solution. The remedial flow begins in the pew and the pulpit. Per Letham:

It is my belief that a recovery of the Trinity at the ground level, the level of the ordinary minister and believer, will help revitalize the life of the church and, in turn, its witness in the world (7).

Letham's aim is pastoral: "Let us persevere, then, through the chapters that follow . . . for the great and and wonderful prize of knowing our triune God better" (12). I believe he accomplishes that aim in this book: Letham, in order to lead us further up and further in communion with and love for (and participation in the love and glory of) the Holy Trinity, competently leads believers from the Biblical foundations, along the historical developments, and into the modern discussions and critical issues of the doctrine of the Trinity. A recovery of the doctrine of the Trinity aids the church in fulfilling her mission because the "Trinity provides the sole basis for the greatest of human tasks," which is to love one another. Letham notes that Scripture, specifically the Gospel of John, emphasizes again and again the "priority of love." The church needs love in order to do her job. "The mission of the church to spread the gospel also requires the practice of love, of self-effacement, of looking to the interests of others" (478). The Trinity is the not only the model but the source of this love.

Trinitarian Reading: Paradox and Truth by Ralph Smith

Ralph Smith, Paradox and Truth: Rethinking Van Til on the Trinity by Comparing Van Til, Plantinga, and Kuyper. 2nd ed. (Canon Press, 2002).

In this short book, Ralph Smith argues for Christians to build their worship and worldview upon robust Trinitarian thinking. Smith's aim is to, "help bring Van Til's profound exposition of the Trinity back into the discussion of this doctrine, and in that connection, to help stimulate further consideration of the worldview implications of the doctrine of the Trinity" (14). In order to accomplish this, Smith compares and contrasts Van Til with Cornelius Plantinga Jr.'s writings on the doctrine of the Trinity. Smith deals in depth with Plantinga's article, "The Threeness/Oneness Problem of the Trinity." After this thoughtful consideration, Smith moves the conversation forward by introducing Abraham Kuyper's views on the covenant.

Smith is dealing with things that are highly technical (e.g., Augustinian views of the doctrine of the Trinity, social theory views of the doctrine of the Trinity, Barthian/modalistic views of the doctrine of the Trinity, etc.). Smith does not, however, lose his bearings. He is pastoral and stalwart in his Orthodoxy. His overarching goals are practical, not vaporous and ideological. Smith has written a short yet very important book.

Smith concludes his book with a sobering benediction:

For too many evangelicals, the doctrine of the Trinity has been tamed, locked up in the cage of a confession of faith that is rarely reflected upon. Kant's words are not altogether inapplicable to this trinitarianism. [Kant said, "The doctrine of the Trinity, taken literally, has no practical relevance at all, even if we think we understand it; and it is even more clearly irrelevant if we realize that it transcends all our concepts."] Van Til's doctrine, by contrast, is more relevant than Kant or his followers can handle. Released from the cage of mere tradition, Van Til's approach is dangerous for the world of unbelief, which is happy when Christian worship of God is confided to pretty buildings. Covenantal trinitarianism implies the kind of "biblicism" that offends the world because it proclaim salvation in Christ alone and offends the Church because it demands reformation. The alternative to a real reformation of evangelicalism in the direction of a fully trinitarian worldview can, I fear, only be apostasy, for the Trinity is the Christian doctrine of God, without which Christianity itself cannot be. But our doctrine of God must be both expressible in a comprehensive worldview system, and also able to inspire worship and obedience in everyday life (112-113).

The Witness and Work of the Church

From While We're At It by David Mills in the November - 2012 issue of First Things:

"Look for a building with a cross on it," people escaping North Korea for China are told, because Christians are more likely than anyone else to help them escape the Chinese police. The police, reports Melanie Kirkpatrick, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, will send them back to the hell-on-earth that is North Korea, where they will be tortured, thrown into prison camps, or killed. You don't leave utopia.

 Christians will help refugees either merge into Chinese society or get into South Korea. People go to jail for this, mind you. It is cheering to know that Christian sin China will risk their freedom for strangers. And cheering that the little religious freedom the government has conceded lets the believers put on their churches a symbol of freedom, a symbol not only to those oppressed by sin but those oppressed by man.

