Provincial, maybe Liberal, but Loyal

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Chapter 2 - 

Even as he expands the story beyond the parameters of the world we know, introducing us to talking, mythical beasts, Lewis grounds the identity of humanity in Adam and Eve. "Should I be right in thinking that you are a Daughter of Eve?" This is one of the ironies of reading fantasy and fiction: it can show us reality more clearly.

Lewis continues playing with this paradox, as Tumnus the fawn is quite provincial in his thinking, even as he expands the world we know. Tumnus thinks Wardrobe is a country. He has books on his shelf like "Is Man a Myth?" They have tea.

Being provincial or having wrong ideas about things doesn't prevent one from being kind-hearted and delightful. It also shouldn't define the antithesis: how we define what team we are on, good guys or bad guys. We discover Narnia has bad guys, by the way. Neither Narnia nor our world is a Thomas Kinkade painting with no evil in it. Tumnus has a secret. About a witch. Narnia has a darker side that Lucy experiences as they rush back to the lamppost. Is Tumnus a delightful faun, or a "kidnapper for the witch"?

Well, Tumnus has a book on his shelf that questions the existence of men, whom the prophecies say must sit on the thrones of Cair Paravel to right what is wrong. I surmise Lewis means this as a parallel to modern scholars who question what Jesus really said or the veracity of fulfilled OT prophecy. Surely for having such a book Tumnus is a heretic, and Lucy should renounce him! 

Lewis in the character of Tumnus is mixing opposite perspectives - the provincial and the overly liberal - and showing that a great deal of both can be tolerated when one sides with the right by his actions, which in turn reveal his faith.

As Tumnus helps Lucy home.

The Joy of Narnia

I just read The Magician's Nephew out loud to my family, reminding me how rich this series is.  

I'm going to do an article on each chapter of the Narnia series, starting with...

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The first thing to note is that adventure and Joy is waiting for you in the least likely of places. The children are sent away from war-time London to be safe, out in the country. Yet they find a land and a lion that is anything but safe.  Also, the children expect great adventure in the rural outdoors, away from the city. But they find adventure IN the house.

Peter expresses the desire to explore, and it is commended to us. He is the first to speak in the book, and he says, "This is going to be perfectly splendid." When they wake up to rainy weather, and Edmund complains, and Susan just wants to sit, Peter leads them in exploring the house. Lewis mentions several things they find - a harp, suit of armor, big Bible - again commending a positive view of the world.

Then the focus turns to Lucy. The other three pass by a room with just a wardrobe, but Lucy is curious. Peter seems the adventurous one, but we find adventure in unexpected places, and unexpected people. Lucy turns out to be the one with the keenest eyes or spirit, or she is just blessed by providence in this way.

I'm not an expert on all things Narnia and CS Lewis, but I believe that Narnia was to him "the Joy." Joy with a capital J was something Lewis spoke of experiencing a few times, and he always sought it again, but wasn't able to capture it or control it. His spiritual autobiography is called "Surprised by Joy," and this Joy was closely tied to his conversion from atheism in his early 20s.  It's also interesting that he marries late in life, a woman named Joy.  

As the story progresses, the children learn that the source of all joy and adventure is Aslan, who Lewis intends as a metaphor for Jesus Christ.  Watch out in your life, for Joy awaits around unlikely corners. Most people pass it by most of the time, like a lonely wardrobe with nothing supposedly to offer. Lewis wants you to look at life more closely. Keep your eyes peeled. Joy will find you in the least likely places.

On Grace

A mentor of mine likes to say, “God will pick you up wherever you are.  But He loves you too much to leave you there.”

 

Grace is not affirming you, regardless of your intent.  If you mean to live contrary to God’s ethical norms set forth in Scripture, then God does not “affirm” you.  He will probably graciously allow you to live on for a while, even if you’re blissfully unaware of your condemnation.  And others should treat you with the dignity all people deserve as bearing the image of God.  But sometimes that also means telling you truth you don’t want to hear.  Others don’t have to organize their life around your aberrant behavior.

