Kuyperian, Author at Kuyperian Commentary

On November 16, 2013 By Kuyperian In Books, Politics Like

Democracy Promised, Dictatorship Provided

If you are a regular here at the KC blog, then you know full-well that I’ve been reading Rosenstock-Huessy’s Out of Revolution and enjoying it immensely. Although it is an 800 page book, he covers a lot of ground and, therefore, must move along quite rapidly. Often, he presumes upon the reader to already know the basics of the history he’s interpreting. As I read, he progressed through the 2nd Russian Revolution too quickly for me. I got lost in the details. So, I decided to learn more.

In my research to acquire more info on the Russian Revolution, I came across the historian Richard Pipes. It turns out that everyone had heard of him except me. Sometimes that happens. Anyway, Richard Pipes is the Baird Professor of History, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He’s one of the foremost scholars on Russian communism, such that in 1992 he was called as an “expert witness in the Russian Constitutional Court’s trial against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”

The book I’m reading now, Communism: A History, is 160 pages long. His Concise History of the Russian Revolution is about 400 pages long, and the non-concise version comes in 3 volumes. So, if you’re interested in finding out more about 19th and 20th Century Russian history, Richard Pipes is a solid place to start.

I would love to entice some of you to order, and subsequently read, more about 20th Century communism. The parallels between communism, fascism, and the democratic-socialism currently being preached from DC’s legislative and executive pulpits are much too similar to be accidental. Now would be a great time to buy a Richard Pipes book and assign it to your high-schoolers. Better yet, read through it with them. You have a first-hand experience with the Cold War and the fall of the regime. Pass along what you know. Show them what “Utopia” looks like if you start with man and end with man. Utopia looks like famine, murder, and despair. Tens of millions of people were murdered in the pursuit of this atheistic ideal. Don’t miss the chance to put the bad taste of communism in their mouth before some freshman English teacher at the local junior college tries to teach them otherwise.

Here’s a quote from Communism: A History, chapter 2, “Leninism”:

The coup took place on November 7 (1917) when pro-Bolshevik units took over the capital without firing a shot. There was some fighting in Moscow, but in the rest of the country the transition proceeded quite smoothly. Lenin later said that taking power in Russia was as easy as “lifting a feather.” The reason was that he had cleverly camouflaged the seizure of power by himself and his party as the transfer of “all power to the soviets,” which slogan promised grassroots democracy rather than dictatorship. Even Lenin’s socialist rivals, who suspected his intentions, were not terribly upset, convinced that a Bolshevik one-party dictatorship could not possibly last and would soon yield to a socialist coalition. They preferred to let him exercise power for a while rather than unleash civil war that would only benefit the ‘counterrevolution.’

As it turned out, the Bolsheviks would stay in power for seventy-four years. Communism thus did not come to Russia as the result of a popular uprising: it was imposed on her from above by a small minority hiding behind democratic slogans. This salient fact was to determine its course. (emphasis mine)

Democracy promised. Dictatorship provided.

The up-and-coming generation will probably not get a course in communism from their high school curriculum. You’re going to need to show them.

You can order the book here.

Here are some of my previous quotes and thoughts on Marxism and communism on KC:

Your Weekly Dose of Rosenstock

Paul Johnson on Karl Marx

Rosenstock-Huessy on Tolstoi and Dostoevski

Lincoln, Lenin, Roosevelt, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Obama

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On November 14, 2013 By Kuyperian In Scribblings Like

Marc Hays: Always Read the Preface!

I used to think that the preface of a book was just perfunctory, perhaps a tradition of some bygone era, ever lingering to force the reader to flip through more pages before arriving at the important stuff. When I became a man, I put away childish things. Now the preface is the threshold from this world to the fresh, exciting world of “Chapter 1.” It’s the handshake, where the author tells the reader, “Howdy,” and the reader responds, “Pleased to meetcha.” It’s the aroma that always reaches your nose before you can ever take the first bite. Speaking of food, here’s the first part of the preface from the first edition of Robert Farrar Capon’s, The Supper of the Lamb:

“Once upon a time, there was a musician who always complained that half the notes he wanted to play were not on the piano. They lay, he claimed, between the keys where he could never get at them. Accordingly, he took up fiddling, which has no such limitations, and lived happily ever after.

