1 Corinthians // Empire // Wandering Lives

1 Corinthians 9-12

9

I am an apostle, with the right to support a family by the church.  But I'm not using it, so you won't object.  I adapt however possible to reach people with the Gospel message.

10

Israel's redemption from Egypt was partially aborted.  Yours could be, too, if you're not careful.  You're communing with Christ in the Eucharist; don't think you can also keep communing with idols.

So eat what you want, grateful to God.  But if you know someone is there troubled by what you're doing, don't do it.  Seek to give no offense, and glorify God, in all you do.

11

Show proper headship principles in your dress in worship: women with longer hair as a covering, men with shorter hair, showing culturally appropriate gender distinctions in dress.

You have such divisions among you, you aren't even eating the Lord's Supper when you do!  Jesus told us how to do this - pay attention to His words and to the body of Christ around you, and eat all together.

12

The same Spirit leading us to profess Christ as Lord gives various gifts to the members of His body.  Don't look down on different gifts/members of the body.

Victor Davis Hanson in Imprimis on the evils of Imperialism

This was very good, except the part on Ukraine.  US support of Ukraine is not American empire, but containing Russian aggression.

RR Reno in First Things on "The Gyratory Life."

Wandering directionless is bad for the soul.

1 Corinthians // Tapestry Art // Sabbath law

1 Corinthians 1-4

1

You have God's grace and gifts, but you're arguing via personalities, and seeking to follow worldly wisdom.  Accept, and be proud of God's "foolishness:" Christ crucified.

2 - People without the Spirit can't understand the wisdom of God.

3

You're still not understanding God's wisdom in giving many teachers.  Don't pit them against each other, but see each one's unique contribution.

4

Don't rashly reject teachers for superficial reasons.  The world rejects we apostles, but the church should not.  We are your fathers in the faith!  Imitate me and Timothy.  I'm coming soon.

Touchstone - An intriguing art review of a Persian carpet "Paradise."

A solid, short review of Sabbath law.  Also Touchstone.

1 Corinthians // Abolition of Man // Christendom

1 Corinthians 5-8
5

Reject egregious sin in the church.  If they want to be called a Christian, and have their sin okayed, send them to Satan, stripping them of their Christian profession.  Your job is to deal with those in the church doing this, not so much those outside.

6

Why are you suing each other before unbelieving judges?  Work it out, or just suffer the wrong instead.  Jesus washed you clean of all those sins that will keep the rest out of the kingdom of God.  Sexual immorality especially violates the temple of the Holy Spirit - your body.

7

God gave marriage in part to deal with sexual temptation, so stay single if you can, or marry.  Those married should not divorce unless an unbeliever breaks it off.  Live as you were when saved: circumcised, married, slave, doesn't matter.  In times of persecution you might not want to marry.  Don't let marriage get in the way of serving God.  Widows can remarry.

8

On food offered to idols, idols aren't real and all foods are clean.  But some have associated certain food with their past idolatry and will refuse it.  Let them.  Don't even eat it where they can see, to help them.

CS Lewis expert Michael Ward, on The Abolition of Man at Hillsdale College.

This is a deep, academic dive!

Lewis asserted objective ethical and aesthetic value, on philosophical grounds, not only Christian ones.  He did this, not as an act of compromise, but as a sort of philosophical pre-evangelism.  We need to recover men with chests, a mixture of head (mind) and belly (bodily desires/needs).  Is the chest the soul?

R.R. Reno in First Things is always bracing:

"Like iron filings to a magnet, every dimension of life is tensed with potential for subordination to Christ."

He suggests Christendom may not be dead, after a prominent NYC police shooting, when "for more than two hours, the center of New York City had gone silent for a funeral Mass."

On the other hand, he isn't of the VanTil/CREC type I hang with, either: "the relation of the Church and the world is up to the world, which is sometimes hostile, sometimes indifferent, and sometimes solicitous."  A lot of "my guys" would say, no it's up to the Church's faithfulness.  I'm more with Reno.

