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.

Power Politics // Sabbath in society // #MeToo

I don't know what to make of this.  A Trump supporter sues a paper that misrepresents him in an altercation with an opposing protestor.  On one hand, it might be a useful tactic against media bias: defamation.  On the other, since when did conservatives go to litigation and the bare-knuckled approach, instead of the high road and persuasion?  Something's rotten in the state of conservatism.  But that's old news, I suppose.


Two opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye today.
1. Alan Dershowitz, professor at Harvard Law, fights back against the MeToo movement, having been accused of sexual harassment when the objective evidence completely favors his innocence.  No matter.  If you are accused twice, even when the same lawyer is behind both accusations, people start calling his innocence "inconclusive."  Dershowitz is right that accusers have a civil right to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, but we are quickly losing that right in our society.

2. The Supreme Court is revisiting the case where an employee asks for a day off for religious reasons.  The 1972 law is that the employer needs to give it unless it causes said employer undue hardship.  A 1977 court verdict made that hardship a bare minimum, almost an inconvenience, which any reshuffling of employee schedules is.  So the obligation was virtually gone.  Let's hope the court restores some leeway for the conscience of employees for religious reasons with employers who couldn't care less about the Sabbath.

1 Corinthians 11-14

The Text:

Have loving regard for each other.

Order your clothing and your conduct in worship to honor God (chapter 11).  Maintain natural gender identity in worship.  Eat and drink at Communion together, remembering the body of Christ on the cross, and recognizing the body of Christ sitting around you and with you.

Work together like a body with different parts that need each other (12).  The same Spirit gifts each one of us uniquely.

All the work and sacrifice in the world doesn’t mean anything without love (13).  Other gifts will fade in importance over time (tongues, knowledge, etc.) but love is the reason why we have regard for each other.  Love is your future destination.

Use your gifts to help others, not show off how great you are (14).  Don’t use the worship service to show off in any way.  The presenting issue is tongues, but this would apply to a preacher showing off knowledge, flashy clothing and more.

Christ in the text

Jesus laid down His physical body sacrificially to establish and strengthen His spiritual body, the Church.  His Incarnation, ministry, atonement, resurrection, current reign, and future return – each of these He does specifically for His people, in an orderly fashion and not chaotically (ch 14), without showboating (ch 12, 14), or disregarding us (ch 11).

Doctrinal application

Some of these gifts Paul discusses have passed away.  They were signs of apostolic authority (2 Cor. 12:12), or of a new phase of revelation from God, as with Moses and Elijah.  God continues to heal people miraculously, but does not ordinarily vest specific people with the gift to do so.  (I’m willing to consider anomalies and exceptions to this.)

Personal application

But the principle remains: use the gifts the Lord has given you to help others, not to advance your own ego or reputation.  The Corinthians had a real problem with this, and we do today, also.

Cultural application

We have institutionalized and celebrated it, with Madison Avenue’s branding of the self.  It’s a fine line between getting people aware of you in the marketplace, and vaunting pride.  Confident announcement, or shameless self-promotion?  One way to tell is to ask yourself, “Where’s the love?”  You can do what you do to show others how great you are out of self-love, or you can do what you do to help others out of love for them.  Knowing that much of our vocation is oriented to providing for yourself and your family, it is still true that the most successful people balance that with a genuine motivation to provide value to others in their work, using their gifts.  Christian love is the only real desire fueling that motivation.

1 Corinthians 11:3-16 cuts against the grain of our culture's gender fluid push today.  Cultures may express it differently, but there is a built-in-to-nature creational difference between men and women.  More on this another time.

Counseling is More than Correcting // Bible is More than Fixing Sin

This edition of strolling the links is brought to you by Uri Brito, pastor in Pensacola, FL.


First a snippet from a longer conversation - but this on counseling.
"Pastoral counseling habits require a re-orientation. We are too quick to offer solutions and Bible verses without listening to our counselees’ concerns and contexts. While there are occasions where direct (nouthetic) confrontation is needed, it ought not to be the paradigm for counseling. As Dr. Field notes, “Some conservative pastors get restless after ten or twenty minutes of listening.” "


And here's something I've been trying to articulate for years, now.
"The Bible is not just about solving our sin problem. It has a more foundational purpose. It begins with the creation account. Creation is the fundamental starting point of missions. In the creation, we learn to answer the questions, “Who owns this world?” and “What is our mission in it?” These questions only find an answer in the first pages of recorded revelation. If you skip this part, everything about the way you view the world will be thwarted. You can’t begin with creation fallen. You must begin with creation as it was intended and then move from there."