This is a book on cooking; but like the musician, it concentrates more on the cracks and interstices of the culinary keyboard than on the conventional notes themselves. It, too, involves considerable fiddling around-some of it rather low, but some of it very high indeed. Nevertheless, I commend it to you in all seriousness. From it, you may learn things you never knew, or be confirmed in prejudices you’ve always held-or even come away with a recipe or two to add to your collection. In any case, you will find it a leisurely and unhurried book: The outlandish recipe with which it begins last the whole work through and provides, not so much an outline, as a fixed star under which the length and breadth of cooking is explored.”

Now Robert Capon has said, “Hello,” and from what I’ve gathered, he really means it.

Register over on the sidebar to win a copy of this phenomenal literary cookbook.

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On November 13, 2013 By Kuyperian In Culture Like

Against The “Tea-Totallers”: Tea Drinking To The Glory Of God

Guest Post by Mark Nenadov

Introduction

“We had a kettle; we let it leak:

Our not repairing made it worse.

We haven’t had any tea for a week…

The bottom is out of the Universe.”

― Rudyard Kipling, The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling

This fall I discovered Gunpowder Green Tea, and thus got back into loose leaf tea. The name comes from the fact that the leaves are rolled up into little pellets that curiously resemble gunpowder. I am now hooked.

Besides having a substantially manly name, the tea also delivers a delicious, distinctively smokey and full-bodied flavour that has captivated my tastes in a way that no other Green Tea ever has.

Back in the day, a co-worker brought me back some loose leaf Wu Yi Oolong tea from China and I really enjoyed that. I would drink that again in a heartbeat. When I finished the container off, I bought a few other varieties of loose leaf tea, and then went to using tea-bags only for a long time.

My exile away from loose leaf tea is over, probably for good. Loose leaf tea is a bit more work. That said, there is quite the ritual to it, dare I say, perhaps even a bit of liturgy? Loose leaf tea is quite cost effective too, if you chose your sources wisely.

Tea Drinking Is Very Calvinistic

Is tea drinking a Calvinistic thing to do? Well, I need say little more than this: Charles Spurgeon loved it, and Charles Finney hated it. Case closed.

Charles G. Finney, who rejected his Calvinistic heritage for his peculiar brand of Arminian revivalism, clearly despised tea. He argued against it, claiming it had no nutrition value, being a mere stimulant. He also felt the thirst for tea was wasting money that would be better spent in “saving souls from hell”.

Spurgeon, on the other hand, seemed to have been dunked in a heaping pot of tea. And I do feel you would need a rather hefty one to immerse the man!

The Baptist preacher’s sermon illustrations and pastoral visits were often steeped in tea culture. So it was, also, that when he needed an word picture to talk about the quality of some people’s voices in his address to young pastors, he naturally said they were “like long-used tea-kettles”.

And there is a gem of an anecdote in Fullerton’s biography of Spurgeon:

“In another student talk he said that John Newton put Calvinism in his sermons as he put sugar into his tea, his whole ministry was flavoured with it; then he added, ‘Don’t be afraid of putting in an extra lump now and then.'”

Anti-Tea Sentiment

One Presbyterian pastor has recently gone on the record saying that there was a reason tea was thrown over board during the Boston Tea Party. That’s a shameful sentiment.

I, on the other hand, while agreeing in principle that tea should not be taxed, am in stark disagreement with him—it’s a shame that 342 chests of perfectly good tea had to be destroyed. Could not some less delightful commodity been destroyed, such as mineral water?

As our references to Charles Finney have demonstrated, anti-tea sentiments are not new. Emily Brand has a quite interesting post on this matter. In it she shares how many in the 18^th century had a very negative view of tea. She quotes a Mr. Hanway as saying that “Men seem to have lost their stature, and comliness; and women their beauty. Your very chambermaids have lost their bloom, I suppose by sipping tea.”. She also shares this gem from social reformed William Cobbett:

“Tea drinking fills the public house, makes the frequenting of it habitual, corrupts boys as soon as they are able to move from home, and does little less for the girls, to whom the gossip of the tea table is no bad preparatory school for the brothel… the girl that has been brought up merely to boil the tea kettle, and assist in the gossip inseparable from the practice, is a mere consumer of food, a pest to her employer, and a curse to her husband, if any man be so unfortunate as to fix his affections upon her.”

