tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64574206101767667952024-02-02T09:50:13.449-08:00Berit OlamHe who hears the shema drinks the shekar!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-87777970573164859702009-04-25T01:12:00.000-07:002009-07-06T23:09:40.721-07:00T. David Gordon on the 'Toilet Effect' of 21st Century Reformed Theology<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 450px;" src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/st_whatsinside_f.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >T. David Gordon has an fascinating article (<a href="http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=964&var3=main&var4=Home">"Distractions from Orthodox", Modern Reformation , Fall 2008</a>) that points out the necessity and difficulty in trying to define 'orthodoxy' in the current ecclesiastical climate. One man's liberalism is another man's fundamentalism. How ever are we to know where to draw the lines of who's "in" and who's "out"? How do we decide what belongs outside as heresy, what belongs outside but should still to be regarded as evangelical, what we can agree-to-disagree over and remain in union with one another in a given church/denomination, and what things we must all confess.<br /><br />I still vividly remember my chats with elder Mac Laurie (way back during my summer Santa Barbara internship in 2000) and his growing concern that, in the name of trying to 'protect' things from 'broadening' in the church, there was a growing momentum in some quarters to become increasingly 'narrow' over non-essential. Gordon relates a similar concern:<br /><br /></span> <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">I knew an individual once whose recurring theme was that the church (generally or specifically) was moving in heterodox directions. When I asked for evidence of this movement, he almost always cited some matter that appeared in none of the historic creeds of the church. So, what sounded at first as though some of the theological cows had left the barn, ended up being that he had brought in some carpenters and made a smaller barn.</span></blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br />It's this 'making the barn smaller' that concerns me as well. Gordon continues: "Pendulums swing curiously, racing through the middle and tarrying at the extremes. The church, likewise, might swing from the extreme of not caring to talk seriously about doctrine on the one hand, to the other extreme of making every doctrinal discussion a test of orthodoxy on the other."<br /><br />In short, "...not every such discussion need be regarded as a test of orthodoxy or a term of communion." If (and when!) they do, it leads to what Gordon refers to as the <span style="font-weight: bold;">'toilet bowel' effect</span>:<br /></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /> My students are alternately amused and disturbed by my occasional reference to what I inelegantly call the "toilet effect." Having completed the task that brought you to the toilet in the first place, you reach around and push the handle, but accidentally bump the Reader's Digest (or your "to-do" list, your spouse's toothbrush, or the family Chihuahua) off the sink into the toilet also. The swirl having already begun, the Digest is doomed to a most unliterary fate. It suffers the "toilet effect," wasted in the effort to remove genuine waste. The church not infrequently suffers also from the toilet effect. In the effort to rid itself of some perceived effluvium or another, other resources, energies, graces, or gifts sometimes get caught in the swirl and disappear also.</span></blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br />I suppose (to be fair) this is a struggle that any ecclesiastical group/denomination has to deal with, particularly given the plethora of 'issues' that are bombarding upon us from all sides. But as one who has worked in a number of different Presbyteries, States, and even Countries, I can attest that there is nothing imaginary about this so-called 'toilet effect' in Reformed churches.<br /><br />Gordon continues:<br /><br /></span> <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">Satan is a distracter/diverter of the church's resources, and we should not be unaware of his devices. He loves waste, especially the church's waste, because it blunts her warfare against him. He loves the toilet effect, when the church's greater resources disappear in overzealous attempts to achieve smaller gains. Indeed, I often wonder if the Evil One is not the inventor of the toilet effect. The temptation of Christ in Matthew 4 was not a moral temptation in any ordinary sense of the term. Eating bread is not sinful. Rather, Satan tempted Christ to divert his distinctive messianic power from its primary purpose of rescuing the lost from Satan's dominion. Similarly, Satan frequently, perhaps ordinarily, tempts the church to divert its energies from its primary purpose of rescuing the lost from Satan's dominion.</span></blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br />But isn't this just another attempt to do away with 'sound doctrine' in the name of evangelistic zeal? Not if we understand the kinds of things Gordon is concerned about.<br /></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /> Things that are legitimate to address in their own right need not occupy an undue amount of the church's resources, and some such issues need never be resolved. Examples of such studied and deliberate ambiguities in the Westminster standards, for instance, include: infant salvation ("elect infants dying in infancy"), the nature of obedience owed to the civil magistrate ("obedience to his lawful commands"), post- and amillennialism, and mediate or immediate imputation of sin. Other truths are so woven into the fabric of theology that they must be regarded as a matter either of general Christian orthodoxy (the articles of the Apostles' Creed for instance) or a matter of the particular orthodoxy of one of its branches (Lutheran versus Reformed understanding of the nature of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper). But other matters, worthy of Christian conversation, needn't be finally resolved.<br /></span></blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><br />In other words, we have to recognize that not all doctrinal disputes and matters are created equal. This is where I think historical theology can play a positive role in assessing, as it were, the size of our theological boundaries. You need to have some perspective as to whether certain doctrines deserve a robust defense at all costs and what doctrinal differences can and should be tolerated within a given tradition.<br /><br />Gordon goes on to list and explore his "...candidates for winners of the coveted toilet effect":<br />(1) The length of creation days<br />(2) Van Tillian apologetics<br />(3) Biblical theology vs. Systematic theology<br />(4) Christian America & the culture wars<br />(5) Christian education<br />(6) Women in the military<br /><br />You can read his discussion for yourself under each one, if you aren't familiar with the issues. His concern, as I see it, is not that these issues should be swept under the rug entirely. Rather he's pleading for a broader 'ecumenical'-spirit when faced with issues that genuine brothers in the same tradition disagree over. One might not expect this of Dr. Gordon, given some of the polemical writing style. Yet, as one gets to know him (and meets other people that previously worked with him), you'll find that he's 'ecumenical' in the best sense of the term when dealing with others in a Reformed church setting.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-41010278425723848532009-04-21T19:41:00.000-07:002009-04-22T02:07:08.591-07:00Studying Galatians<span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Bible/Galatians6.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 335px; height: 333px;" src="http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Bible/Galatians6.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">I've been working through on and off Galatians over about the last 2 or so years, having finally made it to Chapter 6 (this coming Sunday AM). Here are a few random biographical suggestions that might serve as a sign post for someone wishing to work on Galatians in the future.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">As far as commentaries go, R. Longnecker (one of the better ones I've seen in the Word Commentary Series) and Betz (in the Hermeneia by Fortress Press) will give you an excellent 1-2 punch on the exegetical front. Differences notwithstanding, both proved stronger 'theologically' than I expected when starting. If you're planning to work/teach/preach/study through Galatians, Longnecker is a 'must buy' with Betz deserving 2nd prize. After that it tends to be very hit or miss. Ridderbos' commentary (published in 1953) is ok, but it lacks some of the more profound things he wrote later in life. Interestingly, I think there were a number of places that the later Riddersbos (a la </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >Paul: An Outline</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">) differered from this commentary. One definitely gets the sense that he was reading Galatians eariler through the lens of the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >ordo salutis</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> while moving more toward a </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >historia salutis</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> reading of Galatians by the time he wrote </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >Paul: An Outline</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Fung (NICNT) is alright...good in places, ho-hum in others. Unlike the more-recently redone Anchor Commentary series in the OT which tends to be quite good, I didn't find J.A. Martyr's commentary (1997) very helpful at all as a 'critical' commentary. James Dunn's commentary (in the Black NT series, 1995) and monograph (</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >A Theology of Paul's Letter to the Galatians</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">, Cambridge Press) have their scattered brilliant moments mixed in with large swaths of theological presuppositions that I don't share; it would take a detailed review of Dunn to say more. However, for the purpose of this review, I'm not ready to throw either of these books to the "NPP" (the New Perspective Pergortory) of fundamentalist exegesis. You need to be aware of how Dunn reads Galatians, and I think you'll come away better off digesting the argumentation. Richard Hays monograph (</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >The Faith of Jesus Christ</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">, Scholar's Press, 1983) that focuses specifically on Galatians 3 and 4 is another piece that deserves careful attention, even though I don't find all of his arguments immdiately compelling and remain unconvinced of his pistou Christou position.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Moises Silva's</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" > Interpreting Galatians: Explorations in Exegetical Method</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> is another important book worthy of taking a look at. There are places where I concur and do not concur, but it's still a book you ought to consult when working in Galatians.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">The book that has largely flown under the radar (at least, I've never heard it mentioned in my cross-section of Reformed and OT-minded friends) is </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >The Flesh/Spirit Conflict in Galatians</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> by Walter (Bo) Russell (Univ. Press of America, 1997). Russell is </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.talbot.edu/faculty/faculty_profiles/profile.cfm?n=walter_russell">Professor of Biblical Exposition at Talbot Seminary</a><span style="font-family: arial;">; however, he did his Ph.D in NT at Westminster Seminary in PA under the direction of Moises Silva. His primary readers were Richard Gaffin and Stephen Westerholm.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bds.biola.edu/faculty/photos/walter_russell.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 135px; height: 145px;" src="http://bds.biola.edu/faculty/photos/walter_russell.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">As he notes in the preface, "This book is a work of biblical theology. It sets forth a creative thesis that swims against the theological current of the last few generations. The flow of the current is this: Whenever Paul speaks of the flesh/Spirit struggle, he is referring to an internal struggle within Christians. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >The thesis of this book</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> is that this understanding of a flesh/Spirit struggle within believers is a misreading of Galatians (and elsewhere) and results in a wrong theological anthropology. Rather, I set forth the premise that Paul uses the flesh/Spirit antithesis in Galatians (and elsewhere) in a </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >redemptive historical</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> sense to refer to eras or modes of existence in the history of God's people." (ix, emphasis in the original).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Those familiar with Ridderbos' </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >Paul</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">, Vos' work on the Spirit, and Gaffin's work on the resurrection, Moo and Westerholm on 'the law', etc., will know exactly what's going on here; Russell argues very much along those same Biblical-theological lines. Those who have consulted T. David Gordon's, "The Problem at Galatia," </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Interpretation</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> 41 (1987): 32-43 will find that Russell adopts a very similar position with respect to the book's purpose, and issue that has fairly dire consequences in how you read the book. While the book makes its particular focus on only Chapters 5 and 6 (where Paul's sarx/pneuma antithesis comes into focus), Russell makes excellent usage of the entire book's redemptive historical outlook, particular as it relates to the book's rhetorical strategy (35-86). He also has some good discussion regarding 'Paul's opponents' and what they were teaching (11-34), and how that often influences the 'method' or 'lens' the book is anaylzed through.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">In other words, the first 3rd of the book will make an excellent introduction to the book, if you are looking for something to dive into at the start of your Galatians' study. There are two editions floating around, both identical as I can tell. The later one sells for about $5 more dollars. The cheapest place I've found selling the </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=Walter+Bo+Russell">cheaper edition is Barnes and Noble</a><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm leaving out a lot of literature/commentaries that probably deserve a mention, but in the interest of brevity I'll save that for questions if want my opinions about other literature. I'm not Galatia expert by any means (email T. David Gordon if you want that!), but I have read just about </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/galatians.php">all of the literature that I can get my hands on</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> related to the book.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">On one final note, what do I read on Galatians if I don't have gazillions to buy expensive monographs? My advice would probably be to consult something like the little-known-about </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Galatians-Pauls-Charter-Christian-Freedom/dp/0830814205">commentary on Galatians by Leon Morris</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. It's not a perfect commentary, but I personally liked it better than any of the other 'pop variety' commentaries on Galatians (e.g. Stott, Hendrickson, even Ryken to a certain extent). Strangely, the book (published in 1996) seems to go largely unnoticed, even among evangelicals. There are places where I don't share his views, but it's a nice lay-refernce under 200 pages.</span></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-5970352263943128122009-04-15T23:29:00.000-07:002009-04-18T01:24:26.740-07:00Housekeeping....<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 338px;" src="http://www.apostolicyouthandfamilyservices.org/Housekeeper.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>_________________________<br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Just a few 'housekeeping' matters....<br /><br />FIRST, In case you missed the memo -- yes, I'm married....as of June 2, 2007. I'll <span style="font-style: italic;">eventually</span> post some of the official pics (shot most-excellently by Vicky's cousin-in-law and Canon employee, Scott Jo) over at my Flickr account of the wedding. In the mean time, there are <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashleymorgan/sets/72157600850173249/">already 50 or so shots</a> taken by my Uncle Dan, for those who haven't seen them yet.<br /><br />SECOND, things officially rapped up at Covenant Presbyterian in Berkeley last July (2008). It was a great 20 months of ministerial laboring with Pastor Wayne (a friend from seminary) and the entire church. It was one of those jobs that just providentially materialized when I relocated to the Bay Area to be near Vicky, and I am most appreciative of their (paid!) support for those months as Vicky and I 'adjusted' to marriage life. The church was also supportive as I preached through some material I had been working on from Proverbs and related OT 'wisdom' books; a lot of good, constructive feedback and encouragement along the way! Vicky and I are sad that our time there was so short.<br /><br />If you are looking for a Reformed, Bible-teaching church in the San Francisco/Oakland area, I recommend you check out <a href="http://www.berkeleyopc.org/">Covenant Presbyterian</a>.<br /><br />THIRD, so what now? Well, that was a question I was praying through for 2 or 3 months last year, and it seemed like I wasn't getting a clear answer. I kicked around the idea of getting that MA/Ph.D program started in Hebrew Bible, but the timing just seemed wrong to start something that massive. Besides, I was really enjoying the regular teaching at church, and I have more than enough 'degrees' to do that! But I had real doubts about where I should <span style="font-style: italic;">best</span> pursue those ecclesiastical interests.<br /><br />In the mean time, I decided to get back in touch with my old PCA church in La Jolla, CA....just to see what pastoral opportunities there might be back in this Presbytery. That's when the pastor (Rev. James Lee) floated (in his words) "the crazy idea" of me coming back down to New Life La Jolla to work as an Associate Pastor. Naturally my curiosity was peeked, since this was my church before I moved to Canada in 2004 to start my Th.M. [It was also the Presbytery that first licensed me to teach/preach back in 2003 and still the Presbytery where I still hold those credentials.] That first conversation happened in September 2008, but I really thought it was a major shot in the dark. How was a small church going to afford to pay me <span style="font-style: italic;">anything</span> to come back? But one thing led to another, the New Life session issued me a verbal offer to come down around Thanksgiving time last November.<br /><br />So Vicky and I decided to accept the offer, and we moved back to San Diego on New Year's weekend. It was an added bonus that Vicky attened the church when it was a brand new 'mission' work while she was a student at UCSD back in the late 90's. 3+ months in, things are going great. More on that TBA!<br /><br />FOURTH, I have a new DSLR camera (as of last August): <span style="font-weight: bold;">Canon 40D</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1251/1191449628_8d0b364a3a_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I'm up to about 3500 shots in 9 months. Lots of mistakes. And even more photos I need to sort. Hey, I'm working on it; see my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashleymorgan/">Flickr account</a> for those updates.<br /><br />I haven't touched an SLR camera since my freshman year in high school, but I had been itching to get back into things after a long absence, especially since the new DSLR cameras have been come down in price and are turning out much better quality shots than even 3 years ago. So far so good!