 

Grace is continuing to offer an exit ramp, off of the highway to Hell.  This offer should never stop, until one’s last breath of life.

 

Many people confuse striving for obedience with a lack of grace.  “You’re trying too hard, man.  Let go, and let God!”  No, one form of grace that God gives us is the desire to obey Him.  Trying to obey God is not contrary to grace, in itself.

 

 

The lack of grace most likely to appear in the believer, is not wanting to pick up the lost wherever they are, and offer them grace and kindness.  My type tends to assume that they are there because they are intent on rebelling against God.  Sometimes that’s true.  Other times, they are at the end of another hopeless search for meaning or joy in life.  They have questions, and are ready to hear options.

 

People are more broken and lonely now than ever.  Don’t be deceived by the conservative media, which often implies that every unbeliever is a strident, set-in-stone, God-hater out to revile or shoot you.  Not everyone who isn't with you, is against you.

 

Assume this instead:  Everyone needs the gospel.  Every day.

 

Jesus knows your brokenness better than you do.  He knows the sin at its root, even when you don’t see that yet.  And he died to take your guilt away.  Trust Him, follow Him, and freedom awaits.  It won’t always be easy.  But it is possible to move forward toward restoration, with a free and clear conscience before God.  No matter what you have done.  This is the good news, the Gospel.

On Accountability

I just made sure the leader of my presbytery (group of churches) has the email and phone numbers of the newly ordained elders on our church leadership board (Session).

I’m making sure those elders have his contact info, too.

This is very important to me. When an elder left us last year, with complaints against me, it was good that he talked with our elders and deacons, and with our presbytery leader, apart from me, and about me. A multitude of counselors can better ferret out the truth of things.

People should not be subject to the whims of one pastor, or charismatic or historical leader. Neither should they be at the whim of the majority. Presbyterian (in the church) and republican (in the state) accountability is best.

Have several levels and branches of authority that check each other. Include yourself in that system – you are not above it. Encourage your wife or older children to talk directly to your pastor or elders – even about you! Be eager to receive counsel from in-person, local authority figures you trust. If you don’t trust any, work to find some! Seek out their advice in your life.

Don’t go it alone, and don’t just rely on online voices. You need someone who knows you, who will listen to you, and who will give you specific advice on your situation. An online pastor or guru is good, but is NOT sufficient. Covid taught us this. Online relationships and church are not enough. Get involved with real people. Be part of a real community, where you aren’t the center of everything. Serve others.

This is the resurrection life spoken of in Acts 2:42-47.

On Fighting Gnosticism

For 20 years or so now, I’ve been happy to read authors fighting Gnosticism in the church.  The part of Gnosticism I refute asserts that spiritual things are all that really matter.  Physical things are incidental and better ignored for the spiritual.

 

I still refute this.

 

But there is a simplistic way to go about this, that contradicts much Scripture.

 

John 6:63 – “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

1 Timothy 4:8 – “while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

And most important, and what I want to discuss today, 2 Corinthians 5:1-8

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

 

There’s an idea running about that questions this.  “God didn’t make us as souls with our body just an incidental carrying case to be shed at death.  We ARE our bodies.  God doesn’t mean for us to exist without a body.  How could we be blessed without a body?”

 

Now, it’s true, our bodies are more a part of our identity than Christians in the past realized.

It’s also true that, long term, God doesn’t mean for us to be without a body.

 

But some are going as far as to deny what Christians have historically asserted as the Intermediate State: that time after our death and before the Consummation, when we are “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).  Paul assumed, with divine inspiration, that Christians who die in the Lord are immediately with the Lord, without a body, yet blessed more than we are here, WITH a body.  Better to be without a body for a while, and also without sin.  (Don’t assume from this, though, that the body is the CAUSE of all our sin.)

 

Many who overreact against Gnosticism cast about for some other interpretation of this.  We couldn’t be happy and blessed without a body, surely, they think.  So God must give us a spiritual body immediately at death.  Or some other nonsense.

