Bill Smith, Author at Kuyperian Commentary

On April 2, 2018 By Bill Smith In Theology Like

The Resurrection and the Woman

Early, on the first day of the week, a woman is alone in the garden, John tells us (John 20.1). Where did she come from?

Throughout his Gospel, John takes us through the old creation week in which Jesus is bringing the old creation to an end; not annihilating it, but transforming it through his own death and resurrection. John leads us to read his Gospel in terms of the creation week from the first when he starts with those familiar words, “In the beginning….” From there he takes us through the creation week that culminates in the presentation of the man on the sixth day of the week. The voice of God is heard through a strange medium, for it is Pilate who declares, “Behold the man!” (John 19.5). (more…)

On March 31, 2018 By Bill Smith In Theology 1

Holy Saturday: Where Is God?

Holy Saturday seems to be that day that is lost within all the Holy Week remembrances. We go through the feast of Maundy Thursday, the solemn vigil of Good Friday, and then we simply wait around for Resurrection Sunday morning to come. But what happened Saturday? Well, not much. But that is actually the point, and it deserves some attention.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we hear about events that happen in between Friday and Sunday, what, on the church calendar, is called Holy Saturday. We know the end of the story. We anticipate the end of the story. And well we should because Matthew has given us explicit statements of Jesus as well as hints of anticipation throughout his record of Jesus’ life. But all of this occurs in history, which means that it takes time. Sometimes we want to jump over this part and immediately start reading the final chapter. If we do, we miss an important part of the gospel story and the opportunity to understand just a little better how God works. (more…)

On March 26, 2018 By Bill Smith In Culture Like

The Sleep of Death: Sardis

Do you sometimes wonder how the Christian church can have such a prominent presence in our country yet our culture be in as bad a shape as it is? In a 2015 Gallup poll, 75% of Americans self-identified as Christians. That is not as high as the 80% in 2008, but it is still high. Of course, we discount many of these professions of faith, and rightfully so. However, the Christian church still looms large in our country. In towns and cities across our country there are multitudes of Christian churches of every different stripe, but we don’t see righteousness prevailing in these same towns and cities. Even in my own city, which boasts one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the world, has one of the largest evangelical churches in the country, has hundreds of smaller evangelical churches, and is occupied by a majority of Roman Catholics, we are not very Christian in the way we conduct our cultural business. What is up with that?

Could it be, that when we get down to the root of the matter, that those inside the church share some of the same fundamental views of the place of the church and faith in society as well as our personal lives? Could it be that any cultural engagement that we have had has become cultural assimilation; that is, we have the same basic understanding of where life should be centered (e.g., in what makes me the most happy and comfortable), that my personal faith shouldn’t interfere with work or government, that I exist primarily as a consumer and all things in which I participate must serve me in the way that I want to be served, that participation in the church is pretty much like participation in any other charitable organization in the world (i.e., it is an important but non-essential part of life)? Could it be that the church in America has little to no influence on the surrounding culture because we share too much culture with those outside the church? Are we slapping a fish symbol on the prevailing American culture and calling it the church? (more…)

On March 22, 2018 By Bill Smith In Theology 1

Palm Sunday: God’s Joke

A Catholic, a Presbyterian, and a Baptist walk into a bar…. Whenever we hear a line like this, we expect the punch line. We strongly suspect that a joke is being told. It is much more fun to tell and listen to jokes than to analyze them, but what about a joke makes it a joke? What makes a story funny? The unexpected twist, the irony, the situation that all of the sudden seems out of character with the characters involved: all of these surprises make a joke funny. There are times when we experience joke-like experiences when our lives take unexpected turns that cause us to laugh in the end. We recognize these “jokes” because we are made in the image of the great Joke-teller; the God who is full of unexpected endings that ultimately cause him, as well as those who love him, to laugh out of joy. (more…)

On March 19, 2018 By Bill Smith In Theology, Worship Like

The Maturation of Sin

Sin doesn’t lie dormant. Ever. Whether in an individual or a society, sin is always fighting to grow like an aggressive, matastasizing cancer. Given the right environment it will grow to overtake the thinking and actions of people, completely consuming their individual and collective lives until there is nothing left. Paul describes this process in Romans 1.

