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On November 28, 2019 By In Culture, Music, Theology

Kanye gets Adam and Eve right

If you follow pop culture at all, you know who Kanye West is, and you know that he is now a professing Christian. His recent album, Jesus Is King, is a Christian album filled with surprisingly orthodox lyrics. No blatant heresies or misuses of scripture are detected. In fact, they are quite good insofar as they reveal where Kanye is in his faith.

As I listened to the album, the following lyrics – from the song “Everything We Need” – stuck out to me in particular:

What if Eve made apple juice?
You gon’ do what Adam do?
Or say, “Baby, let’s put this back on the tree,
‘Cause we have everything we need”

These four short lines are immensely profound, for they correct a common misunderstanding about the fall of man (i.e. the doctrine of original sin).

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On November 5, 2019 By In Books, Culture, Politics, Theology

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and the Future

This is the sixth part of a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

Here is an overview of Kuyper’s other lectures on Calvinism: Life-system, Religion, Politics, Science, and Art.

In this final lecture, Kuyper begins by summarizing his past lectures with these words: “[Calvinism] raised our Christian religion to its highest spiritual splendor; it created a church order, which became the preformation of state confederation; it proved to be the guardian angel of science; it emancipated art; it propagated a political scheme, which gave birth to constitutional government, both in Europe and America; it fostered agriculture and industry, commerce and navigation; it put a thorough Christian stamp upon home-life and family-ties; it promoted through its high moral standard purity in our social circles; and to this manifold effect it placed beneath Church and State, beneath society and home-circle, a fundamental philosophic conception strictly derived from its dominating principle, and therefore all its own” (p 171).

Kuyper then moves on to look at his current time and suggests where Calvinism can help in shaping and building for the future. He suggests that the topic of his final lecture is “A new Calvinistic development needed by the wants of the future” (p 171). 

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On October 19, 2019 By In Books, Culture, Politics, Theology

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and Science

This is the fourth part of a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

In this lecture, Kuyper shows how Calvinism has impacted the field of Science. He argues that it has done this in four key ways: fostered a love for science, restored its full domain, set it free from unnatural bonds, and solved what Kuyper calls, the unavoidable scientific conflict. 

Calvinism Fostered Science

First, Kuyper shows how Calvinism encouraged a true love of science. The love of science is bound up with a love of God’s character and and how He has lovingly predestined everything. Kuyper says it this way: “But if you now proceed to the decree of God, what else does God’s fore-ordination mean than the certainty that the existence and course of all things, i.e. of the entire cosmos, instead of being a plaything of caprice and chance, obeys law and order, and that there exists a firm will which carries out its designs both in nature and in history?” (p 114) The very ground of scientific investigation rests up the way God has orchestrated and ordained the world. In a random world, there would be no laws of nature for science to study. It is only in a world that is governed by the fatherly eye of God, can there be real science.

Kuyper says, “Thus you recognize that the cosmos, instead of being a heap of stones, loosely thrown together, on the contrary presents to our mind a monumental building erected in a severely consistent style” (p 114). We do not live in an evolving pond of goo but in a grand cathedral with stained glass windows and ornate flying buttresses. All of it is designed by the hand of a loving artist. 

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On October 1, 2019 By In Art, Culture, Politics, Theology

International Abraham Kuyper Month

Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

October is the month to celebrate all things Kuyperian. If you are not familiar with Kuyper, let me suggest that you get familiar with this important man. As a place to start, here is a quick introduction to his life and work. If you are familiar with Kuyper, then this is a great month to go deeper and learn more from him. 

A brief biography

Abraham Kuyper was born on October 29, 1837 in the Netherlands. He grew up in the Dutch Reformed church and his father was a minister in that denomination. His father educated him when he was young and then Abraham went on to study philosophy, theology, and literature at the university level, graduating summa cum laude.

He became a minister in the Dutch Reformed church but he saw growing corruption there and led a reforming movement and encouraged the separation of the church from the power of the state.

He was elected to parliament in 1874 and began a successful career in politics. He was Prime Minister of Netherlands from 1901 to 1905.

In his work, Kuyper encouraged a strong antithesis between Christianity and other worldly philosophies, especially Modernism and Liberal theology. He also promoted Calvinism and helped develop a deeper understanding of sphere sovereignty for the church, state, and family.

In 1898, Abraham Kuyper was invited by B.B. Warfield to give a series of lectures at Princeton Theological seminary, called the Stone Lectures. In October of that year, Kuyper gave six lectures on Calvinism as a life-system.

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On July 23, 2019 By In Art, Interviews, Music

Interview with musician Smith Leithart of Iron Effigy

Iron Effigy is the musical alias of Smith Leithart, based in Birmingham, Alabama. His 6-song EP, Pieces of Me, was released in March 2019. I corresponded with Smith and asked some questions about his music. Read the exchange below and check out Iron Effigy on Spotify and all streaming platforms.

McIntosh: Explain your musical background. When did you discover your love of music and when did you start writing your own music?

Leithart: I grew up listening to film scores. As a kid, I’d mow the lawn listening to music from Star Wars, Gladiator, Blood Diamond, etc. My mom said I wasn’t allowed to listen to music with words, so film scores and classical music were pretty much my only options.