This is a wonderful reminder to pray for the persecuted church, that believers will trust God and persevere under tribulation, that believers will proclaim the Gospel and rely on the strength of God by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, that believers will be sustained by God and protected and preserved as Witnesses. There is always Witness to be done.

Also, this causes me to reflect, and ask pointed questions: In the United States when The Great Default comes (Google "The Great Default"), will American churches have the same reputation as the Christians in China? Will people point to a "Cross" and say, "Go there for help. They'll gladly assist you." This is one of the advantages of a church having a brick-and-mortar building.

The Lord, however, does not bless all churches with brick-and-mortar buildings, so this means churches that meet formally in a residential or rented commercial building should think creatively to overcome this roadblock--relatively easy now with the wide-scale adoption of Internet Access, since churches can put the symbol of a "Cross" on their Web-presence, and Social Media can just as readily point to the physical symbol on a building as it does to the virtual symbol on a Website, Podcast, etc., and all of these serve as aids to inform people where help can be found.

Building brick-and-mortar churches and placing Crosses on steeples takes skill, knowledge, and wisdom about the world (e.g., architects, contractors, crane operators, etc.), so too building a Web-presence and placing virtual Crosses on the Internet takes skill, knowledge, and wisdom about the world. The church, therefore, needs faithful Christians who build in both arenas: we need Christian architects, contractors, crane operators, etc., and we need Christian web developers, graphic and brand designers, and copy writers and content publishers. There is always Work to be done.

Enjoying the Sweetness of Trinitarian Life

What happens when a Church cannot produce Teachers or Doctors who toil faithfully in word and doctrine? What happens to a Church when it produces systematic theologians who cannot adequately communicate (demonstrate) and expound the doctrine of God's triunity? What happens when a Church fails to hand down the deposit of sound doctrine originally handed down to her?

The short answer: The Church falls away. She goes into exile. She dies. Like the lyric from Unite by the O. C. Supertones,

O yeah, I got a beef with the fence-sitters
Tares among the wheat, the cop-outs, the quitters
Cut from the branch fruitless, no good,
Only one use and that's firewood
Pay no mind to the generation line
Forsake your sect and be color blind
The problem's not Hollywood, the problem's not Washington
The problem's a weak divided church of schismed Christians

Thankfully, the Church is the bride of the Resurrected Christ. In Christ, there is life on the other side of death, even doctrinal death. The Triune God is the Lord of Life and the members of the covenant participate, enjoy, and partake of the sweetness of the Trinitarian life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Centrality of Doctrine of the Trinity

Is the doctrine of the Trinity the central part of your Christian worldview and worship?

Ralph Smith believes it should be. Commenting on the lack of emphasis of the doctrine of the Trinity in contemporary, apologetic and/or Christian worldview writings penned by Evangelicals (e.g., He is There and He is Not Silent by Francis Schaeffer, The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire, Worldviews in Conflict by Ronald H. Nash, War of the Worldviews by Gary DeMar, and Lifeviews by R. C. Sproul), Smith says,

But if the fact of God's triunity is essential to our worldview, that fact needs to be demonstrated and then expounded so that Christians can see what the doctrine of the Trinity means for Christian thought and life (Paradox and Truth: Rethinking Van Til on the Trinity by Comparing Van Til, Plantinga, and Kuyper, Canon Press, 17).

 Smith echoes Rahner and Moltmann. Both commented on the displacement of the Doctrine of the Trinity in modern/contemporary theology. I remember my theology professor, Dr. Chris Bounds, at university also discussed this issue at length in Introduction to Theology. He frequently mentioned how the centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity had been eroded. For evidence he cited the fact that books dealing with Christian Theology were being published which lacked a section dedicated to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Thus, primers on Christian Theology that were not structured or outlined by the very structure of the Economic Trinity.

Cornelius "One Liner" Van Til, Again

In October, I posted a handful of Van Til "one liners" from his Introduction to Systematic Theology. This month I am posting another handful from his Christian Apologetics.

