MENU

Theology
Category

On May 8, 2014 By In Family and Children, Theology

Educating Royalty: Teaching Our Children to Be Kingdom Heirs—not Just Laborers in the Marketplace

Guest Post by Dr. Roy A. Atwood

“Who are you?” a university student once asked me after class many years ago.

Odd question, I thought. I’d handled countless student questions, but this one caught me unprepared.

“Uh . . . I’m a professor,” I answered weakly.

“No!” he shot back. “I don’t mean what do you do, but who are you?”

His question unsettled me. Like most North Americans, I’d been carefully, though not intentionally, catechized since a lad at my parents’ side that the first and most important question we ask adults at first meeting (after getting their name) is, “What do you do?”

I’d learned that catechism lesson well, repeating it literally hundreds of times in all kinds of social settings over the years. But that catechism had left me quite unprepared to answer this more fundamental question about my personal identity separate from my place in the market. That grieved me because, as a Christian, I had been better versed in the catechism of secular pragmatism than in Lord’s Days 12 and 13 or the Scriptures. And I knew I wasn’t the only one.

The Answer that Changes Everything

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ . . . .

—Romans 8:16-17a

As I have reflected on that encounter over the years, I’ve realized that the biblical and covenantal answer to the question, “Who are you?” is a glorious one that stands in stark contrast to the secular myth that our employment or “career” defines us. Of course, our work and callings as Christians in the marketplace are important. Providing for our families is a great privilege and responsibility. But the priority of work in both our lives and the education of our children is almost certainly misplaced and overemphasized today in Reformed circles.

Our Calvinistic work ethic and sense of vocation—serving the Lord in all things—are a glorious heritage, but in our 21st century context, they have become largely indistinguishable from the middle class idolatry common among of our unbelieving neighbors (i.e., having “another object in which men place their trust” [Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 95]). In fact, over 30+ years of university teaching, evenly divided between secular universities and Christian colleges, I can testify that the one question all parents—Christian and non-Christian alike—ask about higher education is, “What kind of job can my kid get when he/she graduates?” Intended or not, that question reveals deep worldview priorities. And such a question is certainly not the fruit of careful, prayerful parental reflection on what it means to educate covenant children as heirs of Christ who will seek first the kingdom.

By contrast, the Scriptures never identify God’s covenant children as people with jobs who happen to hold to a particular religious tradition. Instead, the Bible repeatedly calls us heirs of a kingdom, adopted sons and daughters of the King of the universe. We are not just Christians who happen to have various jobs or work to do. We are royalty (Rom. 8:14-17, Eph. 1:3-6, I Pet. 2:9). We will reign over all creatures with Christ eternally (Heid. Cat., Q. 32). We are the adopted children of God and fellow heirs with Jesus, with all the privileges of the sons of God (Luke 2:11, Acts 10:36, I Tim. 6:15, Rev. 19:16; Heid. Cat., Q. 34). We are princes and princesses of the King of kings!  We are royal heirs! And that answer to the question, “Who are you?”—changes everything.

Like young Prince George, the child heir to the throne of England and the United Kingdom, a day mustn’t pass that we wonder who we are, why we are being educated, and what we are being prepared to be and to do. We are heirs to a throne and a Kingdom far greater and more glorious than the one in England. The House of Windsor pales in comparison to Jesus’s realm and our divine inheritance! How much more, then, should we, who are heirs of the King of kings and Lord of lords, prepare ourselves and our children to be thoroughly and faithfully educated in everything it means to be a son and daughter of the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord of the Universe. Thoroughly and faithfully educated in everything it means to be royalty.

This is no time for the wicked nonsense about “sowing wild oats” or setting a low bar of expectations for our children. That is the rebellious spirit of prodigals who forget who they (and their children) really are. Those who are in line to take their places in Christ’s kingdom as princes and princesses must expect more of themselves and of their children. “To whom much is given, much is required” (Luke 12:48).  Because we are royalty in Christ, God has king-sized expectations and blessings in store for us and our children—if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

The entire book of Proverbs is Solomon’s instruction to his royal heirs “to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles” (Prov. 1:2-6). Such an education must provide much more than an awareness of fragmented facts or specialized work skills for a place in the job market. Again, that’s not to say that facts and skills are not important. Nor is it to say that we should suddenly trade pragmatic, nose-to-the-grindstone sweat of our brows for pious sounding spiritual platitudes.

