Revolutionaries // Seriously

Groen van Prinsterer should be better known.  Here is an article summarizing the 19th Century Dutch historian's thoughts on the French Revolution, politics and faith.  For one example, the Revolution showed that a government based on secular unbelief will be not the savior, but the executioner of the people.  He also critiques social contract theory, which repudiated the divine right of kings, and which was foundational in the American political formation.  Van Prinsterer's book "Unbelief and Revolution" has just been reprinted.


John Piper has a serious article on Galatians.  After quoting several verses of Paul's imploring and severe words ("let them be accursed!"), Piper drops this bombshell: "Woe to the pastor or the worship leader who creates an entertainment atmosphere in their church where this kind of seriousness feels out of place."  Churches need to do a lot more thinking of how to foster in our meetings an emotional tone that fits with Scripture instead of so badly going against its grain, in trying to be casual, accessible, hip, or otherwise relevant to the culture around them.

A Bible Question: Does God Stop Listening?

Psalm 32:6 "Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him."

Question: Isn't that saying that sometimes God isn't listening? What am I missing?

The main point here connects with verse 5: there will come a time when it is too late to repent and be forgiven. Both in our death and God's final judgment of us.  But also on earth, God brings consequences for our sins after a time if we don't change in time.

The second half of the verse is tricky and can be read two ways.
1. "They" refers to the godly's prayers. The point then is that the prayers of confession are too late - only to stop the consequences, not to really repent. Hebrews 12:16-17 would be an example of this. I don't read the verse this way, because it says "the godly," and it's the ungodly who act this way.

2. "They" refers to the waves that won't reach the godly. Verse 7 seems to confirm this. This isn't an absolute: "the godly will never have trouble, and be spared all consequences of their sin." But there is an ultimate sparing and mercy from God to His people.

Handling Your Toddler's Temper Tantrum

What do I do when my 2 year old throws a tantrum?

What parent of little ones hasn’t faced this?  Here are some thoughts.

1.      Remember the human condition.  We have inherited a sinful nature going all the way back to Adam and Eve.  As your child’s physical capabilities grow, so will her ability to sin.  Expect this, no matter how diligent you are in your home to discipline your children.  When the fit starts, maybe you arranged things badly and can learn from that.  But many times a tantrum comes from sin welling up from within.  You haven’t failed as a parent.  When you enroll in a math class you should expect math problems; when you become a parent, expect to deal with sin in your child.

2.      Trust God.  The first step in solving this problem is faith.  You’re staring sin right in the face, and it’s in your precious baby!  You’re desperate to stop it, and you know you’re called to deal with it.  But remember we overcome sin only with God’s help.  The toddler tantrum is one of the early indicators for Christian parents that they are not in full control of their child’s soul.  God is sovereign here as everywhere, so we have to trust Him.  But that is not a resigned trust.  God has given us promises of blessing for our children as we trust Him.

3.      Keep calm, and parent on.  What does faith look like when the tantrum starts?  Keep a calm and strong spirit in response to an emotional child.  If you lose it in response to their losing it, you are not leading but following your child.  I don’t care what Montessori says, this is the death of good parenting.  Pleasant and smiling resistance is the name of the game.

4.      Don’t let them win.  In the long run, “us against them” is a losing parenting attitude.  But when the child makes it that for this episode, if you give them their way, you are training them that they can get what they want from you by some kind of aggressive emoting.  Teach them later the right way to ask for what they want, absolutely.  But in the moment, do not give in.  Do not reward bad behavior.  (It may not be the moment to punish it, either.)  Simply withholding what they want and not replacing it with something else to distract them is often the best approach.  A minute after they stop, have them ask or sign respectfully for the same thing, then give it to them.  If they cry in the crib because they don’t want that nap, waiting to go in to them until the screaming fit ends (or at least pauses) can reinforce in the same way.  Disrespectful clamoring for what you want will not be rewarded.  (Parents mostly taught the last two generations the opposite, and look what it has reaped in the political and public square of so-called debate!)

5.      Be patient.  Toddlers throwing tantrums are generally too young to mentally understand abstract concepts like respect and self-denial, but they are old enough to have learned to exert their will.  This is frustrating to parents.  It takes some months of basic training where you aren’t sure if your explanations, spankings, or other artificial consequences are “taking.”  Trust God, and be as consistent as you can.  Be a student of what your child is learning: “what did he just take away from that episode and my parenting?”  Introduce more extensive negative consequences the older and more able they are to connect them to their behavior.  Tweak your tactics when needed, and be ready for that next tantrum.

