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On June 2, 2014 By In Theology

Pneumatology in Baptism, Part I

by Guest Writer, Joshua Torrey

Note: Here is an introduction to baptism focusing on the role of the Spirit in this sacrament.

The New Testament actually says very little about baptism. Not counting allusions to the practice of baptism, the number shrinks even more dramatically. The lack of any clear exposition on the practice of baptism is even more discouraging. What are we to make the Biblical “instruction about washings” (Heb 6:2) that apparently is an “elementary doctrine?” Simple questions have plagued the church and split its theologians since the beginning. No question though is more important than “what does the word baptism mean?” Well that might seem silly but it is an important question.

Does “baptism” in the New Testament refer to a literal and physical washing with water? Or is it speaking to a type of “baptism of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5)? Do distinctions exist between these two views? And how pertinent are they to one’s theology of baptism? With all great questions the answer is both yes and no. With respect to the existence of distinctions the answer is yes. But there is also a qualified no.

Why the yes then? Well, the answer is yes because John the baptizer makes a clear distinction between these two (Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16). This cannot be argued and the time of John the baptizer through the book of Acts displays the outworking of this distinction. But does this mean that the distinction made so clear by John the Baptizer is taught in the rest of the Scriptures? Asked another way, is John’s baptism the normal working procedure? Or does John’s “baptism of water” stand out among the backdrop of Biblical baptism that unifies water and Spirit?

In an effort to provide a thorough Biblical view on baptism this chapter must provide a qualified “no” to the distinction between water and Spirit found in the baptism of John. It is my opinion that when John’s “baptism of water” is studied and placed in the history of the Scriptures its distinctions between water and Spirit stand out as abnormal. The Scriptures then communicate a theology of baptism that answers “no” to great distinctions. This chapter will argue that no distinction exists between “water baptism” and “Spirit baptism” in the fully developed baptism of the New Testament epistles.

As would be expected, this view will have a significant bearing on our perception and practice of Christian baptism. So we must strive to be convinced by the full breadth of Scripture on this issue. Since “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16) all Old Testament references to baptism must be forcefully considered and investigated. Subsequently, since the few mentions of baptism in the epistles of the Apostles point to the Old Testament these references, and their constituents, must be evaluated for symbols and typology. In this regard, our evaluation of the Old Testament will have to expand. We must find the interpretation of the Old Testament that allows us to say with Paul that these Scriptures were “written down for our instruction” (1 Cor 10:11). This entails the images and symbols found in the Old Testament be allowed to speak on the issue of baptism when interpreting the New Testament.

This chapter will proceed to look at many, though not all, of the Old Testament texts that should be incorporated to produce a Biblical teaching on baptism. Instead of the traditional word study approach, the historical narratives will present a picture of baptism that shows a holy union between water and Spirit in baptism. Each step in the Old Testament revelation will show that the Apostles carried over covenantal and salvific themes into Christian baptism precisely because of this paradigmatic union of water and Spirit in baptism.

The Creation Baptism

Creation is the event. No matter one’s interpretation of the first chapters in Genesis there is near universal agreement that this event is paradigmatic for the rest of the Scriptures. Thus it isn’t surprising that many Biblical doctrines are related to or contained in these early chapters. Without degrading the historical validity of the Genesis account, all agree that it is full of symbols and images that have reverberations throughout the rest of the Scriptures. Some of these symbols and signs are clearer than others.

John re-writes Genesis 1:1 to introduce the eternal logos (John 1:1). Paul returns to “let there be light” to proclaim the new creation found in the light of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). Paul even returns us to the garden to see that the church is Christ’s bride: there is a new Adam and a new Eve (Eph 5:31-32). Just because all the symbols are not this clear does not permit ignoring the smaller links. Since the topic of inspection is baptism and the Holy Spirit, it makes sense to highlight some insights from the Holy Spirit’s role in creation,

2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. – Genesis 1:2, 10

These are epic events. And there are things to be noticed on the surface of the verses. First, the Holy Spirit’s introduction is post-deceleration. Genesis 1:1 has already occurred. God has already created the “in the beginning” and “the heavens and the earth.” It is at some time later that the Holy Spirit is “hovering” (H7363). This Hebrew word can implying both negative and positive emotion (Deut 32:11; Jer 23:9). The imagery in Jeremiah of a hovering/cherishing mother seems most relevant to this text given the birthing of creation that is about to take place.