The issues are (1) where does the education of Christ’s royal heirs fit in our list of priorities and (2) what should that education look like.

Priorities: We are Royalty. So Start Acting Like It.

Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the instruction of the Lord, nor be weary when corrected by him. For the Lord instructs the one he loves, and corrects every son whom he receives.” It is for instruction   that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

—Hebrews 12:5-7

 

Those who are fellow heirs in Christ know that His regal ways are not the power-grabbing, lording-it-over-others, self-seeking ways of the ungodly. Far from it. Christ ascended to His Father’s throne only after sacrificing everything for His people and His creation. He gave himself away. His royal way is the way of selfless love and sacrifice. He died that we might die to sin and death. He lives that we might live in glory forever. Sacrificial service for the sake of the kingdom is the mark of true kingship, true royalty. It characterizes our Lord Christ. And it must characterize our Lord’s true heirs in their lives and in their education.

As Christ’s royal heirs, we dare not be content to prepare ourselves or our children merely to be cogs in the economic machinery of our secular consumer culture. Even the ancients understood that slaves are only trained to perform tasks. They have no rights of inheritance, no deeper identity. A slave’s identity is his work. But free citizens and royalty, who will dedicate themselves to the advance of the kingdom, must be educated deeply for the day when their royal leadership and service is expected. Similarly, we are called to a higher purpose and bear greater responsibility for how we live and prepare our children for their royal callings.

Unfortunately, we have, as the author of Hebrews suggests, forgotten the divine exhortation to educate our children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4, Heb. 12:5ff). We have forgotten in part because we have forgotten who we are.

A Royal Education: Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning.

This memory lapse is most evident in how we educate our children today. Education, even that which purports to be Christian, is now often devoted primarily to the goal of producing good little workers for the secular labor force, efficient widgets for our economy’s production line, and little more.

That falls far short of the biblical expectation that Christian children be saturated in the instruction of the Lord and grow up knowing what it means to be royal heirs of Christ the King. An education bearing the name of the King ought, at the least, to offer His royal heirs . . .

  • A comprehensive and integrative understanding of God’s world and of how all things cohere in the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:4-11). Such an education will give children the “big picture” of how all things, all spheres of creation, are interrelated in the glory of their Creator.The university itself was a Christian invention in the Middle Ages (the earliest established between A.D. 1100 and 1200), designed to give students an integrated Christian vision and foundation for all future learning. That was the original purpose of the classical liberal arts (meaning, the arts of a free citizen). For almost a millennium, Christian universities taught the classical liberal arts or the so-called Trivium and Quadrivium:
    • The Trivium, or the Three Ways, stressed the good structure of language (Grammar), the way to discern truth (Logic), and how to express truth beautifully (Rhetoric)—all to encourage a student’s life-long love of goodness, truth, and beauty in words and language, as typified by The Word Himself in John 1:1-14.
    • The Quadrivium, or the Four Ways, encouraged a life-long love of goodness, truth, and beauty in the use of numbers (Arithmetic), numbers in space (Geometry), numbers in time (Music or Harmony), and numbers in space and time (Astronomy), revealing the unity and diversity of creation and of our Triune Creator Himself (Deut. 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” and Matt. 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”).
    • Together, the Trivium and Quadrivium, the original seven liberal arts, offered students essential insights into the harmony and wholeness of God’s diverse world and into the interrelated truth, goodness and beauty of its Triune Creator. They didn’t give students just the facts or skills for a job, but the tools of lifelong learning from a Christian perspective.

Unfortunately, today’s arbitrarily selected smorgasbord of academic subjects and randomly structured university curricula, following the modern analytic, scientific tradition, tend to do the opposite: they offer fragmented bits of information with no principle of coherence or relationship. But in God’s economy, the whole is always more than the sum of its parts. An education that does not teach us how to see the wholeness of God’s creation, and to equip us to understand how all things cohere in Christ, inevitably misses the big picture about creation and creation’s God. It is a partial, incomplete, distorted education.

Curiously, specialization at the undergraduate level was virtually unknown in North America prior to the late 19th century. University students did not “major” in a narrow academic disciplines or vocational specializations prior to 1879. They couldn’t. “Majors” simply didn’t exist before then. Instead, all undergraduates received a classical, integrated liberal arts foundation. The universities gave them essential tools for learning that applied to all their various callings as sons and daughters, spouses, parents, neighbors, citizens, providers, voters, buyers and sellers in the marketplace, and parishioners. Their work skills and the job training needed to provide for their families were developed outside the classroom in on-site training or apprenticeships done in the context where the work was actually being done. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Kuyper, C.S. Lewis—all the greatest leaders in our Christian tradition—were so classically educated in the traditional, integrative liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium and practically trained.