<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashleymorgan/3355374982/" title="Kayden01.jpg by mashleymorgan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3537/3355374982_32828b2435.jpg" alt="Kayden01.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></a></span></span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashleymorgan/3347198623/" title="22 by mashleymorgan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/3347198623_237cb92277.jpg" alt="22" height="333" width="500" /></a></span></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashleymorgan/3347251155/" title="58.jpg by mashleymorgan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3475/3347251155_50bd90ea87.jpg" alt="58.jpg" height="500" width="333" /></a></span></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Keep your little pocket cameras for those simple family-get-together photos. But if you really want to expand your portfolio -- especially if there are kids in the mix now!! -- then getting a DSLR is a must. Email if you have any questions and I'll try to act like I know what I'm talking about!<br /><br />My hope is to eventually expand things over at the <a href="http://photomorg.blogspot.com/">Photomorg</a> site, but so far I just haven't had the time.<br /><br />Hopefully, I can get back to some posts here in the not-too-distant future. I need to get this stuff on Proverbs out while it's still fresh on my mind.<br /><br />Cheers.<br /></span></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-66739027931218988412009-04-10T01:32:00.000-07:002009-04-10T02:10:37.314-07:00Herman Bavinck on Confession and False Shame<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 398px; height: 507px;" src="http://www.wtsbooks.com/images/bavinck.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">But I certify you, brethren,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">that the gospel which was preached of</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">me is not after man.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Gal. 1: 11.<br /><br /></span></div><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><blockquote></blockquote>Confessing is against flesh and blood, against the world and Satan. By nature, each man is an enemy of the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ. It may seem strange to the shallow minded person, that there has always been so much resistance against the gospel. For it is a joyful message for all creatures; it speaks of nothing but grace, peace and salvation; it demands nothing, but gives everything. Yet, it finds enmity and resistance all over; it is an offense to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek. It may be for man, it is not after man. It is of Divine origin and therefore not in accordance with the thoughts and desires of men. Mind and heart, desire and will, soul and body are against the gospel of Christ. In their resistance men are supported by the world and the whole kingdom of darkness.<br /><br />There certainly is a difference in circumstances. In days of peace and quiet, it is less serious, then when the congregation is oppressed and persecuted by the world. We need more courage to confess Christ, in an ungodly environment of sinners and mockers, than in the circle of relatives and friends, who together confess the truth. It needs a more courageous faith, not to be ashamed of the cross of Christ, when surrounded by the great and learned, than in the midst of common people in a distant village.<br /><br />But in principle the resistance is the same all over. For flesh, the world and Satan are always the same, and the greatest and strongest enemy that resists the confession of Christ, lives in our own heart. The forms in which the enemy operates may be different, but confessing the name of Christ always demands that we deny self and bear His cross. Whoever, from which circle he may come, when he will follow Jesus, must submit to insult an contempt.<br /><br />Even when faith is worked in the heart, and urges to confessing, there still can be so much that keeps the lips closed, and keeps us from boldly confessing the name of Jesus!<br /><br />Look at Peter, who in a hour of danger denies his Master, and later in Antioch from fear for the brethren of the circumcision turns into a hypocrite. Yet, Peter was first among the apostles, who for his glorious and courageous confession that Jesus was Messiah, received the name of Rock. He felt so close to Jesus, had such fervent love for the Master, that he would die for the Lord, and did not think it possible he would ever deny his Lord. When Peter could fall and did fall, who shall remain standing? And who does not need the warning: let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.<br /><br />There are many examples in the history of the Christian Church, where we read of steadfast martyrs, but we also read of the thousands, who denied the faith in the hour of temptation. When oppression and persecution come for the sake of the Word, those, who at first heard the Word with joy, but had no root in themselves, are instantly offended, and are but for a time.<br /><br />There are so many dangers to which the believer is exposed, so many rocks at which he can suffer shipwreck. The desire of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, fear to lose name and honor, good and blood, work together to draw Christ's disciple away from the certainty of faith. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Among all these temptations, a so-called sense of false shame could be the most severe of all.</span> For even when oppressions and persecutions are past, it continues to slay its thousands and ten thousands. Among the low and mighty, this sense of false shame kept many from confessing the name of the Lord.<br /><br />There is something very humiliating in the thought, that basically, in our hearts, we are ashamed to confess Jesus. For He was a man going through the country, doing good and blessing men; Who was meek and lowly of heart; Who being innocent, died on the cross, being condemned by those who were His enemies. There must be something out of order with us, we must be spiritually sick, when we are ashamed for such a Man, and are afraid to take His name on our lips.<br /><br />Shame in general is an unpleasant feeling, which connects itself with some act in us, as if the esteem from others for us becomes less. It can be something positive. When Adam after he sinned is ashamed because he trespassed the commandment, he gives evidence that he sees his act as evil and is aware that he fell. To be ashamed is not always a fruit of faith, it is also known by the natural man, and is evidence that men did not become animal or devil when he fell. He is still man, and a feeling of dignity and honour remains with him.<br /><br />But beside much that is true and good, there is also a false sense of shame. It occurs when we feel embarrassed about something, which is good in itself, but can lower us in the esteem of others. We are often ashamed for the good impressions that are left from the preaching of the gospel; about the accusations of our conscience; about the sorrow that we feel after a sin committed; about emotions to which we are subject at certain times. We are afraid that others knowing about this, will despise us, and make fun of us; that we will lose the name of being courageous and strong people.<br /><br />It is this sense of false shame, which often surprises us with respect to the gospel of the cross. We are ashamed of the congregation, which consists not of many nobles, not many wise. We are ashamed of the Bible, which is so different and is contested by men of science and culture. We are ashamed of Christ, Who claimed to be God's only Son, the anointed of the Father. We are ashamed of His cross, which was an offense to the Jew, and foolishness to the Greek. We are ashamed of God's special revelation, which discovers us to ourselves, and shows us in our spiritual poverty.<br /><br />We are also afraid when taking the side of Christ, we will lose our name and honour as men and become subject to insult and mockery, libel and oppression. We fear, that by confessing Christ, our dignity, our personality, our being human will suffer harm.<br /><br />Even a sense of false shame has the dark underground, that at one time we were created in God's image and must uphold a certain honour and status. No one is indifferent to the esteem of self and of others, because in his deepest fall, man remains man, that is, he still retains the image and likeness of God.<br /><br />But under the influence of sin this sense works the wrong way. For it is true indeed when we give ourselves to Christ for our salvation, the esteem of ourselves and that of others will lessen and we will lose our name and honour by men. But such esteem is nothing but delusion, and such honour and delusion are but imagined. For by nature we see ourselves as rich and enriched, having need of nothing. But when we embrace the gospel, we see that we are poor and blind and naked.<br /><br />That is how the honour of men is for the greatest part nothing but ignorance and show. The art of associating with man consists in hiding our real being, so they form a judgment about our person, according to our outward, acquired behaviour. God is true, but all men are liars. Man just does not happen to speak lies, but he lives a lie; he is untrue in his very existence. Appearance and substance, being and revelation, inward and outward do contrast each other. While at times the mouth flows over with love and the countenance shows nothing but friendship, from the heart of men proceed evil surmisings, murders, fornication, adultery, theft, false witness, slanders. A saint, who knew the inner man and could see the bottom of the heart, would flee from him, horror stricken. And unforgettable is the love of Christ, Who knew man, but in spite of this looked for him and gave Himself over into death for him.<br /><br />That is how we live for ourselves and others in a delusion and imagination. Well considered, we abandon nothing, when we believe in Christ, for we have nothing. We only abandon the delusion that we are rich and enriched, that we have need of nothing. The greatest misery of sin is not that we are blind, but being blind we think that we see. Sin is guilt and shame and stain, but it also is foolishness and lack of wisdom.<br /><br />That delusion is disturbed in us by the Word of the Lord. If we would be saved by Christ we must do away with that delusion. For to become a Christian is to esteem the judgment of others for nothing, accepting the judgment of God upon ourselves and hope in His grace. To confess Christ includes, that we lose ourselves and all that is ours, our name and our honour, our good and blood, our soul and our life. It is exactly this that is resisted by a sense of false shame. The desire to apparent self preservation, urges and drives men to resist the gospel with all his strength.<br /><br />"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom. 8: 7). The natural man does not understand the things of God's Spirit, and he does not understand, that denial of self is the only way to true self-preservation.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >from </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >The Sacrifice of Praise</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >, Chapter 7</span><br /></div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-91527308372327408322009-03-01T23:06:00.000-08:002009-03-02T00:50:37.248-08:00Theonomy, Ethics, and Perspectivalism<span style="font-style: italic;">NB: The following was discussion paper penned by the late Meredith Kline. Since I over the years have received numerous questions regarding Christian ethics, Theonomy, and perspectivalism. I don't wish enter a full-blown discussion of Prof Frame's perspectivalism, but I merely submit this in the interest of (a) highlighting one aspect of the discussion and (b) posting Dr. Kline's thoughts on the matter.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">__________________________________________________________<br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9-TUR7J8i15gfoqXSGiLt-NoRwS5n44TMOA2L-pnLjZdsKkngNUtykfZtsvY0kK2qQvXepCYc37RTqdLUSTveZkW8CaslL4k3c1tFlDk9ZSiVQYIaMG96GklAanVfKrfSFe4c9JhUkM/s1600-h/MeredithKlineFestschrift.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9-TUR7J8i15gfoqXSGiLt-NoRwS5n44TMOA2L-pnLjZdsKkngNUtykfZtsvY0kK2qQvXepCYc37RTqdLUSTveZkW8CaslL4k3c1tFlDk9ZSiVQYIaMG96GklAanVfKrfSFe4c9JhUkM/s320/MeredithKlineFestschrift.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308488839610724546" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Meredith G. Kline</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >28 February 1986</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Westminster Theological Seminary in California</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">After our faculty forum on theonomy I thought a follow-up paper would be useful, particularly to treat the opening sections of the discussion-guide provided by John Frame, which were by-passed at the forum. I also thought it would be appropriate to communicate with Vern Poythress, whose three tapes on theonomy were among the source materials for the forum, especially since I had made some criticisms of his approach, even though appreciating his contribution to the discussion along biblical-theological lines and the way he eventually comes down in clear opposition to the radical conclusions of theonomic politics. These two objectives have been combined in this one response-paper to save some time and effort by avoiding inevitable repetitions. Hopefully this paper may serve as a stimulus to our continued study of the issues together.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">At the forum I stressed the importance of starting with something that is indisputably held by theonomists and is, moreover, a distinctive and climactic tenet for them, namely, their contention that it is a function of the state to suppress and eliminate those who practice false religions. In my judgment, to impose such a role on the State would be in effect to countermand the great commission. As I see it, this reconstructionist program contradicts the essential biblical ethos and ethic of the church in this present world. Theonomists disagree - they see this program as the fulfillment of their millennial aspirations. One can take a stand with one side or the other in this dispute but what one cannot do is pass off the conflict as just a matter of varying emphases, as just a relative difference of position on some continuum. Clearly the difference is substantive, a difference not of degree but total contrast. It is not simply a matter of minor disagreement as to how to apply some general principle in a given situation. It is not a matter of some general principle of justice at all, but rather of the particular, precise functions that divine revelation assigns to specific institutions - theocracy, State, church. The defining of the nature, functions and historical mission of these institutions constitutes a major element in the content of biblical law, each covenantal corpus of law being indeed institutionally specific. And dividing theonomists sharply from their Reformed critics is a radical difference of judgment as to the functions appointed by the Scriptures to the several institutions.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Turning to Frame's discussion-guide he starts with the assertion that the Mosaic law, including its penal sanctions, had the functions (1) of republishing "the creation ordinances and the Noahic and Abrahamic covenant stipulations" and (2) of applying these "principles" to the new situation introduced by the exodus, with its cultural and redemptive-historical differences from what went before. Then, on the basis of this interpretation of the Mosaic law, he concludes that there is both continuity and discontinuity between the Mosaic law and what preceded and follows it, that accordingly total continuity or total discontinuity is ruled out, and that the differences between Bahnsen and Kline are perforce only relative differences as to the degree of continuity or discontinuity recognized by each.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It is Frame's starting point that must be challenged, that is, his biblical-theological conclusion that the several promulgations of divine stipulations are to be identified as each a republication of its predecessors). I am, of course, concerned to contest the soundness of the biblical-theological position in itself, but I also want to call attention to how this starting assumption decisively affects, delimits and controls all that follows.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Frame's republishing approach should not be adopted in the first place because it entails a seriously defective view of the several divine covenants. It misconstrues the relationship of the successive economies in the administration of God's rule over the world by obscuring if not obliterating the real differences (especially as to the nature and functions of the institutions defined in the covenants) that obtain between the covenant of creation and the covenant of common grace, between the latter and the redemptive covenants, and between the Mosaic Covenant and previous and following redemptive covenants. Of particular relevance, it is oversimplification to the point of falsification to identify the Mosaic Covenant as a republication of the stipulations of the previous divine covenants recorded in Scripture. Though I am only stating this dogmatically here, I have sought to make the exegetical/biblical-theological case in support of my position carefully and at length in my publications.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The second point I want to make concerning Frame's starting assumption (the republishing notion) is that it sets the bounds and determines the direction and conclusions of his whole analysis: Within this republication framework all the content of all the separate divine law disclosures would seem to get reduced to the general equity component in biblical law, the general norms of morality that are constant and permanent. For what Frame initially calls ordinances and stipulations are immediately afterwards identified as "these principles." However, these "principles" are said to undergo particular situational modifications in the process of repeated republication. Apparently then Frame does not really intend to equate all the particular stipulations with "principles", pure and simple. Nevertheless, the fact that he does identify them in an overall way as "principles" means at least that whatever variations of particular application appear in the course of the alleged republishings these modified formulations are nothing more than expressions, one and all, of the common set of constant principles which, according to the foundational assumption, get republished over and again in each successive promulgation of divine norms.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This republication framework thus becomes a hermeneutical grid that filters out all the biblical evidence of God's appointing real differences of nature and function to the various institutions in his several institutionally specific sets of covenant stipulations. These real institutional differences get lost on the way through the filter, emerging as merely relatively variant applications of some common "principle". Thus, the unique nature of the Israelite theocracy as a holy institution, typological of the consummated kingdom of God, with its associated special theocratic functions gets filtered out and is denied. Frame cannot admit a real difference - he cannot acknowledge the uniqueness of Israel nor, as corollary thereof, the non-holy and non-typological nature of the nations of the world in their ordinary administration of justice - without first abandoning in midstream his opening, controlling assumption of republication. Accordingly, he holds that some degree of holiness is to be predicated of the State and that the regular enforcement of justice by the common civil magistrate is typological (in the symbolic biblical sense). Indeed, he says in the same context (i.e., his "Thoughts on Theonomy", p. 6) that "all men, not only Israel, are in covenant with God", even after breaking covenant. That is how the stark biblical contrast between Ammi (used for people in covenant with God) and LO-Ammi (used for people not in covenant with God) translates when it has passed through the republication-filter: No becomes a shade of Yes!