Yes, your children are sinners, and it is dis-heartening sometimes to see that in such an ugly form.  But Jesus has died to remove the ugly shame and guilt of their tantrum from God’s sight.  You are called to pull weeds in the garden of your family.  May the Lord give you wisdom and diligence and joy in this calling.

You Who?

You Who? Why You Matter and How to Deal With It by Rachel Jankovic

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’ve made a habit of checking the New York Times best seller list regularly now for the last 3-4 months. One author has consistently had two titles in the top 10 the entire time: Rachel Hollis. “Girl, Wash Your Face!” “Girl, Stop Apologizing!” I admit I haven’t read Hollis. I trust the Gospel Coalition’s critical review of her, though, and it gave me pause.

Now, after reading You Who, by Rachel Jankovic, I connected the dots. Jankovic attacks head on the can-do, “you’re-good-enough” positivism Hollis doles out as a panacea for hurting women. The problem is Hollis cries “peace, peace” too soon, when there is really none to be had until you get to the denial and death of our petty and wicked self, and our recovery in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jankovic is at her best when substantively refuting Hollis’ shallow, self-affirming message with the basic gospel of the Christian Scriptures. We need to apologize to God and others for sinning against them. We need to do more than wash our face; God needs to wash us clean. We generate gunk on our own and need an outside cleanser in Christ. It isn’t the other way around: that we generate glory inside ourselves and need to shed the gunk the world tries to load us down with. The chapter on looking to Christ was especially good.

I had one quibble with a chapter where Jankovic inadvertently implies that we should rely on our obedience for our standing before God. She is so reactionary against letting emotions define you (mostly a right reaction), that in this chapter she fell into the other ditch of letting your actions define your faith. But it’s important to recall, too, the Romans 7 reality, that we don’t always behave how we know as believers we should.

Jankovic also suffers from a marketing weakness. She seems unwilling to come right out and say to whom she is responding. She knows enough to go after this big beast, but seems to want to keep the reader in the dark that she is refuting a precious author who affirms them as they are. You Who? really needed a subtitle like, “A Response to Rachel Hollis.” Maybe it is intentional to not turn away readers who haven’t heard of Hollis, though.

A solid read overall to re-center women in the Gospel and not heed the siren song of Oprah with a Christian veneer.



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The Importance of Being Earnest

Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Importance of Being Earnest

So this was my first Oscar Wilde read ever. Barely 70 pages long, filled with snarky yet penetrating social criticism, Wilde knew how to comically caricature a general behavioral fault so we could see ourselves, laugh and hopefully reconsider our ways. I’m not sure I’ll bother to go out of my way to read a lot more Wilde, though.

He plays with the social class’ self-awareness a fair bit. They try so hard to be dishonest, sometimes it backfires and they are found out. They know having a reputation for bad behavior is partly a help in their social ambitions, as long as they don’t cross a certain line. To stay in the socialite circles often calls for disingenuous hypocrisy, and Wilde calls us to sincerity.

Mean what you say.

Be earnest.



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A Memorial Day Thought

When we lived within a half hour's drive of 5 different military bases, the active duty guys were always keen to remind me that Memorial Day is a time to remember those in the military who died serving their country.  Many confuse this with Veterans' Day, a holiday to commemorate all those who have served.  It is akin to the difference between thanking Jesus for dying on the cross, and being grateful for Christian martyrs who kept the faith and died by lions in the arena.  Jesus gave, and these honored dead of our country gave, the last full measure of their devotion.

It's a good analogy, though all analogies break down somewhere.  Those we honor were not perfect and did not make a sacrifice to atone for anyone, nor did they establish a perfect nation.  Often we cannot see the direct effect their death had in the conflict in which they fought, while Jesus' death was efficacious.  He died to make men holy, so let us do what we can and live to make men free.

Memorial Day always has a small home town feel for me.  We had a small parade to the cemetery where the roll call of those buried there who served and died would be read.  Taps and silence.  A short sermon by a local pastor.  Several of the names in the roll call were direct ancestors of mine, or my wife's.  It brings to mind the sacrifices great and small made by our forefathers.  We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.  Some were spiritual giants.  Some performed acts of amazing courage.  Some simply kept plodding along, doing their duty.  Let us thank God for them this weekend.

One-Anothering // Racist Democrats? // Fossil Fuels

Here's a helpful infographic on all the "one-another" verses in the Bible.