"[S]ystematic theology . . . takes all the truths brought to light from Scripture by the biblical studies and forms them into one organic whole" (21).

"The unity and the diversity in God are equally basic and mutually dependent upon one another" (25).

"No creature can detract from his [God] glory; all creatures, willingly or unwillingly add to his glory" (28).

"God is absolute" (29).

"He [God] is autonomous" (29).

"The diversity and the unity in the Godhead are therefore equally ultimate; they are exhaustively correlative to one another and not correlative to anything else" (29).

"The most basic distinction of Christianity is that of God's being as self-contained, and created being as dependent upon him" (30).

"Christianity is committed for better or for worse to a two-layer theory of reality or being" (31).

"Truth out of all relationship to any mind is a pure meaningless abstraction" (34).

"The idea of disinterested or neutral knowledge is out of accord with the basic ideas of Christianity" (40).

"Christ came to bring man back to God" (46).

"In Christ man realizes that he is a creature of God and that he should not seek underived comprehensive knowledge" (48).

"Christ is our wisdom" (48).

"What Christ did while he was on earth is only a beginning of his work" (51).

"Sin being what it is we may be certain that all our preaching and all our reasoning with men will be in vain unless God brings men through it to himself" (53).

"Belief in the promises of God with respect to our eternal salvation is meaningless unless God controls the future" (53).

"Scripture gives definite information of a most fundamental character about all the facts and principles with which philosophy and science deal" (61).

"They [General and Special Revelation] are aspects of one general philosophy of history" (66).

"It was in the mother promise that God gave the answer to nature's cry (Gen. 3:15)" (75).

"At every stage in history God's revelation in nature is sufficient for the purpose it was meant to serve, that of being the playground for the process of differentiation between those who would and those who would not serve God" (75-76).

"Created man may see clearly what is revealed clearly even if he cannot see exhaustively" (77).

"Nature can and does reveal nothing but the one comprehensive plan of God" (78).

"No one can become a theist unless he becomes a Christian" (79).

"Any god that is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not God but an idol" (79).

"Hodge, following the lead of Calvin, stressed the fact that the whole set of sinful man needs to be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit" (94).

"For Adam in paradise, God-consciousness could not come in at the end of a syllogistic process of reasoning" (115).

"Roman Catholic notion of authority seems at first sight to be very absolute--in fact even more absolute than that of Protestantism--it is in reality not absolute at all. Its idea of autonomy wins out in every case. And so it comes to pass that the Roman Catholic doctrines of faith are in every instance adjusted to the idea of human autonomy" (181).

"It follows that on the question of Scripture, as on every other question, the only possible way for the Christian to reason with the non-believer is by way of presupposition" (197).

All quotes from Christian Apologetics (P&R Publishing, 2003), edited by William Edgar.

Raising Children

I just finished reading Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic. This was a fast read. However, looking forward I am confident that I will circle back and re-read.

This book is chalked full of godly wisdom and rebuke of sin, sound advice and good story telling. It is the best book on parenting that I have read since reading J. C. Ryle's The Duties of Parents. Mothers are Mrs. Jankovic's target audience (obviously), but this book has so much to offer fathers--it is well worth the investment. Loving the Little Years is a delightful but extremely convicting book.

Nov. 6 - Election Day: Prayer

O God our Father, we thank thee that thou hast fearfully and wondrously made each one of us, thy children. May holy purposes direct us, the love of Christ constrain us, and the strength of the Spirit support us to be worthy instruments in thy kingdom. Teach us to walk with confidence and not without humility, with eagerness and not without consideration, with courage and not without reverence. Give us purity in heart when evil surrounds us. Make us brave to prune what is fruitless. Help us to cultivate what is good in thy sight. Increase our helpfulness as we touch the hands of our brethren. So enlarge our usefulness as thy hands bless us, until we lay down the unfinished tasks on earth and by thy grace are fashioned into perfect instruments of love and praise in everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Prayer # 120 from Samuel John Schmiechen's Pastoral Prayers for the Church Year).

