NT Wright, thoughts, etc.

First, he was intelligent, well-spoken, an excellent communicator, and uses humor in just the right doses. Too much humor is annoying, but a sprinkle of humor, particularly when aimed at the speaker, is disarming.

Second, there was much to love in what he said. Mainly, his extensive commentary on the new creation. The new creation is a theme that God has continued to bring up in my heart, so I enjoyed that. Also, interestingly enough, some of his words on Adam and his sin reminded me of what I said to the guys at the Biblical Masculinity talk I gave.

There was much to love, yes, and I enjoyed it. I will have to answer my mother's question about why I think NT Wright will ultimately prove to be a negative influence in the church. Let me give some unrelated observations first:

1. He wore a pink shirt with a clerical collar and a silver cross dangling around his neck.

2. There were a surprising amount of earnest young people around my age. Some asked fawning questions, including a dude whose five minute long question could be summarized as follows: You are so awesome! How can I convince all my friends you are awesome?

Another guy, possibly a young follower of Mark Driscoll managed to ask the most annoying question by asking him about justification after the first half of the talk, in which Wright did not mention justification except in passing.

3. My favorite question of the morning came from a guy who prefaced his question like this: I grew up in the Charismatic tradition, but lately I've been attending an Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

This made me laugh for some reason. Maybe it was the way the guy said it...it sounded very rehearsed. But his one of many questions whose main purpose seemed to be to prove the intelligence of the questioner.

4. I've debated telling this story, but here goes. When I got out of my car in the apparently abandoned parking lot, I let out a tremendous [censored]. Then I looked to my left to see a wide-eyed young couple also getting out of their car. I shrugged it off...but then when I found my seat later they were sitting right next to me.

5. I met a guy who described himself as a "Biblical studies nerd." This rubbed me wrong for some reason. He was wearing Lacoste shoes. Also he was the guy who heard me [censored].

6. Southern California Christians are interesting. Did you know they have these jeans called True Religion jeans that are really expensive? As far as I know, they are not connected to Christianity in any way, but they do cost several hundred dollars. One of the dudes sitting near me had them on. I'm not sure why I noticed this. Also, the church Wright spoke in was massive.

Obama, supporter of Woman's Health

Which of course is a euphemism for "abortion on demand."

Link!

Richard Sibbes, on work, etc.

But take this caution withal, that we more highly esteem our Christian calling than our ordinary vocations and duties; and to that end we ought to redeem some time from our ordinary callings to meditate, and to examine ourselves, and to pray. And this is to be done daily, for Christ saith, 'Labor not for the meat that perisheth,' in comparison of that meat which lasteth forever. Especially on that day which God hath chosen to his own use, I mean the 'Lord's day.' Mingle not thine own callings with holy duties on such days, unless it be in case of mercy, and that also of great necessity. God made this day for his own glory, and for our good, knowing how earthly-minded else we would be, unless some time were allotted wholly to vindicate our minds from these earthly things.

I love seeing quiet times extolled. But I wonder about the passion they took to their Sabbaths. Any thoughts?

An incredibly long palindrome

I think Demetri Martin wrote it.

Wow. O.K.
A still animal sits afoot. Tones I ring.
I sing (i.e. ride it, nuts open). On or off, I riff.
Uh… I, to lasses, say, "Oh aha, hah, all!"
It's tops. It is a Tao, bro, to my baby demo.
Can one poet arise so rosy?
As "D" I star. Comedy, baby. My my, a show.
Oh say "my my," baby.
Democrats? I'd say so. (Roses irate.)
Open, on a comedy baby motorboat. As "it"
I spot still a "ha hah!" ahoy. Assess a lot.
I huff, I riff, or on one post untied, I reign.
I sign. I rise, not too fast.
I slam. In all, it's a K.O. wow.

I'm going to see NT Wright speak on Saturday. Should be interesting...

On Spiritual-mindedness, as promised

John Owen commonly takes the words of God and applies them to their fullest. His text is from Romans 8: The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. This is NIV, and the verse seems to imply a passive state, as if I are minds were controlled by some sort of super-entity that fed us thoughts and programmed our actions.

In Owen's own translation, the verse is "To be Spiritually-minded is life and peace." This captures the fullness of it a bit better, as it is both passive and active. This is pattern that we see in many verses in the Bible, of our fullest efforts joined unto the enlivening actions of God. Thus, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to act and to will according to his good purpose." This is not a synergism, for all action in us is ultimately through the grace that is in us. But the Spirit works through the means we supply to him. Owen's thoughts are often filtered through Hebrews, the way Luther's are generally filtered through Romans. They arrive in the same place, but with a different emphasis, appropriate for their day.

The verse states simply that the mind which is controlled by the Spirit is full of life and peace. Peace is the satisfaction in the believer's condition. Life is the power of spiritual activity.

Owen therefore states that there is a connection between being "Spiritually minded," or engaged in the thoughts and affections towards spiritual things, and one's growth in grace and intimacy with God. Also, the security of one's condition (whether you are one of the elect) is revealed through being spiritually minded.

He is basically saying that if you are not doing all you can with the means you have to engage your mind with God at all times, you shouldn't expect to have your intimacy with Jesus grow.

Kind of an intense statement, honestly, once you put it into modern language.

John Owen, on Spiritual-Mindedness

Taken from Romans viii.6, "...the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace," rendered in the Authorized Version as "to be spiritually-minded is life and peace."

