Once upon a time, decades ago, I fancied myself a democratic socialist. I had recently become aware of those passages in the Bible commanding the Israelites to care for the poor and to defend them from those who would oppress them. I read in Leviticus (chapter 25) about the year of jubilee, a kind of primitive bankruptcy protection law that would prevent debts from accumulating endlessly and returned land to its original owners periodically. I was impressed by the law reserving the edges of cultivated property for the poor (Leviticus 19:9-10), and that prohibiting imposing interest on money lent to the poor (25:35-38). I marvelled at how these commands to defend the poor were reiterated in the Psalms (e.g., 72, 82) and the Prophets (e.g., Isaiah 1:16-17, 10:1-2; Amos 5:24; Micah 6:8). Based on these and other passages, I came to the conclusion that the Bible favours democratic socialism, and I happily wore this label. For about six months, that is.
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I Kissed Jesus Good-Bye: A Plea to Josh Harris
In a recent Instagram post, Josh Harris said good-bye to his Lord Jesus Christ. Harris is the (in)famous author of the worldwide classic, I Kissed Dating Good-Bye. He popularized the concept of courtship in his 1999 classic. The term itself, as Harris defined in his book, attempted to provide an alternative to dating methods. Dating was synonymous with “selfish pursuits of short-term romance.” Harris observed that the “joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment.” He exhorted his purity warriors that the best remedy against a chaotic world of relationships was to kiss worldly methods good-bye.
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A Primer on the Gospel
We cannot exhaust the beauties of the Gospel, but we can provide a bigger picture of the Gospel than what is typically presented in the Church today. The hope is that we would grow ever more grateful for the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is the Gospel?
First, the Gospel is about Christ. The clearest Bible passage is found in I Corinthians 15 where the Apostle Paul summarizes the Gospel focusing on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. In Romans 1, Paul says he declares a Gospel about the Son, who was descended from David. Later in Romans, Paul makes a powerful connection between the Gospel and Christ’s incarnation. The Apostle John declares that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6). Everything that makes the Gospel beautiful is beautiful because of Christ. So when we think about the Gospel, one fundamental facet of it, perhaps the most central of them all, is that the Gospel is about Christ and his work for us.
Unpacking the Gospel
The word Gospel is not just a word we use in the Christian world. In fact, the word was used in the ancient world for various reasons. For example, the word gospel was used when Caesar would have a son, or if he won a great military victory, or if a new Caesar ascended the throne – the proclamation of that news was called gospel. Caesar’s heralds would then announce the gospel in all the empire.
The Christian community adopted this language to proclaim a different message; not a message about Caesar, but a message about Christ. The Gospel is about Christ because Jesus Christ is greater than Caesar. The most basic confession of faith is Jesus is Lord. The Gospel is good news because it announces that Jesus’ kingship is greater than Caesar’s.
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Episode 63, Doing Theology in a Twitter Age
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:23 — 35.0MB)
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Uri and Dustin team up once more to talk about the role of theology in a Twitter age. They focus on the good, the bad and the ugly of theologizing in a day of little patience and excessive opinations. They delve into some personal habits on-line as well as offer good advice on how to do theology that attracts rather than repels.
Music from Smith Leithart. You can find Smith’s music here.
Defy the Culture: Get Married
As you look around at the cultural confusion, you might be wondering how to get involved. Where do you start with the kind of mess that is all around us? I have a simple suggestion: get married. And then throw a really big party to celebrate. You might even consider inviting the whole town. I am not being flippant here. This is a serious recommendation and it is a key tactical move in attacking the enemies of darkness. Nothing causes greater consternation in the foe than a godly wedding celebration and a godly marriage.
Over the month of June, the Rainbow Mafia has been inundating us with their brainwashing techniques. And they have been laying it on thick. Business after business has been running Gaystapo ads. And they are super cheesy too. Given this ploy, it is wonderfully defiant to celebrate a Christian wedding.
In this age of sexual perverts, a Christian wedding ceremony is a fantastic grenade to lob at our culture. This kind of grenade accomplishes two things: first, it destroys the folly of the world and second, it exalts the beautiful reality. This is a wonderful way to attack the evil around us. It is a one-two punch that is incredibly winsome. At a Christian wedding, we hear clearly and profoundly the truth of the world: God made us male and female and it is good. He made Adam and Eve for each other. Jesus proclaimed this as Christian marriage in the gospels. This is the reality of the world. All the other perversions are fakes. And those other relationships are ugly and harmful. We get the chance to stand against those errors when we celebrate a Christian wedding.
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Disciple-Making Hospitality
He was an unlikely convert. Hated by the Jews as a traitor who extorted his own people, tolerated and backed by Rome to collect taxes, Levi (or Matthew) was in a special class of wicked in the eyes of society. He was an outcast; a rich outcast, but an outcast nonetheless. He didn’t fit in with any group among his people, especially those who were eagerly anticipating and preparing themselves for the kingdom of God. Luke tells us how he became a disciple of Christ (Lk 5.27-32).
Jesus obviously didn’t understand social dynamics when he called him to be a disciple. This guy’s tax booth was on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, close to where Simon, James’, and John’s fishing businesses were located. They had probably been extorted by this guy. What a band of disciples this would make!
