Peter Jones, Author at Kuyperian Commentary

On July 10, 2014 By Peter Jones In Culture Like

Just Flexing for the Cameras

NFL wide receivers are some of the most disciplined and physically gifted men on the planet. They are in top physical condition. They are big, strong, and fast. They carefully watch what goes into their body. They have certain foods they eat and others they don’t eat. Most have a regular routine of vitamins and supplements they take. These athletes have precise exercise routines that include a variety of workouts. During the off season, which runs from February through July, they refine and hone their receiving skills, spending hours with their quarterback. But it is not just the physical discipline. They watch hours of film each week as they study their opponents. They study their playbook learning dozens of different plays and variations on those plays so they can make in-game adjustments. They have the courage to catch the football even if they are about to be crushed by a safety. If you have six minutes, here is a link to some of the best catches by the best receiver in the NFL right now, Calvin Johnson. You should be awed by what he can do. If you want to see a living, breathing example of discipline, watch these men.

But what is the point of all this discipline? Why do they do it? Of course, there is always the goal of winning. Every athlete wants to win. But again why? Why do they spend hours and hours refining their skills? Why do they want to win the Super Bowl? The answer for many of these men is simple: self-glorification. Their primary goal for all their hours, all their labor, all their careful attention to detail is so they can flex in front of the camera or thump their chests when they score. (Money might be involved as well!)

Christians look at men like Calvin Johnson (pictured above) and shake our heads in disgust. The arrogance of many pro-athletes is hard to stomach. But the truth is we often do the same thing. We read our Bibles. We pray. We keep our house clean. We work hard. We go to church. We train our children. We evangelize. We read theology. We refine our theology. We watch pastors on the internet. We tithe. We prepare sermons. We become living, breathing examples of Christian discipline. But we don’t do it for God. Often the reason we are disciplined is so people will notice how amazing we are. We are just flexing for the cameras.

I am not encouraging laziness. Lack of zeal in the Christian life is a sin. We need to be disciplined as Christians. We should know our Bibles through and through. We should be prayer warriors. Our worship should be lively and vigorous. We should tithe at least 10% and more if we can. We should bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. As a pastor, I should labor hard over the text to make an excellent sermon. Whatever your job is, you should do it with cheer and excellence. But zeal doesn’t eliminate sin. There is a subtle temptation when we work hard to look around for the cameras. We end up wanting praise from men instead of praise from God. Can you be happy to lead a disciplined, God-honoring life if no one notices? Would you be just as joyful if all your labor was done in the dark with no cameras and no praise? Are you upset when you work hard to help someone and no thanks comes your way? Ladies do you get upset when your labors at home go unnoticed? Men, does it upset you when you dig in at work and someone else gets promoted? Praise from men is gratifying when it comes. But if we are looking for it, longing for it, or upset when we don’t get it then we need to do a motivation check. Instead of seeking God’s praise, we might just be flexing for the cameras.

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On June 27, 2014 By Peter Jones In Culture, Scribblings Like

The Eschatology of Duck Dynasty

Could anyone have foreseen that the Duck Dynasty would become a cultural phenomenon? It is one of the most watched shows on cable television. According to Wikipedia advertising sales for the show in 2013 exceeded $80 million and the revenue from merchandising exceeded $400 million. Who would have thought in March 2012, when the show first aired, that millions would watch, it would generate hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue, and that it would become one of the most talked about shows on television? I watched my first episode of Duck Dynasty about three months ago. I am now working through the second season. As I watched I asked myself why is the show so popular? What is about bearded, duck call makers that causes millions of people to tune in? I think there are several reasons people watch. There is the “odd” factor. We love watching people who are not like us, who live in a completely different world. The draw of reality shows is that we get to watch people do things we will never get to do. Second, Jase, Phil, Si, Miss Kay, Willie, are all “characters.” I grew up in the South. I met people like them and enjoyed their company. Men attached to their tea, who butchered frogs and wore camo. Men who were not pretentious, but knew who they were and didn’t apologize for it. Men who liked to blow things up. Men whose eyes had joy and a sadness that said they had been to dark places. Women who were women and happy to be so. People who still enjoyed playing and didn’t take life too seriously. These “characters” add humor to the show, as well as giving the show a sense of truthfulness. And then there is the family dynamic. Many Americans live in broken homes separated from one of their parents and sometimes both. Extended family is usually just as fractured. Grandparents are distant, if they are involved at all. Aunts and uncles are seen only occasionally. Family matters on Duck Dynasty. A lot of us look at them and wish we could live (and may even work) around our families even if it means sitting next to our crazy uncle.

