Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Punditry: nice work, if you can get it

It must be nice, being a pundit (or "pundent," as Hugh Hewitt pronounces it; one day, he'll say "new-kew-lar pun-dent," and my head will explode — but I digress). If you're a professional, paid pundit, you don't have to care what happens to the country. You only have to sound like you care, and you have to appeal to people who actually do.

I find myself thinking this again in light of George Will's recent twitting of John McCain.

Ah, George Will. Can you summarize him in three words? I can: prissy, snippy, effete.

And so McCain rightly expresses outrage at the Supreme Court's latest stupid ruling, but Will finds a way to diss him for it. And that's fine; every regular reader will know that I have no great love for John McCain. In fact, about the only bumper sticker I can imagine displaying during this election would say something like:
McCain
Regrettably Necessary

HSAT, here's Will, making McCain look stupid and all that. And I think, "Sure, whatever; Will doesn't care much whether McCain wins, or whether arguably the most powerful position in the world is held by an unqualified, unprepared, radically-liberal, racist-friendly gasbag. Either way, his job is secure."

I've often thought that. I've been forced to think it of Rush Limbaugh, with whom I usually agreed back when my schedule let me listen to him. Rush talks; he talks, and that's what he does. Talks. Talks to people who really do care, and who are energized and get up and do things — but he doesn't, much. Because talking is what he does, and it's just about all he does. He does it well, but he does it almost exclusively.

And that's punditry. Smash liberalism verbally, and your audience loves you. And if the liberals win, and further destroy America? No matter: your audience will love you all the more, because they'll need you all the more to help them keep their sanity, and to say out loud what none of the MSM outlets nor "leaders" are saying.

So: horrible government, or golden government. To the pundit, either way is fine. Because you have a lot to talk about either way. And talking (or writing) is what you do.

Someone may say, "Isn't it like that for the pastor?" Yes, and no. But that is perhaps a topic for another post.

Monday, June 16, 2008

"The Happening" review, thrice through

Review of
The Happening, written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan


SPOILER-FREE BRIEFLY


Like Shyamalan, but didn't like the movie. Disappointing. Big-time.

SPOILER-FREE, MORE FULLY

I have seen and enjoyed (to varying degrees) every M. Night Shyamalan movie since "Sixth Sense." I even didn't hate "Lady in the Water," which many of his fans admit was a very flawed movie. It was, indeed, flawed — but hey, nobody's perfect. And I'm inclined to like a guy who is hated by so much of Hollywood. Plus, the trailers for "The Happening" made this movie look pretty hot, pretty must-see. So I went opening night, so as not to hear any "spoilers" other than the one I'll mention below.

Sorry to say, the trailers were better, more fast-paced and suspenseful and engaging, than the movie. Just watch them a few times, and call it good.

The movie had moments, and some memorable turns and lines... but oh, heavens, it was so obvious. A happens, and you think, "I bet B will follow." It does. So then when 1 happens, you think more jadedly, "Gee, wonder whether 2 is next." And it is. So by the time alpha pops up, you're groaning, "No no, wait, I know this one, don't tell me — beta!" And sure enough, beta pokes its head through the door and waves at you.

Plus, the leads Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are pretty wooden, and pretty weird, respectively. Plus, I groan at the plot-device, the thing that is... da da da dummmmb... The Happening.

So: predictability, not-great acting, and a groaner of a premise. Sound like fun?

It wasn't, much.

I'm really sorry to say that, too. Wanted to like it. And I am not one who goes to movies to pick them apart. I go to enjoy; I suspend my disbelief. So when a movie forces me to this kind of criticism, well, it's not a good sign.

SPOILERY

Okay, you get that I'm going to give away plot-developments in this section, right? Fine.

Oh. My. Lands. The planet is tired of us, and it's trying to kill us, because we're bad! The grass hates us! The bushes, the trees, they want us dead! Old Treebeard and his ents were lightweights; they just hammered orcs. But in this movie, the weeds make all sorts of people jam needles into their necks, and saw their wrists, and lie under lawn-mowers, and feed lions in a really non-Mutual-of-Omaha's-Wild-Kingdomy manner.

"Eco-thriller." Now, that's the one spoilery thing I heard, the only one. It made my heart sink. Someone characterized it as an "eco-thriller" which, to me, is (in these greenomaniacal days) pretty much a contradiction in terms.

How original, eh? An "eco-thriller"! Who would have thought?

Well, everybody, and it's dumb, and it's boring, and unfortunately Shyamalan doesn't bring much of his creative originality to it this time.

In fact, it's almost exactly the same as "Signs," except without people you care that much about, and without cool aliens, and without much humor, and without a happy ending. But it's a massive invasion, told through the eyes of a small group of people, that comes, climaxes, and stops. There y'go.

So this is all told as the planet defending itself against us (what? we're not part of the planet too?), because of course we're bad and all. Heavens, there's so much "green" bombardment that I'm feeling a bit green myself, and not in a tree-huggy way.

So I paid $10 to be lectured on how the planet's going to kill me because I treat it so badly.

And then this morning I read Revelation 16. It's a peek into some pretty horrific events that will take place in the future. These are real eco-disasters. But they're not the planet avenging itself because of Round-up, freon, and SUV's. It's God avenging Himself because of unbelief, rebellion, and sin. Waters turn to blood, fish die, the sun scorches people — and how do people react?
"They did not repent and give him glory" (v. 9b)
"They did not repent of their deeds" (v. 11b)
Now there's a human trait: refusal to face God's truth, and repent. No matter what the miseries, the judgments, the consequences, man will not humble himself, admit the truth about God, and repent.

Does this movie give a peek at how folks will convince themselves that they needn't repent, though? Does it suggest one scenario that fallen man will fabricate, something that will find judgments occasions for deeper rebellion instead of repentance?

Will they just reinterpret these disasters as Mother Gaia's revenge, and will they curse the God of Jesus Christ for the hated dominion mandate (Genesis 1:26-28)?

Could be.

The problem Shyamalan poses is an impersonal, impenetrable, and inexorable. It is not the truth of an infinite-personal God who has spoken, who has revealed Himself, who has condemned rebellion, but who also accomplished redemption in Jesus Christ. Shyamalan has horror and dread, but he has no Gospel, no good news.

Wrong problem => wrong solution.

So the movie leaves one bored and insulted, or alarmed and anxious. It offers no hope.

Only Jesus Christ can offer genuine, eternal, transcendent grounds for hope.

POSTSCRIPT 1: I'm going to allow spoilers in the meta. If you don't want spoilers, don't read the meta.

POSTSCRIPT 2: saw "The Incredible Hulk." Much better movie. Just dumb fun; lots of cartoony action-movie violence, a naughty word or two, but I'd already had more fun in the first three minutes than I did in the whole "Happening.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

New feature: "what I'm reading"

Thanks to popular demand... er.... Because of the many requests for... um....