1 Timothy // Integrity // France's Roland

1 Timothy

1

Stay in Ephesus and keep people focused on loving others in purity.  Not the endless arguments and vain discussions of those who want to be teachers.  God showed me mercy, to display His grace in me.  Fight the good fight!

2

Have the men pray in church.  Have the women be modest in dress - they are not to teach with authority.

3

That office is for men of good character.  Deacons and their wives, too, must have good character and manage their homes well.  I'm writing so you'll know how things should go in the church.

4

Because false teaching is going to come.  So diligently teach the truth.

5

Treat people with respect.  Provide for widows in need, but younger widows should remarry if possible.  The family of widows should provide for them, before the church does.  Honor elders and don't accept charges against them quickly, or ordain new elders hastily.

6

Slaves should honor their masters, not trying to take advantage if they are both Christians.  Reject those who want to argue, who like controversy, who want to be rich.  Fight the good fight, and God will vindicate you before His immortal light.  Have the rich give, and not trust in their riches.

On Integrity, in Tabletalk

The church is directed by words (God's, and pastors'.)  If people can't trust our words, the ministry of the church is compromised.

On France, in First Things

A long but interesting article on The Song of Roland.  The first half is a review of France's current immigration woes, and the nationalist political pushback.  What does it mean to be French, anyway?  The second half considers Roland with a striking conclusion: "With the Song of Roland, French identity is founded on the battle against Islam."

Philemon-James // National Debt // Assurance

Philemon

Paul writes to Philemon, asking him, not commanding as he could, that he free his returned slave Onesimus, charging Paul for whatever is owed.  This is a picture of Gospel redemption.

Jude

I wanted to send a positive message, but you need to fight for the faith against false teachers.  They cross natural boundaries in perverse sensuality, rebelling like Cain and Korah.  Rescue people from their dreadful teaching.  Jesus can present you faultless to God despite this - the God to Whom all majesty belongs.

Claremont Review of Books makes a strong case here that it is Medicare that is bankrupting us.  Interesting reforms proposed: "Americans shouldn't regard April 15 as a payday."

Thadd Kuehnl (local author), on assurance of salvation, in Holy Confessions:

True believers may have their assurance shaken, or lost for a time, by falling into sin.  But it will never be totally lost.  (Westminster Confession 17.4)

Romans // Judaism // Brazil

Romans 12-16

12

So serve God with your life in the body of Christ, loving one another and blessing your persecutors.

13

Obey your government when they are carrying out God's design, to encourage good, and punish evil.  Love one another, and put away sensual immorality.

14

Don't condemn each other based on what you eat, or what days you observe.  Try not to offend those who think more is unclean than you and I do.

15

Seek to build each other up, in like-minded harmony.  Jesus has called and received Gentiles, so you should, too.  I'm headed for Spain, and want to see you on the way.  First, it's Jerusalem, and pray I am preserved there.

16

Be kind to Phoebe, bringing you this letter.

Say hello to all the saints I know living there with you.

Avoid divisive men.

My team here says hello to you!

I've been trying to finish off one book at a time, of the 15-20 I have started right now.  I settled on James Michener's The Source, a wealth of historical information on the land of Israel and Jewish history in story form.  I'm in the chapter on the Jewish city of Safed (Safat) in the 1550s, when three leading rabbis followed different paths.  The German Ashkenazi codified the law.  The Spanish Sephardic rabbi pursued the mysticism of Kabbalah.  The Italian rabbi pursued the common man's piety and pastoral charity.  All in the same town at the same time.  Interesting it was during John Calvin's time...

On Brazil - a book review of Bolsonaro in First Things.

This article was more a survey of Brazil for the last 100 years than a biography of Bolsonaro, which was probably more helpful to the general reader - it was to me.

