Title my wife’s blog

My wife’s blog is REALLY lame for one reason. She doesn’t have a title for it. “Welcome to my blog” ain’t cutting it. Help my wife come up w/ a slick title.

See her blog here.

John Calvin in the Mountains (Owen and Kuyper are joining in as well!)

I have had many struggles in my life. One of my greatest struggles unfortunately is my failure to live up to the roll God has called me to as the spiritual head of my household. To be an example of a Godly man for my wife and future children. I’ve failed miserable at keeping my household grounded on the Lord. I thank God often that even though I am faithless, He remains faithful. It’s the only hope I have really, that God remains faithful when I am faithless. I feel embarrassed at times because it’s something my wife has to constantly push me to be. Were it not for my wife, I’m not sure I’d get up on a Sunday morning and head to worship on my own accord. I’m not sure I’d lead us in prayer. I’m not sure I’d ever have us study together. Basically, I suck at being a husband.

That being said, recently in an attempt at keeping us grounded in the ways of the Lord, we decided (well, Heidi decided and I knew it was the right thing to do) to have “devotions” together. I hate that term, “devotions”. It seems so clique. “Did you do your devotions today? Yes mother!”. However, I believe that studying together with my wife is bearing fruit in our relationship. We weren’t sure though what to study when the idea first arose. We both cringe at the piles of fluff out there offered up as “devotions for couples” and that sort of pop Christian crap. We wanted something meaty. Something that would occupy our time and stretch us intellectually as well as spiritually. We decided to read out loud together John Calvin’s “Institutes”. This is something that I’ve used as a reference for many years, but never read cover to cover. We know it will take quite a long time to finish the work, but that’s good. This way we don’t have to be picking out new books every couple of months.

So here we are, about 3 weeks into this and we’re only half way through chapter five. It’s been good though. I find that reading it out loud has helped me retain the information much more than reading it myself. Even when Heidi reads sections, I retain it much better. I believe that Heidi is gaining much from it as well.

Anyway (now we’re actually coming to the point of this thread!), I’m heading off to the mountains for my annual “retreat” this Wed. with my wife, the dog, and some friends will be joining us on Friday. Anyone who has read this blog knows that I usually use this time in the mountains to get a lot of reading done. Last year I spent the time studying up on the New Perspective on Paul and the Federal Vision. This year, I plan to keep plugging away in the Institutes with my wife (and maybe I’ll actually finish some long ago started books that I never finished like Owen’s, “The Death of Death”***). I look forward to the time away from the digital life, time I can use to just read.

As usual, God’s timing is perfect. We just read in the Institutes on Saturday how man confuses the creation with the creator. How man can prop up nature as a god instead of looking at nature and worshiping the God. As I spend time in the mountains, my mind is constantly consumed with the wonders of creation. A regenerated person can hardly help but be filled with awe as we see God’s creation. I pray that as we spend the next several days in the middle of God’s creation, we might not worship the creation itself, but be able to worship the Creator more clearly.

***My wife just informed me she will be reading this book while we’re there (yeah right…I’ll believe it when I see it!) so it looks like I’ll be going back to my old friend Kuyper. I hope to finish his essay on Church hiararchy.

Christians For Obama

I stumbled across a group on facebook with the title, “Christians for Obama”. As a Libertarian, I found my interest being peaked. I had to see what this group was all about. Here is a quote from their group information that I found rather interesting and mostly flawed.

” It is time that we as Christians got in touch with the True Gospel of Christ. God cares about the poor and the disenfranchised. God cares about the smallest, the most humble, and the weak. God is calling for a generation of people who will hear His call to “Feed His sheep!” Republicans have mobilized the middle and upper classes against the poor. They have perpetuated the utterly non-Christian notion of “every man for himself.” It is time that our country adopts or readopts policies that keep the Christian principles of “the least of these” in mind. Barack Obama seems to me to be the only candidate for the upcoming Presidential election who gets this.”

There are several things in this short paragraph that is flawed. I’d like to take a moment and address just some of the errors I see.

“It is time that we as Christians got in touch with the True Gospel of Christ. God cares about the poor and the disenfranchised. God cares about the smallest, the most humble, and the weak. God is calling for a generation of people who will hear His call to ‘Feed His sheep!'”