I think one person said once somewhere that I should have a list up, giving the books I'm reading. And actually, I think it was at Pyro. But that sidebar's pretty crowded, so:

You'll see it starting today. I'll try to keep it up to date.

This includes, btw: books I'm reading to my family (LOTR), books I'm reading with my wife (Lewis; Packer and Dever), and books I have salted at various places for various times. Just trying to do what F. F. Bruce told me he did: fill up odd moments. Which, very clearly, I've never done as well as he did!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Über-trivia 1

("1," because I'm sure I'll be back for more, sometime)

Is Mark Dever "Mark Devvvver," or is it "Mark Deeeever"?

Is R. C. Sproul "R. C. Sprole," or "Sprowl," or "Sprool"?

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Freaks, media, and Christian compassion

You've doubtless heard of the "world's first pregnant man."

I'm not going to put up a picture, and I'm not going to link to any of the breathless, adoring, giddy MSM articles on it. Unless you're locked in an attic (without any media access), you know the story. And, I would hope, you know that this is no such thing. Pregnant, yes; man, no.

And if you're either Christian or some-kind-of-morally-sane, you're repulsed at the media-fed, Oprah-fed adoration of this person, and how the story is being leveraged to feed the aggressive barrage of the homosexual agenda.

That being the case, you might initially find this essay by Ben Shapiro refreshingly different, for which I have Al Sends (—is that his real name?) to thank. Shapiro's opening graph is more sober and factual than most entire articles in the LSM:
The media seems bizarrely obsessed with the story of "Thomas Beatie," aka Tracy Lagondino. Beatie, a woman who legally changed her sex to "male," retained all of her internal female organs at the same time she took testosterone, grew a beard and had breast removal surgery. She then "married" her lesbian partner, Nancy. Nancy proceeded to artificially inseminate her "husband." And so the press has announced that Thomas/Tracy (Thracy, let's call her) is the world's first "pregnant man."

If Thracy is a man, then so is Rosie O'Donnell. Thracy has two X chromosomes, a fully functioning set of female genitalia, and a uterus -- and a voice higher than Alvin the Chipmunk's. She's a plain old lesbian who was weirdly fascinated with the idea of using a Schick Quattro on her face. Though Thracy's decision to artificially inseminate herself is the height of narcissism, it is hardly a medical anomaly.

Shapiro is clearly disgusted both by the media rapture, the not-so-hidden agenda, and the individual who has put herself and her self-disfigured body in the spotlight. His intent clearly is to rip off the gauzy filter and expose the many lies and deceptions.

Here's a taste of how he does it:
Thracy is no more than a glorified bearded lady, an Elephant Man for a new age... a self-promoting sleazebag willing to sell her soul and the soul of her baby for publicity... self-made monstrosity ...self-butchered breasts ...
The tone is angry, outraged, disgusted. You have to grant he's got good reason; it's a repulsive story, and the media's raptures are disgusting.

But I think that, as Christians, we have to resist fleeing from one error to another. This woman is a human being, created in God's image — and she's ruined by sin. She has ruined herself, disfigured herself, in her flight from God and pursuit of her twisted passions.

My first question, then, is: "...and that makes her different from you and me, exactly how?"

By nature and by choice, we're all in exactly the same boat. Check this:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Dead, enslaved, and getting deader. Doing it to ourselves over and over and over. Then rinse, and repeat. That's you, and that's me.

I can only conceive of two differences.

One: if you're outside of Christ, then perhaps this poor woman has taken her perversion, her brokenness, her rebellion against her Creator, and put it out there in a display of public bravado. But yours is more quiet. It is indulged in your thoughts, your beliefs, your attitudes. To see it, other humans would have to monitor your bedroom, your computer account, your checkbook, your heart. God sees it, though; and He sees you the same way He sees this poor woman: lost, condemned, hopeless in yourself. Same book, different cover.

Two: if you're in Christ — well, God help you and me if our response is anything along the lines of "I'm not that bad!" If that's true, then the rest of the truth is that we're probably worse. Because, as Christians, we don't have this woman's "excuse" of being dead and blind. We should know better.
For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7-8 CSB)
A Christian should know and acknowledge that the only reason we're not in the same boat as this woman, or a worse boat, is the mysterious, unfathomable, sovereign grace of God. If we cherish even the slightest notion otherwise — God help us, and God help us specifically in what He might allow us to discover in ourselves, to awaken us to the horrifying truth.

The appropriate Christian response to this woman is, of course, not to celebrate her perversion, her self-mutilation, her agenda, or her abuse of this innocent child. Nor is it to treat her as if she were some foul sort of being beneath and other than ourselves. She's a lost soul, acting like a lost soul. The difference is simply that she's put her depravity on more open display than others.

Our response, I think, should be a tricky mixture of repulsion, sadness, compassion, prayer, and renewed resolution to reach out to everyone in our sphere with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who alone can save and redeem poor souls like this — and like ourselves.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Reformed Tourette's?

I think Ron Gleason is a great guy. This review was absolutely hysterical. I need a hand-signal to say how really funny it was. And if I didn't like him, Phil Johnson does, and that would be enough for me.

But then he does this. In the midst of a characteristically good review (this time of Pagan Christianity?), Pastor Gleason feels compelled to say:
Viola gives us an insight into his understanding of Scripture when he writes, “in the New Testament we have the genesis of the church.” Really? He sounds very much like a dispensationalist.
Huh? I had to look twice. Then I got it: Viola says the church begins in the New Testament, dispensationalists say (with Paul) that the church begins in the New Testament; ergo, he "sounds very much like" a dispensationalist.

But I still think it's an odd association, and a bit of a slam. This guy's reportedly saying all sorts of strange things that no dispensationalist would say, and Gleason rightly faults him for them. But Viola seems wobbly in his grasp of the authority of Scripture — whereas writing dispensationalists have virtually unanimously been unwaveringly insistent on the inerrancy and plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture. You can say all the bad things you care to about dispensationalism and -ists, but if you're honest, you'll grant that.

Sometimes it seems as if the resentment bubbling in some Reformed brothers just bursts out uncontrollably every so often, whether really germane or not. Like when I was skimming through Fred Malone's book on baptism, and saw that he took a moment out to slam dispensationalism — whose premises accord very naturally with the credobaptist position.

Perhaps I could try it. Next time I'm discussing some wild-eyed, foam-flecked, ankle-biting, howling, barking, drooling liberal who says that "the Bible seems to say ___, but it really means ____" —

— I'll just save time by saying, "Sounds very much like an amillennialist."

Fair enough?

(And BTW, still love Gleason.)

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Riffing on spam, seminary, off-site education, and the future

This is a sort of spin-off from my post today at Pyro about seminary education.

