In the time of postmoderns I was a Puritan

Derek Webb and wife Sandra McCracken finally releasing a collaboration EP.

But even after eight years of personal and professional collaboration, thirteen albums, a marriage, and a new baby, the one thing McCracken and Webb had never done together successfully was write songs.  When asked why, Webb jokes, “The majority of co-writing we’d done up to this point pretty much resulted in marriage counseling.”

The future of the Christian music industry and predictions by Chris Peacock.

A blogger’s perspective to the present Myanmar crisis.

And finally, John Piper on abortion.

I couldn’t resist posting a shameless promotion post for Red Mountain Church’s new album This Breaks My Heart of Stone, which I haven’t even bought yet but is one of RMC’s most promising albums; featuring another 8 hymns from William Gadsby’s hymnbook. I am always grateful for quality music put out by Christians, with a reverence for God and worshipping Him at the forefront and a concern for popularity or sales far, far down the line of priorities. Check out the album here: http://www.redmountainchurch.org/rmm/alb/tbmhos.html or read Brian Murphy’s note to would-be listeners:

And yet, there are moments where the light shines. There are moments where I am “convinced as a sinner, to Jesus I come”. There are moments when I meet someone and their belief shakes me somewhere deep inside, because I feel a similar belief inside myself. These moments of belief don’t seem to happen very often, but when they do, it feels like rain is falling on the drought of my soul.

For me - and I think for a lot of us - these moments of belief often coincide with music. These songs remind me, they remind us, that the gospel is at work. That redemption is taking place. That sad things are being made untrue. That hopefully in small pieces and small moments, our hardened hearts are breaking.

Heres a link to an interesting story today on The Today Show with Matt Lauer about the openly gay Bishop Robinson of the Episcopal Church and his upcoming civil union, book, and plans to attend The Anglican Church’s Lambeth Conference this summer.

Here some of his quotes from the interview and my thoughts:

“When you try to love the world the way God loves the world, you’re going to get in trouble. The prophets of Judaism got in trouble. Jesus got in trouble….. I’ve come to understand that this is a particular historic role that God is calling me to play at this moment,”

Apparently Robinson feels justified in comparing himself to the prophets or even Jesus because of his sexual orientation and his determination to ram it down the throats of the Christian world. Never mind that the Prophets called people to repentance and holiness, and Jesus was killed for asserting His deity and authority; not for being a political activist. Bishop Gene Robinson is the guy that hinted he believed Jesus was possibly a homosexual. It’s amazing how people will repaint, and distort Jesus of Nazareth to conform to their own image to justify their actions.

Robinson feels that people who use the Bible to condemn homosexuals fail to understand Scripture. It is called an abomination for a man to lie with another man as with a woman, but, he writes, the Bible also says it is an abomination to eat pork or shellfish, to wear clothing made of two different fibers, or to sow two different types of seed in the same field.

So apparently the “bishop” compares the Law as given to the Isrealites as totally irrelavent. He offers no explanation as to why these laws were practiced then, but are no longer to be normative today. If you are going to be a bishop, and stand out as an open practicing homosexual, and castigate those who look to the Bible for their position on matters, then you really shouldn’t be throwing the whole Bible “under the bus” in the process of defending yourself. It reveals a bigger issue about the law that I worry a bishop such as this does not even care to address with integrity. It seems we can just pick and choose which laws seem good to follow.

“We’ve often misinterpreted Scripture,” Robinson told Lauer. “We’ve used Scripture to justify slavery; the subjugation of women.”

I got news for the bishop. Slavery was a normative practice in the Hebraic world. God never condemned it, but issued laws for the well-being of slaves, and to prevent slaveowners from beating a slave or keeping him for longer than the law prescribed acceptable for the debt to be paid. Slavery in America was an atrocity, which I assume is what the bishop is referring to. And yes many did use the Bible to justify their immoral actions by being involved in the slave trade, beating slaves, and even owning the offspring of their slaves (which the Law of Moses did not permit). The point is that those who did use scripture to justify their actions were playing fast and loose with the text, and failed to honor the scripture by understanding context. Bishop Robinson is doing to same thing as he plays fast and loose with scripture, and seeks to justify his own behaviour.

When speaking of his upcoming civil union he says:

“I am simply not going to put my life in jeopardy without putting into place the protections for my beloved partner and my children and my grandchildren that are offered to me in a civil union,” Robinson said. “I think any husband or wife would want to do that.”

