Fitting The Pieces

John Stott on our suffering in light of Christ's

2011-04-05T21:59:00.002-05:00

"I could never myself believe in God, were it not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering."

from John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 326-27.

The City

2011-03-07T09:31:00.003-06:00

Cities have evoked a number of associations in the imagination. For the 17th century New England Puritan, Mary Rowlandson, the city was a haven. During Metacom’s War (a bloody conflict taking place in New England between the English colonists and Indians), Rowlandson was abducted and held captive for three months by the Nipmucs, Narragansetts, and Wampanoags tribes. She tells of this story in the The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. For Rowlandson, the city was a sanctuary from what she described as the “ravenous Beasts” (i.e. Indians) likely to attack those straying from the city’s walls.

Almost two-hundred years later, famous nineteenth century American preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, delivered his “Lectures to Young Men.” In Beecher’s Lectures there is a very different understanding of the city than that seen in Rowlandson’s captivity account. Thanks to the industrial revolution, which was hitting full stride during Beecher’s day, and a new wave of immigration, the city was evolving dramatically. The changing shape of cities presented unique challenges, making the city a new environment with which to reckon.

In contrast to Rowlandson, Beecher calls the city a “wilderness” and “desert,” and unlike the “ravenous Beasts” that Rowlandson feared in her wilderness, Beecher’s concern was the greedy. Beecher’s city-wilderness was not any milder than Rowlandson’s. Beecher described greedy men so prevalent in his day as pouncing upon a man in debt “like wolves upon a wounded deer, dragging him down, ripping him open, breast and flank, plunging deep into their bloody muzzles to reach the heart and taste blood at the very fountain.” That this imagery, oozing with primeval barbarity, is applied to the city is telling.

This was a time when the understandings concerning place were being inverted. The city became a wilderness. The wilderness became a haven. The palisades that once protected the polis were broken down and reversed, protecting a new idyllic wilderness. Romanticism provided the philosophical underpinnings supporting this shift.

The latter half of the 20th century has witnessed similar shifts in how the city is perceived. Following the Second World War, many affluent, usually white families fled the city in search of a pristine and spacious suburbia, a migration dubbed the “white flight.” The city was no longer viewed as the place to go for social advancement. Instead, the upwardly mobile began to collect around cities, in the suburbs. This left a void in urban areas that was filled by an influx of poorer (usually minority) families that entered the city en masse. These shifting demographics during post-war America changed the city. As the 1970s gave way to the 80s, the city was acquiring a vicious reputation.

During the 1990s, the cultural winds started to shift again. The city began to shed its grime and took on a brighter hue. A symbol of this change was the setting of popular sitcoms of the 90s. Shows like Seinfeld, Friends, and Frasier were all set in urban locations. But the shifting attitude was even more concrete, manifesting itself in the urban renewal projects taking place across the country that sought to revitalize cities.

In the midst of these changes, evangelicals have tended to focus their efforts on the suburbs. During the 1990s, it was the Willow Creeks and Saddlebacks leading the way. These churches were decidedly suburban in both location and ethos.

And these locales fit the traditional hubs evangelicals have gravitated towards. For example, Wheaton, Colorado Springs, Grand Rapids, and Nashville pale in cultural significance to cities like Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago. A recent Christian Scholar’s Review devoted its theme to the city and how Christians perceive it. One article by Mark T. Mulder and James K. A. Smith looked at evangelical attitudes toward the city. In the article, Mulder and Smith wonder if American evangelicals have maintained a bias against the city.

Not all American evangelicals have shied from the city. Beginning in the late 1980s and picking up steam during the 1990s there has been a concerted effort to plant evangelical churches in cities. Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City is an example. After some hesitation, Keller started Redeemer which now has thousands of members and has extended its influence well beyond the boroughs of New York.

In a recent talk, Keller explained that Christians should view the city as a refuge, a place where culture is formed, and a place of witness. As a result, the city has always been a strategic place for ministry. Paul realized this and remained urban-centric in his mission efforts. Keller describes the strategy that exists in the city like this: one could spend a decade in China, Morocco, and Paraguay working as a missionary, learning the language and working with the people. Or, one could go to a major city, like NYC, work with people from all those countries (usually future leaders from those countries) and more without having to learn the language of each of those peoples. The city is indeed a strategic place. Yet Keller warns that Christians would be wrong to neglect non-urban areas (and global missions, for that matter). After all, there is not a dark corner of the universe that does not need the gospel’s light shining upon it. But the evangelical neglect has tended toward the city.

Notwithstanding Keller and others, the hunch of Mulder and Smith seems accurate: American evangelicals for most of their history have tended to have an anti-urban bias. This is ironic at best and tragic at worse. It is ironic because the goal of redemptive history is a city. God’s redemptive purposes are not moving to a return to the Garden but they are escalating to a city, the new Jerusalem. It is tragic because Christians have not been strategic enough. Christians have often ignored a place where the marginalized tend to aggregate (i.e. the kind of hearts most receptive to the gospel), where culture is formed, and a place that has a way of absorbing people from the entire globe, namely, the city.

Deep Church addresses deep problems within evangelicalism

2011-03-02T16:21:00.002-06:00

(Note: A version of this review was originally published in The Baptist Messenger, October 15, 2009)

The eighteenth century’s Scottish grown Common Sense philosophy has left a hefty footprint upon American life. This philosophy held a bold confidence in the individual’s perceptive powers. It believed that the ability to accurately interpret the world was a God-given gift, common to all (hence “Common Sense”). The result was a heightened confidence in human reason among Americans. These assumptions about the individual spilled over into American theology, becoming strikingly evident in the thinking of the famous minister Charles G. Finney. During the nineteenth century Finney had this to say about revivalism: “The connection between the right use of means for a revival and a revival is as philosophically…sure as between the right use of means to raise grain and a crop of wheat. I believe, in fact, it is more certain, and there are fewer instances of failure.” Mark A. Noll explains Finney’s logic by saying, “Since God had established reliable laws in the natural world and since humans were created with the ability to discern those laws, it was obvious that the spiritual world worked on the same basis.”

Such unflinching confidence in human reason that was bound up in the Enlightenment project has been a source of frustration and protest for those in the emerging church movement. This emerging movement believes that the epistemological leanings that were seen in Finney are not only more modern than biblical but that they have manifest themselves in harmful ways within evangelicalism, producing the arrogance that they believe often marks evangelical preaching, teaching, and discourse. This has led to profound revisions by emergents, revisions that many within evangelicalism at large have felt go too far.

Enter Jim Belcher’s Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. Belcher’s book seeks to remedy the problems that concern the emerging movement in a way that remains faithful to the gospel and the early Church tradition (specifically, the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds). This will offer, Belcher believes, a third way, the way of the “deep church.” In chapter four, “Deep Truth,” Belcher takes readers into the epistemological arena by addressing a protest common among emergents, namely, the church’s long captivity to Enlightenment rationalism. The emerging movement challenges evangelicalism’s commitment to the Enlightenment notion that the individual has the ability to ascertain and interpret reality with certitude (what Belcher calls foundationalism). Belcher believes that this postmodern critique of Enlightenment reason is on target. The postmodern answer, however, is problematic. Postmoderns typically resolve this revised epistemology with a faulty metaphysic, one that denies any objective reality. Some (not all) emergents follow suit.

Belcher contends that the emerging movement is correct to challenge the epistemological foundation that much of evangelicalism has been built upon, the kind of optimism toward the individual’s perceptive faculties so evident in Finney. In other words, Belcher calls for the deep church to be epistemologically postfoundational. This means that Christians recognize the intellect’s entanglement in sin and therefore its inability to attain unassailable certainty, especially toward the mysteries of eternal decree.

Postmoderns and some emergents are incorrect to conclude that simply because humans have difficulty grasping truth, it does not mean that no truth exists. In other words, the epistemological deficiency of the modern project has led many postmoderns and some emergents to unnecessarily leap to this metaphysical conclusion: that no objective reality exists. Through an interesting exchange with Nicholas Wolterstorff, Belcher realizes that the Christian’s confidence that objective reality exists is derived from divine revelation, not human reason. Unlike many American evangelicals, including Finney, but like the emerging movement, Belcher believes that foundationalism is a rickety epistemological foundation. Yet, unlike some in the emerging movement, Belcher contends that objective reality does exist and our knowledge of it emanates from without (namely, God’s revelation), not within (namely, human reason). The deep church, then, is epistemologically postfoundational and metaphysically Christ-centered. In practice, this sparks a humble confidence that is anchored not in the individual—as it was in the Enlightenment model so evident in much of American evangelicalism—but in Christ.

As a result of important epistemological changes in American theology during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a constellation of shifts followed. One of those shifts related to salvation. The Puritan salvation model that stressed the salvation process as mediated by clergy, family and church, and was more skeptical about gaining immediate assurance in salvation was growing tired. Individuals wanted certainty, and they wanted it quick. A new emphasis on the born-again experience soon followed. The born-again experience’s entry found support in the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. This more evangelical salvation paradigm assuaged previous anxieties by providing a definite moment when one was saved.

