07.04.09
The Imagination – A Noble Faculty
Often among modern evangelicals the importance of the God-given faculty of the imagination is downplayed. William Symington, for one, thought somewhat differently of it:
“Imagination is one of the noblest faculties with which man has been endowed; a faculty, indeed, the sound and proper use of which is not only necessary to the existence of sympathy and other social affections, but also intimately connected with those higher exercises of soul, by which men are enabled to realize the things that are not seen and eternal.” – William Symington {Covenanter}
G.M.
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07.03.09
‘To You and Your Children’
Gavin’s essay on infant baptism entitled To You and Your Children has just been published by Reformed Worldview Publications. The booklet provides a concise and robust defence of covenantal infant baptism, encouraging us to rejoice in the promises of God and treat our children as he has commanded.
G.M.
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06.27.09
Trials and Medicine – A Difficult Lesson
“Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes, because we need them. He proportions the frequency and weight of them – to what our case requires. Let us trust in His skill – and thank Him for His prescription!”
John Newton, Unknown
G.M.
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06.23.09
Police Examine a Church’s Invitation Leaflet
Instances like this are evidence that things are getting worse in the U.K.
G.B.
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06.17.09
Proud of Being Humble
C. S. Lewis certainly had more than his fair share of errors, but with a particularly enjoyable style and keen insight he is worth a discerning read. In his Screwtape Letters, letters from a senior to a junior devil on how to tempt men, he shows an amazing understanding of human nature and Satan‘s devices. Take this bit of advice from Srewtape regarding how to deal with men becoming humble as an example:
“Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware of that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the point when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection’ ‘By jove! I’m being humble’, and almost immediately pride – pride at his own humility – will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt – and so on, through as many stages as you please.” (The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, p.224)
It is good for us to understand ourselves as we really are, and to understand how Satan encourages us in such thinking. Of course, we must look out to Christ once we really see how bad we are so that we are benefitted and don’t simply despair and doubt our salvation.
He also has Srewtape instructing Wormwood to encourage his patient in a false idea of what humility is:
“Let him think [humility is] a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character… By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible.” ((The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, p.225)
G.M.
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06.13.09
Political Freedom and the Puritans
In among a few comments of mine is a quote that simply shows how vital was the fight for freedom that the Puritans waged in the Seventeenth century. It tells us that we have not a broad enough view of Calvinism if we don’t care deeply about such today – we must love our neighbour and ourselves!
The news two days ago of the State wanting increased control over how home educators raise their children is deeply worrying. We have not fought for the truth that the State should have absolutely no say in how parents decide to bring up their own children (only stepping in when a genuine crime has been committed). God gives children to parents, not politicians and their army of meddlers. Thus, all the State has to do is pretend there is abuse and we will agree that they need regulatory powers to prevent it (as if they have shown any skill in preventing things!) Let them punish real crimes properly, but once we allow them powers to ’save’ us from ‘bad things happening’ and allow them to shift their role to ‘crime prevention’ we invite totalitarianism; a new kind of totalitarianism, though, ‘soft totalitarianism’, with its multiculturalism and ‘political correctness’. And because it doesn’t look like what we know about Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia we fail to see how serious things have already gotten.
“So absolute indeed was the authority of the crown that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and preserved by the Puritans alone; and it was to this sect that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution.” (Hume)
God has given the Civil Magistrate the use of the sword alone – not the blackboard, not the stethoscope, not red tape and printing presses. Nor has he given Magistrates the sword in order to coerce us all to eat food without fat and salt, drive little electric cars, and chase toys around the countryside instead of real foxes. When we ask them to do so, calling for all that we don’t like to be made illegal (’There needs to be a law against it!’), we act foolishly. Not merely because God has not given them such authority (he defines what is and is not to be treated as crime), but also because the meddling we encourage will not take long to turn on us. Christians are suffering already and will suffer the most as this trend continues.
G.M.