Now I want to be very clear. I don’t believe that God DOESN’T care about the poor. However, this is not the true gospel of Christ. The true gospel of Christ is that man is inherently sinful, that man is incapable of doing anything that can earn merit with God, and that Christ came as a perfect sacrifice to reconcile His people (the Church) to Himself. The Gospel (or good news) of Christ is that Christ made living what was dead (the regenerated soul). That there is a path away from damnation and that path is in Christ Jesus. This Christianity is 101 here. How seriously should we take a group of professing Christians if they can’t even get the Gospel right? If they can’t even identify what the true Gospel is? The true Gospel is not social justice rather it is salvation “In Christ Alone!”

I also find it ironic that they would quote “feed my sheep”. Who are Christ’s sheep? Only the Church can claim Christ as its shepherd. Christ is not commanding that we feed the world. He is commanding that we feed His sheep. How do we know who His sheep are? I would say that we need only look to our local Church congregation. If we see members of our church who are in need, it’s that church’s responsibility to feed Christ’s sheep. Perhaps these Christians would claim that all the world is Christ’s sheep? Possibly. However, their view ceases to be “Christian” and becomes “Universalism”. A good argument against the idea that all the world is Christ’s sheep are the words of Christ himself. Did he not say, “My sheep hear my voice”? Does the unregenerate person hear the voice of Christ and say, “you are my shepherd, I will follow you”?

It is time that our country adopts or readopts policies that keep the Christian principles of “the least of these” in mind.

Again another reference to a verse that is specifically referencing the care of God’s Church. Let’s take a look at the Scripture in its entire context. It comes from Matt. 25. The parable of the sheep and the goats (again support that Christ’s sheep are His Church, not the world universal). This line comes from Matt. 25:40:”The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

Unless you are willing to abandon orthodox Christianity and adopt a Universalistic view on who God’s people are, who Christ’s brothers are, then you must admit that this verse is again in reference to the Church and caring for God’s people in need.

One would be very far stretched to find a reference in Scripture where we are commanded to take care of the poor of the World. Surely no one will find a reference where we are to put the needs of society over the needs of the Church. It would appear as if this group would advocate a much larger and stronger centralized Government. One that they could even use to push a “Christian agenda” on the nation (why else bring up the “non Christian idea” of every man for themselves that Republicans supposedly push?). Their own pope as it were.

Can we as Christians take such groups seriously? They don’t understand what the “True Gospel of Jesus Christ” is. They don’t understand the very Scriptures they quote to support their views. How can we as the Church even consider the validity of such political groups as this group? Unfortunately, many many people are being misled by such teachings on “social justice”.

The State Wide Smoking Ban

Disclaimer: This thread has nothing to do with theology and everything to do with politics.

There is a trend sweeping the nation; the trend of passing state wide smoking bans. Here in Pennsylvania, they just passed such a ban. Now, I don’t smoke (other than a pipe, which is required of all true Presbyterian men to smoke, right?). I don’t like being around cigarette smoke, I don’t like to smell cigarettes, I don’t like to breathe in second hand smoke.

However, I believe I have a realistic view on this issue. I realize that if I’m in a public place and am around smoke, it’s because I chose to go into an establishment that allows it. In other words, it’s my choice as to if I want to eat at a restaurant that allows smoking. It’s my choice as to if I want to be in a smoke filled bar, be it to work (with my band) or to just hang out. Everyone who is in a public place and is exposed to smoke made that decision for themselves. If I or someone else doesn’t like it, I have choices. I can go somewhere else to eat that doesn’t allow smoking. I can book shows for my band in places that don’t allow smoking. The way the current laws stand now, everyone has a choice as to what they want to do. Non smokers, be they customers or employees, aren’t having their right to “clean air” violated or having their health put in jeopardy unfairly because ultimately, it was their choice to eat or work or drink in a business that allows smoking. No one is forced to be in a smoke filled room. No one is in there against their will.

However, this freedom of choice is not good enough for people. They’ve decided that instead of having a free and open society where everyone is free to do as they please concerning this issue, they’d rather take away the rights of business owners and their patrons. That is exactly what is being done. Instead of leaving a free society well enough alone, these pro-smoking ban people have essentially said, “I want to be able to eat and drink wherever I want to and I shouldn’t have to be around smoke!” Instead of putting in complaints with business owners concerning their desires for smoke free environments, instead of just going somewhere else for dinner or working at a different restaurant, they went to Mommy Government and whined until they got their way. Now a bunch of whiney cry babies have forced their desires on everyone else, taking away the rights of businesses and patrons state wide.

