Know Your Dead Guys

....you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22 NET)

All believers everywhere and throughout all ages are being built into a glorious building: God's house, a holy temple. Without question, the preeminent person in the building is Christ. The apostles and prophets who cooperatively form the foundation of our temple are important, too. They're dead, but they still speak to us through their written testimony, and we join with them in forming the one dwelling place of God.

But how well do you know the other dead guys--the rest of the no-longer-living contributors to God's building? They're not apostles and prophets in the same sense that Peter and Paul and James and all the others were, and their writings aren't God breathed like the apostles' were, either. Still, they stand with us in the temple construction; they are part of the ever-growing temple of God.

They, too, can teach us. They faced different battles than we do, so their strengths may have been in different areas than ours. Where they were successful, we can copy them. We can learn from their missteps, too. We have the advantage of hindsight, which allows us to examine their mistakes in a way they couldn't, and this gives us an opportunity to avoid making the sames ones.

Many of these believer lived in more difficult times and places than we do, so they had a depth of insight and faith that we don't. If you've read some of the quotes, poetry, and sermons from the Puritans posted here over the past month, you've seen firsthand how they expressed the beauty of Christ, the depth of God's love, and the wonder of salvation with a richness that's hard to find among our contemporary writers. We don't know those things the way they knew them because we haven't experienced what they experienced, but we can catch a glimpse of what they knew and experienced in the writings they've left for us.

From J. I. Packer in Why We Need the Puritans:

The Puritans lost, more or less, every public battle that they fought. Those who stayed in England did not change the Church of England as they hoped to do, nor did they revive more than a minority of its adherents, and eventually they were driven out of Anglicanism by calculated pressure on their consciences. Those who crossed the Atlantic failed to establish new Jerusalem in New England; for the first fifty years their little colonies barely survived. They hung on by the skin of their teeth. But the moral and spiritual victories that the Puritans won by keeping sweet, peaceful, patient, obedient, and hopeful under sustained and seemingly intolerable pressures and frustrations give them a place of high honor in the believers' hall of fame, where Hebrews 11 is the first gallery. It was out of this constant furnace-experience that their maturity was wrought and their wisdom concerning discipleship was refined.

Yes, we need the wisdom and maturity of the Puritans, but it's not only the Puritans who can help make our spiritual lives richer and our faith stronger. There are the church fathers, along with men like Augustine and Anselm; the Reformers, the Anabaptists, the Methodists, and many more. None of them are perfect, some are more flawed than others, but we can learn from them all.

When Jesus prayed for his disciples just before he was crucified, he also prayed for those who would believe in him through their testimony. That means he was praying for you and for me right alongside the other dead guys--the ones that came after the apostles and prophets, but before us.

I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one--I in them and you in me--that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me. (John 17: 20-23)

Jesus prayed that we would all be one: his disciples and all those through the ages who read their words and respond in faith. If we're one with the dead guys, shouldn't we get to know them?

The Puritans: Are You Puritan Savvy?

Yes, it's a pop quiz. You've had a month to get to know them. How much have you learned?

You can find out by checking your Puritan I.Q. All the answers can be found either directly or indirectly in this month's Puritan posts.

Entry Info for this Week's Christian Carnival

This week's Christian Carnival this week is at
Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet. From Diane R.:

It's Christian Carnival time already for March 2.

If you wish to submit a blog post from the past week, simply put the following in an email:

Your blog name and the blog URL.
The name of the post you are submitting and the post URL.
A short description of the post.

Remember that we are now sending all Carnival submissions to the official Carnival email at: [ChristianCarnival ATT gmail DOTT com].....

The deadline for submissions is midnight (EST), Tuesday, March 1.

Thank you for your participation.

Consider entering your blog's best from this past week. You can check out the guidelines here.

The Puritans: Sunday's Hymn and Sermon

From John Newton:

Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Holy city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken
Formed thee for His own abode;
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou may'st smile at all thy foes.

See the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy blessed members,
And all fear of want remove;
Who can faint, when such a river
Ever flows their thirst t' assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,
Never fails from age to age.

Blest constituents of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer's blood;
Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
'Tis His love His people raises
Over self to reign as kings:
And as priests, His worthy praises,
Each his thankful offering brings.

Savior, if of Zion's city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity--
I will glory in Thy name.
Fading is the worldling's pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion's members know.

---Listen.