Second, the Spirit is hovering over the waters. Water and the Holy Spirit are seen together. This point cannot be emphasized enough. Paradigmatically the two are introduced in God’s revelation together. In the effort of forming creation they are obviously distinct. The Holy Spirit remains the Hoverer. And water remains the thing hovered upon. But they are found in relationship together. They remain distinguishable from one another but in relation to each other.

Third is the effect the Holy Spirit has on the water in creation. Though the Holy Spirit disappears from the Biblical text, it seems safe to say that His “hovering” didn’t cease the moment God spoke light into existence (Gen 1:3). The next time these waters are mentioned in the Scriptures, they are brought together to allow dry land to appear. This is the dry land that allows the first examples life in creation to appear (Gen 1:11-13). This imagery in particular is important for all subsequent Old Testament baptisms. Though there will be many Old Testament references that point back to this for the moment we’ll focus on its impact on the New Testament via the baptism of Jesus Christ.

The baptism of Jesus is a re-telling or re-casting of the creation event. There are multiple reasons to be persuaded of this. First, this is the beginning of Christ’s ministry. This is not re-creation in the normal sense but in the declaratory sense. When Jesus hears His Father speak the echoes of creation come to mind. “This is my beloved Son” (Matt 3:17) is not unlike the spoken word of God. Even the minority rendering of Luke 3:22 which reads “This is my beloved Son; today I have begotten You” points to a type of creation decree of the part God. Since the Psalmist records this (Psa 2:7) and the apostles interpret in in multiple ways (Acts 13:33; Heb 1:5; 5:5), it is not a statement of factual creation (the Eternal Son has always existed with the Father). But the Lord’s decree declares something new in creation via the baptism of Jesus Christ.

The second image that tied this baptism to creation is the Holy Spirit descending upon Christ. This event is quite consistent with His hovering over the waters. It is even alluded to in advance by the prophet Isaiah (Isa 11:1). In the Synoptics, the Holy Spirit is portrayed as a dove descending upon Jesus (Matt 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22). Though the importance of the dove imagery will be discussed in the next section, it is the abiding of the Spirit that is important. To see how the Holy Spirit is “hovering” the difference in John’s depiction must be analyzed,

32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” – John 1:32-34

For John the baptizer and John the disciple it is the reality that the Holy Spirit “remains” that proves the authenticity of Jesus Christ. The addition of this concept is important in this context. This Greek word menō (G3306) is paramount to understanding the writings of John. Throughout his gospel and first epistle the word is used at a staggering amount as a sign of true believers and followers of Jesus Christ. Before all of this though, the word is used to validate Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit remained with Jesus Christ throughout the rest of His ministry. The Holy Spirit directed Christ and drove Him in His ministry. It is this hovering and cherishing of the eternal Son that reminds us of creation. Ultimately it is this same Holy Spirit that will again be present to raise Christ up, this time from the dead (Rom 8:11), and proclaim the conquering of death. This resurrection of the death ties together this second image and the final third image.

Consistent with these images from Genesis, this third and final image ties the baptism of Jesus back to creation even more strongly. It is the appearing of new land suitable for life from out of the midst of the water. This is the reason that Matthew and Mark tell that the Holy Spirit and Father’s declaration as Christ “came up out of the water” (Matt 3:16; Mark 1:9). As shall be seen with other Old Testament texts, this element is perhaps the crucial concept to understanding the apostle’s teaching on baptism. This symbol of new life is particularly valuable to understand the salvation and deliverance in baptism. But for now simple recognition will do that in this baptism, performed by John, the new land/life is Jesus Christ.