Dude, it’s called a having a will, or even better a “living trust”. The same rights heterosexuals enjoy by default are available to homosexuals if they go through proper legal channels. You can assign whoever you want to as beneficiary on insurance policies, and you can “will” whatever you want to whomever you wish. The plea to have the same rights as heterosexuals is such a smokescreen, and many are getting tired of hearing it. The “rights” you seek are available without us having to acknowledge your hand holding and ring exchange ceremony as a valid union.

As of last month, I now have a cousin who has relocated from Florida, U.S.A. to New Zealand to pursue youth ministry. He attended Palm Beach Atlantic college in south Florida, and then seminary in New Orleans. After a couple youth pastorates here in the states he sought out ministry abroad. So there he is now, in his late 20s and half a world away, driving on the left side of the road from the opposite side of the car, and yielding to sheep herds. Here’s a couple pics….

Its really cool to know that I have family living as transplants on another continent, in another hemisphere. Its like the world just got a little bigger. I am very anxious for future reports on his ministry there as a small towns first official Youth Pastor. I am also very curious to see his reflections on American/Western Christianity after experiencing the spiritual life and practices on an entirely different continent.

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Some interesting links:

The Vatican declares baptism to be invalid and to be redone if wrong words are used http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801159.htm and the Christianity Today article about it: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/may/17.21.html

And Part 4 of Young, Restless, and Reformed posted today at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/mayweb-only/119-32.0.html

Several years ago, I was introduced to what is called a “Preterist” view of prophecy, or a “realized eschatology” by my grandfather John L. Bray, who is an old school Southern Baptist preacher that began to question what SBC churches teaching about the “last-days”. After retiring from the pastorate he has written, published, and distributed his own books and newsletters about prophecy now for several decades. But for me it was THROUGH his book “Matthew 24 Fulfilled” and other books from preterists like Gary Demar and others that I gradually realized Dispensationalism for the sham that it is. Since that time, I have read many other books, articles, and such from other preterist authors. In the process I actually reformed and came to a Calvinist and Covenantalist view, which my grandfather never really was since he was an old school Southern Baptist. So though we might not agree on some points of eschatology, and we certainly differ on our soteriological views, I owe a lot to his writings which jumpstarted in interest in theology for me, and getting to know the Scripture from which my faith in Christ is embedded, founded upon, and flows from.

So naturally, I was always curious what would become of my grandfather’s work when he retired for good and left this earth. His book “Matthew 24 Fulfilled” after all, was self-published and without my grandfather still around to send you a free copy by mail, I didn’t know what would become of it. But apparently his good friend Gary Demar of American Vision is going to take up my grandfather’s book and reprint it, now with a fresh layout and cover design. (Just one look at their publication “Biblical Worldview” should be proof of their commitment to excellence in layout and publishing design). This is exciting. Stay tuned. And visit www.americanvision.com to see what they are about. Or read this excerpt from the book:

But it is important that we recognize the fact that most of all the passages in the New Testament which are generally used to picture a coming of Christ in our future to judge the world, are actually passages referring to the coming of Christ which the disciples expected in their generation (Matthew 24:34) and which Jesus had promised would take place before all of them were dead (Matthew 16:28). from Pg. 174

 

Bray has researched, and quotes historians, early church fathers, Bible commentators and scholars such as Josephus, Eusebius, Tertullian, Augustine, John Owen, John Calvin, Matthew Henry, and Benjamin Warfield. It was is a well-researched book. I’m anxious to see what American Vision is going to do for it.

Last night I pulled out a modern hymn from those guys at www.reformedpraise.org to use for our evening worship service, that I lead at my church. I stumbled through leading our small group in singing it but it is a beautiful song nonetheless. (on that note, why can’t leading worship from standing behind a microphone be as easy as just sitting at home playing guitar and singing like I do throughout the week?)

Anyway, if the term “Modern Hymn” seems like a contradiction of terms, or an oxymoron then I would ask you to consider what Bob Kauflin (Soveriegn Grace Ministries) says:

“The uniting of unchanging truth with contemporary expression is an idea as old as the Word of God itself. What a joy it is to see more songwriters bringing new life to hymns rich in theology and biblical doctrine.”

So why is this such a radical concept since we don’t find it often in our churches? That is, old hymn texts meeting contemporary music? Long ago it was customary in the Church to try hymn texts to different tunes, either by using the metrical index found at the back of a hymnal, or by musicians within the church bringing a fresh or regonizable tune to the lyrics. Sometimes the results can be abysmal, as I knew of one church that liked to sing John Newton’s beloved “Amazing Grace” to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song. But for the most part, if something didn’t work it would be cast aside, and if it did work then it would “stick”. This tradition has been long forgotten though.