The Fruits of Converting Grace in the Salvation of Sinners from Stephen Charnock is the featured sermon for this Sunday. On Christ's salvation of great sinners:

Christ's nature leads him to shew mercy to the greatest sinners. Some question whether Christ will pardon them, for they look upon him as a hard master, that will not easily forgive. But Christ gives another character of himself, Mat. 11:28, 29, when he exhorts men to come to him; he tells them they must not judge him to be of a ragged and implacable nature, but as meek as they are sinful. Meekness is seen in pardoning of injuries, not keeping them in memory, to beget and cherish revenge. Now, the greater the provocation, the more transcendent is that meekness to pass it by. Did he ever upbraid any with their offences, and hit them in the teeth with their former extravagances? Luke 7:44. Christ makes a narrative of Mary's acts of kindness to him, but not a syllable of her foul transgressions. Are thy sins so great? Surely Christ, who delights in his compassions, will not lose such an opportunity of evidencing both his power and his pity upon such a subject; for if there cannot be so great a sinner as thou art, he is never like to have such a season for it, if he miss of thee.

Christ was exalted by God upon this very account: 'Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,' Heb. 7:25. How comes Christ to be so able to save to the uttermost? It is 'because he ever lives to make intercession for them.' For whom? For those that come to God by him. What has Christ his life in heaven for, but to intercede? And would his Father's love to him, and the greatness of his interest in God be discovered by granting some small requests, the pardon of a few and little sins? Christ is consecrated priest by the oath of God, Heb. 7:28; would God put himself to his oath for a light business, a thing of little moment? 'What is the end of this oath? Compare it with: 'For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath,' Heb. 6:16-18; and all is that you 'might have a strong consolation.' What strong comfort could there be, if only little debts were remitted? What is the end of an oath? Ver. 16, to take away strife. Men do not strive with God, or doubt of his mercy to forgive little sins, for they think that will be done of course. But the great contest men have with God is about his willingness to remit great debts, scarlet sins: upon this account the strife is between God and doubting sinners; therefore, to bring this contest to a period, God hath put himself to his oath, and sworn that Christ should be a priest for ever, to take away all strife between him and believing sinners. For whom is this strong consolation founded upon God's oath? For those that 'fly for refuge,' ver. 18. Now the cities of refuge were not appointed for ordinary crimes, but for blood, to secure the malefactor from the avenger.

Shall I add further, God is best pleased with Christ when he makes intercession for the greatest transgressors. Suppose thou hadst been one of Christ's murderers, and hadst given thy vote against him; perhaps thou wouldst have thought this a more crimson sin than any thou art guilty of. You know Christ prayed for their pardon while he was upon the cross; and, God gives this as one reason why he would exalt him: 'He shall divide him, &c., Isa. 53:12. Why? 'Because he poured out his soul to death.' What should he bear sin for, if God had no mind to pardon it? And because 'he was numbered among the transgressors,' which the evangelist understands of his being crucified with thieves, Mark 15:28. And therefore his making intercession for transgressors, must be understood of his prayer upon the cross. And if God did exalt him for this, would God be pleased with him, or would Christ answer the end of his exaltation, if he did cease to make intercession for sinners of the like stamp? Go and tell God, that he sent Christ to bless you, Acts 3:26, in converting you; and desire Christ to do his office.

Christ is entrusted by God to give out his grace to great sinners. Christ is God's Lord-almoner, for the dispensing redemption, and the riches of his grace. To whom? Not to the righteous, they have no need of it but to sinners, and those that have the greatest necessity. He would be an ill steward, who, when entrusted by his lord to bestow his alms upon the poor, should overlook the most miserable, indigent, and necessitous persons, when they crave it of him, and relieve those that had not so great and crying wants. Christ is a priest for intents of the same nature as the legal typical priests were. They were to have compassion, Heb. 5:2, metriopaqein, to measure out their compassion, to order the sacrifice according to the nature of the sin of the person that presented it. So is Christ, by virtue of his office, to measure out his grace according to the greatness of a man's necessity, as manna was to be gathered according to every one's wants.

---Life and Character of Steven Charnock

The Puritans: From John Newton

On Dreaming

When slumber seals our weary eyes,
The busy fancy wakeful keeps;
The scenes which then before us rise,
Prove something in us never sleeps.

As in another world we seem,
A new creation of our own,
All appears real, though a dream,
And all familiar, though unknown.

Sometimes the mind beholds again
The past day's business in review,
Resumes the pleasure or the pain;
And sometimes all we meet is new.

What schemes we form, what pains we take!
We fight, we run, we fly, we fall;
But all is ended when we wake,
We scarcely then a trace recall.

But though our dreams are often wild,
Like clouds before the driving storm;
Yet some important may be styl'd,
Sent to admonish or inform.

What mighty agents have access,
What friends from heav'n, or foes from hell,
Our minds to comfort or distress,
When we are sleeping, who can tell?

One thing, at least, and 'tis enough,
We learn from this surprising fact;
Our dreams afford sufficient proof,
The soul, without the flesh, can act.

This life, which mortals so esteem,
That many choose it for their all,
They will confess, was but a dream,***
When 'waken'd by death's awful call.

***Isaiah 29:8

From John Piper: John Newton: The Tough Roots of His Habitual Tenderness.