But pragmatists of the late 19th and early 20th century sold their Christian academic birthright for a mess of modernist career pottage. They turned schools into egalitarian job training camps for the workers of the world and abandoned the Christian pursuit of wisdom and knowledge in the Lord. The schools dumbed down and the church has grown steadily weaker ever since.

Reversing that trend will require that the King’s royal heirs expect . . .

  • Truly godly and wise teacher-mentors (Luke 6:40).  According to Jesus, the teacher—not the curriculum, not the lesson plan, not the technology, not the facilities, not the accreditation, not the tuition rate—is the single most important factor in a child’s education. “A student, when mature, will be like his teacher,” Jesus said. All the other bells and whistles may be nice (though they can often be more of a distraction than a help), but the teacher is key.Yet, in my experience, Christian parents often know more about a school’s university admission rates, or a college’s career placement rates, or tuition rates, or financial aid plans, or sports programs than they do about the character and spiritual health of the men and women who will actually be shaping the minds and lives of their children in and out of the classroom. Sadly, many Christian school administrators and boards aren’t much better, giving higher priority to paper credentials and standardized test scores and bricks and mortar than to the character and spiritual integrity of their teachers. Of course, academic expertise and standardized testing have their place. But parents, administrators and school promotional literature often stress most what actually counts least from a Kingdom perspective. And such misguided emphases have the potential to catechize generations of parents and children in what is least in the Kingdom.

    The teacher is so crucial, as Jesus says, because all education is fundamentally personal. That’s because truth itself is personal. Truth is a person. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Truth is not some collection of brute facts or scientifically verifiable propositions. It is a living person. Teachers either faithfully represent or embody that Truth before their students or they don’t. Parents or educators who misunderstand this crucial biblical principle put their children and students at grave risk of misunderstanding the Truth and being catechized in lies and ungodliness. No matter how much parents think their child can be a “good witness” in a secular education environment, that child is not the teacher, but the one being taught. And no matter how mature we imagine our children to be (often overestimating), their “cement is still wet.” They are still students seeking to be taught and led into maturity, readily influenced by others older and more experienced. The question is, who will teach them and lead them into what kind of maturity?

Moreover, those who think that new distance learning technologies will provide a quality education without putting their children at risk under ungodly teachers make a similar mistake. Learning godly knowledge and wisdom is not a data download. A student will be shaped by his or her teacher, no matter who that teacher is, no matter how the instruction is delivered.

Finally, the education of the King’s royal heirs ought also to include . . .

  • The shaping of our desires for the things of the Kingdom

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  . . . For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

—Matthew 6:25, 32-33

Jesus did not say, “Seek first vocational-technical training, and all that kingdom of God and righteousness stuff will be added later.” Yet to hear parents of university-bound students talk today about their educational goals for their children, you’d think he had. The dominant secular vocational paradigm for higher education has influenced us more on these issues than our Christian schools, our catechism classes, and even our churches. For that, we must repent. Our heavenly Father knows everything we need to live and to thrive, and He will provide them for us by His perfect means according to His perfect timing. He tells us explicitly not to stress over the little stuff. Grasping at college majors and career preparation will not add one penny to our bank accounts, put one more meal on the table, or add one more second to our lives that He has not already ordained. So stop majoring in the minors. Instead, major in God’s priorities: Christ’s kingdom and His righteousness.

What our schools and universities must encourage in our covenant children is a deeply held heart-desire for the things of God and of His Kingdom.

As Calvinists who take the sovereignty of God—the crown rights of Christ—seriously, we cannot, must not, train our children merely to be good little widgets in the secular marketplace who also happen to go to church each Lord’s Day. We vowed to raise them for much greater things at their baptisms.

So, “Who are you?”

You are the royal heirs of the King of kings; start acting like it.

Your children are royalty; start treating them like it.

Your children are inheriting a Kingdom; so start educating them for it.

{Originally published at Reformed Perspectives}

Dr. Roy Alden Atwood is the president,  and a founder, of New Saint Andrews  College (www.nsa.edu) in Moscow, Idaho<>google контекстная рекламабыстро продвинуть

Read more

On April 28, 2014 By In Theology, Wisdom

A Schnauzer at a Smorgasbord of Spew

Like a dog returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.  Proverbs 26:11

If you find it disgusting, then you’re pickin’ up what he’s layin’ down. It really is meant to be gross.