Reformation Day: Candy Story and Good Sermon

Happy Reformation Day! To celebrate with my family I picked up Butterfinger candy bars after work. It was the first time Moses (3 years old) and Kati (1 and-a-half years old) had had a Butterfinger, so it was a real celebration. They praised God for the Reformation with their chocolatey-grins while trying to gum-and-lick-loose the candy stuck to their teeth.

Also, this past Sunday was Reformation Sunday, and one of my pastors (Tim Bushong) preached a Grand Slam of a sermon -- "Was the Reformation Really Necessary?" -- go to our church's website to stream and/or download the sermon. I highly recommend it.

First Native American Saint: Witness

You can go to USA Today to read an AP article about Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint. Kateri was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 10/21/2012.

The article covers in detail that her canonization has sparked both skepticism and pride. On the one hand, "Traditional Mohawks" worry that "Kateri's sainthood could be used as a way to encourage Native Americans to eschew their ancestral values for Catholic dogma," but on the other hand, the article also cites that many don't think her sainthood is a contentious issue.

It will be interesting to see how this skepticism/pride develop in the upcoming years. I'm not Roman so I don't have a clue what is coming down the sainthood pipeline, but I would imagine that other Native Americans are slated to be beatified, canonized, et cetera by Rome in the upcoming century. I don't know the vesting particulars for someone to officially be recognized as a saint, but if the matriculation process has concluded for at least one Native American saint, then my assumption is that other Native Americans can't be very far behind. Take that with a grain of salt, it being an ill-informed assumption by an outsider of Roman Catholicism.

What I do know is this. "Traditional Mohawks" should be worried. Jesus Christ is Lord, contra the traditional-religious-mythological views of the Mohawk/Iroquois League of Nations.

Traditional Mohawks should be worried, the Lord probably will use Rome's sainthooding of Kateri to draw additional Mohawks to himself. God does, after all, use means, and church history is full of conversion stories attesting that God used godly Christians as means by which sinners were exposed to and heard the Gospel, repented and were drawn unto Christ the Redeemer (e.g., God used Saint Ambrose's ministry to prepare Augustine for conversion).

Kateri is a witness to non-Christian Mohawks, other non-Christian Native Americans, and non-Christian Americans alike. Kateri is a witness that all of them need to to stop their foolish raging (Psalm 2:1), repent of their sins, and "Kiss the Son" and put their trust in Jesus Christ (Psalm 2:12).

29 Years = More Books

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. Celebrated with family during the weekend, they are such a rich blessing. My wife said this is my "Golden Birthday" since I turned 29 on October 29th.  Also, 29 is a prime number, so this birthday is a force to be reckoned with. My children spoiled me rotten and bought me a stack of books for my birthday. Top to bottom of the stack . . .

The Miami Indians of Indiana: A Persistent People, 1654 - 1994 by Stewart Rafert.

Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture by Rene Girard with Pierpaolo Antonello and Joao Cezar de Castro Rocha.

The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts by Leland Ryken.

The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs 

Scripture's Doctrine and Theology's Bible: How the New Testament Shapes Christian Dogmatics edited by Markus Bockmuehl and Alan J. Torrance.

Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture by Jaroslav Pelikan.

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan.

Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places by Peter Nabokov. 

Tuesdays with Blaster at Tree & The Seed: TMWAJ - Tracks 7, 8, and 9

Today's installment is over Tracks 7, 8, and 9 of Blaster the Rocket Man's 1999 release, The Monster Who Ate Jesus.

Go here for initial comments on album and the linear notes.
Go here for comments on Tracks 1, 2, and 3.
Go here for comments on Tracks 4, 5, and 6.


Track 7 - Ransom vs. the Unman

Straight forward Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat drumming, well placed palm-muted guitars, punk-rock guitar pick slides denoting the transition into the Chorus.  Track 7 and 8 lyrically draw from Lewis' Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. Growing up with Blaster was a blessing. I was a kid raised on a farm in mid-central Indiana, smack in the middle of corn fields, and Blaster was a musical and literary gateway to things outside the normal planetary rotation of rural Hoosier life.

