On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 
On the seventh day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Seven swans a-swimming

Seven Spirit Gifts
 
Romans 12:6-8:
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:
1)     if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
2)     or ministry, let us use it in our ministering;
3)     he who teaches, in teaching;
4)     he who exhorts, in exhortation;
5)     he who gives, with liberality;
6)     he who leads, with diligence;
7)     he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
 
While not an exhaustive list, Paul conveys here the diversity of abilities in the body of Christ, that each need to work together for the body to function as one and be effective.
 
There may be some overlap with natural abilities here, but the context of Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 makes clear that God intentionally by His Spirit gives us specific gifts and graces.
 
The practical point is to use them.  Do what you’re good at!

Those who have studied the biblical shepherd’s lifestyle tell me that shepherds threw rocks a lot.  Israel is a very rocky land, and sheep are easily frightened.  So an easy way to move sheep was to throw a rock to a place you want them to move away from.  They were precision rock throwers, often with a sling.  So when David stands before Goliath, he uses the gift he’s been given, instead of going with the world’s usual method (Saul’s armor).
 
What gifts has God given you?  How will you use them in 2022?

On the Sixth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 
On the sixth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Six geese a-laying

Six Creation Days
 
It’s in vogue today to see the creation week as poetry, not history.  And utterly unscientific.  How could there be light before there was a sun!  Ridiculous.  But only to the naturalistic mind that cannot accept a God with power greater than forces of nature.
 
The Bible actually tells us to rest one day every seven, because that’s what God did.  Our 7-day week comes from Genesis 1, and we ought to follow it.  “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.  In it you shall do no work…” (Deut. 5:13-14).
 
This isn’t to say there is NO poetry to the creation account.  There certainly is.  The first 3 days, God creates a three-story world on three canvases, or spaces: sky, sea, land.  The next 3 days He fills each of them. 
 
At the end, instead of saying “Let there be,” He says “Let Us make man in Our image.”  Humans are uniquely God-like in the world, and called to rule the world faithfully in His stead (Gen. 1:28).  This view has been under assault the last few decades with the environmentalist movement, which sees man more as a violator of nature, and just one part of it.  Who’s to say a human life is worth more than a whale or a deer?  God says it.  Here.  At the very beginning.
 
This is not a license to trash the planet.  Just the opposite – we are to care for it.  But the earth is a garden God gives for us to use wisely.  We may not abuse it.  But we may also not preserve it untouched.  We need to cultivate it, as a garden.  It’s a tool in the workshop, not mom’s best china that we may never touch.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the fifth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Five gold-en riiiiings!

Five Books of the Law
 

The Jews have an annual feast to celebrate God’s giving of the Law: Shavuot.  It remembers Moses coming down Sinai with the two tablets of the Ten Commandments.
 
Christians tend not to celebrate the law as they should.  We have largely lost the Psalmist’s heart cry, “Oh, how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).

 
It can be helpful to read the Ten Commandments as God’s wedding vows, as He takes Israel as His bride.  “I have done this for you; you be faithful to Me in these ways.”
1 – no other husbands/gods
2 – no pictures, either, to run after them
3 – take My name and wear it well
4 – spend time with Me
5 – honor your ancestors and authorities
6 – no physical harm
7 – obvious
Etc
 
All those obscure Levitical laws were specific things God gave us to do to show that we are set apart as His bride, and no one else’s.
 
So cherish all of the Bible in 2021, as coming from the God who loves you.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the fourth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Four calling birds

Four Gospel Books
 

Just as there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1-2 (the second starts at 2:4), so God gave us four accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry.
 
Matthew gives us Christ as King, fulfilling the Scriptures
Mark gives us an active, abrupt Christ, in Peter’s blunt style
Luke gives us a Christ for the whole world, from a Gentile doctor’s view
John gives us Christ as eternal Word, who is our bread, shepherd, way, truth & life
 

Fools seek contradictions among these to debunk Jesus, while the wise know that multiple portraits are needed to round out any one author’s portrayal of any life, much less the most unique life (the only God-man ever) in history.

On the Third Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 

On the third day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Three French hens

Faith, Hope and Love
 
“So now faith, hope and love abide, these three” – 1 Corinthians 13:13.
The capstone of Paul’s great “Love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13, the context is really interesting.  The Corinthians put too much importance on knowledge, abilities/gifts, powerful speakers and their reputations.  Paul points out there are far more important things.  The mark of a spiritual person isn’t impressing others with speaking in tongues, how many books you’ve read, how impressively you can preach.  Sensationalism and spirituality don’t go together well.
 
Simple trust in God with your life, hoping in His work in the future (including 2021!), and love of God and neighbor, sum up the essence of the Christian life.
 

FAITH
People put stock in faith, in itself.  Faith in faith.  It’s nice to be people of faith.  But in WHAT?  “Whoever believes IN HIM [Jesus] should not perish…” (John 3:16).
 