Update: More on Canadian Tire

...and My Fabulous Gay Wedding. Look at the letter a commenter received recently in response to his complaint to Canadian Tire about CT's sponsorship of the show. Compare that to the one I received last week. Especially notice the differences in the first two paragraphs.

Do they seem contradictory to you? What do you think is going on?

[Update to this update: When Kevin, the commenter who got the most recent form letter from Canadian Tire asked for clarification of their seemingly contradictory statements, he received this response:

Since last week we have recevied (sic) additional information and clarification from our advertising department. The statement that was previously sent to you is correct. Canadian Tire is not a sponsor of this program.

There you go. The whole convoluted straight scoop.]

The Puritans: From William Guthrie

From a sermon on Ps. xlv. 11; preached Aug. 17, 1657.

Of Him, Through Him, to Him.

The first failing in our duty is in this, we forget that God is the Lord; especially in one of these three respects -

That of Him are all things. It is He that must prescribe laws, and He that must give knowledge of and respect unto these laws. And He it is whose breath and influence alone make dead dry bones live and move. 0, what holy, awful dependency would be on Him in all things, natural and spiritual, if this were believed! But the faith of it must be from Him also.

That through Him are all things. When He hath set them on foot, they cannot continue in their being but through Him, and as they are and have sparkles of His image, and are fluttered over by that Spirit that moved on the waters. 0, what self-denial, and adhering to Him, would be here in things which are, as well as in things which are not; for what is, it is as in Him, whence, if it depart, it is nothing, if not worse.

That to Him are all things. Not only is He the last end for whom all things are made, and towards whom they do drive; but the proper end of each being is that God may be made manifest. He will, by all things that are, whatsoever they be, some one way or other appear to be what He is; so that whatsoever is be, some must be to His account and behoof. 0, what abstractedness from your created ends and designs, and what reverent submission to His will, would be in men, if folk did practically believe this!
Study to know Him, in these three respects to be the Lord. It shall contribute much for your duty.

Biography of William Guthrie.

The picture is of the inside of Fenwick Church where Guthrie preached.

Responding to Comments on Inability, Continued

Yes, I am finally getting back to this. The comment I am responding to today is from Robin Munn, and I'll post a chunk of the comment for you to read, and then I'll give my response:

The verse that I have trouble reconciling with that is 2 Peter 3:9: "The Lord ... is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

Since people in their natural state are unable to reach repentance on their own, but it takes action from God to bring them to repentance, then a face-value reading of this verse would seem to indicate universalism, that all men will be saved. After all, if God doesn't wish them to perish -- and He alone is able to change that -- then why wouldn't He?

It seems that by "face-value" reading, Robin means a reading that takes the "not wishing" in the verse to indicate the sort of will of God that God actively works to bring about. I don't think it's necessary to take it that way for the verse to be taken at face value. The word for "wishing" often has the force of longing rather than the force of resolve to do something. So it doesn't have to mean that God is actively working within those he is longsuffering toward to bring them to faith, but just that he is in no hurry to bring them to judgment because he it doesn't please him to bring judgment upon anyone. We see this same idea in Ezekial 33:11:

Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?’

There is no pleasure for God in destroying the wicked, and yet that's exactly what, in the end, he does. He sovereignly wills their death even though it's not something he takes pleasure in.

There is another way this verse is explained, but it's not one I'm buying right now, although I've waffled back and forth on this in the past, and there's a possibility I'll waffle again in the future. Some notice that this verse is addressed to the "beloved", and so they restrict the "any" in the verse to "any of the elect", and if the verse is read this way then it's saying that Christ is waiting to return because if he came back before the elect came to faith, then some of the elect would perish. The last part of this statement is indeed true, but I don't think it's necessarily what this particular verse is saying. I find reading the verse that way is a little more forced than I am completely comfortable with.

If the verse is read in context, I think it's primary meaning is actually a combination of these two. It is specific to the group to whom Peter is writing, which includes believers and those who have so far proved themselves to still be unbelievers. Some of the group are being misled by the false teachers and doubting that the Lord would ever return because he's taking longer than they expected. Peter seems to be saying that instead of doubting God's promises because he seems slow to keep this one, they ought to see his slowness as a kindness toward them because it gives them opportunity to repent before he comes. I would see the force of the verb "wishing" to still be just "longing", rather than "resolving to work it out". I don't think Peter is saying that God is going to bring every single person in their group to repentence, but rather that the proper way for them to view God's restraint in judgment is that this gives them a real opportunity to repent, and that God gives them ample opportunity to repent because he takes no pleasure in anyone perishing. God's longsuffering gives them an opportunity to "strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish, when [they] come into his presence. (2 Peter 3:14)" The patience of the Lord is their opportunity for salvation (3:15).

