“The Mirror of His Works”

Bright, however, as is the manifestation which God gives both of himself and his immortal kingdom in the mirror of his works, so great is our stupidity, so dull are we in regard to these bright manifestations, that we derive no benefit from them. For in regard to the fabric and admirable arrangement of the universe, how few of us are there who, in lifting our eyes to the heavens, or looking abroad on the various regions of the earth, ever think of the Creator?

John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1845), 76.

A Fortiori

Truly, if such are the good things of time, what will be those of eternity?  If such is the beauty of visible things, what shall we think of invisible things?  If the grandeur of heaven exceeds the measure of human intelligence, what mind shall be able to trace the nature of the everlasting?  If the sun, subject to corruption, is so beautiful, so grand, so rapid in its movement, so invariable in its course; if its grandeur is in such perfect harmony with and due proportion to the universe:  if, by the beauty of its nature, it shines like a brilliant eye in the middle of creation; if finally, one cannot tire of contemplating it, what will be the beauty of the Sun of Righteousness? If the blind man suffers from not seeing the material sun, what a deprivation is it for the sinner not to enjoy the true light!

– Basil

The Original Music

“The accord and affinity of all things with one another that is controlled in an orderly and sequential manner is the primal, archetypal, true music. It is this music that the conductor of the universe skillfully strikes up in the unspoken speech of wisdom through these ever-occurring movements.”

– Gregory of Nyssa

 

Definition

 He waters the hills from His upper chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, – Psalm 104:13-14

This week I have read countless debates about Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. They are so difficult for us to define.  When we ask our Creator for a definition, he takes us to the edge of the field, stretches out his hand and says “this.”

Dear Myung: 35th and Baseline

Dear Myung,

It was good to see you yesterday. Again, congratulations on the birth of your new son. You and your wife have been truly blessed.

Thank you for your comment on the “Rural vs Urban” photo I recently posted. I have enjoyed taking photos of these sites around farming areas that are being encroached upon by the city. Several book and magazine editors have expressed interest in using them to illustrate urban sprawl and the loss of farmland to development.  While I am happy to sell these images to whomever and for whatever reason, pointing out the problems of urban sprawl is not my purpose.

My main point is the same point that Solomon makes in Ecclesiastes 1:4 “One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.” The world is always searching for permanence and they are able to fool their eyes into seeing it in buildings and skyscrapers.  The reality is that in a battle between rural vs. urban the farmer’s field wins every time. Long after those buildings have decayed, turned into dust and the people who built them forgotten that field will still be there. This truth leads the world to hide their eyes but for a Christian it allows them to see clearly and value what is truly worthwhile. We are able to enjoy the fruit of our labor while recognizing that it is only temporary. It is our portion. Where we do find permanence is in the eternal purposes of a sovereign God.  Above all else we fear Him and keep His commandments and by doing so we are invited to partake in the eternal works of God.

Myung, like you I am new to the city. I pray that as you grow in your understanding of Christianity that you see everything, including the city itself, from an eternal perspective. I pray that you invest your life in eternal things. I pray that when you look over the city you do not see buildings and shopping centers, but God calling out men and women for the purpose of glorifying Himself for all eternity. May God open your eyes to see and your heart to overflow with thanksgiving.

Language and Forms

Keller’s quote sums up the popular thinking of Evangelicalism. First, this thinking assumes that God is dependent on our ability to create ministry/communication models that will reach the Western world. As I stated in my earlier blog post, this is a small view of an all-powerful God.  God will accomplish His will any way He desires.  Secondly, this thinking assumes that the problem is one of language and forms and all that we need to do is update our language and forms and we are in business.

This thinking would see ministry in the same terms as a missionary would see preparing for the foreign field. We need to learn the language and culture of the people we are ministering in order to clearly teach them the eternal truth of God. If the problem in our Western secular mission field is that we are speaking a different language and using different forms, then the answer is to learn to speak proficiently in word and deed with the people in our communities in order to effectively share the gospel.

I believe this assessment of the problem is naïve. We are not just having trouble communicating the truth to those people out there somewhere in secular Western society; we are having trouble communicating the truth to our children, our lifelong neighbors, even the people who have sat in our churches for generations.