A force that has proven to be powerful in our churches is the desire to modernize our musical worship. A desire to sing music that more closely resembles our tastes than our grandparent’s taste. From my experience, many churches have felt that they could not ignore Contemporary Christian Music, (or CCM as I’ll refer to it from here) but still have some sense of loyalty to the hymns. Maybe it is out of sincere appreciation for the richness and poeticism of the lyrics, or continuing the tradition of worship the church had been accustomed to, or maybe even simply to appease the older members of the congregation, but nevertheless these churches held on to tradiational hymns while simultaneously exploring the new worship styles and songs that we just lump together generically under the term CCM. This creates conflicts,  because inevitably some type of balance has to found. Maybe seperate services were created; “Traditional” and “Comtemporary” giving church members a choice, but ultimately segregating the congregation by their musical preference, and consequently usually their age and maturity as well. Not the greatest solution really.

Many churches have adopted what they call “blended worship”, whereby they try to “blend” multiple styles. It sounds nice, but what is actually achieved is hardly a model for the rest of us in the Church to follow.

You see, it seems that churches that practice ”blended worship” do not really “blend” anything at all. From my experience, I have stood in church and sang (and maybe clapped to) a contemporary song with faily repetetive and simplistic lyrics accompanied by a full band of drums, keys, and electric guitars at a rousing tempo, only next in the order of worship to sing a traditional hymn at a dirge-like tempo accompanied only by the piano/organ. Meanwhile, the full band that brought us to our feet just moments before now simply stands there with their guitars and handheld microphones or sitting there with their drumsticks, awkwardly unaware of what to do other than just stand there. The difference between lyrical content, and the disparity of musical style and tempo is felt like the force of a game of tug-of-war. In other words, putting two incredibly dissimilar things side-by-side in worship is not “blended” at all.

I applaud people like Red Mountain Church for their modernizing of hymns, and other churches that strive for the same flow in their worship. No matter how new or old the song, no matter the tempo, no matter the subject matter, a certain “flow” to the worship is achieved by not having such abrupt differences present. In, other words, they really “own” their worship and make it personally their own as they offer it to the Lord, not simply borrowing a pre-conceived way of doing it from Christian radio, or even their hymnals.

I know from experience in leading worship that translating older songs and the way we’re accustomed to singing them to modern instruments can be difficult, though not impossible. For example, there is a reason that, as a guitarist I simply would not choose many older hymns to sing if using modern instruments is the goal. “Depth of Mercy” by Charles Wesley is a perfect example of a wonderful old hymn that because of its rhythm and awkward chord changes would make many acoustic guitarists like myself run screaming. But Red Mountain Church has done a lovely job of putting “Depth of Mercy” to new music that in the hands of quality musicians is both modern sounding and incredibly powerful. I believe Charles Wesley, if alive today and familiar with modern day music, would be delighted. Likewise, I believe many forgotten hymnwriters, if alive today, would be delighted to be remembered and their beloved lyrics re-used, re-imagined, re-worked for a new generation by groups such as Reformedpraise.org 

Corum Deo!

The following text is an old hymn, written by William Sleeper and published over 100 years ago. Its been set to a new tune by Greg Thompson of the Indelible Grace music community (www.igracemusic.com) several years ago and ever since has come back into use by many churches. I lead worship at my church one service a week, and have introduced this song to a group of older Christians who haven’t sung anything “new” in years. Even they love it. I encourage you to meditate on the words. Remind yourself of all of the things we cast off, and the things we gain through Jesus Christ as Christians. At the bottom is a video of a group playing it at a church in NY, although I think the Indelible Grace version with Matthew Perryman Jone’s singing it is stellar and you should check it out on Indelible Grace III “For All The Saints” cd.

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus , I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Our of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth.
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Our of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress into jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward forever on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Our of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Find sheet music and hear a demo at www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/hymns

I just finished reading an R.C. Sproul book at rapid pace, and as good as it was, all the Latin words and theological terms (even if I grasp them) have sent my head reeling, especially with all the other not-so-theological things running around in my mind lately. Even rather than eating up the words of my own pastor this past Sunday, I felt my mind wandering. I suppose I am in theological burnout, because I feel that if I have to endure reading any more speculative or systematic theology for a while I will scream. So as encouraging as it is, I’m putting down the book of Phillipians in favor of John’s Gospel, and figuratively exchanging the exchanges of Romans for some meditative Psalms….. for now anyway.