Romans // Rome // Stabat Mater

Romans 10-11

10

We have a righteousness based on faith, not law.  Moses spoke of both, but we must call on Jesus in faith in response to hearing the Word preached.  Israel has not believed, but many Gentiles have.

11

God has not rejected Israel - there is a remnant who believes, and many more will come.  You Gentiles are wild branches grafted into an old, dignified, cultivated tree, so don't boast against the Jews.  You Roman Gentiles (Rome!) could be cut off the tree, too, like unbelieving Jews.  God's ways are wonderfully mysterious - glory to Him!

Touchstone - "Mortal Remains" - May/June 2023
Catholics take plenty of digs at Protestants.  Sometimes they aren't wrong, given our liberalism.  Still, maybe they are another wing of the visible church, and not the Whore of Babylon.

Ken Myers introduced me to Dvorak's Stabat Mater, in the same issue of Touchstone.  Quite good!  I pasted a nice translation below.  It dances on the edge of Mariolatry in a couple of lines, but most of it is a helpful meditation at the cross.

At the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to her Son to the last.

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
all His bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has passed.

O how sad and sore distressed
was that Mother, highly blest,
of the sole-begotten One.

Christ above in torment hangs,
she beneath beholds the pangs
of her dying glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain
from partaking in her pain,
in that Mother's pain untold?

Bruis'd, derided, curs'd, defiled,
She beheld her tender child
All with bloody scourges rent.

For the love of His own nation,
Saw Him hang in desolation,
Till His spirit forth He sent.

O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above,
make my heart with thine accord:

Make me feel as thou hast felt;
make my soul to glow and melt
with the love of Christ my Lord.

Holy Mother! pierce me through,
in my heart each wound renew
of my Savior crucified:

Let me share with thee His pain,
who for all my sins was slain,
who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with thee,
mourning Him who mourned for me,
all the days that I may live:

By the Cross with thee to stay,
there with thee to weep and pray,
is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgin of all virgins blest!,
Listen to my fond request:
let me share thy grief divine;

Let me, to my latest breath,
in my body bear the death
of that dying Son of thine.

Wounded with His every wound,
steep my soul till it hath swooned,
in His very Blood away;

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
lest in flames I burn and die,
in His awful Judgment Day.

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,
be Thy Mother my defense,
be Thy Cross my victory;

While my body here decays,
may my soul Thy goodness praise,
Safe in Paradise with Thee.

Romans // Neutrality // Conspiracies

Romans 7-9

7

When we died in Christ, we died to the law's demands and obligations.  The law is good, but showed us our sin, which makes us do what we don't want to do anymore, in the Spirit.

8

There is no condemnation for those in Christ and in the Spirit.  Instead, God means to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us (vs 4)!  This can only happen in the Spirit, not in the flesh.  He makes you alive in Christ's resurrection, an adopted son of God, and heirs of glory.  This will far surpass our current sufferings, so we hope and pray in the Spirit, knowing God is working everything for our good as His people, predestined for glory.  God is firmly for us in Christ, and nothing can change that.

9

God chose Isaac and Jacob, and NOT other children of Abraham, which proves God favors you by His promise believed, NOT by ancestry.  God chooses who He wants to, and that's fair becfuase He made us all to start with.  Israel pursued righteousness hard, but not by faith, so they didn't get there.

"Know Your Enemy," Fight Laugh Feast, Fall 2022 - pg 59.

"God is an artist and He has signed every one of His works."
There are no neutral facts - God is active in every one.  
This does not make the Christian worldview an echo chamber like any other.

I HIGHLY recommend the last two podcasts at "Got a Minute," with Pastor Rich Lusk.  ("Conspiracy theories" and "Understanding George Gilder.")

He talks a lot of sense on gender issues, conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism.

Romans // Assurance // Frustration

Romans 4-6

4

Abraham believed God and was justified by that belief, before the law or circumcision took effect.

5

We are justified by faith, and need to add obedience to that faith.  We are covenantally bound to Adam and thus sinned when he did.  But we can also be covenantally bound to Jesus by faith, and thus have His righteousness before God.