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Should I be a Writer? Some Advice
I recently received an email from a friend asking for advice on writing, specifically whether or not I thought he could be a professional writer. After sharing my reply to him on FaceBook, a few friends suggested I post it here as well.
I should offer a disclaimer before starting. I’m only mildly qualified to offer an opinion; I’m no expert! In seminary, I edited a theological journal and after that I was a ghost writer for about a year. I’m thankful nowadays to have a biweekly column for BreakPoint and contribute to a few other places, including Kuyperian Commentary.
For me, however, writing has always been an extension of what I understand to be my real calling, teaching and pastoring. That said, I do have some advice to offer. Specifically, I think there are three questions you should ask yourself before deciding whether or not you’re called to write: Can I write well? Can I write often? Can I write well often?
Can I write well?
I know when I ask myself this question, the answer is always “no.” I learned this from Ira Glass: to be a writer, you have to be a good reader. To be a good reader, you have to have good taste, for lack of a better word. If you have good taste, you should be able to recognize the disparity between the quality of your work and the quality of a true master. When I read Ross Douthat’s column, I feel like I’ve never written an original piece. But, I know there’s a way—one way, in fact—to narrow the gap between my writing and his, which brings me to the second question you should ask, Can I write often?
Can I write often?
When George Will was given a weekly column, he was nervous he wouldn’t have something to say each week. “Surely there’s something that makes you mad once a week,” Bill Buckley told Will, “You mustn’t squander the anger!” Don’t waste a creative thought. John Stott slept with a notepad by his bed just in case he wanted to capture a worthwhile thought he had in a dream! Everyone has these creative thoughts, a writer is just one who writes them down. Dennis Miller has this illustration: everyone is watching water drip from a faucet. A comedian is one who cups his hands underneath it, pours it in a bottle, and sells it. That’s being a writer.
Can I write well often?
In his autobiography, Steve Martin makes the point that lots of performers can be great. Being good is the hard part. Being great one night is a fluke, it’ll happen occasionally to everyone who sticks at their trade. The trick is being consistently good, week after week, year after year.
The reality is, you wouldn’t be thinking about being a writer if you hadn’t written a great piece at least once. But the question isn’t whether or not you can write a great piece, it’s whether or not you can write good pieces consistently. In the genre I write in, Jake Meador is the gold-standard. What makes him remarkable isn’t that his best pieces are particularly dynamite (though they are!), it’s that his worst piece are still good.
Having read the piece you sent me, I think you can write well, and I know you have the grit to write often. But, neither of us can answer the third question, at least not yet. There’s only one way to find out if you can write well often: you have to try. For what it’s worth, I’m betting the answer will be “yes!”
Christian Platonism and the Platonic redemptive story
Two weeks ago I was privileged to attend two back-to-back conferences at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first was the annual Kuyper Conference, whose overarching theme was “Christ and Community.” One of the major speakers was Hans Boersma, until recently a professor at Regent College in Vancouver, BC, soon to join the faculty of Nashotah House near Milwaukee.
In an address titled, “Neo-Calvinism and the Beatific Vision,” Boersma suggested that the neo-Calvinist emphasis on continuity between this life and the next lacks a proper sense of the beatific vision of God.
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Saved By Others’ Faith
The scene must have been somewhat frightening at first and then somewhat comical as it unfolded. Several determined men wanted to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They learned he was at a house on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, so they picked up their friend on the bed on which he was lying and took him to the house. When they arrived, the place was packed. There was no room for four men carrying a paralyzed man on a bed to squeeze through the crowd. But they were not deterred. They took the steps up to the roof, began removing the tiles, and lowered their friend right in front of Jesus.
The whole scene points to the seemingly hopeless situation of the man. Luke depicts the paralyzed man as a dead man. His body is lifeless, laying on a bed which might as well been a bier. His friends are digging through the earth—clay tiles—in order to lower this man down. There is a symbolic burial occurring. But they are lowering this man into the grave where Jesus is. As Luke makes clear at the end of his Gospel, Jesus turns the grave into a place of life; a place through which we are healed in resurrection.
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Voices at the Margins: the problem with identity politics
The Bible manifests great concern for marginalized, especially those among the people of God who fell into the categories of widow, orphan and resident sojourner. Because these groups were at a disadvantage under the land tenure system, thus deprived of a secure means of livelihood, the law of Moses mandated special means of ensuring that such people be provided for. When I was teaching, I would give my students a series of scripture texts that emphasized our duty to care for the poor, such as Isaiah 1:11-17, 10:1-4, Amos 5:21-24, and Psalms 72 and 82.
In recent years this recognition that God calls us to care for the poor and oppressed has taken a new form. Now many people are telling us that we have an obligation to listen to the voices of the marginalized. What does this mean?
The book of James may provide a clue:
Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
Here the voices are of those who have been cheated of their wages, that is, they have been victims of injustice. Their employers have ignored their cries and are therefore subject to God’s judgement, as pronounced by the apostle. If the labourers have been marginalized, it is because their employers have pushed them to the margins–something that must be rectified. How? By paying them the wages they are due.
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