The born-again experience also provided a new objective for the many pastors and leaders wanting to win the country for Christ: get the people saved. It was clear; it was simple. And in an effort to reach the multitudes of unsaved Americans, preachers tended to rely on charisma and a simplified gospel that would resonate especially with the frontier-ilk making their way deeper into the hinterland. The preaching became less cerebral, more emotional. Here existed the ingredients for the growth of a stunted gospel. Too busy proclaiming the gospel to astounding numbers of people, many pastors simply did not have the time to explore the depths of that gospel.

And this inherited evangelical gospel is another aspect of evangelicalism that bothers the emerging movement, a topic Belcher addresses in chapter six, “Deep Gospel.” The emerging movement believes that the good news of Jesus’ kingdom has not been stressed enough. While evangelicals have focused on the gospel as a message for the individual, they have failed to act out the gospel’s social implications. On the other side, traditional evangelicalism claims that emergents have simply revived a social gospel that neglects penal substitutionary atonement and, consequently, leads to a work-based model of the Christian life. Belcher believes the deep gospel emerges from penal substitutionary atonement and is the foundation for the coming kingdom of God, thereby unifying the two alternatives.

Belcher closes the chapter by explaining four words that characterize his church: gospel, community, mission, and shalom. These four words, Belcher believes, provide the balance for the gospel’s individual and social implications, thereby remedying the complaints of each side. The gospel is central to their church’s work and identity. As they are affected by the gospel, Belcher’s church has the strength to care for their community. Then, their church’s acts of love should spread beyond their community and into the world. This is their mission. And, finally, as the gospel affects the church individually and corporately, as well as impact the surrounding culture, shalom begins to take root in the world.

I have only underscored two chapters of Belcher’s Deep Church. When reading the book I felt as though I was putting on glasses for the first time; all the issues in this emerging debate took on a new sharpness and clarity. It is probably Belcher’s insider/outsider relationship to the emerging movement that enables him to offer this lucid account of the debate. While not all readers will agree with Belcher’s ecclesiological prescription, every reader will benefit from the clarity his book contributes to the emerging conversation.

The Deep Things of God and bridge-building

2011-03-01T10:20:00.002-06:00

There is not a shortage of voices lamenting evangelicalism’s biblical and theological atrophy. This doctrinal deficit is not due to a lack of resources. Consider the most recent academic catalogs put out by publishers like Baker, B&H, Eerdmans, and IVP; these publishers churn out a steady flow of worthy books every year. The Internet also offers a myriad of worthwhile theological materials and helps that were previously inaccessible (although these must be sought out with a more discerning eye).

No, evangelicalism’s biblical and theological shortcomings are not so much due to a dearth of resources rather the problem lies in a lack of “bridgers,” that is, those that are able to connect two fairly disconnected worlds within evangelicalism. In one world reside the evangelical academics or elites. These pastors and scholars spend much of their lives reflecting on every pocket of the Christian faith and tradition. The residents of this world attend conferences, read journals, and present papers discussing the fine points of the Christian faith. Rarely do these thoughts make it to the other, larger world within the evangelical galaxy. Those inhabiting this larger evangelical world are ordinary evangelicals. In part, what the Church needs are pastors and teachers capable of bridging these two worlds.

Fred Sanders, associate professor of theology at Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute, provides an engaging model of how this might play out in his look at the Trinity. In The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Crossway, 2010), Sanders claims that “the gospel is Trinitarian, and the Trinity is the gospel.” In other words, being gospel people means, by necessity, being Trinity people. And yet for evangelicals who derive their name from the gospel (evangel), the Trinity tends “to be treated as an awkward guest in the evangelical household.” According to Sanders, evangelicals, while giving the Trinity “polite hospitality,” do “not welcome it with any special warmth.”

Sanders’s book seeks to make the Trinity more “at home” in the evangelical abode. And the way he goes about this is instructive. For example, when one thinks of the Trinity it is easy to think of it as an abstraction, the kind of brainy material that is batted around in the halls of seminaries. So when Sanders introduces Nicky Cruz as having an exemplary Trinitarian theology the effect is jolting. After all, Cruz was the former gang member popularized in David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade. Rather than developing his Trinitarian outlook in the pristine halls of academia, Cruz learned about the Trinity amidst the grime and grit of New York’s streets.

In his book that focuses on the Trinity, The Magnificent Three, Cruz says:

Something has emerged in my walk with God that has become the most important element of my discipleship. It has become the thing that sustains me, that feeds me, that keeps me steady when I am shaky. I have come to see God, to know Him, to relate to Him as Three-in-One, God as Trinity, God as Father, Saviour, and Holy Spirit. God has given to me over the years a vision of Himself as Three-in-One, and the ability to relate to God in that way is the single most important fact of my Christian growth.

Not only does Sanders’s use of this quote by Cruz aptly demonstrate the importance of the Trinity for Christian growth, but the selection of Cruz himself packs a pedagogical punch. With this move, Sanders is implying that the Trinity is not an abstract concept remote from the concerns of ordinary Christians.

Alongside strategically chosen guides like Cruz, Sanders’s writing is gripping. The reader gets the sense that Sanders is a teacher at heart, patiently helping readers along what can be rough theological terrain. The writing seems like an act of service to the reader. The prose is both palatable and easy to digest.

The Deep Things of God communicates on a number of levels. The subject matter, the Trinity, is dealt with persuasively. Sanders emphasizes the centrality of the Trinity to the evangelical worldview. He says regarding evangelicalism, “Dig anywhere and you will hit Trinitarian gold.” Whether it is getting saved, cultivating a relationship with Jesus, Bible reading, or prayer, Sanders unearths the “Trinitarian gold” that lay under these decidedly evangelical emphases.

But alongside subject matter, the way Sanders’s treatise unfolds is instructive as it provides a model of the type of bridge-building evangelical education needs. In the book insights from both evangelical worlds meet and, thanks to Sanders’s writing, the ordinary evangelical is warmly invited to sit and listen in on the conversation. Sanders’s demonstration of how the Trinity changes everything hits evangelicals, who tend to prefer activity (especially soul-saving) over sustained reflection, in the right spot. In this way, The Deep Things of God provides not only a helpful examination of the Trinity but also offers the reader an example of the kind of teaching that evangelicalism could use more of.

The times are a changing for Christians in America

2010-12-20T20:06:00.002-06:00

Ross Douthat discusses two important books on the state of Christianity in America.

Fujimura and contemporary visual arts

2010-11-24T08:20:00.003-06:00

(Note: This blog is being resurrected! Hiatus no longer!)
I like art. In elementary school art (alongside P.E.) was my favorite class. Coloring, drawing, painting and sculpting are all things I enjoyed (and still do!). While I like trips to the art museum, I must admit: I have very little understanding of what is going on in contemporary visual arts. I do know when I see something that is aesthetically pleasing. I also know when I see a piece that is both profound and disturbing (like some of Damien Hirst’s work which often stresses the inevitability of death; click here for more on Hirst). But, for the most, I do not know what is going on in the visual arts largely because I am not really engaged in its “conversation.”

I do, however, know that Makoto Fujimura is a highly regarded artist who also happens to be a Christian (an odd mix). Below is a video of Fujimura describing his latest project, an illustration of the four Gospels. The video not only describes this project but also explains some of Fujimura’s thoughts on contemporary art. One insightful comment made by Fujimura (one which extends beyond the visual arts) is that there is no short supply of depictions of “waywardness.” What is needed, however, is something to bring people “back home.”

Makoto Fujimura - The Art of "The Four Holy Gospels" from Crossway on Vimeo.

My Cyber Move

2010-01-18T14:27:00.002-06:00

I have moved to a newer and busier corner of cyberspace. This blog will now lay dormant. The new blog has the same purpose as this one (see here). Now I will be blogging alongside three others (Alan Bandy, Jeremy Freeman, and Brent Prentice). There is a conglomerate of all our posts at the Messenger Insight Network (click here). My posts (and articles) can be found here. Also, the Messenger Insight site has a solid lineup of podcasts and vidcasts. Click here for these.

Hume's suggestion to Tiger

2010-01-11T10:10:00.005-06:00

Ross Douthat on Brit Hume urging Tiger Woods to turn to Christ.

That's Christmas

2009-12-24T17:01:00.004-06:00

That's Christmas (Short Film) HD from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

HT: BTW

NY Times Mag piece on Robert George

2009-12-22T14:52:00.002-06:00

Click here for a NY Times Magazine piece on Robert P. George.

Linus on Christmas

2009-12-12T21:10:00.002-06:00

Spirituality of Emerging Adults (18-29 year olds)

2009-11-30T14:33:00.003-06:00

"Most emerging adults have religious beliefs. They believe in God. They probably believe in an afterlife. They may even believe in Jesus. But those religious ideas are for the most part abstract agreements that have been mentally checked off and filed away. They are not what emerging adults organize their lives around."

From Christian Smith with Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (Oxford: OUP, 2009), 154.

