(considering) 8:28

Implications of the Sovereignty of God

recent posts

  • Conforming and Context


    Welcome back to people who have just noticed I wrote a new post (this one). Sorry about the hiatus, I’ve been moving, and my internet is a little sketchy until the Aliant people finally decide to show up and install my internet. Anyway, enough of my troubles.

    My plan is to start a series on authority beginning tomorrow. For tonight, I’d like to talk a little bit about scripture.

    To cut to the quick: Scripture is not primarily a text, it’s a [con]text.

    What do I mean by that? Besides the fact that I like square brackets.

    It’s pretty simple really. Scripture is special in the way it functions to a believer. That’s not news to any Christian, yet in large measure, when we examine scripture exegetically, it seems to me we treat it much as we would any other text. This is strange, since the way we read texts generally (in the post-modern west) is to concern ourselves with what we see in the text, and thus the preaching we get comes simply from the informed opinion of the exegete (the preacher).

    Indeed, scripture is a text, and there is a level odf subjectivity we face as we see it from a human perspective. But it is more. When Christians say that the Bible is truth, we are not saying that it is a text that contains true propositions, but that the Bible enunciates the actual history and meaning for everything. It is itself the context by which Christians interpret the texts of their lives.

    This means that it is a little silly to speak of applying the text to our lives. That’s backwards; the task is to apply our lives to the scripture, the [con]text. This is slightly different than calling what is contained in the Bible a metanarrative. We, as Christians, by reading scripture are placing ourselves within God’s reading of the world. We are to be conformed to the text, not vice versa. While we wrestle with the text, as Jacob wrestled with God, we are not “negotiating” a meaning. We are becoming meaningful ourselves. It’s a pretty one sided negotiation, the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit as we are placed in the [con]text of scripture.

    So, the end result is that we are called to read scripture, not as a text that “speaks for itself” in some fasion of narrative theology, but we are to read ourselves as texts to be interpreted by the work of God as expressed scripturally.

    Neitzsche once said that “if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you”. That is not only true of an abyss (which I think is the reason those that ruminate long on evil become conformed to the evil they ruminate on, or those who gaze long at meaninglessness soon see themselves as meaningless), but of anything of ultimate significance.

    Indeed, I gaze long into the Word of God, that the Word of God might gaze into me, and in perceiving me as I am, change me to what the Word is. A good thing, since it is my goal to be conformed to the image of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

    There are more implications I can think of, but it’s late, and I have class in the morning. If anybody is interested, lemme know and I’ll write on this again.

  • Discernment

    At some point almost every Christian has some problem in understanding what it is they should be doing in the future. There are two errors which Christians fall into at this point, the first is that they can become double-minded about what to do, and thus not work in faith that God will grant success in the task that they hae come to, and the second is that they jump into something well before God actually has spoken.

    The first I think, is part of the problem we see dealt with in James 1:1-6 (go read it, I’m going to refer to it here). Many people read this passage as a demand that we not be in doubt about anything we ask of the Lord, thus we should name and claim whatever we desire in the Lord. In context, however, it refers directly to the gift of wisdom. It is wisdom that we use when we discern God’s call in our lives.

    This passage is against the strange belief current in many Christian circles that God is hiding the desires he has for us, and that we must somehow “discover” them. Indeed, it is true that discernment is work, and must be done carefully, but God is not a capricious game-show host demanding that we choose the right path though many seem right to us. In most cases, God has given us the methodology to understand what he calls us to do (usually through scripture, prayer, and the counsel of Godly friends), and even promises to grant us wisdom when we need it.

    The second problem of the daredevil Christians is dealt with in scripture as well. We are called to obey God, but we are also told to discern the spirits by which we are told things to do (1 John 4:1). This doesn’t just mean to test those freaky people that claim to speak for the Lord, but even test our own motivations and ideas. How do we do that? Here’s where we get t the crux of the matter:

    Rom. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

    I believe that God shows here that He is far more interested in remaing us as worshippers of His, rather than working through us to do stuff. He does in fact do both, but first He is interested in ordaining people to glorify Him, because his ultimate goal is the praise of his glory. He deigns to transform us into people who can act in such a way as to make Him look glorious to those around us, and thus the primary task of the believer is not to discern God’s call on our lives, but to become conformed to the image of God.

    I am wary of using the word “transformation”, as it is commonly used as a quasi-pagan idea that the universe is primarily a becoming. We are, however, called to be transformed BY the renewal of the mind so that we may discern the will of God, a will that is good and acceptable and perfect, and in so doing glorify God.

    So what is rule number one of discernment? Be transformed, so that you can discern. That transformation is wholly gift of God that we work through, and it has a specific goal of God’s will being performed. Thus when we ask “what should we do for the Lord”, we are asking the wrong question. Rather we should be asking, “What am I to be?”, and that answer can only come through communion with God in prayer and in the Scriptures.