HOPE
People right now seem to have a “fingers-crossed” attitude toward 2022.  This is not biblical hope.  “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19).  Biblical hope KNOWS God will arrange everything in His world for the good of His people (Romans 8:28), regardless of how much disruption that may bring to our lives.
 

LOVE
People tend to see love as good feelings or a close connection toward others.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11).  Love gives drastically of itself for the good of others.

On the Second Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings
 

On the second day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Two turtledoves

Two testaments
 
God has revealed Himself in His Word, and we divide that into Old and New testaments.
“The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”

It has become politically correct to only refer to the Old Testament as the Hebrew Bible, out of sensitivity to Judaism, to not call their Scriptures “Old.”  But this is a mistake.  The Old Testament is Act One and Two of God’s grand play: Creation and Fall.  It does NOT stand on its own, but calls for more.  

The New Testament gives us Acts Three and Four: Redemption and Completion.  I’d encourage you to read some from each testament every day of 2021.

On the First Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas with Christian meanings
 
On the first day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

A partridge in a pear tree
Jesus Christ our Savior, baby
 
Jesus of course is God’s first gift to the world.  God spoke the eternal Word, and by Him created the worlds in Genesis 1:2-3.  “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made” (Psalm 33:6).  They were made by Him and FOR Him (Colossians 1:16). 
 
God spoke again, and the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary.  The Word entered her womb and took on the flesh of a human embryo: Jesus of Nazareth.  God became a man to save men.
 
“God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” – John 3:16.
 
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” – 2 Corinthians 9:15

Turning the Page from 2021 to 2022

I wrote this last year at this time, and it's still relevant today...


Throwing out the tree and garland on December 26 is probably normal for many people.  It’s even a holiday of its own – Boxing Day – for some.
 
But it troubles me.  And at the end of 2021 it indicates a deeper problem.
 
This year, it seems people want 2021 to be over, more than they want to observe holidays.

It’s a spiritual problem.  We are like the Stoic fatalist who breaks his leg and says, “Well, glad that’s over.”  Hm.  NOT a Christian view of life or God’s providence.
 
In the church’s calendar, Christmas BEGINS on December 25, it does not end then.  The twelve days of Christmas is not just a song, but a steady, festive march to January 6.  That is the holiday (holy day) of Epiphany, when we celebrate the magi coming to worship Jesus, when we recall the light of the world coming to Gentiles and the whole world, not just to Israel.
 
When we call out “Happy Holidays!” today it is often a substitute for the too-Christian “Merry Christmas.”  But Happy Holidays for the thoughtful Christian can pull together Advent, Christmas and Epiphany all in one, and keep our observance balanced, and more helpful than the world’s.
 

The world’s rhythm is very different.
Store decorations come out right after Halloween. 
The hustle and bustle builds to a climax around December 23-24.
Then all goes quiet for time with family December 24-25.
The next day the decorations come down.
The next Monday we go back to work, or away on vacation, and think about a New Year.
 
In 2021, this is even more pronounced.
There has been much talk about wanting 2021 OVER, and little talk of holidays, beyond how to [not] gather.  The hopes and fears of 2021 are on a stupid calendar square and a number: 2022.  Or our hopes and fears [at the end of 2020!] were on January 5 (Georgia elections) or 6 (House vote on the electoral college) or 20 (Biden’s inauguration), depending on your politics.
 
But on Christmas Eve, we sang together as a church a truth that exposes and rejects those hopes as false or fleeting:
 
“The hopes and fears of ALL THE YEARS are met in Thee [in Bethlehem, in Jesus] tonight.”
 

 
How can we live out this truth?  Here are a few ideas.
 
1. Don’t make new year’s eve such a big deal this year.
Resist the urge to celebrate with the world a calendar turn, as if that has any effect at all on events.  “If we just turn the page to 2022, Covid will go away!”  What kind of weird superstition is that?  God’s providence rules the world, not a Julian calendar.  Not a change in the American presidency, not the rollout of a vaccine.  But this year we’re leaning on a new year to give us hope, more than we are on the reality of Christmas.  And this is not just a 2021 phenomenon, but part of the overall growing secularizing of our American culture.  Resist it.  Christians don’t lean on the same things the rest of the world does.
 
 
2. Keep giving gifts.
I’ve reserved a few gifts to give to my family throughout the 12 days of Christmas, leading up to Epiphany.  The world sees this as a faux pas - as if you forgot their birthday.  But that’s the wrong way to look at it.  Jesus is truly the “gift that keeps on giving.”  Forever!  Why not observe His Incarnation, not only in the act of giving gifts at all, but in the WAY we give them?  God gave Jesus on Christmas, but He kept giving in Christ’s earthly life of 30 years, and obedient ministry of 3 years, climaxing in His gift on the cross.  And then God kept giving!  The resurrection.  Pentecost, when the gift spread to the nations.  The ministry of Paul of Tarsus, when the gift spread to the Gentiles, and the world, even to the Roman emperor.  Keep giving to your loved ones, in the same spirit.
 
 
3. Find ways to remember God’s gifts to you.
We tend to use our extra time from December 25 until work restarts to enjoy the gifts we received.  What if we also keep remembering God’s gifts to us?
 
