Pre-Mourning

If you were to ask me who my favorite Senator is, I would be quick to answer: Rick Santorum. I have already begun my pre-mourning of his impending loss in Pennsylvania. The loss is great. He was one of the few Senators that wrote a book that actually made you think. The intellectual heft of “It Takes a Family” is daunting compared to Obama, Hillary, and Edwards’ books. Anyone who has read and actually understands and cites Russell Kirk, Alexis de Tocqueville, Immanuel Kant and Allan Bloom deserves a moment of silence while fading from Public Office.

Should I have faith in my faith?

No I should have faith in Christ. Packer (who is just old not dead) put it well when he wrote;


One of the unhealthiest features of protestant theology today is its preoccupation with faith, that is, viewed man centeredly as a state of existential commitment. Inevitably, this preoccupation diverts thought away from faith’s object… Though the Reformers said much about faith…their interest was not of the modern kind. It was not subject centered, but object centered, not psychological but theological, not anthropocentric, but christocentric

J.I. Packer, “Sole Fide: The Reformed Doctrine of Justification, in Soli Deo Gloria, (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1976) 20.

Dawkin’s Arguments against God.

I’m only about on page 140, but I thought I would give you Dawkin’s four main arguments against God as best I can make out:

1. Argument from Superiority.

a. I am really smart
b. I don’t believe in God
c. Therefore, God does not exist.
[Dawkins has other smart friends and people who call him smart whom he loves to quote who will attest to this]

2. Argument from name-calling [Logically, this should be a part of Argument one, but he spends so much time doing it, it deserves a unique category]

a. What are you, stupid?
b. Therefore, God does not exist.
c. Seriously, if you think God exists you are ignorant and prejudiced (pg. 66), no smarter than a gardener (56), full of hate speech (23), not rational (11), awed in ignorance (117) uneducated and unintelligent (102), laughable (99), disreputable (97) and unsophisticated (94).

3. Argument against Scripture

a. I have a couple of examples of Scripture being contradictory or unhistorical which a first year theological student can defend against. (pg 92-95)
b. Therefore, God does not exist.

4. Argument from the Design of the Designer

a. Who made God?
b. Therefore, God does not exist.
c. Don’t cite supernatural or beyond or above nature stuff, that’s not fair, just trust me, Nature is all there is.

Dawkins God

I decided I needed to investigate the other side a little more. I have weighed many arguments dealing with evolution. The best being Kenneth Miller's "Finding Darwin's God". Miller comes from a semi-Open theist position. The value of his book is not, however, in his conclusions, but is in challenging many of my assumptions. I am more amazed at the Providence of God when he is not the "God of the Gaps" that many evangelicals squeeze Him into.

But I have not read full tome from an atheistic perspective. I am starting to read Dawkins new book "The God Delusion" (his Summa Theologica, so to speak). He also has a mini-series entitled "the root of all evil," about religion. You can grasp his subtle position. We'll have to see what this anti-theistic guy Dawkins has to say. I need to be challenged...

A Story of Homecoming

Return of the Prodigal Son

I have finished this fine book by Nouwen called "The Return of the Prodigal Son". I give it my recommendation even though the author is not dead. First my criticisms.

I part company at least somewhat with the author that we are all sons of God and inherently good. As a protestant that should not be a surprising difference for me to have with a Catholic. I think his insights are still good however because as Christians we are given the spirit of adoption and thus given a new family and a new reputation to live up to. So if one were to view the prodigal son story as story of fellowship with our father (as opposed to just a simple gospel / conversion story) then I think his insights only need minor qualifications.
The art observations are very cool. As someone who is not very artsy it does wear old. The observations from scripture hold my attention better, but I find very little fault with his using art as an illustrative tool. All in all that is a welcome portion of the book.

Ok what is just plain good about the book? The comments on the elder son hit me in a way I needed. I felt liberated to live and serve freely in my fathers house with joy and without resentment. Also the call to love like the father loves is certainly a high goal worth setting. This book is short and easy to read, but it is deep rich and packed with spiritual insights that are very refreshing to the soul!! It will help you to identify well with each character of perhaps Jesus' most famous parable.

Reformed comeback

Well I do hope there are more exciting things then this going on in the church today. But the upswing in Calvinism is something that I think is exciting and pretty cool. As they say sound living flows from sound doctrine. I know Piper was very helpful to me to understand the Glory of God and the importance of making God my treasure and source of Joy. While I have problems with Reformed theology on some levels it is so much better then most of what else is out there. It is deep, rich and God centered. I hope that the end of this story is correct. My take is that Reformed theology often does try to hard to fit scripture into it's system at times. It seem to me it does not simply let the Bible speak, most notably on God's promises to Israel. But that being said, I LOVE CALVINISM!

Pope must die

Still I do not understand the "hurt" if the Pope was simply saying stop trying to kill us so we can talk. But this is encouraging to read in a story about a group calling for the Pope's death. Has it come to this? That I think wow he is a great guy for saying the Pope should not die?

Larger Islamic groups in Britain said they accepted the Pope's apology. Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "The Vatican has moved quickly to deal with the hurt and we accept that.

"It was something that should never have happened - words of that nature were always likely to cause dismay - and we believe some of the Pope's advisers may have been at fault over his speech."

Pope in Effigy

This is getting to predictable. Will these Islamo fascists types every get it? If you are angry that someone suggested your religion is violent should one respond by burning the person in effigy in protest?? hmmmm... This will prove them wrong!