I suppose some will find this confusing, because they think that if people are unable to believe without God's intervention within them to give them faith, then unless God intervenes in this way there is no real opportunity for them to believe. I believe that every time someone hears the gospel, there is a real opportunity for them to believe. However, unless God intervenes to change their prejudice against the gospel, they will invariably squander that opportunity and reject the gospel. Every person hearing the message of Jesus in John 6 had the opportunity to believe it, but some didn't believe it, and they didn't believe it because "no one can come to [Christ] unless the Father has given him to come (verse 65)."

The Puritans: From Thomas Watson

Found in The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly from A Divine Cordial.

DO not mistake me, I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good. As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Or as in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary one to another, but all carry on the motions of the watch: so things that seem to move cross to the godly, yet by the wonderful providence of God work for their good.

A biography of Thomas Watson.

Round the Sphere Again

Good stuff on Bible Versions:

• Is the TNIV Good News from Mark. D. Roberts. So far, the series is has eight parts, with more to come. The first link will take you to a list of all the posts in the series.
• Why Do We Need Modern Versions of the Bible?: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, from Real Clear Theology Blog.

Puritan Links:

• Matt Hall reminds of Thomas Goodwin's dying words.
• Upward Call posts a selection from The Valley of Vision. Puritan Prayers and Devotions.

Christian Carnival:

• This week's installment is posted at Wallo World. I didn't count the number of posts, but Bill estimates there are 50-60, and that's close enough for me.

The Puritans: More from Ralph Erskine

The Free Gospel-Call

from Isa. 55:1-3

Ho, every thirsty soul, and all
That poor and needy are,
Here's water of salvation's well
For you to come and share.

Here's freedom from sin and woe,
And blessings all divine,
Here streams of love and mercy flow,
Like floods of milk and wine.

Approach the fountain head of bliss,
That's open like the sea,
The buyers that are moneyless,
To poorest beggars free.

Why spend you all your wealth and pains,
For that which is not bread,
And for unsatisfying gains,
On which no soul can feed ?

While vain ye seek with earthly toys,
To fill an empty mind,
You lose immortal solid joys,
And feed upon the wind.

Incline your ear, and come to me;
Hear and your soul shall live:
For mercies sure as well as free,
I bind myself to give.

The Puritans: From John Howe

John Howe was Oliver Cromwell's Chaplain. This is an exerpt from Funeral Discourse for the Death of Queen Mary

HEBREWS xii. 23. "AND TO THE SPIRITS OF JUST MEN MADE PERFECT."

Her singular humility adorned all the rest. Speaking once of a good thing, which she intended, she added: 'but of myself I can do nothing;' and somewhat being, (by one of two more only, then present,) interposed, she answered: 'she hoped God would help her.' She is, as the text speaks, gone to Mount Sion, in the highest sense of that phrase....

We should look upon funeral solemnities for such, with more prospect than retrospect, and consider them as directing our eye less downward to our own forsaken world than upwards to the celestial regions and inhabitants. To such, - to die is to be born; they die only out of our mean world, and are born into a most glorious one. Their funerals should be celebrations of their ascent; and an exulting joy should therefore, in that case, not be quite banished from funeral sorrows, but be allowed to mingle therewith, as sunbeams glittering in a cloud. When the greatest person was leaving this world, that ever lived in it, he says: "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice that I say, I go to the Father."

We should bear our part in the joys of heaven upon this occasion, if we relate to it. And when we are told there is joy there, among the angels of God, for the conversion of such who are thereby but prepared to come to their assembly, we may conclude there is much more for their glorification, when they are fully come and joined to it. Funeral solemnities are very dull melancholy shows, without such references forwards and upwards. With how different a temper of mind would two persons have been the spectators of Jacob's funeral, the one of whom should have looked no further than the Canaanites or Egyptians did, who would only say,'Some great person is dead;' but the other, by Divine illumination is enabled to apprehend.

This dust here mingles with the earth of this land, to presignify this people, of whom he was the head, must possess it. Yea, moreover, here the great God will fix his residence and throne; upon such a mount shall be the palace of the supreme King. Here, after great mutations and revolutions, and great destructions both of the Egyptians and Canaanites, shall this people have a long succession of princes and rulers that shall be of themselves: and all this but as representing a King and kingdom that shall rule and spread over all the earth, and reach up at length into heaven. Canaan shall be a holy land. Unto Sion's King shall tributary princes bring their gifts out of Egypt, and Ethiopia stretch out her hands, and all nations serve him. His empire shall confine with the universe, and all power be given him both in heaven and earth.' With what a large and raised mind would such a one have beheld this funeral ! - What better Canaan, than we now behold, we shall have in this world, God knows; and we should be the less solicitous to know intermediate things, when we are so fully ascertained of the glorious end of all things. And. let us reflect upon the solemn pomp of that late mournful assembly, that lamented our queen's departure out of our world, comparing it with the transcendent magnificence of that triumphant assembly into which she is received above.