Here’s one way my family has done that.
The song “The 12 days of Christmas” may have started as a code song for persecuted Christians to sing of God’s love to His people.  Even if not, my family has profited from singing this adapted version throughout the 12 days of Christmas.  It mostly fits the meter of the song, so you can sing it.  This is the same pattern as the Jesse Tree of Advent, remembering each day a particular part of God’s redemptive history leading up to Christ.
 
On the x day of Christmas, my True Love [God, Jesus] gave to me:
Jesus Christ our Savior, baby
Two Testaments [Old and New, the Bible]
Faith, Hope and Love
Four Gospel Books
Five Books of the Law
Six Creation Days
Seven Spirit Gifts
Eight Beatitudes
Nine Spirit Fruits
Ten Good Commandments
Eleven Faithful Apostles
Twelve Tribes of Israel
 
And the focus on Israel on Twelfth Night, January 5, can lead naturally into the Epiphany celebration of God’s revelation to the Gentiles, too.
 
 
4. Pray as you consume news – hope in the Lord for good!
To have your hopes and fears of all your years meet in Jesus today, takes work.
It seems to me that the news, from every political bias, has become more aggressive in pressuring its viewers what to trust in, as a result of the bad news they report.  And it's never Jesus.  Science, Trump, not-Trump, Build Back Better, etc.  This all reinforces their audience’s counterfeit “HOPES AND FEARS” thus bringing them back for more viewing and ratings.  (Tim Keller's "Counterfeit Gods" is good on this.)  One newspaper's Digital Word of the Year in 2020 was “Doomscrolling:” being obsessed with taking in bad news, such that you can’t stop scrolling.  Don’t get sucked into this.  As the media casts cares on you, cast them on the Lord.
 
Use His Word to help in this.  It is a needed counterbalance to consuming news.  If you read through the Bible in a year, a practice I highly recommend, you’re coming to the end of Revelation.  There’s a LOT of bad news in there – far worse than 2021!  But Christ’s power and His return resolve it all into a coming world with no tears, pain or death.  Plan your Scripture reading for 2022, to give God’s news more weight in your heart and mind than the world’s.
 
A fearful populace is an easily controlled populace.  I think 2020 shows this to be true.  So don’t let the news drive all your emotions and thoughts.  Reject fear, shame and guilt, casting them all on Christ for your atonement and vindication.  Then stand free before the Lord, even in a world of bad news, knowing Christ has triumphed and will redeem this world.  We will live forever where truth, goodness and beauty are unhindered by any evil.  The kingdoms of this world will have become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.  And He shall reign forever and ever.  Amen!

More on Grove City College

As the parent of a freshman at Grove City, I was concerned when I became aware of an article asserting Grove City was going woke.  My student had independently told me of a chapel talk or two that seemed off to him.  When I read the president’s response, I had a very different reaction to it than the American Reformer article.  To me, it seemed solid, not “limp.”  I wondered if I was missing something.
 
Now with Carl Trueman’s article, I’m confirmed in my continued trust in the college’s direction.  He clarifies even how the mistake was made in the chapel talk speaker.
 
This is an important lesson for conservatives, who tend to shoot their wounded.  It’s a lesson I’ve re-learned recently in my own ministry.  When we are afraid that the whole world is going woke, we are too quick with accusations and mistakes made by “our guys” when it even SMELLS like wokeness to us.

Let’s not turn on each other.  Be careful not to circulate false reports (Exodus 23:1).  There is a whole cottage industry of ANTI “social justice warriors” cropping up on the right.  These "discernment bloggers" often seem more interested in raising an outcry, or making a name for themselves, than in getting at the truth.
 
Especially on a college campus, beware of accusations that CRT is being discussed in book studies, classes, etc.  Of COURSE it is – it should be!  But the accusations are usually made with the insinuation that the admin or faculty involved are advocating it.  On 90% of campuses, that is probably true.  But why would we get upset when faculty like Carl Trueman raise the issue with students?  I think it’s wise to “ban the teaching of” CRT in high school.  But do we want to cry foul when it’s even raised on a solid college campus, even if the goal is to refute it?
 
Again, it seems there is a kernel of truth among the avalanche of assertions.  Tisby should have been disinvited.  The president could and should still say so.  But I’m going to be gracious, knowing they probably vetted him before he went crazy woke.  Unless more Tisby types keep speaking at chapel, I’ll hold off making such assertions against Grove City, and encourage others not to slander the name of a good institution that we should be cheering on, not cutting down.

The Supreme Court Considers Abortion

Two days ago, I listened to the oral arguments before our nation’s Supreme Court regarding abortion.
 
Mississippi has enacted a law banning abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation.
Abortion advocates have challenged it.
 
At 10:00am sharp Wednesday, the court heard an argument from MS, for the first time I believe in almost 50 years, that Roe v. Wade should be overruled, and that the states should be able to decide the issue themselves.

