A beautiful script
upon the page
a calligrapher's delicate hand
The words themselves
tell truth
and love
and goodness
The insight and the ink
drawn together
in flawless form
But it is just gallery beauty
safely cordoned off
from indelicate hands
Look, but do not touch
Admire, but do not use
lest the paper become torn
and the ink smudged
Then this priceless treasure
becomes worthless
crumpled, and cast aside
Too often, our theology is like that...
good on paper but ultimately
torn
damaged
discarded
a fine vellum
useless for anything
except a showpiece
We need a rugged theology
leather perhaps, but not parchment
one that withstands
the scuffles
and bruises
of a rough and tumble world
each scar enhancing its beauty
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
17 April 2017
15 August 2015
Book Review: hand in Hand
A few years ago, I more fully embraced a Calvinistic identity. I frequented reformed blogs (e.g., Challies, Desiring God), read books by reformed writers (e.g., John Piper, John MacArthur, RC Sproul), and even attended reformed conferences. In fact, I would go so far as to say everyone else (e.g., Arminians) were wrong, though admittedly, I never bothered to actually read what they were writing.
In fact, the Internet breeds a religious subculture of people who spend innumerable hours debating Calvinism versus Arminianism. A year or two ago, I began to recognize the ugliness Christian brethren can have for one another when they hold different theological viewpoints. I stopped actively referring to myself as "reformed" in my thinking because I think the terms "Calvinist", "reformed", and "Arminian" carry too much baggage.
I suspect Randy Alcorn had similar feelings, so he wrote hand in Hand: The beauty of God's sovereignty and meaningful human choice (2014) to attempt to explore this difficult topic. Alcorn grew up in an Arminian church but now has more Calvinist leanings and he recognizes that in each camp, there are God fearing, Bible believing Christians though their sense of balance may be different. He argues that the Bible teaches both God's sovereignty and what he calls meaningful human choice and we cannot sacrifice one at the cause of another.
Although the whole book was well researched, humble, and engaging, I particularly enjoyed his chapter "Voices from the past share timeless truths." In this chapter, he references numerous theologians through the history of the church, identifying their common ground--Arminians talking about God's sovereignty, and Calvinists talking about human choice.
hand in Hand is an important book regardless of your theological frame of reference. It is a call to faith grounded in God's Word rather than a theological system. It is also a call to unity between believers. Regardless of your viewpoint, I would strongly recommend this book.
14 November 2013
Theology is...
When many people hear the word theology, they often think of old, white men pontificating about God. Often they are right. Unfortunately, theology has earned the reputation as a stale, uninteresting discipline for ivory tower academics. May it not be so.
Theology should not ultimately be analyzing a flower petal under a microscope,
it should be lying in a field of purple and yellow and white flowers, feeling the breeze on your face.
Theology should not ultimately be carefully analyzing a person's gait,
it should be dancing in time with the music, flowing fluidly across the floor.
Theology should not ultimately be theories about meter and chord progression,
it should be coming to tears as Handel's Messiah washes over you.
Theology should not ultimately be about Doppler radar and rising barometric pressures,
it should be about listening to the rain splashing against the windows, just a little scared at the crashing thunder.
Theology is the study of God, but it is a study that should drive us to worship. Theology should not ultimately be accumulating information about God, but an aid to help us bask in the presence of God.
Theology should not ultimately be analyzing a flower petal under a microscope,
it should be lying in a field of purple and yellow and white flowers, feeling the breeze on your face.
Theology should not ultimately be carefully analyzing a person's gait,
it should be dancing in time with the music, flowing fluidly across the floor.
Theology should not ultimately be theories about meter and chord progression,
it should be coming to tears as Handel's Messiah washes over you.
Theology should not ultimately be about Doppler radar and rising barometric pressures,
it should be about listening to the rain splashing against the windows, just a little scared at the crashing thunder.
Theology is the study of God, but it is a study that should drive us to worship. Theology should not ultimately be accumulating information about God, but an aid to help us bask in the presence of God.
22 October 2011
Passion of Youth, Wisdom of Age
The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.-Proverbs 20:29
Despite the increasing concerns in the media regarding the apathy of young people, particularly young men, I am encouraged by many of the young believers I see around me. They demonstrate a desire to know God and scripture more deeply. They want to grow in godly character. They interact with one another and with many Christian pastors through YouTube, blogs, and Twitter.
