Audio books leading to the break of dawn

I have been engaged in a study of apologetics recently, more specifically the "apologetic method" of Francis Schaeffer( Though I know he would hate any kind of formula with his name attached to it), and, by extension, I have been studying the definition "Presuppositional Apologetics" for a Bible study this Friday night, but in truth this post begins long ago at the budding of my freshman year...

I had just met my new roommate, Howard M. Wellons, a most ostentatious Episcopalian from North Carolina. As we got to know each other through the usual pleasantries of society, he informed me that he has to sleep with an audio-book, or his sleeping patter would be much disrupted considering audio-books were always involved in his nocturnal resting. I thought it would be somewhat annoying; however, most promptly, the concept grew on me, and now I must listen to something as I go to sleep. My selection, coming from my theological inclinations, had been to listen to church history lectures as I fade to dream land, yet this was too stimulating for me and I decided a change of venue was in order. I found lectures on the life and writings of C.S. Lewis, and began to think to myself that these would be interesting, yet not enough to keep me awake all night. I must conclude that my hypothesis was wrong, for it it now 2:37 A.M., and I am wide awake. Yet I do not think I would trade this time for any amount of sleep, for sleep can only rejuvenate the body... I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep when the lecturer proceeded to discuss Lewis' concept of "First and Second Things". Lewis describes his search for joy, and relates that he was always disappointed because his search was misdirected. He, before his conversion, looked for joy, but not what caused the joy. Lewis sought the side effect of the object rather than the object Himself. As an example, he spoke of his wife whom he loved dearly. He said that he could never love his wife if he loved her for her own sake. The more he "loved" her, the less he really loved her, for his wife is not "first", rather she is "second". One cannot love a creature if one does not first love the creator, and out of that "first" love, the "second" then flows. Loving someone for the sake of that person will turn into hatred, for it is unbridled. If God's reigns be not upon it and guide it, that "love" will be doomed to fail. And so, Lewis concluded that the death of his wife saved the both of them from a form of Idolatry, and was a blessing of God's providence.

Now, let me put my spin on this. Nothing in this universe is autonomous. No, not one thing. Everything that is, was, or is to come must be based on one of two presuppositions: The Holy Triune God, or Autonomous Man. Either one interprets anything and everything as God requires, or you try to form your own interpretation. No gray. Only Black or White.

Funny, how we humans try to compartmentalize life, when we really can not do it. I put the concept of Christ's Lordship over all in apologetics, but not in life. Not in love. Yet, the truth is, one cannot separate apologetics from life. One thing is true in both:No neutrality, no brute facts. In my life, I now see where I have loved because of the second thing, and not the first. I am guilty of my love beginning on earth and leading me to heaven. What a fool! Love, for anything or anyone, must begin with the Beginning, the Triune God who is there and who is not silent, and from that love, all others must flow. Evil must be hated, not because of what it is, but because of who God is. Heresy must be beaten with all violence, but only because of the character and holiness of God, not because it is "just wrong". As Christians we, I, must strive to subject all of life to God's sovereignty as Lord of all. All thoughts, loves, wills, and actions must begin in the throne room of the Almighty. If they do not, then we admit that there is "neutrality", there is a brute fact that exists without being contingent upon God. I have loved dead relatives because of "who they were", and not because of who God is. Perhaps that is why they are here no longer, I think God would not have another in His place. I have loved my friends, my sister, mother, father, all with too much autonomy. Have you? O Brother, O Sister, let us draw nigh unto God. Let us look upon the world with the glasses of Theism, no more to filter the world through the vain lenses of Humanist pride.

We shall never love one another more, till we love Christ more. You can talk about the "Eucharist" till you are blue in the face. You can try to make all people think they are "elect" just because they were sprinkled as an infant, but to no good end. Away with such vanity! Away with all such heresy! I would say, my friends, that I would love you more... Yet, I think the only way to do so is to think more of Christ, and then, only then, shall the second things become elevated. Perhaps, one might think of this as "Presuppositional Life"...yeah.

Reflections on a Hymn

Greetings,

I have been reading through Roland Bainton's biography of Luther: Here I Stand. I love the story of Luther, for he is one of the more "earthly" of the reformers of the Church. Calvin stands as a figure of tremendous intellect and a systematizer of Christian Truth. Spurgeon was given a gift of verbal eloquence that would rival Chrysostom. But Luther, Luther was just a man of the common people. Sure enough he was a man of letters, but at his heart Luther was a common man who was not afraid to speak in the crude manner of a common German peasant. This ability would be used of God to start a great revival, but his mouth often got him into more trouble than was necessary. He was just an ordinary man used by God to deliver an extraordinary message, not only to the people of his day, but to all of western society that would come after him: God has reconciled man to Himself in the cross of Christ.
The Lord spoke through Luther's pulpit sermons, Christ also gave Luther the gift of Music. He wrote numerous hymns and set the psalms to tunes that were quite lively. He was also known for having a good tenor voice. Here is an example of his hymn writing:

In devil's dungeon chained I lay
The pangs of death swept o'er me.
My sin devoured me night or day
In which my mother bore me.
My anguish grew more rife,
I took no pleasure in my life
And sin had made me crazy.