The Snuggie and the shortcomings of capitalism

2009-11-20T13:42:00.003-06:00

Capitalism is not perfect. In his look at the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, Christian Smith considers mass-consumer capitalism as one of the formidable cultural factors shaping teenage (and adult, for that matter) spirituality. Smith says,

"Capitalism as a system must ever grow or it will die. The intrinsic problem in capitalism's logic, however, is that actual human needs are somewhat limited and modest: it takes only so many goods and services to sustain a healthy, potentially satisfying human life. For mass-consumer capitalism to forever grow, therefore, it must constitute masses of people as consumer selves who misrecognize new wants as essential needs, whose basic sense of necessity always expands. Consumer demand must always escalate if capitalism is to succeed." (178, Soul Searching)

Enter the Snuggie. This product is a symbol of just how far this capitalistic enterprise has taken us. It is a testimony of our frailty as humans that the Snuggie exists (and the Snuggie Puppy for those pet lovers out there). And there are other products. Jerry Seinfeld recalled being up late one night thinking that he could use the Ginsu Knive because he didn't have any kitchen knives that could cut through boots.

The Christian's task in the midst of all this is to remember that Christ alone will satisfy. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee, as Augustine famously said. Consider how the gospel might satisfy the needs stirred up by advertising (for more on this I recommend Sam Van Eman's On Earth As It Is in Advertising? Moving from Commercial Hype to Gospel Hope)

Perils of gambling

2009-11-17T20:52:00.002-06:00

Maura J. Casey has written a good piece in First Things on the too often overlooked woes of gambling.

Here is one excerpt:

Part of the reason that gambling spread so far and so fast is that the industry markets its product as just another form of harmless fun. In a brilliant move, the industry coined the term gaming as the euphemism of choice. Organized religion was slow to challenge the spread and, even today, rarely speaks out. Most of all, government has become predatory in its use of gambling as a worry-free method of increasing revenue without raising taxes. Indeed, the states have moved from granting permission to cheerleading. Government boosterism has legitimized gambling, eroding what few moral scruples remained on the part of average people against engaging in a behavior that, just a few decades ago, would have been considered largely unacceptable.

HT: Kevin DeYoung

Beyond our differences?

2009-11-16T21:55:00.002-06:00

Beyond Our Differences from Jennifer Redfearn on Vimeo.

To read my two cents on this documentary on religion and some thoughts on the general mood represented by the film (a mood that dominates our religious landscape), click here.

Alan Wolfe on liturgy

2009-11-13T12:54:00.002-06:00

"American society is a nonliturgical society, its pace of life too fast, its commitments to individualism too powerful, its treatment of authority too irreverent, and its craving for innovation too intense to tolerate religious practices that call believers to repeat the same word or songs with little room for creative expression" (17)

from Alan Wolfe, The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith (New York: Free Press, 2003).

"Calvin Miller on Preaching"

2009-11-11T18:49:00.002-06:00

"Calvin Miller can tell stories. Miller, writer in residence and research professor at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., has the ability to make grown adults feel like children captivated at story time. And his hearers are captivated, not because they are listening to children’s stories, but because they perceive a richness and depth to the story; one senses that within Miller’s narratives are profound truths capable of plumbing the depths of human experience.

Not surprisingly, Miller advocated at the 2009 annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma narrative preaching, that is, story-like preaching. After all, this is how the master-teacher, Jesus, taught. Moreover, the preacher’s text is a story. From the opening words of Genesis to the closing words of Revelation, one is presented with the story of God’s redeeming work in the world. Unlike propositional preaching, which preachers often do, Miller believes that narrative preaching sustains the listener’s attention and leaves indelible marks on the listener’s memory."

Read the rest here.

Care Bears and the human condition

2009-11-11T15:03:00.003-06:00

Find out here.

HT: Creation Project

"The Religious State of Oklahoma"

2009-11-09T12:05:00.002-06:00

The Simpson's evangelical character, Ned Flanders, attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. It is a fitting choice given Oklahoma's (and Tulsa's) decidedly evangelical hue. While broad, many have wondered just how deep this evangelical culture is. To read more on this, click here.

"In the Beginning, Grace"

2009-11-03T15:20:00.002-06:00

Click here for a good article by Mark Galli on the need for grace to be what animates Christian living.

Southern Baptists and evangelicalism

2009-11-02T14:52:00.002-06:00

What is the relationship between Southern Baptists and evangelicals? Are Southern Baptists evangelicals? In Southern Baptist circles, I've often heard Baptists quickly distance themselves from evangelicalism because of the boundaries present there. These Baptists, for example, do not want to be forced into evangelical understanding of the scriptures. These Southern Baptists felt that evangelicalism was too conservative.

Curiously, I have heard evangelicals argue the same point (that Southern Baptists were not evangelicals) but for the opposite reason. Southern Baptists, they believe, fit best in the Fundamentalist, not evangelical, camp. In other words, whereas some Baptists avoid evangelicalism because it is too conservative, some evangelicals believe that Southern Baptists are too conservative (i.e. Fundamentalist) to belong in the evangelical camp.

Is this not odd? I welcome explanations or thoughts on the matter.

You can read more about the relationship between Southern Baptists and evangelicals here.

New website for Baptist Messenger

2009-10-29T21:06:00.003-05:00

Check out the new and improved Messenger website here.

Messenger insight podcasts

2009-10-27T10:42:00.002-05:00

The Baptist Messenger has made available podcasts here. The first release is a discussion with Chuck Colson and Timothy George.

David F. Wells interview in Boston Globe

2009-10-26T10:31:00.002-05:00

Here is a brief interview with David F. Wells, Gordon-Conwell theology professor and author of many books, including No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue, Above All Earthly Pow'rs, and The Courage to Be Protestant.

Ed Stetzer on future of denominations

2009-10-07T14:04:00.004-05:00

Union University has a solid line-up of speakers addressing the topic of Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism. Read about Ed Stetzer's address which wonders about the future of denominations here.

Deep Church review

2009-10-02T14:57:00.003-05:00

Kevin DeYoung has a helpful review here. The review has even sparked dialogue with the author, Jim Belcher (see the comments section). Belcher says regarding DeYoung's review: "This is by far the most thorough review of my book, both in the overview it provides and the evaluation. It is well written, engaging and helpful, pointing out well the areas you agree and disagree on."

One of the things DeYoung challenges is the uniqueness of Belcher's "third way." This might be true, especially for DeYoung's Reformed background. As even Belcher admits in the book, what he is doing is what Tim Keller has been doing in NYC for two decades. However, for those of the low church, more mainstream evangelical ilk, Belcher's book is arguing for something very unique. (The confusion on this point might be due to Belcher's ill-defined "traditional church" category, another criticism that DeYoung notes--and one that Belcher recognizes as well.). In any case, I recommend both Belcher's book, Deep Church, and DeYoung's review of it.

The Baptist Messenger and the stagnation of a blog

2009-09-30T11:05:00.003-05:00

FYI: I am going to be doing some research and writing for the Baptist Messenger. This means that this blog will suffer much neglect. I will, however, continue to link things (which is all I've been doing as of late anyway). If I have an energetic moment (the kind of moment that breathed life into this blog; by the way, notice the energy and frequency that marked the first month of this blog--I couldn't quite keep up) I may try to whip out a post or two.

Media and New Calvinists

2009-09-22T13:31:00.003-05:00

Here is the Q&A from the Religious Newswriters Association meeting in Minneapolis. I found it both interesting and helpful.

For more, visit Desiring God.

HT: BTW

While we're at it...

2009-09-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

YO JOE!

Battle of the cartoon theme songs

2009-09-08T11:30:00.002-05:00

Kevin DeYoung has an exciting (and important) competition brewing. Click here.

On journalism

2009-08-31T20:12:00.002-05:00

Are you a journalist that also happens to be a Christian? If so, here is a piece you might be interested in from executive editor of the Baptist Messenger, Douglas E. Baker.

Driscoll discusses idols

2009-08-06T21:40:00.002-05:00

Mark Driscoll cruised Seattle with the ABC Nightline crew and discussed idolatry. Here is a post from Driscoll regarding their time together. The interview was for a Nightline series on the Ten Commandments.

HT: J. Dodson

On abortion

2009-08-05T21:36:00.004-05:00

There is a helpful piece by Robert P. George in the latest issue of The City; it is taken from his opening comments from the National Press Club in D.C.

Having cited Obama's words at the 2009 Notre Dame commencement, George says:

The President is right. His view regarding the status, dignity, and rights of the child in the womb, and the view shared by Professor Kmiec and myself, are irreconcilable. A chasm separates those of us who believe that every living human being possesses profound, inherent, and equal dignity, and those who, for whatever reasons, deny it. This issue really cannot be fudged, as people sometimes try to do by imagining that there is a dispute about whether it is really a human being who is dismembered in a dilation and curettage abortion, or whose skin is burned off in a saline abortion, or the base of whose skull is pierced and whose brains are sucked out in a dilation and extraction (or "partial birth") abortion. That issue has long been settled--and it was settled not by religion or philosophy, but by the sciences of human embryology and developmental biology.

So it is clear that what divides us as a nation--and what divides Barack Obama, on one side, from Robert George and Douglas Kmiec, on the other--is not whether the being whose life is taken in abortion and in embryo-destructive research is a living individual of the human species--a human being; it is whether all human beings, or only some, possess fundamental dignity and a right to life. ("Obama and Abortion," The City (Summer 2009): 68)

Each group seeks to protect individual rights, and couches their case in "rights" language. The differences lay in how each camp understands those rights. For pro-lifers, individual rights are extended broadly, reaching the unborn. For those on the pro-choice side, individual rights are directed to the mother's right to choose. Pro-choice people do not believe individual rights should be applied to those humans that are unborn and unwanted.