Biography of John Howe

Interview Questions

Links to the individual posts answering these questions are found at the bottom of this post.

For Terry of Pruitt Communications:

1. What is geocaching and how long have you been doing it?
2. What do you like to eat for breakfast?
3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
4. What's the best thing about being a dad?
5. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

For Rey of The Bible Archive:

1. Who are the Plymouth Brethern and how did you get to be one?
2. If someone gave you $1000 dollars and said you had to spend it on yourself, what would you buy?
3. What's your favorite movie of all time?
4. What's the best thing about being a dad?
5. Tell us one of your pet peeves.

For Gina of jumpin in:

1. What's the best thing about being a mom?
2. What would be your dream vacation?
3. What's NOI, and what did you have to do to get it?
4. What's your family's favorite meal?
5. Just how many bloggers are there in your family?

For Tod of It Takes A Church:

1. How long have you liked the Puritans?
2. Who is your favorite Puritan?
3. What's the best thing about being a pastor?
4. What's the best book you've read in the last 12 months?
5. If you had to live outside the U.S. for a year, where would you choose to live?

For David of Physicist's Perspective:

1. When did you know you wanted to be a physicist?
2. When's the last time you went snowboarding?
3. What's the best book you've read in the last 12 months?
4. If you had to live in a state other than California, which one would you choose?
5. If someone gave you $1000 dollars and said you had to spend it on yourself, what would you buy?

[Update: I've added William of Beyond the Rim to the interviewees:

1. This question assumes that your church is liturgical. If I'm wrong, you can ignore this question or ask for a different one. What is one strength you see in liturgy?
2. What happened to the Knowing God series?
3. What's the best book you've read in the last 12 months?
4. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
5. How did you meet your wife?]

[Update II: For Catez of Allthings2all:

1. What’s the best thing about the place where you live in?
2. How do you research the pieces you write? Library? Internet? Your own books?
3. Speaking of books, do you have lots of them?
4. Do you have a favorite meal or dish?
5. Share one of your pet peeves.]

Rey, William. Terry, Tod, David, Gina and Catez have all answered. Read their responses and get to know them a little better.

In Which I Play the Interview Game, and So Can You!

Carmon of Buried Treasure started this game this morning. I'm being interviewed by Kim of Upward Call. If you want to participate, the instructions follow my answers to the questions Kim asks of me.

1. Do you have a very large book selection? I have a lot more books than most people have, but compared to some people I know, I have nothing. I have three 6 foot sets of bookshelves full in the living room, and each of the three kids that still have rooms at home has a set of shelves full of books in their rooms. Plus, I have a couple of hundred outgrown kids paperback chapter books stacked up on a table in the basement waiting for me to sort through them and do something with them. I almost never buy books new. I get them at garages sales, used book stores and the Salvation Army Thrift Store.
   
   
2. Where do you get all that stuff about the Puritans? I type "Puritans" in the Google search engine. Really. I do have hardback set of Classic Sermons that I got at the Salvation Army Thrift Store that I thought I'd use, but the internet is so much easier. And more interesting.
   
   
3. What is your favourite time of the year in the Yukon? Definitely summer. There's nothing quite so wonderful as a Yukon summer. Perfect weather (we hope) and long daylight hours.
   
   
4. What is your favourite Mark Knopfler recording? (my husband would shoot me if I didn't ask a fellow fan that question) Will he want to shoot me if I say that I'm not a big Dire Straits fan, so I'll cross all those recordings off the list right away? I rotate favorites. Right now, its the live CD of Ragpicker's Dream. Before that is was Screenplaying. I'm hinting for Shangri La for my birthday.
   
   
5. What is one of your biggest pet peeves? I rotate pet peeves as well. Right now I have two: Daughters who borrow my socks because they haven't done their laundry, and the word "incarnational".

Here's how you can play the interview game:

1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.” The first five commenters will be the participants.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

Today's Search Query Chuckle

Someone came here today searching for photos of "single manitoba mennonite ladies". Anyone want to invent a story for that one?

This Week's Christian Carnival Entry Info

From Dory:

The February 23 Christian Carnival will be hosted at WalloWorld, and you may begin sending in your entries now. Please have them in by midnight, EST, Tuesday, 22 February.

From now on, Christian Carnival entries will always be entered to this address: ChristianCarnival at gmail.com .I will contact the host each week and arrange to have the mail forwarded tothe host's address. Do not use that address for anything except Carnival entries.

Dory has also posted new rules for the Carnival at here. There are a few minor changes, and some new suggestions.

Responding to Comments on Inability

There have been some good comments that require responses, and I plan to work through them as I can, beginning with this post.

From Diane R:

....there is that pesky passage in Romans 2:14-16 which talks about [those] who haven't heard the gospel BUT are saved through the conscience of their hearts. Yikes! What is that all about and how does that reconcile into total depravity?