In the study of rhetoric, this verse is a prime example of a flawless, deductive argument. The principles undergirding the premises need not be explained, for two very obvious things are assumed by the sage as he constructs his argument to instruct his progeny: first, everybody knows what a dog does upon returning to his regurgitation, and secondly, everybody knows what it tastes like.

Beginning with second assumed premise–we all know what it tastes like. Vomit is not vomit unless it exits via the hole that it previously entered as food. The open-ended digestive system is only at peace when it is a one-way-street. In all the recent conversation about natural law, here’s a good example: the food is supposed to go in one hole and come out the other one. Anything entering or exiting the wrong, respective, human orifice is unnatural, i.e. not designed to work that way. A happy digestive system is like a British boy-band: Mono-directional.

Now, back to the first premise: what do dogs do upon returning to their up-chuck? Are dogs acting against nature when they feast upon their own puke? Apparently not—I’ve never met a dog that has resisted this smorgasbord of spew, but the fact that they eat it doesn’t make it food. It doesn’t make it any less vomit in their mouth than it was on the ground. Eating vomit does not make it food. It stays vomit, hence, the inherent, visceral urge to vomit upon reading this proverb.

Why does this proverbial argument about fools communicate so effectively? It resonates, deep-down, because it doesn’t need to be explained. Once you know what barf is, which every reader of this proverb knows all too well, then you are repulsed by the prospect of eating it, which would be entirely unnatural for a human, or even by the thought of a dog eating it, which naturally occurs every time they encounter it.

Are you a fool? Am I a fool? Today, are we going to repeat our folly? If we do, we are like a beagle at a banquet of barf; a poodle at a parfait of puke; or a schnauzer at a smorgasbord of spew.<>рекламное агентство ростовраскрутка web ов

Read more

On April 22, 2014 By In Theology

Five Lessons I (Re)Learned in Lent

Easter Season is here! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Easter came with all the glory expected. Every year it just seems more and more meaningful. But as I am slowly immersing into the season of abundant joy, I ask myself what to do with the season that is now behind us, namely Lent?

The 40 days of Lent a provided some genuine times of reflection, introspection, and renewal. The Season went by faster than I anticipated, but it left a profound mark in my life. There are five lessons I thought I’d share as I enter the Easter Season with a tremendous appetite to see Christ exalted in everything I do.

First, I learned that Lent is needed. We tend to think that we can meditate on everything without any order or sequence. We simply can’t. God loves time. He gave it to us. He knows we need to be structured as human beings, and He gave the Church wisdom to help us structure our meditations and concerns. To do so, He gave us Jesus. Jesus is with us all year long as we live, move, and have our being in Him through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost (Trinity). We need not just Christ, but His entire life lived, crucified, and raised. Consistent meditation on one theme over the others causes misdirection in affection and the Christian experience.

Second, I learned that Lent is for loving. We live for others. We live for the community. We follow the Head, and following Him means serving the body. Lent is for going the extra mile in service and charity.

Third, Lent is for dying. Life is structured as a death/resurrection pattern. We all enjoy the latter motif, but we find the dying part to be a bit outrageous. Perhaps our expectations need to be re-shaped. Lent is for dying to self. It’s for taking up the cross. It’s for weeping with those who weep. Lent is the realization that the joy of living is dying, so that others may live.

Fourth, Lent is imprecation. In Lent we learn that God has enemies.  In Lent we pray that God would act justly upon those who humiliate, abuse, torture, and murder the innocent. I learned that imprecation is the most powerful response to such cowards. In Lent I learned that God’s justice is always perfect and His acts always timely.

Finally, during Lent I learned that I do not love the cross as I ought. I learned that crucifixion and death are still too foreign to my way of thinking. I learned that the death of Jesus continues to have serious consequences for the way I live my life.

Through Lent, I learned that I needed Easter and that Easter needs Lent.<>качественное создание овпроверка работоспособности а

  1. also known as Quadragesima  (back)

Read more

On April 18, 2014 By In Theology

Good Friday Reflection

For reflection on Good Friday, here’s an excerpt from Christians at the Cross by N.T. Wright:

“Finished.” “Accomplished.” “Completed.” Jesus’ last word, which sums it all up. Part of its meaning is that everything that had gone before . . . has now come together. This is where it was all going; this is what it was all about.