This concept might sound awkward at first. The language requires more than one glance. But Jesus Christ is the “new man” that believers are to put on (Eph 4:24). Paul links this “putting on” of the new man to baptism (Gal 3:27)! Jesus Christ is also the “man of heaven” that combats the fall man of the first creation (1 Cor 15:46-49). These statements make sense of Jesus Christ rising out of the water is a faithful re-telling of creation. Jesus Christ in His baptism begins all “new creation” imagery. Christ’s baptism point forward to His death (Mark 10:38-39; Rom 6:1-5). God has begun to make all things new (Rev 21:5). This explains why in the resurrection Paul can speak the way he does about “anyone [who] is in Christ…” (2 Cor 5:17). For when we participate in Him in baptism and death we participate in “new creation.”

Jesus’ baptism under John accomplished this. Or put another way, John’s baptism when accompanied by the Holy Spirit accomplished this. Baptism of water and Spirit as described in Genesis 1 accomplishes this.

Excursion of Luke’s Placement on Baptism

Though the content of this excursion would flow significantly in the midst of the previous section. However the brief focus on the gospel of Luke is presented best on its own. Luke is purposeful in his placement of Jesus’ baptism. It all starts in the third chapter of his gospel. A historical setting is given for Jesus Christ to enter into. Like the Old Testament prophets before Him, the word of the Lord is about to come to Jesus Christ. It is after the full number of baptisms (more on this in the next section) that Jesus Christ presents Himself for baptism. There is a proclamation from God and the descent of the dove. And then Luke places his genealogy.

This would seem an awkward place to put the genealogy. Matthew’s genealogy begins his gospel (Matt 1). This was much like the start of 1 Chronicles. But Luke includes his after baptism. Matthew’s genealogy only goes to Abraham (Matt 1:2). Luke’s goes all the way back to Adam and God (Luke 3:38). Luke’s placement of baptism and genealogy points to the creation of Genesis 1 and the genealogy in Genesis 2:4. Luke’s decision intentionally links Jesus Christ’s baptism to the original creation.

Along with this, Luke remarks in passing that Jesus was around thirty years old. This age is historically significant. It links to the beginning of Joseph’s service to Pharaoh (Gen 41:46), the starting age of the priests (Num 4) and the age David became king (2 Sam 5:4). Something new is starting in the ministry of Jesus Christ. For Luke that ministry is related to the genealogy of creation. It stretches back to Adam and God. Jesus is beginning to be the new Adam reigning and serving before God. Paul’s theology of the second Adam seems to have controlled much of Luke thinking in this regard. And for Luke, the event that begins all of this is Christian baptism.

Joshua Torrey blogs here.<>новые идеи для малого бизнеса для турфирмы

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On May 28, 2014 By In Theology

How Helpful Are Analogies of the Trinity?

All analogies fall short. They can be enormously helpful at times, but sometimes we need to simply acknowledge that analogies are always limited. They help communicate profound truths in simple terms, but they may at times take us a bit too far and actually undo the intention of the analogy itself. a This is what happens when evangelicals use a variety of analogies to explain the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Trinity, Michael Bird, explains, “is not an esoteric doctrine forged in an unholy marriage of Greek metaphysical speculation and dodgy biblical interpretation.” b Our experience of God is not unitarian or tritheistic, but can only be true if it is Trinitarian. So, a biblical expression of the Trinity is essential.

We live in a day where Trinitarian religion in all its historical beauty has been lost in a sea of trivial statements about God. God, Three and One and One and Three, has become merely a side note in theological pursuit. As one pastor recently told me, “We do not need to talk about the Trinity to our people. It is too complex for them.” The Trinity is arguably the central doctrine that differentiates the Christian faith from other religious traditions like Islam and Judaism. Modern attempts to reconcile these traditions to the Christian faith is ultimately impossible. God is Three and One. He is Oneness and Community. Ancient heresies like Modalism, which teach that each person of the Trinity is merely a “mode of God’s activity as opposed to a distinct and independent person” is by and large the position of Oneness Pentecostals. Yet, most evangelicals view them as just another branch of the orthodox Church.

