Bill Smith, Author at Kuyperian Commentary

On June 30, 2019 By Bill Smith In Counseling/Piety 1

Weal & Woe

We live in some distressing times; times in which God’s faithful people are saddened, befuddled, and angry because of the way Western culture is racing toward its destruction. When we read or hear the news, many times we think, “How can things be so upside down?” When lawmakers of a state cheer a law that permits infanticide, we wonder, “What are they thinking?” When a church called “The United Churches of Christ” has a service of blessing for a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Milwaukee, WI, blessing abortions in the name of Christ, we are befuddled and angry that they are so upside down in representing Christ.[1] When it is pushed on us that we must accept that there are more than two sexes, male and female, and people are promoting this as the new normal, we think, “How could thinking be so backward?” When Christian denominations start to warm up to the idea that sexually perverse lifestyles are just another valid expression of “love,” we wonder, “What is going on?” Even more conservative Christian denominations are becoming more comfortable with monikers such as “gay Christian.” Not only are people believing and acting this way, but they seem to be prospering.

Those of us who oppose such things are seen as backward, unloving, and behind the times. The world is upside down to us. We don’t fit in. We mourn the developments and wonder in prayer, “How long, O Lord, before you vindicate your truth?”

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On June 29, 2019 By Bill Smith In Counseling/Piety, Culture, Theology 4

Gay Christian?

One of the first acts of dominion Adam had was naming the animals. That process involved recognizing certain God-created qualities about the animals and then giving them a name that corresponded to those qualities. Naming was an exercise of authority that set animals in their proper relationships with one another and the man. Names set boundaries, giving the animals and man their respective cultures in which to live. Adam recognized this from the beginning as he was naming all of the animals and realized that among them there was no helper comparable to him. It is not until God creates Eve from Adam’s side that he names her with a name that corresponds to his own. She is ‘issha because she was taken out of ‘ish (Gen 2.23). Indeed, male and female are ‘adam (Gen 1.27).

Names tells us who we are. They tell us our cultural boundaries at macro and micro levels. As humans (or “man”) our name is “image of God.” That name sets the boundaries of our relationship to God, to one another, and the world around us. “Image of God” establishes the God-ordained culture in which we are to live and which we are to cultivate.

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On June 23, 2019 By Bill Smith In Worship 2

Re-Creative Praying

The night before Jesus chooses twelve men from his disciples to be apostles, he ascends a mountain and spends all night in prayer (Luke 6.12). The scene has echoes of the story of Jacob and his all-night wrestling match with the angel of Yahweh at the ford of the brook Jabbok (Gen 32.22-32). When the day dawns upon Jacob, he is a new man: Israel, the one who wrestles with God and prevails. When Jesus emerges from this night of prayer, a new Israel will be formed around him.

When Jacob wrestled with God that night, it was the culmination of all of his wrestling from the time he was in the womb. He wrestled with Esau in the womb and through their lives. He wrestled with Isaac. He wrestled with Laban for twenty years. What he discovered at the Jabbok that night was that God was the one with whom he had been wrestling the entire time.

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On June 16, 2019 By Bill Smith In Theology Like

God In The Ordinary

Ordinary. That’s a boring word, isn’t it? Monotonous. Monochrome. Bland. Everyone around is always trying to get us to break free from the ordinary. Everything must be extraordinary all the time. Of course, when everything is extraordinary, nothing is. Consequently, there is a constant longing and search for the next great thing. This is a fool’s errand that leads to discontent frustration. The person who is joyful is the person who can learn to be content in the ordinary.

The Church Year has two seasons that help train us to live in the ordinary. They are called, oddly enough, “Ordinary Time.” The origin of the word is not what we understand as “ordinary,” by which we mean mundane. Ordinary time is named thus because it is marked by ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc. These are the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost (or Trinity).

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On June 9, 2019 By Bill Smith In Theology 1

Water Vs. Spirit?

John the Baptizer proclaimed, “I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matt 3.11) In his ascension, Jesus received the gift of the Spirit beyond measure and did, indeed, baptize his church with the Holy Spirit and fire.