6

So can we just go on sinning, since we are all set?  No!  You died and rose with Christ - you serve Him now, not sin.  Serving sin is fruitless death; serving Jesus is fruitful life.

On assurance of salvation - Thadd Kuehnl in Holy Confessions

The Westminster Confession says in 17.2 that our assurance of salvation is based on God's promises, and can be SURE.  The Spirit within tells us this.

Rev. Chris Thoma in the Cruciform Way devotionals:
Got heckled at Home Depot for wearing an "England" t-shirt.  Responded a bit sarcastically.  "Because of my frustration I missed a chance" to have a constructive conversation.

Romans // Europe on Russia // Satan's Tactics

Romans

Chapter 1

Paul wants to see them.

He isn't ashamed of the Gospel.

God's wrath is on men for rejecting God.

2

God will judge Jew and Gentile alike, regardless if they "have the law' or not.

Outward, physical things (like circumcision) don't make you righteous.

3

God is just to judge and condemn everyone.

The law shows us our sin, but God saves us by His righteousness apart from the law - we are redeemed by the good of Jesus, which satisfies God's wrath against us.  Jew and Gentile are both justified by faith apart from works, so there is no room for boasting.

National Review

China is a menace, and Europe doesn't seem to care very much.  Macron is the worst; Germany is waking up; Poland sees clearly, having borne the brunt of Russian aggression before.

"Know Your Enemy" - Tabletalk, Oct 2021

God wants us to know the tactics of our adversary, Satan.  One is for us to take pride in religious services.  Another is to despair and self-deprecate in our spirit.  Know your enemy.

Peter // Detransitioners // A Dumb Generation

2 Peter

Chapter 1

God has given us His Word to live for Him and escape the corruption of sin.  Add obedience to your faith.  I'll keep reminding you of all this, because I'm about to die.  We saw Jesus transfigured in person, but YOU have the Word even more sure, in Scripture.

2

You have false prophets among you, as Israel did.  But God knows how to deal with them - just consider the demons.  They are irrational, lustful, boasting, devouring.  They drag into corruption those just barely escaping it.

3

Scoffers will come, doubting what God has told you, but the day of the Lord WILL come.  So be holy.  Attend to the Scriptures, even Paul's which are hard to understand (!).  Grow in the grace of Jesus.

National Review, "The Plight of the Detransitioners."

"I feel like I'm left to just, like, accept the scraps of the life that I could have had.... I'm angry.  I'm sad.  I'm consistently questioning, like, why this happened to me - how did this happen to me?.... I don't want to use the word 'indoctrinated,' but I was young, and I was sad, and I was impressionable, and I thought this would fix everything."

"Perhaps the vast majority of these youths are suffering from discontent unrelated to their biological sex - or, like the young in every generation, are in a phase of experimentation - and do not require life-altering hormones and surgery to 'cure' them."

"Providers must consider whether for a certain portion of youths who seek to transition there are other mental-health factors to treat as well - or instead."

"As many as 80 percent of gender-dysphoric children ultimately experience 'desistance' - or coming to terms with their biological sex without medical intervention."

Mark Bauerlein has written a sequel to the Dumbest Generation: "the Dumbest Generation Grows Up."  Reviewed in First Things.

It has become passe to label Millennials snowflakes, yet instances are too hard to ignore.

The "combination of grandiosity, ignorance, and fragility," their "thriv[ing] on 'tools and toys, games and gossip, photos and memes, self-promotion' " is legendary.  They "lack the interior solidity needed to understand others' motivations, to keep steady amid the topsy-turvy of the market society around them - or even to rebel meaningfully against that society."

This is not just a sociological question, but a cultural one.  One reason the above is happening is because we are "freeing kids from the 'burden' of Shakespeare and Tolstoy, so they could critically examine anime and The Terminator as 'texts.' "  Even Critical Theorist Herbert Marcuse in 1969, visiting American universities, corrected the radicals: "I don't believe in black studies.... There's a certain amount of material that every intelligent person should learn."