And here's further evidence that the race and harassment cards are usually only enforced against Republicans/conservatives.


World Magazine lauds the virtues and necessity of fossil fuels.  Despite all the Green New Deal hype, we cannot survive without them and they aren't as dirty as we are led to believe.

Why Baptize Babies? // Against Mr Judgy Pants // Supreme Battle

Toby Sumpter gives a short yet comprehensive and clear case for infant baptism.


Jonathan Edwards had plenty to say against a censorious spirit, Nick Batzig reports.


Here's great insight into the Supreme Court's internal battle.

Bible Project // For Your Marriage // Google's Gags

The Bible Project looks like an engaging yet faithful way to draw in new readers.


Good marriage advice here from Mark Altrogge.


The Claremont Institute is an excellent conservative think tank.  Their president has a piece in the Wall Street Journal today relating their recent gagging by Google's groupthink.  I think you have to subscribe to read, so here's a little more for free: they ran a series critiquing multi-culturalism and identity politics.  Google shut them down.  They spent hours on the phone with Google and only got "you broke the policy in your treatment of multi-culturalism; there is no appeal."  Once Claremont went public with the story, Google reversed course and let them back online.

This is really ugly.  Any criticism of multi-culturalism today is assumed to be racist.  The liberal lie has won the day, that if you'd rather comparatively critique cultures instead of celebrate them without a hint of moral judgment, you must be a xeno-centric, white-supremacist. 

What a world.

Leadership and Self-Deception

Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Written in a business world context, this valuable book applies widely to anyone who works with others. It shows how we blame others and justify ourselves as a defensive response when we have not done what we should for others. We minimize our problems and exaggerate their faults, and don’t realize we are doing it. This self-deception, the authors call being in the box. A primary cause of this is objectifying others as tools for our agenda, instead of treating them as people.

There is a lot of sound theology behind this. It really defines conviction, sin, and repentance quite well regarding behavior toward others. It shows the slipperiness of sin. How anything can be used for sinful, self-serving purposes, even this book that exposes our self-serving tendencies! If we don’t give more weight to our own responsibilities than others’ faults, we’ll stay in the box. There is a difference between blaming others to get something for yourself, and assigning responsibility to them for their own good.

An important read for those in conflict with others, and those who have a “problem” person in their life, whether at work, church or home.



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Sunday Mornings

Sunday Mornings: An Introduction to Biblical Worship by Brian W. Phillips

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A colleague and pastor in North Carolina wrote this wonderful introduction to what worship should be. While there are more academic treatments of covenant renewal worship, which is characteristic of my denomination the CREC, this one is easily readable and meant to address the average church goer.

Phillips first attacks the problem, critiquing the typical church’s approach to worship today. It is too casual when we should cultivate reverence and awe. We exalt sincerity and give any and every worship experiment a pass in its name. The Nadab and Abihu incident from Leviticus 10 rebukes this attitude in force. We also remove our children from worship and cater a more entertaining program to them until well into their teen years. Then we wonder why they don’t like “adult worship” when they are brought in later on.

Phillips argues instead that there is a biblical pattern of worship, principles we still should follow found in the most specific instruction God ever gave His people on worship, in Leviticus 9, which Hezekiah follows in 2 Chronicles 29:20-36. I’ll leave the details of this for another time.

Phillips also argues for bringing the children to Jesus in the corporate (all together) worship service. A generation ago (maybe a bit less), this was known as family-integrated worship. The label has fallen on hard times, due to legalistic excesses and scandals in the movement, but the idea is still a good one: stop segregating God’s people by age and instead train the children in the thing you want them to arrive at: mature worship. I think a valid case can be made against this: why not teach to children at the level they can understand (Nehemiah 8:3)? But there’s a better case for the inclusion of children (they eat the Passover lamb, Ephesians 6:1 is addressed to them, etc.). An analogy might be teaching a foreign language using the immersion method early on when they don’t get it all yet, instead of teaching them the grammar and vocabulary later on.

Phillips addresses other hotly debated topics even more briefly:
We should give our baptized children communion with everyone else.
The Sabbath is an ongoing commandment but shouldn’t become a burdensome obligation.

The whole book will either turn people off early on and they’ll dismiss it, or it just begs for more study if Phillips’ assertions are taken seriously, as I heartily believe they should be. One place to go next is The Lord’s Service, by Jeff Meyers.

Highly recommended for thinking through what your church experience should be.