Into the nightmare monster's embrace

The teeth and the claws and the jaws of the face

The ripping of skin and the reeking of breath

The real life enacting of myth

(For he loved not his life unto death) 

[Chorus]

Ransom! vs. The Unman!

Ransom! The Unman!

Ransom The Unman!

Ransom The Unman! (4x) 

He flung himself on the death that was living

"His hands taught him terrible things . . .

He felt its ribs break . . . heard its jaw-bone

crack."

As they pummeled and scraped and attacked

(But he's not of those who shrink back)

repeat Chorus

"In the sphere of Venus I learned war.

In this age Saturn will descend.

I am the Pendragon" (C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength). 

Track 8 - March of the Macrobes

As mentioned above, lyrics for this song are drawn from Lewis' That Hideous Strength.

Macrobes! Macrobes!

Here come the Heads!

The Chosen Heads of the Bodiless Men

Macrobes! Macrobes!

Here come the Heads!

Here come the Chosen Heads

of the Bodiless (Men)

From ape to man to god

by rape we plant the pod

to propagate the fraud

From ape to man to god

by rape we plant the pod

to liquidate the body

You could be a vessel for

that hideous . . . strength

You could be the gateway

The time is here

They're drawing near

Can you feel the tension

from another dimension?

Leave flesh behind.

There's only mind.

Or set the brain apart

to elevate the heart

Whatever happened to the individual? (N.I.C.E.)

Where is his soul? (R.A.P.E)

(As you walk along the brightly lit corridors

you hear a soothing, androgynous voice

overhead.)

"Welcome to the National Institute for

Coordinated Experiments where we offer

Rationalized Alternatives to Plausible

Evidence," etc.

There's no unity

in your dichotomy

Section by section

dissection

Vivid vivisection

at the point of integration

with no relation

to the whole

You've no choice left you

but to make

an irrational leap of faith

For the Macrobes are marching over you!

Marching Macrobes

Marching

Macrobes on the march (cha! cha! cha!)

Track 9 - Cop City

This is an instrumental "surf-rock" sounding song with Spanish counting thrown in for good measure, "Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro!" Conventional guitar riff opener eventually transitioning into a reverberated guitar phrasing, and "Cinco, Seis, Siete, Ocho!"

Cornelius "One Liner" Van Til

"When the enemy attacks the foundations, we must be able to protect these foundations" (24).

"The church's doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God is based upon and is the logical consequence of God's absolute self-existence" (33).

"It is really only the Christian who can speak of implication, because no one but him really takes the idea of an absolute system seriously" (35).

"The proper way to begin with facts is therefore to claim that unless they are what Christians say they are, they are unintelligible" (41).

"All men are either in covenant with Satan or in covenant with God" (68).

"Once man has sinned, his intellect is disturbed no less than are his emotions or his will" (75).

"The average philosopher and scientist today holds to a nontheistic conception of reason and therefore also to a nontheistic conception of evidence" (87).

"Surely the Christian, who believes in the doctrine of creation, cannot share the Greek depreciation of the things of the sense world" (93).

"Either man is created by God, or he is not" (97).

"The assurance of the truth of revelation is the work of the internal testimony of the Spirit" (103).

"Without the testimony of the Spirit, even Adam and Eve in Paradise would have lived in uncertainty and doubt" (104).

"Revelation is always testimony . . . . [i]t is always authoritative testimony and as such requires obedience" (114).

"The revelation of God was deposited in the whole of creation . . . . [m]an was to be God's reinterpreter, that is, God's prophet on earth" (129).

"Nature cannot be studied fruitfully except in combination with man. Man is the reinterpreter of God's universe" (134) [I know. I know. This is a two-liner.]

"The Christian can obtain his philosophy of fact from no other source than Scripture" (152).

"Man is and remains God's self-conscious creature" [cf. Romans 1:19] (160).

"The created personality is the highest manifestation of the personality of God" (160).

"No sinner can interpret reality aright" (164).

"Revelation in nature is but a limiting concept, a concept incomplete without its correlative [correlative concept is what is needed for a limiting concept to be understood] as found in supernatural communication" (171).