Bauerlein rightly points out that engaging with the Western Canon forms critical thinking.  Ignoring it for gender studies creates indoctrinated, fragile snowflakes who can't see life from another's point of view.

Peter // Rest // In-Person

1 Peter summary

Chapter 1

You have a great hope waiting in heaven.  Not even the angels know about it!

So don't live like people in the world, you have the Word of God.

So come to this Stone as one you receive.  

Not as a "cornerstone rejected," but as a chosen new people!

2

This means submitting to the current rulers: employers, slave masters, emperors, etc.  Suffering unjustly, even as Jesus did, is worth a similar path of following Him.  He bore our sins in His body on the tree, to redeem and heal us from that curse.

3

This means wives submitting to husbands, and husbands loving and understanding their wives.  This means being humble and loving, not getting riled up if you get persecuted.  Jesus suffered unjustly, too, and He knows how to restrain and deal with wickedness.

4

Since Christ suffered, don't just live for pleasure.  Use your gifts fervently to help each other, since the end is near and fiery trials are upon you.  Entrust your soul to God when treated unjustly.

5

Elders should shepherd the flock faithfully.  Humble yourselves to one another and to God, casting your cares on Him, but resisting the devil.

"He Gives His Beloved Sleep."  Tabletalk, Oct 2021, pg 57.

Take your rest.  Practical atheism produces "anxious toil."  Not able to rest from your work, to rest in Christ?  This is a spiritual danger sign.

We need to use words to communicate.  There's nothing like side-by-side, in-person interaction.

"In-Person," in The Cruciform Way, by Thoma, pg. 141

Common-Good Conservatism? // Nationalism as Red Herring for Repentance // Westminster on Church and State

Randy Barnett, Georgetown law professor - on "Deep-State Constitutionalism" - at claremontreviewofbooks.com

Barnett critiques "Common-good conservatism," which asserts that conservatives have more discretion to make positive law for the common good than our "judicial restraint" instincts allow.  People, they argue, have natural rights that go beyond what is spelled out in our founding documents, and law can be made assuming them.  An interesting example is whether parents have a constitutional right to raise their own children.  SCOTUS in 2000 said 6-3 that they do, but this right is nowhere in the text of the constitution.  Still, this area of natural law is bounded by individual rights and the original meaning of our founding documents.  Jurists can't wing it based on their understanding of the common good.

Douglas Wilson - on "Sly Dog Teachers"

When faced with a straight-up call to a nation to repent, too many sly dog teachers in the church, trying to be winsome, cry foul, cry "Nationalism!"  But this is a poor defense when we are now mutilating our children, in and outside the womb.  God sent prophets to nations not "chosen" like Israel.  Isn't He doing the same today?  Who cares if that is nationalism - the point is to repent.

Kevin DeYoung - on politics and the Church - at Clearly Reformed

More thinking about politics is generally a good thing.  But many see the church as a tool in the political process, when Westminster (WLC 191) said the opposite.  We aren't seeking a revival for the sake of our nation.  Rather, Christ ruling His kingdom of power among the nations is done for the sake of the church.  This doesn't make the state of the state unimportant.  But it is LESS important than gospel repentance in the hearts of citizens.  

Reading DeYoung, and then the Wilson article above, one after the other, and comparing the two is fascinating.  I don't think they disagree fundamentally, but there is a sharp difference in emphasis and style.  Two of the men living that I respect most for their ability to articulate theology and apply it to our situation today.

Acts // Inklings // Historical Adam

Acts 19-28

19 - Ephesus disciples baptized.  Paul stays 2 years!  The riot.

20 - Paul through Macedonia, raises up Eutychus from death.  Speech to Ephesian elders.