I suppose the easiest thing is to just to quote the text referred to right here:

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (ESV).

As I read this passage, I don't see it saying that anyone has been saved through the conscience of their heart, but rather it's part of Paul's explanation of the basis for the condemnation of all people, both Jew and Gentile. These particular verses are part of Paul's response to the Jewish people who thought that being given the law automatically gave them moral superiority. Paul is saying that it isn't just having the law that shows someone to be right before God, but keeping it. The Gentiles, who had never been given the law, nevertheless had some inate idea of right and wrong. Their consciences retained a moral code, even though it was imperfect. When they didn't act according to their innate moral code, their consciences would accuse them, and when they did act according to that code, their consciences would excuse them. Paul seems to be suggesting, however that the times when their consciences excuse them is much rarer than the times when their consciences accuse them.

In other words, they managed to do just as well at keeping God's law, even though they'd never been given it, as the Jews did, but they still end up on the wrong side of the sin equation. In the same passage, Paul tells us that "all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law (verse 12)" and "that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one...' (3:9, 10)." The innate moral code that Gentiles retained only condemns them in the long run:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (3:20)

Their consciences serve as proof to them that they are sinners, so that when they stand before the judgment of God, their mouths will be stopped, too. They will understand why and for what they are being held accountable.

Next in line is a question from Robin Munn about 2 Peter 3:9.

The Puritans: From Thomas Goodwin

Of Christ's joy when a sinner comes to him:

The truth is, he is more glad of us than we can be of him. The father of the prodigal was the forwarder of the two to that joyful meeting. Hast thou a mind? He that came down from heaven, as himself saith in the text, to die for thee, will meet thee more than half way, as the prodigal's father is said to do, by his Spirit : he will send him from heaven to thee, and at the latter day himself will come again to fetch thee and receive thee to himself. If among the angels in heaven there be joy at the conversion of a sinner, how much more joy is there in Christ's heart? If there be joy in the bedchamber-men (as John speaks) what joy is there in the bridegroom's heart? Or if among the standers by, when a man-child is born into the world, how much more doth the mother that was in travail for it, as Christ's soul was, how much more doth she rejoice ? 0 therefore come in unto him. If you knew his heart you would.

---Brief biography by Alexander Whyte.

Just Because He's Cute

The Puritans: Today in Church History

From Christian History Institute we learn that on February 20, 1636, Samuel Rutherford was exiled to Aberdeen:

Rutherford had published an Apology of Divine Grace against the heresy of righteousness based on human works. This work offended the government. On this day, February 20, 1636, Archbishop Laud, who controlled the established churches of Britain, exiled Rutherford to Aberdeen. He forbade him to preach anywhere in Britain.

This is why we have all those wonderful letters from Rutherford to fellow believers, for letter writing was one of the ways he occupied himself during his exile. In them we see the heart of a true pastor. Charles Spurgeon once said of Rutherford's letters:

...let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere man.

Find a selection of his letters here.

The Puritans: Sunday's Hymn and Sermon

Another hymn from William Cowper:

There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
'Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father's ears no other name but Thine.

---Listen.

Today's sermon excerpt is taken from Christ Altogether Lovely from John Flavel. This bit is from the application. Check out the rest of the sermon to see what this application is drawn from.

1. Is Jesus Christ altogether lovely? Then I beseech you set your souls upon this lovely Jesus. I am sure such an object as has been here represented, would compel love from the coldest breast and hardest heart. Away with those empty nothings, away with this vain deceitful world, which deserves not the thousandth part of the love you give it. Let all stand aside and give way to Christ. O if only you knew his worth and excellency, what he is in himself, what he has done for you, and deserved from you, you would need no arguments of mine to persuade you to love him!

2. Esteem nothing lovely except as it is enjoyed in Christ, or used for the sake of Christ. Love nothing for itself, love nothing separate from Jesus Christ. In two things we all sin in love of created things. We sin in the excess of our affections, loving them above the proper value of mere created things. We also sin in the inordinacy of our affections, that is to say we give our love for created things a priority it should never have.

3. Let us all be humbled for the corruption of our hearts that are so eager in their affections for vanities and trifles and so hard to be persuaded to the love of Christ, who is altogether lovely. O how many pour out streams of love and delight upon the vain and empty created thing; while no arguments can draw forth one drop of love from their stubborn and unbelieving hearts to Jesus Christ! I have read of one Joannes Mollius, who was observed to go often alone, and weep bitterly; and being pressed by a friend to know the cause of his troubles, said "O! it grieves me that I cannot bring this heart of mine to love Jesus Christ more fervently."