So it was with a bit of hesitancy that I took down J.I. Packers Knowing God from the bookshelf to tear into.  I was hoping it to be more pastoral and encouraging than anything else. I love Packer’s endearing writing style, and something he said in the first couple dozen pages really spoke to me:

“We need to ask ourselves: what is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things (theology)? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have got it? For the fact that we have to face is this: that if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate, and dismiss them as very poor specimens. To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception….. there can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge; but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it, if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard.”

Unless all you watch is TBN and believe The Left Behind series is a must-read for any Christian, then you won’t be surprised to know there are many widely varying ideas and interpretations of “last days” prophecy. Subsequently, you shouldn’t be surprised that I take issue with many of them. Lately I’ve been thinking about the pessimism or optimism of different views, and being a postmillennialist of sorts I am led to different conclusions than many other types of guys. (When I say I’m a postmillenialist “of sorts” that means don’t blame Post Mill guys like B.B Warfield and Lorraine Boettner for my theologically imprecise ideas)Anyway, let me illustrate this without trying to alienate anybody:

There are different varieties of Dispensationalists to be sure, and I am not taking to time to try and distinguish between the radical Hal Lindsey type guys or the more sober John Macarthur type guys, so I’ll just try not to throw the more conservative guys under the bus in my criticism. But the indisputable fact is that Dispensationalists believe we are inevitably heading for a holocaust, the likes of which we have never seen in Earth’s history because it will be a fulfillment of the “Great Tribulation” of Matthew 24. (I hold to a preterist or “already fulfilled” view of Matthew 24, being fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem circa A.D. 70.) But to these guys, it’s unavoidable, inescapable, and every day we march closer and closer to it. Famines, floods, pestilences, increase in false teachers, peoples hearts growing cold, etc, you get the idea. The more zealous bunch interpret every contemporary sign as bringing us even closer to this- the Iraq war or even the slightest rumbling in middle-eastern relations, high gas prices, a tornado in the Midwest, earthquakes. But I just don’t believe the doomsday hype, from a scriptural point of view or even from the arguments we hear from the secular world. That means I don’t see population growth, hunger, or nuclear destruction as imminent earth-ending threats. I don’t even believe in global warming as a permanent threat that we have to fight to ensure the future of humanity, so sorry to Al Gore; your Nobel Peace prize will have to comfort you to sleep tonight, and sorry as well to Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton of ww.WeCanDoIt.com. I don’t believe earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tornados, or hurricanes are increasing in volume or intensity. If that statement angers you, then I challenge you to look it up yourself

Amillenialists have a view that is unavoidably just as pessimistic even if it lacks the sensationalism. In their speculation of the future, souls might become regenerate, the Holy Spirit might work in mighty ways, and the Gospel might increase in its influence from time to time in certain eras (which we would probably label ‘revival’). There is, however; NO assumption or even hope of the Gospel’s influence steadily increasing through time. In other words, we are in decline spiritually as a church, and our physical world is growing worse. And according to many I have spoken with, there is no reason to expect this to change.

Yet the theme I come away from the Bible with is that the Kingdom of God will increase through time. Jesus described it as yeast that will leaven the whole loaf and a mustard seed that will grow to a mighty tree. This implies growth; gradually, progressively, taking place over a great period of time. One minute he describes the growth of the Kingdom of God to his disciples with these images, and the next minute tells them the Kingdom is like a “net thrown into the sea” and that they are to be “fishers of men”. The kingdom grows by people entering it. Redeemed people. Regenerate people. People’s lives who are supposed to be changed by grace, which would in turn….. change the world one person at a time for the better. You know, greater outpouring of generosity and charity, a higher view of life and greater concern for those who are suffering in this world, grievous sin decreasing, and in general a higher enlightenment.

I know what some might be thinking, “But isn’t that what Heaven is for? I mean, isn’t it ok for this world to suck because we have the assurance that we will one day be before the throne of Christ in Heaven?” To which I would reply that we have to distinguish between the nature of fallen creation, and the direction we expect it to take. The two are quite separate. The issue here is, “Is it going to get better or is it going to get worse?” Is it ok to see all the sin, disease, and suffering of this world and our souls be troubled? Yes, I would hope that we would be troubled by it. But is it ok to assume that it is only going to get worse because its as bad as it is? I’m not convinced that we should base such a prediction on the nature of creation, fallen that it is. God works a mighty miracle within our hearts in regeneration. He renews in us a part of what we were before Adam’s sin, why should we not apply this same idea to creation itself?