It is tempting to tease out John’s prophecy into a contrast between water and Spirit, wet versus dry baptism. There was no water involved when the Spirit was poured out on those one hundred twenty disciples in the upper room. There was the sound of a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire, but there was no water to be found. For this reason, some in the church have played “Spirit baptism” against “water baptism.” Water baptism is understood as ritual obedience to the command of Jesus while Spirit baptism is the real baptism, the point at which a person genuinely receives the Holy Spirit. Water versus Spirit baptism is a mere external ritual versus invisible reality.

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On June 5, 2019 By Bill Smith In Culture Like

Dear Christians in Illinois

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ living in Illinois,

The past few months have been disheartening, haven’t they? Illinois has a long history of government corruption and mismanagement, but lately, it seems as if they have put their immoral, oppressive agendas in overdrive. With the election of Governor Pritzker and the dominance of Democrats in the General Assembly, not only are taxes going up, but we also have one of the most, if not the most, horrific abortion laws of any state.

You are angry. You should be. Anyone who isn’t angry at this sanctioning of murder and economic oppression doesn’t have a godly moral compass. Anger is a righteous response.

But you are wondering what you should do. You want to respond. But what should you do? Should you join with many thousands and exodus the state, or should you stay and continue to fight? For some it seems that there is an easy answer to this: leave. Pull up roots and head out of the state. There are plenty of states that seem to be going in the right direction on the abortion issue and economically. It is a no-brainer, right?

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On May 26, 2019 By Bill Smith In Theology, Worship Like

Something Old, Something New

With an accusatory tone, the people surrounding Jesus at Levi’s house queried, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink” (Lk 5.33). They demand an explanation for all of this feasting when it is obvious to them that it is supposed to be a time for fasting.

Jesus doesn’t give the inquisitors a nine-point explanation concerning the necessity of feasting in messianic eschatology. Instead, he talks about a wedding, garments, and wine. Their questions are being answered, but they are answered with rich biblical imagery, which leads the listeners to conclusions about who Jesus is and what he came to do.

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On May 22, 2019 By Bill Smith In Theology 1

The Dragon-ness of God

Whenever we study theology, especially theology proper (that is, the study of God himself), theologians tend to talk of God’s “omnipotence,” “omnipresence,” “aseity,” and such the like. Rarely if ever do we hear of the “Rock-ness” of God, or “Tower-ness of God,” or “Warrior-ness of God” as attributes of God. Yet these are descriptions Scripture uses to describe God.

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with using these extra-biblical words to speak of God. Omnipotence, omnipresence, aseity, and all of the other twenty-five cent words do accurately describe God. But have you ever wondered why God used these other words to describe himself instead of many of the words we find in our theology books?

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On May 19, 2019 By Bill Smith In Politics 1

Disciple-Making Hospitality

He was an unlikely convert. Hated by the Jews as a traitor who extorted his own people, tolerated and backed by Rome to collect taxes, Levi (or Matthew) was in a special class of wicked in the eyes of society. He was an outcast; a rich outcast, but an outcast nonetheless. He didn’t fit in with any group among his people, especially those who were eagerly anticipating and preparing themselves for the kingdom of God. Luke tells us how he became a disciple of Christ (Lk 5.27-32).

Jesus obviously didn’t understand social dynamics when he called him to be a disciple. This guy’s tax booth was on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, close to where Simon, James’, and John’s fishing businesses were located. They had probably been extorted by this guy. What a band of disciples this would make!

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On May 5, 2019 By Bill Smith In Politics 1

Saved By Others’ Faith

The scene must have been somewhat frightening at first and then somewhat comical as it unfolded. Several determined men wanted to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They learned he was at a house on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, so they picked up their friend on the bed on which he was lying and took him to the house. When they arrived, the place was packed. There was no room for four men carrying a paralyzed man on a bed to squeeze through the crowd. But they were not deterred. They took the steps up to the roof, began removing the tiles, and lowered their friend right in front of Jesus.

The whole scene points to the seemingly hopeless situation of the man. Luke depicts the paralyzed man as a dead man. His body is lifeless, laying on a bed which might as well been a bier. His friends are digging through the earth—clay tiles—in order to lower this man down. There is a symbolic burial occurring. But they are lowering this man into the grave where Jesus is. As Luke makes clear at the end of his Gospel, Jesus turns the grave into a place of life; a place through which we are healed in resurrection.

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