Older believers have walked the road for a longer time. Their reputations among younger believers are often of having lost touch, of not really understanding the Gospel, or attending church for its own sake. But older believers have the wisdom of age. They have endured seasons of hardship and blessing, continuing to walk with God.
Younger believers are a fresh blaze. They burn brightly, but haven't developed glowing coals. Older believers are glowing coals, but the flames may appear to have died down. Flames are unstable, coals are consistent. Flames are bright, but coals are hot. The flames look upon the coals as unexciting, dying out. The coals view the flames as lacking substance.
To the younger believers:
Despite the increasing concerns in the media regarding the apathy of young people, particularly young men, I am encouraged by many of the young believers I see around me. They demonstrate a desire to know God and scripture more deeply. They want to grow in godly character. They interact with one another and with many Christian pastors through YouTube, blogs, and Twitter.
Older believers have walked the road for a longer time. Their reputations among younger believers are often of having lost touch, of not really understanding the Gospel, or attending church for its own sake. But older believers have the wisdom of age. They have endured seasons of hardship and blessing, continuing to walk with God.
Younger believers are a fresh blaze. They burn brightly, but haven't developed glowing coals. Older believers are glowing coals, but the flames may appear to have died down. Flames are unstable, coals are consistent. Flames are bright, but coals are hot. The flames look upon the coals as unexciting, dying out. The coals view the flames as lacking substance.
To the younger believers:
- Read Scripture more than you listen to online teachers--significantly more. Although men like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Paul Washer and Tim Keller may be able to offer wise counsel, they are fallible. Just because one of them says something, it does not make it Gospel. What you learn from them must be balanced against and ultimately submit to Scripture, which you must swim in daily.
- Become a part of a local Bible-believing church. YouTube is not church. Reading books by Famous Christian Guys is not church. Joining a congregation of believers who are as fallible as you are, sitting under Godly preaching, glorifying God, and loving one another in the brotherhood is church. Learn from the men and women who have walked the road much longer than you have--real men and women whom you see on a weekly basis.
- Don't assume that because you read books about theology that you have a better developed sense of the Bible than others in the church. Theology is important, but it is not all-important. Theology, in wise hands, can be a wonderful tool for knowing and loving God more deeply. In immature hands, it may be a dangerous weapon. If you haven't read Kevin DeYoung's "A Tale of Two Corners", I would encourage you to do so right now. It should be required for all young believers.
- Grow in character. Pursue holiness. Be self-controlled and disciplined. Pray for humility and practice it.
- Don't lose your flame; that's how you develop coals.
- Listen to the younger believers. Their passion leads to legitimate questions. Don't be quick to dismiss them. Although Elihu was arrogant (Job 32 and following), he was accurate in many respects. Allow younger believers to fan the flame of your faith.
- Be sound in faith (Titus 2:2). This may involve studying theology, pushing yourself to chew on some of the more difficult meat of Scripture. Just like I said above, if you haven't read Kevin DeYoung's "A Tale of Two Corners", do so now. It should be required reading for all older believers.
- Don't flaunt your experience. It had nothing to do with you. God has kept you by his grace even when you were a smoldering wick or a bruised reed.
- Mentor younger believers. They will benefit from your experience of having walked the road.
- Fan your flames, that's how your coals become hotter still.
04 September 2011
Why Theology Matters-Discerning Error
By all accounts, Christians have access to more resources today than ever. Christian bookstores are filled with rows and rows of books. I recall a recent conversation with an acquaintance who attends a Bible believing church. She was telling me how much she loves Joel and how much she has learned from him. She meant Joel Osteen, purveyor of the health and wealth "gospel" and deceiver of countless millions (not the Old Testament prophet). Number one on the New York Times Bestseller list right now is Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo, a book about a little boy who allegedly went to heaven, which of course contradicts how Paul talks about going to heaven in 2 Corinthians 12. (By way of reminder, Paul did not want to talk about having gone to heaven and he was forbidden to share what he saw). Major Christian book distributors even sell books by Bart Ehrman and other like-minded authors, whose goal is to disassemble Christianity. On the website for Christian Book Distributors, they review Ehrman's book Jesus, interrupted and provide the following quote, "There’s something delicious (for nonbelievers, anyway) about the
implacable, dispassionate way that Ehrman reveals how the supposedly 'divine truth' of Christianity was historically constructed." Unfortunately, when they distribute these books, they rarely provide such a clear tag to the actual message.
