Bill Smith, Author at Kuyperian Commentary

On June 27, 2024 By Bill Smith In Counseling/Piety, Culture, Discipleship, Theology Like

The Five Faces of Anger

Anger characterizes our present culture. We live in a victimized, aggrieved, and, therefore, angry society. Anger is always simmering beneath the surface and frequently erupts. We will see more volcanic activity as campaigns ramp up and elections draw near. Battle lines are drawn. People will yell and scream at one another in person and online.

Our capitalist culture has learned to monetize anger. Anger is good business for social media influencers, whether non-Christian or Christian. Rage bait receives clicks; clicks are traffic, and traffic means money and fame. Anger is big business.

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On June 20, 2024 By Bill Smith In Culture, Discipleship, Sexuality Like

Killing Sexual Sins

Many of us Gen Xers, Boomers, and Silents are staggered by the rapid descent of our society into sexual insanity. Sexual perversions have been present in all our generations. Quite frankly, older generations bear a great deal of responsibility for the present lunacy, but the rapidity of the Romans 1 sexual death spiral is bewildering. Identifying LGBTQ+ has become almost fashionable. According to a recent Gallup survey, LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. is now at 7.6% of the population. One out of every five Gen Z (1997-2012) adults say they identify as LGBTQ+. In the past twelve years, the percentage of people identifying this way has doubled, with women outpacing men by two-to-one.

The problem is only in the sexual alphabet soup. Heterosexual sin remains a problem. One pornography site dwarfs visits to Amazon by seven hundred million more visits. When you throw in the sexually explicit content on social media, the numbers are staggering.

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On June 13, 2024 By Bill Smith In Culture, Discipleship, Family and Children, Wisdom Like

Kingdom Obsession

Have you ever known an obsessive person? He is preoccupied, possessed, driven, and singularly focused on accomplishing an objective. Nothing else matters. His mind is consumed with thoughts about the task. His time, energy, and resources are used for the mission. He lives life with blinders on.

“Obsession” comes with a great amount of negative baggage in our parlance. The obsessive person has unhealthy fixations that cause him to lose broader perspectives. While obsessions can be taken to unhealthy extremes, “obsession” is close to what Paul commands the Colossian Christians to do when he tells them to “seek” and “set their minds” on things above (Col 3:1-2).

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On June 6, 2024 By Bill Smith In Church, Culture, Discipleship, Men, Politics Like

The Bane of Disciplines

With all the confusion in the world, people are looking for something … anything really … that seems sane and stable. Politically, the left has shown their certifiable insanity by not only having economic policies that destroy but doubling down on them every chance they get. “Gender dysphoria” is accepted as someone’s personal journey and not something to be corrected by confrontation with absolutes such as, “No, son, you are not a girl. You are a boy, and you will act like one.” Our government acknowledges Pride Month, recognizing deviant sexual lifestyles as praiseworthy.

Amid all this chaos, there are political conservatives, masculine and feminine online influencers, and fundamentalist non-Christian religions that seem to acknowledge realities that the woke left rejects: the absolute distinctions between the sexes and masculine and feminine roles. People hungry for sanity will eat from Christless garbage cans because they see that the only alternative is the sewage of the left. Not much of a choice. As good as some conservatism and fundamentalism may be in some respects, if they are Christless, then they don’t deal with the real problem of mankind.

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On May 27, 2024 By Bill Smith In Church, Culture, Discipleship, Wisdom 1

Just Ordinary

We have entered what is, quite frankly, one of my favorite seasons of the Church Year: Ordinary Time. The season is not principally named “ordinary” because nothing “extraordinary” happens during the season. Rather, “Ordinary” comes from numbering the Sundays between the Day of Pentecost and Advent. Ordinal numbers are used to number the Sundays: First, Second, Third, etc. However, there is a delicious linguistic twist for paronomasiacs (punsters). Ordinary Time happens to be, well, quite ordinary. The church uses green as the liturgical color to mark off the season that lasts around six months. This is a time of steady growth after the waters of baptism have fallen on us at Pentecost. There are no real big parties for these several months, only the steady grace of the day-in-day-out regularity and, in many ways, imperceptible growth.

If you think about it, most of history is like this. We read about epic events in Scripture and other histories outside of Scripture, but while all that is going on, most of the world is plugging on day after day living ordinary lives. This is reflected well in the Church Calendar.