The problem does lie in the realm of language and forms but it is not that we are using outdated language and forms. The problem is the deterioration of language itself in Western culture and society’s overall loss of meaning. Art critics have bemoaned the decline of meaning in society for well over 150 years.  This decline in meaning has affected all the arts including music, visual, literature, and even language itself.  And herein lies the problem; we are speaking the right language but language’s connection to meaning is deteriorating.

Language, like all art, is inherently symbolic. This is demonstrated in children as they learn to talk. They see a car and then mom or dad say “car”.  They quickly learn to associate the word “car” with the mental representation of the cars they have seen, touched, smelled and heard. A child who has never experienced a car will not be able to give the word “car” any meaning.  The more a child is able to experience a car the more the term car has meaning to him.

Language is symbolic and founded on the natural world. One of the reasons we are able to learn another language is that even though the words are different they are symbolizing objects, concepts and experiences historically shared in common by all mankind.  Books, magazines, blogs, poetry, can be translated and understood generally by all languages because of the common experiences of all mankind. When there are exceptions it is because the people lack the experience that words symbolize.

For a Christian, understanding the relationship between language and the natural world is extremely important. The foundation of Christianity is Special Revelation through the Holy Scriptures but we often forget that general revelation forms a prerequisite for Scripture. They are mutually dependent.

For a Christian, this is the correct understanding of the important relationship between general and special revelation.  God gave His special revelation to men who live in the world of His general revelation.

Here is a simple albeit extreme example to illustrate the point. Imagine you live in a world without male and female where people just spring forth from the earth.  You open your Bible and read Matthew 6:9 “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” The term “Father” would have no meaning to you because you would have no mental representation to give the word meaning.  The fact that you have a father and live in a world where everyone has a father gives this word meaning even though it was written two thousand years ago in a different language and a different culture.  We still have a shared concept of a father. The point is that God gives His special revelation in the setting of His general revelation.  If you take that special revelation out of the setting of general revelation, special revelation loses its context and meaning.

God’s word is given to men and women who live in this world. Unfortunately, we no longer live in the world that recognizes God’s creation. We have replaced God’s creation with a creation of mankind. We are no longer men, we are machines. The things that were common to all mankind are no longer common to us.

It is almost humorous to read cultural critics of the 19^th century mourn the alienation of mankind with creation that was taking place with the rise of the industrial revolution which coincided with the growth of Darwinist understanding of the natural world. They could not have envisioned the universe of ones and zeros we now live in.  We have won the battle for the words but are losing any real conception of what the words symbolize.

Read “The Lord is my Shepherd” to a group of inner-city children and ask them what it means.  Better yet, ask their inner-city youth leaders what it means. For centuries, these words of David held deep powerful meaning and formed the core of Christian’s concept and worship of God. The reason this metaphor held such a deep hold on the Christian imagination was because mankind had a general familiarity of sheep and shepherding. For thousands of years sheep were the common experience of almost all mankind.  Today, most have never seen a real sheep outside of the state fair or a petting zoo and most have no concept of shepherding. The metaphor loses its meaning.

Much of the scriptures use the visible world to help us grasp the invisible.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks of salt, light, candles, cities on a hill, shining light, brothers, fathers, sons, civil officers, eyes, hands, teeth, cheeks, neighbors, moths, rust, birds of the air, clothing, harvesting, sowing seed, barns, wild flowers, specks, logs, pearls, dogs, pigs, knocking on a door, bread, stones, fish, snakes, narrow gates, wide gates, broad roads and difficult paths, wolves in sheep’s clothing, thorn bushes, figs, thistles, good trees, bad trees, fruit, fire, foundations of houses, rain, floods, and wind.  All these references to the natural world are to give Christ’s words meaning.

We know of these natural elements but we do not know them as they once were known.  Take salt for example.  We know what it is and its flavor but few know where it comes from or how usable salt is produced. We do not know how to find it or the difference between different qualities of salt. The phrase “you are the salt of the earth” does not mean much to us because our imaginations do not have much to draw from in relation to salt. The first image brought to mind is the salt shaker in our cupboard that we use to salt our fries.

The problem is more than speaking the wrong language.  The problem is an increasing degradation of language itself and an alienation from general revelation on which special revelation depends.

Why should a Christian be concerned about the arts?  If the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, then what shapes and demonstrates our affections becomes our utmost concern.