Commenter Charles Whisnant was first up with this, in part:
I am sure you would agree, learning the Bible and learning theology and learning Greek does not necessary make one ready to pastor a church. Just ask me.
Of course I agree, and it sparked some thoughts.

Have you ever noticed how spam seems to come in cycles, or waves? My Yahoo! email has a spam filter that catches most spam (and some legit emails, so I don't let it be automatic). For awhile, I'll get a flood of spam offering helpfully to enhance some physical aspect of my person that the spammers assume is unsatisfactory. Or a wave will offer to get me a "date," or show me pictures. Then there is the flow of "Dear one" letters from wealthy widows in Kenya, or whatever. I love the "Colon cleanse" letters, that offer to help me lose weight by blowing everything right out of my intestines, overnight. Yeah, that should do 'er. What a fun night that would be, eh?

Recently there has been a wave of "Become a psychologist online" and "Become a nurse online" spam. That makes me chuckle. I envision someone in counseling getting some really stupid advice, or looking up from his hospital bed at this person in white looking at a bottle with complete bafflement, and asking, "Er -- where did you get your degree, again?"

And of course what's sadder (and scarier) is the thought that evidently there are dim bulbs out there who will get these emails and exclaim, "Margie! Lookiethere! I can get that doctorate what I always wanted!"

So surely it's only a matter of time before I get "Become a pastor online" spam.

Except you and I know already that you can "buy" any degree you want. And I'm of two minds on that.

First, of course you can't really get pastoral training online, if that's all you get. Read my Pyro post; I won't repeat it all.

But second, I think established seminaries/institutions are properly having to deal with the fact that distance education is a real trend, and a good one — within limitations. the cost of moving, travel, and all that is placing on-campus education out of the reach of good men who just aren't rich. But with today's technology, there is no good reason why a lot of work can't be done offsite, with on-site supplementation.

Seminaries need to be ramping up for this, and figuring out how to get credible proctoring and all to prevent cheating and ensure that the actual work is done.

But that can only check the academic boxes. That is, in itself, valuable. However, there simply is no substitute for in-person apprenticeship.

So perhaps what a savvy seminary would do is partner with local-church pastors. They would contract with such pastors to do a certain range of on-the-job training, perhaps even channeling some of the tuition to that pastor. Get periodic progress reports. Make that part of the overall curriculum.

HSAT, I close with this:
Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of grave robbers from outer space?
But, I digress.

Monday, June 09, 2008

"Into the Wild" reflections: glorifying selfishness and death?

I just saw the depressing movie "Into the Wild" (2007), scribed and directed by Sean Penn. Yikes. These thoughts will be spoilery... but not too. Unless you think a film on the last days of Lincoln would be spoiled by a reviewer who mentions the assassination.

The film is based on a book about the last, lamentable days of Chris McCandless, a young man who ran away after college and ended up dying in the Alaskan wilderness. I have not read the book; Roger Ebert has, and clearly loved both it and the movie. He says the latter is faithful to the former.

I think the movie is meant to be a bit hagiographical. We're supposed to see young McCandless as idealistic, wounded, naive, bright as a star, but ill-starred. I think this is confirmed beyond doubt by one climactic and significant change Penn makes.

In the movie, the last scene shows McCandless staring rapturously up into the sky, smiling, and dying. You hear his heartbeat grow rapid, then cease.

And then you see a sign that movie-McCandless left on the bus in which he spent his final days and hours. The sign reads, "I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!" Uplifting, eh?

Except that's from a journal note, and I don't know its date. The actual note he left on the bus read, "S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?"

Not so uplifting, eh?

The movie depicts McCandless as wounded by his parents' sometimes-violent quarreling, their materialism, their expectations. So in reaction the boy lies to them, deceives them, liquidates his assets, and lives out the vision others write about: heading ultimately towards Alaska to be a pure man, free of possessions and entanglements, one with nature. On the way he meets various hippies and transients, and there is some nudity. One refreshingly different note is that he actually refuses a sexual come-on from an attractive young girl. Don't see many in movies turning down sex. Ever.

I love survival-type films and stories. My favorite Louis L'Amour novel is Lonesome Gods, which features a man's trek across the desert. Science-fiction or real life, I always love struggles for survival — from a distance. That's what attracted me to this movie.

What I found instead was a terminally and destructively selfish, self-absorbed, self-impressed young fool who reaped pretty bitter harvest from the seeds he sowed. I am sorry, but unsurprised, that some regard him as a heroic. He is anything but.

Sadly, no one is shown as having clearly told young McCandless the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Young Chris was left to follow his heart. That's Hollywood's Gospel: follow your heart — but it's really a dyspel. The heart isn't our beacon in a dark world. The heart is deceitful and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). Anyone who actually trusts his heart is not a wise visionary, but a fool (Proverbs 28:26). We need deliverance from our hearts, but enslavement to them (Romans 7:24).

McCandless followed his heart "into the wild," and it killed him.

Viewed as a visionary revelation, the movie is a failure.

Viewed as a cautionary tale — bingo.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

June 8, a day of shame — for Mormons

I wonder how many freed souls count this as "the day I realized my cult was full of baloney"?

Read this excellent piece by m'man Aaron Shafovaloff.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Hillary! and The Obama: I get it

If Hillary! had won, it would not have been just because she was a woman.
But if you didn't vote for her, it's because she's a woman.

If The Obama wins, it will not be just because he's a (half-)black man.
But if you don't vote for him, it's because he's a (half-)black man.


I get it now.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Prediction about the "Obama bombshell"

Don't want to bump Tuesday's post prematurely, but I do want to get this on-record. So I'm writing about 1pm PST Tuesday, setting this to post a minute past midnight Wednesday.
You've heard all over the place that Wednesday is supposed to bring a "devastating bombshell" to be dropped on The Obama.

Well, maybe, maybe not.

But I remind you that, again and again, The Obama has out-Clintoned the Clintons. Now, do you remember how, during the Dark Years, every time some mildly negative bit of news was about to come out, the Clinton camp would grossly exaggerate it before release? That way the LSM lapdogs would grab it, run with it, report that it would be horrible, awful, apocalyptic, devastating...

...and then when it actually came out, everyone shrugged and said "Oh. That? That's all?" Massive anticlimax, engineered by the Clinton media-masseuse geniuses.

Well, in this case:
  1. If it's Republicans who have this devastating bombshell, and it's truly devastating, they're burbling, drooling idiots for not sitting on it until after The Obama is formally anointed
  2. If it's Hillary!'s folks who have it, I think they'd have released it earlier
  3. If it's The Obama's folks who have it, it could be a classic Clinton head-fake. In that case, brace for the grand fizzle.
You heard it first, here.