Astounding vitriol!

I have also noticed in my readings that Eliza Haywood, a popular English writer, once warned servants that tea was an “intoxicating spirit”. I will concede that tea is intoxicating in at least one sense, “intoxicatingly” good when enjoyed under the Lordship of Christ.

One is tempted, when faced such bare-faced opposition to tea drinking, quote from Dostoyevski (Notes from Underground) with a touch of swagger: “That is what I want. I want peace; yes, I’d sell the whole world for a farthing, straight off, so long as I was left in peace. Is the world to go to pot, or am I to go without my tea? I say that the world may go to pot for me so long as I always get my tea.”

Tea Drinking Is Manly

Contrary to what some might say, such as William Cobbett who claimed tea was “an engenderer of effeminacy”, tea drinking can be very manly.

First, many teas have a bold and smokey flavour. And some have a smokey flavour and a great name, such as Gunpowder Green Tea.

Second, there is something inherently manly about the primal and yet nuanced and delicate ritual of steeping loose leaf tea, as opposed to, say, repeatedly dunking a bag. There is potency and virility in the ritual.

Third, many manly men have enjoyed tea. Charles Spurgeon, Thomas Jefferson (who ordered Green Tea), Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, John Wesley, C.S. Lewis, and George Washington all were tea drinkers. It would not be too much of a stretch to say that these were all men of the sturdy sort. Hopefully not too many of them put sugar or milk in their tea, though, or I may have to revise this list.

Fourth, tea can be taken straight—which some would say is quite manly. And I wouldn’t disagree with them. If I may quote Lemony Snicket: “Tea should be as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a two edged sword”. Woe to the man that tries to dull his sword by putting milk or sugar on it.

That said, how manly tea drinking can be also depends largely on how one drinks it. Though I don’t have time to get into it here, there certainly is a manly way to drink tea.

I agree with Orwell when he said in the Evening Standard that “tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country”. I would only add that “this country” could be very well interpreted as the “great nation of manhood”.

Conclusion

It is my hope that you will enjoy a tea tonight. By yourself. By a fire. With a book. While reflecting on the goodness of God. And may you have neither pangs of guilt, nor may you for a second feel less manly than before you steeped.

There would be scarcely a more fitting way to conclude this piece than to quote the good old sturdy Calvinistic hymn writer William Cowper, who according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge was “the best modern poet”. Cowper wrote the following lines, and with them I close:

“Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful ev’ning in.”

For more publications and updates on Mr. Nenadov, see Goodreads, Blog, Twitter, Linkedin, Website<>

On November 12, 2013 By Kuyperian In Culture Like

What People Are Saying About Kuyperian Commentary?

Kuyperian Commentary is helping to refine my worldview and perspective on the far reaching impacts of true Reformed theology. It is stimulating fascinating conversation among my wife (with whom I have two kids) and drawing me closer to fellow minded believers. -Joshua Torrey

I found this blog a couple of months ago now, and have been edified by a number of the articles posted. As a new father, those pertaining to parenting and raising covenant children in the fear of the Lord have been especially enjoyable. I was raised in a home and community which emphasized the covenant, psalm-singing. However, many of my peers do not share convictions on these matters to the same extent, and this website is an excellent resource in discussions with them. Thank-you for your faithful work, and may God bless your efforts. -Raoul Kingma

The KC articles reinforce what I know to be sound doctrine. I like the clever ways these folk write. It has been a great conversation starter in my community. People are asking me about what I share and I am happy to help Christians find more freedom! Great food for thought. -Denise McClain

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On November 9, 2013 By Kuyperian In Scribblings Like

Marc Hays: Narcissism Upside-Down

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39

The greatest commandment: love God.

Next: your neighbor.

In what manner? Like you love yourself.

We’re each at the center of our own universe. It does actually all revolve around us. No matter where we go, there we are. Relatively speaking, we’re all ubiquitous to ourselves.

I can’t make a single decision without wondering WWID: What Would I Do?

I can’t speak a single word without wondering: What would I say?

I can’t eat a single meal without consulting my appetites, or make a single purchase without considering my desires.