But this morning as I sat around the breakfast table celebrating my birthday, I thought of another reason why Duck Dynasty might be so popular. All of us long for a happy ending. Tolkien said, “We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with a sense of exile.” We all want to get back to the Garden. In our narcissistic age dark endings are all the rage. Hope is lost. We are the “Walking Dead” and “All Men Must Die.” “Its a Wonderful Life” is disparaged for its rosy view of life. At the end of our show life just fades to black. But as Nate Wilson said somewhere, there really is a happy ending for those who love God. We really do walk off into the sunset. It really is better than anything we could think or imagine. In the end all things will be put right. What does this have to do with Duck Dynasty? Every episode finishes with a happy ending, with a miniature picture of Heaven. No matter what happens in the first 21 minutes the last 30 seconds picture the Robertson family around the table joyfully eating together. There may be bickering, fighting, stupid decisions, harsh words, and laziness but the final scene says, “In the end, all will be well.” For all humans, and especially Christians, this taps into something deep that our dark, narcissistic age cannot stamp out. Since our first father fell in the Garden our hearts have longed for home. We hunger for the tree of life, for the table of peace and joy where sin is eradicated. We are restless until we find our rest in Him. Every episode of Duck Dynasty gives us a window, albeit an smudged one, into that final day when our faith will become sight. It gives us a picture of the final return from exile into the promise land.

Revelation 19:9 “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelations 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

People may love Duck Dynasty for its oddness, characters, or its family dynamic, but the reason I like the show is that it points me, in a small way, to that final table when the great family of God gathers to offer praise to the King of Kings. It reminds me that all things do work together for good. It reminds me that every day I am blessed by my Father and every time I eat with my vine and olive plants I am blessed. Like all things, Duck Dynasty is about eschatology. And they get the ending right.<>seo оптимизация wiki

On June 20, 2014 By Peter Jones In Scribblings Like

Sin and Consequences in Breaking Bad

Here are couple of quotes that go with my previous post about Breaking Bad.

This first quote is from Maureen Ryan at the Huffington Post.

“But as someone who, like Gilligan, was raised Catholic, I’ve long believed that one of the show’s strengths is its intelligent and even compassionate exploration of sin, guilt, good, evil and the consequences of altruistic and selfish choices. Nothing about ‘Breaking Bad’ offers a moral prescription, yet, as I wrote earlier this year, it offers an exceptionally clear-eyed and honest appraisal of one man’s soul-destroying delusions and ultimate selfishness. ‘Sin’ is a concept that people of many faiths and belief systems have struggled to define for millennia, yet it’s a word you don’t often hear uttered in conversations about challenging art; however you feel about it as a concept, the word simply comes with a lot of baggage.

But sin lives at the center of this show, which, like many great works, has not supplied answers as much as it’s asked fascinating questions.”

Here is another quote by Vince Gilligan, the creator of the show.

“I have to speak for myself, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I like the idea that there’s a point to it all. I like the idea that if you’re really a rotten human being, you don’t prosper for it. Not in the end. Day by day, you might, but there’s some sort of comeuppance, some kind of karma, whatever you want to call it,” Gilligan said. “Conversely, if, as most of us hope to be, you’re a good person, it all kind of works out in the end. But I don’t know that the world is really like that.

“I think it’s a basic human need to want to believe that the world is fair,” he continued. “Of course we live in a world that seems grotesquely unfair… I like that feeling on this show… [that] every action has a consequence. I think I respond to that. I think that feels right to me — that every bad thing Walt does comes back on him, that it has a consequence. … Maybe on some level what I’m intending is to explore a world where actions do have consequences. They do in our real life, we know that. Is there some final tally in which the balance sheet evens out? If it doesn’t exist in this world — I can’t say whether it does or it doesn’t. But maybe it will in this made-up world of ‘Breaking Bad.’

Gilligan gets a lot wrong here from a Biblical perspective. But his evaluation that sins have consequences is Biblical even if his remedy (the tally sheet) is not. Breaking Bad is 62 episode exploration of the effects of sin upon a man and his family.<>online games заполнение ов

On June 20, 2014 By Peter Jones In Culture, Wisdom Like

The Center of Breaking Bad

“Sin lives at the center of this show.” Maureen Ryan on Breaking Bad.

(Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen the show and plan on watching you should stop reading.)

I am not sure I can win with this post. Some will wonder why I spent my time watching such a dark, depressing show that ends with a broken marriage and almost all characters of consequence dead. Others will wonder why I “moralized” the show. Couldn’t I just watch for enjoyment? Some will chide me that the show was not very good to begin with. Others will find different complaints. Yet I plunge on. Why? Breaking Bad is one of the best depictions of sin’s nature and effects ever put on screen.

Summary: the show is about a high school chemistry teacher who finds out he has cancer and begins cooking meth so that he can leave an inheritance for his family. Throughout the series he becomes a drug kingpin, destroys his family, and ultimately dies. The show covers two years of his life from his 50th to his 52nd birthday.

Content: There is some sexual content throughout the series though it is not frequent. There is quite a bit of profanity. The violence is frequent and when it occurs it is graphic and disturbing. The second episode contains one of the more graphic scenes of violence. And of course, drugs, drug dealers, and druggies play varying roles throughout the series. The drugs are not viewed positively. The tone of the show is dark, tense, with a general foreboding hanging over the series. Whenever something good happens, you know it is only temporary.

What can we learn about sin from this series?

The unintended consequences of our sins cannot be contained. Walter White thinks his hands are on the reigns. He believes he is in control. But time again things happen he never wanted to, but do as a result of the choices he made. Season 2 ends with two passenger jets crashing because he chose to watch a girl die instead of save her. Dealing drugs leads to a vendetta against him and his family. His wife and teenage son end up hating him because of his lies. But the most brutal unintended consequence is the death of his brother-in-law in the last season of the show. Walter never intended for this to happen. He begs for it not to happen. But all his choices from the first episode to this have led inevitably to that point. For us, it is often the same. We make sinful choices and assume those choices are self-contained. We assume we can manage the consequences. But sin has a life of its own. If we let the snake out of the box why we are surprised when the people we love are bit?

We justify our sins with pious excuses. Throughout the series Walter keeps telling himself that he is doing this for his family so they can have money when he dies and his children will be taken care of. He repeats this narrative throughout the entire series. Even in the final season he still believes he can save his family. Along the way, he makes meth, lies to his wife and son, steals, poisons a child, bombs a nursing a home, has inmates murdered at prison, kidnaps his own daughter, get his brother-in-law killed, and kills one of his partners. The series ends with him estranged from his wife and children. He does get his son money, but he can’t do it in his own name because his son wouldn’t take it. The show ends with him dying alone in a meth lab. How often do we cloak our sins in righteous language? I have to spend 70 hours at work so my children can be taken care of? I wasn’t flirting. I was just being nice. I wasn’t lying. I was protecting my family. Pious excuses do not turn our sin into righteousness.

Side Note: Breaking the 6th Commandment

Murders are a dime a dozen in modern TV shows. In most of these shows people kill other people and the impact of the killings are minimal. In Breaking Bad the killing that Walter and Jesse do has long term impact. Walter agonizes over his first planned killing carefully making a list of pros and cons as he prepares to kill a drug dealer. By the end of the show, he will kill a man without hesitation for very little reason. After Jesse murders Gale he spends the rest of the series haunted by the murder of a “problem dog” who never did anything wrong. Even when their actions indirectly cause the death of someone, such as the shooting of the boy by Todd, the characters are changed by those deaths. So many modern shows take death lightly. There are places where Breaking Bad does that. But the main characters are forever changed when they take the life of another. Men murder and find part of their soul dead.

Pride is the great destroyer of men. In the fifth episode of the series, Walter is visiting an old business partner who has become rich while Walter is making pennies as a high school chemistry teacher. Walter’s wife tells this partner about his cancer. The partner offers Walter a way out. He tells him he will pay his medical bills, give him a good job, and take care of his family. Walter refuses. This was one of Vince Gilligan’s, the creator of the show, key moments in the series. The viewers saw Walter as a “creature of such pride and such damaged ego that he would rather be his own man and endanger his family’s life than take a handout like that.” And so Walter White’s descent into pride begins. Time and again his pride keeps him from escaping, from doing what is right. He believes he is immune to all the things that destroy mortal men. He can escape anything. And for a while he does. No scene demonstrates this like the famous “I am the one who knocks” scene. But of course even as Walter says this he is on the verge of falling. We watch him on the screen and ask, “Can’t he see what his pride is doing to him and his family?” But do we? Do we realize how our soul rots as we nurse our ego along? Do we realize how badly we want to be powerful, feared, and well known? Do we realize how self drives our lives? Pride comes before the fall. (Proverbs 11:2, 16:18, 29:23) For the proud the closing scene is always the same.

When we are enslaved to sin we use people. One of the saddest parts of the show is the relationship between Jesse and Walter. Jesse is a young, small time drug dealer who Walter recruits to help him make meth. Jesse is looking for a father. Throughout the show we keep hoping that Walter will fill that role. Occasionally he does. But normally Jesse is just another tool to be used by Walter. He uses Jesse, lies to Jesse, and ultimately betrays him to Neo-Nazis for torture. He does rescue him in the very end, but that gesture is hollow by that point. Walter ends up using his wife, son, baby daughter, brother-in-law, friends, everyone. Sin eats away our love for people. When we are bound by sin people become disposable. When their minutes run out we just throw them away. We see in Walter a piece of ourselves. As sin grows in our lives people get smaller.

Sin blinds us to ourselves. The viewers can see where Walter’s path is taking him. We know where the story ends. But he cannot see it. Throughout most of the show he thinks of himself as a middle aged suburban man who loves his wife and children. He wears nice shirts and khaki pants. He packs a sack lunch to go make meth. He drives a very normal car. Jesse is the scumbag, lowlife drug dealer. It is not until very late in the series that Walter even invites Jesse into his home. But Walter’s view of himself is twisted, like a carnival mirror. Right before Hank is killed he tells Walt, “You are the smartest guy I ever met and you’re too stupid to see.” He is talking about the fact that a Neo-Nazi is about to kill him (Hank). But he could be talking about Walt’s entire rise to power as a drug lord. He can see so much. Yet he cannot see himself. All of us live like this to one degree or another. From the outside others can see our sins. They often point them out to us. But we can’t or won’t see them. For those who refuse to look in the mirror of God’s Word the end is the same s; we find out too late that the picture of ourselves in our heads is lie.

Side Note: The Ending

It is very difficult to end a show like Breaking Bad. The expectations were high. There were so many ways it could have gone, so many loose ends to tie up. I was happy with the ending. Walter paid for his sins with the loss of his family, friends and his “empire.” Jesse went free. Walter takes revenge on the Nazis. Walter dies in a meth lab. Vince Gilligan described it as Gollum being reunited with the ring, his “precious.” I can see that. However, I think an ending where Walter lives, but all he loves is gone or dead would have been more appropriate. I think of the end of The Godfather III, which was not a great movie, where Al Pacino, as an old man, living in exile, and totally alone just slumps over in his chair and dies. Sometimes living with your sins is worse than dying because of them. It was a very good ending, but still Gilligan gave Walter White a better ending than he deserved.<>mobi online

On June 19, 2014 By Peter Jones In Scribblings, Theology Like

Bavinck on the Authority of Scripture

Herman Bavinck’s section on Scripture in Reformed Dogmatics: Vol 1, Chapters 12-14. is a feast of scholarship and piety. Here are a couple of quotes from his section on the authority of the Scriptures (p. 455-465). In the first quote he is discussing whether or not the descriptive (historical) portions of Scripture have authority or not.

“The authority of history and the history of a norm [law/command] cannot be so abstractly separated in Scripture. The formal and material meaning of the term ‘Word of God’ are much too tightly intertwined. Even in the deceptive words of Satan and the evil deeds of the ungodly, God still has something to say to us. Scripture is not only useful for teaching but also for warning and reproof. It teaches and corrects us, both by deterrence and by exhortation, both by shaming and by consoling us. But the above distinction does make clear that Scripture cannot and may not be understood as a fully articulated code of law. Appeal to a text apart from its context is not sufficient for dogma. The revelation recorded in Scripture is a historical and organic whole. That is how it has to be read and interpreted. A dogma that comes to us with authority and intends to be a rule for our life and conduct must be rooted in and inferred from the entire organism of Scripture. The authority of Scripture is different from the authority of parliament or congress. (Reformed Dogmatics, Vol 1, p. 460)

I love this quote because he shows that the entire Scripture has authority in our lives, not just the commands or prescriptive passages. But then he goes on to say that because of this context is paramount. The Bible is a whole. Therefore it must be read as such. So many Christians, especially in this age of the internet and memes, use bumper sticker theology. They pull out a verse, slap it on and say that is what it means. They quote a verse without any understanding of how it fits into the context of the Scripture. This often leads to a superficial, wrong, or even heretical meaning of a passage.

Here is most of the final paragraph in his section on the authority of the Bible. I like this quote because he asserts without qualification the authority of the written Word over everything and everyone.

“As the word of God it stands on a level high above all human authority in state and society, science and art. Before it, all else must yield. For people must obey God rather than other people. All other [human] authority is restricted to its own circle and applies only to its own area. But the authority of Scripture extends to the whole person and over all humankind. It is above the intellect and the will, the heart and the conscience, and cannot be compared with any other authority. Its authority, being divine, is absolute. It is entitled to be believed and obeyed by everyone at all times. In majesty it far transcends all other powers. But, in order to gain recognition and dominion, it asks for no one’s assistance. It does not need the strong arm of the government. It does not need the support of the church and does not conscript anyone’s sword and inquisition. It does not desire to rule by coercion and violence, but seeks free and willing recognition. For that reason it brings its own recognition by the working of the Holy Spirit. Scripture guards its own authority. (Reformed Dogmatics, Vol 1, p. 465)

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On June 11, 2014 By Peter Jones In Culture, Theology Like

Kill Your Idols

Satan is the master of the bait and switch. It is the old game where someone is led to believe they will receive one thing, usually good, and they receive another, usually bad. An example from a while back is where a young lady thought she had won a Toyota car. However, when she went to get her prize she found that she had won a toy Yoda doll instead. Satan loves to do this. He promises us something great and tells us to pursue it. We believe him and run after what he has promised. But right at the end he switches the prize. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe that glory waited if they just ate the fruit. Eat this fruit and you will be like God. But what they got was death, alienation from God, alienation from one another, getting kicked out of the garden, and dead son.

Ezekiel 23 gives a terrifying picture of this exact thing. Israel longs for help from the nations surrounding her. Instead of trusting in God, she listens to Satan and runs to Assyria for aid. Ezekiel says, “She lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians” (vs. 5, 12). Like a young woman longing for the arms of a coworker instead of her husband, Israel looked upon the glory of Assyria, all her mighty captains, all her great warriors, all her great power and she left her husband, the Lord, and slept with Assyria. However, this did not bring her the satisfaction she expected. Like the young man addicted to pornography, she found herself destroyed by the very thing she lusted for. Ezekiel says that Assyria slew Israel by the sword (vs. 10) and that God sent those nations that she lusted after to deal furiously with her, take her children, and strip her naked (vs. 25-26). Like Adam and Eve in the garden, Israel expected to find glory and deliverance, but instead they found death. So is the end of all who trust in idols. The idols promise bread, but in the end give us stones.

We must kill our idols or they will kill us. Nothing outside of Christ will bring peace, satisfaction, or deliverance. Just like Israel, we love setting up idols, things we lust after that we think will satisfy us. These idols can be another man or woman, a new job, more money, more power, more time, control over other people, a bigger church, children that are holier than anyone else’s, a better education, a better sex life, better friends, a new president, a new congress, etc. etc. etc. The list never ends. However, these things will not fill us. We will not be delivered or satisfied if we get those things. They are cracked pots that hold no water. If we pursue them in an ungodly fashion, if we long for them instead of longing for Christ, then we are headed for nakedness and the sword. Idols are merciless.

How do we kill our idols? We bring them to Christ. We seek his mercy. We confess our adultery with the world. We confess our sins. We believe that he forgives. And we believe that by His Spirit and His Word he will slay our idols. Only when Christ cuts off the heads of idols can we have true life. The idols promise life but give us only death. Christ promises that if we die, and our idols with us, then and only then can we have life eternal.

What happens to our friends, jobs, marriages, sex, churches, money, reputation, etc. when we stop making them idols? What happens to these things when Christ slays them with the sword of his mouth? They become what they truly are: gifts of grace given to us by Christ to enjoy and to use to build his Kingdom. If we put them under Christ they become a joy and we find satisfaction in them. If we put them in place of Christ, beside Christ, or on the throne with Christ they become beasts that devour us. We must slay our idols or they will slay us.

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On June 4, 2014 By Peter Jones In Culture, Politics Like

Gay Marriage, Civil Disobedience, and the Christian Future

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” George Orwell, 1984

Jack Phillips is a Christian baker in Lakewood, Colorado. In 2012 Jack Phillips refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. This couple then reported him to to Civil Rights Commission. A lawsuit followed. The judge ruled against Jack Phillips. The Civil Rights Commission has now come back with its ruling, which consists of three parts.

First, Jack Phillips must change his store policies immediately and begin make wedding cakes for gay couples.

Second, his entire staff must attend training on Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws and agree to abide by them.

Third, for the next two years he must submit quarterly reports to show that he has not discriminated against customers based on their sexual orientation.

Jack Phillips might appeal the decision, but it is hard to see how anything will change.

Here are few quotes.

The Commission chairwoman, “You can have your beliefs, but you can’t hurt people at the same time.”

The ACLU attorney, “Religious freedom is undoubtedly an important American value, but so is the right to be treated equally under the law free from discrimination…Everyone is free to believe what they want, but businesses like Masterpiece Cakeshop cannot treat some customers differently than others based on who they are as people.”

The judge, “At first blush, it may seem reasonable that a private business should be able to refuse service to anyone it chooses. This view, however, fails to take into account the cost to society and the hurt caused to persons who are denied service simply because of who they are.”

Let the tearing begin.

So how should we live in this country where the rejection of God’s created order is law? How should we live when those in power want to reshape our minds in ways contrary to Scripture? Here are a few thoughts in no particular order.

First, we are past the live and let live stage (if one ever existed). The sodomites are not saying, “We will live this way and you live that way and we can coexist.” They are demanding that we publicly accept their sins. Anyone who believes that we can all just get along will soon wake up to find their position overrun.

Second, they will come for our children. How long before the State demands that home schooled children and children in Christian schools get “sensitivity training?” If they can make a business owner train his employees why not a principle his students and teachers? Why not a parent their children?

Third, Christians in all walks of life should expect more traps. Think of Daniel 6. Pastors should expect homosexuals to visit their congregations to see if they are preaching against homosexuality. Christian business owners should expect homosexuals to come in and see if they get turned away. Christian politicians should expect homosexuals to try and out them in some way. I am not encouraging hand wringing, just open eyes.

Fourth, human sexuality, including male-female roles, marriage, procreation, female ministers, sodomy, abortion, divorce, rape, pedophilia, sexual abuse, transgender, etc. is the battle line right now in America. There are other issues, but none as pressing as this one. Therefore this is where we must fight. I am not saying this is all we talk about. And I understand that there are many ways we fight against this wave of immorality, such as love our wives, worship the living God, evangelize our neighbor, teach our children, live holy lives, and preach the Word. But let’s not miss the obvious: one way we must fight is by saying clearly and without apology what God’s Word teaches on these subjects.