I recently saw an episode of South Park where certain citizens were trying to pass such a ban on smoking. Leave it to a crass and crude animated series to really get to the heart of this issue. I’ll quote the episode’s final lines as best I remember.

“You’ve just decided that you don’t like smoking so you want to take away the rights of all these other people just because you don’t like it. That’s called Fascism you fat f$#k!”

That’s called Fascism indeed.

Sola Scriptura

I’ve been studying now for several weeks the Protestant views of Sola Scriptura, specifically how it differs from the Roman doctrine of Scripture+Tradition+Church. The question of what is our ultimate authority as God’s people here on earth. It’s an interesting topic to study. Rome claims it has history on it’s side in it’s arguments against Sola Scriptura. Protestants claim that Rome perverts history and manipulates it to prove whatever doctrine it wants to make it prove. The more I study this doctrine, the more I see that being the case. However, that is something I might tackle in a different thread. I feel it’s important to address another issue right now in this thread.

I feel as if there is a certain dishonesty from Rome concerning their views of Authority. They claim that their authority comes from the written word (scripture), the oral word (tradition passed on by the Apostles) and the Church. From what I understand, they claim to balance and consider all three of these authority figures when considering what God’s will for His people is.

I find this to be false and an outright lie. The fact of the matter is, the Roman Catholic view can be reduced to “Sola Ecclesia”. It is the Church that interprets tradition. It is the Church that interprets Scripture. All authority ultimately rests in the Papacy. It’s the Papacy that tells you how to read Scripture, and it tells you what traditions are Apostolic and which ones you are to follow. The Church is viewed as infallible (something that anyone who knows a little bit about history should scoff at. Was the Church infallible in carrying out the Crusades? Was the Church infallible in carrying out the Inquisition?) and therefore it is the Church that alone is able to interpret scripture and tradition, telling all those under the Pope how to live and think. Pretty convenient for Rome. It comes down to “This is true because Rome said so”

Is this truly the Church that Christ is the cornerstone of? That the Apostles were the foundation of? Were not the Bereans wise for testing what they heard from the Apostle against Scripture to see if it was truth being taught? Was Paul wrong for rebuking Peter’s teachings on circumcision publicly in an epistle? If Peter was the first Pope, according to Rome, was not Peter infallible?

I believe that the Protestant position should demand honesty from Rome about their position on authority. It’s obvious that Rome holds the ultimate authority. It is also too obvious that that authority can and has been used to hold God’s people in bondage for the sake of personal gains.

That being said, we as Protestants must be honest about our position as well. We claim “Sola Scriptura”. However, we must must MUST make sure that it is truly the position we cling to. Creeds, confessions, all these are wonderful tools. However, we must be clear in stating that we believe they are works of men. They are subjective to error. Should one of our dear confessions contain inconsistencies with Scripture, then we must be bold enough to admit such errors and cling to “Sola Scriptura”.

Warning! In Case of Rapture…I will have to rethink my Escatology!

You know, I really hate to keep picking on our Dispensationalist brethren. I really do. The problem is, they keep supplying me with ammo!

Check this out!
The story says this website will send an email out to your loved ones who have been left behind 6 days after the Rapture occurs. Now, I wondered how the computer will know the rapture happens. Here’s what the article says:
“Final e-mails from vanished subscribers will be triggered when three of the site’s five Christian staffers fail to log in for six days in a row.”

First off, if it’s 6 days after the Rapture, I’m sure anyone you’re sending an email to already has it figured out. Secondly, I hope that they don’t car pool to work. One car accident could whipe 3 of these guys out in one fell swoop! And of course we all know what would happen then…the Rapture! Or at least an email telling you that’s what happened.

Back from the dead?

It’s been a really long time since we’ve done anything on the site. I’ve not forgotten about it, but the thought in my mind is always, “should we just shut her down and forget about it?”

I guess that when I started this, I had what I thought was a clear vision on what I wanted to do. That vision is kind of blurred now. My attention is always being diverted away from the theological realms lately and into the spears of politics and whatnot. Not that I don’t believe theology can’t penetrate those other spheres of my life, it’s just that I’m not sure I can write anything on here that anyone would care to read about anymore. I set the blog’s specifics so sharply that the random “this is what’s going on in my life” posts that most people do on their personal blogs are out of line here.

I guess ultimately, I just haven’t been inspired to write about doctrine, theology and all that stuff. I think what we’re going to do is leave the site up for a little bit yet and see what happens.