Then was the Father troubled sore
To see me ever languish.
The Everlasting Pity swore
To save me from my anguish.
He turned to me His Father's heart
And chose Himself a bitter part,
His Dearest did it cost Him.

Thus spoke the Son, "Hold thou to me,
From now on thou wilt make it.
I gave my very life for thee
And for thee I will stake it.
For I am thine and thou art mine,
And where I am our lives entwine,
The Old Fiend cannot shake it."

It is an amazing thing really, when form and content meet. Much like a meal that is well balanced: a large portion of meat to nourish the stomach, and a portion of Dark Chocolate to ensure the taste buds will dance with glee.
I enjoy Luther's reflection on a life in sin as ripping all pleasure from life and making one crazy. Verily, I think the end of one's life, if it be not centered on Christ, is doomed to hysteria. Over the time of my rather short life I have pondered many thoughts about Christ, but never has my apperception considered Christ the "Everlasting Pity". And it truly is a glorious thought to entertain: that Christ and our "lives entwine." As Luther would say:

"This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness. He who see God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face."

Eternal Father, Strong To Save

Greetings all,

I am writing this post at what, if my eyes do not deceive me, looks to be two in the morning due to some studying that I needed to finish. I haven't posted in a while and that was because I did not feel like doing it, and I use the term "feel" for a very good reason. This year has been a hard one for me in a number of different ways that I will not go into. Now, these things and situations that I am referring to have not in any way changed my theology or philosophy. Despite death or flooding or termite infestation, Jesus is still fully God and fully Man, one person with two natures that are neither adulterated nor lessened, is still co-eternal and co-substantial with the Father. However, you can still believe the truth and feel the lie. It is so easy for is to look at our situations and become indifferent to things; to lose our zeal for truth just because we do not feel like we are going anywhere. However, as in all situations, Scripture is not silent about such issues. In the Gospels, we read of torments and afflictions that were laid on Christ that He might attain our pardon, and I imagine that such events were not fun. Life was not a field of beautiful wild growing tulips at that point, it was hell. Yet, Christ still loved. He still cared. He still had compassion and mercy. Things which, though we associate them with emotions that often go with them, are not themselves emotions. So, the state of our feelings is an irrelevant factor if we miss the truth for lack of feeling. Don't get me wrong, its perfectly fine to have feelings in general, but thats not what I am addressing. Our praise and adoration can not be based on how we feel about or lives at the moment, rather it must be based on the truth and love of God. Only that shall give us a place to stand amidst various winds and tempests of life.
My pastor would always try to impress upon me the fact that life is hard and going to be difficult at certain part, and I have found to be true day by day. But I have also found Christ to be sufficient in all situations and at all times regardless of what particular events happen to us. We need only know that He is ever present, and we shall stand strong. We need only know of His power to realize that we are safe within His arms. Yes, life is difficult, but Christ is more powerful than life. And yes, how we feel can be a great hill to over come some days, but God is still greater than our feelings. Feelings come and go, Christ is the I AM: unceasingly self sufficient and unceasingly our Mighty Fortress. Our Eternal Father, Strong to Save.

Stuff Happens

Greetings all,

This is the first post in...well... quite some time, long over due in fact. I was going to post a most awesome quote by Martin Luther on the proper interpretation of Justification and imputation, but I decided to delay that till tomorrow or the next day because something else has come up....

Actually it is not just one thing, it is many things; and this Sunday/Monday they all came to a head. I do not even know if I could put my feelings into words, for the situations(s) are far to complicated to explain in only one post. I felt far removed from my Father, like I was on a cold planet with no air. A land where the sun shines no more and where the ground lays fallow for lack of rain and nourishment; and I sat there in this waste land pondering my existence: wondering what in the world I was doing and where everything was headed. I felt as though I had lost control of everything, which was not true, for to lose control, one must have it first.

Afterwards, I discovered the flaw undergirding my depression: I looked to myself, and not to God. I do not mean that in the vague sense of, "Let go and let God", but I was genuinely not accepting the Lordship of Christ. I was saying in my own heart, "surely the Lord hath willed that this should happen in such a way...": I was predicating my own thought upon God, which is something that Christ does not take to kindly too. Of course I was depressed, I was looking to myself and myself only. I was not primarily looking to God, and trying to do whatever He has given unto me to do. Instead, I was trying to know and do everything, and that did not turn out so well. The Scripture repeats over and over and over that salvation is of the LORD only. There is no other medium; there is no other means to attain peace and stillness. We must hold out until He Than Which No Greater Can Be Conceived decides that it is his time to act. So, until His time, stuff may happen. Truth be told, stuff is almost guaranteed to happen. Often the Lord uses fire to prove His instruments; trials keep us prepared to admit our insufficiency. What better way for us to understand the miraculous revelation of YHWH: THE I AM.