NEXT-DAY UPDATE SUMMARY: fizzzzzzzzzzgrunk.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Imagine that conversion to Christ were against the law

No need to imagine. It is already the case in Iran, as elsewhere. Craig points to an article detailing the arrest and questioning of twelve in Iran, accused of converting to Christ. Which jogs a number of thoughts.

First, a sincere and heartfelt disclaimer, to which I'll return at the end: nothing of what I am about to say should be read as self-righteous, lofty scolding. I am in no position to dole out arrogant lectures to anyone who I deem insufficiently willing to suffer for Christ. I know how repugnant it is for armchair theorists to sneer at what they imagine is the poor performance of folks who (unlike them) are actually in the field, trying and attempting and sacrificing and suffering.

Having said that, I do know a bit about history and the Bible, and both have me wondering: is the Gospel spreading so slowly, particularly in Muslim-oppressed lands or in China, because Christians are unwilling to suffer as martyrs? because they hide their worship, their testimony, their baptisms? Is not the blood of the martyrs still the seed of the church?

As soon as I write that, and in spite of my disclaimer, I feel shame. Who am I to fault? What have I suffered? How many times have I drawn back for fear of a mere sneer, or mere job loss? What finger can I point that doesn't bring shame and condemnation on my own head?

Have I in any way led my family to have eternal values? Can my young sons even conceive of suffering for Jesus, and gladly so? Or can I conceive of them choosing to risk and suffer for eternal values and goals? Or are not my goals for them — and the value-structure I've (however unintentionally) bred in them — strictly this-worldly, middle-class, materialistic, and safe? With a little Jesus sprinkled on top for after you die? In my loving effort to make sure they have nice things, to give them security, to afford every advantage, and by my own consequent playing it safe, have I unwittingly led their love in the wrong direction?

Well, yikes. That little bit of tepid would-be reproach rather backfired, didn't it?

Monday, June 02, 2008

Oh, ouch! What dulls our hunger for God

I'm not the first to quote this, but:
The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18–20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.
(John Piper, A Hunger for God [Wheaton: Crossway, 1997], 14; from D. A. Carson, For the Love of God : A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word. Volume 1 [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1998], May 28 entry)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

My Big Announcement

A hundred years ago, when I was in my first round of pastoral training, the founder of the institute said something that stuck in my craw.

He said, "If you can do something else other than pastoral ministry, do it."

At the time, I thought it an awfully cynical remark. He seemed to be putting down the ministry, or suggesting that pastors were people who were inept at everything else and just couldn't get a "real job." Either way, I discounted it. I was caught up in a view of pastoral ministry that unconsciously cherished many bright misconceptions about what it involved and promised.

But I remembered what he said, because it bothered me.

And now, some thirty-plus years later, it still bothers me... but now I think I agree. I see it as related to 1 Timothy 3:1 — "The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task." The two Greek words translated "aspires" and "desires" (ὀρέγεται, ἐπιθυμεῖ; oregetai, epithumei) combine to depict someone with a strong drive, almost a compulsion.

So I've come to see that statement differently. I think his point wasn't that pastoral ministry is a lousy job; nor that pastors can't get "real work" (he himself was a full-time High School teacher at one point in his ministry). His point was: if you can stand doing something other than being a pastor, if you're not driven to do pastoral ministry, if it's just another job — then by all means do something else.

Which brings us to your humble servant: me.

For the past decade-plus I've primarily done-something-else. Family circumstances required that I switch gears as 1998 dawned, and I was soon providentially enabled to do some crash-training in IT and get a couple of really nice jobs in the industry.

But my heart has always yearned towards the ministry of the Word. I've just looked for ways of doing it, no matter what else I was doing: filling pulpits every chance I'm given, doing a web site, blogging, email correspondence, men's fellowship at church, conferences. All that has been a great blessing to me. But rather than satisfying my yearning to minister the Word, it has only increased my desire to be devoted to the Word full-time.

I have a great job from almost any angle: great manager, great co-workers, good work-environment, terrific benefits, nice salary, and startlingly good bonuses. I don't take it for granted, I'm grateful to God for it and how it's met our needs — and my heart just isn't in it.

By contrast, the more I fellowship with pastors, the more I've had the opportunity to encourage and help them via blogging and email, the more I'm exposed to the state and need of the church today, and the more I grow in the Lord, the more the compulsion has grown. It isn't so much what I want to do as it is what I need to do in the service of the Lord.

So after long conversations with my dear wife, coupled with hours of praying and thinking and weighing and internally debating and working it through, I've made the Big Decision:

I am seeking full-time ministry of the Word, in earnest. My hat's in the ring.

(Perhaps your reaction will be like my beloved oldest child's, as reported to me by Valerie, which amounted to, "Well, duh.")

All this to say, please pray for me and my family. And if you know of any opportunities, the answer is "Yes, I'm interested."

To be specific:
  1. Pray for God to guide our thinking, and to open doors
  2. Pray that God will put us together with a group of believers who (A) will be well-served by the gifts God has given me, and (B) can provide what is needed to support and make a home for my family.
  3. Let any seeking bodies know of my availability. We are willing to relocate and, while we have preferences, aren't ruling anything out offhand — as long as #2 obtains.
Acts 20:24 — 2 Timothy 4:1-5 — Jeremiah 20:9 — 1 Corinthians 9:16

UPDATE: I have a growing list of posts and post-ideas on tap, but plan to leave this one at the top through the rest of the week. Hope you understand! Thanks to all of you who've been encouraging to me, to you who have sent me suggestions and alerted me to openings, to you who have made my family a matter for prayer in your families and churches. I'll keep you posted.

Monday, May 26, 2008

American readers in particular: as you enjoy your political freedom today...

...never forget: freedom costs. We live free because others died to purchase and protect our freedom.

M'man Frank says it well with pictures.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Reminder: how the LSM will report the election

In the interests of saving everyone time, so you can spend more time reading the Bible and other profitable and related literature: here's the news for the next 5+ months as the LSM (Lamestream Media) will report it:

NO MATTER WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS...
  1. The GOP will be depicted as a smoking ruin of hopelessly fractured chaos and misery. Look for words like "rising chorus [with a negative]," "dismay," "trying to," "disheartened," "discouraged," "disappointed," "divided," "defensive," "dwindling," and such.
  2. If the GOP candidate scores any direct hits, words such as "blasted," "attacked," and "lashed out" will be employed. Any Democratic response will be reported with an air of injured, but vastly superior, dignity — as if Junior had simply thrown a tantrum, suffered an embarrassing seizure, or launched a baffling, unwarranted, and vicious attack.
  3. If Obama is the Democratic candidate, it will be hinted that the only possible reason for not supporting him is racism.
  4. If Hillary! is the Democratic candidate, it will be hinted that the only possible reason for not supporting her is misogyny.
  5. Many creative ways will be found to suggest that McCain (of whom, I remind you, I am no great fan) is senile, delusional, and dangerous.
  6. The Democrats will be painted as united, purposeful, calm, in-control, mature, on-the-offense, brilliant, inevitable, and supported by every leader and expert in (and out of) Christendom.
  7. The media, in spite of its boasted resourcefulness, will find itself unable to locate any respected experts to laud any GOP candidate proposals, nor criticize the opposition's specifics nor philosophy; but they will have more experts favoring the opposition than the city dump has rats.
  8. Polls will be created and slanted to show the GOP headed for a huge waterfall.
If Republicans actually win, their success will be cast in suspicious light, the motives (or intelligence) of voters will be impugned — or it will be hinted that the process itself was suspect. It will be lamented that the country clearly has not yet healed itself of racism or misogyny, depending on which candidate the Dems finally anoint.