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Incidentally - yet not so incidentally - it is apparent that the alignment of this republication view of biblical laws is with the theonomist position. Is it not precisely such a view, one that regards all divine prescriptions as particular situational expressions of the same general, constant moral principles and does not allow for real substantive differences with respect to the nature and functions of peculiarly distinct institutions, that accommodates nicely the theonomists' unwarranted interpretation of "the general equity" of the "judicial laws" of Moses dealt with in the Westminster Confession of Faith 19:4, the interpretation propounder as they seek to find confessional support for their position on the civil magistrate? By the same token, within the bounds of his republication scheme, Frame cannot even describe Kline's view on its own terms, with its affirmations of real institutional differences.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Everything depends then on Frame's original biblical-theological assumption concerning the relationships of the covenants and the nature of their stipulated institutions. We can debate whether such a covenantal theology as his is correct, congenial as it is to the theonomist view but impervious to Kline's view of the controverted matters, or whether Kline's biblical-theological analysis of the covenants is true to the ‘Scriptures.’ But meanwhile it must be recognized that this is where the issue lies - in the opposing biblical-theological conclusions concerning such concepts as theocracy, holy, and typology. This is not a red herring, as Frame has suggested. If there is anything in the discussion that would lead it down a false track it is the identification of the issue with the question of whether either side affirms total continuity or total discontinuity between the Mosaic law as a whole and what preceded and follows it (of course, nobody does either.) The issue is the biblical-theological one as to the nature and functions of the institutions defined by the divine covenants, especially the Israelite theocracy. And the differences between theonomists and Kline (and other Reformed critics) are not matters of degree but of mutually exclusive understandings of what are and what are not the functions of theocracy and common State. The differences are solidly substantial and radically oppositional. They involve two distinct versions of Christianity.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">We focus now on the Poythress tapes. In keeping with my comments above, I of course reject the suggestion that the difference between theonomic politics and Kline's view is simply that one or the other is relatively closer or farther from the normative or situational poles of a perspectival axis. It is rather a matter if completely contradicting one another when theonomists assert and Kline denies that the theocratic function of enforcing the faith by the sword is a function of the common State. It is not that one side stresses the normative more and the other the situational more. It is rather that they differ absolutely (with the absoluteness of the difference between Yes and No) on what the norm is. More precisely, they differ on the situational content of the norm.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It is utterly misleading to suggest that my Intrusion concept is in the slightest degree further distanced than the theonomic view from "normativeness" (with its connotation of authoritative standard), either in principle or emphasis. I see the Mosaic law as institutionally specific, as defining the governmental province of a theocracy, and I see the civil magistrate, as defined in other biblical revelation, as non-theocratic. Hence, I do not simplistically regard the State as possessing all the functions that are 'assigned by the Mosaic law to theocratic Israel. My interpretation of the biblical norms thus differs from that of the theonomists, but that is what is involved – a different interpretation of the content of the norm, not a lesser recognition on my part of some "normativeness" abstractly distinguished from a situational aspect.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Parenthetically, if we are to speak of a tendency towards subjectivist situationalist ethics, then curiously it is found not in Intrusion ethics but in theonomic politics. According to the former, the norms of the several institutionally specific bodies of law remain fixed in their application to these institutions. But theonomists, like dispensationalists, without biblical warrant impose distinctions within the course of a given historical epoch of an institution, distinctions that result in changing norms of conduct. Thus, it is suggested among theonomists that a demographic shift in a State from an unbeliever to a believer dominant population signalizes a change of norms with respect to the supposed State function of suppressing false religions.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Quite apart from the theonomy issue, I have misgivings about an analysis of the ethical picture that coordinates the situational with the normative. The impression given is that the norm is some non-particular, situationally undefined, abstract generality and that when it comes to developing concrete meaning in the application of this abstract norm we are on our own without normative direction as to how to factor in the situation and so determine our ethical duty. If that is not what is going on in this multiperspectival analysis, then what sense does it make for Poythress to suggest that Kline stands closer than Bahnsen to the Situation Ethics people, even if only formally?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I submit that the situational must be subordinated to the normative, not coordinated with it. That is, the situation is part of the original content or meaning of the biblical norm itself. The norms are situationally concrete. In applying them we must determine whether a particular existential situation belongs to the situational category envisaged in the norm, but in so doing we do not add to the meaning of the norm or modify the norm in any way. If, however, the situational is coordinated with the normative ' the inevitable result would seem to be that uninspired situational meaning gets infused into the inspired but hitherto abstract biblical norm in the fallible act of application. This looks like a giant step towards the erosion of the canonical character of Scripture as our only infallible rule of faith and practice. One’s impression that such a step is being taken is strengthened when one observes that the situational perspective and the normative perspective are polarized. That takes place when Poythress in his analysis concludes that Kline's distinctive (Intrusion) view of the situational element involves a movement away from the normative or that Bahnsen's rhetoric about the unchanging nature of the normative represents a move away from the situational pole. By using these two perspectives as a means of defining the opposition between Bahnsen and Kline, Poythress polarizes the norm and the situation. In the context of this polarization the norm loses normativeness to the extent that it is applied, that is, to the extent that it takes on situational content. The concept of absolutely authoritative biblical law thus becomes a vacant noumenal abstraction. In our consideration of theonomy the issue of multi-perspectivalism has confronted us, posing for us a more fundamental and difficult theological problem than theonomy, As argued above, adaption of the multiperspectival method introduces tensions within a theology that would simultaneously confess the orthodox doctrine of Scripture. To me it is also a cause of concern that those who are given to this method are prone, as I perceive it, in spite of their protestations to the contrary, to view antithetical positions as merely differing but compatible emphases. This is what is done by both Poythress and Frame in their assessments of the antithetical positions in the theonomy</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> debate. I have to wonder too if it is not due to his multi-perspectival cast of thought that Frame, working in the biblical-theological area, blurs the differences between theocracy and common State. Poythress comes to more satisfactory biblical-theological conclusions, but there is then a tension within his overall presentation between his biblical-theological stance and his multiperspectival analysis of the principals in the controversy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Significantly Frame introduces the conflict over Norman Shepherd's theology at Westminster in Philadelphia in his discussion of the theocracy problem as he argues that Kline and Bahnsen are not so far apart ("Let's Keep the Picture Fuzzy", pp. 3 ff.). Here was a case where the contested teaching involved a contradiction of the heart of the Gospel, yet it was perceived through multiperspectival lenses as nothing more than a difference in emphasis, or at worst as a deviation within allowable tolerances.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Perhaps some of these readings of the situation can be shown to be erroneous and satisfactory solutions offered for apparent problems. But it does appear that if we are to be responsible guardians of Reformed orthodoxy we must add to our agenda of study and discussion a scrutiny of multiperspectivalism. Is it an acceptable method of doing theology?</span></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-51950138435198384322008-12-06T23:37:00.000-08:002008-12-06T23:39:05.117-08:00Study more you must!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFsT6n1CewhRSacDYFJyhyphenhyphenZcfz8ic7spU8U8V9BRrFU2Om2HOBf2prs-Ei23OSTocvBCj79Z5NNCfZKKdcbLqzaijfb95LQLjcqMLiB_PWYnv3u6aNyiyGg1I3PG7OQsQyFx50PXUvjs/s1600-h/sc0038e2a3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 394px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFsT6n1CewhRSacDYFJyhyphenhyphenZcfz8ic7spU8U8V9BRrFU2Om2HOBf2prs-Ei23OSTocvBCj79Z5NNCfZKKdcbLqzaijfb95LQLjcqMLiB_PWYnv3u6aNyiyGg1I3PG7OQsQyFx50PXUvjs/s400/sc0038e2a3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276949320965971042" border="0" /></a>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-39350925287424664852008-10-25T11:48:00.001-07:002008-10-25T12:00:55.549-07:00I'm not dead yet!<div style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Sorry for the long blogging hiatus. Everything is ok. Things have been busy these last 4 months.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dGFXGwHsD_A&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dGFXGwHsD_A&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:130%;">I shall return.....in a blaze of Proverbial glory!<br /></span></div></div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-18393416133275250012008-06-07T02:49:00.000-07:002008-06-07T15:42:47.637-07:00Romans 7 Redux<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur=""><img style="" 0px="" auto="" src="http://romansroad.net/romanroad2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />One text that you're not likely to encounter on the 'Romans Road' presentation of the Gospel is Romans 7. That's because (for those who aren't aware) Romans 7 is one of those 'difficult' Pauline texts that scholars are divided on.<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Consequently, it's difficult to talk about a 'standard' view of Romans 7, but the 'Paul as believer' view of Romans 7 seems to be predominant view in our conservative, Presbyterian (and Reformed) circles.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />However, my friend Todd Bordow (OPC pastor in Ft. Worth, TX) summarizes some of the difficulties with that position, and why many scholars today see Romans 7 as <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">not</span> describing the 'normal' Christian life:<br /><br /></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">1. When did the Law come to Paul as an individual and he died? Paul grew up with the Law.<br /><br />2. The Paul as a Christian view doesn't really answer the question overriding the chapter - is the (Mosaic) Law sin?<br /><br />3. Paul already stated in chapter 6 that believers are not under the bondage of sin.<br /><br />4. The dynamic in 7:17-23 is not a struggle with sin, but one under the bondage of sin; a slave to sin, which is not the case with the believer.<br /><br />5. The passage's answer to this crying out under bondage is not the return of Christ, as would be the case with the believer view, but the gospel (past tense) 7:25 and 8:1-4.</span> </blockquote><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />Comments? Thoughts? Replies?<br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-55174873845787210452008-05-30T21:12:00.000-07:002008-12-09T04:40:55.772-08:00Brain-Dead Utopian Seekers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 460px;" src="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2008/03/13/davidmamet460.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">David Mamet (screenplay of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >The Untouchables</span><span style="font-size:130%;">, director of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >The Spanish Prisoner</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> and </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >The Heist</span><span style="font-size:130%;">) has a great piece from a couple months ago about his 'conversion' from leftist-socialism to free-market libertarianism, or (in Mamet's words) why he is "<a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0811,why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal,374064,1.html/full">no longer a brain-dead liberal</a>."<br /><br />While the whole article is reflective of Mamet's writing style, one part of it particularly stood out:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><p><span style="font-size:130%;">As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.</span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"> These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. Why do I say impracticable? Because although I still held these beliefs, I no longer applied them in my life....<br /><br />And, I wondered, how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always wrong <i>at the same time</i> that I thought I thought that people were basically good at heart? Which was it? I began to question what I actually thought and found that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama.<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />In other words, the whole notion that 'capitalistic America' is </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >basically evil</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> while the people who benefit from and take part in 'capitalistic America' remain </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >basically good</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> is glaringly inconsistent. Such views are nothing more than dreams of a</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" > utopia</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> that simply does not (and never will!) exist.<br /><br />Through recent years, it's become increasingly clear that one of the fundamental flaws that both 'Christian America' (to the right) and 'Socialist America' (to the left) ironically share is their search and quest for civil <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">utopia</span>. Their goals, presuppositions, and agendas are massively different....and yet they both need a certain amount of intrusive government to pull off their visions.<br /><br />This explains (in part) why libertarian political and economic philosophy seems so foreign to the average American today. Why? Because we've become so accustomed to trusting <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">the government</span> to provide and produce utopia for us, whether it be in matters of economics or faith/religion. Just listen to the candidate speeches going on during this current election year -- are not most of them filled with 'promises' about what <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">the government</span> is going to do for you? Candidates that run a platform of 'less government' (e.g. Ron Paul) are deemed 'nutty' and 'radical'.<br /><br />Mamet continues:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow.</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Economist Walter Williams <a href="http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/Congressional%20Problem%20Creation.htm">argued a very similar point</a> earlier this month by pointing out that "<span style="">[m]ost of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place.</span>" Bigger government is not going to solve our problems, whether moral/religious or social/economic!<br /><br />Mamet's article highlights an interesting irony -- far from allowing individuals, governments, or corporations a blank-check to do whatever they deem right in their own eyes, Libertarian 'freedom' has a remarkably <span style="font-style: italic;">realistic</span> way of approaching the topic of total depravity as a 'given' this side of heavenly perfection. I suspect this is one reason why I find libertarian economic theory to be quite compatible with my Calvinistic-amillennial eschatology, given that neither hold out empty pre-consummational, utopian promises. There is certainly a legitimate place for Christian involvement in civil affairs, but this should not be confused with the only true 'Christian utopia' to be found in the eternal age to come, an age that we partake of even now in an anticipatory form. Failure to make this distinction between the present age (which recognizes the need for the State to bear the sword per Romans 13) and the age to come (which recognizes there will be no need for sword-bearing since the final judgment is now past-tense) continues to be a prime source of error among Christians thinking about politics at present in the US.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Now go watch the Untouchables (again)!<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur=""><img style="" 0px="" auto="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XGjcX7F33EM/SEEvuy_-fHI/AAAAAAAAAR4/IqMbJXX6-U4/s320/The-Untouchables.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206495125227601010" border="0" /></a></div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-45985407690636220492008-05-14T14:19:00.000-07:002008-05-14T15:07:44.022-07:00Hot Air anyone?<span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >You know the guys over at Lenovo must have had fun making this one....<br /><br /></span><center style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><object height="355" width="425"><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_hnOCUkbix0&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object></span></center><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air">Macbook Air</a> certainly plays well to the "OOOOOh" and "Awwwwwwe" crowd. Even I have to admit being pretty impressed when I saw my first one. But then reality sets in when you see the price listings: "Starting at $1799"!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/jobsmacbookair.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 460px;" src="http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/jobsmacbookair.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Sorry, Steve....but I'm not buying the hype.<br /><br />Admittedly, I find Macbook Pros to be on the pricey side as well (especially for what the average consumer like myself needs), but I can at least understand why those working in graphic/media design or music production would shell out Macbook Pro kind of money. But I really have no idea what kind of person would spend $1800 on a Macbook Air. Well, actually, I do -- the kind of uber-Mac-geek person who only wants to "OOOOOh" and "Awwwwwe" his friends, neighbors, and potential clients!<br /><br />I'm not a diehard Mac apologist....but I might become more of one after seeing my Dad's HP meltdown (from a botched SP3 update attempt) last Thursday and then my wife's HP laptop meltdown (from a botched attempt to reinstall and update her printer drivers) this past Monday. For those counting, that's one stolen Macbook and two major PC crashes in, oh, about 10 days time!<br /><br />I'm not one of these Ray Kurzweil-ian '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism">transhuman</a>' prognosticators, but the past couple of weeks illustrate rather nicely how computers and technology so easily run our lives. You just don't realize it...until it crashes or someone steals it from you!</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-9504088614870178422008-05-13T02:28:00.000-07:002008-05-13T02:43:58.361-07:00Time to Moo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wheaton.edu/Theology/Faculty/moo/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 212px;" src="http://www.wheaton.edu/CACE/images/DougFormal.