21 - Christian prophets warn Paul trouble awaits in Jerusalem.  Leaders ask him to fund a ritual sacrifice to assuage the circumcision party.  He is seized and nearly killed, but arrested by Rome.

22 - Speaking to the Jews in Hebrew, Paul preaches Jesus.  Riot at mention of Gentiles, again.

23 - Romans make Paul stand before leaders.  He appeals to the resurrection, getting many Pharisees to side with him!  Paul's nephew hears of a plot, Paul escapes via Roman guard to Governor Felix in Caesarea.

24 - The Jews' case is weak, but Felix wants to be nice to them, so leaves Paul in jail for a while.  Paul preaches convictingly to Felix.

25/26 - New Governor Festus and Herod Agrippa both hear Paul out of curiosity.  Festus also wants to favor the Jews, so Paul has to appeal to Caesar to get justice.

27 - Paul sent to Rome by sea, but a storm almost wrecks them.

28 - They survive miraculously, get to Rome, and Paul has lots of time waiting for a hearing to preach the Gospel.  Jews are divided, most not believing.

Paul follows the pattern of Jesus at the end of Acts:

 - doing miracles of healing

 - speaking at length to prominent people (Upper Room discourse, trial with Caiaphas)

 - a death and resurrection event at Passover.

This one takes some explaining, but consider:

 - All on board are saved because of Paul; the angel of death passed over households.

 - 14 days was the special celebration of Passover; the ship was in the storm 14 days.

 - And at the end, they eat and it's the Communion sequence: "he took bread and gave thanks to God."

 - He goes down into the sea, but comes up saved from a serpentine attack, like Jesus.

 - He is preaching the gospel at the end, which Jesus sent him and us to do...

2. I'm listening to some Hillsdale lectures on the Inklings, especially Tolkien and Lewis.  Good stuff here by top Lewis scholars, if you want to nerd out on this.

3. Kevin DeYoung on why we should believe in an historical Adam - at Clearly Reformed.

Succinct and solid, DeYoung asserts this as a gospel issue.  Paul's whole theology of the first and second Adam, of the covenantal nature of sin, makes no sense if Adam wasn't really there.  An important, short read.

Wisdom on Women // Headcoverings // Acts

Acts 17-18

Paul's entourage comes to Thessalonika, and is so popular the Jews get jealous, get them arrested and let them out on bail.  Paul seems to have "handlers" now, who whisk him away to Berea, where things go more peaceably.  But the Jews from Thess. send agitators and get them exiled from there, too.  Silas and Timothy stay, but Paul goes to Athens.  (He seems to think it's going so well, it's time for the big time!)  They give him a hearing here.  He appeals to their religious sense, and that Jesus will judge them, proven by His resurrection (ch 17).

Paul lands in Corinth next where the pattern continues: Jews reject him, but Gentiles come to Christ in great numbers.  Paul stays 18 months!  The Jews try to get him in legal trouble, but the Roman judge brushes the Jews aside.  Paul returns to Antioch, through Ephesus and Caesarea (ch 18).

Rev. Bill Smith - on "Giving your strength to women" (Proverbs 31:1-3) - at Kuyperian.com

The immoral woman will suck strength from a man and his house.  The godly woman helps a man build a house.  The immoral man will give up himself, his agenda, and resources to many women.  The godly man will give himself to one woman and build a family with her.

Pastor Adam McIntosh - on the headcovering movement (1 Corinthians 11:3-10) - at Kuyperian.com

This text is not as clear as headcovering advocates claim.  Thus, it cannot be an ongoing command.  I disagree with the major premise, and the inference from it.  Yet, ironically, I will agree with his conclusion in the rest of the series, that a fabric headcovering is not commanded here.  On the major premise, I believe the text is clear enough that longer hair is a woman's covering, taught by nature that it is more feminine (vs 15).  The context is marriage roles in the worship service, where men should look like men, and women like women.  On the inference, there are many commands in Scripture that are difficult to apply with wisdom, but that does not negate our duty to apply them.