 
Some observations:
 
1. The liberal justices used irrational emotion to make their case.
They were appalled, incredulous, that this was even being argued.  Such a basic right!  Their tone and rhetoric was emotional.  I think they are on the defensive know the majority of justices may go against them.
 

2. They also pointed to precedent.  Overturning precedent (Roe) will make us seem political and corrode the authority of our institution.  This is a play at the chief justice’s vote.  His priority is to maintain the prestige of the institution, more than anything.  Since that should not be the ultimate priority of ANY institution, he is manipulable, and will wind up corroding the authority of the institution, by his own decisions.  (This happens everywhere in life: if you idolize the church, you’ll warp its shape and function into something it shouldn’t be.  If you idolize the family, you won’t raise your kids rightly.)
 

3. Sotomayor’s argument was the most gruesome: brain-dead people respond muscularly to pokes, so why is fetal pain relevant?  God will judge this with His vengeance, in His time.  As He will the court’s past declarations in Casey and Obergefell, that people have a right to define life and its meaning as they want to.
 

4. The conservatives are divided between overturning Roe, or just adjusting its criteria of when the timeline of gestation in a law becomes unconstitutional.  Alito and Thomas’ line of questioning showed they are willing to overturn an “egregiously wrong” decision, regardless of recent precedent, as the court did against Brown and Plessy.  But Roberts wants a narrow ruling, as always, just deciding if MS’s 15 week rule is constitutional.  This will likely result in Roe NOT being overturned, I think.  Gorsuch will follow Roberts, Barrett will side with Alito and Thomas.  The 6 of them WILL uphold the MS law, which is a good thing.  But only 3 are willing to overrule Roe, outright.
 

5. Don’t forget the political fallout from this.  I believe it will galvanize the left to come out in force in the mid-terms next year.  The coming red wave everyone is talking about will be blunted by this decision, which will be revealed in June – perfect timing for elections in November.  People tend to vote AGAINST what just happened, not so much FOR what they want.

Lessons on Resisting the Government from Ezra, with a Typology Coda

In Ezra 4-6, the syncretistic Samaritans harrassed the returned exiles who are trying to rebuild the temple and city of Jerusalem.  They wait until Cyrus is gone (who told them they could build), and write the next king that Jerusalem will be rebellious.  He orders it stopped, and they do.

At the beginning of chapter 5, the Jews begin to rebuild.

They did not consult with the authorities before they went ahead and began building.  God had told them to, through Haggai and Zechariah.  They KNEW Ahasuerus' decree that they stop and not build.  But they listened to God instead of the king.

But this is not as clear cut as it seems.  

Many today, eager for civil disobedience, infer that the Jews were right to completely disregard any Persian king's order, and do what they know is right, come what may.  But it seems from Ezra 5:1-5 and Haggai 1 that God waits to speak until Darius has come to the throne.

So I would make two more modest claims.

1. It can be fine to challenge a bad law legally by intentionally disobeying it.

God, through Haggai and Zechariah, endorses it!  Daniel does it by praying to God publicly after the king's command not to.

2. Who is in power makes a difference, in civil disobedience decisions.

Ahasuerus believed slander, and sometimes you reach a legal, dead-end loss, and need to take your lumps.  Darius was more judicious, and Judah probably discerned this from the Empire News headlines.  "When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan" (Proverbs 29:2).  

In just war theory, one factor in deciding whether to go to war is the chances you have of winning.  So here, we ought to be more willing to make a legal or public square challenge, the more likely we are to win.

You could even say that God said to Israel through Haggai, "It's time, take this on, all the way to the emperor if you have to.  This one's going to listen."  They have a new opening to get the government's approval.

The typical rejoinder to this is that Haggai said Israel was disobeying Him to not rebuild.  It's not about the timing or who's in charge, but about obeying God rather than men, right?

But a close reading of the beginning of Haggai does not confirm this view.  God does NOT say, "You've been sinning all along, to not rebuild the temple against the king's command.  You never should have stopped."  No, He says, over a year into Darius' ascension, "Judah says it's not time to rebuild yet, but it IS time.  You've sat in your fancy houses long enough."  This confirms my point, especially Haggai mentioning the timing of Darius' reign.  And it refutes those who say, "When it comes to matters surrounding worship (circa sacris, like temple rebuilding, or zoning restrictions on churches), we always do what God says and never pay heed to Caesar."

There are certainly times to disregard or resist government intervention into our worship.

But to begin with the assumption, "You never have any right to give input on anything about the gathering of the church" is an overstep on the church's part.

A Coda

Personally, I think God used the sin of Judah's enemies and Ahasuerus, to provide for impoverished Israel to get their own families cared for first, before building HIS house.  God establishes/redeems/saves His people, gets them set up securely, then has them build Him a house.

1. Exodus

 - then families get plunder and set up their tents, 

 - then Sinai and tabernacle.

2. Conquest of Canaan

 - then inheritance to the tribes

 - then temple with Solomon.

3. Return to the land

 - then families build houses, 

 - then rebuilt temple and city.