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >I'm glad to see that <a href="http://www.djmoophoto.com/biblicalstudies.html">Doug Moo</a> is online with a number of his articles now available as PDF downloads. If you have not read his exegetical work on topics related to 'Paul and the Law', then you are really missing out. Even some of his older work is still worth a careful read.<br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-36288474220247925472008-05-12T01:29:00.000-07:002008-05-14T11:24:54.935-07:00Matt's New Mac...and a (nearly) Free Printer offer<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thewwwblog.com/images/apple-macbook-screen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.thewwwblog.com/images/apple-macbook-screen.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">After soon realizing that a full recovery of my stolen Macbook was about as likely as the PCA and OPC agreeing on a good definition of 'system subscription', I decided that it was time to pony up another $850 on a MacBook refurb. Ouch! Especially after just coming back from 6 days in Cayman for this year's Morgan family vacation.<br /><br />So after a bit of an order snafu, the new Macbook arrived on Friday.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/pics4/anchorman1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 575px;" src="http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/pics4/anchorman1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Things are almost back to normal around the home now!<br /><br />They also sent me a <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828102259">Canon IP4500</a> printer as part of a $100 printer voucher. Of course, we already have two printers at the house -- Vicky's HP all-in-one for her job, and then my trusty Samsung laser printer that I've had for 3 1/2 years. That leaves me now with a nice photo printer...and no need (let alone room!) to keep it.<br /><br />Please get a hold of me if you know anyone that needs a photo printer. I'm not sure how much UPS Ground would charge to ship it somewhere, but I'm basically only asking you cover the tax I paid on it ($8) and then any shipping costs. I know I can probably unload it on Craigslist, but I'll give someone else a chance to claim it first.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-36871294258804402742008-05-07T23:31:00.000-07:002008-05-08T02:44:42.179-07:00B.B. Warifeld on Confessional Subscription (Part 1)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/BeritOlam/SCLA3oBiIII/AAAAAAAAAQc/AOyUow3hCZk/Warfield.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 398px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/BeritOlam/SCLA3oBiIII/AAAAAAAAAQc/AOyUow3hCZk/Warfield.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"Among the causes of the present appearance of restlessness with reference to the Westminster Standards, the first place is undoubtedly due to the overstrictness prevailing in some churches, in the formula of subscription which is required of office-bearers. And it is worthy of notice that where the formula seems overstrict, dissatisfaction seems to be most widespread, most pronounced, and most difficult to satisfy....In a word, a public confession [of faith], by virtue of the very fact that it is public, cannot be, and ought not to be pretended to be, just the expression of his faith which one accepts it as representing his faith would have framed had he only himself to consider. The most we can expect, and the most we have right to ask is, that each one may be able to recognize it as an expression of the system of truth which he believes. To go beyond this and seek to make each of a large body of signers accept the [Westminster] Confession in all its propositions as the profession of his personal belief, cannot fail to result in serious evils -- not least among which are the twin evils that, on the one hand, too strict subscription overreaches itself and becomes little better than no subscription; and, on the other, that it begets a spirit of petty, carping criticism which raises objection to forms of statement that in other circumstances would not appear objectionable.<br /><br />Where the formulat of acceptance is such that no one signs without some mental reservation, some soon learn to sign without reference to mental reservation; and gross heterodoxy becomes gradually safe, because there is no one so wholly without sin that his conscience permits him to cast the first stone. That such a state of things has not been unknown, the history of Scottish Moderatism may teach us. That in the estimation of some, some of its features are not wholly unknown now, there are not lacking phenomena which may indicate....Now such a state of affairs is a great evil; and the dangers attending it have never been better pointed out than Dr. Charles Hodge, who writes: 'To adopt every proposition contained in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms is more than the vast majority of our ministers either do or can do. To make them profess to do it is a great sin. It hurts their consciences. It fosters a spirit of evasion and subterfuge. It forces them to take creeds in a non-natural sense. It at once vitiates and degrades. There are few greater evils connected with establishments than the overwhelming temptations which they offer to make men profess what they do not believe. Under such strict requirements, men make light of professions, and are ready to adopt any creed which opens the door to wealth of office. The overstrict the world over are the least faithful'<br /><br />Not less surely, however, does overstrictness of formula wound tender consciences and produce a restlessness as over against the creed itself to all the propositions of which they are obliged to assent as the profession of their faith, even when they would not find these propositions objectionable when considered only as one statement of faith they profess. Tender consciences must revolt from a confession to which they are too closely bound, if they do not find themselves in absolute agreement with every word; and revolt once begun, battens on what it feeds on, until a great war breaks out against the Confession with which, nevertheless, most of the combatants are in substantial agreement. Thus, overstrictness in the formula is the real account often to be given of what emerges as objection against the creed, rather than against the formula. Relief is to be sought in such a relaxation of the formula as will give all the liberty to individuals which is consistent with the Church's witness to the truth. What is needed seems to us admirably expressed by Dr. Marshall Lang in a speech in the Established Presbytery of Glasgow, advocating the change of formula which has since been accomplished in that Church: 'The point they desired to emphasize was this,' he is reported as saying, 'that they did not bind men to the mere letter. They did not insist that a man should accept all the propositions and all the phraseology of the Confession. What they asked was that a man should honestly and truly subscribe to the system of truth that was presented in the Confession of Faith, and not merely to the words of the letter in which it was presented. He thought a substantial relief was given to persons of scrupulous conscience.' So far as the present agitation in the Scotch churches arises from this cause and tends to this result, it is an effort to attain a situation as over against the Standards which the American churches have always enjoyed, and it must have the hearty sympathy of every American Presbyterian.<br /><br />This advocacy of a liberal formula, however, is not to be understood as if we could at all accord with those who would so relax the formula as to make the Confession of Faith little more than a venerable relic of a past age, still honored as such by the Church. Such a change as that made in 1816 by the Church of Holland by which ministers were not longer pledged to the Standards, because (<span style="font-style: italic;">quia</span>), but only in so far as (<span style="font-style: italic;">quatenus</span>) they accord with the Word, is justly pointed to...as fatal. That there are, nevertheless, some in the Scotch churches who might desire it, seems to be hinted by some words....Unfortunately, there are some even who act as if this were all that the present very strict formula bound them to, as was evinced, for example, by the amazing plea put in by Mr. James Stuart, author of that very remarkable book, The Principles of Christianity, when arraigned before the Presbytery of Edinburgh. Nevertheless, it is surely not so difficult as Principal David Brown expresses himself as thinking, to frame a formula which will 'let in all the right men and keep out all wrong'. The American churches have such a formula. Of course it lies in the courts of the Church to decide what is and what is not of the system, and Church courts are not infallible, nor always faithful. But Church courts can afford, and do venture, to hold men strictly to the terms of a liberal formula, when they could not to an illiberal one. Overstrictness demands and begets laxity in performance; while a truly liberal but conservative formula binds all essentially sound men together against laxity. In pleading for a liberal formula, therefore, we wish it distinctly understood that we do not plead either for a lax formula, or much less for a lax administration of any formula -- within which an essential dishonesty lurks. The American formula appears to us to be the ideal one, and as nothing more lax than it would be acceptable or safe, certainly a lax administration of it would be unendurable, and, as we have said, essentially dishonest."<br /><br />("The Presbyterian Churches and the Westminster Confession," <span style="font-style: italic;">The Presbyterian Review</span>, Vol. 10, No. 40, 1889, pp. 648ff.)</span></blockquote><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />Reflections:<br /><br />(1) Warfield's day was not unlike our own -- namely, the Reformed faith is (a) being discounted by those that want to so minimize the Confession to point where it becomes a 'mere Christianity and (b) being defended by those that desire to uphold a 'strict(er) subscription' to the Standards. And yet Warfield refuses to go down either of these roads (in good Old Princeton fashion).<br /><br />(2) Warfield seems to recognize that these extreme positions [i.e. substance subscription and strict subscription] very much play off one another. I've long suspected this, so it's always nice when someone like Warfield agrees with you! When Confessional subscription is continually shoved down someone's throat in an overstrict way, it has the rather unintended consequence of making men even more apt to revolt against it. And when men start to drift away from the system of doctrine, it seems to make the Strict Confessionalists bang their 'overstrict' drum louder and louder. It's still worthy of note a century later "that where the (confessional) formula seems overstrict, dissatisfaction seems to be most widespread, most pronounced, and most difficult to satisfy." Indeed, things haven't changed all that much at all.<br /><br />(3) The 'serious evils' that Warfield attributes to strict subscription are not imaginary. If you afford a man no place to issue scruples, it will invariably drive them underground. That's exactly what happened in the Free Church (Scotland) as well as the CRC (US). And if you haven't witnessed "a spirit of petty, carping criticism" over the Confession first hand in your Reformed church, then (a) you are extremely fortunate and (b) you should do your best to never leave!<br /><br />(4) Warfield & Hodge show exactly how the main of conservative American Presbyterianism has practiced 'subscription'! Some today act as if this is some sort of a 'modern' view...when in fact it has a fairly long and established pedigree in American Presbyterianism.<br /><br />(5) Warfield very boldly announces that because the Confession is <span style="font-style: italic;">public </span>in nature, it cannot speak perfectly for the <span style="font-style: italic;">individual </span>to his exact personal beliefs. Now there's something you don't hear too often today! I suspect because it sounds far too 'slippery' and leaves too many loose ends untied. But when you finally understand system subscription in its Old School Presbyterian sense, then you understand how Warfield can argue this way.<br /><br />How does Warfield avoid the 'substance subscription' pitfall? We'll take that up in a subsequent post, based on the same article referenced above. Stay tuned....<br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-53630592888837033532008-05-01T19:51:00.000-07:002008-05-01T20:14:05.554-07:00Bugger!!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.whostolemyidentity.com/wp-content/uploads/image/computer-chained-up.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 425px;" src="http://www.whostolemyidentity.com/wp-content/uploads/image/computer-chained-up.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >Today, I had my first *anger* outburst in quite some time.<br /><br />I settled into my usual downstairs corner of the GTU library (in Berkeley). I began to read a couple books, until I realized that I didn't have all the ones I needed. So I proceeded to go back to the carrels to get the books I wanted, stopping along the way to use the bathroom.<br /><br />When I got back to my desk, I reached inside my backpack....only to find no laptop!! Now, I think I know a little how a parent must feel when he suddenly can't find his child in a supermarket or department store.<br /><br />Amazing how quickly it happened. No one saw a thing. I wasn't gone for more than 5-7 minutes tops. Of course, it doesn't take even 30 seconds to unzip a backpack, grab a laptop, drop it in your bag, and be gone! The didn't even bother taking the power cord.<br /><br />Fortunately, all of the important data had been backed up via Mozy.<br /><br />So I learned my lesson....</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >the hard way</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >. Let me be an example that laptop theft happens, even in places that you think are completely safe. I've used the GTU library regularly for over a year now, which contributed to my 'false assurance' that I could leave it alone for a few minutes here and there when I needed to step away.<br /><br />Now I understand the paranoia people have about their laptops in public places! But like many lessons in life, it's only when it eats into your pocket book that you learn your lesson.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-11612751016859736772008-04-23T14:59:00.000-07:002008-04-23T15:42:34.400-07:00A Little More Odds and Enns....<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Vicky and I leave for a week in Cayman tonight -- one of my cousins is getting married. I had planned a more lengthy post to follow up the previous one on Professor Enns. There are some fascinating parallels to the current debate and similar debates in the later half of the 19th century in the Free Church of Scotland with William Robertson Smith and at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with Crawford H. Toy, both of whom were removed/forced out because they espoused 'new' views of Scripture that were deemed dangerous to the Christian faith. Those will have to wait until I return next week.<br /><br />I had also planned on writing something on Warfield, who has been referenced numerous time in this debate, particularly on the point of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >concursus</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > and the 'incarnational analogy' between Christ and Scripture. However, Lee Irons already <a href="http://www.upper-register.com/blog/?p=175">jumped on this particular point</a> a week ago. There are a number of other juicy Warfield quotes that could be cited in the current context. All that to say -- the comparisons between Warfield and Enns begin to break down upon a closer inspection of the sources. I will say that I've come away mightily impressed again how marvelous Warfield is to avoid overly simplistic (i.e. fundamentalistic/head-in-the-sand, dictation theory, etc.) approaches to the Doctrine of Scripture, while at the same time avoiding the capitulation that came at the hands of Higher Criticism in the late 1800's. This is no small feat, especially when you see how many others (like Smith and Toy above) didn't fair nearly so well.<br /><br />I did want to post one item of interest -- a 38-page letter that Prof. Enns sent to the Board of Directors in January 2008. I've uploaded the 3mb file <a href="http://beritolam.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/ennsclarificationjan082008.pdf">here</a>, if any are interested. You'll notice that on the first page, there's a disclaimer that this information is not some 'secret memo' that was never intended to get out in the first place.<br /><br />For those well-versed in the plethora of reviews and rejoinders since </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >I&I </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >was published, I don't think you will find any earth-shattering revelations...with maybe the exception that Prof. Enns admits that he is </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >going farther</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > than Waltke, Longman, Walton and others on the matter of 'myth' in ANE context (p.27-28). What does come out very clearly in the letter is the ever-widening rift at Westminster East that many of us in the WTS-tradition have known about for the past decade (and probably longer). Read in that light, it seems plausible to read </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >I&I</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > as a sort of personal throwing-down-of-the-gauntlet as to the future direction of Westminster Seminary. You can see why something had to happen. The "Why can't we all get along" shtick is simply not going to work, when the disagreements are this substantial.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-75952756869185624592008-04-04T13:27:00.001-07:002008-04-06T18:43:17.177-07:00Odds and Enns<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://trevinwax.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/enns_portrait.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px;" src="http://trevinwax.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/enns_portrait.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">I've had a number of private correspondences over the last few months asking about <a href="http://www.wts.edu/faculty/profile.html?id=4">Dr. Peter Enns</a>, professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. As many of you know already, the Board of Westminster Theological Seminary (PA) voted last week to "suspend" Professor Enns at the end of this current semester and then "<a href="http://www.wts.edu/stayinformed/view.html?id=104">consider whether Professor Enns should be terminated from his employment at the Seminary</a></span>.<span style="font-size:130%;">" The blogosphere has seen a blitzkrieg of discussion surrounding the events of these past couple of weeks. [Trevin Wax provides a <a href="http://trevinwax.com/2008/03/29/the-peter-enns-controversy/">helpful non-partisan summary</a> of the issues at stake, if you are new to the discussion.]<br /><br />Here are a few thoughts on the matter....<br /><br />(1) Numerous complaints have been voiced about 'accountability' to academics teaching in the ivory tower of a seminary, especially one like Westminster that is not under any denominational approval.<br /><br />I'm not sure anyone has figured out if the *best* way to run a Reformed seminary [or </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >any </span><span style="font-size:130%;">seminary for that matter] is under explicit denominational oversight (e.g. Covenant, RPTS, Calvin, etc.) OR under a separate board of governors (e.g. just about everyone else!). The fact that our current crop of schools favor the later is more of a byproduct of the last 100 years of Presbyterian/Reformed history, given that the ever-liberalizing mainline denominations left Machen and others no choice but to start their own 'independent' seminaries if theological training was to continue.<br /><br />What has aided the Westminsters historically is the fact that their 'independence' enabled them (to a certain degree) to draw from the different Reformed streams of American Presbyterianism (Machen), Scottish Presbyterianism (Murray), and the Continental Reformed (Van Til). As one who was trained under that breadth of the Reformed faith, it has certainly proved fruitful and beneficial in all sorts of ways that I didn't even realize while I was going through it. One is able to compare and contrast the various ways each group's theology came to expression, particularly in the heat of doctrinal controversy.