The undiscerning Christian may happily gather up these books, assuming they teach truth in equal measure. They do not. But how are they to know this? Most Christians do not know their Bible or church history well enough to know how to identify error. The Pew Forum recently conducted a survey on religious knowledge and found that Christians scored more poorly than atheists/agnostics, Jews, and Mormons. I have read other surveys that demonstrate the commonplace occurrence of Christians not knowing themes such as how many gospels there are, who Moses was,or how many disciples there were. How can Christians be expected to guard themselves against error when they do not know God's word and the people who should be selling them materials to help are selling materials directly contrary to the faith without a warning label?
I think that a lot of people who know me assume that for me, the study of theology is a nice hobby or perhaps a quirk of character. Theology is more than just a hobby. It must be. Theology is technically knowledge of God. I believe that we are called to know God. Everyone on the planet has ideas about God, the question is whether those ideas are well-founded and Biblical. You cannot get to know God, in other words, you cannot develop as a theologian, without grappling with your Bible.
It says in 2 Peter 3:15-18, "And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Peter warns that ignorant and unstable people will twist the Scriptures to their own destruction and that we can also be carried away. How do we guard against this? By growing in grace and knowledge.
How do you grow in grace and knowledge? The first thing is to know your Bible well, which you will not do if you never read it. Interact with the word every day. Most of us never think twice about eating every day; we do it because when we don't, we weaken quickly. The same is true for God's word. A person not feeding on the Word daily will soon grow faint. Job 23:12 says, "I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food." How many of us can say that God's Word is more important to us than our next meal?
Second, there is wisdom in understanding church history. I have heard Derek Thomas, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, say that he is amazed at how ignorant people are of church history because most of the battles fought today in the church have already been fought in the last 2000 years and the church has come to resolution. Theologians have been correcting error for centuries and we should learn from their wisdom. If you hear about some new way of understanding the Bible that veers from a classical understanding, it is probably just an old heresy in new clothing.
Third, sit under Bible believing teaching. If you have chosen your church because the music moves you but they don't really make a big deal about whether the Bible is true or not, go somewhere else. If the people are really nice, but the leadership makes church about being a good person rather than being a desperately sick sinner in need of a savior, go somewhere else.
Churches abound with error. Churches claiming the label "Christian" also abound with error. Each week you may be learning from a humble shepherd or from a wolf in disguise, but you will not know it unless you get to know a little theology. Theology matters, whether you realize it or not.
The undiscerning Christian may happily gather up these books, assuming they teach truth in equal measure. They do not. But how are they to know this? Most Christians do not know their Bible or church history well enough to know how to identify error. The Pew Forum recently conducted a survey on religious knowledge and found that Christians scored more poorly than atheists/agnostics, Jews, and Mormons. I have read other surveys that demonstrate the commonplace occurrence of Christians not knowing themes such as how many gospels there are, who Moses was,or how many disciples there were. How can Christians be expected to guard themselves against error when they do not know God's word and the people who should be selling them materials to help are selling materials directly contrary to the faith without a warning label?
I think that a lot of people who know me assume that for me, the study of theology is a nice hobby or perhaps a quirk of character. Theology is more than just a hobby. It must be. Theology is technically knowledge of God. I believe that we are called to know God. Everyone on the planet has ideas about God, the question is whether those ideas are well-founded and Biblical. You cannot get to know God, in other words, you cannot develop as a theologian, without grappling with your Bible.
It says in 2 Peter 3:15-18, "And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Peter warns that ignorant and unstable people will twist the Scriptures to their own destruction and that we can also be carried away. How do we guard against this? By growing in grace and knowledge.
How do you grow in grace and knowledge? The first thing is to know your Bible well, which you will not do if you never read it. Interact with the word every day. Most of us never think twice about eating every day; we do it because when we don't, we weaken quickly. The same is true for God's word. A person not feeding on the Word daily will soon grow faint. Job 23:12 says, "I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food." How many of us can say that God's Word is more important to us than our next meal?