Images and design by Chris Williams
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On June 29, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Culture, Theology

Gay Christian?

One of the first acts of dominion Adam had was naming the animals. That process involved recognizing certain God-created qualities about the animals and then giving them a name that corresponded to those qualities. Naming was an exercise of authority that set animals in their proper relationships with one another and the man. Names set boundaries, giving the animals and man their respective cultures in which to live. Adam recognized this from the beginning as he was naming all of the animals and realized that among them there was no helper comparable to him. It is not until God creates Eve from Adam’s side that he names her with a name that corresponds to his own. She is ‘issha because she was taken out of ‘ish (Gen 2.23). Indeed, male and female are ‘adam (Gen 1.27).

Names tells us who we are. They tell us our cultural boundaries at macro and micro levels. As humans (or “man”) our name is “image of God.” That name sets the boundaries of our relationship to God, to one another, and the world around us. “Image of God” establishes the God-ordained culture in which we are to live and which we are to cultivate.

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On June 25, 2019 By In Culture, Theology, Wisdom

Toward a Philosophy of Tech Implants, Part 2

Scenarios to Consider

Continuing the discussion from last time, let’s look at a couple of possible scenarios. There are a lot of unknowns about technology so these are really hypothetical scenarios rather than real predictions. These are useful to consider because they help make the five principles concrete. Here are the five principles: 1. Natural form of the body matters, 2. The soul matters to the body, 3. What is the purpose of technology, 4. Treat the body as made in the image of God, 5. Technology is a tool.

The first scenario to consider: a third arm implant. While this might seem strange, this seems like a pretty reasonable development. If there is a way to implant a third arm on a body, then that could offer a number of interesting possibilities for people. An extra hand to hold a phone, operate a machine, complete a complicated task. How do the principles in the last article apply to this?

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On June 20, 2019 By In Culture, Theology, Wisdom

Toward a Philosophy of Tech Implants, Part 1

Introduction

Computer technology is changing rapidly. There are many wonderful gifts with this technological advancement and there are also many issues that accompany it. One of the challenges facing the Church is thinking through the morality of these developments and working out principles that help guide the use of these new tools. There are technological developments where the morality of the issue is not complicated and is obviously wrong (e.g. robosex, etc) and then there are other developments that are more complicated. Acknowledging the complication in this matter is not an excuse to ignore these things, but rather this means we need to think carefully about them. This means that we need to get the conversation going now in order to arrive at a thoughtful position. In keeping with that spirit, this discussion is offered as a prompt (divided into two articles).

In this discussion, I will focus on tech implants. What I mean by that term is a piece of technology that you would physically and permanently attach to your body. These implants could include things like an earphone implant in your ear, a digital bar-code implant in your hand, or even an extra computer arm. While some of these might seem bizarre and far-fetched, the point is to consider the principles involved rather than trying to predict the next technological development.

This is an important discussion because we live in a time which emphasizes the fluidity between the human body and our identity. This discussion on tech implants is downstream from the fundamental questions of what is the human body and how should we understand the relationship between body and soul. In these discussions, we must emphasize that God designed us as bearing His image which in turns gives dignity to the human person.

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On June 5, 2019 By In Culture, Wisdom

Necessity is Not the Mother of Invention

Everyone knows the saying “necessity is the mother of invention” but this idea is just plain wrong. Necessity does not drive the invention of things. Just because there is a need for something does not mean it will be invented.  

The idea that necessity causes an invention finds its support in the mechanistic fatalism of evolutionary philosophy. Evolution is the idea that things come into existence because there is a need for them. The fish has the need of getting out of the water in order to eat so it grows a leg. The bird has the need of a wing in order to fly and get food so it grows a wing. And the idea goes on. This philosophy suggests that time and lots more time create the things because they are needed.  

This thinking means that there is no will or mind behind anything. There is no conscious mind shaping and creating the thing, whatever it is. In this worldview, things change merely when they have to. Change does not come from a plan and purpose but when the machine of nature has ground itself into a hopeless dilemma where the only possible response is a change. Then a new creation suddenly springs forth into existence. This idea undermines the foundation of what it means to be human. Humans are conscious, creative, thinking beings who have wills and who make decisions. In the evolutionary model, people are mindless automatons bumping into each other. Thus, evolution destroys human creativity.  

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On June 5, 2019 By In Culture

Dear Christians in Illinois

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ living in Illinois,

The past few months have been disheartening, haven’t they? Illinois has a long history of government corruption and mismanagement, but lately, it seems as if they have put their immoral, oppressive agendas in overdrive. With the election of Governor Pritzker and the dominance of Democrats in the General Assembly, not only are taxes going up, but we also have one of the most, if not the most, horrific abortion laws of any state.

You are angry. You should be. Anyone who isn’t angry at this sanctioning of murder and economic oppression doesn’t have a godly moral compass. Anger is a righteous response.

But you are wondering what you should do. You want to respond. But what should you do? Should you join with many thousands and exodus the state, or should you stay and continue to fight? For some it seems that there is an easy answer to this: leave. Pull up roots and head out of the state. There are plenty of states that seem to be going in the right direction on the abortion issue and economically. It is a no-brainer, right?

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