4. Cross, Resurrection and Ascension

 - then apostles ordered and believers counted (Acts 1), 

 - then Pentecost (Spirit takes residence in His Church).

Teachers I Respect

I've started a list of "Voices to Which I Listen."

This may seem a strange thing to do, but I believe it is important to be self-aware about who you are following, and why.

I'm giving you the whole (first draft) list here, and I'll probably do a blog series on each, explaining why I stop scrolling to read them, why I go to their blogs intentionally, or why I buy and read their books.

Preliminary thoughts:

1. It's impossible to include every author I've appreciated, so I'm limiting this to teachers I'm actively and repeatedly giving time to.  If their podcast drops, I'll listen.  If everyone did this honestly, it would be really revealing.  I'm going for transparency here.

2. I've also left off those I've heard snippets of and like, but just haven't gotten around to listening to a lot.  James White and Gary DeMar would be examples.

3. It's important to have a multitude of counselors, not just follow 1-3 people in the same narrow orbit.  Keeping this list broad is good.

4. I tried to make it "most influential earlier in the list" but that may not be exact.

5. I hope it's obvious, but these are earthly teachers, who are writing and speaking now, or in the recent past.  

Omitting Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, Augustine, Calvin, etc., doesn't mean I'm ignoring them for this list!

Please help me edit this list!  Add to it, or challenge names on it.

R.C. Sproul

Sinclair Ferguson

George Grant

Doug Wilson

Carl Trueman

Al Mohler

World Magazine/Marvin Olasky

Kevin DeYoung

Ray VanderLaan

John Piper

Mark Dever

Tim Keller

Ben Shapiro

David Bahnsen

Aaron Renn

Acton Institute

Alistair Begg

Jordan Peterson

I'll add categories and explanations later.  

For now, tell me who you listen to a lot that isn't here.

Or who you cringe at seeing named!

The Unique Blessing of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches

This was so good, I listened TWICE.

It’s a description of the uniqueness of my denomination, the CREC – Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.
 
The second time through, I took these shorthand notes, in case you don’t have the time to listen through all the banter.
 
Main Participants:
Jerry Owen – pastor near Seattle
Uri Brito – pastor in Florida panhandle
Toby Sumpter – pastor in Idaho

I. What is a presbytery? A council?

It is not good for man (or churches) to be alone.  They need relationship with others for encouragement and accountability.  That’s what presbyteries and denominations are.
 
II. What makes the CREC unique?
  A. A Cultural element
    1. Intentional personalism.  We know each other, have been in the homes of pastors and elders, seen their families interact naturally.  The man on the street craves relationship today, and we offer it, even if you don’t connect with our liturgy or theology right away.  “I’ve had 5 invitations to dinner in 20 minutes, after the worship service!”
 
     2. During worship, the dads will stand in the back with their kids who need care.  He’s loving his wife.  This is a form of masculinity unknown.  We have a “culture of men” that is healthy, not toxic masculinity or unhealthy patriarchy.  [No one believes this is true, because of the lies and slander hurled at Moscow, Idaho, but it is.]
 
     3. Cheerful resistance to totalitarian covid restrictions.
 
     4. Our strength is seeing the trajectory of cultural compromise in the church, like on sexuality or wokeness.
 
  B. A Theological element - common presuppositions, with Van Til.
            We actually believe that God’s Word directs us to worship and live this way, and challenge the culture in a specific way.
  
  C. A Liturgical element
     1. There is healthy disagreement on higher or lower liturgy (robes and collars, formalized prayer, etc.)
     2. “The men sing.”  “The church sings at the top of their lungs.”
     3. We are liturgizing our population.  Preparing them for cultural impact, through confession of sin, the Word, and communion.
 
 
III. The 6 P’s of the CREC:
A. Predestinarian – we are Calvinist, on the doctrines of grace
B. Post-millennial – God will keep His promises to propser His church in history
C. Psalm singing - the Psalter is still God's songbook for the church to sing today.  Not exclusively, but primarily.
D. Paedo-living – the role of children in the life of the church and family.
  1. "The background music of our sermons are crying babies."
  2. Psalm 8 – out of the mouths of babes!
  3. We welcome the presence of little ones.
E. Pre-eminent worship – Sunday morning is the highlight of our week.  We are in the presence of almighty God, welcomed and feasted by Him!
F. Pre-suppositional – we accept the self-authenticating authority of the Word of God, a la Van Til.
 
 
IV. Many are discouraged by their denominations’ response to cultural issues today.  Come to the CREC!  Why?
 - don’t be an island.  It’s harder to stand fast alone.
 - the baptism issue is not a deal breaker for us.
 - you need a group of people who agree with your values, not just on primary issues like the Trinity and Christ’s atonement, but also on secondary issues like how we worship, critical race theory, applying the Word of God to all of life, and Christian education.
 - we are okay fighting with each other on lesser issues.  Healthy disagreement is good.  But when covid hit, we came together.
 - When relationships break down, a denomination doesn’t sharpen itself.  It corrodes and degrades.  We need to keep up real fellowship, even where we disagree.