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On May 23, 2024 By Bill Smith In Theology Like

The Circumcision of Christ

Circumcision is not a subject usually talked about in polite conversation. It can be a bit awkward as you are reading aloud through the Scriptures with your young children, and circumcision is the focus of the text. The discussion of circumcision makes something that is private and shameful (that is, exposing nakedness) public. Paul’s cryptic phrase in Philippians 3:18, “whose glory is their shame,” may be referring to the Jews bragging about their circumcision. Exposing your private parts before all is shameful.

Nevertheless, circumcision plays a significant role in the redemption of the world and is a prominent theme in Scripture.

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On May 16, 2024 By Bill Smith In Church, Discipleship, History, Theology 2

Pentecostal Temple

When the construction of the Tabernacle was complete, God declared his approval by covering and filling it with his glory (Ex 40:34). Moses couldn’t enter the tent because of the glory cloud (Ex 40:35).

When the construction of Solomon’s Temple was complete, after Solomon prayed his prayer of dedication, fire came from heaven, lit the bronze altar, consumed the offerings, and the glory of Yahweh filled the temple (2Chr 7:1). The priests were unable to enter the house because the glory of Yahweh filled the house (2Chr 7:2).

When the construction of the post-exilic or restoration Temple was complete, there is no record of a historical event like the glory of God filling the Tabernacle or Solomon’s Temple. God promised that he would “fill this house with glory” so that “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” (Hag 2:7, 9). God’s glory fills the post-exilic Temple of Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 43:1-12), but no record exists of a priest or king praying and fire and cloud filling the Temple … until Pentecost.

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On May 9, 2024 By Bill Smith In Culture Like

Ascension

Tucked away on a Thursday within the fifty days of Easter, ten days before Pentecost Sunday, is Ascension Day. Holy Week at the end of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday receives a great deal of attention in the church. Many churches will even observe some form of Ash Wednesday and, possibly, Shrove Tuesday to kick off the Lenten. However, Ascension Day comes and goes in many of our churches without much of a second thought. Maybe we push its recognition to the following Sunday, but you just don’t hear that much about Ascension Day. Besides, who wants to meet on Thursday?

Is it really that big of a deal in Scripture? Luke draws attention to the historical event of the Ascension of Christ at the end of his Gospel and the beginning of Acts, but I suppose we have to know the history of the resurrected Christ before the church received the Spirit. The Ascension only takes up a few verses in Scripture, right? Not really. The historical record of Jesus’ ascension only takes a few short passages, but ascension is a major theme in Scripture that Jesus takes up and fulfills.

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On May 2, 2024 By Bill Smith In Church, Discipleship, Theology, Worship 1

Angels

While playing prominent roles in history, the nature and function of angels remain mysterious to a great degree. We meet them in the first pages of Scripture. The serpent is an angelic creature (something we learn more about as Scripture unfolds). Cherubim, angels, guard the way to the Tree of Life after the man and woman are expelled. Angels visit Abraham. The angel of Yahweh leads the children of Israel through the Sea and in the wilderness. Cherubim adorn the Tabernacle and Temple. Angels bring messages from God to Daniel (see Dan 10), Zechariah, and Mary (Lk 1). Four-faced angels make up the throne chariot of God, as seen in Ezekiel 1. Angels play a prominent role in the Book of Revelation. Angels are everywhere in history, but we seem to know very little about them.

By carefully examining Scripture, we can begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding angels and gain insights into their significant role in God’s economy.

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On April 25, 2024 By Bill Smith In Church, Discipleship, Theology Like

One Church. One Heartbeat.

Back in 2016, LSU’s athletic director hired a native son, Ed Orgeron, to be the head football coach. Known for his gravelly voice coupled with a Cajun accent, he stepped up to his first press conference, pledging that he would quickly build a championship team. The means to the team’s success would be captured in the mantra “One team. One heartbeat.” Team members must be committed to one another with no prima donnas. They must move as one man out on the field, sharing the same commitments, love, loyalty, and goals. They must have one heart. If they did this with the talent they had, they would grow into a team that would win a championship. In 2019, they did win the championship with arguably the best college football team ever. (I’m a tad bit biased, and I don’t want to talk about what happened after that.)

The apostle Paul’s concern for the church at Colossae (and Laodicea) is that they grow to maturity as individuals and as a church. The path to maturity and, in some sense, its goal is “One church. One heartbeat.” Paul fights (Col 2:1) through all that he suffers as well as through teaching the churches through his letters (cf. Col 4:16) so that “their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, so as to come to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery: Christ” (Col 2:2). Within that statement, Paul gives a perichoretic trinity of characteristics that move the church and its individual members to maturity. We are encouraged as we are knit together in love, and being encouraged through our oneness in love moves us to the full assurance of our faith in the gospel.

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