P.S. We are aware that the Puritans were not as consistent as we might have liked (or at least some weren’t). But their general principles should help guide us, and their heroic example should inspire us.
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06.11.09
What the Bible says about Homosexuality (2)
Having introduced the subject in our first post we wish to move through some key passages of Scripture to establish what the bible says about homosexuality. As we proceed we will interact with arguments that are put forth by churchmen/women who attempt to defend homosexuality on biblical grounds, but we are persuaded come the end of our study what the Bible says will be clear to any honest mind.
1. The Created Order – Gen 1-2
Gen 1:27-28 ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image og God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.’
Gen 2:18, 20, 23-24 provide more detail concerning the creation of woman & the coming together of man and woman in marriage.
v18 ‘It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make an help meet for him.
v20 ‘And Adam gave names… but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.’
Adam had no companion in all of creation. So God created woman & brought them together v23-24.
‘And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’
Its put forward by those in favour of Homosexuality that these verses are silent on the issue of homosexuality and therefore laregelly irrelevant to the debate, however there is an obvious significance in this silence.
(i) The Creation Order. God created man male & female.
When Adam had no helpmeet, God created a woman who was different to him physically, emotionally and sexually yet at the same time physically, emotionally & sexually COMPATIBLE to him.
Homosexuality lacks this compatibility and involves the use of body parts for purposes totally alien to what they are designed for and yet the great pretence of our society is that somehow this is natural. In reality this is a rejection of the obvious and a denial of what is self evident.
(ii) The Creation Mandate – to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.
Homosexuality cannot fulfil this. The command can only be fulfilled by this designed sexual compatibility by which a man and a woman together have the potential to reproduce and procreate the race. Are we to believe that this command of God to precreate life, as given to our first parents, has homosexuality in view which of necessity is a culture of death.
(iii) The Creation Ordinance – Marriage as defined by Gen 2:23-24.
What God says here sets the legitimate parameters for all human sexual relations. One man and one woman joined together in marriage become ‘one flesh’ which includes physical intercourse. This excludes all pre-marital sexual promiscuity; adultery, polygamy and Homosexuality. The consistent and uncontradicted teaching of Scripture when it comes to human sexuality is that there are only two legitimate options – heterosexual marriage or celibacy.
The points made above are what we will be referring to as the ‘natural order’ or the ‘created order.’ It has become common to define what is natural in the realm of sexuality by our sinful tendencies after the Fall whereby we have perverted sexuality in a whole host of ways. But what God established in the beginning for man is what we are to regard as natural.
G.B.
06.10.09
A Double ‘Hold-Fast’
“This inward hold-fast which Christ has of us, and we of him, is mutual, he apprehends us in our perishing condition, and we apprehend him, (Phil. iii. 12,) just as a man fallen into water, reaches his hand to us, and we put forth our hand to catch hold of him. There is hand in hand, Christ clasping us by his Spirit, we him by the hand of faith. Christ first seeks us that were lost, and by his Spirit lays hold on us; then do we that fled from him, turn to him, and lay hold on Christ.” (William Lyford, The Instructed Christian, p.135)
Thinking and meditating on Christ is about thinking and meditating on such truths as above. Here is another from the same Puritan author:
“It behoved Christ to be a man, that he might suffer death; he must also be God, that he might be able to bear and overcome the punishment of sin. Man’s nature can suffer death, but not overcome it. The divine nature cannot suffer death, but can overcome all things. And he must be God and man in one person, that the sufferings performed in the human nature might be of value and efficacy to save. 2 Cor. xiii. 4.” (pp.122-3)
G.M.
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06.03.09
Augustine and Torture
In the book Augustine, by Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 1986), Chadwick states: “Augustine was much opposed to torture, which was regular in criminal procedure and especially treason trials; it made innocent people confess to acts they had not committed and left them maimed.”