Rain, Sunshine, and Pragmatism

On Sunday mornings, we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount. I have been struck with how Jesus contradicts the pharisaical teaching of His day by correctly interpreting the Law.  In the last portion we studied, Jesus dealt with loving our enemies.

Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But I say to you, love your enemies,

Jesus gives a surprising reason for loving our enemies and not just our neighbors. We often think that we love our enemies in order to convert them or if we love our enemies they will love us in return. Exhibiting godly character in order to see a result is pragmatism and not the motivation Christ gives. The reason that Jesus gives for loving our enemies is that we are to be sons of God, reflecting the character of our Father in heaven. God demonstrates love to His enemies, so we should love our enemies because we are to be like Him. While we recognize that there is an end to His longsuffering, and even though judgment will come upon all the enemies of God, the example that Jesus gives of God’s care and compassion for all mankind is a wonderful example of God’s goodness.

Matthew 5:45  that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

There is also a secondary application to this text for there is an entire worldview found in this verse. It’s His sun. He owns it. He spoke it into existence through His own will. He gives His sun and continues to allow His sun to be shared with the world through His goodness and kindness. The sun warms the earth and lights our world. Earth would be a cold dark place without it. Not only do we enjoy the physical benefits of the sun, we also enjoy its beauty. All of this is available to the evil and the good.

Now a distinctly Christian worldview will see the sun differently than the rest of the world sees it. We will see the goodness of God in every sunset, every sunrise, and every touch of warmth that we feel on our skin. Our hearts overflow with worship and thanksgiving for His goodness to us each day. Our response to the sun is different from the world. They do not worship God as the creator nor are they thankful.

The same is true with the rain. We understand that it is a gift from God.  We see a testimony to the goodness of God in every spring rain, in every afternoon shower that waters the earth, and in the joy of knowing our fields in which we labor will be fruitful.

As Christians adopt the thinking of the world they tend to overlook God’s blessings they experience every day. It is common to hear Christians talk of God as being distant and indifferent towards them. They feel this way because they have been overshadowed by the blindness of this world and they do not have eyes to see.

A comprehensive understanding of the sun, the rain, and its relationship to our God is essential to faith unfeigned.

“The Eye of the Imagination Must See Him”

I wrote these questions in response to a friend who is having difficulty finding a church for his family and I thought I would also post them here. They are important questions for us to consider.

What did God intend to be the vehicle to show forth His glory, might, and power to mankind? What work of God is clearly seen by all generations, all cultures, all languages and by its very existence leaves mankind without excuse for their refusal to respond properly to it? What did God parade before Job which led Job to say “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”? It seems you are looking for a congregation that grasps the might, power, glory and majesty of God and takes Him seriously. Where would God have them go to find examples of His might, power, glory and majesty? Where do you go to “see” God as Job did?

We are all looking for these things but no one seems to know where God placed them for us to find.

Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? — St. Augustine

Dear Jeremiah: My Journey to Conservatism

Jeremiah,

Hey! Thanks for the note, and thanks for reading the book I loaned you. Keep reading. To answer your question, yes, I would consider myself a conservative but I don’t think that I mean conservative in the same way others do.  What I mean by conservative is that I believe there are some things in history that are worth conserving.

I have enjoyed talking with you about the current array of problems in Christianity. I am also glad that you have not done what so many others have done and walked away from your faith. Christianity is not working as it has in the past; it is not building strong churches. Churches rise and fall, not on the strength of its Christ-like qualities, but on the charisma of its leadership and the overall vibe. Churches have long lost heart in the power of God and have, for centuries now, looked to political and business models for building Christ’s church. As you know only too well, Christianity is not developing durable marriages and families. The attacks of selfishness, greed, covetousness, and sexual immorality as exhibited in pornography and adultery, are destroying families at whim. “Worship” is a billion dollar industry ran by Sony BMG and other secular business executives, and comes with a charge for admission.  Those that reject the worship industry are so wrapped up in sentimentalism that they are unable to pass on even the most basic of their experiences to their children.  All their fond memories and nostalgia will die with them. Truth, beauty, and goodness pass from one generation to the next, but sentimentalism dies with the person who experienced it.