The process begins with worshiping the creature over the eternally blessed Creator. Man rebels against the word of God, refusing to have God define who he is, what he is to believe about God, and how he is to relate to the world around him. Instead, he believes a lie. In man’s stubborn resistance to God’s word, God gives them over to “dishonor their bodies among themselves.” Generally, the dishonoring of the body is not treating the body with the dignity and respect that God bestowed upon it in his creation of us in his image. Whenever our bodies are used for that for which God did not create them, we are dishonoring our bodies. Paul is, most likely, speaking here about sexual immorality. He relates honoring the body and sexual purity speaking to the Thessalonians (1Thess 4.3-4). At this point, the sin is a distortion of the male + female relationship. (more…)

On March 12, 2018 By Bill Smith In Worship Like

From Fire To Fire: Thyatira

From our earliest days of life, we desire exaltation. We want more; more responsibility, more freedom, more position, more possessions. More. A toddler doesn’t want mom to feed him. He can do it himself. A little girl wants to use the sharp knives and stove that mom uses. A little boy wants to use the use the saw that dad uses. A teenager wants a car in order to go and come as he pleases. A man wants to be promoted and be able to provide better for his family. We want more.

Though this desire can be, and often is, twisted by sin, the fundamental desire in and of itself is God-given. God created us in his image to mature in his likeness. That is, we are created to grow up and be more like God. That means greater responsibility, higher position, more possessions, and more. (more…)

On March 5, 2018 By Bill Smith In Worship Like

Intolerable Tolerance

If we are to live together as the people of God, longsuffering in love is a necessity (Eph 4.2). Longsuffering is the evidence that the Spirit is at work among us (Gal 5.22-23). The old English word longsuffering better reflects what Paul is saying than our English word patience. Patience is a little more docile. Longsuffering reflects the struggle we have at times to tolerate one another; to put up with the abrasive personalities, quirkiness, the aggravations of just being with other people, and even enduring their struggles with sin in their lives of repentance. We are called to “suffer long” with people in love. God calls us to a loving toleration in the church.

But there is a time when toleration becomes intolerable, when longsuffering can be suffered no longer. There is a time when longsuffering becomes a sin. When Jesus addresses the angel (the pastor) of the church in Pergamum, he deals with this sin. (more…)

On February 26, 2018 By Bill Smith In Counseling/Piety, Worship 2

Death To Life

One of the longings of the Christian heart is to hear our Lord tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” We desire to feel the pleasure of the Lord’s approval of our work. On the heels of this approval, we anticipate reward: entering into the joy of our Lord. There is nothing wrong with that. God promises reward for faithfulness, so we should expect it and desire it.

But what happens when the Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into more of the suffering and death of your Lord?” This is Jesus’s message to the angel of the church in Smyrna. The angel and church had stayed faithful through tribulation in which they experienced abject poverty (Rev 2.9). They had endured the blasphemy of the Satanic synagogue of the Jews. More than likely, this had been going on for several years. Day-in and day-out they were being squeezed by trouble, and it was costing them livelihoods and societal ostracization. Yet they were staying strong. (more…)

On February 19, 2018 By Bill Smith In Worship 3

First Love

What makes a church a church? Is it the faithful proclamation of the Word, the correct administration of the sacraments, and the proper exercise of church discipline? Yes, but there is something even more fundamental to the existence of a church than these. There is a way to be technically correct in all three of these areas of church life and still fall short of being a viable church in the eyes of the Lord of the church.

The most fundamental aspect of the church’s being the church is love. It is obedience to the great commandment to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. It is obedience to the new commandment that we love one another as Christ has loved us. Only with this foundation will any church continue to exist as a church of Jesus Christ. You can’t have love without the truth, but you can have truth without love.

The church in Ephesus as addressed in Revelation 2 learned this lesson from the mouth of our Lord himself. (more…)

On February 12, 2018 By Bill Smith In Family and Children, Wisdom, Worship 2

Some Thoughts on Lent & Fasting

Every year around this time the internet is flooded with essays and interviews concerning Lent: Should we observe it? If we observe it, how should we observe it? And so on. Good folks disagree about these issues. But it is a good discussion to be having. I thought I’d chime in on the issue. Hopefully, I can help keep people thinking through the issue.

First, let me clear some ground here. I agree with many of my brothers who despise some of the Lenten practices. There are people who have superstitious views of the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday, for instance. Here in Louisville, KY, we even had one church who set up shop in a local business so that you can get your ashes to go. This was a one-stop shop for groceries and a dose of humility and repentance. People who do this sort of thing are, in most cases, viewing the imposition of ashes as some type of talisman that is going to keep God off their backs for a little while longer. I have witnessed people through the years from many branches of the Christian church act as if the religious ritual itself (whether it is the imposition of ashes, fasting, attending worship, going to revival services, or whatever) was an end in itself. After you do the deed, then you are free to live any way you want outside of the time of that special rite. According to what God said through the prophet Isaiah in his opening salvo, he has never taken kindly to superstitious views of religious rituals (cf. Isa 1.10-20. Mind you, the rituals that God is condemning in Isaiah are the ones that he himself set up. These were not manmade rituals. These were God’s own rituals that were being abused by superstitious views.) Superstitious views of the imposition of ashes or even fasting have no place in the Christian Faith. (more…)