<br /><br />Of course, the fear of some in this approach is that this sort of breadth opens oneself up to many streams of doing theology...and all of the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >extra </span><span style="font-size:130%;">doctrinal controversy that entails. <i>Too </i>many streams, I suspect, in the minds of many. It's too difficult to control, they say! It becomes increasingly more complicated to recognize the matters that are absolutely essential to our Reformed system of doctrine, matters where good Reformed people have disagreed, matters where we aren't sure if theological language amounts to serious theological disagreement (i.e. 'faith and assurance" in the Presbytery vs. Continental traditions), or matters that compromise our system of Reformed doctrine but would still be regarded as evangelical or protestant. Reformed denominations in main might well have 'general agreement' as to where these 'matters' divide up. But if it were such an easy thing to 'agree', why do all the <a href="http://www.naparc.org/Members.html">NAPARC churches</a></span> <span style="font-size:130%;">still exist as separate bodies? No, denominations exist because they have distinctives that they believe are</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >essential </span><span style="font-size:130%;">to their system of doctrine. The more streams you have converging in the middle, the harder it becomes to maintain distinctives.<br /><br />However, an emphasis on distinctives can easily lead to narrowness, if not altogether blindness on an issue. You insist on a particular doctrinal formulation because that's how it's done </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >in our tradition</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. Well, traditions can err...and indeed have erred. And it seems to me that the Westminster model of trying to bring together (in some sense) the breadth of the Reformed faith helps honest, Scripture-seeking students think long and hard about particular doctrines and the best way to express them. Maybe there are some things we never come to an agreement on...but knowing the "lay of the land" helps us avoid retreating into ever-narrowing sects.<br /><br />To sum up from a previous thread, the problems experienced at Westminster that involve Peter Enns is </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >not </span><span style="font-size:130%;">because of system subscription.<br /><br />(2) What does 'academic freedom' mean for a seminary? That's a difficult question to ask in the abstract. Westminster has always been a 'confessional' seminary (as seen in its ordination vow)...but </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >what kind of 'confessionalism'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> are we talking about? That's part of the problem...because we still have different schools of thought on what it even means to 'subscribe' to the Westminster Standards. Some seem to want it tighter; others want it looser; it seems to me classic 'system subscription' gives you exactly what you want in providing avenues of 'academic freedom' without saying 'any and everything goes'! But too often we paint our options as only 'strict' and 'loose'....when there is a </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >via media</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> that rather nicely sums up what Old Princeton/Westminster has practiced all along.<br /><br />I'm not sure how removing 'academic freedom' will benefit either the seminary or the church. For starters, Westminster Seminary (and even Old Princeton before that) has always sought to keep one foot in the church and one foot in the academy, and to change that (on either side!) would help no one. Geerhardus Vos wrote (best I can tell) the first real critique of Ewald, Graf, Wellhausen and others coming out the German higher-critical school in the late 1880's; Warfield was every bit up-to-date on the complexity of the data feeding Briggs; Machen heard modern theological liberalism first-hand when sitting under the likes of Hermann in Europe, saw what was at stake when he returned home, and thus wrote 'Christianity and Liberalism' as a result; Vos figured out where mainstream, anti-supernatural 'Biblical theology' would go long before it ever went there itself; and on we could go.<br /><br />The problem is not 'innovation' </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >per se</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. Without innovation, we're probably still doing apologetics in the 'common sense rationalist' tradition of Warfield. Many (if not most of us now) in the PCA/OPC/URC would identify with some sort of 'presuppositional apologetics'. [NB: I don't think Warfield should be purged from the books, nor do I think this is an issue that we should ultimately divide over in the Reformed church.] And Van Til's legacy is that he challenged many long-standing assumptions made in the Reformed community, a challenge that I think has sharpened all of our minds as we wrestle with matters of theology and epistemology.<br /><br />Innovation should certainly be encouraged...IF done in compliance with God's Word. In that sense, maybe we shouldn't call it innovation but rather a robust appreciation for <i>sola scriptura</i>. There are plenty of examples, like Van Til, in the last 100 years of Old Princeton/Westminster, where this has helped the church greatly. It's impossible to 'predict' how this will happen, and thus it's equally impossible to 'predict' where and how someone will try to push us beyond the bounds of the system of doctrine.<br /><br />(3) </span><span style="font-size:130%;">I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Inspiration-Incarnation-Evangelicals-Problem-Testament/dp/0801027306"><span style="font-style: italic;">I&I</span></a> for the first time in early 2006, after hearing about it from Bruce Waltke. Admittedly, it was a quick first read one evening, since I was busy with other readings and had time only to get Enns' basic thesis and method of argumentation. I saw him simply trying to address a number of the 'problem areas' of OT scholarship in the last 50-100 years, as well as the complexities of the NT quotations of the OT. I noted a few points where I found him quite confusing, a few points where I found him illuminating (for example: the term 'Christotelic'), but otherwise I thought it was 'average' book that I didn't ever expect to pick up again.<br /><br />But then things started to change. Negative reviews from</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <a href="http://paulhelmsdeep.blogspot.com/2008/01/analysis-extra-inspiration-and.html">Helm</a>, </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.reformation21.org/Past_Issues/2006_Issues_1_16_/2006_Issues_1_16_Shelf_LIfe/May_2006/May_2006/181/vobId__2926/pm__434/">Carson</a></span><span style="font-size:130%;"> and <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200606/ai_n17176284/pg_1">Beale</a> started to trickle out through publications. I distinctively remember discovering Helm's article online during a Th.M seminar at Regent, and the first thought that came to my mind was, "It's a strange day when a Regent professor is taking a Westminster professor to task for defective view of a Scripture!"<br /><br />I'm not sure Helm made his case all that well, but Carson and Beale were more significant reviews. Carson's stood out because his review came along with two other recent books dealing with Scripture (John Webster and N.T. Wright); Carson critiques all three, and yet Enns' book is the only one of the three that he doesn't have really anything positive to commend in it. Beale (who's tone was more irenic on the whole) wrote not one but two article-length reviews in different journals.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Critical articles are nothing new, but these seemed to go beyond the norm.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />In the middle of all of this came <a href="http://www.thirdmill.org/seminary/bio_pratt.asp/category/teachers/site/iiim">Richard Pratt</a>'s 2006 address, "<a href="http://reformedperspectives.org/newfiles/ric_pratt/Pratt.Westminster.Today.2006.html">Westminster and Contemporary Hermeneutics</a>". I have been tempted to mention it before but became busy with other matters. I've heard numerous people mention over the years how the best chapter in the Westminster Confession of Faith is its chapter on Scripture, and Pratt commends Chapter 1 of the WCF as still a relevant summary of our <span style="font-style: italic;">doctrine of Scripture</span>, even in light of modern challenges leveled against it in recent decades.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://peterennsonline.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.wtsbooks.com/images/0801027306m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>It was <a href="http://peterennsonline.com/ii/a-conversation-with-richard-pratts-westminster-and-contemporary-reformed-hermeneutics/">Enns' response</a> to Pratt's address that made it painfully clear that this was not going to go away quietly. It's one thing to exegete a text (or a book), come to a conclusion that maybe you disagree from a consensus position, and then submit it to your faculty/presbytery for review and discussion. But Enns seems to be going beyond that, and you can see it in the way he (for example) responds to Pratt's critique of him. I happen to think that some of what Enns has suggested in his book is worthy of additional consideration. But as Carson noted in his review, the whole trajectory of Enns' rhetoric seems to not be one of "converting the alarmed but rather alarming the converted"! In other words, it's not just that he holds to one or more than one minority or controversial views under the Reformed umbrella, but rather that he seems to believe that these things are </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >absolutely essential</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> to a right reading and interpretation of Scripture within the Reformed faith.<br /><br />I've talked to a number of his former students who span the entire spectrum of glowing approval to glaring disapproval. And the one thing they seem to <span style="font-style: italic;">all </span>agree on is this -- </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >these issues are absolutely</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >fundamental to his methodology in approaching OT theology</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. So we're not just talking about individual 'hot button' issues like the composition of the Proverbs, the recording of Moses' death in Deuteronomy, how Job is canonical, the King/Chronicles synoptic problem, and other thorny OT questions. It's the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >method</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> seeking to bring coherence to it all that seems to raise more questions than provide answers.<br /><br />If it were simply the crusty Reformed curmudgeons ranting against Enns book because it sounds too post-16th and 17th century, that would be one thing. But what in the Carson, Beale, and Pratt corpus of writings would lead you to think they are interested in opposing someone for 'TR' reasons? [Part of me is curious what Carson and Beale think about the board's decision to suspend him!]<br /><br />(4) Seminary divisions and terminations are always <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">more </span>than simply theological. I suspect that's because we are often good at preaching total depravity....and also equally good at practicing it as well. Even though Enns' book, articles, and teachings are the 'stated' reasons for his projected termination, I think most of us know there is *more* going on than simply this. Of course, none of us are privy to the inner sanctum of these seminary squabbles...so we may never know all of the details. Enns becomes the fall guy because he's at the center of the controversy. I do think he's part of the problem (as stated above)...but I have my doubts as to whether this can </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >all </span><span style="font-size:130%;">be laid at his doorstep.<br /><br />(5) If you listen to the <a href="http://wts.edgeboss.net/download/wts/audio/040108-meeting.mp3">chapel recording</a> (April 1st, 2008) now rapidly circulating, it's interesting to hear President Lillback say that he's been dealing with this issue since 'Day One' on the job, when they brought him in 3 years ago. Interesting that he also referenced the Shepherd controversy of 30 years ago, where the faculty may have even been in stronger support of Shepherd than the current faculty is with Enns. And yet, Lillback seems to recognize that when you have this kind of division on all fronts, there are no easy solutions. And if after 3 years years of discussing this, the faculty are still split 12-8 on this (not to mention the board 18-9)....</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >something </span><span style="font-size:130%;">had to happen. Even if you believe that Enns is the best thing going at Westminster Seminary right now, surely you'd have to agree that this kind of faculty split is not terribly conducive for him personally or the seminary. How would you feel working at an institution in which 66% of the board and 40% of the faculty thought your view was </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >heterodox</span><span style="font-size:130%;">?<br /><br />Disunity is never a good thing...but sometimes it's unavoidable (Acts 15:36ff). But to keep things together and act as if there is 'unity' when there is really no unity?? That seems to me to be even worse.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wts.edu/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px;" src="http://www.wts.edu/images/news/Copy_of_Copy_of_29AI0385%5B1%5D.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>(6) The saga is far from over! It wouldn't shock me if there are a few more 'curve balls' that come out of this, and in fact I would almost expect it. One Christian college professor told me over the weekend that he's already been contacted by one *present* WTS faculty member about possible job openings. So a further shake up doesn't seem all that out of the question!<br /><br />Things stayed remarkably in tact after the Shepherd controversy in the 80's. It remains to be seen whether that will happen here....or if more heads will roll.<br /><br />(7) As strange as it sounds, I think the Reformed church will benefit from being made to think through these issues of 'inspiration' and 'incarnation'. If someone had asked me back in 2001, "Does the incarnation of Christ have something to contribute to our doctrine of Inspiration?", I'm not sure how I would have answered that question. As Lillback notes, the Confession doesn't go there when speaking about inspiration. So does that mean it's ok, adiaphora, or dangerous? Some might instantly say, "No, we can't go there because the Confession doesn't." Others seem to be saying, "This is THE way to swim in higher-critical scholarship!" I think the correct approach is neither of these. What is needed is (a) a careful examination what's being said and (b) a careful searching the Scriptures to see if this is being faithful to the Word of God.<br /><br />That's what Old Princeton and Westminster have tried to do throughout its history. WCF 1.9-10 is not just there for window dressing, but as an encouragement to think through <i>all things</i> in light of the Word of God. Just because an OT professor comes along and seems to exalt historical-critical methodologies above the canon doesn't mean I'm going to abandon studying the canon OR tackling difficult questions that arise out of Biblical history. Abuses of <i>sola scriptura </i>surely cannot mean we abandon it for some 'higher' platform to argue from.<br /><br />If Enns is wrong, then hopefully some of those opposed to him will eventually issue statements, explaining more than a simplistic "You're not Confessional!!!"...but rather </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >why </span><span style="font-size:130%;">his approach strikes at fundamental concerns to our doctrine of Scripture.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-68847771547455248392008-03-19T18:23:00.000-07:002008-12-09T04:40:55.985-08:00Mozying off the normal path....<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >If you were expecting something of theological substance, then my apologies in advance.<br /><br />I get asked in various ways and contexts the easiest way to *backup* your personal data on your computer. For things like documents/photos/mp3s, most people like to periodically burn them to a CD/DVD; software makes that fairly easy to do. Click, drag, burn -- your backed up. As long as you're not using rewritable discs (RW), you're generally ok here.<br /><br />But what about backing up things like email? Increasingly, more and more important work is taking place via e-mail, but there is no 'simple' way to back this stuff up. If you remember the good ole days of Office 2003 and beyond, then you may know about all the hassle you had to go through to export a PST file just to save folders in your Microsoft Outlook. Not terribly fun or efficient! If you're a Mac user, a similar problem exists with the standard Mail program built into OS X. The only truly </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >easy </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >way to backup your Mac computer is to buy a $100 per year .Mac account; plenty of space (10gb)...but also plenty of cash for what you're getting.<br /><br />So it's time for Matt's computer-savvy suggestions....<br /><br />(1) Get a Gmail account.<br /><br />This is really the 'safest' way to make sure your email gets backed up properly. I'm personally up to approximately 5800 total e-mails (uggh!!), and that still only accounts for 6% of the total allotted space which currently hovers around 6.5gb. As long as you're not sending and receiving e-mail with large attachments OR subscribing to more than 25 different Yahoo user groups, I can't imagine any normal user running out of space.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XGjcX7F33EM/R-HjNrChYSI/AAAAAAAAAN8/HXOPU7QW6TI/s1600-h/gmail.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XGjcX7F33EM/R-HjNrChYSI/AAAAAAAAAN8/HXOPU7QW6TI/s320/gmail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179670870483886370" border="0" /></a><br />Gmail gives you the flexibility to download e-mail to your personal computer (via Pop3), while still keeping a copy on their server. This is ideal because Google is constantly backing up, updating, and adding new storage to their enormous server network...and there is no simpler or safer way to make sure your e-mail is preserved 5 to 10 years from now than this. Hard-drives are not designed to last forever, and that becomes a big nuisance if you are storing it locally on your computer! Rather than the hassle of backing up this email yourself, it's better to simply let Google (on the server end) do it for you....and who can complain about that when they are doing this service at no additional cost for you!?!?!<br /><br />Gmail also gives you the freedom to route other email through Gmail, thus making Gmail act as a sort of defacto 'archive' for all your e-mail. It's a feature they refer to as '<a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=21288">Mail Fetcher</a>', and it's especially designed for people that have e-mail addresses through their personal domains. For example, if I had an e-mail address 'matt@morganism.us", I could easily spoof that address to route to and from my Gmail account. Unless you searched the fine print of my e-mail header, you would never know it's going through Gmail at all. I have my father and mother's Comcast email accounts set up this way, and it's great little trick for backing up e-mail.<br /><br />There's even a way to re-download all your old e-mail to a brand new computer, though I don't know that you'd necessarily want to do this if you have thousands of old email like I do!<br /><br />(2) Download and install a software called <a href="https://mozy.com/?code=3TQE20">Mozy</a>.<br /><br />There are all sorts of paid services out there now that will backup stuff for you online, but the best *free* software out there that I've seen and tested is called Mozy. I've mentioned it before on my old Xanga blog back in 2006. After using it for over a year now I can say that it definitely works great. The basic 'free' package gives you 2gigs of free storage, which should be enough for most users who simply want to backup essential things like documents and email.