I would personally suggest that this is a much more Christian position than that of many misguided Neo-conservative-minded evangelicals today. And as with many other powers that Christians have foolishly granted the state (particularly powers to interfere in families and control the economy), this one may come back to bite us.
G.M.
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05.30.09
What the Bible says about Homosexuality (1)
One of the legacies left to Western Nations from the sexual revolution of the 1960’s has been the increasing incidence, influence and tolerance of Homosexuality in society. Now some forty years on and Homosexuality has become one of the Crises of our time.
Since the turn of the century we (in the U.K.) have witnessed.
1. The introduction of Civil Partnership Legislation to legitimatise same sex relationships.
2. The Legalisation of adoption for same sex couples.
3. The teaching of the validity of Homosexual relationships to children as young as 6 in schools.
4. The increased manipulation of society by minority pressure groups and the media to promote the homosexual agenda.
5. The persecution as ‘homophobic’ of those who would question or oppose homosexuality.
An example of this from the U.S. would be the reaction to the comments of Miss California who had the audacity to say she believed that marriage should be between one man and one woman. There are many advocates of ‘tolerance’ who will not tolerate such a conviction.
Society has largely succumbed to the pressure but as with most things, sooner or later they begin to have an impact on the Church.
1. In 2003 Gene Robinson was appointed a Bishop in New Hampshire (USA). He was joined in civil union to his partner in 2008 & the controversy almost rent the Anglican Communion.
2. Closer to home (Scotland) last Saturday evening the Church of Scotland voted by a majority to induct an openly practicing homosexual minister, Scott Rennie, to the Queen’s Cross congregation in Aberdeen where he will live in the manse with his male partner.
How can this happen? How can something that has been condemned by the Church in both Testaments and in all ages as sinful, suddenly become acceptable? How can a Church that is supposed to follow the religion revealed in the Bible induct a practising Homosexual to the ministry of Word & Sacrament. Even to many irreligious people in the world this beggars belief.
The Answer is that the Church has rejected the Bible. Some Churchmen might boldly confess this. Others will be more subtle, they might say we need to adapt the Bible to the society we live in. We need to change. Others will say that they do believe the Bible and that (no matter about 2000 yrs of teaching) it does not condemn Homosexuality.
Despite all of the above it is our contention that the Bible is clear on the issue of Homosexuality – It is Sin. What has occurred in the Church of Scotland is a disgrace to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Church of God & it is because of this, and with a heavy heart we take up this issue.
G.B.
05.29.09
Remembering the Past
Though not impossible, it is hard to over-state the importance of knowing our history, especially the history of the Christian Church; including, I might add, the period between the Apostles and the Reformation. If we ignore history, we ignore the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and again, particularly the accumulated wisdom of the great teachers and rulers the Lord has granted his Church throughout the centuries. There is truly no new thing under the sun, but those who have historical memory loss tend to think that everything is new, and what’s worse, be fooled by every repackaged error.
“Many Christians treat the past like a dead, and therefore irrelevant, ancestor. As a result, memory has little place in an age that has little vision. Rather than repressing memories about our predecessors and their virtue, remembering may be an undetected aid ‘for the living of these days’ unless, of course, we have definitively judged that our spiritual parents were so feeble, inferior, cowardly, or unenlightened as to be prevented from communing at the same table as we. That is the arrogance of the modern.” (David Hall, Unknown)
The Bible is not one long Epistle to the Romans. There are poetical books, books of proverbs, and such like. It captures the soul with beauty. It gains an ear through the imagination with similes and parables, with passages and stories that are figurative and fantastical, and so on. And it is full of lots and lots of history. For, as the Puritans never tired of stating, “Man is a creature that is led more by patterns than by precepts.” God expects us to learn a great deal from Church history and the lives of the saints – especially within Scripture, but also from all the generations since the completion of God’s special revelation. Take the family, for an example. If you want to know how to live a practical godly life as a family, where would you turn in Scripture? Paul’s Epistles have only a limited amount to say. You will need to study the lives of the godly families in the Church, and most of these, or the fullest cases, are all in the Old Testament historical passages. And to better understand how these principles that you would extract apply to other and more modern situations, you would be greatly helped by studying how godly families through the generations since have done so.