4. Represent Christ to the world as he is, by your behaviour towards him. Is he altogether lovely? Let all the world see and know that he is so, by your delights in him and communion with him; zeal for him, and readiness to part with any other lovely thing upon his account. Proclaim his excellencies to the world, as the spouse did in these verses. Persuade them how much your beloved is better than any other beloved. Show his glorious excellencies as you speak of him; hold him forth to others, as he is in himself: altogether lovely. See that you "walk worthy of him unto all well pleasing," Col. 1:10. "Show forth the praises of Christ," 1 Pet. 2:19. Let not that "worthy name be blasphemed through you," James 2:7. He is glorious in himself, and he is sure to put glory upon you; take heed that you do not put shame and dishonours upon him; he has committed his honour to you, do not betray that trust.

Never be ashamed to be counted as a Christian: he is altogether lovely; he can never be a shame to you; it will be your great sin to be ashamed of him. Some men glory in their shame; do not let yourself be ashamed of your glory. If you will be ashamed of Christ now, he will be ashamed of you when he shall appear in his own glory, and the glory of all his holy angels. Be ashamed of nothing but sin; and among other sins, be ashamed especially for this sin, that you have no more love for him who is altogether lovely.

6. Be willing to leave every thing that is lovely upon earth, in order that you may be with the altogether lovely Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. Lift up your voices with the bride, Rev. 20:20 "Come Lord Jesus, come quickly." It is true, you must pass through the pangs of death into his intimacy and enjoyment; but surely it is worth suffering much more than that to be with this lovely Jesus. "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and the patient waiting for Jesus Christ," 2 Thes. 3:5.

7. Let the loveliness of Christ draw all men to him. Is loveliness in the creature so attractive? And can the transcendent loveliness of Christ draw none? O the blindness of man! If you see no beauty in Christ that causes you to desire him, it is because the god of this world has blinded your minds.

8. Strive to be Christ-like, if ever you would be lovely in the eyes of God and man. Certainly, my brethren, it is only the Spirit of Christ within you, and the beauty of Christ upon you, which can make you lovely persons. The more you resemble him in holiness, the more will you show of true excellence and loveliness; and the more frequent and spiritual your communication and communion with Christ is, the more of the beauty and loveliness of Christ will be stamped upon your spirits, changing you into the same image, from glory to glory. Amen.

A biography of John Flavel: The Life of the late Rev. Mr. John Flavel, minister of Dartmouth.

Responding to Comments

This is a busy weekend, and there are several comments that require something more from me than a smiley face. I'll try to respond as I can, but it may be a couple of days before I get to them all.

But keep the good comments coming. I will get to them eventually!

The Puritans: More from Anne Bradstreet

Upon My Dear and Loving Husband his Going into England Jan. 16, 1661

Edited by Jeannine Hensley

O thou Most High who rulest all
And hear'st the prayers of thine,
O hearken, Lord, unto my suit
And my petition sign.

Into Thy everlasting arms Of mercy
I commend Thy servant, Lord.
Keep and preserve
My husband, my dear friend.

At Thy command, O Lord, he went,
Nor nought could keep him back.
Then let Thy promise joy his heart,
O help and be not slack.

Uphold my heart in Thee, O God.
Thou art my strength and stay,
Thou see'st how weak and frail I am,
Hide not Thy face away.

I in obedience to Thy will
Thou knowest did submit.
It was my duty so to do;
O Lord, accept of it.

Unthankfulness for mercies past
Impute Thou not to me.
O Lord, Thou know'st my weak desire
Was to sing praise to Thee.

Lord, be Thou pilot to the ship
And send them prosperous gales.
In storms and sickness, Lord, preserve.
Thy goodness never fails.

Unto Thy work he hath in hand
Lord, grant Thou good success
And favour in their eyes to whom
He shall make his address.

Remember, Lord, Thy folk whom Thou
To wilderness hast brought;
Let not Thine own inheritance
Be sold away for nought.

But tokens of Thy favour give,
With joy send back my dear
That I and all Thy servants may
Rejoice with heavenly cheer.

Lord, let my eyes see once again
Him whom Thou gavest me
That we together may sing praise
Forever unto Thee.

And the remainder of our days
Shall consecrated be
With an engaged heart to sing
All praises unto Thee.

Biography of Anne Bradstreet.

More poetry.

Inability

This post is in response to Dueling with Dead Men: A Look at Total Depravity at The Bible Archive. I haven't gone through Rey's points one by one. If you've ever done a point by point response to something, you know that it takes loads of work and lots of space, and I'm just not up to it. Instead, I've given a short (well, shortish!) defense of the inability part of the doctrine of total depravity, concentrating in particular on one aspect of that inability and one passage of scripture.

The word total in the term total depravity means that the depravity that came to all human beings as a result of the fall mars every part of their being. It's a comprehensive problem, and nothing is working for post-fall beings exactly the way it was intended to work in the world before the fall. Our bodies have faults: they have corruptions that work their way out in our physical lives. Our minds are imperfect, leaving our thinking powers warped. Our emotions run amuck, too. This depravity also extends to our wills, leaving us with desires that have also been corrupted.