Part of its meaning is that in Jesus’ world that word “finished” was what you wrote on a bill when it had been settled: “Paid in full!” But underneath these is the meaning John intends, I believe, most deeply. When God the Creator made his wonderful world, at the end of the sixth day he finished it. He completed his work. Now, on the Friday, the sixth day of the week, Jesus has completed the work of redeeming the world. With his shameful, chaotic, horrible death he has gone to the very bottom, to the darkest and deepest place of the ruin, and has planted there the sign that says “Rescued.” It is the sign of love, the love of the creator for his ruined creation, the love of the saviour for his ruined people. Yes, of course, it all has to be worked out. The victory has to be implemented. But it’s done; it’s completed; it’s finished . . .

Now here in this community, and in this church, there are plenty of Marys and Johns, plenty of people for whom life isn’t going to be the same again. Our job is to stand and wait at the foot of the cross, and to see what fresh word may come to us concerning the way forward, the way of becoming a community again . . .

Good Friday is the point at which God comes into our chaos, to be there with us in the middle of it and to bring us his new creation. Let us pause and give thanks, and listen for his words of love and healing.

N.T. Wright, Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus (Ijamsville, Md.: The Word Among Us Press, 2007), 57–58.

Read more

On April 18, 2014 By In Theology

Judas Played a Reversed Role

 

Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

– John 13.26-30

Judas, be hasty. Take this unleavened bread, dipped in bitter herbs. Be hasty. Leave at night. Plunder me of my silver

—

11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night…

None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians…

33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

– Ex 12.11-12, 22-23, 33-36

Israel, be hasty. Take this unleavened bread, dipped in bitter herbs. Be hasty. Leave at night. Plunder me of my silver.

Judas is playing to the same instructions as Israel had in Egypt, in some sense. Jesus is Egypt, he is the firstborn who dies.

But on the other hand, Judas left the house during the meal. God had strictly forbidden leaving the house during the meal. Had he done that in Egypt, he would have met the destroyer in the street.<>game mobileпродвижение москва

Read more

On April 17, 2014 By In Theology

What is Maundy Thursday?

Holy Week is inaugurated on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday is the unfolding drama of Jesus’ last week before his death. As the King enters into Jerusalem to inspect his holy city, received by a multitude of rejoicers, he discovers that the city is corrupt (Zec. 9). As the week continues, Jesus enters into a host of confrontations with the religious leaders of the day, which caused them to detest the Paschal Lamb, and ultimately crucify Him.

The events of Maundy Thursday are powerful events in the life of the Christian Church. The name “Maundy Thursday” is derived from the Latin word mandatum meaning “commandment.” In John 13 :31-35, Jesus tells his disciples that he has a new commandment, that you love one another. Obeying this commandment serves as the way the world will recognize the children of God.

Another element of Maundy Thursday is the administration of the Eucharist. Maundy Thursday describes the disciples’ Last Supper with their Lord. It was during that meal that Judas was identified as the one who betrayed our Lord. Judas’ kissing the Son of Man was the confirmation that he himself had become the son of perdition. His betrayal by a kiss is indicative of his all-consuming hatred for the message of Jesus. Judas, who partook of Christ at the Last Supper, now partook of Christ’s body by the kiss of death.

Maundy Thursday is a service of love and gratitude. On this day, the people of God join others to renew their love for one another, and to renew their commitment to our Lord as we eat his flesh and drink his blood. By this they will know that we are His disciples.<>mobil gameработа контекстная реклама

Read more

On April 4, 2014 By In Theology, Worship

Solomon’s Great Prayer and the Declaration of Forgiveness

This post is a little more exegetical than I typically put on here, but I think it is worthwhile addition to Kuyperian. 

Israel had been waiting for this day since she came out of Egypt.  (Deuteronomy 12:5, 11) God had promised he would dwell with Israel in a permanent house. Now that day had come. After years of preparation by David followed by years of building by Solomon, the temple was finished. All Israel had been called by her great king to dedicate the temple with prayer and feasting.

Solomon’s prayer in II Chronicles 6:12-42 (see also I Kings 8:22-53) is one of the great prayers in Scripture.  Solomon, the great king, the son of David, kneels down on a bronze platform and raises his hands to heaven (II Chronicles 6:13). He then prays to the Lord.