HBU's The City

2009-08-05T20:39:00.002-05:00

I have received my second issue of Houston Baptist University's The City, and it has yet to disappoint. The latest issue has a number of particularly thoughtful articles. The journal is reminiscent of the Catholic periodical, First Things.

Subscribe for FREE here.

Get more information on the journal here.

For those considering PhD

2009-08-02T20:36:00.005-05:00

I am currently pursuing a PhD in theology. It has been a great and difficult journey (commenting on my studies at this point is like a runner trying to describe his joy for the marathon at the 20th mile; more will come on this when I complete).

A decision to do a PhD is a major commitment on a number of levels. For those considering, here are some sources you may find helpful (these sources, save one, are focusing on PhDs in religion/theology fields):

1) There is a glut of PhDs out there. This means that academic jobs are scarce. This NY Times opinion piece delves into this (and other) problem(s). See here. HT: Taylor Worley

2) Justin Taylor has provided excerpts and a link to Carl Trueman's article in Themelios. See here.

3) Ben Blackwell has done a service to all prospective PhDers at his blog, Dunelm Road. Click here for a link to some of his PhD pointers.

4) Like Ben, Nijay Gupta has a plethora of helpful posts at his blog, including this lengthy essay on the PhD.

Source for Turabian

2009-07-27T13:56:00.002-05:00

This morning I found an extremely helpful site for working with Turabian. It is available here via Covenant Seminary.

On publishing

2009-07-27T13:34:00.005-05:00

Two blogs that I frequent have devoted some recent posts to publishing:

1) Over at Deyoung, Restless, and Reformed there is: On Getting Published (Part 1), On Getting Published (Part 2) HT: Between Two Worlds

2) Nijay Gupta received a plethora of helpful comments from editors and academics on publishing theses and dissertations from this post. This post may yield some helpful advice as well.

For husbands or prospective husbands

2009-07-27T13:30:00.004-05:00

Here is a great sermon from Sam Storms (pastor of Bridgeway Church) on the role of husbands in Christian marriage.

Tim Keller on preaching gospel

2009-06-28T16:33:00.002-05:00

Too often 'gospel-centered' preaching simply means the most simplified version of the gospel tacked on to the end of a sermon which serves as a mere obligatory preface to the altar call. And, of course, this gospel message is intended only for nonbelievers; Christians begin to contemplate lunch plans at this point in the sermon. Tim Keller is a master at weaving the gospel into every sermon and exploring the riches and depth of that gospel in a way that grabs nonChristians and nourishes Christians, both young and old.

Here is a helpful video on the topic from Keller:

Tim Keller - Preaching the Gospel from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

There are other videos at vimeo from the same conference.

The beginning of this session Keller further explains gospel-centered preaching:

Tim Keller - The City from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

The 72 year-old Grant Study

2009-06-15T22:42:00.003-05:00

In 1937 the Grant Study began to track with meticulous detail the lives of sophmore men at Harvard (including a future U.S. president). Since 1937 the study has limped along through wars, dramatic cultural changes, and financial woes that beset the study itself. Through all of the changes and challenges of the past 70 years, the study has persisted, producing a fascinating look at the human life. (Even reading the methodology of the study one gets the feeling that this study emerged during an entirely different era.)

Here is a video that includes comments from the one tracking most closely these lives, Dr. George Vaillant:

For more on the study read Joshua Wolf Shenk's article.

Who is your Jesus?

2009-06-10T20:25:00.005-05:00

We are made in the image of God. And yet our temptation is to make God in our own image. It is this temptation that is behind the prevalence of idolatry. An idol, after all, is often a god resembling the human form made by human hands (it is much more than that too; see this video for more on that). This tendency to make (or conceive of) God as being in our own image does not only beset the pagan. Even Christians are tempted to do this. Those Christians that are legalistic-leaning might gravitate to passages stressing God's holiness, righteousness, and judgment. Those Christians that conceive of God as a happy, tail-wagging golden retriever, always looking for an opportunity to love on us, construct their God with passages stressing God's love, grace, and mercy. God is both a judging God and a loving God (see Exodus 34.6-7). In fact, his love is made greater through his righteousness and judgment. That God both loves sinners and is angry with them shatters our preconceived conceptions of God. Both the legalistic Christian and the sentimental Christian are churning out a God of their own design, not one that emerges from scripture (by the way, this is why we are often times stretched and our paradigms shattered by the God presented in scripture).

Not only are we inclined to make God in our own image but we are prone to do something similar with Jesus. Rather than aligning ourselves to Christ and his kingdom agenda, we often find ways to align Christ to ourselves and our own little "kingdom" agendas. Perhaps it is the evangelist that sanitizes sin and tinkers with the work of Jesus in an effort to make the gospel more congruent with contemporary sensibilities, thereby bolstering the popularity of his ministry (i.e., his "kingdom"). Or maybe it is the individual that cavorts with sinners knowing that doing so entangles themselves in a variety of sins yet continues to do so because, after all, Jesus spent time with the sinners. Whatever the variation might be, the temptation is to whittle a Jesus of partial truths, a Jesus that thinks the way we think and shares our own concerns. Kevin DeYoung has done a great job of describing the varieties of Jesuses that spew out of this enterprise. Here are some examples:

There’s the Republican Jesus who is against tax increases and activists judges, for family values and owning firearms.

There’s Democrat Jesus who is against Wall Street and Wal-Mart, for reducing our carbon footprint and printing money.

There’s Starbucks Jesus who drinks fair trade coffee, loves spiritual conversations, drives a hybrid and goes to film festivals.

There’s Open-minded Jesus who loves everyone all the time no matter what, except for people who are not as open-minded as you.

There’s Touchdown Jesus who helps athletes fun faster and jump higher than non-Christians and determines the outcomes of Super Bowls.

Here is DeYoung's conclusion:

And then there’s Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Not just another prophet. Not just another Rabbi. Not just another wonder-worker. He was the one they had been waiting for: the Son of David and Abraham’s chosen seed, the one to deliver us from captivity, the goal of the Mosaic law, Yahweh in the flesh, the one to establish God’s reign and rule, the one to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, freedom to the prisoners and proclaim good news to the poor, the lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world.

This Jesus was the Creator come to earth and the beginning of a new creation. He embodied the covenant, fulfilled the commandments, and reversed the curse. This Jesus is the Christ that God spoke of to the serpent, the Christ prefigured to Noah in the flood, the Christ promised to Abraham, the Christ prophesied through Balaam before the Moabites, the Christ guaranteed to Moses before he died, the Christ promised to David when he was king, the Christ revealed to Isaiah as a suffering servant, the Christ predicted through the prophets and prepared for through John the Baptist.

This Christ is not a reflection of the current mood or the projection of our own desires. He is our Lord and God. He is the Father’s Son, Savior of the world, and substitute for our sins–more loving, more holy, and more wonderfully terrifying than we ever thought possible.

Read all of DeYoung's post here.

Jessica Alba vandalizes OKC

2009-06-10T11:01:00.002-05:00

I did not realize that Guthrie, OK is the location for the filming of The Killer Inside Me. Looks like the the actors/actresses may have a bit too much time on their hands.

Tim Keller article

2009-06-07T13:19:00.002-05:00

Christianity Today has a good story on Tim Keller's NYC ministry.

HT: BTW

Renewing the Evangelical Mission conference

2009-06-02T20:38:00.003-05:00

Fall break plans anyone? Gordon-Conwell's Renewing the Evangelical Mission conference, a conference honoring David F. Wells, would be a great option. Enjoy a hefty line-up of scholars amidst beautiful New England fall foliage. Click here for the details.

Twitter narcissistic?

2009-05-22T20:24:00.002-05:00

Tweet, tweet: I like this video; entertaining commentary on twitter, and, by extension, the plethora of other Internet-based identity builders/amplifiers (MySpace, blogs, Facebook, etc.)

On cultural engagement

2009-05-14T14:57:00.004-05:00

A simple algorithm to explain why cultural engagement is so challenging:

imago dei + Fall = difficulty at engaging culture

For a quick stab of joy...

2009-05-12T15:53:00.002-05:00

For a quick stab of joy click here.

Does anyone remember this?

2009-05-09T15:37:00.003-05:00

The 1986 movie Rad birthed in me both a love for Kix cereal and BMX racing--not that I ever raced officially (I did have a Dyno that was boss). If you have never seen the movie, allow this scene to whet your appetite:

Collision sneak peak

2009-05-09T15:34:00.001-05:00

COLLISION - 13 min VIMEO Exclusive Sneak Peak from Collision Movie on Vimeo.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Big Truths for Young Hearts

2009-04-24T12:20:00.003-05:00

About a year ago I mentioned The Big Picture Story Bible as a great children's bible. If parents are looking for another tool to add to their catechetical toolbox there is good news because theologian Bruce Ware has written Big Truths for Young Hearts (available at the end of April). It is a theology book intended for children ages 6-14. The book grew out of bedside conversations with Ware's daughters on matters of theology. Justin Taylor has a good interview with Ware about the book here.