I cannot break this idea/concept down into a timeline or a nice illustrated chart like dispensationalists love to have of their view, so I apologize to those who need such a clear cut explanation, and a compartmentalized way to look at it. There are times scriptures leaves us with some loose ends that theologically we lack the understanding to “tie up”, but that doesn’t mean God has not worked it out from the “foundation of the world” and it’s merely part of his “secret counsel”, and frankly none of our business.

Today I experienced an interesting sign of the zealous but misguided religious culture of where I live. Apparently when kids misbehave, it is a demon or spiritual affliction that must be prayed out immediately. I’ll try and fill this out for you……….

A couple young boys were at the local McDonalds playground with what appeared to be a grandfather, playing for what had probably been a couple hours. No doubt they had had their fill of sugar and fun and were probably tiring themselves out like my own sons do. Well, when one of the boys got “out of hand” and was trying to bring a drink into the playground equipment despite his grandfather (I presume) repeatedly telling him not to, he was yanked up. And spanked.

What followed was hard to ignore, and most likely made many people there uncomfortable as myself- The boy screamed like he’d just received a beating with a 2×4 and sobbed to the point that now the grandfather is desperately trying to calm him down. He refused to be touched, refused to be talked to, resisted having his shoes put on by crying that it hurt (he was old enough to put them on himself anyway). By all appearances, he was ashamed that he got in trouble, and probably needed a nap.

What surprised me, is that a woman eating there with her son, proceeded to walk over and lay hands on him and pray, most of which I could not hear but heard her many times saying “in Jesus name, in Jesus name”, and “every knee will bow, every tongue shall confess”. No introduction, no small talk, just unexpectedly launching into verbal prayer. This went on for several minutes. Eventually the man had to carry his son out because he refused to walk, and had begun sucking his thumb. I overheard the woman talking to the man about her pastor down at her “Spiritual Guidance Church”.

I sat in disbelief. This boy wasn’t trashing on the floor, or a menace to himself or others, or speaking in a voice not his own. It seemed his only affliction was poor behavior.  What was obviously gross misbehavior from my vantage point, and an unwillingness to accept consequences for the behavior on the boy’s part, is seen as some kind of demonic attack by this woman, and she sees the need to pray “in the name of Jesus” over him. I had several questions in my mind:

• If the boy truly needed intercession, could it have been accomplished from across the room, and silently?
• Are there limits to the effectiveness of our own prayers for others when we don’t “speak it” over them, or neglect the “laying hands” on them?
• If this person believed it was necessary to prayer verbally over him, then I wonder why that is. Is it for the benefit of God hearing it? Or is it the person that needs to hear the prayer? I wonder if thats the theory at work here, because I’m sure the boy did not understand what this lady was saying.
• Or did this person believe that there was a demon present that needed to be verbally addressed and that was the reason for such outspoken prayer?

Sadly, I don’t think I would like the answers to any of these questions. I’m well familiar with some of the dogma and superstition that surrounds certain Pentecostal practices, and I’ve witnessed many of them firsthand. My wife has told me she was taught as a child to “prayer in tongues so Satan can’t understand your prayers” (and possibly thwart them, I suppose). I’ve repeatedly heard people espouse a doctrine of praying in “tongues” for people they don’t even know about, because the Spirit directs them to pray for them and reveals information pertinent to that person’s ailments. I’ve heard people “prophecy” publicly in church things that no human should have any business claiming to know. And keep in mind, these experiences were in a middle-class community of many well-educated people. I can’t imagine what its like in smaller, typically less-educated rural communities…..well, the movie “Jesus Camp” comes to mind I guess.

Sadly, in the situation I saw today, all this spiritual mumbo jumbo and superstition seems to miss the whole point. That boy, even if it was a result of being tired, still has serious discipline issues. I wonder, what his home situation like? Is his home a healthy household if he breaks down and acts the way he did just for getting in trouble? Maybe his household has problems that only Grace and the knowledge of God can cure. Maybe there are voids and needs in his family that could be emotionally and spiritually met through a local church. So rather than walking out of there thinking something had been accomplished by her prayers over that boy, I would think that his breakdown would display to that Charismatic lady (as it did to myself) how important it is to pray for our children regularly, and see them in some type of Godly instruction, of how important it is to recognize that there are homes where the parents have no desire for God which leads to children growing up in ignorance, which I hope would encourage churches to seek ways to reach such children. There are many ways both small and large, but some typical ones are through a bus ministry, maybe “sidewalk Sunday schools” or Vacation Bible Schools in the summer. Maybe private prayer on a regular basis for our communities would focus our minds on them and ways to minister. Praying words over a person that they have no capacity to understand is nonsensical.