Superheroes // Homeschooling High School // New York Times bias

Romans Road puts out Digressio, an excellent compilation of articles.
Here's one from their 2017 issue on what's good about superheroes.


Circe Institute does a podcast on homeschooling in the Charlotte Mason stream.
Here's one on the high school years.  Helpful perspective here.


Marvin Olasky does good journalistic work.  Here's a short article detailing New York Times bias in three separate stories, on one day!

The State of Our President

It has been cliche for quite some time now to bemoan the evangelical Christian's mindless support of the Presidency of Donald Trump.  What hypocrisy to call for Clinton's impeachment, while turning a blind eye to Trump's infidelities!

There is of course some truth to the charge.  Trump historically has been (arguably) an admirable entrepreneur, but an amoral figure.  It's sad that any support of our president needs to be qualified with separating oneself from his immoral past.  I'll never forget the picture of Jerry Falwell, Jr. posing for a picture in Trump's office with a Playboy cover in the background.

This is what made the State of the Union speech so striking.  For the first hour I was mildly disappointed.  Our president said good and true things, but it was all oriented to money and jobs and our economy.  It reminded me of arguments I had with friends during the primaries when I was against him.  He might be fine as a fiscal conservative, I said, but I couldn't see him advocating for biblical morality in the public square.

I am gladly eating my words now.  So happy to be wrong.

The speech was well put together rhetorically.  Trump was restrained and mature given the current political climate against him.  He started with economic issues but he didn't stay there.

The wall and border he framed as a moral issue, rightly so.  His biggest blunder of the night was here, neglecting to qualify his position with the reality that many seeking entrance to our country are not nefarious folks.  But raising the issue of sex trafficking, and having present family of victims murdered by illegals, was rhetorically effective against the derision from his opponents who think he is just bigoted against brown people.

How do you speak against the fiscally insane policies of socialists like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and Kamala Harris, who are sitting in the room as you speak?  You start with the chaos those policies have wreaked on Venezuela.  Excellent.

And how do you work up to speaking against abortion to a room full of feminists?  Paid family leave and the evoking the experience of holding your new-born baby, that's how.  Trump outed the campaign against Virginia Governor Northam for what it really is: the Democrat party removing its own, when he spoke too plainly about what they really advocate regarding late-term abortion.

Now, is it weird to hear a philanderer and moral scoundrel speak to the nation about children in the mother's womb being made in the holy image of God?  Yes.  Should we work against him because of that awkwardness?  I don't think so.  It reminds me of Jesus' line to the Pharisees that the Gentiles, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before them.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't naively assume Trump has entered the Kingdom.  But he is singing some of the songs of the Kingdom of God.

By the most cynical political calculation, Trump is pandering to his conservative base and not really believing what he says regarding abortion.  Even assuming this is true, I'll take and support it over the far more tepid Republican alternatives we could have had, who likely would have cowered at the culture war onslaught that has gone on for the last few years, and said nothing in defense of the babies, or toned it down.  No.  We are letting "doctors" kill the babies, and taking advantage of vulnerable women.  It is demonic to convince women that they are gaining freedom and more choices for their lives by ending the life inside them.  We need a warrior for this truth in the Oval Office right now, not a prudent pragmatician.  It seems perhaps that our vice-President is convincing our president of the urgency of this issue.

Whatever Trump's real motives or personal standing before His Creator, I'm giving thanks today for his stand for the unborn and against socialism before a watching world.

Genesis 30

The Text

In the middle of miserable strife between his two wives, Jacob fathers 11 sons, the last being Joseph.
He asks Laban to leave so he can start building his own savings instead of just increasing Laban's.
Laban basically says no.
Jacob once again plays shrewd to the point of deception, asking for the speckled and black livestock as his own.  Laban agrees but separates and sends them all away to hide them from Jacob!  Jacob responds with diligent cultivation of the flock that is left, and prospers anyway.
Some think with the rods he puts before the speckled sheep, that he believes a superstition.  Others that there is some scientific fact Jacob knew that we don't.  Others that he put the rods there as an act of faith, asking God to bless his work.  Whichever is right, the main point is that he is working at his vocation wisely and faithfully and God blesses that.