Kathy Ireland on the issue of life

2009-04-15T09:26:00.004-05:00

I had no idea that former supermodel Kathy Ireland is a Christian. Hear more about her faith and her lucid comments on abortion in an interview with Mike Huckabee.

HT: BTW

On time

2009-03-27T21:25:00.003-05:00

We might be the most time-conscious people ever. Perhaps the biggest factor in our acute awareness of time is the omnipresent clock. Everywhere we turn there are a variety of time-keeping devices (cell phones, watches, computers, bank marquees, etc.) that precisely measure away the day. Time tumbles on and we often navigate our day like Jack Bauer feeling the punch of each second gone.

Yet for all our fretting over time (or a lack of it) we have never had more ways to waste it. We have a plethora of time-saving technologies that provide opportunity to use even more time-wasting technologies. Our time is often absorbed by temporal pursuits rather than eternal ones. Time is too precious and the world throbs too intensely for us to watch the sands of time sink.

Not only can we waste away the present with frivolous pursuits, but there is also the temptation to live in times past. Nostalgia adds a satin finish to reality. Our mind, fueled with reminders of the past (music and scent being the most potent), busily reconstructs the past, churning out glistening gold memories. It is a temptation to bask in these memories, forgetting the needs of the moment.

There is the opposite temptation that exists as well. Instead of living in the past, we might long for the future, always chasing the next dream. Perhaps it is pursuing the next degree or job. Maybe we long for the next place of residence. Our hearts reside in what lies ahead, failing to recognize the needs of the moment.

So what are the needs of the moment?

Jesus has entered this world and dragged heaven down with him. Eternity has pierced the present with the coming of Christ's kingdom. Time needs to be redeemed because there is only so much of it; time had a beginning and it will have an end. Not only is time limited, but we don't even know how limited it is! In the meantime, what needs to be done with whatever time is left is the building up of Christ's kingdom.

Christopher Hitchens/Douglas Wilson debate

2009-03-21T21:11:00.002-05:00

Here is a preview:

And another:

HT: Creation Project

Pastor houses child killer

2009-03-21T21:05:00.002-05:00

Read about it at Creation Project. Well worth the reading.

Open-mindedness

2009-03-17T16:14:00.005-05:00

Certain words encapsulate the zeitgeist of a culture. Recently, Kevin DeYoung has done a nice job of unpacking two of these words, dialogue and inclusion. Here is another: open-mindedness. This word, particularly with regard to spiritual matters, expresses one of our culture's great virtues. If by open-mindedness one means a willingness to listen to those with whom we disagree or to thoughtfully engage with ideas at variance with our own, then I'm on board; open-mindedness is a fine thing. But typically when the term open-mindedness is tossed around it refers to a perennial suspension of judgment or an unwillingness to reach a conclusion or closure. The open-minded spiritual person is always searching, never finding. To have found, after all, implies in some sense a closure of the mind; options have been eliminated through some sort of sifting process which means our mind has narrowed, or closed.

Regarding this term, G.K. Chesterton offers a punchy comparison, saying, 'an open-mind is like an open mouth. It's only good if it chomps down on something solid.'

(Does anyone know where this quote can be found? Thankfully, my mind clamped, or closed, on the quote, and I am reciting it from memory which means it is probably not exact.)

A telling tale of the power of grace and forgiveness

2009-03-09T09:50:00.004-05:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

ESV Study Bible and the interpretive task

2009-03-04T11:40:00.003-06:00

Click here for Jonathan Dodson's word on interpreting scripture.

Joni Eareckson Tada on Suffering

2009-03-02T12:21:00.002-06:00

HT: Between Two Worlds

Man with a hammer.../Man with a TiVo...

2009-02-21T09:31:00.002-06:00

Typically, Christians are hawks when it comes to spotting the content of shows, movies, music, and other entertainments flowing from the steady stream of popular culture. The vehicle, or form, that transports such content (e.g. television, radio, computer, etc), however, tends to be overlooked. Cognizance of the form is perhaps just as important, maybe even more important given its insidious nature. As Marshall McLuhan famously said, "the medium is the message". In other words, the vehicles which supply our music, stories, and shows are teachers as well, conveying their own set of messages. Not just Desperate Housewives or 24, but television itself shapes our individual and corporate consciousnesses in profound ways.

Shedding light on the matter, sociologist Peter Berger explains the way society or culture impacts us, both corporately and individually, by employing a three-pronged dialectic: externalization, objectivation, and internalization. For Berger, externalization is the process whereby individuals create through both mental and physical labor. Having been created, things become distinct from the producer and begin to take on a life of their own (objectivation). It is at this point that they are used by individuals and begin to force their logic on the user (internalization)(for more on this see Berger's The Sacred Canopy). The thing produced has a way of shaping the user's mind. Someone has said that to a man with a hammer, everything becomes a nail. This gets at the idea. The tools we use shape the way we think. Here is another example: I have a TiVo which I love. Fast-forwarding and rewinding are my most proficient skills. Oddly enough, I often find myself wanting to rewind reality now that I have a become a sharpshooter with the remote (too much TV?). This is just one example of the way our tools (be it hammer or TiVo) impact our consciousness.

So what do we do with this? I think it is helpful in diagnosing problems we might otherwise overlook. For example, a content-only Christian mind might be elated that pornography is in no way included in his web-surfing; he's occupied with other, safer waves. What is neglected, though, is the massive amount of time spent on the web and the impact this has on his mental habits. Perhaps the disjointed nature of the web is creating difficulty in maintaining long, sustained meditation or reflection on a particular subject. David Lyon has said that the Internet’s openness and fluidity erodes authority structures because "it knows no priorities, respects no precedents, promotes no principles" (Jesus in Disneyland, 67). Maybe the Internet has bolstered his sense of autonomy, empowerment, and self-sufficiency by undermining any outside authority. This would impact the way he relates to God and neighbor. Finally, the Internet's bias toward efficient communication could conceivably hamper his non-web-based communication. His mind, saturated by the web, might be producing soggy communication and words.

This is not to say that the Internet should be avoided altogether (this is a blog after all). What I am suggesting is that Christian critique and concern extend beyond content to include form as well.

In addition to the books mentioned above, another book that has helped me on this issue is All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes, by Ken Myers.

Sin, a parasite

2009-02-06T21:55:00.002-06:00

"Everything sin touches begins to die, but we do not focus on that. We see only the vitality of the parasite, glowing with stolen life." (from Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., 95)

"Blazing" pencils and God's grace

2009-02-06T19:02:00.005-06:00

Gordon-Conwell New Testament professor, Sean McDonough, in classic McDonough fashion, describes what "blazing" pencils can teach us about grace and sanctification. Read here.

I will never look at a No. 2 in the same way.

Mark Driscoll on Nightline

2009-01-28T13:25:00.003-06:00

Here is Nightline's story on Mark Driscoll.

HT: Between Two Worlds

On sexual perversion

2009-01-26T13:00:00.006-06:00

The NY Times recently reviewed Daniel Bergner's The Other Side of Desire, a book based on a series of conversations and interviews with the sexually perverted--although the book questions calling them perverted, and that is precisely the problem Douglas Groothuis has with the book and the review. Click here for Groothuis's analysis of the situation.

His conclusion:

America and the West is becoming increasingly perverted--and increasingly unable to even consider the category of moral perversion against any objective and God-given standard. We should have compassion for those twisted by abnormal desires and those defaced by aberrant behavior. They are made in God's image and should receive our love and concern. But we cannot bless the thing that perverts and pervades our culture: everything is relative; you cannot judge; you cannot offer objective, moral truth. May God have mercy on us and renew us again.

A convergence of contradictions: Obama's inauguration

2009-01-19T14:08:00.005-06:00

Below I argued that the celebration of MLK Day and the anniversary of Roe v Wade in the very same week is ironic. Why? Because each day underscores America's difficulty to understand what exactly a human is. Whereas MLK Day trumpets progress, Roe v. Wade bellows regress. Our criteria for denying humanness has shifted from race to visibility, viability, and desirability.

Interestingly, these two days, MLK Day and Roe v Wade (Jan 22), are bridged by the inauguration of Barack Obama. This seems more than just happenstance, for the bundle of contradictions that these two days represent converge poignantly in the person of Barack Obama. On the one hand, Obama radiates the successes celebrated on MLK Day. Regardless of one's politics, Obama's inauguration is a monumental moment in American history. Tuesday will act as a reverberating echo of Monday's celebration. And yet, on the other hand, Obama's radical pro-abortion stance is a sobering reminder of the confusion that still remains.

What exactly is a human?

2009-01-13T20:38:00.003-06:00

Putting aside the question of human nature (see below or here), there is an even more foundational question to ponder: what exactly is a human? It is a question this country has struggled to answer and two days next week underscore that struggle.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day celebrating the steps made in racial equality. For much of our history blacks were not considered human but mere chattel property. The election of Barack Obama is a shining example of how far America has come in the race department.

Three days later will be the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion. Whereas skin tone decided whether or not one was human for the first two-hundred years of American history, now it a different set of factors. Here are three: visibility, viability, and desirability.

1) Can we see you? (visibility)

2) Can you survive outside your mother's womb? (viability)

3) Do your parents choose you? (desirability)

If not, then "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" do not apply.