I just wish it were not so long till trials were over. I wait for the dawning of the Completed Kingdom of Christ. O, what a day. Till then we must endure all kinds of situations, that we may truly grow and see the glory of God more and more; day by day.

God is Sovereign. If He wasn't, I think we would go insane.

Kneeling During Worship

Greetings Theo-bloggers and ect.

Today was a most interesting day at my church service. The first Sunday in May is our anniversary and usually this is one of the times throughout the year that we partake of the Lord's Table. We worshiped, had a reading of the Scripture, partook of the communion, and then had a church meal afterward. (There is no sermon whenever we we celebrate the Lord's Supper.) This was all done in normal fashion today with one exception: the worship was slightly altered. The last song was a praise and worship chorus entitled "We worship and adore You" wherein is contained a line "Bowing down before you". Before the initiation of the song our pastor spoke briefly of the use of kneeling and prostration in Old Testament worship. For myself, I have never been part of any church where the congregation knelt during worship. I know that such practice is permissible in Eastern Orthodox circles with the exception of Sundays and service from Pascha to Pentecost. Also, it was common for Roman Catholics to have kneeling during certain times, particularly during the reception of "Eucharist". For that reason the issue of kneeling during the Reformation was somewhat touchy. Some considered the kneeling during communion to be veneration of the bread and wine which could suggest a form of Roman Catholic transubstantiation. However, in the services lead by John Calvin, Kneeling for the Lord's Supper and prayer was common and Calvin himself advocated the raising of hands during worship. While this was true of Calvin it is not necessarily true of Reformed and Presbyterian circles today. So I thought it to be most interesting when we knelt during the last song of our worship and during a time of prayer. I have both knelt and prostrated before, but not in corporate worship. I enjoyed worship this day and thought it to be a very proper worship position. The primary Hebrew word for Worship שׁחה (shâchâh) actually means to bow or be prostrate, and in the Hebrew culture the knees were symbols of strength; therefore, to kneel is to submit one's self to a stronger party. Of coarse, the important part of worship is the posture of the mind: the inner man must fall before the Lord. Yet, let us not over look the fact that there is perfect validity in external manifestations of inward attitudes. John Gill comments on Psalm 95:6, "O Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker." by saying that it is natural that the Lord who made man both body and soul should be worshiped with both our body and our soul. One can not say that all worship must be done from a kneeling or prostrate position, but I hope we do it at my church more often in the future.

John Piper is Bad Music Video

Isolation and loneliness

In my life, I would say that the largest problems I face would be the feeling of isolation and loneliness. We all have our demons and ghosts that haunt and vex us, and these are my two. I have see no reason, except for the alienating effects of sin, for me to feel like I am the only one in the room despite the fact that I am in a large room with a rather copious amount of people. Today I had a rather intense case of this and I have been pushed into thought about it. I was riding in my car listening to the radio and I heard bands sing songs about people who are isolated and dealing with various issues, and I assume that this is no accident but, rather, it was divine providence. I have had to deal with this odd feeling for a long time and it is not an easy thing (As it is with every one and their personal problems). And while the cause of this can be circumstantial or completely random, the answer is always the same. You see, as I was riding along listening to the bands sing about different problems in life, whether it be problems with a girlfriend or parents or general teenage angst, there was always one common thread in every song: there was no answer, no solution to the problem. When man attempts to start from himself as being autonomous, he can never find an answer for his issues. Sure, man will try and try he will, but in the end the only thing left for him is silence and pain. However, I can start from the propositional truth of the Bible and come to substantial healing for my problems. Now I would like to point out the significance of the phrase "Substantial Healing". This is a very important phrase to you and me (If you, my reader, be in Christ) for this phrase accurately describes the state of a Christian in this world. The phrase avoids pessimism, for there is real healing going on in time and space, or in other words there is true healing now. The Christian's hope is not entirely in the next world, we can experience the blessing of Christ now. However, the use of the word "substantial" as the adjective in the phrase establishes what may be called Christian Realism. Let me submit to you that Christianity does not offer "total" healing in this life, but it does offer "substantial" healing. Life is never going to be perfect until we are glorified. Indeed, even our salvation is not completed in one sense because we have not yet received a glorified body. Yet, in this life we are justified, our sin has been wiped away and righteousness has been imputed to us, so that we can say we have been truly saved. It is not total yet, but it is substantial. In the same way our problems and strife will never be full done away with till we cross over the banks of Jordan into that blessed state of eternal life, but we can be truly healed right now and that healing can be substantial. We may struggle and fight with our demons, whether they be internal or external or both, but we can be assured that we will be healed. So, when I come to my own problems I can take my Christian base and apply it to the problem. Whether I am depressed or someone has wronged me I can lean on Christ and I will be held up. My World View allows me to take all the information that is thrown at me and, not only process it, but deal with it and produce results. And you can do this too, if your residence is in the City whose Builder and Foundation is Jesus Christ.

ReformationMan