Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Role of Theology in Practice

I ran across an interesting topic tonight while leading my small group. We talked mostly about predestination (through a variety of angles), but I wanted us to leave with a sense of how it applies to our lives, rather than our discussion being, in essence, an intellectual game. We had discussed a couple theological issues of importance, but could have easily left it at an abstract level.

What is the role of theology in the life of a Christian? I fear I am treading on ground where far greater men have written volumes, and am in far over my head with this topic. However, the way I see it, theology's role for the believer is to bring into readily accessible form the truths we see evident in Scripture, in order that we may apply them to our lives. If we do not demand our theology be lived out, we are fooling ourselves, and are to be pitied above all others. That is to say, orthodoxy apart from orthopraxy is idolatry.

I believe theology should flow from Scripture, not from the desire to make a perfectly coherent system. Read (and revel in!) the richness of God's work in reconciling man to himself. To our finite minds, the best biblically grounded theological system may well seem foolish. It is, after all, a mystery how God extended his covenant to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Confessing the crucified, shamed, God-man, Jesus Christ, the Lord of all Creation, true God of true God, is utter foolishness to the world. Yet this is the Gospel of hope, this is the way the one true God.

How do we live in light of having been grafted in to God's people? With utter thankfulness. With lives devoid of pride. With obedience to God's commandments, through the power of the Spirit who gives us strength. With hope, knowing the battle has been won.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Jesus Does All Things Well

People can criticize John Piper's theology, but he lives his life above reproach. His preborn granddaughter died last Saturday. His comments on what it means to be a grandfather to Felicity are here. A criticism of Piper that was common among students is that, in his theology of suffering, he minimizes the role of mourning with those who mourn. No. He mourns with those who mourn, and graciously proclaims the only reason to hope amidst sorrow. And drowning in a sadness I can hardly imagine, Piper makes one of the most profound, clear, statements of the Gospel I have heard:

Come, there is somebody I want you to meet. His name is Jesus. He's the reason you're here. You don't need to be afraid. Your Savior has led you all the way. And Jesus does all things well.

Thanks be to God.

"I just really hear God telling me to break up with you"

Oh, to equip the men of Wheaton with this interpretation of the Third Commandment.

Here's the gist of it: The Third Commandment does not mean that saying the word "God" in all but a worshipful manner is sinful. Though this is probably not a good practice, the commandment is probably talking about something else: using the name of God as a source of authority in what you are saying when in fact, God has not given that word or authority.

So, to say to someone, "God is telling me to break up with you," when in fact, God has not directly told you such a thing, is a violation of the third commandment.

Now, obviously as one become more sanctified, the idea of "Love God and do what you want," as said Augustine, becomes more pertinent. So, if the time comes in a non-marriage relationship with another person that it becomes undesirable to remain in the relationship for reasons rooted in Scripture, or perhaps the trajectories of your lives are headed different ways, then take responsibility for that. Say, "I don't wish to stay in this relationship because _____."

Don't use the "God card".

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Rabbit Feet....Rabbit Footses...Rabbit's Feet

Rabbinic tradition provides a back story to Abram's conversion. According to some traditions, Abram's father, Terah, was an idol maker by trade. It would seem (from our view) that the Holy Spirit was working on Abram's heart even before his call, because he had a growing skepticism towards all the wooden and metal idols his father built. When Terah left him alone to mind the shop, Abram would often lose sales by down talking the efficacy of the idols, much to his father's discontent.

Finally, one day, when his father was out of the shop, Abram smashed all the idols with an axe, leaving only the largest one standing. Placing the axe in the idol's hand, he waited for his father's return. Terah, outraged, asked him who did it. Abram responded, "It seems the largest one destroyed the others in his anger," to which Terah replied, "That is foolish, we know that these idols neither move nor destroy." Abram's departure from his father's house soon followed.

Although the historicity of this story is roughly on par with the fable that George Washington cut down his father's cherry tree, it illustrates what the prophet Jeremiah asserts in his tirades against Judah. In Jeremiah 10:3 he says,

A tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
They decorate it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.

Not only are these idols made by human hands, but they are unable to even stand up on their own unless their human makers nail their feet to the ground! He continues to tell Israel, "Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good." (10:5)

But the Lord is the true God;
he is the living God and the everlasting King
At his wrate the earth quakes
and the nations cannot endure his indignation. (10:10)

Israel's idolatry went beyond the foreign gods and man-made idols. Even the temple, the locus of God's presence among his people, had become an idol to them.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are delivered!"—only to go on doing all these abominations?

God did not bring his glory into the temple because he needed to be served by human hands, but as a grace to his covenant people. Israel instead saw the temple as a lucky rabbit's foot in battle and "Get out of Jail Free" card for their unrepentant sins. In this we see the sinfulness of all mankind: We seek to make gods for our own desires. Rather than dwell in the rich revelation and covenant love of the one true God, we make gods for ourselves, distort how God has revealed himself to us, and manipulate grace—to our destruction.

But thanks be to God, who has given us victory through our Lord, Christ Jesus. In Christ the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. In Christ we have been given all the inheritance of the Kingdom of Light. God has offered restoration to the communion with God that man had before the Fall. It is pure foolishness to create gods of our own hands or to manipulate the revelation of the one true God. The destruction of those who do so is as sure as the destruction of the temple was in Jeremiah's day.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Redemption is like the blogosphere

Ah, foolish youth. A blog once filled with my thoughts of yesteryear now wiped clean with just a few clicks of the mouse. Lessons are learned from past missteps, yet on this blog they are easily erased. It would have been easier to start a new blog, but that would be rather humanist in analogy, while cleansing my blog of its past transgressions is a rather wonderful binary illustration of the forgiveness found in Christ.

I also rather like the title of this blog. It's fitting for my somewhat incomprehensible ramblings. It's like the first sounds out of your radio alarm clock as your wake up. The words seem familiar, but don't quite make sense. It's also a great PoMo title. There's lots of room for everyone to make up their own meaning for it all.

I hope to write here more frequently than past attempts. I hope to synthesize into commonspeak what gets kicked around in academia, and this shall be my practice field for what I hope to do for the rest of my life.

Also, I think the analogy in my title is backwards.