There. You heard it here, first. Now you have a "time incentive package."

What will you do with it?

UPDATE: oh yes, one more pair:
  1. When the Dem candidate speaks, particularly in criticizing his GOP opponent, the LSM will simply report it, without critical analysis
  2. When the GOP candidate speaks, its reporting will be embedded in analysis, criticism, and mind-reading. ("In an attempt to still criticism, McCain said...."; "Hoping to raise the crushed spirits of his disheartened supporters, McCain lashed out at ___, saying...."; "McCain claimed _____. Twenty-seven Nobel Peace Prize winning scientists/economists/hairdressers issued a blistering analysis which stated ____"; etc.)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Alford and Piper: quick question

I know I heard (or read) John Piper saying something to the effect that Henry Alford was his favorite, most-used single commentator on the Greek text. But I can't source it. I fear it may have been in a panel session on a conference.

Anyone help me out on that?

[UPDATE: Phil Gons found the quotation, thanks to the suggestion by Pilgrim Mommy. It was after Piper's lecture on John Owen. Piper says:

When I’m stumped with a . . . grammatical or syntactical or logical flow [question] in Paul, I go to Henry Alford. Henry Alford mostly answers—he . . . comes closer more consistently than any other human commentator to asking my kinds of questions. (John Piper, “John Owen: The Chief Design of My Life—Mortification and Universal Holiness,” 1:30:11–1:30:31).

Now that Phil found the quotation, I remember agreeing with Piper: Alford asks my kind of questions, too.]

Monday, May 19, 2008

Christian parent forum: raising boys

Breaking news: boys and girls are different! Bible-believing Christians knew it all along, but the world has just recently muzzily woken up to the fact.. though they haven't done much with it.

This is "open-mike" for Biblically-oriented Christian parents of more than one boy.
  1. If you have boys and girls, how is raising boys different?
  2. How do your boys relate to one another? Partners, competitors, combatants?
  3. What are the special challenges of raising boys?
  4. How have you met those challenges?
  5. Is squabbling rare, occasional, or constant? How do you deal with it?
  6. What do you most regret?
  7. What do you wish you'd figured out earlier?
Have at it.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Quick word on Prince Caspian

See it.

While I like the first book better than the second, I like the second movie better than the first.

I'm fomenting a fuller review that may replace this post, so no comments or questions yet.

It is a bit more violent, and there's talk. So (to pluck an age) 5-6 may be too young. My 8yob, who isn't a lover of talky movies, loved it.

Perfect? Nah. Quibbles? Yep.

Liked it a lot and see it again? Yep; tonight, if I can.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

As surprised as anybody (— except, perhaps, my high school teachers)

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz



The truth is, I was an inattentive and notional high-school student until my senior year, when the Lord saved me and everything changed. I've often wished I could go back and pay better attention... starting in about fourth grade!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Atheist ideas have consequences, too

I want to check this out further, but evidently my alma mater Biola University hosted a debate between Princeton's Dr. Pete Singer and Dinesh D'Souza on atheism.

I'm curious about it because my impression is that D'Souza, whatever his other strengths, is not a spokesman for evangelical Christianity. His essay strikes me as being pretty self-congratulatory, which isn't the first time his writing has made that impression on me.

That aside, he makes the absolutely correct connection between Singer's atheism and his monstrous ethics, his advocacy of infanticide, his devaluation of human life that doesn't meet his criteria for usefulness. Singer (reportedly) doesn't want a connection made between his atheism and those positions. But, of course, there is a connection — because ideas have consequences.

This is modern atheism. Its currency is deep denial.

Modern atheism wants to affirm the butt end of the rope heartily, while denying its inexorable and necessary connection to the noose at the other terminus.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Islam: ideas have consequences

This post could have many titles:
Iraq: was it worth it?
Iraq: our soldiers died for this?
Iraq: I told you so
Who is this girl?


She is — or was — seventeen-year-old Rand Abdel-Qater. Now she's a statistic, a sad statistic: another victim of the way the Islamic religion is being practiced across the Middle East.

Her father now boasts of "having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his daughter to death," with the help of his sons. He then threw her in a grave, her uncles spat on her body. And I don't really care to pass along any of the subhuman celebrations and rationalizations of these monsters.

Her crime? Immoral sex? You know they're hard on women who sleep around. No, it wasn't that. Rand died a virgin.

It was that she had feelings for a (non-Muslim) British soldier. That was enough to move her father to murder her brutally.

The police (he says) knew of it and questioned him. But he's free now, bragging that the "police congratulated him on what he had done."

And this is in Iraq. The country we liberated.

I agreed with what President Bush did, I think it makes sense on many levels, I think more free countries in the Middle East is a great thing for the world.

But my reservations are the same that I have registered once and again: the American experiment worked to the degree that it did because it was made within a Judeo-Christian framework. We fought for our liberty from oppression, and built a new society with respect to the truths of the Bible. To the degree we've held to that framework, to that degree it has been successful.

But neither of those things is true of Iraq. They did not (primarily) fight for their freedom, and it was not sought and achieved within a Biblical framework. People in general (and women in particular) are not accorded the same value within Islam that they are in Biblically-oriented societies.

The only hope I've had for Iraq has been that liberation would make Christian evangelism possible. I haven't heard of much success in that arena; but I have heard stories of American Christian soldiers having their liberties curtailed as they serve in Iraq.

There is much to pray for, regarding that sad, poor country.

We might start with Rand's mother, who left her husband in horror for his crime. Pray that she not become a "moderate" Muslim, nor an atheist. Pray that someone tells her of the truth of Jesus Christ.

And pray she lives long enough to hear it.

NOTE: rule 4 will be enforced.

Obama news question

Give me your first impression.

When you see this title —


— what do you think the article is going to be about? Now click.

Surprised? I was. But I shouldn't have been.

Monday, May 12, 2008

All right, that's just wrong

I exist in Sacramento. Just checked the weather forecast, for this delightful second week of April [correction: May, thanks so much to Staci for the correction < /dripping sarcastovoice >]. Spring, right? Ahh, springtime in Sacramento. The Big Tomato. Should be lovely. Right? Trees, rivers, idiots gamboling everywhere....