Here is his general thesis:

Whoever he be who doth not sincerely aim at the highest degree of being spiritually minded which the means he enjoyeth would lead him unto, and which the light he hath received doth call for, --whoever judgeth it necessary unto his present advantages, occasions, and circumstances, to rest in such measures or degrees of it as he cannot but know come short of what he ought to aim at, and so doth not endeavor after completeness in the will of God herein, --can have no satisfaction in his own mind, hath no unfailing grounds whereon to believe that he hath anything at all of the reality of this grace in him.

Owen goes on to say "such a person possibly may have life, which accompanies the essence of this grace, but he cannot have faith, which follows in a due improvement."

Do you aim at the "highest degree" of fixing your thoughts on Jesus? Do you ever feel like there are so many commands that we do not take with the seriousness that their author aimed at?

Missions thoughts derived from recent experiences

Three levels...

1. First, myself, that I must always be bringing the gospel further and further into my heart. If all I learn does not change me, I have not learned. If what I preach to others I do not first preach to myself, I am danger of being like those men in Matthew 7, who said, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Then Jesus told them plainly, I never knew you.

So even in the midst of all ministry, my own heart must be changing, conforming, etc. My own pride must be daily brought low. My own sins must be confessed and repented of. My own experience examined. Forgive me for the times I fall short, when my profession advances far beyond my actions.

Forgive me.

2. Second, that the work of missions is done in prayer. The external actings are like the tip of the iceberg. Every action prepped and performed in prayer, laid for Jesus. Why is this? Every action performed in service of God must be done in the power of the Spirit. For the flesh wages war against the Spirit. It is the Spirit that enlightens the mind to receive the Word, the Spirit that applies the Word to the heart, the Spirit that implants grace into the heart that hears, etc.

God works when his people pray. Not only is this the testimony of the Scriptures, but also the universal experience of every lasting missions work. If you want to see God work, lay a foundation of prayer and be prepared to wait.

Pray for me.

3. That the key prayer in this regard is for laborers. Jesus says ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Not all men are to go, of course, nor is it normative. Most men remain in the position to which God has called them, discharging their duty to God in their various professions, glorifying God in their labor. This is good. But the field needs harvesters, it needs men who will go. Only those we receive a call will go. So pray for the Lord to call men.

Owen says that if the Bible tells us to pray for something, then it is supplied for us from the hand of God. In some ways, this is almost insultingly obvious. But sometimes it pleases God to make simple things hard to see, so that we should become like little children to see them. Pray for the Lord to raise up laborers to every nation.

My vision is that this dying gasp of the American church would produce a flood of laborers. That from the least of these would come a mighty nation, and that the Lord, who has all power, might do it quickly, if it is in his time.

Pray and go.

Theology Must Never Be Remote From Experience

We are compassed about by three great enemies. The devil, the flesh, and the world attack us at every turn. Our lives are filled with pain, heart ache, failure, moments of great foolishness. No man can escape these, or fortify himself against them.

We are weak, foolish creatures, men and women of sorrows, in ourselves hopeless, lost, insecure, here for a day and gone the next.

What believe about God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit must speak at every moment into our existence.

On the Gospel as it Saves

NT Wright (along with Rob Bell) are fond of saying that the gospel is not just "steps for someone to come to salvation." Here is a quote from "What Saint Paul Really Meant."

It is not, then, a system of how people get saved. The announcement of the gospel results in people being saved--Paul says as much a few verses later.

Ah, the deceptive power of half-truths. Wright is careful to leave himself plenty of wiggle room when it comes to his detractors, and is quite able to defend himself. When accused of robbing the gospel of its saving power, he can point back to his second sentence, and claim that he is really about getting the exegesis right. This is his constant defense.

But the effect, of course, is to make the gospel not about salvation. Salvation is something of secondary importance, almost a side-effect of the gospel. This is why you read in Rob Bell about how the gospel is about so much more than just steps to salvation, etc.

Of course, they are right. Here is the Word of God:

"This is the gospel...that Christ died for sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures."

This is a narrative account of one man's life. The gospel is the life of Jesus Christ presented to others.

Wright's narrative account stresses Jesus as new King of Israel. He does this because often the Emperors of Rome announced new kings using the word "gospel." See here the weakness of his reliance on extra-Biblical resources...this fact is clearly contradicted by a simple cross-reference!

But ultimately, all this deceives because it separates the gospel from the saving action of God, from which of course it is inseparable. The gospel is meaningless unless living, that is, applied to the specific situation of men. An analogy may illuminate here.

Say for example you are in a burning building. You perhaps eagerly desire to get out. The good news, or gospel, in this situation would be the location of a fire exit.

Now say you come across some men also eagerly looking for a way out. They know there is a fire, so you tell them first about the location of the fire exit. Then you carefully lay out the steps for them to find it.

Now say you come across some other men who are ignorant of the fire in the building. First, of course, you would inform them of the fire. Than you would again repeat the steps to make your way out of the building.

The existence of the fire door is only "gospel" as far as the people who need to get out of the building can find the exit. There is not gospel apart from salvation that occurs when men leave the building. Now of course, the good news itself is the fire exit. But for men to lay hold of this fire exit, the steps to finding it must be carefully laid out for them.

The pedantic man would insist that informing men of the fire and telling them the steps to finding the fire exit are not "good news." The normal man is briefly amazed at the pedant's silliness, and then returns to the earnest work of getting out of the burning building.