Verbum Humanum

Modern airy-fairy Reformed theology, whether the conservative or liberal kind, wants to float off like a helium balloon, and if you want to anchor it to Christ's love for this world, this earthy world, you will need more than stout beer and pipe tobacco to do it. That kind of thing teaches seminary students to feel very anti-gnostic because they can talk heady theology through wreaths of smoke -- but they still leave the heavy lifting of world-engagement and real gospel proclamation (to actual sinners) to the baptists. And they learn to watch with real dismay if any of their Reformed brethren start to show signs of wanting to make actual contact with the enemy. It is enough to make them suspicious. Wielding a sword is a form of works, is it not?

Doug Wilson drops the hammer. Convicting.

I do not believe we Christians are obliged -- or even allowed -- to look upon the devastation visited upon the coasts of the Indian Ocean and to console ourselves with vacuous cant about the mysterious course taken by God’s goodness in this world, or to assure others that some ultimate meaning or purpose resides in so much misery. Ours is, after all, a religion of salvation; our faith is in a God who has come to rescue His creation from the absurdity of sin and the emptiness of death, and so we are permitted to hate these things with a perfect hatred. For while Christ takes the suffering of his creatures up into his own, it is not because he or they had need of suffering, but because he would not abandon his creatures to the grave. And while we know that the victory over evil and death has been won, we know also that it is a victory yet to come, and that creation therefore, as Paul says, groans in expectation of the glory that will one day be revealed. Until then, the world remains a place of struggle between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, life and death; and, in such a world, our portion is charity.

As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child I do not see the face of God, but the face of His enemy. It is not a faith that would necessarily satisfy Ivan Karamazov, but neither is it one that his arguments can defeat: for it has set us free from optimism, and taught us hope instead. We can rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that He will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, He will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes -- and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and He that sits upon the throne will say, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Masterful.

Being faithful and consistent in attending a true church of Jesus Christ and worshipping God is extremely important; more important that you may realize. Irregularity and unfaithfulness in attending church conveys a certain message and produces definite short-term and far-reaching effects. Failure to assemble yourself with the Lord’s people at all stated meetings for worship, unless you are sick or legitimately hindered:

1. Reveals a cold heart and lack of fervent love to Christ who instituted local churches. (Revelation 2:4 & 3:20)

2. It shows disregard for the apostolic example and command of God’s holy Word. (Acts 2:41ff; Hebrews 10:25)

3. It robs you of blessing and help for the days ahead.

4. It cheats the brethren of blessings and help they would receive from your mutual ministry to them (Thessalonians 5:14; Hebrews10:24, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”)

5. It grieves the Holy Spirit who dwells in each believer individually, and in the church as a whole.

6. It grieves the Elders who oversee you and minister the Word of God to you. (Hebrews 13:7 & 17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12,13)

7. It can influence others, by your poor example, to become unfaithful, lazy, indifferent and selfish. (Many young Christians have said, “Brother or Sister So-and-So do not come regularly, why should I?”) You are a letter known and read by all men. (2 Corinthians 3:2, 3a)

8. It discourages brethren in the body with whom you are joined.

9. It is a poor testimony to unbelievers who see you inconsistently. (see John 13:35; 1 John 3:13,14)

10. It demonstrates your lack of vision for the future of that particular church of Jesus Christ in which you are a member. (Jeremiah 29:10,11)

11. It makes you a covenant-breaker in your commitment to God and to the church where you are a member.

12. It is a dreadful and empty step toward backsliding and apostasy (study Hebrews10:25 in its context of verses 19-39).

13. It shows disrespect for the best and the brightest day of the week, Sunday—the Lord’s Day, the day on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead.

Baptism simply isn’t for institutions, vocations, and various cultural expressions.  Baptism is for people.  The waters of baptism wash away sin and bring the believer into the new creation, from which he goes on to create.  The baptized need not subvert their vocation, but fulfill and perfect them through their own natural abilities.

Once, Milbank begins, there was no secular.

Great summary.

I’m giving a talk for Wheatstone Academy in a few weeks on the relationship between courage, theology, and the creation of culture.

I am still putting together my thoughts on the talk and trying to identify the specific angle I want to take.  My audience is Christian high-school students, but that has never limited me in any way.  I’ve always had the most success with high school students when set the bar high.

That said, here are a few sources that are influencing my thoughts on the topic, and that may shape the final product:

I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in this country. I was minutes away from beginning my lecture, and my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts.

He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.”

I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?”

He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.”

I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?”

He said, “That is correct.”

I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?”

All of a sudden there was silence.

You see, you and I can fool with the infrastructure as much as we would like, but we dare not fool with the foundation because it will call our bluff in a hurry.

Ravi strikes again.

I think one of the things that is killing Evangelical witness to the world is that we don’t know how to properly navigate the differences between Premodernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism.