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On August 8, 2015 By In Scribblings

John Calvin on the Sacraments

John_Calvin_by_Holbein1. After God has once received us into his family, it is not that he may regard us in the light of servants, but of sons, performing the part of a kind and anxious parent, and providing for our maintenance during the whole course of our lives. And, not contented with this, he has been pleased by a pledge to assure us of his continued liberality. To this end, he has given another sacrament to his Church by the hand of his only-begotten Son—viz. a spiritual feast, at which Christ testifies that he himself is living bread (John 6:51), on which our souls feed, for a true and blessed immortality… First, then, the signs are bread and wine, which represent the invisible food which we receive from the body and blood of Christ. For as God, regenerating us in baptism, ingrafts us into the fellowship of his Church, and makes us his by adoption, so we have said that he performs the office of a provident parent, in continually supplying the food by which he may sustain and preserve us in the life to which he has begotten us by his word. Moreover, Christ is the only food of our soul, and, therefore, our heavenly Father invites us to him, that, refreshed by communion with him, we may ever and anon gather new vigour until we reach the heavenly immortality. But as this mystery of the secret union of Christ with believers is incomprehensible by nature, he exhibits its figure and image in visible signs adapted to our capacity, nay, by giving, as it were, earnests and badges, he makes it as certain to us as if it were seen by the eye; the familiarity of the similitude giving it access to minds however dull, and showing that souls are fed by Christ just as the corporeal life is sustained by bread and wine. We now, therefore, understand the end which this mystical benediction has in view—viz. to assure us that the body of Christ was once sacrificed for us, so that we may now eat it, and, eating, feel within ourselves the efficacy of that one sacrifice,—that his blood was once shed for us so as to be our perpetual drink. This is the force of the promise which is added, “Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you” (Mt. 26:26, &c.). The body which was once offered for our salvation we are enjoined to take and eat, that, while we see ourselves made partakers of it, we may safely conclude that the virtue of that death will be efficacious in us. Hence he terms the cup the covenant in his blood. For the covenant which he once sanctioned by his blood he in a manner renews, or rather continues, in so far as regards the confirmation of our faith, as often as he stretches forth his sacred blood as drink to us.

…
10. The sum is, that the flesh and blood of Christ feed our souls just as bread and wine maintain and support our corporeal life. For there would be no aptitude in the sign, did not our souls find their nourishment in Christ. This could not be, did not Christ truly form one with us, and refresh us by the eating of his flesh, and the drinking of his blood. But though it seems an incredible thing that the flesh of Christ, while at such a distance from us in respect of place, should be food to us, let us remember how far the secret virtue of the Holy Spirit surpasses all our conceptions, and how foolish it is to wish to measure its immensity by our feeble capacity. Therefore, what our mind does not comprehend let faith conceive—viz. that the Spirit truly unites things separated by space. That sacred communion of flesh and blood by which Christ transfuses his life into us, just as if it penetrated our bones and marrow, he testifies and seals in the Supper, and that not by presenting a vain or empty sign, but by there exerting an efficacy of the Spirit by which he fulfils what he promises. And truly the thing there signified he exhibits and offers to all who sit down at that spiritual feast, although it is beneficially received by believers only who receive this great benefit with true faith and heartfelt gratitude. For this reason the apostle said, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ”? (1 Cor. 10:16.) There is no ground to object that the expression is figurative, and gives the sign the name of the thing signified. I admit, indeed, that the breaking of bread is a symbol, not the reality. But this being admitted, we duly infer from the exhibition of the symbol that the thing itself is exhibited. For unless we would charge God with deceit, we will never presume to say that he holds forth an empty symbol. Therefore, if by the breaking of bread the Lord truly represents the partaking of his body, there ought to be no doubt whatever that he truly exhibits and performs it. The rule which the pious ought always to observe is, whenever they see the symbols instituted by the Lord, to think and feel surely persuaded that the truth of the thing signified is also present. For why does the Lord put the symbol of his body into your hands, but just to assure you that you truly partake of him? If this is true let us feel as much assured that the visible sign is given us in seal of an invisible gift as that his body itself is given to us.

11. I hold then (as has always been received in the Church, and is still taught by those who feel aright), that the sacred mystery of the Supper consists of two things—the corporeal signs, which, presented to the eye, represent invisible things in a manner adapted to our weak capacity, and the spiritual truth, which is at once figured and exhibited by the signs. When attempting familiarly to explain its nature, I am accustomed to set down three things—the thing meant, the matter which depends on it, and the virtue or efficacy consequent upon both. The thing meant consists in the promises which are in a manner included in the sign. By the matter, or substance, I mean Christ, with his death and resurrection. By the effect, I understand redemption, justification, sanctification, eternal life, and all other benefits which Christ bestows upon us. Moreover, though all these things have respect to faith, I leave no room for the cavil, that when I say Christ is conceived by faith, I mean that he is only conceived by the intellect and imagination. He is offered by the promises, not that we may stop short at the sight or mere knowledge of him, but that we may enjoy true communion with him. And, indeed, I see not how any one can expect to have redemption and righteousness in the cross of Christ, and life in his death, without trusting first of all to true communion with Christ himself. Those blessings could not reach us, did not Christ previously make himself ours. I say then, that in the mystery of the Supper, by the symbols of bread and wine, Christ, his body and his blood, are truly exhibited to us, that in them he fulfilled all obedience, in order to procure righteousness for us— first that we might become one body with him; and, secondly, that being made partakers of his substance, we might feel the result of this fact in the participation of all his blessings.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Chapter 17, §1 & 10-11 (All the stuff in between is really good too and I would encourage you to read it.)

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On August 7, 2015 By In Scribblings

I Clement on Thanksgiving

“Let our whole body, then, be preserved in Christ Jesus; and let every one be subject to his neighbour, according to the special gift [charism] bestowed upon him. Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect unto the strong. Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor; and let the poor man bless God, because He hath given him one by whom his need may be supplied. Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by [mere] words, but through good deeds. Let the humble not bear testimony to himself, but leave witness to be borne to him by another. Let him that is pure in the flesh not grow proud of it, and boast, knowing that it was another who bestowed on him the gift of continence. Let us consider, then, brethren, of what matter we were made,—who and what manner of beings we came into the world, as it were out of a sepulchre [grave or burial place], and from utter darkness. He who made us and fashioned us, having prepared His bountiful gifts for us before we were born, introduced us into His world. Since, therefore, we receive all these things from Him, we ought for everything to give Him thanks; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

1 Clement, Ch. 38

 

N.B. I Clement is a letter of Clement of Rome, and likely one of the earliest of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.  It is one of the few writings that was considered for inclusion in the Canon of Scripture, but ultimately not received by the Church.  However, like many of the writings of the Fathers, it has always held a place of special honor.  It’s exclusion was not because of any error of doctrine but because the Church recognized that though it was written by a disciple of the Apostle Peter it was not written in his name as, for instance, Luke and Acts which were written by Luke (not an apostle) but in the name or under the supervision of Peter, were.  Thus the Church received it as an important and pious text, but not an inspired one.

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On August 7, 2015 By In Scribblings

I Clement on All Creation Figuring the Reality of Resurrection

“Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which He has rendered the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising Him from the dead. Let us contemplate, beloved, the resurrection which is at all times taking place. Day and night declare to us a resurrection. The night sinks to sleep, and the day arises; the day [again] departs, and the night comes on. Let us behold the fruits [of the earth], how the sowing of grain takes place. The sower goes forth, and casts it into the ground; and the seed being thus scattered, though dry and naked when it fell upon the earth, is gradually dissolved. Then out of its dissolution the mighty power of the providence of the Lord raises it up again, and from one seed many arise and bring forth fruit.”

1 Clement, Ch 24

 

N.B. I Clement is a letter of Clement of Rome, and likely one of the earliest of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.  It is one of the few writings that was considered for inclusion in the Canon of Scripture, but ultimately not received by the Church.  However, like many of the writings of the Fathers, it has always held a place of special honor.  It’s exclusion was not because of any error of doctrine but because the Church recognized that though it was written by a disciple of the Apostle Peter it was not written in his name as, for instance, Luke and Acts which were written by Luke (not an apostle) but in the name or under the supervision of Peter, were.  Thus the Church received it as an important and pious text, but not an inspired one.

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On August 6, 2015 By In Scribblings

Schaff on the Apostolic Fathers

The [Apostolic] Fathers are inferior in kind as well as in degree [to the inspired canonical authors]; yet their words are lingering echoes of those whose words were spoken “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” They are monuments of the power of the Gospel. They were made out of such material as St. Paul describes when he says, “Such were some of you.” But for Christ, they would have been worshippers of personified Lust and Hate, and of every crime. They would have lived for “bread and circus-shows.” Yet to the contemporaries of a Juvenal they taught the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount. Among such beasts in human form they reared the sacred home; they created the Christian family; they gave new and holy meanings to the names of wife and mother; they imparted ideas unknown before of the dignity of man as man; they infused an atmosphere of benevolence and love; they bestowed the elements of liberty chastened by law; they sanctified human society by proclaiming the universal brotherhood of redeemed man. As we read the Apostolic Fathers, we comprehend, in short, the meaning of St. Paul when he said prophetically, what men were slow to believe, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men … But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.”

Philip Schaff, Introduction to The Ante-Nicene Fathers

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On July 30, 2015 By In Scribblings

Contact Your Elected Officials

American Family Association has set up a form to contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to defund Planned Parenthood and investigate the selling of baby parts.  It is easy to use.  If you type in your zip code it will automatically load your elected officials and then you can send them a message. Based on recent choices by our politicians I am not sure this will do much, but it is still worth letting our elected officials know where we stand.

Here is the link to the portion of AFA’s website where you can do this. If you click on the section titled “Advocacy Campaigns” and then click on the first one listed, “Tell Congress: Defund….” it should take you to the right spot.

Below is the message I sent.  The bold part is what the AFA already has in the message. You can delete this portion and put in your own message. Or you can add to it as I have done here. AFA automatically adds a “To Whom It May Concern.”

I am grateful for all the service you perform on behalf of our state and our country. Many of us do not realize the long hours you put in and the difficult decisions you have to make on our behalf.

As a taxpayer, I am deeply disturbed by the recent news and video exposing Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practice of selective harvesting and selling of baby parts.

I am equally troubled by the fact that my tax-dollars are being used to help fund Planned Parenthood’s despicable actions. This should not be!

With millions of American families struggling to make ends meet, I urge you to do the right thing by cutting off all federal funding to Planned Parenthood and returning the money back to its rightful owner, me, the taxpayer.

In addition, I support House Speaker John Boehner’s call for Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood for the illegal trafficking of human body parts.

I am a minister who believes the Scriptures show that life begins at conception (Psalm 139:13-16) and that justice dictates that no one be killed who has not committed a crime worthy of death (Genesis 9:6). Therefore unborn children deserve to live. Killing them is not an act of love, but rather the unjust taking of an innocent life.

I also believe that the Scriptures and Jesus taught us to love the poor. Planned Parenthood preys on the poor while their executives make millions of dollars. They tell low income women that their lives will be better if they kill their child. But that is not true. Abortion survivors are racked by guilt and many children born into difficult financial situations grow up to lead full and satisfying lives. The weakest among us, unborn children, are destroyed by the strong. This should not be.

We also know that children are the future of our country. We need more sons and daughters to keep our state and our country growing. These young ones will grow up to build houses, invent things, defeat diseases, run for office, etc. They are the lifeblood of our future. Why would we kill them?

They are people not fetuses. They are poor and weak and therefore need our protection, not laws allowing people to kill them for profit. They are the future of our state and country. Why would we slowly drain our own blood?

Therefore I urge you and exhort you to defund Planned Parenthood, to launch an investigation into the selling of baby parts, and to work for the complete abolition of abortion in our state and country  just as our fathers worked for the abolition of slavery.

With Thanks for Your Service,
Peter Jones,Pastor of Christ Church of Morgantown

Father of Nine

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On July 29, 2015 By In Scribblings

Humanity and Disipleship: A Major Theme in John Stott’s Preaching

Stott

“Some are indeed called to be missionaries, evangelists or pastors, and others to the great professions of law, education, medicine and the social sciences. But others are called to commerce, to industry and farming, to accountancy and banking . . . In all these spheres, and many others besides, it is possible for Christians to interpret their life work Christianly, and to see it neither as a necessary evil (necessary, that is, for survival), nor even as a useful place in which to evangelize . . . but as their Christian vocation, as the way Christ has called them to spend their lives in his service.”

“The astonishing paradox of Christ’s teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is self-discovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for man is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows.” -John Stott

In John Stott’s extensive pulpit-ministry, he had many themes, emphases, and hobby horses. In listening to old Stott sermons, one theme that stands out is that of “discipleship as humane living.” No matter the text, Stott was always quick to show that the given application won’t make you more “celestial,” but more “human.” Again and again, I find in Stott’s sermons an invitation to become more fully alive as a living, breathing, person. This emphasis can be best seen in his “The Integrated Christian” series. Here, Stott shows how discipleship (or what he calls “integrity”) is essentially becoming a more whole human being. Discipleship, says Stott, is the process of integrating the head, emotions, and will. In other words, a healthy Christian is a healthy human, and vice versa. I would strongly encourage you to listen to all three sermons (below), but the first is especially indispensable. For a book-length exploration of the theme, see Hans Bayer’s (wonderful!) A Theology of Mark: The Dynamic between Christology and Authentic Discipleship.

The Integrated Mind:

http://www.allsouls.org/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=51728&file_id=53916

The Integrated Emotions:

http://www.allsouls.org/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=51729&file_id=58443

The Integrated Will:

http://www.allsouls.org/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=51730&file_id=56074

As a bonus, here’s Stott’s “Called to full humanity,” which likewise captures the “human” element of discipleship:

http://www.allsouls.org/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=51875&file_id=58516

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On July 24, 2015 By In Scribblings

The Birth of the Eschaton

jesus art

In his classic work Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ T.F. Torrance muses on the eschatological significance of the cross of Christ[i]:

“By his cross Jesus Christ has made a past—once for all he has put something completely behind him. On one side of the cross there is set the old Adam, the old aeon and all that belongs to them, and they will never be resurrected. ‘Old things are passed way,’ as St. Paul put it, but on the other side of the cross, ‘all things are becoming new’ [II Cor. 5:17]. The cross created a past, but only because it creates a new future, or a ‘better hope’ as the epistle to the Hebrews puts it [Heb. 7:19].

That is what Christ has done by his redemption: opened up an eschatological vista for faith in which we are already planted in Christ, and with Christ already enter through the veil into God’s presence. It is because Christ ever lives as our redeemer, our surety, our atonement, that our life is set on a wholly and eternally new basis. As such Christ is the head of all things, the head of the new age, the messianic king, to whom the whole of the world to come belongs [Eph. 1:10, 19-23; Col. 1:15-20, 2:10; Acts 2:33f.; cf. Rev. 1:5, 17-19, 11:15f., 17:14].”

In an earlier work, Torrance further discusses Christ’s function as the “head of all things.” Here, he picks up on one of Irenaeus’ favorite images[ii]:

“As the early Fathers used to express it, when a baby is born it is usually born head first, but when the head is born the whole body follows naturally, for it is the birth of the head that is the most difficult part. Now Christ, the Head of the Body, is already resurrected, the First-born of the New Creation, and as such he is the pledge and guarantee that we who are incorporated with him as his Body will rise with him and be born into the new creation in our physical as well as our spiritual existence.”

 

[i] T.F. Torrance, Atonement 95-96

[ii] T.F. Torrance, Space, Time and Resurrection, 142

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On July 20, 2015 By In Scribblings

While It Is Still Called, “Today”

God is now calling all men everywhere to repent, which means he is not calling any men anywhere to wait until they’re certain they’ve been made alive before they repent. Seek Him while he may be found; call upon Him while He is near; drink from the living water He now offers, for He has not only secured life, He is life. Faith is the evidence of things unseen, and although you may not yet see evidence of new life, faith will repent, drink the living water, and trust that fruit will follow, that life will follow. When we see streams of living water flow from repentance, we know that it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, we know that the wind, the Spirit, has moved. Our heavenly Father always has a fatted calf ready to slaughter for the feast following repentance. The angels are ever itching for the party.

Our faith is not in our faith. Our hope is not in our fruit. Our sure and steadfast hope is that Jesus died to conquer death, and he ever lives to impart His own life to us, in us, and through us to the world.