Solomon begins by reminding the Lord that He is merciful and keeps his promises. (II Chronicles 6:14-17) He then adds that the Lord is not confined by human hands to this temple. (6:18) Yet this temple is special and Solomon asks the Lord to remember his people which pray toward this place. (6:19-21) You might think that Solomon wants the Lord to hear their prayers so they can be delivered from their enemies or they can prosper as a nation or any other number of reasons. But Solomon wants the Lord to hear their prayers and forgive them. (II Chronicles 6:21b) Solomon’s great concern is that God would forgive Israel. This concern is woven through the entire prayer:

 6:22 If anyone sins…

6:24-25 If your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You and return and confess Your name…hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people.

6:26-27 When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you when they pray toward this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin…forgive the sin of your servants.

6:28-30 When there is famine, blight….when each one spreads out his hands to this temple then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive.

6:32-33 This section is interesting because it does not specifically mention the forgiveness of sins. It is talking about when a Gentile prays to the temple. Solomon asks that God “would hear from heaven and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You.”  While forgiveness is not mentioned, it could certainly be implied given the context.

6:36-39 When they sin against You…and repent…forgive your people who have sinned against you.

 II Chronicles 7:12-17 is God’s answer to Solomon’s prayer.  Solomon prays in chapter 6 and the Lord promises forgiveness in chapter 7. Here is 7:14-  If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.  The Lord promises Solomon that he will forgive the sins of his people.

parable_prodigal_son2

There are several items of note to gather from this prayer and the circumstances surrounding it.

First, the forgiveness of sins was a central concern for Israel. Here is the most important event in the history of Israel outside of the exodus (maybe even more important than the exodus) and at the center is forgiveness of sins. Here is one of the greatest kings in his greatest moment and forgiveness of sins is central. We often think of the Old Testament as preaching forgiveness, but in a hidden, concealed way.  Solomon’s prayer shatters that idea. They knew they needed forgiveness of sins. They knew only God could provide it.

Second, the temple was about Israel’s sins being forgiven. There are many things Solomon could have emphasized the day the temple was dedicated.  But his prayer centered on the forgiveness of sins.  For Solomon, the temple existed in large part to be a place of prayer, but a specific kind of prayer, confession.  It was huge building reminding Israel that God was the God who forgives. (Psalm 99:8)

Third, Solomon expected Israel to repent of her sins.  The entire prayer is very gospel oriented. Israel sins. God disciplines her. She repents. God forgives. The life of every Christian body and every individual Christian is summed up in this prayer.  As Luther said, “The entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Finally, God promises to forgive.  God does not leave Israel wondering.  He tells Solomon in 7:14 that when his people repent and pray he will forgive.  There is no doubt that this promise is behind three other great prayers in the Old Testament, Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9.  All of these are confessions of sins.  Isn’t it interesting that four of the greatest prayers in the Old Testament are all about confession and forgiveness?

Here are three points of application.

First, we should be regularly confessing our sins both corporately and privately.  I would hope this was a given, but unfortunately it often is not. When I ask my children to pray after family worship I give them four options: praise, ask for something, pray for someone, or confess a sin. Guess which one never gets taken?  Confessing our sins does not come as naturally as it should. It is easy to talk about confessing our sins. It is much harder to actually confess them. While private confession is often emphasized corporate confession can be neglected. We should be confessing together that we are sinners.

Second, every church should consider having a declaration of forgiveness in worship.  Our worship service begins with a call, followed by a time of confessing our sins. When we are done confessing our sins I say, “Almighty God who is rich in mercy has given His only Son to die for us, I therefore declare to you that all of your sins are forgiven in Christ.” Every week my people are reminded that God forgives them. Every week my people are told that they are clean because of Jesus.  We need this every week. We need someone telling us that cross of Christ is still there with mercy for all our sins. The Church, the new temple (I Peter 2:5), is the place where the forgiveness of sins in Christ should be declared regularly and emphatically. (Luke 24:47)

Third, we must believe that God actually does forgive our sins when we repent and confess them. Before we confess our sins in worship our congregation recites I John 1:8-9. Here is that great promise, just like in II Chronicles 7:14, that God can and does forgive. One of Satan’s greatest ploys is to keep bringing up our sins.  We confess them. He sends us a postcard reminding us of how wicked we are. The guilt comes back. I remember as a kid lying in bed confessing sins I had confessed dozens of times before trying to make sure I was “really” forgiven.  Oh, how we need to hear and be reminded that he is faithful and just to forgive all our sins.