<br /><br />What makes Mozy especially nice is that it automates the backup and restore process for you, which comes in particularly handy for things like e-mail (which has always been cumbersome to back up). They've also recently added Mac support, so I now have a way to backup all of my important documents from my laptop on a weekly basis. And if you were working on something really important (like say a Master's or Ph.D thesis), you could theoretically even back it up through the Mozy server on a </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >daily </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >basis!<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur=""><img style="" 0px="" auto="" src="http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/images/mozySmall.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span></div><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />The software auto-detects what e-mail client you are using on your computer, and it's also programmed to check the common folders of the commonly backed-up files. Everything from there is virtually automated, so much so that I would suspect that even a novice computer user could figure it out.<br /><br />If this sounds like something you'd like to give a try, click on the above link. Then click on 'MozyHome' at the top and then 'MozyHome Free' in the left-hand column. From there, you sign up, download a small 4-6mb installation file, install, reboot, and you're ready to go.<br /><br />For ministers, I'd recommend using Mozy to backup your sermon manuscripts and other important documents. That's essentially what I used it exclusively for (since I use Gmail to back up my e-mail), and you're going to have to preach and write an awful lot to ever fill up 2 gigs of disc space!!<br /><br />(3) For backing up home pictures, I'd recommend you use an online service like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">Flickr</a>. The Pro Account costs you $2/month if you sign up for 2 years, and that gives you unlimited uploads with no restrictions on picture size. So shoot that new SLR to your heart's content; even though it may take you a while to upload your 10mb photos, rest assured Flickr will take 'em. The Flickr web browsing gives you a nice built-in way for others (as well as yourself) to view your photos, and you can also restrict photos from general public viewing (if you want to keep them there just for yourself). Perhaps most important of all, you don't have to worry about keeping track of all those DVD's you burn of your personal family photos; you simply create albums with various photos and you instantly have access to all of your photos.<br /><br />You can see what I've done with my own Flickr account <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mashleymorgan/collections/">here</a>.<br /><br />(4) As far as external hard drives, Seagate and Western Digital are two of the best brands going. Seagate is still the only company (as far as I'm aware) that offers a 5 year warranty on all of their products (compared to 1-3 years on the others). I've used a 500gb Seagate drive for about a year now with great results. Both companies make excellent USB-powered drives that are handy if you need something small and portable.<br /><br />Just remember: when you buy an external hard drive, these drives will eventually wear out too, <span style="font-style: italic;">especially </span>if you are toting them around in your laptop bag! That's why backing up important stuff 'on line' through a service like Mozy or Flickr is really the preferred way to go, because then you have a backup that won't be touched if your local system crashes, you lose the CD/DVD with the files, someone steals your portable drive out of your briefcase at the library, etc.<br /><br />(5) If you've been through 'Dell Hell' and simply want a computer that works, then let me recommend that you save up and get yourself a Mac. I'm not one of these rabid Mac apologists that live on Steve Jobs' every word. But I have been using a Mac laptop (first an iBook, now a MacBook) for just over 4 years now, and it has been virtually hassle-free.<br /><br />Many people are worried that it will be hard to switch from PC to Mac because it involves a whole new operating system, but it's been my experience that people have a </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >harder </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >time trying to figure out Windows Vista when upgrading from XP. Many people are also concerned about the cost of Bible software. I will tell you this much -- having used Bibleworks for a few years prior to 2004, I can attest that <a href="http://www.accordancebible.com/">Accordance for Mac</a> is an aboslute gold mine for 'power users' who wish to design their own complex morphological searches from the original languages. For one thing, the graphical user interface for Accordance is about 10x easier to navigate!<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur=""><img style="" 0px="" auto="" src="http://techpaedia.com/apple/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/MacBook.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span></div><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />The main reluctance to making the switch, I suspect, is the total cost invovled. The prospect of spending a few hundred more on a laptop and a few hundred extra on new Bible software is not the kind of sales pitch you want to hear, especially on a pastor's salary or seminary student budget. But out of the two-dozen or so people I've personally known who have switched since I made the switch 4 years, I've not once heard any of them say, "This is a total waste of money" or "Man, I wish I had stuck with PC!" If you think about it in investment terms, that's about an extra $800-$1000 spread out over the next 3-5 years (the 'average' life of a laptop) of virtually problem-free computer usage. After the kinds of computer problems I've seen (including my own!) over the past 10 years, I think almost anyone would agree that such an investment of $200/year to get rid of their 'PC woes' would be well worth it...especially considering that we use our computers for almost everything now.<br /><br />[NB: I don't get any perks from Apple for pitching their computers. But if you are someone that is seriously interested in making the switch, contact me off list and I'll be glad to give you some tips and pointers!]<br /><br />Sorry for this brief interlude. I know a lot of people reading this blog are not terribly 'computer' savvy, and things like backing up computer files have often been a daunting (if not annoying) task in the past. Many of you just want a computer that works for e-mail, provides web access, avoids spam and viruses, gives you a word processor for document writing, and runs your Bible software....</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >and you really don't care how it does any of this, just as long as it works</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >! Unfortunately, easier said than done! And as an individual that has lost count of all the times he's been called on to attempt a 'PC resurrection' for a friend after some sort of failure, I can attest that it's no fun to lose important stuff like this.<br /><br />Just don't be the one calling me when your computer crashes...and all of your daughter's or son's photos from their first 24 months are inside! That may not grounds for divorce, but it's certainly grounds for a <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>upset wife!!</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-39270668473939558222008-03-07T17:19:00.000-08:002008-03-10T14:14:13.203-07:00Confessional Subscription....Redux<span style="font-size:130%;">There have been all sorts of inquiries and studies into the relationship between the Continental Reformed (a la Calvin, Turretin, etc.) and Presbyterianism (Scotland/England). Underneath a broad consensus that one can see in the mainstream, the 'fine print' often reveals a different story....particularly as seen in matters of polity.<br /><br />Leaving the often-discussed Sabbath issue aside, one issue in which there seems to be a pretty clear divergence in North America is the Reformed vs. Presbyterian approach to </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >confessional subscription</span><span style="font-size:130%;">.<br /><br />If you want to understand the gist of this argument in its modern form, be sure to check out the very recent (and on-going) exchange between Lee Irons (defending </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >system subscription</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <a href="http://www.upper-register.com/blog/?p=149">here</a> and <a href="http://www.upper-register.com/blog/?p=150">here</a>) and Scott Clark (defending a </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >stricter subscription</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/more-on-bible-and-confession/">here</a>, <a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/even-more-on-bible-and-confession/">here</a>, and <a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/confession-and-repristination/">here</a>) . Or if you prefer them in chronological order: <a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/more-on-bible-and-confession/">one</a>, <a href="http://www.upper-register.com/blog/?p=149">two</a>, <a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/even-more-on-bible-and-confession/">three</a>, <a href="http://www.upper-register.com/blog/?p=150">four</a>, and <a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/confession-and-repristination/">five</a>.<br /><br />Let me throw in my two cents:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >(1) The Limits of Tradition --</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />North American Presbyterians have been arguing about this since the Adopting Act of 1729 -- it required men to "declare their agreement in, and approbation of" the Westminster standards but </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >also</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> limited subscription to "all essential and necessary articles" of the Confession of Faith and catechisms. It's the Adopting Act's 'also' caveat that seems to make my Dutch friends cringe (not to mention Presbyterians who favor a more strict approach to the Confession), for as best as I can tell -- in my limited exposure to Dutch church history -- this is simply foreign from their way of receiving and adopting the Three Forms of Unity.<br /><br />Despite the attempts made by Morton Smith and George Knight to show otherwise, the idea of a 'system subscription' in North American Presbyterianism is not a 'recent' development. In fact, it's not even a 'New School' development (c. 1860's). As John Fesko demonstrated quite thoroughly from the original sources in his <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200312/ai_n9314777/pg_1">2003 <span style="font-style: italic;">JETS</span> article</a>, 'system subscription' has a firm pedigree that can be traced through the likes of Hodge, Warfield, Thornwell, Old Princeton, and all the way to Machen.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.tracts.ukgo.com/images/hodge4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 260px;" src="http://www.tracts.ukgo.com/images/hodge4.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />So what tradition are you going to go with? The Dutch way or the American Presbyterian/Old Princeton way? Here's a good example, I think, of why you need something more than 'tradition' to answer some of the thorny questions that exist amongst even the best mainstream Reformed thinkers.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >(2) Defining our terms --</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />What do </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Presbyterians</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> mean by 'system subscription'? I'll let Charles Hodge do the talking:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">Every minister at his ordination is required to declare that he adopts the Westminster Confession and Catechism, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the sacred Scriptures. There are three ways in which these words have been, and still are, interpreted. First, some understand them to mean that </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >every proposition</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> contained in the Confession of Faith is included in the profession made at ordination. Secondly, others say that they mean just what the words import. What is adopted is the '</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >system of doctrine</span><span style="font-size:130%;">.' The system of the Reformed Churches is a known and admitted scheme of doctrine, and that scheme, nothing more or less, we profess to adopt. The third view of the subject is, that by the system of doctrine contained in the Confession is meant the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >essential doctrines of Christianity</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> and nothing more (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Discussions in Church Polity</span><span style="font-size:130%;">, 1878, p.335-36)<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Those are our basic three options: (a) strict, (b) system, and (c) substance (a term Hodge himself used elsewhere).<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >(3) Understanding our terms --</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />In discussing these options with my Dutch Reformed friends, it seems to me that they invaribly lump options (b) and (c) together. That is, the moment you depart from strict subscription, you're already on the road to dying a death of a million scruples. Options (b) and (c) are really nothing more than two shades of a vary similar looking grey! It frankly devolves into something looking indistinguishable form </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >slippery slope</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> argument -- that is, system subscription invariably devolves into a substance subscription.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur=""><img style="" 0px="" auto="" src="http://www.freedomsite.org/legal/pictures/slippery_slope.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />The problem (as with just about all slippery slope arguments) is that it fails to actually understand Old Princeton's Presbyterian rationale for holding to this 'middle' position between strict and substance views. Just like holding to a non-literal '6/24hr day' view of Genesis doesn't automatically mean you are giving up the narrative as a truly historical account, so also holding to system subscription (at least as understood by the likes of Hodge, Warfield, Machen, etc.) doesn't automatically entail making 'everything' in the Confession up for grabs.<br /><br />This is simply a bad argument against system subscription. Just beacuse someone, somewhere misunderstands and/or abuses system subscription doesn't necessarily mean the thing itself (as understood by </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >good</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Presbyterians) is wrong.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >(4) Does the stricter view </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >really</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" > safeguard orthodoxy?</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />The main argument in favor of a stricter view seems to ultimately come to this -- it's defenders contend that it's the best way to </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >guard</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> orthodoxy. There is a sense in which this is true -- </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >system subscription</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> leaves the door open to declare scruples on any number of things, some of which could easily be detrimental to the 'system' contained in the Westminster Standards. Allowing no scruples would certainly seem to solve that problem....or does it?<br /><br />It seems to me that this is ultimately a <span style="font-style: italic;">practical</span> argument (more than a theological argument), and the problem with 'practical' arguments is that they demonstrate mixed results. Sure, one could argue that examples abound (e.g., the PCUSA, Old-to-New Princeton, etc.) demonstrating the demise of 'system' approaches. But couldn't one also counter-argue that examples abound (e.g. the CRC, the Church of Scotland, etc.) demonstrating the demise of 'strict' approaches? In all of these examples, you had/have a plethora of other factors going on besides simply their views of subscription. And if our standard is simply which one guards orthodoxy the best, it seems to me (if we are </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >really</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> going to be honest historically!) the results from the last 350 years or so at best reveal a mixed bag.<br /><br />Another argument in favor of stricter subscription is that this is the only way to achieve and preserve true ecclesiastical unity. But Hodge paints a very different picture:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">So far as we have been able to learn from the records, no man has ever been refused admission to the ministry in our Church, who honestly received "the system of doctrine" contained in the Westminster Confession, simply because there are propositions in the book to which he could not assent. And no Presbyterian minister has ever been suspended or deposed on any such ground. It is a perfectly notorious fact, that there are hundreds of ministers in our Church, and that there always have been such ministers, who do not receive all the propositions contained in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms. (<a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=ENUCAAAAQAAJ&dq=charles+hodge+church+polity&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=DkLmqcznnB&sig=w9HpXAaz_alMCSAJfGgAzQw08FI#PPA330,M1"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Church and Its Polity</span></a>, 330)<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />In other words, hundreds of ministers scrupling certain words and propositions didn't seem to be a huge impediment to overall unity in the old-line Presbyterian church. It held up quite nicely for a number of generations.<br /><br />So it puzzles me how a stricter view of the Confessions will result in a </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >more-unified</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> church. Just ask Westminster grads trying to get licensed/ordained in the OPC over the last decade! It's </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >not</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> the 'system subscriptionists' who continually pick bones of contention about one's views on creation, the Law, the Sabbath, etc.<br /><br />And is the 'young URC' any less devoid of controversy surrounding 'justification' and 'creation' than have been witnessed in the PCA and OPC? So I'm just not buying the 'provides greater unity' argument that strict subscription supposedly brings.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >(5) Why then System Subscription?</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />Here's a Machen quote that will serve as a good starting point:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">Subscription to the Westminster Standards in the Presbyterian Church of America [e.g. the precursor to the OPC] is not to every word in those Standards, but only to the system of doctrine which the Standards contain. (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >The Presbyterian Guardian</span><span style="font-size:130%;">, October 1936, pg. 45)<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Not to </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >every</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >word</span><span style="font-size:130%;">.....but </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >only to the system of doctrine</span><span style="font-size:130%;">!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://individual.utoronto.ca/hayes/Canada/machen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://individual.utoronto.ca/hayes/Canada/machen.