"The foolishness of the denial of the Creator lies precisely in the fact that this Creator confronts man in every fact so that no fact has any meaning for man except it be seen as God's creation" (174).

"Salvation means that man, the sinner, must be brought back to the knowledge of himself as the creature of God and therefore, to the knowledge of God as the Creator" (195).

"It is a common mistake of modern theology to mix the categories of the ethical and the metaphysical" (209).

"The distinction between Creator and creature has not been changed in the least by the incarnation of Christ" (212)."

"When sin came, it would have destroyed true prophecy. Then God gave the mother promise" [Genesis 3:15] (213).

"The central miracle of Christianity, as it is in the person and work of Christ, is necessary not because man is man, but because man is a sinner" (219).

"Man needs true interpretation, but he also needs to be made a new creature" (219).

"[A] healed soul in a healed body needs a healed nature in which to live" (220).

"Now God, in special revelation, actually brings the true interpretation into the possession of the souls of those whom he has chosen" (222).

"Revelation had to be historically mediated" (224).

"Jesus was the greatest religious expert that ever lived. Accordingly, we ought to attach great weight to his words" (231).

"It was necessary that the ethical alienation should be removed in order that the original metaphysical relation be able to function normally again" (232).

"Scripture needs no additional revelation" (240).

"[O]nly God himself can testify to the revelation that he has given of himself. Special revelation must, in the nature of the case, be self-testified" (243).

All quotes from An Introduction to Systematic Theology: Prolegomena and the Doctrines of Revelation, Scripture, and God (P&R, 2007).

Tuesdays with Blaster at Tree & The Seed: TMWAJ - Tracks 4, 5, and 6

Today's installment is over Tracks 4, 5, and 6 of Blaster the Rocket Man's 1999 release, The Monster Who Ate Jesus.

Go here for initial comments on album and the linear notes.
Go here for comments on Tracks 1, 2, and 3.

Track 4 – Stampede!

This is a cowboy punk-rock anthem about a stampede of intergalactic cattle/celestial beasts. Musically quite fun, a very rowdy song, and was a crowd favorite at shows. This song is the first track on Blaster's Live CD (Disc 2 of The Anatomy of a Monster), which, as far as live albums go, is a pretty rough record from a production standpoint. However, punk-rock generally hast not placed much merit in the metrics of production.

Stampede is lyrically a lot of fun. Anytime a song allows me to chant "Stampede!!!" and "Yippy ki ay!" and "Whoa hoss, easy fella!" it makes me giddy like a kid again. As enjoyable as that is, lyrically the song is a neat allegory with a twist of fantasy. 

Out on the range one night
We saw a strange sight comin' right out of the sky
It was a monster herd of the unheard of
Livestock of the Cosmos
A multifarious multitude of intergalactic cattle
Well, round here we don't take kindly
to no otherworldly
And a cowboy's gotta' do what a cowboy's gotta do
I took my rifle from the saddle and my lassoo too
Let's round us up some supper, boys!
Ride 'em fast! Ride 'em hard!
(Chasin' the Devil's herd)
Move along, move along, move along
lil' dogies!
(Drivin' the monsters from the Earth)
Yippy ki ay, Yippy ki oh
Keep that cattle movin'
Got it rollin' to the killin'
Gonna' rope up the unwillin'
Saw a rocketship wagon
driving' hideous horses
Had the whole team in its tractor beam
They gave an awful, eerie scream
that chilled my blood and spooked my steed
but I shook it off and took aim at the cockpit
Well, the boys were firin' too
and we all know we hit our target
as we watched the spacecraft
goin' down in flames
Then our eyes bugged in surprise
as the skies turned into chaos
The herd was loose
STAMPEDE!
Steady boys, there's gonna' be noise!
Ride 'em fast! Ride 'em hard!
(Chasin' the Devil's herd)
Move along, move along, move along
lil' dogies!
(Drivin' the monsters from Earth)
Yippy ki ay, Yippy ki oh
Keep that cattle movin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' rawhide!
We'll kill 'em when we catch 'em on earthside
I'm back on the range
to keep the strange from further invasion
Protecting my family and my property
I'm back on the range
to keep the strange from further invasion
Protecting my family and my property
I'm back in the saddle again
where you don't know who's your friend
and the queer-horned cattle feed
on the lonely, bluish weed
Sometimes at night
I hear the mournful cryin'
of bestial extra-terrestrials
Whoah hoss. Easy fella'

Track 5 – Human Fly Trap (Our Hero Escapes from Venus)

The following is the introduction to track 5 in the album's linear notes.

