The Preacher

There is a lot of talk today about the difference between science and religion, about the gulf between the Christian and the scientist, the chasm that separates faith from fact. There is a tone to the rhetoric that suggests that these two areas are not only incompatible, but that the Christian’s ability to view the world is inherently limited, and is therefore operating at a distinct disadvantage.

The heart of the idea that is being sold is that the scientist deals with the real world, with atoms and energy, with metals and chemicals, with universal laws and cold hard facts, while the Christian is left in the fanciful world of magic and fairies, of gods and miracles, of spiritual and invisible things that are only knowable through that slippery thing called faith. This idea supposes that the theologian who is studying the nature of grace is doing something fundamentally different than the astronomer who is studying the nature of the heavens.

The problem with this is that it is a lie.

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Cannabis convict correction: Craig X Rubin (or someone impersonating him?) stopped by the site yesterday evening to chastise me for my hasty use of the word “convict”. I stand corrected. Rubin goes to court April 9th and faces charges of selling or transporting marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale. According to this article, Rubin’s religion “mandates members study the Bible, have faith in God and regularly burn the herb cannabis.” Two out of three isn’t too bad, right? (heh, actually, it’s 66.6%: the percentage of the Beast)

Hell is Real: Trade in fire and brimstone was brisk today as the Pope reassured the world that Hell was real. Catholics everywhere breathed a sigh of relief as their flagging faith was shored up by the infallible father. Unfortunately, Protestants, who have no Papal or Episcopal authority, will have to continue to settle for the words of Jesus.

Jamie Kiley is wrestling with a worthwhile question, namely, “What does Paul mean when he says that ‘everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God’?” Her question was prompted by the book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (someone who I do not respect at all as an expositor of the Word of God.)

Bell uses this verse as part of his justification for the following statement:

As a Christian, I am free to claim the good, the true, the holy, wherever and whenever I find it. I live with the understanding that truth is bigger than any religion and the world is God’s and everything in it.

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Featured Blog: This week’s Blog of the Week is none other than the fantastic, the frequently updated, the “now with Edges” (but no knobby things) Bittersweet Life. Shocking? Not really. If you’ve been around this site for long, if you’ve read the comments, followed the links, seen the references made, then it will come as no surprise to you that Bittersweet Life is one of my favorite blogs. The site is maintained by the most excellent Ariel Vanderhorst (don’t think Little Mermaid, instead think Lion of God), a trash-talking, hoops playing, awen breathing, poetry-crafting theologian with a penchant for biting satire and complex yet relevant exegesis. Dare I say it? This blog goes to 11.

Blog Topics Covered: Reformed Theology, book reviews, current events, poetry, fiction, photography, relevant scriptural application, basketball, college life.

Frequency Updated: Daily (frequently there are multiple updates in a single day)

Pros: Consistent, high-quality content covering a wide variety of topics, fantastic prose, frequent C. S. Lewis references, no fear of controversy, copious yet clever comments (there’s this one guy, gymbrall, he cracks me up… yes, that’s my blogger username… stupid full disclosure.)

Cons: Likes Mark Driscoll. Blatant KU basketball fanboi.

Sample posts: Jarring Incarnation, A Snapshot of Jesus’ Glory

Feed Url: Post feed | Comment feed

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Beaucoup Baucham Bonanza: Reforming My Mind - Mp3’s has put up a comprehensive collection of links to Voddie Baucham’s sermons. If you’re a fan of Baucham, you should check it out. If you’ve never heard him, you should still check it out, but may I humbly recommend this sermon as your introduction to the man. Reforming My Mind also has posts with links to other great speakers, such as David Wells, A.W. Tozer, and Sinclair Ferguson, as well as topical collections (marriage, head coverings, etc).

Emerging, Emergent, Emerwhaaa?: A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mark DeVine of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary published an article about the Emerging Movement. While intentionally not comprehensive, it serves as a thorough introduction to a complex topic. It also outlines some of the differences between traditional Baptist faith and this “new” movement. If this is something that you aren’t familiar with or are just interested it, it may very well be worth the read.

Abraham had a problem. God had made a promise to him, and to the best of Abraham’s understanding, God had not delivered. Plus, the way things looked, God was not planning on delivering any time soon. And it was starting to bother Abraham. It was also worrying his wife. It worried her enough that she finally approached Abraham and said to him:

Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her.

Sarai makes it clear that she believes God has kept her from having children. She recognizes that God is the one who opens and closes the womb, but at the same time, she also doesn’t believe it, because she tells Abraham to go into Hagar and see if God will bless it and give him children (as if God does not control the womb of Hagar as well).

What happens next? We all know the story. Hagar brings forth Ishmael, and fourteen years later, Sarah née Sarai, brings forth Isaac, a son of her own. A few years later, Ishmael is sent away, and he grows up away from his father and his step-mother and brother. The next time we see Ishmael in Scripture, he is meeting Isaac to bury their father. Go a few verses further and we are reading Ishmael’s obituary as it were.

And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.
(Genesis 25:13-17)

We know a little more about Isaac. We know that he married Rebekah and that he had two sons, Jacob and Esau. We know that he became wealthy. We know his story in greater detail without having to look it up. But, here is my question:

If we accept the premise that the spiritual counterpart to bringing forth children is seeing souls born into the family of God, then what is the spiritual counterpart to going in unto Hagar?