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Machen's careful choice of language gives us a great pulse of the 'system subscription' argument, rightly argued and understood. Why not 'every word'? Hodge, Warfield, Machen, and others were all too aware that language like 'every' </span><span style="font-size:130%;">attributes to words a certain 'plenary' status. But once you do that with respect to the Confession's words, how do I now distinguish a plenary view of the Confession's words and plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture's words?<br /><br />In other words, Old Princeton system subscription took seriously the notion that "All synods or councils, since the apostles' times, whether general or particular, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >may err</span><span style="font-size:130%;">; </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >and many have erred.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both." (WCF 31.4). Machen might well have resonated with the Belgic Confession on this point: "</span><span class="style2" style="font-size:130%;">Therefore we must not consider human writings-- no matter how holy their authors may have been-- equal to the divine writings; nor may we put custom, nor the majority, nor age, nor the passage of time or persons, nor councils, decrees, or official decisions above the truth of God, for truth is above everything else</span><span style="font-size:130%;">" (Article 7).<br /><br />It seems to me that a Presbyterian's 2nd ordination vow (i.e. where we subscribe to "the system of doctrine as contained in the Westminster Standards") takes these Confessional qualifications cited here in Westminster and Belgic </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >more seriously</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. That is, we want our subscription practice to reflect the Confession's view of Scripture to the degree that we want to make absolutely clear the difference between our primary and secondary standards.<br /><br />Of course, the strict subscriptionists plead again and again that their view of subscription does not equate Scripture and Confession. I understand and hear it loud and clear (and trust that most of you are 'right' in your own mind before God!)....but the answer sounds upon closer inspection like special pleading. I want to see more than simply an assertion that you distinguish your primary and secondary standards; I want to see </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >how you actually do it in your ecclesiastical practice</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. If I am never permitted to object to a certain word or phrase in a Confession, how is that </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >in practice</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> any different to never being able to object to a verse in Hosea or a phrase in Hebrews?<br /><br />Or consider -- how does one </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >really and truly</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> go about amending a Confessional standard in a strict-subscription demanding denomination? If (to use one strict subscriptionist's analogy) "Scripture is the house, then Confessions are the wall built around the house!", how could anyone in any ecclesiastical context </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >really and truly</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> ever make an argument from the Scripture without immediately running head-on into the 'wall around the house' that says, "Sorry, but </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >the Confession is</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> the standard of this house -- Goodbye!"? How would even an attempt to do so in an ecclesiastical forum </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >not</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> be met with that kind of Confessional door slamming?<br /><br />As a Presbyterian, we actually have a </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >real example</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> of the church amending her secondary standards! No, not the recent 1967 revision....but a much earlier one in 1788. After the Adopting Act in 1729 clarified 'some' of the things that might be scrupled relating to the civil magistrate in WCF 20 and 23, those items (as well sections in Chapt. 31 and WLC Q.109) were officially revised six decades later. In other words, you have a great case study here in drawing a direct connection between 'system subscription' in American Presbyterianism and the 'ecclesiastical ethos' it created, whereby the original 1647 version might be formally revised and amended. [And I trust that most of you reading this blog are probably not big fans of the civil magistrate calling synods and suppressing all blasphemies/heresies (per '1647 WCF' 23.2)!]<br /><br />When I look at what the WCF confesses about Scripture in Chapter 1 and about synods in Chapter 31, I want a subscription practice that <span style="font-style: italic;">can actually do</span> what it claims to confess, and not merely talk about doing it in theory. The irony here, of course, is that 'system subscription' is often caricatured as being 'anti-Confessional'....when in fact it's actually just the very opposite. Rightly-done 'system subscription' takes WCF 1.9-10 and 31.4 very seriously...and I would argue the most seriously of any of the 3 positions laid out by Hodge! This is not setting up the Scriptures <span style="font-style: italic;">against</span> the Confessions...but rather setting up the Scriptures <span style="font-style: italic;">prior</span> to the Confessions in authority.<br /><br />That's the upshot of 'why' I'm a 'system subscription' Presbyterian!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(6) A Belgic 'test case'</span><br /><br />Lee and Scott both mentioned the matter of Article 4 of the Belgic Confession, which mentions "the fourteen letters of Paul" (e.g. the usual '13' + Hebrews). It never really occurred to me before to ask how Article 4 of the Belgic is actually 'confessed' by those of you guys in the URC.<br /><br />Honestly, what do you guys do here? I see only 3 options: (a) Do you scruple it? If you do, then how is that any different from 'system subscription'? The whole point of 'system subscription' would be to say something like, "Look, people disagree about the authorship of Hebrews; the essential point is confessing Hebrews as Scripture." (b) Do you <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> agree with Belgic on this point? or (c) Do you verbally (and theologically) confess to the whole of the 3 Forms down to every jot and tittle...but in your 'heart of hearts' really not believe that small part of the Confession?<br /><br />Knowing many of you 'URC men'....(a) doesn't fit with your confessional views and (b) doesn't fit with what Steve Baugh, Dennis Johnson, or any other respectable NT scholar teaches today. So how do you then avoid (c) and 'crossing your fingers' when you confess the Three Forms <span style="font-style: italic;">as your confession</span>? This would seem to undercut one of your main arguments against the 'system' view, if you can't even do in practice what you claim to do in theory!<br /><br />This is why Lee's point about strict subscription's "repristinat[ing] every out-dated notion of 17th century of Reformed Orthodoxy" is not, it seems to me, off base at all. Lee certainly doesn't mean that it <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">all</span> has to go, but rather that we shouldn't be surprised if there are better ways to confess our theology, nor should we be shocked if there are some formulations worth changing. The idea that Paul wrote Hebrews may have been common place in the 16th and 17th century. But if your view of subscription can't even amend something as 'simple' as this, what does that tell you about your practice of subscription? That's the real dagger blow of Lee's argument -- not that strict subscription necessarily starts out with the expressed intent to 'live in the past' but rather that this method of confession doesn't afford it much opportunity to live anywhere else.<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />This is a small-yet-important test case...partly because it doesn't amount to a hill of beans theologically (apart from someone who insists on reading Paul into Hebrews at every turn, when he simply won't fit). But that's why it makes for an excellent point for discussion, since no serious doctrinal point is on the line. Why didn't the URC revise this when it formally chose to adopt the Three Forms? Did 'the majority' of the URC still believe Paul wrote Hebrews?<br /><br />I'm not trying to be hopelessly myopic here. But then, my position doesn't require me to subscribe to every word of the Confession; your's does! So help me out here...<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(7) Conclusion</span><br /><br />It's worth pondering what the WCF means when it says synods and councils</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> "...are not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both" (31.4). Not rule but guide! Why is it not the <span style="font-style: italic;">rule</span> of faith and practice? Because only Scripture (cf. WCF 1.9 and 10) can rightly be said to do that. But such documents from synods and councils can and must serve as <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>a <span style="font-style: italic;">guide</span> in our faith and practice! That's the fine line that the WCF walks between 'traditionalism' on the one side and 'no creed but Christ' on the other! Consequently, we should embrace a subscription that walks the line between 'strict' on the one side and 'substance' on the other.<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />No approach to subscription (however strict!) is capable of guarding our faith and practice. When we try to make it do so, we inevitably end up asking it to do more than it adequately can. And that simply doesn't bode well for the life of the church, if our goal is to ultimately confess what we believe the Scriptures teach.<br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-44604493515648769842008-03-07T17:01:00.000-08:002008-03-07T17:10:01.321-08:00Defining Dysfunction!<span style="font-size:130%;">I like <a href="http://www.inlightofthegospel.org/">James Grant</a>'s approach to pastoral counseling:<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur=""><img style="" 0px="" auto="" src="http://www.inlightofthegospel.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dysfunction.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Finally....a satisfying definition of 'dysfunction'!</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-34174527317984529522008-03-01T20:14:00.000-08:002008-12-09T04:40:56.163-08:00Coarse Talking, Proverbial Wisdom, and What is Good<span style="font-size:130%;">The Proverbs have a lot to say about human speech (using various metaphors of the tongue, mouth, etc.). For instance:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Prov. 12:14</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><i> - From the fruit of his <span>mouth</span> a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him.</i></b></span><p> </p> <p><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Prov. 13:2</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><i> - From the fruit of his <span>mouth</span> a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.</i></b><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.zenatwork.com.au/images/1095905682_shouting.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 270px;" src="http://www.zenatwork.com.au/images/1095905682_shouting.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>What's fascinating about the plethora of Proverbs addressing what we speak is that we are never given a list of words that are unacceptable, except as it pertains to profaning the 'name' of the Lord (cf. Prov. 30:9). In fact, nearly all the references to human speech in the Proverbs don't give you a lot of external specifics. It provides you external scenarios of bad and good speech, but the clear focus of the Proverbs is to get you contemplate the underlying motives involved in human speech.<br /></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Part of the problem it seems to me is that we approach Proverbs like we would the Mosaic Law, the later of which is replete with very specific instructions of what one should do and not do. Wisdom literature and the Law fit together under the broad umbrella known as the Mosaic Covenant (cf. 'Listen, my son' in Prov. 1:8 seems clearly intended to mirror the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >shema</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> of Deut. 6), but on a rhetorical level they communicate truth to us differently. That's part of why we designate the Proverbs as 'wisdom' literature -- if you read them expecting specific instructions (a la Leviticus or Deut.), you ironically end up gutting the very approach that Proverbs lays forth as how one might acquire</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > wisdom</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. To a person who seeks a specific rule for every situation, there really isn't much need to acquire </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >hokma</span><span style="font-size:130%;">!<br /><br />Twice here in Proverbs 12 and 13, we find a connection between our mouths and simply what's <b><i><u>good</u></i></b>. No list -- the only category it gives is </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >tov</span><span style="font-size:130%;">!<br /><br />I think this is helpful to keep in mind when thinking about speech, because it helps us realize that we need more than simply a 'list' of 'bad' words to avoid. If you start with an external list, then you easily put the cart before the horse, ethics prior to redemption, the imperative before the indicative.<br /><br />Proverbs understands the subtlety and complexity that the language of communication involves -- which is why it addresses the tongue/mouth frequently -- and that's part of the real profundity of the Bible's so-called 'wisdom literature'. It's not just imparting moral slogans to follow, but it's providing us with a 'covenantal worldview' to evaluate *all* our speech. This goes well-beyond (while including in its evaluation) certain 'words' that might bring a perverse connotation.<br /><br />For example, there is a time to answer a fool and a time NOT to answer a fool? (Prov. 26:4-5) How do you know the difference? Proverbs doesn't spell it out for you in 'how to' fashion -- "Here's when you do it; here's when you don't!." You simply don't get that. What it does spell out for you is the goal and need for *Biblical wisdom* in deciding the difference, and then providing numerous metaphors and parallelisms that help flesh that out.<br /><br />This is crucial in evaluating our speech -- there are times when certain language is appropriate, times when it is not appropriate, times when it virtually never appropriate. But how do you know? When do parents talk to their children about topics like sex and drugs? How do parents talk to their children about course language without actually using the language itself? That's why you need 'wisdom' -- the ability to show skill in thinking through what you say with your lips.<br /><br />I have a Christian friend who's an ADA, and he often has to read depositions and statements aloud in court that involve foul language. Is that wrong? For some, I think that would be a major conscience issue -- they would NOT want to answer such a fool according to his own folly! And so they should refrain from doing that. But for the prosecutor, he recognizes civil justice requires the confrontation of people's sinfulness -- 'answering a fool according to his own folly'....even if that means having to repeat the fool's language to the courts.<br /><br />The difficulty is that this sounds (at least on the surface) a lot like situation ethics. But Fletcher's whole approach to situational ethics rules out any need for Biblical wisdom in making decisions -- I simply say what 'feels' right at any given moment. Biblical wisdom is nothing like that at all -- it recognizes that complexity of 'situations'...but then seeks to bring Biblical truth to bear in evaluating the situation. [Think of the old 'one meaning, many applications', if you will.]<br /><br />In short, Wisdom recognizes the massive difference between dropping an 'f bomb' out of anger....and dropping an 'f bomb' while reading a transcript in the middle of prosecuting a major felon. This is not a totally arbitrary distinction based on autonomous thinking; rather, it is recognizing that 'wisdom' is rooted in our creation-ethics, for it is "he who made the earth by his power, who established the </span><span class="search-term-2" style="font-size:130%;">world</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> by his </span><span class="search-term-1" style="font-size:130%;">wisdom</span><span style="font-size:130%;">" (Jer. 10:15).<br /><br />Stated pejoratively, Biblical wisdom in both Testaments is neither a friend to the Theonomist or autonomist. That's why it's called </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Biblical</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >wisdom</span><span style="font-size:130%;">!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XGjcX7F33EM/R8p2vFZwfZI/AAAAAAAAAN0/1IMTanAGsNo/s1600-h/OnNotice.php"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XGjcX7F33EM/R8p2vFZwfZI/AAAAAAAAAN0/1IMTanAGsNo/s320/OnNotice.php" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173077673264577938" /></a><br />That's also why the 'fear of the Lord' is so important when reading the Proverbs (e.g. 1:7)! We often gloss 'fear' in Proverbs with the idea of 'reverence'....which is not wrong per se, but doesn't really go far enough! John Murray gave, I think, a much more probing (and Biblically-satisfying) definition -- "The fear of God is the soul of godliness...The first thought of the godly man in every circumstance is God's relation to him and it, and his and its relationship to God." (<i>Principles of Conduct</i>, 229).<br /><br />We have to constantly evaluate all our language -- not merely certain 'words' designated as offensive! -- in light of our relationship to God in Christ! And our standard cannot simply be whether 'it is bad'....but rather whether it is truly </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >good</span><span style="font-size:130%;">!<br /><br />Is not that message we see Jesus preaching when confronted about the lawfulness of healing on the Sabbath? (Matt. 12:9-14) . How does Jesus confront their Pharisaical thinking? "It is lawful to do </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >good</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> on the Sabbath." The answer sounds almost too simple....and yet it takes real skill when trying to evaluate what is </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >good</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> to do on the Lord's Day. No list could ever hope to accomplish all that is involved there.<br /><br />Thankfully, Jesus gives us his own standard for evaluating what is good: And because of him</span><span class="footnote" style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-size:130%;">you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (I. Cor. 1:30-31). Not merely content to tell us to do good, Christ in the Gospel becomes wisdom for us!</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-81898671270565605172008-03-01T17:37:00.000-08:002008-03-01T18:56:47.159-08:00Duking it out at the Altar!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.neutronbot.com/model/kungfu_full/z0007.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 180px;" src="http://www.neutronbot.com/model/kungfu_full/z0007.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">It's funny what you find while Google searching for former classmates.<br /><br />I was attempting to track down a friend of mine from Seminary, Daniel Sladek. While we were attending Westminter together, he somehow ended up traveling to the UK for a Free Church of Scotland summer internship, where he met a nice gal Scottish gal he would later marry. He's been hard to keep track of ever since. He did manage to write during his time at <a href="http://www.freescotcoll.ac.uk/">Free Church College</a> a thesis on N.T. Wright's exegesis of the<span style="font-style: italic;"> 'zdk </span>language in the OT. The last I heard from him, he was ministering in some capacity (I think) at a Free Church congregation in the London area. But I can't recall communicating with him (much, if at all!) since I read his thesis, which must have been 5 years ago (at least!).<br /><br />Enter Google!