We know how to love ourselves. In fact, if we hate ourselves, we go against the very course of nature. “No one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it.” (Eph 5:29)

What if we loved our neighbors as we loved ourselves? What if we thought about how we would want to be treated before we did, said, thought, bought, or ate anything? What if I actually paid attention to those around me, so that I could know how to attend to their needs like I hope they would attend to mine? What if I stopped for someone broken down beside the interstate or picked up someone who was walking? Or bought a cup of coffee for a friend who was short on cash? Or bought a meal for a complete stranger, and then stayed to eat it with them?

Or spoke a soft word when wrath needed to be turned away? Or spoke a hard word when a hard word needed to be said? Or said “thank you” for the slightest blessing? Or praised someone for doing well, or praised someone for doing something mediocre? Or loved someone who is hard to love? Or loved an enemy? Or…? Or…? Or…?

Well then, I would be loving God by loving my neighbor, and loving my neighbor by remembering what it’s like to love myself.

Narcissism. Upside-Down.

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On November 7, 2013 By Kuyperian In Scribblings Like

Marc Hays: GKC–Why Don’t Bankers Sing While Banking?

If you have a moment this morning to read, then I offer you a snippet of GKC’s essay, “The Little Birds Who Won’t Sing,” from the Tremendous Trifles collection. It’s brilliant, as always. So, without further ado, I give you…G.K. Chesterton:

“…I walked along the pier at Ostend; and I heard some sailors uttering a measured shout as they laboured, and I remembered that sailors still sing in chorus while they work, and even sing different songs according to what part of their work they are doing. And a little while afterwards, when my sea journey was over, the sight of men working in the English fields reminded me again that there are still songs for harvest and for many agricultural routines. And I suddenly wondered why if this were so it should be quite unknown, for any modern trade to have a ritual poetry. How did people come to chant rude poems while pulling certain ropes or gathering certain fruit, and why did nobody do anything of the kind while producing any of the modern things? Why is a modern newspaper never printed by people singing in chorus? Why do shopmen seldom, if ever, sing?

…..

If reapers sing while reaping, why should not auditors sing while auditing and bankers while banking? If there are songs for all the separate things that have to be done in a boat, why are there not songs for all the separate things that have to be done in a bank? As the train from Dover flew through the Kentish gardens, I tried to write a few songs suitable for commercial gentlemen. Thus, the work of bank clerks when casting up columns might begin with a thundering chorus in praise of Simple Addition.

“Up my lads and lift the ledgers, sleep and ease are o’er. Hear the Stars of Morning shouting: ‘Two and Two are four.’ Though the creeds and realms are reeling, though the sophists roar, Though we weep and pawn our watches, Two and Two are Four.”

…..

And as I came into the cloud of London I met a friend of mine who actually is in a bank, and submitted these suggestions in rhyme to him for use among his colleagues. But he was not very hopeful about the matter. It was not (he assured me) that he underrated the verses, or in any sense lamented their lack of polish. No; it was rather, he felt, an indefinable something in the very atmosphere of the society in which we live that makes it spiritually difficult to sing in banks. And I think he must be right; though the matter is very mysterious. I may observe here that I think there must be some mistake in the calculations of the Socialists. They put down all our distress, not to a moral tone, but to the chaos of private enterprise. Now, banks are private; but post-offices are Socialistic: therefore I naturally expected that the post-office would fall into the collectivist idea of a chorus. Judge of my surprise when the lady in my local post-office (whom I urged to sing) dismissed the idea with far more coldness than the bank clerk had done. She seemed indeed, to be in a considerably greater state of depression than he. Should any one suppose that this was the effect of the verses themselves, it is only fair to say that the specimen verse of the Post-Office Hymn ran thus:

     "O'er London our letters are shaken like snow,
      Our wires o'er the world like the thunderbolts go.
      The news that may marry a maiden in Sark,
      Or kill an old lady in Finsbury Park."

Chorus (with a swing of joy and energy):

     "Or kill an old lady in Finsbury Park."

…And at the end of my reflections I had really got no further than the sub-conscious feeling of my friend the bank-clerk—that there is something spiritually suffocating about our life; not about our laws merely, but about our life. Bank-clerks are without songs, not because they are poor, but because they are sad. Sailors are much poorer. As I passed homewards I passed a little tin building of some religious sort, which was shaken with shouting as a trumpet is torn with its own tongue. THEY were singing anyhow; and I had for an instant a fancy I had often had before: that with us the super-human is the only place where you can find the human. Human nature is hunted and has fled into sanctuary.”