I believe that as Christians (both individually and collectively as the Church), we often find ourselves in situations that bring us to say, the LORD has restrained us from bearing. The LORD has not given us souls. We know and testify that salvation is of God, that it is by the working of His spirit and by His hand alone that sinners come to repentance, but at the same time we do not believe it, because we go in unto Hagar. We go in to the world and we say, perhaps by these methods that we once thought were wrong, we might raise up souls unto God. What it terrifying is this. More often than not, by these methods, we see fruit.

What we have forgotten is this, Ishmael had twelve sons, each a prince with castles and lands. If someone looked at the fruit of Abraham’s life, at his child with Hagar and his child with Sarah, which one would they conclude was more “successful”. Would they conclude that going into Hagar was such a bad thing after all? Could they even conclude that it was a good thing? Based on Ishmael’s life, would the modern church have told Abraham: Go down into Egypt and purchase from the slave blocks one hundred Hagars and get them all with child and raise up an army of Ishmaels? Sometimes, I wonder.

What I am saying is this. The ultimate fruit of Ishmael was not determined in his or in Abraham’s lifetime. In many ways it has still not been completely determined and will only be known in full, in eternity. But It is no different with our methods of winning souls today. It is not immediate results that tell us whether we are doing the work of God or not. There was no lack of people to dance around the golden calf that Aaron made, yet Noah preached 100 years and only reached his household.

What do you think? Does this hold up to the light of God’s Word? Have we gone in unto Hagar? If so, how do we make things right?

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Meet the Puritans: Tim Challies has written a post recommending, Meet the Puritans, a book designed to introduce readers to the many Puritan authors and their writing that have been made available through reprints since 1956. Also of interest was a comment left by Esau, recommending an article on specific recommended Puritan writings and why you should read them. Check it out.

Holy Cannabis, Batman: Craig X Rubin, a former history student, turned spiritual leader, turned cannabis consultant, turned defendant is suing the LAPD for $30 million over his recent drug bust. He is also the founder of Temple 420, a purportedly religious institution where members can join by paying a $100 initiation fee as well as $100 annual dues. Membership allows the purchase of what is hoped to be legal marijuana for “religious” purposes. You can read about it here.

Rumors of Death, Exaggerated: Mason Weaver, of The Village News, has written an article about the implications of the recent “discovery” of Christ’s tomb and bones. It’s worth a read, if for no other reason than to read about someone from California proclaiming the resurrection (I keed, I keed).

Slimy Disney?: Sandra Bernhard has come out against the Mouse. She’s also come out against Britney Spears’ parents, alleging that by allowing/pushing her to enter the world of entertainment at such a young age, they are partially at fault for the former pop star’s recent breakdown. What’s worse is that due to this unexplained bout of making sense, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to agree with Ms. Bernhard…

Read this and then anwer:

(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
(Acts 17:21)

Sounds like the blogosphere. Sounds like youth culture. Sounds like the modern church. Sounds like me…

If you listen to commercials or read print ads, you’ve probably run into the word “mundane” a few hundred times or more. You may have even used it from time to time in everyday conversations. And why shouldn’t you? It’s a perfectly good word for describing the ho-hum, humdrum, habitual lives that we hate to live. Or is it? I think that somewhere in the modern consumption of the word, we have also managed to swallow a lie. And not just any run of the mill, garden variety lie, but a lie big enough to turn the tables and swallow us as well. A lie that, were things seen as they truly are, would be properly described as mundane.

The word mundane comes from the Latin word mundis, and means of the world or earthly and by implication, it has come to mean boring, banal, and unexciting. And that’s significant, because mundane has another meaning as well, one that backtracks a bit and unwinds itself, a meaning that in some ways, diminishes the borders of the word, and in other ways, sets it up as a ruler over an incredibly populous kingdom. Intrigued? The word mundane means of the world, and before you say, “you just said that”, let me explain that it means of the world in the sense that it does not mean, of heaven.

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Book Review: Over at Bittersweet Life, Ariel has written an excerpt laden review of The Great Divorce (a work of fantasy by everybody’s favorite Irish, Oxford professor, C. S. Lewis). Go check it out.

Taking Aim at the Messiah: Not content with having merely been convicted of perjury, Jeffrey Archer, noted British former politician and author, has decided to try for blasphemy as well. His new book, The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot, tells the story of Jesus and the events leading up to his betrayal through the eyes of Judas Iscariot, the “faithful follower” of Christ whose nighttime kiss was purportedly part of a plan to safely spirit Christ out of Jerusalem, and not, as has been assumed and reported, to betray him to the Sanhedrin. According to Bloomberg.com, while this book, “may outrage some readers, it will give others a renewed appreciation of who Jesus was and why he was nailed to a cross.” I say, if you’re interested in renewing your appreciation for Christ, pick one of the four Gospels and re-read it, or better yet, start with Genesis and take the scenic route. And that’s a recommendation I’d be willing to make under oath.

Mistatement of Faith: Over at TheRealityCheck.Org, Erik Rush has written an article about Barak Obama’s church and their race-specific statement of faith. It’s an interesting read, and just to let you know, I did take the time to pick up the phone and make a call to confirm that the church linked to is the same one referenced by Senator Obama’s website.