Coveting // Leaving Your Church? // Mohler Gold

Crossway reprints some gold from Francis Schaeffer here on coveting and thanksgiving.

This is a good article on what to do when you're thinking of leaving your church.

Al Mohler's Briefing was EXCELLENT today:

 - the history and current state of public education.

 - what is social justice?

 - when does life begin?

Slaying Leviathan - Book Review

Slaying Leviathan: Limited Government and Resistance in the Christian Tradition by Glenn S. Sunshine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve enjoyed getting to know Glenn Sunshine on the Theology Pugcast podcast, with Chris Wiley and Tom Price. His insights into modern culture from medieval and Reformation history are consistently incisive and helpful.

In Slaying Leviathan, Sunshine wields his historical knowledge to help us understand the proper role of the state, in a Christian worldview.

Common knowledge has it that before the Enlightenment, Medieval Christendom was a theocratic, absolutist nightmare, right up through Calvin’s Geneva. It took the wars of religion in Europe in the 1600s to cure us of that, along with Christendom, and we’ve been happy, tolerant pluralists ever since. Conservative Christians who press for limited government do so against their history and against Romans 13.

Except that’s not how it is – or was - at all.

From monks arguing for property rights, to the Magna Carta restricting the king’s power, to England’s Glorious Revolution chasing out an absolutist monarch for the more reasonable William and Mary, Sunshine lays out the developing history of a Christian culture and theologians restraining its civil rulers from taking on too much power. But when the Christian faith wanes, the state waxes as a possible idol. Hobbes’ Leviathan, and our current culture’s values are two cases in point.

I cut my theological teeth on the Reformed teaching of RC Sproul. I’ll be forever grateful for coming across him. And he taught me that the classic Christian tradition says this regarding submitting to government: if they aren’t demanding you disobey God, or if they aren’t forbidding you to do what God requires, you have to do what they say. Sunshine presents a different historical view, with plenty of faithful Christian pastors and authors challenging the authority of the magistrate before that standard is clearly reached. (The American Revolution is a major example.) Are there any Scriptural examples of this, and does that matter?

Slaying Leviathan would have benefitted from some direct interaction with Sproul’s view, which is held by most in the church today. Still, Sunshine’s argument from history is well done and worth the read.

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Thoughts on Covid - Now That I Have It

 So I lost my sense of taste a few days ago, and tested positive for covid the next morning.

 

The world has bought into the experiential basis of knowledge.  You don’t really know something until you have experienced it yourself, they say.  On one level this is true.  It’s hard for a Catholic priest who is single to give marriage advice.  On another level, this doesn’t work.  Men can accurately judge abortion to be the killing of a human life, even though they have never been pregnant or been through an abortion.

 

People expect your views on covid to change once you get it.  And I suppose that isn’t unreasonable.  In a way, I’ve been living as if covid didn’t exist, for about 17 months.  Going to the office.  No masks unless absolutely insisted upon in planes, hospitals, etc.  No vaccine.  Church life has been normal for that long, too.

 

The thing is, I haven’t been a covid denier all along, just because I was acting that way.  I know it’s no walk in the park for many.  But if you believe the media narrative, you’re either taking extreme precautions because you believe the science, or you ignore it with your head in the sand as a science and covid denier.

 

I’ve been neither.  I was just assessing statistical risk.  

If I caught it, I didn’t expect to be one of the 1% or less to succumb to covid in a hospital on a ventilator – my comorbidities weren’t that bad.  As the Delta variant hit, it was clear the virus was more pervasive but much less severe.  I figured there was a higher chance to catch it, but an even lower chance I’d be hospitalized for it.  I’m not in ideal physical shape, but decent enough that if covid found me I would likely fight it off with a mild case.

 

Now that I’ve got it, I think the same way.

 

I don’t believe this is recklessness.  I know plenty of acquaintances who have not fared so well.  Colleagues hospitalized.  Family of coworkers, young and healthy, whose life is taken tragically.  I don’t deny these realities, but remain thoroughly convinced they are outliers.  The anecdotal evidence is as strong on the other side: church members or family who get covid, and it’s so mild a case they don’t realize they have it, and it passes quickly with no lasting harm.

 

You may ask, if it’s 50-50-ish, anecdotally, why not get the vaccine to be sure?  It’s a fair question.  First, because the stats aren’t 50-50, at ALL, like the media tries to make you feel.  Getting covid is not a death sentence for most.  How many?  We don’t KNOW what the stats are, because so many contract covid without knowing it, or being tested – my guess is 90% of cases are not severe.  All the severe cases are reported, and most of the mild cases are NOT.

 

Second, I’m not one who thinks the vaccine is a Bill Gates conspiracy, or that it’s worse than the disease, or one who deeply suspects it because it’s so strongly pushed.  I’m just not an “early adopter” of such things.  I’m fine submitting to MMR and tetanus vaccines that have been proven over decades, and I approve of modern medicine in general.  But to require a brand new vaccine of the whole population RIGHT NOW is too much.  So I’ve signed letters to aid where church members seek religious exemption from their employers requiring the vaccine.  My family is healthy enough just to not need it, right now, I think.  But I don’t look squinty-eyed at the person who gets the vaccine.  I believe the data that it’s quite effective to stave off covid or its severe effects.