Go to Gutenberg.org to the read the whole essay. This one is chapter XXX.

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On November 1, 2013 By Kuyperian In Theology Like

Forgotten Saints – Joy on this All Saints’ Day

By Alan Stout

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

I love the hymn For All the Saints Who from Their Labors Rest. Here is a wonderful thought… The overwhelming majority of saints who now rest are unremembered in their specific labors. No memorials, no days of feasting, no honor over their hidden graves. They are all forgotten, yet we are here blessing the name of Jesus. It would take a great deal of effort to trace your current position in the body of Christ back to one of the Giants of the Faith. Calvin, Knox or Spurgeon might be in your spiritual family tree, but you would probably lose the branches in the forest after going back a generation or two. In spite of that the gates of Hell shake when we sing our Alleluias! What a marvel!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Today is All Saints’ Day in the western Church and we remember those forgotten even by the Church. We remember them by joining them in looking to the Light in darkness drear and singing His exploits as Rock and Fortress and in the singing of what He has done we find that He is still doing it. All of this with the sure knowledge that we too will be part of the great forgotten and glory fills the earth at our Alleluias!

Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

By and large the way you are forgotten, and the way the Kingdom grows, is to decrease in stature. Decrease by giving yourself away and that joyfully. This was John’s mission in life:

28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:28-30 ESV)

John’s decrease led him to the executioner’s blade; his head served as a grand subtlety for a tiny king no one honors today. This was a noble fight, bold and true. His joy over the Son facilitated his giving, enhanced it to the point of sacrifice. Joyful giving is a mark of a soldier whose Captain is Christ. John’s joy was full.

In The Breathing Method, a short story by Stephen King, a woman sacrifices a great deal to give birth to a child. She loses her reputation, family and financial position. In the midst of delivery her head was severed from her body, yet she survives for a half hour or so, sees her son, smiles and mouths, “thank you” to the her physician (I told you it was a Stephen King story). I imagine John smiling up from his decreased position on the platter, joyfully mouthing, “Alleluia!” to his host!

O blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

The gifts you give are more likely to be so feeble so as to be utterly forgotten here on earth. However, if you mix joy with your giving I promise that they will be remembered in glory, and your face will shine with the radiance of the Son of God. John said his joy came from hearing the Bridegroom and giving himself away in His name. Joy in Jesus means that a cup of cool water for the thirsty is glorious. Though the one receiving it may forget you completely his thanksgiving over that cup reaches to Heaven. Even you will probably forget the clothes you give to the mission, but Jesus remembers as the poor are dressed. Your unseen visit to a prison done in Jesus name and with joy is Alleluia, praise to God.

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Beloved, labor in joy! Give yourself away with a smile and a song to the Father, Son and Spirit.

Today is All Saints’ Day, may you be forgotten by all men and remembered by the Church and her Bridegroom. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alan Stout is the Associate Pastor of Providence Church in Pensacola, Fl. <>vzlom-facebook.com раскрутка а в киеве

On October 31, 2013 By Kuyperian In Scribblings Like

A Short Bio of the Man Who Changed the World

Over at my website, I have a short introduction to the life of Martin Luther. Happy Reformation Day!<>Angry Races mobile game

On October 31, 2013 By Kuyperian In Culture Like

Halloween, a very Christian holiday indeed

Every year when I see signs outside of churches advertising “Fall Parties” or “Harvest Parties” as explicit or implicit “alternatives” to Halloween, I do the proverbial facepalm. This is similar, in my mind, to Christians organizing “Winter Parties” as “alternatives” to Christmas. Christmas already is a Christian holiday. Why would we need alternatives to it? Sure, it can be celebrated in an un-Christian way: with binge drinking, inappropriate clothing, tasteless jokes. The same could be said of birthdays, but nobody proposes we stop celebrating birthdays because they can be abused. The same is also true of Halloween.

Yes, Halloween is a Christian holiday. But I won’t rehearse the history of All Hallows’ E’en, the evening before All Hallows’ (All Saints’) Day on the Church calendar. I won’t rehearse the history of the Protestant Reformation, begun with a bang on Halloween 1517 by Martin Luther. I am here to talk about anthropology. Inversion holidays, to be exact.