<>изготовление рекламыкак добавить на google

Read more

On March 27, 2014 By In Theology, Wisdom

Common as Bluegrass in Kentucky

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. I Corinthians 10:13

Most of the time the truth is painful. I Corinthians 10:13 contains several of these painful moments. We learn here that we can resist temptation. We learn here that God is faithful. It is not God’s fault we sin. We learn that God provides a way out for us every single time. One could leave this verse feeling like they have no excuse for sinning. And that would be correct.

But I want to focus on the very first clause of this verse. In this clause, the Holy Spirit through Paul says something amazing. All of our temptations are common. None of our temptations are special or unique. Millions of men, women, and children experience the exact same temptations you and I do. Abraham felt them. David did. Paul did. The peasant in the middle ages did. Your mom and dad did. Your brothers and sisters at church do.  Paul has just walked the church at Corinth through the wilderness wanderings (verse 1-10). He has told them how God was not pleased with Israel even though he delivered them. Why? They lusted (vs. 6). They worshiped idols (vs. 7). They committed sexual immorality (vs. 8). They tempted Christ (vs. 9). They complained (vs. 10). Then Paul says that all of this was written as an example to us. Then he warns the church to not get proud (vs. 12).  He closes with verse 13 where he reminds them that they are not special. The situation at Corinth was not a once in a lifetime experience. What they were going through was as common as the sand on the seashore.

We often excuse our sin by claiming that we are different or that our situation is unique. Sin feeds us the lie that we are special and therefore we can or must go ahead and sin. Of course, we would never say this out loud. But in our minds we directly contradict what Paul says here. We think, “My temptation is not common to men. I am going through something no one else has ever had to go through. Therefore my sin is excused.” There are at least two ways we do this.

First, we claim that our situation is special . If you had my parents you wouldn’t honor them. If you had the day I had you would yell at the kids too. If your wife was the ice block mine is you would look at porn also. If you had my husband you wouldn’t respect him either. All these “ifs” are code word for “My situation is special and therefore my sin is excused.” Or we talk about our upbringing and blame our parents. My parents did not train me right. Blame them for my sin. We can also blame the actual tempting situation itself. If that woman in a bikini had never shown up on my computer I would never have looked at porn. If that man in the red Corvette had not cut me off in traffic then I would not have gotten angry. If my boss gave me more work I would not waste my time. If the people at my church were kinder I could really love them. Over and over again we put ourselves in a special category the “I have an excuse for my sin” category. But our situations are not unique. They are common. No temptation we face is special to us.  Millions of men throughout history have experienced the exact same thing we are. We need to stop excusing our sin because we believe our situation is one of a kind.

Second, we claim that our personality gives us an excuse for sin. We don’t blame our situation, as we did under point one. Instead we blame a personality trait. We excuse our sin by saying, “I am just wired this way.” I am withdrawn (i.e. I am not kind). I am moody (i.e. I go into fits of rage). I am outgoing (i.e. I spend my day at work talking instead of working). I am generous (i.e. I blow my money). I am frugal (i.e. I refuse to share). I am a visual learner (i.e. I can’t sit still and listen to a sermon). My personality clashes with hers (i.e. I am mean to her).  We blame our personality for our sins. But again no temptation is unique. Your personality is not brand new in the history of mankind. Stop excusing your sin because of your personality.

Let me clarify a few things. People do have leanings toward particular sins. Our personalities draw us toward vices. And some people do have trying circumstances. All of this is true. But none of this unique or special.

One of Paul’s points here to the Corinthians and to us is that we are not special. Our situation is not special. Our personalities are not special. Our temptations are not special. Who we are and what we face each day is the common lot of all men.

Once we realize that our temptations are as common as bluegrass in Kentucky then we can start dealing with our sin and stop excusing it.  We can look to Christ for forgiveness. We can look to Christ for victory over our sin. We can look for the way of escape our faithful Father always provides us. We can gain victory over sin.<>заказ разработка апосмотреть позицию а

Read more

On February 27, 2014 By In Theology, Worship

Just Preaching Jesus Doesn’t Produce Assurance

Imagine two  scenarios: In the first, there is a pastor who preaches Jesus. His sermons focus around Christ and his work on the cross. They focus on what he did to save us and redeem us. This preacher looks for Jesus in every text, even the Old Testament ones. The primary application to every one of his sermons is “Trust in Christ” or some derivation of that particular point. He does not normally exhort men to be obedient. He thinks this will lead them to trust in themselves instead of Christ.  He does not preach against gossip or lying. He sticks to what Jesus has done and assumes that this is enough.