Christianity is not producing godliness. For many, their faith does not work; it’s broken.  It does not do what faith is supposed to do. Some try to return it for a refund while others try, through the power of their flesh, to pretend it works. Everyone goes home frustrated.

For some, the journey to conservatism flows from a desire to help the church. They see the gulf that is growing between the historic church and the modern church. They are primarily concerned about the direction of academic institutions, publishers, and mission agencies. For me, the journey to conservatism was personal. Two events opened my eyes to the idea that not all was right with the world and not right with me.

First, through a series of unrelated events, I began reading the writings of early church leaders. The love that Polycarp, Clement of Rome, and Ignatius all had for their Savior and each other, stood in stark contrast to the fickle weak sentiment of modern Christians. These early church leaders loved different things and had different definitions than the ones we use today for words such as faith, love, friendship, success, joy, and worship.  Their love for Christ and one another clearly shows the poverty and nakedness of modern Christianity. Their faith worked.

The second event in my journey to conservatism was when we moved up to Idaho. It is hard to explain all that took place, but I think I can sum it up with my Sunday morning drives. Early each Sunday I needed to get over to the church to turn on the heat. We lived only a few blocks from the church so I would usually drive out into the country to allow time for the car to warm up and clear the windshield.  Over the years, this drive turned into a habit that changed me at the core of my being. Each Sunday I watched the sun rise behind the Teton Mountains. On the first cold days of fall, I would drive through the mist that came off the river and reflected the red of the scrub oak and gold of the new morning sun. In the summer, I drove past fields of canola, wheat, and potatoes. I would regularly see bald eagles and osprey and occasionally see deer and elk.  The photograph above is from one of those Sunday mornings.

As a Christian, I saw these beautiful sights as examples of God’s glory and majesty. More importantly, they began to give me a context and definition to the words glory and majesty. I had something informing my imagination giving me a mental map to understand concepts like divine power. Seeing the works of God’s hands increased my love and fear of God. I began to understand that love and fear go very well together. God is bigger and infinitely more wonderful than I had imagined Him to be.

As I continued to grow in my love and thankfulness towards God, I also began to recognize a gulf between the God of creation and the God of modern Christianity.  I found myself frustrated that in my early morning drives I would be overcome with awe and wonder at the creative hand of God only to worship Him with expressions of sentimentality and just plain silliness.

Here is a quote I read recently by A.W. Tozer that clarifies the problem.

 The message of this book … is called forth by a condition which has existed in the Church for some years and is steadily growing worse. I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.

With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit.

As the Pastor and leader of our church worship, I began to look for direction in leading our church family in worship worthy of the Creator. It was this search that led me to conservatism. I found that many years ago, the historic church worshiped the God of creation. They had an intimate knowledge of God’s creation and valued His works. It was reflected in their poetry and hymns, more than just poetic cliché’s from the Psalms. I could elaborate more thoroughly on the musical choices that changed in our church services but there is something more important. I quickly realized that the best music mankind has ever produced, from Bach to the Getty’s, from Handel to John Rutter, all fall exceedingly short of the glory and majesty of God. As someone who now almost entirely listens to Bach and other classical composers, I do not say that to lessen their quality, but to demonstrate that the Creator of the universe deserves something infinitely grander.

Thankfully, our church family easily made the connection between the God of all creation and the God we worshiped each Sunday. This reality took away any sense of pride in our worship and gave us a profound sense of place and humility before God.  We sang out to Him in praise because we could not hold it back. Our worship flowed from our thankful hearts and from our minds consumed with awe and wonder. Our prayers were filled with thankfulness for blessing from God for which we never before gave a second thought.

I believe I have come to better understand the historic church’s definition of glory, majesty and divine power.  I believe that I arrived at these conclusions because I was being influenced by the same thing that influenced the historical church; primarily a distinctly Christian understanding of, and immersion in, God’s creation. These historical meanings and definitions are worth conserving. We have shared and demonstrated these definitions, understandings, and loves with our church families, both in Ashton and at Grace. As they connected the created world and the God they worship, it had a profound impact on their affections, values and conduct. So yes, I would consider myself a conservative, but I may have come about it in a different way than others.

Jeremiah, you are always in my prayers. God is not distant from you and His blessings are all around you.  Take the time to notice them and for all these blessings give thanks.