Inversion holidays exist in many cultures: they are days for reversals, turning things inside out, practical joking, donning costumes to disguise ourselves and pretend to be what we’re not, eating weird food (green punch with eyeballs floating in it, anyone?), and other topsy-turvy things. Purim is one such festival in the Jewish tradition, and others have been observed by anthropologists. Mardi Gras is another. In our context, Halloween is the most accessible and widely observed inversion holiday. ^a

Inversion holidays are thought to serve several purposes in a society, some of which are more intriguing than others. But I want to put inversion rituals in a Christian context and ask: What better way to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve than to invert the world for a moment, laugh at the devil, make light of death for a moment, reasserting the fact that tomorrow all will be well, and all manner of things well. For all the saints have the victory, not the devil. That is why the day after Halloween (“All Hallows Eve”) is All Saints (“Hallows”) Day, the day for all the saints. Tomorrow (Nov. 1) we remember that “The saints triumphant rise in bright array,” as the hymn says.*

As C.S. Lewis remarked in his preface to the Screwtape Letters, one thing the devil cannot stand is to be laughed at, not to be taken seriously. He was channeling Martin Luther, who (it is said) expressed the idea that “The best way of getting rid of the devil, if you cannot do it with the words of Holy Scripture, is to rail and mock him. He cannot bear scorn.” This is what we do on Halloween.

Halloween is a night full of humor, and it is (abuses notwithstanding) the right kind of Christian humor. Humor exists when the potency of evil has been completely dismantled. My husband and I laugh about the stomach flu we had in November ’09 not because it was any laughing matter at the time (I assure you it was not), but because we are well beyond reach of its potency. When the horror of an evil is safely behind or beyond reach of us, horrors can turn into jokes. Just as the Lord laughs from His heavenly throne at the battle cries of those who hate Him: He is beyond being affected in the slightest. Their slings and arrows cannot reach Him. He is utterly beyond their reach. He was not laughing on the cross; but He certainly can laugh now.

We have come out the winner. I and my husband have recovered completely from that terrible flu, no harm done, and it is powerless to do us any harm now. Our laughter is that of those who stand on the other side of the lion’s cage and watch it roar with impotence. Neutered of all its ability to cause harm, the lion becomes an object of amusement. Take away the bars, and suddenly it’s no laughing matter.

Halloween is practice. True, death still has power to do us harm. Satan is defeated, but nurses his mortal wound to the end and still snaps at us in his death throes. His power is real and still brings men and women down to hell. But his power is broken and so is death’s sting. We may make fun of the devil and his ways one night per year, as a rehearsal for the deep laughter that will overtake us on the day when the dead are raised imperishable, and Christ stands on the earth, and we stand with him beyond all reach of sin, damnation, pain, or death.

Halloween is not the devil’s night. It does not belong to witches, zombies, or Wiccans, either. That is a gross misunderstanding. It belongs to all the saints. The devils, witches, et al are brought out on that night in order to be mocked. So forget all the wild drinking binges you’ve ever been invited to, the lewd or tasteless costumes, the orgy-like atmosphere of frat-style Halloween parties. They have little to do with the real holiday. If we have ears to hear it, the merry laughter of the saints can be heard echoing through the night, because it is the laughter of the resurrection.

Alleluia, and Happy Halloween.

*But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

William W. How, “For All the Saints”<>разработка визиток

For more on inversion holidays, see the Wikibooks entry or this Academia.edu article by John Morehead. (back)

On October 31, 2013 By Kuyperian In Theology Like

The Ballad of Martin Luther

Happy Reformation Day!

A couple years ago, my dad asked me to write and perform a song for the Reformation Day festival at the church he pastors in Mendota, Virginia. He wanted the song to tell the story of Martin Luther’s role in the Protestant Reformation. I wrote it, performed it, recorded it, and now, I’ve made a music video for it. Well, that may be a bit of an overstatement. There’s music. There’s video, but it’s probably more of a historical slideshow. Anyway, here it is. The world, internet premiere of The Ballad of Martin Luther.

Here’s the link:

The Ballad of Martin Luther