The nature of the Father, Son, and Spirit have never been more detached from the work of doing theology in our day. As a result of this neglect, modern Christians have attempted to re-energize the idea of the “forgotten Trinity” by providing analogies. These analogies are meant as simple illustrations. They attempt to do with simplicity what the Early Church sought to do with tremendous care and heavy qualifications.

Though the popular illustrations add a little more clarity, they end up confusing the Trinity with other heresies.  S. Michael Houdmann offers a few examples:

The egg (or apple) fails in that the shell, white, and yolk are parts of the egg, not the egg in themselves, just as the skin, flesh, and seeds of the apple are parts of it, not the apple itself. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not parts of God; each of them is God. The water illustration is somewhat better, c but it still fails to adequately describe the Trinity. Liquid, vapor, and ice are forms of water. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not forms of God, each of them is God.

Some have attributed these analogies to St. Patrick of Ireland. d The supposed bad analogies of Patrick was put into a comical conversation between St. Patrick and two simple men inquiring about the Trinity:


To put it simply, “The problem with using analogies to explain the Holy Trinity is that you always end up confessing some ancient heresy.”

I have found that analogies of the Trinity are a normal reaction from Christians who find themselves defensive about a complicated doctrine. But Christians ought not be defensive about such a lovely description of our God. God is not meant to be intricately analyzed like an ancient fossil, but to be adored. Any explanation of His Nature ought to be done carefully and with the qualifications the Bible provides. e God is. And that is where we must start. In the words of Fred Sanders:

Trinitarianism is the encompassing framework within which all Christian thought takes place and within which Christian confession finds its grounding presuppositions. f

The Trinity is the necessary paradigm for all thinking. It is the beginning and the end of human thought.  The Trinity is mysterious, because God is infinitely powerful and beyond human reasoning. In the end, we ought to catechize, biblicize those under our care with great care when we speak of who God is. In a nutshell, we can affirm the following essential elements concerning our Triune God:

First, the unity of one God in three persons.

Second, the eternity of the three persons.

Third, the shared and equal deity of the three persons.

Fourth, the shared and equal essence of the three persons.

Fifth, the Trinity includes distinction in roles and relationships within the Godhead.

Finally, the Trinity will always be an ineffable mystery.

In the end, the Trinity ought to lead us to worship as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6. And in that worship, we ought to imitate the seraphim who continually sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”<> ы женской тематики

  1. For a history of “analogy,” see this  (back)
  2. Bird, Michael. Evangelical Theology: A Biblical and Systematic Introduction, pg. 92  (back)
  3. No heresy is better than the other  (back)
  4. This claim is debated: http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/17724/did-saint-patrick-actually-explain-the-trinity-using-a-shamrock  (back)
  5. Analogies like Marriage and community are actually helpful ways to begin to understand the divine Trinity  (back)
  6. Quoted in Bird’s Evangelical Theology, pg. 124  (back)

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On May 28, 2014 By In Theology

A Time to Quit Searching

Guest Post by Justin Dillehay

“It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

This statement is one of the hallmarks of a certain type of religious person (though they would likely prefer to be called “spiritual”). This person is always searching, always asking, always roaming. If he hears you claim that you’ve found the truth–that you actually have the right answer–he will regard you as intolerant, closed-minded, and arrogant.

You can find an excellent depiction of this never-ending searcher in chapter 5 of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. In this imaginative novel, people in heaven take a bus trip to hell in order to persuade their damned ghostly friends to repent and return with them to heaven. In the end, almost none of the ghosts choose to leave, but instead persist in the sins that brought them there. Listening to their self-justifications is both fascinating and disturbing.

Lewis casts our never-ending searcher in the form of an apostate Episcopal minister, whose friend “Dick” tries to show him the error of his ways. When Dick invites him to return with him to heaven, the ghost agrees to come, if–and only if–heaven is a place where he can continue his spiritual journey with an open mind. Only if heaven is a place of “free inquiry.”

“No,” Dick responds. “I can promise you none of those things…For I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.”

The ghost objects: “Ah, but we must all interpret those beautiful words in our own way! For me there is no such thing as a final answer…I am not aware of a thirst for some ready-made truth which puts an end to intellectual activity.”