 

At the same time, medicine is a “practice.”  The crass protest here is “We are not your lab rats.”  The more vaccinations, the more data they have to find out how well it works – they don’t know for sure until they get wide-scale results from live cases.  I’m a little uncomfortable being Apple’s early adopter “Beta test” with my own body, instead of just with my computer software.  That’s a reasonable concern to me.  It overrules the knee-jerk, irrational objection, “You’re a covid and science denier jerk!”  Society, an employer, or the government does not have the right to force me to get vaccinated in this circumstance.  Give it a few years of ultra-low instances of damage done by the vaccine, and the requirement makes more sense.

 

Let’s be okay with each other making different choices on all this.

We don’t have to buy into one political narrative or the other.  I find it rather silly to overly minimize the threat of covid, to prove how conservative or anti-Biden we are.  Or to inflate the threat of covid, to prove how dumb Trump and his supporters are.

 

Resist the impulse to isolate from anyone who thinks at all differently from you on this topic.  That’s what “they” want - for us to be less willing to stand together against their tyranny.  Yes, tyranny.  The most disturbing thing in all this is the progressive and aggressive demand that everyone do exactly what the government says, and think what the government thinks.  We are beginning to think and behave exactly how the Chinese Communist party wants its people to be, and that should scare us far more than the coronavirus.

 

At the same time, I’m staying away from people while I have covid, out of love for neighbor.  It made sense to lock everything down back in March 2020 (15 days to stop the spread!), but now we should only be quarantining the sick (me) , not the healthy.

 

I’m doing fine physically right now, mild cold symptoms are subsiding, and I appreciate your prayers for those with more severe cases.

What is Liturgy?

What is liturgy?

The greek word is simply “service.”  It’s any ritual or work we do for God.  Romans 12:1-2 says your reasonable service to God is presenting your bodies a sacrifice to Him.  So liturgy isn’t even confined to formal worship. 

But when we say we have a “liturgical” worship service, what does that mean?

 

First level: Planned, not spontaneous

        Not acting spontaneous when it isn’t.  The Crystal Cathedral’s Hour of Power was called “The show” by its producers for a reason.

        Prayers are written ahead of time.  Scripture readings are planned.

        Many Baptist churches do this, with a printed bulletin.

        Screens contribute to the spontaneous feeling.  You get a sense of “let’s all just do this,” instead of the understanding that church leaders have picked the songs they want you to sing this week.

        (Do you bring a Bible or notebook to a service you expect to be spontaneous praise to God?  Not usually.)

 

Second level: Formal, not casual

Closely related to the first, here people tend to dress up more than street casual.  From suit and tie heights, down to at least a collared shirt.  There is a sense that we aren’t just here to express ourselves to God, but that we are in His special presence, and so we should act and dress differently than we do in any other setting.  This is Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and some conservative PCA churches. 

(Do we dress the same for the office that we do for church?)

 

Third level: incorporating helpful aspects of the higher liturgy.  

We sing the Lord’s Prayer, and Sanctus each week, for example, and often incorporate the lectionary into our opening litany. 

 

Fourth level: bells and whistles.  

This involves robes or collars.  Candles, incense, and processions, even.  This is “high liturgy,” a la Lutheran, Episcopalian and Roman liturgies.  Another aspect of this is not deviating from form (Book of Common Prayer) prayers at all.

 

I’m a third level liturgist, along with my congregation.  I have yet to go to robe or collar (don’t know that I ever will), but neither am I trying to act spontaneously in the main worship order moves.  (I often am spontaneously, involuntarily, emotional in reading Scripture, but that’s a separate issue.)  CREC churches range from second to fourth level churches, which is fine.

 

These aren’t hard and fast categories.  Many congregations are second level in one part, and third or fourth in another aspect.  Let a thousand flowers bloom, without judgment.  Just maintain Scriptural principles:  have a reason from the Bible for everything you do.

Thanatos Syndrome book review

The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Thanatos Syndrome was my first Walker Percy novel, recommended to me long ago by a respected pastor. Written in 1987, Thanatos is a thought provoking social critique. Is there really a well-funded group of elites who pursue wide scale social manipulation and control? Sounds too conspiratorial, doesn’t it? But we’ve seen it happen in history several times. With echoes of Grisham’s The Firm, Percy deals deftly with the conspiracy skeptics.

Percy also channels Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, exposing the nihilism that was hitting the main populace in the 80s, ironically amidst great material prosperity. The main character is a psychiatrist who sees it in patients he’s known for a long time. People are reaching out and experimenting sexually, they know facts but have no context to put them in, they are barely self aware. These are all symptoms of a loss of meaning in life, though Percy never puts it that directly. He described a culture losing its way.

The results vary. Listlessness in most. Sexual aberration in a few (described explicitly at points – not for young people). But the Thanatos Syndrome is a sort of spiritual death that has afflicted us, for which the chemical being secretly injected into the populace is just a metaphor.