The second man also preaches Jesus. But he believes preaching Christ does not mean preaching only what Jesus has done upon the cross, but how we should live because of what Jesus has done. He does not believe calling his flock to live obediently will necessarily lead to legalism.  So he preaches the crucifixion as the only hope of mankind. But also preaches against gossip, lying, sexual immorality, pride, wrath, laziness and a host of other sins. He reminds his people that Christ has conquered these sins and that because they trust in him they are to be a new kind of people who are killing sin in their lives by the power of the Spirit.

Under which man’s preaching is a Christian more likely to gain assurance? Under which man’s preaching is a man who does not have true faith, most likely to recognize his need for evangelical repentance? We automatically assume the first. The man who points us to Jesus is the man most likely to provide assurance and the motivation for true repentance. However, I want to argue that this is not the case.

A Christian, who really wants to follow Christ, will be hounded by doubts under the first man’s preaching. He constantly be asking himself, “Do I really trust in Christ? Do I have true faith? Am I really saved?  Yes, there is the inward testimony of the Spirit. But what if I don’t really have Him? Under the first man’s preaching there is no objective way to assess one’s salvation.

This is also why a man who is part of a  church, but not truly converted can sit under the first man’s ministry for years and never know he is not a Christian. Why? He believes he is a Christian. He believes he trusts in Christ. And there is no objective way to prove otherwise. He can sit there week after week and say, “Yes, I really do trust in Christ.”

Under the second type of preaching both of these men go the opposite direction. The true believer, the one with evangelical faith, begins to put off sins like pride and lust and gossip. He messes up and repents and then gets back in the fight. But he is not fighting in his own strength. He is fighting with the Spirit. He knows he will not be perfect, but because objective ways of evaluating growth are put before him, he can see where he is at.  He can look back and see the Spirit’s work in his life. This together with Christ’s work, the sacraments, the witness of his fellow believers, and the internal testimony of the Spirit give him assurance that he is saved.

What about the false believer, the one who thinks he belongs but really does not have true faith? How will he respond under the second man’s preaching? Let’s say the man is a liar. When the second preacher says, “Men whose lives are characterized by lying do not have true faith,” the line will be clearly drawn in the sand. This false convert has three choices:

He may go out and try to improve his life, but devoid of the Spirit he will fail.

He may realize he does not have true faith and cry out to Christ to forgive his sins and give him strength to overcome them.

Or he may realize he does not have true faith and leave the church.

But the one thing he cannot do is pretend like he can trust in Christ and yet keep lying. The second preacher has made it clear that these two things are incompatible.

Every time the shalls and shall nots are preached correctly they bring proper motivation to the Christian’s obedience and give him a chance for assurance. They also pull out of hiding hypocrites and put them in front of a mirror so they can see who they really are. Assurance does not come from simply pointing to the objective work of  Jesus, but it also comes from seeing the subjective work of Jesus in our lives. The evangelical preacher puts both of these before his congregation.<>рассылка на доски объявленийпроверить по запросам

Read more

On February 10, 2014 By In Theology, Worship

Paedocommunion: Calvin Misunderstood “Discerning the Body”

by Luke A Welch

CALVIN IS FLAT WRONG BECAUSE HE MISSED THE CONTEXT
Calvin fears that, in paedocommunion, tender children will poison themselves by being intellectually incapable of having a formed mental opinion about the presence of Christ in the elements. Paul is actually just saying that we can’t use the unity meal to despise the church by ignoring the weaker or lesser members while we eat. But Calvin misses all the context (see my post containing a quote of Calvin’s treatment in the Institutes).

 

dives_lazarus_Bonifacio VERONESE

Dives and Lazarus – Bonifacio Veronese

 

If Calvin is right about the meaning of 1 Cor 11, then children have no business at the table, but this is contextually impossible in a section that repeatedly tells us that all the baptized are also unified in the eating of the meal. Calvin has missed tying the phrases in question (“discerning the body,: and “eating in an unworthy manner”) to their immediate context, and to the context of the surrounding chapters. If you have time to wade through a few reasonably simple arguments, I beg you to stick around through the end of this. I believe this post, and the future post on self-examination, to be able to remove the obstacle of 1 Cor 11 from giving all covenant members their due invitations to the meal of the Lord. So we start here: (more…)

Read more