Christ in the Text
Jacob is a figure of Christ, seeking to bless and grow His flock while the snake Laban is trying to destroy His work and hinder the growth of His household to maintain his own.

Doctrinal application
The effects of sin are everywhere, and difficult to overcome.  Jacob has 2 wives who make the peace of his family hard to cultivate.  He has an uncle who works to prevent his financial security, and keep Jacob dependent on him.

Cultural application
The dominion mandate to fill and subdue the earth has strong opposition, but will be overcome by God's grace granting ability to His people.

Personal application

Note the parallel between our spiritual lives and our vocations.  In both there are many thorns and thistles we have to work through and overcome.  Shrewdness and sharp dealing is sometimes needed with unscrupulous people in the marketplace.  But don't cross the line to deceit and dishonor.  We cultivate our souls, our families and our vocations all by faith (or we don't do it at all), and God blesses us.

Genesis 24

The Text
Verses 1-9 - Abraham sends his servant back to Haran to get a wife for Isaac.
Verses 10-14 - the servant prays for God's provision in this mission.
Verses 15-28 - God answers as Rebekah meets him and waters his camels.
Verses 29-61 - Her family meets him and he explains.  They and she approve.
Verses 62-66 - Rebekah meets and marries Isaac.

Christ in the Text
The connection is a bit symbolic, but also a central theme of Scripture:
God arranges a marriage, providing a bride for His Son. 
Abraham is in the role of God.
Isaac in the role of Jesus.
Rebekah in the role of the Church.
This chapter is a blurry picture of Christ, though, because when God works to get Jesus' bride in history, He sends His Son Himself, not a servant.  In Genesis 24, Isaac just sits and waits.  Jesus sacrifices and lays down His life for the Church.
Ways the picture works:
Abraham like God has foresight and resources and acts according to God's promises to bless Abraham with offspring.
Isaac like Jesus is blessed and delighted to receive His bride (John 17:24).
Rebekah like the church is willing to devote the rest of her life to a Husband she has never seen, trusting God that He is blessing and fulfilling promises to His family and to herself as she becomes part of it.

Doctrinal Understanding
This is the middle and longest chapter of Genesis.  Moses could have told the story with a lot fewer words, but draws it out, both for literary drama and for emphasis on the importance of a bride to fulfill God's promises.

Cultural and Personal Application
To carry on the Christ centered metaphor, as Rebekah is willing to leave her family and identify with another one publicly, so must Christians decide to live according to different "house rules."  The church should submit to Isaac's (Christ's) headship, not to deceitful Laban's.  Rebekah and her family didn't always do this so well (Genesis 31:32; 35:2), and neither does the church - often tempted as we are to compromise with and identify with the world instead of our Savior and Bridegroom.

The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Clancy's first Jack Ryan novel, and my first Clancy read.

One of the few times I saw the movie before reading the book, which was a good thing, believe it or not. Else I would have been lost in the technical minutiae. But it seems a compelling depiction of modern naval warfare.

Definitely a product of the Cold War, Clancy throws in side comments about American freedom and the Soviet mindset that set them in stark contrast, and show the moral inequivalence between the two. It's probably overly simplistic: the Americans are always meritocratic, while for the Russians politics and rank come before competence. But I wouldn't argue with the basic refutation of moral equivalence between the two, given the explicit godlessness of the U.S.S.R.

Still, Clancy tips the hat to the technical and tactical capabilities of the Russians, in the characters of Ramius and Tupolev.

Clancy is a deft craftsman of the modern literary device - I don't know the technical term - of shifting from one scene or location to another with increasing rapidity, heightening the pace and drama. It's a bit of a cheap trick in my view, but for this kind of story and genre it works.

A smattering of language, including the f-bomb. Probably way less than is realistic, but still a bother to me.



View all my reviews

Genesis 15

The Text
Verses 1-8
God promises Abraham he has a bright future.  Abraham objects that God hasn't even given him one child for an heir, yet.  God says they will be as countless as the stars.  Abraham believes and asks for a sign that this will be true. 
Verses 9-12, 17
God has him do a bloodpath covenant, known in the culture of the time: cut animals apart, situate them so their blood pools or flows in the middle, and walk through the blood.  The point: if I break this contract, you can treat me like these animals.  It is a self-maledictory oath.
Verses 13-16, 18
God reaffirms the promise of land and offspring, and foretells Israel's trouble in Egypt and the Exodus.