Fifth, any pastor or public Christian leader who refuses to speak against these things is a coward. Again, I am not saying this is all we to talk about or that we speak with malice . But our stance on sodomy, and issues related to it needs to be clear and public. It our duty to stand in the line of fire, to preach the Word, and to rally God’s people around the truth. A pastor or public leader whose stance on the above issues is vague or unknown is not being a faithful shepherd.

Sixth, pastors and Christian leaders need to teach their people what godly civil disobedience looks like. There is a lot of freedom in how we resist the State’s growing power. But the time for abstract theological discussion about civil disobedience is passing quickly. We must study God’s Word, meditate on it, pray through it, and study our fathers in the past to learn from them. Then we must teach our people the proper responses to the State. What can we do as Christians? Is there any place to take up arms? (Maybe those debates about the Revolutionary War and the Civil War are not so arcane after all.) Should we march? Should we keep our businesses open even if there is the threat of police action? Should a Christian business owner reject a homosexual job applicant? What should we do if they come for our children? What if they come for our guns? Should Christians accept government money in any situation? What should Christian schools do if they are commanded to teach that homosexuality is fine? How should Christian magistrates function? Should Christian soldiers get out or resist from within? Pastors and churchmen should be leading the charge in answering these and other questions.

Seventh, Christians should expect to lose money, businesses, tax breaks, jobs, etc. for taking a stand against unbiblical sexual practices. The Church and her members need to be prepared for this. We should think long term in our financial dealings so that we can “have something to give him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28)

Eighth, churches should pray for leaders in corporate worship. I Timothy 2 is clear on this point. Do we pray for our leaders? Do we pray for new, righteous leaders to rise up? Do we pray that God would cast down those who hate his Church? Do we pray for pagan leaders to repent and turn to Christ? Do we pray for that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness (I Timothy 2:2)? Do we pray for our leaders by name?

Ninth, Christians need to be known as a peaceful people. Psalm 120:7 says, “I am for peace, but they are for war.” We should be the ones who long for peace. This does not mean we are quiet about everything. Nor does this mean we compromise the Gospel to be at “peace with all men” (Romans 12:18). But it does mean we are careful about what battles we fight. Young people, of whom I am one, especially need to hear this. We tend to think that every sin is worthy of fire bombing. But we need to make sure we are hitting the big targets and not spending days chasing one lone enemy through the forest.

Tenth, we must not despair. Jesus sits on throne. We should act from faith, not fear. We should not be anxious, worried, fretful, fearful, depressed, or discouraged. Our Lord told us this would happen. Our Lord told us to rejoice when we are persecuted. The Church will march on. We have a job to do. Let us do it with joy in the Holy Spirit, faith in Christ, and dependence upon our Father. In the end, all will be well.<>наполнение а текстом

On May 26, 2014 By Peter Jones In Books, Culture Like

Book Review: With the Old Breed

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great read. Straight forward, not overly sentimental or harsh. Just a man who survived two of the worst battles in the Pacific telling us what happened. I think the HBO series “The Pacific” was based on this. As I read it two things struck me.

First, the invasion of Japan would have been the most costly battle in the history of mankind. There are problems with dropping the atomic bombs. After Nagasaki and Hiroshima the world was never the same. As a Christian I am adamantly opposed to civilian deaths. But reading this book one begins to realize that the Japanese had no intention of surrending. The toll on American soldiers, Japanese soldiers and Japanese civilians would have been astronomic if America had been forced to invade. So all the armchair generals who think we messed up by dropping the A-Bomb need to read this book and remember that it took more than 80 days and over 110,000 dead Japanese to get a six mile island named Okinawa. My point here is not to justify the dropping of the atomic bombs, but simply to say that the things are never as cut and dry as we want them to be. It is easy for us to look back and say, “We should have done this or should have done that.” War is hell. Often there are no easy, right, or bloodless answers.