One hundred degrees! 1-0-0! Fahrenheit!

How's that sound to you? Sounds nasty to me. Sounds like a Bad Sign.

My first thought is, "There should be a law." The reason that's my first thought is because, when the weather heats up, I always think of the stupidest thing I have ever heard a politician say.

That distinction goes, unsurprisingly, to Al Gore.

This goes back to the dark years of The Nameless One's reign of error in the White House. The Nameless One had a Republican congress. And sometime during that period, in the summer, among the many inane, insane, barking-mad ankle-biting idiotic things that poured out of Al Gore's mouth was something like this:

"It's hot out there — sweltering! People are suffering! And the Republican Congress is doing nothing!"

I blinked. Had I heard him right? Surely not. Oh, but I had.

Now, if you ever entertained any doubts about the viselike grip of liberal braindeadness on the American mainstream media, the fact that Gore survived that remark, unremarked, should have ended all doubt. Imagine a Republican suggesting that the Democrats were morally culpable for not outlawing hot weather.

His next public words would have been, "Would you like fries with that?"

So now every time the weather exceeds optimal temperature (77 degrees), in honor of that eminent sage Al Gore and in the spirit of modern America...

...I blame Congress.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Facebook

First, I dissed it.

Now I'm on it.

So, tell me again... what am I supposed to do with it? That feels adult and, you know, point-y?

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

You need a chuckle

Here it is:



See more — with a festive feel! — over at Pyromaniacs.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

If Obama were Republican, or the AP even-handed...

...the story that begins this way:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Barack Obama scolded Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday for saying that the United States would "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacks Israel, and likened her to President Bush. Clinton stood by her comment.
...would instead begin this way:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Hoping to shift attention away from his two-decade association with a racist pastor, Barack Obama scolded Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday for saying that the United States would "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacks Israel, and likened her to President Bush. Clinton stood by her comment.
And, as a bonus, if Hillary! were conservative, it would end thus:
Clinton refused to respond to the criticism.
(Somewhat similar earlier observation)

Friday, May 02, 2008

Penal, substitutionary atonement... in Proverbs?

The Together for the Gospel conference had many lingering (good!) effects on me. One was a resolution to write even more on the titular topic.

An immediate fruit was the resolution to develop much more fully a part of one of my sermons to the good folks at Calvary Community Church in Tennessee. You can read the results over at Pyromaniacs:
Part One
Part Two
I mention it here for any visitors who come hither, but not necessarily thither.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Thabiti lays down some golden wisdom on Wright's offbase jeremiads

I had the great pleasure of meeting Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile at T4G, and being challenged by his address on the topic of "race."

Now he makes about the best and godliest sense I've read yet about Obama's retired pastor's latest rants. Check it out.

(h-t Justin Taylor)

Another millionaire lottery-winner dies broke and broken: WUWD?

A married couple in Florida wins a $13 million Lotto prize. Sounds happy.

Eighteen years later, everything's broken: their marriage, their family, their finances, his health. And then he dies awaiting trial for tax fraud.

This story is so common, yet none the sadder for it. One hears so often of the miserable lives lottery-type winners lead. One wonders:
  1. Are the reports accurate, or “massaged”? (Not that the media would ever knowingly inaccurately report anyth-- oh, wait. They totally would do that.)
  2. If the reports are accurate, what’s the deal?
  3. Is the problem that the personality-type that will look to “quick wins” (rather than hard work and planning), and thus will obsessively play such games, is also the type that will unerringly mismanage the money?
  4. Or is it simply that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10), and that the profit-factor for gaining the world and losing one’s soul (Mark 8:36) is unaffected by inflation?
  5. Against #4, however, there are rich and godly people (1 Timothy 6:17-18) — though the Bible repeatedly warns that it is difficult (Luke 18:25).
  6. Perhaps this then falls into the category of Proverbs 20:21 — "An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end"?
You don't have to take the position that any kind of gambling is inherently and always wrong to see that — to say the least! — quick windfalls do not bring happiness. Plus, as one of the commenters on this thread well says:
...those who play consistantly are just simply very bad at math. And winning the lottery doesn’t magically grant them good math skills. Thus, they don’t realize that even the mega-wealthy have to live within their means.
Hard not to recall Jesus' words: "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21).

PS — WUWD = What Up Wid Dat? Not trying to be faux-cool; just didn't want the worlds longest post headline.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hymn lyric search

Isn't there a hymn that includes the words "tossed and torn by many a doubt"? I can't find it in Google by any combination I've tried. Did I mangle something essential... or make it up entirely?

Monday, April 28, 2008

"Mormon Coffee"

Among the many blessings of my dear wife and my trip to Tennessee was meeting Aaron Shafovaloff (SHOF-a-WAL-lof).

Aaron is an embarrassingly bright young man passionately committed to reaching Mormons with the Gospel. He's had an impact on a number web sites, but I think the primary one on this subject is Mormon Coffee (subtitle: "It's forbidden, but it's good!"), which I commend to you.

The more I learn about Mormonism, the more astonished I am that (A) rational people get caught up in in, (B) rational people stay in it, and especially (C) any Christian wants to argue that it is, in any except a sociological sense, "Christian."

(Wait... are we talking about Roman Catholicism, or Mormonism? Oh, right: Mormonism!)

So here was my particular eye-opener from Aaron this time: that many Mormons not only believe that "God the Father," when a man, could very well have sinned (?!!), and not only are they OK with that possibility... but they actually find it encouraging!

Check out his site.

Just because it chuckles me











I'm fiddling with the time of the earlier post so this won't bump the more important Mormon Coffee post.

But still.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Good word on "Assurance," by J. C. Ryle

Though I read it in a Libronix edition, added to my Logos software, you can read it online.

Ryle is one of those writers whose style is always so engaging and conversational, while no less pleading and weighty, that one is sure he must have been a great preacher as well as an able pastor. I think of some who preach the Bible as if addressing laboratory specimens; Ryle speaks from his heart to our hearts.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Interesting marginal note from the CSB

I have no further comment... except to say that the imagination rather reels.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Talking art

If only it weren't in Korean.

(Warning: partial nudity)

(Disclaimer: that's 99.999% a joke)

UPDATE: my dear wife says I should tell everyone it's the Venus de Milo that provides the partial nudity. No doubt she is, as usual, right.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Are any good hymns still being written?

I'd have to say yes. Not many, perhaps; but yes.

The song linked above was sung on Wednesday at the T4G conference. I'm glad to be able to find the lyrics; it was immensely moving at the time to me, but something (on which I may write more, later) distracted me from full enjoyment.