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A Reckoning for Josh Harris and Courtship Culture

Yet another gloating piece about Josh Harris’ apology for I Kissed Dating Goodbye crossed my desk last week, and I’m getting tired of it.

Mainstream conservative Christianity is pushing back hard against any form of courtship, the newly popular dirty word.

Here’s what I think.

Yes, Harris went overboard in swearing off opposite sex relationships completely, and overstating how damaging emotional defrauding can be.

No, his idea of waiting to date until you’re ready to marry is NOT a bad idea.

I wouldn't call it a sin to date before you're ready to marry, but I do consider it less wise than waiting.

Desiring God Ministries thought so a few years ago, too.

I bet they still do.

So what’s going on?  Why are so many so happy to hear Harris recant?

Well, there IS such a thing as an unwritten “purity culture” out there, egged on (but not truly endorsed) by books like this.  It’s an attitude among families and churches that ostracizes young people who mix too freely with the opposite sex.  It implies that if you lose your emotional purity, much more your physical purity, it’s all over for you.  You lost at the “live God’s way” game in your teens and 20s.  Grace is not preached or emphasized because that would take away the motivation of fear.  I’m against this unwritten purity culture - a form of legalism - as much as the next guy.

But I think it’s just as easy to go too far the other way and say that young people should mix socially without any regard for sexual attraction – why can’t we be friends without worrying about that? – to the point of young people of mixed genders living together, convinced that it won’t be a problem.  It’s quite an inconsistency to behold dyed-in-the-wool Calvinists who are very pessimistic about whether they can advance in sanctification at all, be completely confident that their close interactions with girls couldn’t lead to any kind of trouble.

So reveling in recantations like Harris' is just another pendulum swing away from sober wisdom when it comes to preparing for marriage and finding your spouse.

Celebrate the Resurrection - Again!

Christ is risen!

Resurrection Day is past but the Easter season isn't over.

I encourage you to continue celebrating the Easter season as a family in some way.  This season runs until Ascension Day May 30, which includes 5 more Sundays.  Here are a few ways to "keep the feast."

1. Teach your children to respond joyfully to "Christ is risen!" with "He is risen indeed!"  Say this to them a few times a day, maybe at mealtime or waking.

2. Have a special drink on the table each Sunday of the season.  Even make "Christ is risen!" the toast, so to speak.

3. Practice joy.  When you are tempted to gloominess, take a deliberately joyful act, remembering the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

4. Study the resurrection more in the Reformed confessions:

- Westminster Confession of Faith 8.4

- Westminster Larger Catechism 51-52

- Heidelberg 45

- For something different, try the Second Helvetic Confession 11.10

May the Lord give you the joy of new life in Christ each day!

On the Trinity - Book 7

Augustine spent almost 30 years writing "On the Trinity" in the early 400s.

I thought I'd make an attempt to summarize this valuable but hard-to-read treatise.

First of all, the way Augustine can flip between minute philosophical points and pious personal ones is astonishing.

In book 7, the bishop from North Africa uses the doctrine of divine simplicity to resolve a question:
if Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30) then how can the Father and the Spirit also be the wisdom of God without there being three Wisdoms?

Answer:
Since to be God is to be wise, the Father is wisdom, and the Son is wisdom of wisdom, in the same way that Christ is light of light.  There isn't some other thing or essence that is wisdom, light, truth, etc. that the Father, Son and Spirit are made or derived from.  To be the Father is to be truth, to be the Son is to be truth, etc.

Finally, Augustine defends traditional language regarding the Trinity: Scripture does not speak of three Persons in one God, but we have to speak this way because there is no other way to maintain the unity of God as one, and the divinity of Father, Son and Spirit.

Job

Job

Something I hadn’t thought of before.

We often think of Job as vindicated at the end of the book, and God does have him pray for his friends.  But don’t forget chapters 38-41, especially 40:8.  God certainly sets Job straight.  There is an antimony (apparent-but-not-real contradiction) between two truths: 1) Job needed rebuke from God for charging God with wrong (40:8); and 2) Job spoke of God what was right (42:7, 8).  The difference is that Job repents (42:3, 6).  His friends don’t.

At first.

Here’s something else we don’t consider much at the end of Job.  His friends repent, too.

Job finds himself willingly interceding for the friends who persecuted him.  They repent, too, but God has put Job in a favored position by His sovereign choice.

Jesus is put to the test like Job.  He suffers unjustly, not just in appearance but in truth.  He opens not His mouth to charge God with wrong or to revile His accusers.  He speaks only words of faith: He knows His redeemer lives.