Second, there is wisdom in understanding church history. I have heard Derek Thomas, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, say that he is amazed at how ignorant people are of church history because most of the battles fought today in the church have already been fought in the last 2000 years and the church has come to resolution. Theologians have been correcting error for centuries and we should learn from their wisdom. If you hear about some new way of understanding the Bible that veers from a classical understanding, it is probably just an old heresy in new clothing.
Third, sit under Bible believing teaching. If you have chosen your church because the music moves you but they don't really make a big deal about whether the Bible is true or not, go somewhere else. If the people are really nice, but the leadership makes church about being a good person rather than being a desperately sick sinner in need of a savior, go somewhere else.
Churches abound with error. Churches claiming the label "Christian" also abound with error. Each week you may be learning from a humble shepherd or from a wolf in disguise, but you will not know it unless you get to know a little theology. Theology matters, whether you realize it or not.
12 January 2011
Overbalanced
Individuals and institutions have a tendency to become overbalanced when they focus on one thing to the exclusion, or minimization, of others. Although these may be good, righteous things, when they become our focus, it can leave us out of sync. In How People Change, Lane and Tripp discuss several types of Christian externalism. The authors describe them in much more detail, but briefly, they are:
Formalism--"the gospel is reduced to participation in church meetings and ministries in the church."
Legalism--the focus here is on keeping rules as a way of earning God's favor.
Mysticism--"the gospel is reduced to dynamic emotional and spiritual experiences."
Activism--Activists focus on fighting whatever evils or ills they encounter around them (abortion, human trafficking).
Biblicism--"the Bible is reduced to a mastery of biblical content and theology" rather than a focus on the Gospel.
Psychology-ism--Jesus is seen as a great therapist who heals our emotional needs.
Social-ism--Church becomes a social club and a way to have interpersonal needs met.
I am sure that there are others as well. Each of these isms involves a disturbance of good, righteous things. For example, serving God in the church is admirable, but an overbalanced person may not show any evidence of gospel transformation, even though involved in many activities.
As I read through the authors' descriptions of each of these things, I bristled at how Christians I know manifest each of these things in different measure. Then, I looked in a mirror and noticed a log right there in my eye. Although, I have seen evidences of many of these things in my life from time to time, the one that captures me is Biblicism. The authors write (substituting my name so it sinks in more fully), "In [Jason's] Christianity, communion, dependency, and worship of Christ have been replaced by a drive to master the content of scripture and systematic theology. [Jason] is a theological expert, but he is unable to live by the grace he can define with such technical precision. He has invested a great deal of time and energy mastering the word, but he does not allow the word to master him." I know this is a danger I face and I pray that God would pour afresh upon me the living waters of His gospel each day.
Father, help me not to love theology more than I love You. Help me to read your living word as a love letter rather than a textbook.
Formalism--"the gospel is reduced to participation in church meetings and ministries in the church."
Legalism--the focus here is on keeping rules as a way of earning God's favor.
Mysticism--"the gospel is reduced to dynamic emotional and spiritual experiences."
Activism--Activists focus on fighting whatever evils or ills they encounter around them (abortion, human trafficking).
Biblicism--"the Bible is reduced to a mastery of biblical content and theology" rather than a focus on the Gospel.
Psychology-ism--Jesus is seen as a great therapist who heals our emotional needs.
Social-ism--Church becomes a social club and a way to have interpersonal needs met.
I am sure that there are others as well. Each of these isms involves a disturbance of good, righteous things. For example, serving God in the church is admirable, but an overbalanced person may not show any evidence of gospel transformation, even though involved in many activities.
As I read through the authors' descriptions of each of these things, I bristled at how Christians I know manifest each of these things in different measure. Then, I looked in a mirror and noticed a log right there in my eye. Although, I have seen evidences of many of these things in my life from time to time, the one that captures me is Biblicism. The authors write (substituting my name so it sinks in more fully), "In [Jason's] Christianity, communion, dependency, and worship of Christ have been replaced by a drive to master the content of scripture and systematic theology. [Jason] is a theological expert, but he is unable to live by the grace he can define with such technical precision. He has invested a great deal of time and energy mastering the word, but he does not allow the word to master him." I know this is a danger I face and I pray that God would pour afresh upon me the living waters of His gospel each day.
Father, help me not to love theology more than I love You. Help me to read your living word as a love letter rather than a textbook.
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