<br /><br />The first Google search link I found and clicked on was your basic bulletin insert of the previously-mentioned London congregation, asking the congregation to pray for the Sladeks as he accepted a call to a church in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Skye">Skye</a> (Scotland). That was April 2006....so I figure I'm getting warmer.<br /><br />I then tried to Google search the church name listed on the previous link, but it turned up nothing. I then went to the Free Church website, and they didn't have any church listed by that name. Dead end! So I decided to return back to my original search.<br /><br />Now back at my initial search tab, I go to the next link of the original search and notice the following Google search blurb, "....American-born preacher Daniel Sladek, looked down from the pulpit..." So I'm thinking to myself that I've found him....<br /><br />...And then I read for a little more context and discovered the title of the actual article in which Dan's name appeared: </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Love rivals in punch-up at the altar</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> and the subtitle: </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Jilted husband thumps wife's lover in Kirk.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />[Leave to the Scottish to give you a real attention-grabbing headline! The only words that came to my mind were, <a href="http://www.faniq.com/video/Scratch-my-back-with-a-hacksaw-YouTube-1857,4,40852/user_recent">"Scratch my back with a hacksaw!"]</a><br /><br />Here's a fuller quote from the article:<br /><br /></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><p><span style="font-size:130%;">The minister at the Kirk, American-born preacher Daniel Sladek, looked down from the pulpit in shock as his precentor (choirmaster) was beaten up.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:130%;">He said last night: "We certainly deplore the incident and lament what happened. It was certainly a shock to myself and the congregation - a most unusual happening."</span></p></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />You can read the entire article <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_headline=love-rivals-in-punch-up-at-the-altar&method=full&objectid=19228550&siteid=66633-name_page.html">here</a>.<br /><br />This has to qualify as one of the most bizarre ways to get back in touch with one of your Seminary friends -- finding a news headline about (a) your friend's church clear across the pond, in which (b) the choirmaster is a having an affair with a woman in the congregation, and (c) the choirmaster gets attacked by the husband of that woman</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > during the worship service</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> in front of the entire congregation!<br /><br />After reading this, I didn't know whether to cry or wind my watch (HT: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lange">Mike Lange</a>).<br /><br />It's hard not to find this humorous...until you realize how utterly tragic the whole affair must have been.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-55967034457846354892008-02-25T13:30:00.001-08:002008-02-25T19:50:25.848-08:00Muller's Post-Reformation Dogmatics<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.richardsibbes.com/TUAR/0801026180.S.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 250px;" src="http://www.richardsibbes.com/TUAR/0801026180.S.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">If you're looking for the best deal on Richard Muller's </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> (4 Vol.), Christian Book Distributor has it selling <a href="http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=9591&event=ESRCN">for $80 right now</a>. However, if you use promo code "<strong>251485FF</strong>" during check out, that knocks off 10% of the price, which basically translates to 'free shipping.' Thus, you end up getting the entire set post-paid for $80.<br /><br />If you don't want to shop at CBD, then the next best option for price appears to be over at <a href="http://www.monergismbooks.com/Post-Reformation-Reformed-Dogmatics-Four-Volume-Set-p-16440.html">Monergism Books</a> -- $84.00 (with s & h).<br /><br />This is not a blog typically devoted to Historical Theology -- there are plenty of those already out there. However, I wanted to mention this important work for investigating the development of Reformation theology among the post-Reformation Scholastics of the Reformed Faith.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-37592000098191721612008-02-11T13:49:00.000-08:002008-02-11T15:04:15.511-08:00Gott Proverbs?<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Norman K. Gottwald argued nearly 50 years ago that the Hebrew Proverbs are "generally mediocre as literature, tedious as ethics, banal as religion" (<span style="font-style: italic;">A Light to the Nations</span>, New York: Harper, 1959: 472). For someone who was quite critical of the historical-critical school, it's remarkable how little Gottwald's sociological models and ethnographic parallels -- seen chiefly in his 'peasant revolt' theory of Israel's origins -- move us beyond what the critical school had been saying for decades prior.<br /><br />Thankfully, numerous studies in 'Wisdom literature' more recently have demonstrated how woefully wrong Gottwald is on all three accounts. Raymond van Leeuwen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Context-Meaning-Proverbs-Raymond-Leeuwen/dp/1555400051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202769590&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Context and Meaning in Proverbs 25-27</span></a> should be required-reading for anyone trying to work their way through Proverbs' poetic skill, rhetorical subtleties, and theological acumen. Bruce Waltke's recent <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Proverbs-International-Commentary-Testament/dp/0802825451/ref=pd_sim_b_title_5">commentary</a> on Proverbs works this out in even greater detail.</span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-10956202835900826902008-02-08T05:16:00.000-08:002008-02-08T06:15:28.688-08:00Lost in Translation(s)??<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.com/Five-Books-Moses-Translation-Commentary/dp/0393019551"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 118px;" src="http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/files/images/A-FiveBooksMoses.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Alan Jacobs has an <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=226">interesting review</a> (2005) of Robert Alter's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Five-Books-Moses-Translation-Commentary/dp/0393019551/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202174237&sr=1-3"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary</span></a> that touches on a key issue related to modern Bible translations that has long bothered me.<br /><br />Typically, the debates in evangelical translation philosophy get reduced to a continuum between (1) 'literal where possible' (e.g. the NASB) on one end and (2) 'loose paraphrase' (e.g. the Living Bible or The Message) on the other, with (3) the other 'dynamic equivalence' translations falling somewhere in between.<br /><br />Because option (1) is recognizably difficult whenever you translate from any language into another, option (2) has become the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >status quo</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> for most evangelicals and option (3) continues to gain momentum in a lot of circles. But have the new translations really produced a better text? Jacobs argues (echoing Alter) that a big part of the problem in all three of these options (particularly 2 and 3!) is that they frequently fail to do justice to the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >literary form</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> of the original text in their translation philosophy.<br /><br />Of course, not all of the literary features of either Greek or Hebrew will easily translate into English (and hence the reason why Option 1 relies on a sometimes-overly-wooden approach to translation). However, Jacobs argues that translators too quickly 'give in' to this translational divide by 'smoothing out' those literary features of the original languages. How? By devoting far too much attention towards producing something readable </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >in English</span><span style="font-size:130%;">, and failing to really wrestle with the original. And in so doing, the literary artifice of the original text gets 'lost in translation'!<br /><br />Alter explains:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >The assumption of most modern translators has been that this sort of [Hebrew verbal] syntax will be either unintelligible or at least alienating to the modern readers, and so should be entire rearranged as modern English. There are two basic problems with this procedure. First, it ignores the fact that parataxis [two or more syntactic units connected without use of a conjunction] is the essential literary vehicle of biblical narrative: it is the way the ancient Hebrew writers saw the world, linked events in it, artfully ordered it, and narrated it, and one gets a very different world if their syntax is jettisoned. Second, rejection of biblical parataxis presupposes a very simplistic notion of what constitutes modern literary English (Preface, pg. xxiv).</span><br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Jacobs' review highlights just a few of the numerous examples brought out by Alter in the historical-prose sections of the Old Testament, where English translations routinely 'over-interpret' or 'over-stylize' the text in places where the text is </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >deliberately ambiguous</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> or </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >deliberately</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> (and at times, monotonously!) </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >repetitive</span><span style="font-size:130%;">. Why does this happen? I suspect because our definitions of Biblical perspicuity, while necessary to our theological commitments, don't have enough literary elasticity to account for things like ambiguity (or monotony) in a text. Even the Westminster Confession admits that "all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves" (1.7), but I wonder how many committed to the Westminster Standards would be equally willing to say that certain texts (particularly OT historical texts) are </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >purposely ambiguous</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> due to their literary style?!?!? I suspect that sounds far too radical a proposal for many, if not most.<br /><br />Alter (on a few occasions) calls this ironing out of textual ambiguity the "the heresy of explanation"...and just about <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">all</span> of the modern translations fall into this 'heresy' at some point or another. What does Alter propose as a necessary corrective?<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">"A suitable English version should avoid at all costs the modern abomination of elegant synonymous variation, for the literary prose of the Bible turns everywhere on significant repetition, not variation. Similarly the translation of terms on the basis of immediate context -- except when it becomes grotesque to do otherwise -- is to be resisted....Finally, the mesmerizing effect of these ancient stories will scarcely be conveyed if they are not rendered in cadenced English prose that at least in some ways corresponds to the powerful cadences of the Hebrew (xxxii).</span></span><br /></blockquote><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://wupa.wustl.edu/asmbly/bio/Alter"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 190px;" src="http://illuminations.berkeley.edu/images/alter_small.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Alter is likely guilty of overstating his case here -- do we <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> want to say that these modern translations 'scarcely' convey the Biblical narrative's intent? Nevertheless, I think the basic criticism is valid and worth pondering in lieu of the translations that roll out on an almost-yearly basis. The roughly 50 page introduction should be read by anyone doing work in the Hebrew Old Testament translation, whether as Hebrew scholar or a pastor.<br /><br />I'd be curious to if there is a "Robert Alter counterpart" writing in the area of Greek narrative style. <a href="http://www.wscal.edu/faculty/bios/baugh.php">Steve Baugh</a> made an off-the-cuff comment to me about 4 or 5 years ago, that (if I remember right!) he was learning to appreciate more and more how Greek narrative style was far more informed by Hebrew narrative style than many of the standard Greek grammarians will ever admit to (particularly as it relates to Septuagint renderings of the Hebrew text) ....but I can't say that I've seen much research explored in this area.<br /><br />Many reading this blog already will be familiar with Alter's classic texts on Hebrew <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Biblical-Narrative-Robert-Alter/dp/046500427X/ref=pd_sim_b_title_3">narrative</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Biblical-Poetry-Robert-Alter/dp/0465004318/ref=pd_sim_b_title_4">poetry</a>; these are 'must reads' (with discernment, of course), if you are working through any of those portions of the OT. </span><span style="font-size:130%;">If you are preaching through the Pentateuch, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Five Books</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">of Moses</span> is a treasure chest of translational nuggets! I haven't had a chance to review his most recent work on translating the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Psalms-Translation-Commentary/dp/0393062260/ref=pd_sim_b_title_6">Psalms</a>, but I can only imagine it will prove an excellent resource.</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457420610176766795.post-21722607993795845232008-01-30T16:02:00.000-08:002008-01-31T01:13:11.633-08:00More taxes, anyone?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://derekdoes.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/ron_paul_desk.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 454px;" src="http://derekdoes.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/ron_paul_desk.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >My three-word summary of the political landscape in 2008: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >image over ideas</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >.<br /><br />Of course, this could probably be said about most political elections since the flourishing of news and television media outlets over the last half century. Sure, the Lincoln-Douglas debates (the so-called 'roots' of today's Presidential debates) in 1858 had its fair share of rhetorical flair, but there was always a since in which there were real ideas and methodological commitments behind the rhetoric. Today, one is constantly bombarded with 60 seconds here-90 seconds there to answer a question....which, of course, only encourages more 'political spin' without ever </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >really</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" > discussing anything at all.<br /><br />Remember teary-eyed Hillary in Iowa a month or so ago? Or more recently, the 'hand-shaking incident' with Ted Kennedy during the State of the Union address? TV outlets (from Fox to CNN) ran gang-busters with this. But what do either of these incidents </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >really</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" > have to do with </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >the issues</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" > that the average America? It might as well be Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson that we're talking about, where the media goes out of its way to cover an issue by stating: "We, the media, should leave this one alone...because it really has nothing to do with Romo's poor performance in the playoffs." What's the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >real</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" > difference here? National issues get reduced to the level of 'sporting event' event tabloids.<br /><br />[</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >NB</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >: Admittedly, I didn't follow the campaign trail to the elections of 2000 and 2004 terribly closely -- in the case of the former, I was finishing seminary and working in a Santa Barbara (internship); in the case of the later, I was preparing for and traveling to Canada. In neither case was I able to watch television due to the poor television reception in Escondido. So I've probably seen more political coverage (i.e. 'sound bites') this time around than the previous two combined....and we still have another 9+ months of this to go!]<br /><br />The internet has plenty of pitfalls in the area of mis-information. But (surprise, surprise!) I'm starting to think that number-crunching articles, Q&A's that actually answer substantial questions, etc., may end up the better medium for cutting through so much of the 'spin' that takes place on television newscasts and 30-second advertisements.<br /><br />The reason I'm voting for Ron Paul next week can frankly be summed up in one word: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >economics</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >. All the so-called polls say the economy is now the #1 issue for most voters in America, even more than the Iraq War. The problem is that these same people that are so concerned about the economy don't understand the economics of government taxation.<br /><br />The National Taxpayers Union Federation (NTUF) <a href="http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=990&org_name=NTUF">issued a statement this week</a> analyzing President Bush's recent State of the Union address, and conclude that it amounts to a $134.6 Billion-dollar spending increase from 2007, the largest single increase of his 8 year term. Weren't the Republicans suppose be the party of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >less</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" > government spending?<br /><br />The NTUF also <a href="http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=991&org_name=NTUF">issued another report</a> analyzing the various budget proposals of the various candidates running for the President in 2008, showing that more spending is likely on the horizon. Increases from the various candidates include:<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> Huckabee: +$54.2 Billion<br />Romney: +$19.5 Billion<br />McCain: +6.9 Billion<br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />Isn't McCain suppose to be the more 'moderate' of the three? Then there are the Democratic front-runners:<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> Obama: +$287.0 Billion<br />Hillary: +218.2 Billion<br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />This is one of the reason I'm not really buying the '</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >compassionate Obama persona</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >' that a lot of people (including a number of conservatives) seem attracted to. When it comes to government spending, Obama is as 'big government' as they come.<br /><br />There was only one (remaining) candidate that scored in the negative category:<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> Ron Paul: -$150.1 Billion<br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />As stated in one of my previous posts, the GOP simply doesn't understand what to do with Ron Paul. Could it be because they have become so accustomed to big-spending that someone like Paul actually sounds like a 'radical'? In fact, Paul is the only candidate that I really trust who says he wants 'change' and actually has a voting record to back up </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;" >real change</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" >.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/images/uploads/07219-a-ron-paul.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 448px;" src="http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/images/uploads/07219-a-ron-paul.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04819951532310453819noreply@blogger.com0