Second, I realized that if our generation (I am thirty-six) was called upon to do what these men had to do there is little doubt we would fail. As a culture we do not have the backbone or courage to fight like those men did. I am not saying there are not brave men in the military. I have family members whom I love and admire who are in the military. So there are individuals and groups, who could do this. But WWII was a sustained effort over many years, by hundreds of thousands of people, that was a huge sacrifice, not just for the soldiers, but for those at home as well. I am not convinced that in our narcissistic, entitled, American culture we could do that again. I am reminded that our generation has not been called upon to sacrifice much. If the moment came where we had to, would we? Would I?

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On May 15, 2014 By Peter Jones In Theology Like

A Day Like Any Other Day

It is easy to forget that death is always right around the corner, especially when you are young like I am. I am not the most physically fit man in the world, but I am in decent health. I do not see my impending doom like a seventy year old man or a woman with cancer. Death is what my parents will reach soon enough. But for me it is still decades away.

But this perspective is a lie. Death is always, at every moment, only a step away. This became clear to me as I drove home from vacation a back in January. My wife took the picture at the top of the page out the front window of our 15 passenger two wheel drive van. I drove in snow like this for over six hours. I knew that at any moment we could slip and our van could roll. I watched in my mirror as semi-trucks hurtled down snow covered roads at 60 miles an hour while I was going 30. I got behind cars driving 10 miles per hour that created more of a risk than the fast drivers. I saw big trucks in ditches, cars overturned, and highway patrolmen helping stranded motorists. I felt my back tires slide numerous times. I felt the weight of the nine souls in my care.

So how did my life change in that six hour brush with death? I prayed. I prayed like I rarely pray. I prayed for safety. I prayed for wisdom. I prayed for peace. When I finally got down my snow covered driveway and put the van in park, I thanked the Lord for keeping me and my family safe. When we got the van unloaded I gathered the family and we all thanked the Lord again. Finally, I thought to myself, “Only God knows how close I was to death.”

Later that night it occurred to me that this day was no different than any other day. God sustained and kept me as I drove in the snow. He sustains me and keeps me when the roads are dry. He keeps my family safe in the sunshine, just as he did when I could barely see five feet. He keeps me safe from crazy college kids (our town is full of them) just as he did from crazy truckers. Every moment I am not in a ditch or wrecked on the side of the road or rolling my van means that the Lord has protected. Every morning when I wake up, the Lord has protected me throughout the night. Every evening when I sit down to eat God has hedged me in throughout the day. Every kiss I get from my wife means that he has covered her under his protective wings. Every child I get to tuck in at night means that their heavenly Father has given them to me for one more day.

Why don’t I pray every day like I did that day in the snow? Why don’t I give thanks just for reaching my front door like I did that day? Because I forget that every day, all day, it is only God’s watchful care that keeps me and those I love. I forget that “all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” (Heidelberg Catechism Q.27). I saw that my prayer life is directly linked to my recognition of God’s providence. When I forget God rules, I cease to pray and give thanks. When I remember that God governs all, my prayer life gets a shot of adrenaline and each day ends in thanksgiving, no matter what the weather was like.

Originally posted at Singing and Slaying.

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On May 1, 2014 By Peter Jones In Scribblings Like

Throwback Thursday-Now We Despise Death

Since it is the Easter season, here is a gem from St. Athanansius on how attitudes towards death changed after the resurrection of Christ. If you have never read On the Incarnation you are missing one of the great, short works of the early church.

A very strong proof of this destruction of death and its conquest by the cross is supplied by the present fact, namely this. All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take offense against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection. But that devil who of old wickedly exulted in death, now that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who remains truly dead.

There is proof of this too; for men who, before they believe in Christ, think death horrible and are afraid of it, once they are converted despise it so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and themselves become witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection from it. Even children hasten to die, and not men only, but women train themselves by bodily discipline to meet it. So weak has death become that even women, who used to be taken in by it, mock at it now as a dead thing robbed of all its strength. Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot as he now is the passers-by jeer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and witnesses to Him deride it scoffing and saying, “O death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting.” (p. 57-58)