Christ in the Text
This chapter is a gold mine of Messianic promises.
1. Jesus is Abram's awaited offspring who will accomplish the fulfillment of God's promises (Galatians 3:16).
2. Jesus is the animals cut in two, whose blood ratifies God's promises.
3. Jesus is Abram, figuratively, the ultimate recipient of God's promises to inherit nations (Psalm 2:8), have numerous descendants and be blessed (Isaiah 53:10).

Doctrinal Understanding
1. Abram believes, and God justifies him by that faith alone (Galatians 3:5-9).  Faith is not a New Testament development, after Israel lived before God by works.
2. The covenant promise God made to Abraham is confirmed with a quasi-sacrament: a visual ritual to display, confirm, symbolize and seal God's promise to Abraham.

Cultural Application
God gives Abram land already occupied by others.  Just as believers need to give sovereignty of their lives to the Lord Christ, so this is the goal for all people: to conform society to at least be consonant with God's law.  This will "dispossess" people and they will object, but God's call is to "take the land" in the Great Commission sense.

Personal Application
1. Abram trusts God, but has no qualms expressing doubts and objections and asking for a sign.  I often look to Gideon as a negative example - putting out the fleece more than once was an act of unbelief.  But in the right heart, asking for a sign is an act of faith (Isaiah 7:10-11).  God wants us to seek such a sign, and gives them to us.
2. Make use of the sacraments God gives us to bolster your faith in God's promises.
3. God will bless you, even though it doesn't feel like it when you are waiting through dry times.

Acts 10

The Text
The Spirit brings a Roman Centurion and his family and friends together with the apostle Peter to hear the Gospel of Jesus.  Both have visions.  Cornelius sees and angel; Peter sees a bunch of unclean animals and hears a voice from heaven telling him to eat them.  This is both a literal overturning of the Levitical food laws (Leviticus 11) and a metaphor that he is to receive the unclean Gentile Cornelius into his home and interact with him.  When Peter preaches Christ in a Gentile-understandable way, the Spirit falls on them so that they speak in tongues, praise God and seek baptism.

Christ in the Text
Jesus is presented as Lord and judge over all (10:36, 42).  The Old Testament idea that He is God's anointed servant is present but a bit muted (10:38).  His death and resurrection remain central, and we can have healing from sickness, relief from devilish oppression (38) and forgiveness for our sins (43) through Him.

Doctrinal understanding
Parts of the Old Testament Law, mainly the ceremonial and ritual aspects, were meant to pass away with the coming of Christ.  This allowed for greater interaction and unity between Jew and Gentile, as the Jewish apostles go into all the world to bring the Gospel to every nation.

Cultural application
1. Peter asserts Jesus is Lord of all, a direct contrast for the Gentiles with Caesar.  He may be "soft-pedaling" the Old Testament context, but only to make more understandable the radical step they will need to take in putting Christ before Caesar.
2. Liberal progressives in our day wrongly apply verse 47 to LGBT people.  The argument goes that a similar wall is up between LGBT and the rest of the church that was up between Jew and Gentile, and it should come down.  The church should realize that God accepts them.  This argument confuses a ritual distinction with a moral one.  God accepts anyone when they repent of their sin and turn away from it (any sin, including homosexual practice) and trust Jesus' work at the cross for their forgiveness.

Personal application
1. While this is a unique moment in redemptive history, we should expect the Holy Spirit to continue bringing together seekers with those who are ready to explain the claims of Christ and call for a response.
2. Be ready to interact with unexpected types of people.  For Peter it was a higher-up in the Roman military.  Don't confine God or your church to a narrow slice of a demographic type.

Baptism Saves // Mortify Sin // Read Theology!

Does baptism save?  1 Peter 3:18-20 has flummoxed readers for centuries.
Sam Storms takes a detailed crack at it, from his commentary.
The gist:
The spirits in prison are the rebellious demons from Genesis 6:1-4, 2 Peter 2:4, and Jude 6.
Peter saw his readers in the same boat (pun intended) that Noah was in.
Baptism doesn't save mechanically, but is the same pattern by which God had saved His people in the Old Testament: with physical means and the heart's appeal to God.


Derek Thomas passes on John Owen's wisdom on the "Mortification of Sin."


Kevin DeYoung reviews the best Systematic Theology works available.