That these two days fall in the same week is a curious irony. One day celebrates a step in the right direction, the other day is a reminder that we still arbitrarily deny humanness to those we deem different. What is consistent in both cases is this: If there is power to be gained, the powerful will trample the helpless for gain. In the case of slavery, blacks were exploited for the purpose of personal wealth. In the case of abortion, unborn humans are killed for the purpose of personal autonomy.

(additional note: I do not want to be blithe about the trauma that accompanies women considering abortion. Those of us opposing abortion must lovingly apply the same concern for the unborn to their hurting mothers.)

Of note

2009-01-10T13:02:00.003-06:00

1. Is viewing porn adultery? Ross Douthat explores the question here.

2. Click here for a story on the edgy and orthodox Mark Driscoll in the NY Times. (HT: BTW)

3. Douglas Groothuis lecture on natural law.

A Perplexing Conundrum

2009-01-05T09:14:00.006-06:00

Humans have tended to vacillate on what exactly our condition is.

Are we, humans, good or bad? Beautiful or ugly? Whole or broken?

Alan Jacobs's Original Sin tracks thinking on these questions by looking at the acceptance and resistance to the notion of original sin, a doctrine with profound implications. A ways into the book Jacobs says,

Our story so far has inscribed a clear pattern. From time to time in Western history, a vision of the greatness of human moral potential emerges or arises, only to find an immediate counter in an equally potent and vivid picture of human bondage to the sin we all inherit from Adam. (127)

And later Jacobs writes, "A Pelagius rises up only to be met by an Augustine" (128).

That we so easily flounder between these different views of humanity is interesting. The intrinsic worth, value, and beauty of the human makes it hard to believe that we are hideous rebels, inciting the wrath of holy God. And yet, on the other hand, hideous rebels we are! All of our actions are tethered tightly to our own self-absorbed hearts; we crush the weak, schmooze the strong. Even our "good" deeds are often done with an eye to self-glory.

Given the plausibility of either view, does not the biblical account give us the most robust explanation for this conundrum? We are the climax of God's creative work as described in Genesis, beings created in the image of God. And yet we are severely marred, a tragedy described in the biblical account of the Fall.

D. A. Carson interview

2009-01-03T15:11:00.006-06:00

Recently, Mark Driscoll interviewed D. A. Carson. Having read several books by Carson, it was good to learn more about the person himself. Also, drawing upon his dad, Carson mentions some of the "sins of old men," sins which also happen to beset younger men. All in all, a good interview.

For some reason I could not embed the video. Find the interview here.

HT: Between Two Worlds

"Beyond Our Differences"

2009-01-02T21:13:00.006-06:00

Bill Moyers Journal aired a documentary on religion entitled "Beyond Our Differences." The film operated from the assumption that all religions have a large degree of commonality and, therefore, we must move "beyond our differences." This religious pluralism is widespread and it is assumed to be the more hospitable approach to religion in a religiously diverse context, particularly given the recent (and not so recent) violence done in the name of religion. In fact, the film was largely a response to this violence.

In the film, Deepak Chopra calls "dogma" and "ideology" the great problems for religion (never mind that this is a dogma itself). These dogmas and ideologies lead to the divisive "my-God-is-better-than-your-God" sort of thinking, says Chopra. At a glance, Chopra's familiar refrain sounds open-minded, peace-inducing, and humble. But there are problems. For starters, all interviewees shared Chopra's assumption on religion. The film did not contain one interviewee who was at variance with Chopra's pluralistic impulse. Sure, there were a range of religions represented (Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc.) but all the adherents were operating from assumptions similar to Chopra. Despite the appearance of diversity, the interviewees were glaringly homogeneous in their religious pluralism. As a result, a significant portion of religious adherents, namely, those believing in some sort of exclusive religious claims, were cut-off from the conversation. A more fruitful discussion would have included religious practitioners that do not presuppose that there are a number of valid paths (Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, etc.) to the divine.

Even worse, though, is the religious imperialism inherent in the film. Not only were those maintaining exclusive claims about religion not allowed a voice in the conversation but their views end up being revised by Chopra and others in the film. In the film's relentless effort to maintain religious inclusiveness, it ends up importing its own faith assumptions into the various religions represented. In the film Christianity, for example, is said to be a religion that is just as valid as Buddhism. Many Christians disagree, and for good reasons! To completely neglect those reasons and represent Christianity in this manner is to invade and exploit Christianity to serve one's own idea of what God is like. At the very least, those maintaining more exclusive faith positions are less inclined to tinker with other religions in order to make them fit their preconceived understandings of the divine.

In the end, the film fails to get "beyond our differences" for two interrelated reasons. First, the film stifled diversity because of the homogeneity of the interviewees; they all shared the religious pluralistic inclination. Second, because of the interviewees presuppositional pluralism the film glossed over crucial doctrinal differences between the world's faiths. As a result, any "differences" discussed in the film remained superficial.

The issues discussed in this film are important for Christians to grapple with. With regards to religious pluralism, I have been helped by Tim Keller, Lesslie Newbigin, and Tim Tennent. Also helpful is Stand to Reason. Finally, I have dealt with how our cultural context makes it difficult to maintain the exclusivity of Jesus in a previous post.

Sam Storms sermon

2008-12-19T14:30:00.004-06:00

Sam Storms, pastor of Bridgeway Church, delivered an excellent sermon describing six blessings bound up in the person and work of Jesus. The text for the sermon is Isaiah 9.6-7. Storms's rumination on the mystery and awe of the incarnation is stunning.

Listen here.

David Wells on Preaching in Postmodern World

2008-12-16T09:42:00.002-06:00

Trinity Evangelical Seminary's Henry Center recently hosted David Wells to deliver a lecture, "How, then, Should We Preach to the (Postmodern) World?"

Watch the video here.

Listen to the audio here.

HT: Owen Strachan

Linus on Christmas

2008-12-15T20:09:00.001-06:00

CT on Newsweek cover story

2008-12-11T15:54:00.004-06:00

There is a good Christianity Today editorial responding to Newsweek's cover story on gay marriage. The editorial ends this way:

And so ironically, even before the first word of Miller's religious case for gay marriage has been read, Meacham has conceded that it is not a case at all, but a simple assertion. And while they both claim they are arguing against exclusiveness and for inclusivity, they have managed to exclude from this crucial national conversation a significant proportion of the American population who happen to believe there is a strong biblical case for traditional marriage.

The one thing we biblical conservatives will never do, however, is exclude people like Meacham and Miller from any conversation that matters to us. So, we invite them to sit down with us, or someone from our world, to have a biblical, intellectually rich conversation about marriage—if they really are interested in being serious about this crucial topic.

Read it in its entirety here.

For a more thorough critique, see Robert Gagnon's response.

HT: Between Two Worlds

On Gov. Blagojevich's arrest

2008-12-10T17:22:00.005-06:00

Robin Dembroff has a good post explaining how Governor Blagojevich's recent arrest underscores our perennial enslavement to slavery.

old school hoopster

2008-12-10T09:41:00.004-06:00

The NY times has a fun little story about 73 year old college basketball player, Ken Mink.

"Lost and Saved on Television"

2008-12-08T10:47:00.002-06:00

Writing in the Catholic periodical First Things, Ross Douthat is encouraged by the spiritual overtones that lace a good amount of television programming. Douthat acknowledges that at one time religion was a key contender in the battle to keep the airwaves and television free of bawdiness. That battle, Douthat admits, has been lost largely because of "Technological change" that proliferated mediums and outlets making it more difficult to regulate the content of programs. Yet Douthat encourages any that are battle-weary because "there are opportunities in defeat as well as victory, and places where new life can spring up amidst the ruins". Citing the spiritual and moral overtones of American shows like Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and The Sopranos, Douthat sees it as advantageous for Christians to engage in this "riotous marketplace".

Read the article here.

On Food

2008-12-05T19:37:00.003-06:00

Last week Bill Moyers interviewed Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. I found the interview fascinating. Pollan explains the role of food in issues related to the environment, energy, and national security. For Pollan, it is all about food.

Watch the interview here.

Grizzly Man and Gay Marriage

2008-11-28T22:19:00.003-06:00

With the passing of California's Proposition 8, I have found myself reflecting on the homosexuality discussion. It seems to me that the whole debate is in orbit around anthropology, that is, how one understands human nature, for both sides of the debate appeal to nature. Supporters of gay marriage appeal to nature ("I was born this way"), citing desire as the determining factor. It is believed that a gay person's sexual desire for members of the same-sex legitimates homosexual practice or lifestyle. Opponents of gay marriage also appeal to nature, citing, not desire, but anatomical design as the determining factor. Humans, it is believed, are bound sexually by their design because two male parts (or female) simply do not go together sexually. The former speak of nature more subjectively and the latter speak of nature more objectively.

The homosexuality debate, then, should grapple with the trustworthiness of desires and the limits put on us by our own physical design.

Enter Grizzly Man. This Werner Herzog documentary has something to say about this discussion. The film follows Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell, and, with his own video documentation, his life among the Grizzlies in Alaska. Yes, Treadwell lived with Grizzlies, swam with Grizzlies, and talked to Grizzlies, experiences that provide stunning footage.