One interesting feature of the book is that the main character slowly figures out he’s being bribed, then the conspiracy behind it, then the chemicals-in-the-water element, and finally the pedophilia ring. At each point of escalation, he remains perfectly calm and says little. “I see” is the most common thing he says, when he understands and rejects what he sees. This is contrasted with “Yes” when he agrees on a course of action with his few allies. He is emotionally flat. The total absence of any shock registered is itself shocking. The reader can interpret that positively: it’s important for us to see and to act courageously in the face of evil, which he does. And particular emotions are not essential to doing that. Or is it negative? Has the psychiatrist been desensitized to the nihilism surrounding him? Perhaps to a degree. If we aren’t shocked and angered by what we read here, there’s something wrong with us. But the planned, concrete action he takes to stop the evil wins the day.

I’ve heard Percy is a devout Catholic, and this would fit with part of the message of the book. Embedded in the plot is a Catholic home for the disabled and elderly that is shut down by the sinister forces. They argue for euthanasia for the infirm, elderly, and for infants with disease or without fit parents to raise them. Sound familiar? Percy makes the case for the church caring for them instead. This is a profoundly pro-life book, at its core.

It’s a tough read for today’s evangelical, though. It stretches our categories, and depicts the trajectory of evil explicitly. But it also touches on important themes: our desire for normalcy, reputation, money and popularity can distort our moral compass. Wisdom for the world can be found in a church that looks to us crazy and detached from the world. There really are sinister, anti-life forces out there, and they’ll seek to recruit you.

3.5 stars, out of 5.

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The Very First Christmas review

The Very First Christmas by Paul L. Maier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up at an antique store recently. Paul Maier is worth reading whatever the genre. Check out Pontius Pilate and the Flames of Rome, for his historical fiction/context on Biblical events.

I expected a little more from this, but it’s a child’s story book. His goal is to cut through all the fake Christmas stories and tell the basics of what happened. What is a manger? Was it a stable? What year was Jesus born? Maier gets too specific on that last one – do we really know it was 5 B.C. for sure? But this is a great go-to for young ones at Christmas time.

Maier uses a dialogue format, which I’m not sure works the best for a book to read your young ones at the bedside. Maybe. To voice questions they might have already could be good. It just seemed a bit clunky in the writing, maybe.

Some of the stronger points were his handling of the Incarnation, and not really addressing Mary as a virgin (not age appropriate). Instead he focuses on the marriage and family history then in a way that a 3-5 year old can translate to their own family.

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On When to Give Our Children the Sacraments

In going over our church membership records, I noted that we have several infants in that stage of “taking communion yet or not?”

As parents of infants who hold to paedo-Communion, you have probably already thought this through plenty, but here are my thoughts.
 

This is How to, not why we ought to
I’m assuming here the paedo-baptist and paedo-communion positions, not defending them.  There are plenty of resources making the case.  My intent is to flesh out how we actually live this position out, once we hold it.
 

No desperate rush
Infants don’t desperately need baptism and communion from day one outside the womb.  Receiving the sacraments is not necessary for salvation.  It IS one of the ordinary means of grace for us, but being ordinary means you don’t need to take extraordinary steps to have your 10-day old receive it.  Your child has God’s grace and blessing on them because they are parent(s) of believers (1 Cor. 7:14), not because they attend church or receive baptism or communion.
 

Urgency and no delay
Set a baptism date as soon as convenient and possible.  Delaying for months starts to degrade the importance of the sacrament.  Some like to delay a bit just to remind themselves of point 2 above, which is okay, I guess.  But you’re extending a situation where they don’t have the sign on them that God wants on them.
 

Communion before other solid food?
On communion timing, it need not follow immediately for infants.  It can be detrimental to force-feed Communion to infants.  For obvious physical reasons, and for the disruption if they are sleeping soundly in their car seat, in the pew.
 

When they see the exclusion
It’s okay to wait on communion until the child notices what is going on.  When they see everyone else receiving, and they aren’t, they might start to wonder or ask.  This could be as late as 2-4 years old.
 

Better before that
But it’s better to initiate as the parent, and start serving them earlier than that.  They aren’t sleeping in the car seat anymore, but neither are they swinging their legs under the pew at 4, wondering why they don’t get the bread.  I would advise giving them the elements when they are alert and awake and easily able to ingest a bit of solid food, probably around 1 year old.
 

Elder involvement
Notify your elders.  Parental initiation is good, since you have the best read on your child’s situation.  But church leadership has the ultimate authority over the administration of the sacraments.  So let your pastor or elder know when your child begins receiving communion.

Exceptions to the pattern

Several of our folks at church don't fit this pattern (intending to have the baby baptised at birth).  They came to a covenantal view of the sacraments when their kids were 5, 12, or 16.  This is a cause for rejoicing, and also discernment.  The elders need to make a determination: how old is too old to baptize a child based on his parents' desire?  At what point should elders seek a profession of faith from the child himself?