  • Seek first


    Hey all,

    Sorry it’s been so long on this, I actually have 3 draft blog entries I’m working on, but between papers, exams and my rockin social life (okay, I admit, I made that last one up….but I have been busy), I haven’t gotten to them.

    So just a short thought today. In a class today it was mentioned that the Anglican Church needs to begin planting churches, and that there is a really good place to put one on a road leading out of St. John’s where a new subdivision is. The minister who was speaking said that the Bishop should send someone there to do that work, and just give them housing and a stipend.

    So then I started musing. One of the problems I think that all Christians have in the west is our inability to actually take God at His word. He claims that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things (referring to the necessities of life) will be added unto you (see Matthew 6:33). Now, I know that God wants people to come to Christ,
    and I know many people see that. So why aren’t believing Christian
    leaders simply going to their denominational authorities and saying “Hey, can you just ordain me and commission me to plant a Church in X place that seriously needs one?”.

    I think I know why, and it’s the same reason I haven’t done that yet. Fear and a lack of faith. The responding question comes though, how will God ever bless the work we do in his name if we only do those things we can see as easily doable? If we don’t trust God’s word that much, is it any wonder many in our society doubt whether they should put their faith in the Lord we know?

    Now I’m not saying we should go off half cocked and do things based solely on our own sense of adventure or the indigestion we’re interpreting as a prodding of the Spirit. We should look to discern callings to such things, even as we discern callings for those set apart to preach the word. But such discernments should be going on, because while we pontificate about what the Church, the Bishop, the convention or whatever authority should do, God may be simply leading us to act.

    Seek first the kingdom of God.

    I think next time I should talk some about discernment…

    Again sorry for the delay.

  • The Constraints of Evangelism Part III: Love your Neighbour as Yourself


    Before I get too far into this, I should point out some pretty standard western misreadings of this command of the Lord. This second commandment reads “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Many thinkers here make the mistake of breaking this into 2 commandments (like they sometimes break the first commandment into 3). The second clause “as yourself” they read as a command to “love yourself”. That is NOT the point at all. Loving yourself is assumed here and is made the standard for whether you love your neighbour adequately or not. The reason is clear, people naturally love themselves, it’s just that sometimes (as in the case of suicidal depression or anxieties) they despair of their own ability to improve their joy. They WANT to improve their joy because they love themselves, they just don’t think they can. Even the emo goth people act all depressed and such to enhance their own self image. So this isn’t a doctor Philesque call to self affirmation.

    The second major misreading is to think that the first commandment is based on the second. That through loving our neighbours we can come to love God (even if we don’t now). This is patently false. Generally, if you just focus on love of neighbours, you end up ignoring God altogether, or even worse creating a God that fits your twisted understanding of loving your neighbour. Next post I’ll comment on how Calvinist thinking helps alleviate that, but for this post I’ll get on with evangelism.

    Our love of God teaches us that God is holy, all powerful, all loving, and completely just. herein lies the problem for us outside of Jesus. Anybody who has done more than a microsecond of honest self reflection knows they aren’t holy (Holy and just God, unholy and justly deserving of death us, I don’t think I need to draw a map here). So as Christians, to love our neighbour, we
    probably should tell them how to get out from under God’s wrath (or more precisely, how to get under the only protection from God’s just wrath). In essence, in their sin, people are dead. If you love someone, you don’t want them dead. The only person who claimed (and then backed up His claim) to be the resurrection and the life was Jesus. So introduce people to Jesus so they can come into life. Pretty simple, no?

    Now, that does NOT mean you should walk around screaming about people being heathen sinners. Remember, the love of God is primary, so in all things we have to make sure we don’t get in the way of people seeing God’s glory; else they remain dead. So, we speak in love, we really get to know and love them as we love ourselves (because we love God, not primarily for their sake or ours). We help people to see the justice of God, and we stop doing the things that suppress others. Yes, this means you should probably do many of the granola-like things of drinking fair trade coffee instead of the cheap stuff, or checking on the background of major purchases, and trying to invest ethically. But none of this is primarily for the love of others, it’s for the love of God and the love of others. And as you do these things, speak plainly and often about the God you know, and the Christ who saves from sin. Again, not to make people notches on your belt, but because you love them.

    Similarly, you tell them about Jesus, you don’t avoid the topic because of any misbegotten idea that to do so is not loving of neighbour. If the Christian message is correct, it is unloving (indeed hateful) to avoid that topic, and is more likely because of our love of personal glory than our love of God (and aggrandizing ourselves makes it impossible to love others in the same way, as aggrandisement is inherently competitive).

    Is all of this clear, or should I unpack it more? I look forward to your comments.

  • Harris and the Trout in the Punchbowl

    Hey All,
    If anybody is into atheistic arguments, there’s a big one that’s a present bestseller on Amazon by Sam Harris (“letter to a Christian Nation”). At the moment Doug Wilson is seemingly doing a series of responses, you can find the latest one here