Herzog's interviews several Alaskans on Treadwell's decision to live with these bears which provide insight. For many interviewees, Treadwell was crazy. Sure, he may have had a desire to live with bears but actually following those desires was foolish, they said. They appealed to the limits binding individuals; humans do not and should not live with wildlife because it is just that, wild. On the other hand, other interviewees respected Treadwell as a man who had a desire to live with bears and went out to fulfill that desire. After all, Treadwell disregarded his detractors and pursued his dream.

Treadwell's longing to live with the bears did not correspond to Treadwell's nature. Unfortunately, Treadwell was bound and limited; he was a human, not a bear, and humans do not live with bears. In the end--and this is a spoiler for anyone that hasn't seen the film--Treadwell's decision finally caught up with him as he was killed by a Grizzly (along with his girlfriend). (If you do plan to watch the film, beware, for it contains lots of strong language. The film also contains coarse sexual references which, incidentally, shed some light on the homosexuality debate)

The film's tagline captures the point nicely: "In nature, there are boundaries." I am not suggesting that homosexuality is akin to seeking life among the bears. I am suggesting that Grizzly Man underscores an important point to consider in the homosexual debate: one's desires do not always correspond to their design. In other words, Treadwell's humanity (i.e. design) hampered his desire to live among the bears. Both design and desire did not correspond with one another and were not going to end in individual fulfillment. And this is the major offense to what I am suggesting: our personal--and corporate--fulfillment does not necessarily correspond to our desires. Understanding one's "nature" by turning to what one desires is wildly unpredictable. Our desires mislead, conflict, and evolve. And this is particularly true for sexual desires. The more reliable gauge for understanding one's sexuality is design, not desire.

"Suicide to Snickers"

2008-11-21T10:28:00.003-06:00

"Postmoderns are remarkably nonchalant about the meaninglessness which they experience in life. Reading the works of an earlier generation of writers, existentialist authors like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, one almost developed a sense of vertigo, the kind of apprehension that one gets when standing too near the edge of a terrifying precipice, so bleak, empty, and life-threatening was their vision. That sense, however, has now completely gone. Postmoderns live on the surface, not in the depths, and theirs is a despair to be tossed off lightly and which might even be alleviated by nothing more serious than a sitcom." (from David F. Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs, 177)

Eurpoean reflections on the sense of meaninglessness engendered by the modern world tended to be dark. By contrast, Americans have remained more upbeat. Take the show Seinfeld which, with its bright colors and bouncy bass riffs, expressed the same meaninglessness, albeit with a smile. Wells says,

"By the 1990s, when we encounter the television series Seinfeld, for example, this sense of internal loss and disorientation had been turned into a brilliantly acted but completely banal sitcom. Seinfeld, Thomas Hibbs writes, was 'a show about the comical consequences of life in a world void of ultimate significance or fundamental meaning.' This show, he adds, was 'by its own account, a show about nothing.' The darkness of soul had lifted, though not its emptiness. Now we were no longer serious enough to do anything but smirk. The journey into the postmodern world, from the writers of this literature of bewilderment into television shows like this, is one from darkness in the depths to mockery on the surface, from suicide to shallow snickers." (188)

What is to remedy this heavy (or maybe not so heavy) sense of meaninglessness? For Wells, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A good word from Dorothy Sayers

2008-11-13T12:06:00.003-06:00

"Let us, in Heaven's name, drag out the Divine Drama from under the dreadful accumulation of slipshod thinking and trashy sentiment heaped upon it, and set it on an open stage to startle the world into some sort of vigorous reaction. If the pious are the first to be shocked, so much the worse for the pious--others will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before them. If all men are offended because of Christ, let them be offended; but where is the sense of their being offended at something that is not Christ and is nothing like Him? We do Him singularly little honor by watering down His personality till it could not offend a fly. Surely it is not the business of the Church to adapt Christ to men, but to adapt men to Christ."

from Dorothy L. Sayers' Creed or Chaos?, 36.

The Soothing Glow of Colored Light

2008-11-11T22:16:00.003-06:00

As soon as our daughter could see, she was fascinated by the soothing glow of the television (a sight we try to limit!). Humans have always been dazzled by the sight of colored light and have found resourceful and creative ways to enjoy its beauty. Consider, for example, churches laced with stained glass. In the last century, however, colored light has been ubiquitously linked to the cult of consumption. William Leach's Land of Desire picks up on this:

"'Coloured glass,' wrote German architectural utopian Paul Scheerbart, who influenced Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, 'destroys hatred.' 'Light softened by color, calms the nerves.' By 1910, American merchants, in their efforts to create the new commercial aesthetic, took command over color, glass, and light, fashioning a link so strong between them and consumption that, today, the link seems natural. By the 1920s so many commercial institutions and people had exploited 'color' that, according to the The New York Times, the word itself had been 'worn to a frazzle.'" (9)

There is a limit on the power of colored light to soothe, something much of Los Angeles is finding out. NPR did a story today on the new LED billboards (think JumboTrons) that many feel are littering the landscape of L.A.

Gospel Coalition

2008-11-08T07:47:00.003-06:00

I have encountered a series of good videos on youtube from the Gospel Coalition. It is made up of mostly pastors seeking to unleash the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is an introductory video:

Election aftermath

2008-11-05T16:24:00.001-06:00

FYI: Between Two Worlds has a series of good contributions from evangelicals reflecting on the '08 election, including this one on Obama and the future of abortion.

Piper's comments on election '08

2008-11-03T15:27:00.002-06:00

HT: Between Two Worlds

Chesterton's Platitudes Undone

2008-10-30T21:46:00.002-05:00

I ran across a fun little book that I received during college called Platitudes Undone. During the 1950s a fan of Chesterton stumbled across a copy of Holbrook Jackson's Platitudes in the Making (1911). Within the text of Jackson's book were Chesterton's handwritten comments and quips on Jackson's platitudes.

Chesterton's comments capture nicely his ability to pack a pithy punch.

Here are some examples:

Platitude: A lie is that which you do not believe.
Chesterton's insert: This is a lie: so perhaps you don't believe it

Platitude: No opinion matters finally: except your own.
Chesterton's insert: ...said the man who thought he was a rabbit.

Platitude: Things done on principle are things done wrong.
Chesterton's insert: Only on the wrong principle; this last principle, for instance.

Platitude: A man is a ship: his religion a harbour. Few men sail the high seas.
Chesterton's insert: No men do, except to find a harbour somewhere.

Call + Response

2008-10-21T16:56:00.002-05:00

This documentary on sex trafficking should be well-worth sitting through, and from what I understand it does a great job of not only creating awareness but moving the viewer to action on this horrific reality.

HT: Between Two Worlds

OBU selects new president

2008-10-11T07:26:00.001-05:00

Oklahoma Baptist University selects its fifteenth president, Dr. David Whitlock.

Songs about God's Love are Cheap

2008-10-09T10:35:00.002-05:00

Jonathan Dodson, pastor of Austin City Life, has a good post on why so many worship songs about God's love are weak, cheap, and could just as easily be sung to a girlfriend or boyfriend.

The Cycle is Broken!

2008-10-07T15:16:00.007-05:00

By and large, humans, especially those of the ancient world, have tended to view history cyclically. In other words, history has often been conceived, not as a progression or linearly, but as a series of cycles. This view pervaded the ancient world for a couple of reasons. First, life follows a cycle. We come into this world utterly dependent, grow to relative independence, and finally shrink and wither to dependence again. A bumper sticker I have seen captures this reality nicely: "Take care of your children because they choose your nursing home". We go from dust to dust. A second reason many ancients viewed history as a repeating cycle is the agricultural life that profoundly shaped the ancient world's consciousness. The days, seasons, crops, and years all follow a cycle. It was assumed that history followed the same cyclical pattern. (for more on this see David Bebbington's Patterns in History)

Interestingly, the Bible does not present us with a cyclical view of history (although certain books, like Judges, follow the cyclical pattern). Instead, it presents a progression, a linear view of history: Creation. Fall. Redemption. It presents the move from a garden to a city. In this way, the Bible is an aberration. An oddity. Just as the Hebrews were bizarre for their monotheism, they were also odd in their view of history as being linear.

Of course, to see history linearly only makes sense in light of the cross. Touching upon this profound truth, G.K. Chesterton makes an interesting comparison between the Buddhist swastika and the Christian cross:

The cross is a thing at right angles pointing boldly in opposite directions; but the Swastika is the very same thing in the very act of returning to the recurrent curve. That crooked cross is in fact a cross turning into a wheel. Before we dismiss even these symbols as if they were arbitrary symbols, we must remember how intense was the imaginative instinct that produced them or selected them both in the east and the west. The cross has become something more than a historical memory; it does convey, almost as by a mathematical diagram, the truth about the real point at issue; the idea of a conflict stretching outwards into eternity. It is true, and even tautological, to say that the cross is the crux of the whole matter.

In other words, the cross in fact as well as figure, does really stand for the idea of breaking out of the circle that is everything and nothing. (The Everlasting Man, 134)

Redemption through the cross of Christ is not something we'd expect. Apart from the cross, we are enslaved to cyclicalness. We are like horses at the hot walker, shackled to the cycle of our sinful passions. Moving nowhere but to eventual condemnation. Not surprisingly, so many have taken the dark, cold cyclical view of history.

Thankfully, the cycle has been broken. The swastika, and all that it represents, has extended and become a cross. History will never be the same.