 

 

Here’s how I see it.

God is Spirit.  The Trinitarian love overflowed into a creation beyond Himself.  Of angels who are spirit.  Of a world and creatures who are physical.  And of men who are formed from dust, with the spirit of God breathed into them.

 

God is free to bless angels, only in the spirit.

He blesses His creation in a different way, only in the physical realm.

And He blesses mankind in both realms.

(There is a correlating curse in each of these.)

 

Here’s the key: the physical IS an overflow of the spiritual.  God is Spirit.  We are His image because of the spiritual quality He gave us, separating us from the beasts.  The spiritual IS primary over the physical.  That is not Gnosticism – it’s all over the Gospel of John, after all.  One can even say that the physical things around us, generally, are a (lower-case s) sacrament to point us to the spiritual reality.  Romans 1:19-20: “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

 

I’m NOT saying physical things are UNimportant.  Scripture says creation was good (Gen. 1:31).  God seems to agree with Adam’s blessing upon Eve, as “flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).  But spiritual things are more ultimate, and drive physical things.  A spiritually rebellious person tends to have a more chaotic, abusive, or manipulative physical and relational life.  If your spirit is in tune with God’s reality, your physical life will tend to be more peaceful, ordered, and life-giving to others.

 

We should tend to physical things, not as an end in themselves, but as manifesting what is going on in our souls.

 

And this brings us to the resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus is the pioneer, the forerunner, the firstfruits, showing us what is coming for all of us.  And we need to see that physically, because we are material beings in part.  God knows what we need.

 

But we also need to realize that the physical resurrection of Jesus was showing a deeper reality: when God regenerates you, He puts to death your old self, and brings to life a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).  SPIRITUALLY.  The physical transformation happens in part now, in a changed life.  But its fullness awaits our resurrection at the last day.

 

Jesus was raised on the 8^th day, the first day of a new week, after the old Sabbath (Gen 2:2-3).  Circumcision was done on the 8^th day, to cut away the old and make way for life-giving matter.

 

 

So, as you celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, remember:

-        the physical nature of it – God is going to redeem and restore your physical body and life, as well as save your soul.

-        it is pointing to new life within you that is spiritual, and more foundational.

-        New spiritual life will inevitably overflow back into physical things.  You’ll handle your relationships, money, time, online activity, etc. differently because of this spiritual change.

Things Read While Sick

It's weird but when I get sick, I get MORE of a certain kind of work done.

Check these out.

Brian Mattson does a good review of the Passion of the Christ

A decent, quick case for infant baptism

Jordan Peterson's valiant fight against cancel culture, reported by Craig Carter at World Magazine

Robert P. George receives deserved high praise from Andrew Walker in National Review.  I tend to take this position, summarized in the last paragraph: "He’s a via media between liberal proceduralism, which hesitates to legislate moral concerns, and full-on religious establishment."

The Pro-Life agenda is getting demolished in every election since Dobbs.  Why, and what can they do about it?  Theologically, I don't like it, but the Wall Street Journal has political wisdom for the right here:

I've seen Bishop Barron showing up in my social media feed.  This WSJ Good Friday article proves to me he is on the right track.

Good Friday

 

Raised in the Faith Here

 Beautiful picture of the church I was born and raised in.

Overisel Reformed Church, near Holland, MI.

Hiding Our Faults; Parading Our Virtues

Mark Jones, on Facebook yesterday:

"If our virtues were painted on our rear ends, and our faults on our faces, we'd put our underwear on our head and walk around naked."

Oh, the lengths to which we will go...

The Church, and Tucker Carlson, on the Trans moment

 The PCA may do a good thing, with this overture:

https://pcaga.org/.../Overture-12-Evangel-Petition-re-Sex...

Found it at this link, where Tucker Carlson does some decent theology in the first half of the video.

https://www.foxnews.com/.../church-assembly-debate-urging...