I am not even convinced that the Pope was saying what they think he was saying, it appears to me he was just discussing history of thought around the subject. I am again reminded too of how different religions really are. As John Piper pointed out a few months back being mocked really is the essence of Christ's work, not Mohammad’s. Which would explain why I think Sarah Silverman is right when she says (paraphased) we all know it is safe to make fun of certain groups. Christians are not going to hunt you down and kill you. But others would respond in a manner that makes it hard to have a rational discussion.

I am eager to see what the Pope does next in response to calls for an apology. I can see it now "After seeing myself burned in effigy I see the serious error in my comments that suggested that Mohammad has only brought violence to the world. I deeply regret my foolish words."

The Pope and ID

A honest debate on intelligent design is something I would love to see. I love that the Pope is considering this. I love science and all it has to offer, no doubt. But it seems so many in science have such an narrow view. Do I really have to only think thoughts that are empirical? Should I (or can I) really live on science alone? My soul cries out for something more, but not less. So let's debate and explore the origins of the universe on scientific and philosophic and whatever grounds we can find to search out the questions of life. Peter Kreeft has some good arguments here that while I do not buy into all of them are certainly worth exploring.

Spurgeon quote for the day.

"The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them." -C.H. Spurgeon

Joy

While watching The Question of God - Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis the other night I was struck by C.S. Lewis' take on Joy as a desire. Or even as desire for a desire. If Luther (Commentary on Peter & Jude) and the majority of commentators that I have read about 1 Peter are correct, then 1 Peter is about what Luther termed "Future Joy". Putting that with Lewis' definition of joy then it is a interesting concept that the joy we look forward to in heaven is a desire, certainly a desire for God and the things of God. We can only get a taste of it here, mingled with the death and heartache of Earth. But when Christ comes the joy His people feel does seem to be something beyond what can be put into words. We will both have the desire, and the object of our desire.

Table Talk for the Day

DCCCXXX.
News came from Torgau that the Turks had led out into the great square at Constantinople twenty-three Christian prisoners, who, on their refusing to apostatize, were beheaded. Dr. Luther said: Their blood will cry up to heaven against the Turks, as that of John Huss did against the papists. `Tis certain, tyranny and persecution will not avail to stifle the Word of Jesus Christ. It flourishes and grows in blood. Where one Christian is slaughtered, a host of others arise. `Tis not on our walls or our arquebusses I rely for resisting the Turk, but upon the Pater Noster. `Tis that will triumph. The Decalogue is not, of itself, sufficient. I said to the engineers at Wittenberg: Why strengthen your walls - they are trash; the walls with which a Christian should fortify himself are made, not of stone and mortar, but of prayer and faith.

-Luther

Buchanan encourages good to do nothing in the face of evil

This is hardly the theme of Buchanan's "they didn't attack us" response to evil:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

1 Peter Study

We are now in the second half of Chapter 1.
Thought for the theme from John Calvin (my commentator of choice): "The main point of this epistle is to raise us above the world, in order that we may be prepared and encouraged to sustain the spiritual contests of our warefare."
In other words: 1 Peter fosters joy in hope of 'future grace.' (to steal John Piper's phrase)

Superman vs. Gibson's Christ

Ok I have seen "The Passion" and while it has many problems, I liked it a lot. I have not made it to Superman yet so I do not have much to comment on this story. But I am looking forward to seeing the new Superman movie! Looks like it could be fun. As for getting the Gospel message out to the masses through a mainstream movie... I am to tired of the thought to even yawn at it anymore. I just don't think that God has plans for a big revival centered around a Hollywood production. Even so it is still beneficial to discern truth and beauty in any art whether it claims to be "Christian" or not. In that spirit I submit this story for your reading enjoyment.

Chesterton Quote for June

"Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it." - Autobiography, 1937

The Local Church is the Hope of the World 2

Stories of the growth of home churches continue to pop up here and there. Like this story entitled "Going to Church by Staying at Home" While I see the necessity of it in many places like China or India. I stand by my position that it is mostly a negative thing in the U.S. While I can totally sympathize with not wanting to be part of a "megachurch" and the overhead of American "Churches" is part of what is wrong with our culture. We often seem to think we need to have the best building, state of the art nursery etc. No we don't! I also think that small groups in peoples homes is needed. Even if they are hard to get along with sometimes. Having conceded that and other points, I do think we need to be plugged into the larger community and not be doing our Christianity "Freelance" with no educated leaders. I continue to hold that more is needed then just a "Bible and a believer" to get truth right... Let's humble ourselves and get to church on Sunday.

1 Peter

This summer we will be tackling 1 Peter with the help of our Dead Theologian friends. Aaron has already called Luther for his commentary and I tenatively call Calvin. Sounds like Eric is weighing his options and maybe we can talk Old Man Nelson to join us too (though Jim Elliott and C.S. Lewis didn't write any commentaries so I don't know who Dad would like to pick).

American V

I can hardly contain my excitement. There has been talk of this for a long time but I had given up hope on it being released. But on July 4 we will finally be able to listen to American V. Perfect release date for Johnny Cash’s last album.

Equality would be boring...

The discourse turning among the great differences amongst the learned, Luther said: God has very finely distributed his gifts, so that the learned serve the unlearned, and the unlearned humble themselves before the learned, in what is needful for them. If all people were equal, the world could not go on; nobody would serve another, and there would be no peace. The peacock complained because he had not the nightingale's voice. God, with apparent inequality, has instituted the greatest equality; one man, who has greater gifts than another, is proud and haughty, and seeks to rule and domineer over others, and condemns them. God finely illustrates human society in the members of the body, and shows that one member must assist the other, and that none can be without the other.