If this is a copyright violation, someone please tell me; but here are the first two verses:
HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss –
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.
You can get an idea of the tune here. Thank God for those who can put the precious truths of the Gospel to music. Al Mohler made the point in his talk that some who are trying to destroy the truth of penal substitutionary atonement lament that, even if it is banished from the pulpits, when Christians assemble, they'll still sing about it.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Revelation, from a dispensational perspective

I was asked if I could point to any sermon series preaching through Revelation from a dispensational perspective. I don't know of one offhand and can't find one in the time I can spare. Can anyone link to a sermon series online?

Thanks.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

I don't get modern poetry

Look at this:
You could almost think the word [nous; Greek, usually translated "mind"] synonymous with mind, given our so far narrow history, and the excessive esteem in which we have been led to hold what is, in this case, our rightly designated nervous systems. Little wonder then that some presume the mind itself both part and parcel of the person, the very seat of soul and, lately, crucible for a host of chemical incentives—combinations of which can pretty much answer for most of our habits and for our affections.

When even the handy lexicon cannot quite place the nous as anything beyond one rustic ancestor of reason, you might be satisfied to trouble the odd term no further—and so would fail to find your way to it, most fruitful faculty untried. Dormant in its roaring cave, the heart’s intellective aptitude grows dim, unless you find a way to wake it.

So, let’s try something, even now. Even as you tend these lines, attend for a moment to your breath as you draw it in: regard the breath’s cool descent, a stream from mouth to throat to the furnace of the heart. Observe that queer, cool confluence of breath and blood, and do your thinking there.
So, you make your way through that, and if you're like me, you say, "Huh? Okay, then... huh?" It just doesn't make much sense, and you wonder why it was written.

But break up the lines (apparently randomly), and voila! somehow it's a modern poem. Not only a poem but, according to Karsten Piper, an example of a poet "writing with the beating muscle and translucent beauty that’s often missing from church libraries and waiting room magazine piles."

Um... okay....

Look, I know that I'll get beaten senseless by those refined higher souls who are able (as I evidently am not) to appreciate all the beauty and translucent muscle of it and all... but before that happens, I'll just say that this is an example (though by no means the worst) of what I mean when I say I don't much like English-language poetry.

I like Hebrew poetry, I like Kipling.

And that's about it.

(BTW, the title's milder than my original thought. I don't want to be beaten that badly by the raised-pinky crowd.)

So, I was thinking...
Maybe this whole poetry-thing
Isn't as hard as it looks.
Since no one is after the
Extraordinarily tight
and disciplined
Structure
of Greek and Hebrew poetry
Or the rhythm and sounds of
(what I think is)
better English poetry

So maybe

All's you have to do
is
Write some random thoughts
in a stream
And hit "Enter"
Every few words
And break up the lines
with some
random
Capitalizations
and good people will read it
with furrowed brows
and mouths slightly open
and
when they get through
they'll say
"Hunh!"
and
"Whoa"
and
"Deep!"
And they'll think that you're all
muscular
and translucent
and you can have a
nice
little
gig!

UPDATE: Ah. See? It's bad of me to see this differently... or to say I do. Bad Dan! Bad! No cookie!

Friday, April 04, 2008

Boy, "Legion" sounds d-u-m-b

From DarkHorizons:
...the thriller casts [Paul] Bettany as the archangel Michael, the only one standing between mankind and an apocalypse, after God loses faith in humanity.

Man's lone hope rests with a group of strangers who must deliver a baby they realize is Christ in his second coming.
I just, I... unngh! Where do you start?

How many times has that stupid theme been done? Dudes, dudes... step away from the bong. It's a Second Coming — it's not a reincarnation.

It isn't Jesus who needs to be born again.

Yikes.

My little friend

This little fellow came and kept me company in my office for awhile. It was odd, having a spider look at me. Until I photographed him, I thought the shiny iridescent spots were eyes — but they sheathed his fangs.


He was a jumping spider.


I let him go. (Happily, he never jumped at me.)

Search "jumping spider" among vids and web sites, and you seem some pretty amazing pictures. Check this slo-mo vid, and this amazing National Geographic vid.

Grrr, but doggone it, those pictures REALLY have me missing my old 35mm camera from the 80's. I bought a bunch of lenses, and could take the most amazing, precise, exact close-ups. Maybe I'll scan and post some, sometime. My digital camera just can't do it, among other things. A few months ago, I was tempted by a really expensive digital SLR (Canon?, not sure), that could take attachment lenses and take quick-exposure shots.

I'm being tempted again. Do have that bonus money....

Monday, March 31, 2008

Steve Brown - 2

(See part one for the setup)

I have now finished the 37 lectures on grace I had downloaded from RTS, and... whew!

To begin with the Summary Statement: Brown says a number of valuable, useful and true things in a winsome, easy-listening manner — but he encrusts it in so much that is irresponsible and/or garbage that I could never recommend him without a list of warnings and qualifications so long it would look like what you get with a new prescription ("Here are the ways this medicine could kill or horribly disfigure you:....").