Let me add two similar quotations to the one above:
“Examples do strangely charm us into imitation. When holiness is pressed upon us we are prone to think that it is a doctrine calculated for angels and spirits whose dwelling is not with flesh. But when we read the lives of them that excelled in holiness, though they were persons of like passions with ourselves, the conviction is wonderful and powerful.” (Cotton Mather {Puritan}, Unknown)
“Example is the most powerful rhetoric.” (Thomas Brooks {Puritan}, Unknown)
I would argue for the need to have some acquaintance with our Western heritage, as well the need to learn a few very basic lessons from some of the greatest political and social mistakes that men have made throughout history; I would, of course, argue more strongly for a rough knowledge of Church history up to the present; but at the very least, we need to quicken our love of holiness by reading the lives of the godly, those of whom the world was not worthy.
G.M.
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05.27.09
Christianity and Beauty
“Has the Lord adorned flowers with all the beauty which spontaneously presents itself to the eye, and the sweet odour which delights the sense of smell, and shall it be unlawful for us to enjoy that beauty and this odour? What? Has He not so distinguished colours as to make some more agreeable than others? . . . In short, has He not given many things a value without having any necessary use?”
John Calvin, Unknown
G.M.
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05.21.09
What Christ Can and Shall Do!
As we see the Church in the West in almost continual decline, it is surely good for us to remind ourselves not only of what God can do, but what he will do. There will yet be great revivals, and there will be a time when the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
“Salvation shall spread through all the tribes and ranks of mankind, as the lightening from heaven in a few moments would communicate a living flame through ten thousand lamps and torches placed in a proper situation and neighborhood. Thus a nation shall be born in a day when our Redeemer please, and his faithful and obedient subjects shall become as numerous as the spires of grass in a meadow newly mown, and refreshed with the showers of heaven.”
Isaac Watts & John Guyse, Unknown
The ‘Puritan Hope’ did not die with the Puritans.
G.M.
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05.19.09
‘An Heritage of the LORD’
Our good friend over at The Young Puritan has started a series on The Parents’ Responsibility in the Home. I benefited from reading his first instalment and particularly liked this quotation from the Puritan Joseph Caryl:
[On "the fruit of the womb is his reward" (Ps. 127:3b)] “Hence note, ’tis one of the greatest outward blessings to have a family full of dutiful children. To have many children is the next blessing to much grace. To have many children about us is better than to have much wealth about us. To have store of these olive plants (as the Psalmist calls them) round about our table is better than to have store of oil and wine upon our table. We know the worth of dead, or rather lifeless treasures, but who knows the worth of living treasures? Every man who hath children hath not a blessing in them, yet children are a blessing, and some have many blessings in one child. Children are chiefly a blessing to the children of God. “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” But are not houses and lands, gold and silver, an heritage bestowed by the Lord upon his people? Doubtless they are, for the earth is his, and the fullness of it, and he gives it to the children of men. But though all things are of God, yet all things are not alike of him: children are more of God than houses and lands.”
Do Christians today view children in a similar way? Or have we become conditioned by an age that treats debt as a blessing and children as a curse, rather than children as a blessing and debt as a curse?
G.M.
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05.18.09
Preaching on God’s Sovereignty and Revival
We are often told that it is a great mistake to preach on God’s sovereignty in ‘evangelistic settings’, but Jonathan Edwards, who saw two periods of awakening in his congregation, viewed the subject somewhat differently:
“I think I have found that no discourses have been more remarkedly blessed, than those in which the doctrine of God’s absolute sovereignty, with regard to the salvation of sinners, and his just liberty, with regard to answering prayer, and succeeding the plans, of natural men, continuing such, have been insisted upon.” (Works I, p.353)
G.M.
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