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On July 18, 2015 By In Scribblings

The Dance of Human Freedom and Divine Sovereignty

free_will

A good way to improve all of your Systematic Theology texts would be to strike almost every occurrence of the word “although” and replace it with “because.” Peter Leithart shows how this would work in the case of human freedom and Divine sovereignty[i]:

“Theologians have long puzzled over questions of free will. If God knows all things, including the future, then all things, including the future, are determined ahead of time. God won’t be surprised, and if he can’t be surprised, then nothing is going to happen other than what he expected to happen. The difficulties become acute for Christians who believe, as I do, that God not only knows but controls all things.

How then can human beings have any freedom or be held responsible for their actions? Theologians often answer this sort of question with a concession: although God knows all things that will happen in the future, still human beings are free. This assertion suggests that God’s infallible knowledge and human freedom are incompatible with one another, and have to be stuck together in spite of being fundamentally at odds.

Here and in many other cases, it is much better to begin that sentence with ‘because’: because God infallibly knows and controls the future, human beings are free and responsible. That seems to make things worse, and to sacrifice incompatibility to incoherence. But that move implies that God’s knowledge and human freedom are not two doctrines awkwardly standing side by side, each waiting for the other to ask for the next dance. God’s knowledge and human freedom depend on each other. Human freedom is embedded in God’s infallible knowledge of the future, and God’s infallible knowledge of the future somehow indwells human freedom. Stating the issue with ‘because’ implies that the two are always already dancing.”

[i]Leithart, Peter J. Traces of the Trinity: Signs of God in Creation and Human Experience. 2015. Pg. 125-126

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On July 17, 2015 By In Scribblings

Modernism: A Story With no Storyteller

darwin

The cultural wealth accumulated by Modernity is directly tied to their (unwitting) use of Christianity’s currency. Because the naturalist worldview assumes the absence of a “storyteller,” Modernism lacked the tools to tell its own story. Thus, Modernism assumed much of the Christian story. Physicist John Byl offers an apt assessment of the Modernist project (accounting for both its strengths and weaknesses) in his book, The Divine Challenge: On Matter, Mind, Math & Meaning[i]. The book, published by Banner of Truth, is must reading not only for those interested in the sciences, but for all those who have an interest in applying the Christian faith to every sphere of life. Says Byl:

“Man’s initial downfall was his desire to be like God. Prompted by Satan’s seductive words, ‘Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil’ (Gen 3:5), Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Ever since, fallen man still willfully rejects God and his Word. Man is still searching for metaphorical trees of knowledge of good and evil, magical shortcuts leading to divine knowledge and power.

The modern, naturalist worldview was based on the biblical worldview. The biblical worldview asserts that there is a real world beyond our senses. This world and its history have a purpose. As theologian Robert Jeson puts it, the biblical worldview has its own true story and promise. The story is the biblical story of creation, fall and redemption. The promise is the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ and a future eternal life with God. The universe has a true story because there is a universal Historian.

Modernity took over the biblical notion of rational man in an orderly world but rejected the God who created man and the world. In essence, it was just a continuation of man’s war against God, begun in Eden. Modernity, Jesnon notes, wanted to maintain a realist faith while denying the God who was that faith’s object. It tried to live in a universal story of its own making, without a universal storyteller. Modernity’s version of the gospel promise was its confidence in progress, in a future utopia where man would solve all his social problems.

Modernity is collapsing. In the modern world, human reason elevated itself above God and claimed sovereignty. This entailed that it could criticize all beliefs. Yet, once reason was given license to criticize all things, it was inevitable that it must eventually criticize also itself. Then reason unmasks itself as unreasonable. Critical human reason, once uncorked, is an insatiable acid that dissolves all absolutes, whether in religion, ethics, science or logic. Eventually it erodes even its own foundation, causing modernity to self-destruct.

Modernity, having banished God, is now realizing that it is left with no sound basis for objective knowledge. Without a universal storyteller the universe can have no story. Meanwhile, modernity’s hope in progress has been dashed by catastrophic World Wars, the fall of Marxism, the rise of international terrorism and the persistence of crime and violence that characterizes modern civilized society. Modernity has lost both its story and its promise. Modernity has lived off the intellectual and moral wealth inherited from Christianity. This wealth is rapidly running out. Modernity cannot replenish it without denying itself and bringing back the biblical God it has banished.”


[i] The Divine Challenge: On Matter, Mind, Math & Meaning, Pg. 289-290

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