Let me list some of my thoughts and observations:
  1. I want to trade my whiny, nasal voice for Brown's basement-deep, resonant voice.
  2. He says a number of thought-provoking and helpful things. Though he doesn't develop it Biblically at any length, he says "God isn't mad at you anymore." Brown says God never disciplines Christians because He's mad at them. Brown says nothing is perfect, nothing is forever, and you aren't home yet. Brown says, When a dog plays checkers, you don't criticize his game; you're just pleased and surprised that he's playing at all. (The point being we wouldn't be so shocked at our failures if we didn't have such a high opinion of ourselves.) Brown says that when pain exceeds payback, real change becomes possible. Brown criticizes phony airs Christians feel they have to put on in front of other Christians, our failure to extend anything like grace and compassion towards one another.
  3. He sounds like a fun, easy guy to be around, to hang with: warm, open, encouraging, and accepting. I want to like him, want to affirm his teaching, wish I could. I think of another well-known name who emphatically affirms grace — yet whenever I've listened to him, for decades, I haven't personally received a grain of grace from his presentation.
  4. The man more stories and illustrations than Methuselah.
  5. This is a big weakness. In theory, Brown constantly claims that everything he says is Reformed and Biblical and sound and true. In practice, he doesn't seem to feel the need to root much of it in Scripture. The entire course featured only a relatively few allusions-to/citations-of Scripture, and no extensive exegesis or exposition. He keeps saying that his students can look it up, or that he's got a ton of Biblical backup, or that he'd normally give Bible but since they're seminary students he won't (?!). Regardless, he seems to start from the position that he has established his position Biblically, and now he just wants to work out the implications.
  6. To his credit, Brown constantly urged his two classes to feel free to challenge him Biblically. To their discredit (in my I-wasn't-there opinion), they never did. Perhaps they started out convinced.
  7. All of the alarms I have begun to sound and will develop in a moment are borne out in this comment thread. In that thread, one Christian brother attempts to bring the Bible to bear on some of what Brown says and does. He doesn't do it in the nicest way, but he does it faithfully. By and large, the host of respondents do not even attempt to engage the Bible. They respond in Brownisms. This is a huge red light. Much as Brown denies that he wants to make disciples of himself, that is exactly what he is doing. He is making them depend on his thoughts, his ideas, his cute sayings, his insights, his experiences, his stories. That is a necessary and unavoidable consequence of giving endless podium-time to stories, illustrations, and cute sayings instead of exposition of the text of Scripture and then development of a system from that text. People come away knowing Brown, not Scripture, and therefore — I fear — not necessarily knowing God.
  8. He says some things that are absolutely, barkingly, wildly irresponsible; and if his students take any of them seriously, they will ruin their ministries and other people. For instance:
    (A) Brown says that, when one is preparing a sermon, and he thinks of saying something but his conscience or judgment tells him he shouldn't — he should anyway! Because that's probably God talking to him. So, in the Brown universe, verses like Proverbs 10:19; 12:18; 15:28; 17:27; 21:23; and 29:20 are not as important as expressing oneself in a personal pursuit of "grace."
    (B) Brown also tells Christians they should disagree with their pastor once a month, period, just because it's healthy for their assertiveness.
    (C) Brown speaks of a Christian leader who fell morally, badly, and says in effect that he's glad he did, because it was good for him. Too bad about the guy's family and church, I guess.
    (D) Brown urges all of them to cuss, just to do it. I don't recall an exposition of Ephesians 4:29.
    (E)
    Brown keeps talking about dialogues he has with God, and quoting (usually without qualification) things God supposedly says to him, Steve Brown, that are not in Scripture. But it's okay, remember, because he says believes in the Reformed position on the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Bible, and he isn't a charismatic, and maybe he's hearing God wrong. (Those are his "covers.")
  9. Brown says weird things about repentance. I listened twice, and still can't quite explain it. He denies the Biblical teaching that it means a change of mind which necessarily issues in adorning fruitful actions... though those elements come back into his teaching at other points. Just another weird aspect of his teaching. [UPDATE: I listened again. Brown says that he used to teach something like that forgiveness was apologizing for spilling the milk, repentance was cleaning it up. He now regards that as a terrible error and false teaching, for which he apologized everywhere he had preached it. Repentance is not change, he insists emphatically. It is understanding who God is and what He did and who I am (?!!). So it's a New Agey realization; it isn't a decisive change of mind that issues in a change of behavior, because we can't change (Matthew 3:8; Acts 26:20; Romans 12:1-2 and etc. to the contrary notwithstanding).]
  10. Don't really love the plethora pop-psychology and faddish phrases, like giving this and that person (including God) "permission" to do or be something.
  11. Brown says people should burn Dave Hunt's book that criticizes Richard Foster (because he's a hero of Brown's); and he told a whole audience to burn John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesuswhen he hadn't even read it! So Hunt's bad, MacArthur's bad, yet....
  12. Again and again Brown trots out his creds: I am a Christian, I am orthodox, I am Reformed, I am a five-pointer, I am conservative, I believe in literal 6-day creation, and on and on. But then he says...

    (A) that if this unsaved Jewish rabbi he personally likes doesn't go to Heaven, he (Brown) doesn't want to go, either (which means that the rabbi's presence is more important to him than Jesus' presence, though I'm sure Brown doesn't intend that meaning); and...
    (B) Brown says that there are no "super-Christians," except maybe (Mary-worshiping proponent of a Gospel-perverting sect) "Mother" Theresa, and (longtime doctrinal compromiser) Billy Graham — so, in other words, these two may well be above every other living Christian, including John Piper, John MacArthur, Al Mohler, and everyone else; and
    (C) Brown frequently speaks of how much insight he's gotten from this or that Roman Catholic or otherwise heretical writer, on various aspects of Christian living; and
    (D) Brown enthuses about what a great and real relationship with God unbelieving, apostate Jews have; and
    (E) Brown mentions how he wears a New Age bracelet for some physical ailment, quipping that he "tried Jesus" and it didn't work, so he is trying this ("and I thought I heard the angels laugh"); and...
    (F) frequently says in passing how well this and that apostate heretic "understands grace." And...
    (G) Brown says that (unrepentant antinomian murderess) Annie Lamott is a wonderful Christian person who he thinks is so great and loves to feature on his radio show.
    (H) Brown says that Harry Emerson Fosdick was a Christian, and probably would be "on our side" (or some equivalent) if he were alive today
  13. From all that, my impression is that Brown can't think the Biblical Gospel is very important, in spite of what he says about the Biblical positions he formally holds.
  14. And that would mean Brown's not very Reformed — since if being Reformed means anything historically, it must mean seeing the Gospel as a decisive, divisive, watershed issue.
I left the course disappointed. I was hoping to gain personal help and encouragement from Brown's emphasis on grace. While I did gain some helpful points here and there (see point #2, above), they were so buried under endless stories and bizarre beep-beeps-from-outer-space, and generally so devoid of Biblical exposition, that in the final analysis they didn't really help me much, and left me very concerned about Brown's disciples.

The course did leave me with some themes I plan to develop in some Pyro posts, however. I'll state one right here, for anyone influential who "happens" by:

You can insist that you believe in the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, and that your positions are Biblical, until your blue head caves in — but if you don't specifically and continually ground every major point and application in the Word, you're just preaching yourself. People will walk away quoting you, not the Word. That means they're leaning on you, trusting you, depending on you and your insights. You've become their priest, their Pope, their magisterium.

You're making disciples of yourself, not of Christ.

You think about that. Amen.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A question that may set off some yellow and red lights

Building off yesterday's little poser/chuckler....

Is it possible that our (or a previous) generation could legitimately see a pattern or truth in Scripture that earlier generations never put together, even though they were looking at exactly the same data as we?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Good exercise for exegetes



Actually makes a very important point for Bible readers — though, I'm sure, quite unintentionally.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Demon dog

Don't have time for either breadth or depth, just this.

Our church held an Easter Sunrise Service in a park near the church building. Everything went nicely, except....

When the pastor started preaching, this nearby dog started periodically screamyelpbarkhowling. It wasn't exactly a bark, a yelp, a howl; it was the most distracting it could be.

And it kept it up through the whole sermon. Soon as he stopped, it stopped.

Didn't do it through the singing, the reading, the very brief announcements. Just the sermon.

Demon dog.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

What if worship was like an NBA game?

Gosh, the Disney people are thick...

...if this report is true.

But then, that's not exactly "breaking news," is it?

UPDATE from DarkHorizons:
According to an official Disney spokesperson, any rumor of the potential early demise of the 'Narnia' franchise is "entirely false".
(Thanks to Marksbury-Shaun for the heads-up)