Piper on ESV Study Bible

2008-09-22T21:28:00.001-05:00

The Big Picture

2008-09-18T19:34:00.003-05:00

For so long I read the Bible as a series of isolated stories with minimal connection to one another. All the stories were consistent in their insistence that we serve God and neighbor, but that was about it.

As I progressed through my seminary studies I began to see remarkable connectedness to the Bible. There are many ways to break down the overarching story of the Bible, but here are two:

1) Genesis 1-11 poses the question of how restoration might come.
2) Genesis 12-Revelation 22 answers that question.

Or, put more simply:

1) Genesis 1-11-the problem.
2) Genesis 12-Revelation 22-the solution.

The glue, of course, holding the whole book (and not to mention the whole universe!) together is Jesus Christ.

Religion and Politics

2008-09-12T10:44:00.003-05:00

Joe Carter has good reminders for how Christians should engage politics. Here is the introduction:

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was purportedly asked if God was on his side. "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side," said the President, "my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

Although Lincoln is often praised for this remark by those who oppose the mixing of religion and politics, it contains three of the most controversial ideas in American politics: that it is legitimate to invoke the name of God within the realm of political discourse; that God's existence not only matters, but that he is always right; and that since God takes sides on certain issues, some people will be divinely justified while others will be in opposition not only to their political opponents but to the very Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.

If you find these ideas absurd and repugnant, you are most likely a secularist. If you find them to be embarrassing truths, then you may be on the religious left. If you find them so obvious that they hardly need stating, then you are probably a member of the so-called "religious right."

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

The Sola Panel | Is church for evangelism?

2008-09-07T20:21:00.002-05:00

This is a good, brief write-up on the place of evangelism in the church. (HT: Justin Taylor)

The Sola Panel | Is church for evangelism?

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Keller on need for good theology

2008-09-01T10:39:00.001-05:00

Significance of clothing in ANE (Question for readers)

2008-08-28T11:11:00.003-05:00

Anyone that has attended Gordon-Conwell is probably aware of Gordon Hugenberger's class, Christ in the OT. In that class Hugenberger often mentioned the significance of the hem of one's garment. The hem of one's garment, Hugenberger says, was indicative of one's inheritance. It was etched into the very fabric of one's clothes. Hence the seriousness and subsequent jealousy surrounding Joseph's colorful coat.

This point makes sense of a number of passages, yet I have never seen the same point made by other OT scholars (granted, my reading in OT is very limited). Does anyone else in the OT field agree with this understanding of ANE clothing?

I welcome any thoughts or answers.

Hammer Time

2008-08-23T15:02:00.005-05:00

Aside from being hilarious, these commercials underscore that it is often media that becomes the source of our daily salvation. In this instance, salvation from the monotony of the modern workplace comes with the arrival of Monday Night Football. We are indeed "mediated"!

from "On Earth as It Is in Advertising?"

2008-08-20T11:19:00.003-05:00

When we expose ourselves mindlessly to popular culture, we interpret little of it wisely and we permit most of what is advertised to leave residue on our consciousness.

(from Sam Van Eman's On Earth as It Is in Advertising?, 15)

from "Mediated"

2008-08-18T20:40:00.004-05:00

I am in the process of reading Thomas de Zengotita's Mediated. In this book, de Zengotita describes how the deluge of mediums soaking us affect our psyches. In the following excerpt, he describes how Times Square epitomizes our predicament. The description is haunting, especially the juxtaposition between the virtual and real.

Take the new Times Square, everybody's favorite icon for the virtualization process, because that's where what is happening in the culture as a whole is so effectively distilled and intensified. All the usual observations apply--and each observation contributes its iota to muffling what it was intended to expose, including this one, my little contribution, which consists of noticing how everything in that place is aimed. Everything is firing modules, straight for your gonads, your taste buds, your vanities, your fears. But it's okay; these modules seek to penetrate, but in a passing way; it's all in fun. A second of your attention is all they ask. Nothing real is firing, nothing that rends or cuts. It's a massage, if you just relax and go with it. And why not? Some of the most talented people on the planet have devoted their lives to creating this psychic sauna, just for you.

And it's not just the screens and billboards, the literal signs; it's absolutely everything you encounter. Except for the eyes of the people, shuffling along, and the poignant imperfections of their bodies; they are so manifestly unequal to the solicitations lavished upon them. No wonder they stuff themselves with junk--or trying to live up to it all, enslave themselves to regimes of improvement. The flattery of representation has a downside, as we shall see--for the flattered self is spoiled. It never gets enough. It feels unappreciated. It whines a lot. It wants attention.

(from Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World And the Way You Live in It, 21)

The music of Joe Garner

2008-08-10T20:11:00.002-05:00

A friend introduced me to Joe Garner. I have really enjoyed his stuff thus far. His music can be downloaded for free at NoiseTrade.

Here is a description of Garner's music from his MySpace site:
Recorded at a mountain studio in east Tennessee and released independently, Garner's is a sound definitely grown from the ground. Earthy, honest and plaintive; Mourning Birds beckons back to the folk ballads of a simpler time and at the same time casts a shadow of unease on its own mirth. Compiled with a handful of friends giving sparse and simple accompaniment to his guitar, Garner's first effort includes six tracks that display the enigmatic range of moods that make this burgeoning songwriter and storyteller a haunted soul not soon forgotten. Songs like 'Bury the Hatchet' and 'June and God' usher the listener into the quiet moments of human longing and the subterranean rage that either break our spirits or make us whole. These stories of squandered love and utter desperation place us as near voyeurs in the midst of lives unraveling and eroding before us. Idiosyncratic yet empathic, the images conjured up by Garner's characters evoke a time and place hauntingly too near. Other songs, like 'They're All Gone', move hesitantly out from the shadows. In his way, Garner captures a glimpse of hope's somber release, the silent joy of discovering that some of life's darker doubts and questions cannot be answered, not yet. Son to a life-long and road-weary Country 'n' Western picker, Garner comes by his music honest. While not too concerned with slaying the forefathers of his genre or recreating the wagon wheel, Joe Garner has been able to move in and inhabit the best sensibilities of a songwriting once known as Country Music, but upon its exit from the country now labeled 'Roots'. May his roots grow deeper; we'll sit and listen.

evangelism

2008-07-29T16:10:00.004-05:00

In Ephesians Paul speaks of evangelism as being one of the gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. Unfortunately, however, evangelists often inadvertently tear down the body of Christ. I can remember in high school fretting, even to the point of tears, as to whether I was actually saved. This anxiety spiked following revivals or evangelistic services because it seemed that the evangelist did everything possible in order to spawn doubt in the believer's heart. I can remember hearing these preachers relay stories about individuals that thought they were saved but then realized they had not produced a truly sincere profession of faith. If these Christians were not really Christians, how could I be sure that I was? After all, I could hardly remember my acceptance of Christ at age nine, much less remember the sincerity of such a moment.

And I have spoke with others that have had similar experiences. Last week, one person told me that he accepted Christ four times, and was baptized three! (I think this is right; it was something ridiculous like that.). All in effort to "nail down" his certainty of being a believer.

These tactics that foster doubt in Christians, especially young people, are wrong. They harm the effectiveness of the Church by causing its members to doubt their place in it! If it is the Gospel that anchors the actions of Christians, any preaching that loosens that anchor will harm Christian activity.

But at a deeper level, these tactics undermine the Gospel. They imply that the believer must muster a certain degree of enthusiasm and sincerity or at least have a certain level of sophistication in order to validate their faith in Christ. This is simply not the case. There is an episode in the Gospels where a woman seeks to simply touch Jesus' clothes in hopes that by touching them she might be healed from her sickness. This is not mature faith but a superstitious one. Nonetheless, Jesus says your faith has made you well (Mt 9.22). Why? The point Tim Keller extracts from the text is that it is not the sincerity or sophistication of one's faith but the object of one's faith that heals them. The woman did not have an accurate understanding of faith, but the object of her faith was right. Interestingly, our culture thinks the exact opposite with regards to faith: it is not the object of our faith that matters, but the sincerity of it. This is not true of biblical Christianity and it does not measure up with reality either, says Keller.

To make his case, Keller describes three men running from a bloodthirsty bear. The men reach a cliff and there is a frozen pond at the bottom. They are faced with a dilemma: take their chances with the bear, or jump onto a frozen pond that may or may not hold them. The three men all, by faith, decide to jump onto the frozen pond. Yet they all have varying degrees of faith. The first has hardly an inkling of faith that the ice will hold him but jumps anyway. The second person is about 50% sure that the ice will hold. The last guy, seeing the other two made it, had a strong faith in the ice's strength to hold him. Given their varying degrees of faith, all made it! All were saved! In other words, it was not the level of their faith, but the object of their faith, in this case, the pond. (This is Keller's illustration as I remember it; I probably botched it in one way or another)

So, it is not so much the level of our faith but the object of it that matters, namely, Jesus Christ. Many evangelists would do well to remember this point. As I think back to my salvation experience at age nine, I do not remember what exactly I believed about Jesus. I am sure it was fraught with theological problems. Nevertheless, I do know the object of my faith at that point. I simply threw myself to Jesus, just like those men threw themselves onto the frozen pond. And through that, I was saved.