In the seemingly limitless possibilities of science fiction there are many Venuses to be explored. Let not this one be confused with Lewis's transcendent vision of Perelandra which is referred to elsewhere on this album. In fact, it is basically an alternate reality of the  Perelandrian paradise in that it shares  her sensuous beauty but not her unfallen state.

This "evil twin" is not a New Eden, but a False Eden that entices its isolated explorers toward self-gratification which slowly transmogrifies them into a suitable food for consumption - namely, the Fly. (And how does this half-human, half-fly monster escape, you ask? by eating Jesus, of course!)"

This song begins with delayed guitars and also has some excellent keys/organ parts. Lyrically this is a song that reveals its narrative's moral by antithesis--the Hero has mutated into half-fly/half-human and in order to escape this "False Eden" he must "FLY" (as in fly away, flight, run away). He is caught in a False Eden, a world that has teeth. This Hero is caught in the trap of a False Eden/Venus Fly-Man Eater. However, this is a Salvation story. Our Hero escapes. He escapes because the Lord severs him from the "maw of death". Salvation and grace, indeed.

Report #1 to Space Station:
"How very breathable the air is here.
My head is clear. I have no fear.
Sensuous is the status
of my sensory apparatus.
My research is going quite well
and I've been getting to know my self
While chasing the planetary standard.
Embracing this land in all her grandeur
with open arms and all five senses
and to her charms I feel defenseless.
But I have dreams where it seems
my body has a fly head
and a fly has my head!
Can't anybody hear that little fly
on the wall screaming?
It's got a tiny human head
screaming, screaming for help!"
A heart to harden
in a carnivorous green garden
of sentient, bionic botany
gigantic mouth closing down on me!

Report #2 to Space Station:
"Can you see me on this communication?
I've changed. I'm a mutation.
A variation of you former friend.
But all you see can see is this
hideous head of a fly!
Don't try to rescue me.
Oh no, no this planet's all my own.
Won't you just leave me alone?
(Who knew this world had teeth?
Into it I go and down beneath.)
Can't anybody hear that little fly
on the wall screaming?
It's got a tiny human head
screaming, screaming for help!"

Linear Note -- The following fragment of a transcript was found
in a blood stained notebook lying open near the
scene of carnage. A similarly bloodied stylus was
also found, with which the message was presumably
written.

"If the shuttle is leaving
I'll not be cleaving.
Lord, sever me
from this maw of death.
The same word that describes what I have become
also defines my graciously given means of escape.
To flee. To run away"
FLY!
FLY!
FLY!

Track 6 – [Untitled]

The entirety of this track is an excerpt from Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in C.S. Lewis' sci-fi/space trilogy. The spoken word is over background noises, mechanical yet organic droning with incremental thuds (I can't decide if it is akin to a heartbeat or something sounding-like-the-noise-that-is-made-inside-of-a-car-trunk while a car commutes over a long bridge). This excerpt is the introduction to Track 7 - "Ransom vs. the Unman" (anticipation!). 

No insect-like, vermiculite or crustacean Abominable,
no twitching feelers, rasping wings, slimy coils,
curling tentacles, no monstrous union of superhuman
intelligence and insatiable cruelty seemed to him
anything but likely on an alien world. He saw in
imagination various incompatible monstrosities -
bulbous eyes, grinning jaws, horns, stings, mandibles.
Loathing of insects, loathing of snakes, loathing
of things that squashed and squelched, all played
their horrible symphonies over his nerves. But the
reality would be worse: it would be an extra-
terrestrial otherness - something one had never
thought of, never could have thought of. In that
moment Ransom made a decision . . .