Seeing hope begin to slip away, Dick reasons with him. “Listen…Once you knew what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them…[But now] you have gone far wrong. Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you now call the free play of inquiry has neither more nor less to do with the ends for which intelligence was given you than masturbation has to do with marriage.”

Lewis captures something profoundly biblical in this story. This is the type of person whom the Apostle Paul castigates as “always learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). Always asking questions, but never really wanting definite answers. Always comparing alternatives, but never willing to choose between them. Always deconstructing other people’s views, but rarely questioning his own mixed motives. Always searching for truth, but somehow resistant to finding it.

It seems rather odd, doesn’t it? The idea of searching for truth but not wanting to find it lest our search be over? You’d think that was the point of the search–to find what we were searching for!

So why would anyone do this?

Answer: because we love searching more than we love truth.

Truth requires us to submit; to stand under it and conform ourselves to it. Truth, we suspect, would require us to acknowledge a reality outside of ourselves that doesn’t depend on what we think and won’t simply be what we want it to be. But searching, at least the kind of searching that we prefer, allows us to chart our own course and act as our own guide, while also giving us the illusion of being more humble than the person who claims to have found the truth.

I say “the kind of searching we prefer,” because there is another kind of searching that God invites us to. The searching of a creature seeking to know his Creator; the searching of a servant seeking to obey her Master’s will. Those who seek like that will find.

But that’s the problem. Apart from the work of the Spirit, there is none who seeks like that, not even one (Rom. 3:11). Apart from Christ, we’re fools. We don’t want the Triune God walking with us on our journey, because he has an annoying tendency to steer us away from paths that seem right to us (Prov. 4:12) and toward paths that will make us wildly unpopular with the very people we want to please (John 5:39-44). So we prefer to walk alone. Or else to walk with peers who won’t “judge” us for the directions we choose to take.

We should ask ourselves the obvious question: “If I resist the very idea of finding truth and ending my search, am I really searching for it? Or am I actually evading it?”

God calls us to a different kind of searching. He calls us to search for truth out of love for truth. And at the end of the day, truth is a person (John 14: 6). To know Jesus is to know the truth, and he delights to be found by those who search for him. Indeed, when you find him, you realize that it was he who was seeking you all along.

When you find the truth as it is in Jesus, you find that it isn’t stagnant. Because he who is truth is also life (John 14:6). Rather than enslaving you, knowing this truth sets you free (John 8:31). Why? Because knowing this truth is what your search was designed for. It’s what your open mind (like an open trap) was meant to close on. To use Lewis’s graphic analogy, if endless searching is like masturbating all your life, finding Jesus is like finally getting married. It’s what your mind is for–a consummation devoutly to be wished.

And unlike the endless search, in which you are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, finding Jesus enables you to have the truth yet always to be learning. Because you are finite and Jesus is infinite, there is always room to go deeper. As a Christian, you can say “I have found him whom my soul desires” while also saying “Oh that I might know him!” Christ is both within us as our wisdom (Col. 1:27; 2:3), and before us, beckoning us on to greater knowledge. As Paul put it, “I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil. 3:12). It’s an upward spiral into a truth we have already grasped (or better, a Truth whom we have already been grasped by), rather than a downward spiral away from a truth we are seeking to evade.

So let us search well, but search rightly, remembering the goal of our search.

If I may appropriate the words of the Preacher for my own use:

“There is a time to search, and a time to quit searching” (Eccl. 3:6 NLT).

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Further reading: The End of our Exploring, by Matthew Lee Anderson.
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justin_tillyJustin and his wife, Tilly, blog at While We Wait.

This article was originally published here.

Click on the following link to read one of Tilly’s pieces:

5 Things I Wish I Could Say to Every 16-Year-Old Homeschooled Girl<>реклама окна

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On May 15, 2014 By In Theology

A Day Like Any Other Day

Van

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

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

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

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

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

Originally posted at Singing and Slaying.

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On May 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

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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

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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)

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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.

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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

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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

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