This corruption of our desires--of our will--puts us in a bit of a pickle when it comes to the demands God makes on his creatures. He commands that people obey him, but in their natural state, people don't much care to--at least they don't want to always obey him--and even when they do make an attempt at obeying his commands, they don't do it for the right reasons. Ephesians 2 tells us that natural people--those who remain dead in trespasses and sins--are living out their lives in the cravings of their flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind. They don't care about pleasing God; rather, they care about pleasing their own flesh. Ephesians 2 also tells us that this problem of constantly improper desires is universal--those who are not yet believers remain in that state, and those who are believers were once in that state.

God, of course, does nothing to keep people from obeying him, and his commandments are nothing more than what people ought to be doing; but the corruptions that came to every human being through the fall makes the pull of their fleshly desires such that they just keep on indulging them instead of doing what God asks of them. Human beings are so intransigent in this disobedient stance that scripture tells us that the natural person--as they are born and without any supernatural intervention--is unable to submit to God's commands (Romans 8:7,8).

This is one aspect of the inability that is part of our depravity. We just can't keep God's commands. Not that any of them are too hard for us--they aren't. We ought to be able to keep them; they aren't burdensome. Our problem is that we consistently choose to please our flesh rather than God. It's a character flaw, a character flaw that we all have been born with, and it results in our inability in this area.

Some people have difficulty with the words "unable" or "cannot" being used to describe a condition that involves continued refusal, but those are the scriptural words. Then, too, it's not using those words in a way we don't already use it. If I told you that a certain woman was so proud that she was unable to go out in public without heavy makeup, a fur coat, and all her jewelry, you'd understand that the source of her inability to go out unadorned was a character flaw within the woman herself. You'd understand that if that woman woke up one morning and decided to go do her grocery shopping before she applied the paint, and wearing a pair of ripped sweat pants, she certainly could. No one would stop her from doing it. But because she is so proud, she never will decide go grocery shopping looking like that. She has a character trait that results in a consistant action that she can't not do as long as that character trait exists.

And natural (or fleshly) people are just like that. If they willed above all else to submit to God, nothing would stand in their way. They are unable to keep God's commands because they have a character flaw that makes them want to do the opposite of submitting to God. This character flaw makes them always want to fulfill the desires of their flesh and of their mind more than they want to obey God. Yes, it's a pickle, but it's a pickle that arises from stubborn hearts. Our stubborness makes us unable to do what God commands us to do: submit to his righteous demands of us.

On this particular point--that natural humans are unable to submit to God's law--there isn't nearly as much disagreement as there is on the other aspect of inability--that natural humans are unable to come to Christ or savingly believe on him.* However, Jesus himself makes statements that affirm this inability to believe in John 6:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.... (verse 44).

But there are some of you who do not believe.... Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father (verses 64,65).**

It's the same word of ability--or rather inability--used here as is used above in Romans 8 when we are told that natural people can't submit to God's law, but this time it's used in regards to coming to Christ, which you can see from verses 64 and 65 is used synonymously with believing. In these snippets of verses we're told that this inability exists in everyone--no one is excluded--unless God takes action on their behalf. This action by God is described as drawing or granting or giving or permitting, depending on which verse you look at (see verse 37, too) and which version you use. Whatever it is that these words mean exactly, it is an action taken by God that is required before anyone can believe on Christ or come to him. As we stand naturally, without God's intervention, we are unable to believe. Our natural state is one of inability--inability to submit to God and inability to believe in him.

Some argue that this intervening action of God is taken on behalf of every single natural person, so that no person remains in this state of inability. The problem with this idea is that this doesn't fit the context of these statements unless Jesus is teaching universalism in this passage, for the person who is drawn by the Father--or given by the Father--is the raised up on the last day, and being raised on the last day in this particular context is the same as being given eternal life (verse 40). Furthermore, if you read verses 64 and 65, you will see that "no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father" is given as the reason for the unbelievers that remain among his followers--like Judas, and the disciples who walk away from Jesus in verse 66. The explanation Jesus gives for why these people don't believe is that it has not been granted them by the Father. The drawing, the giving, the granting cannot be universal, for Jesus gives examples of people for whom it did not happen, and ties their unbelief to it not being given to them by the Father.

John 12:32 ("And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself.") is often brought in as a lense through which to interpret this passage. If you do that, and you make the draw of John 12 extend to every single person, and make the draw of this passage have exactly the same meaning, then this passage become unintelligible. Either the draw of John 12 means something different than it does in John 6, or the "all" of John 12:32 means something different than every single person who has ever lived (or both). If you read John 12:32 into John 6, and you make the "all" of John 12:32 universal without exception, then John 6 is teaching us that eternal life is universal. However, it's always the immediate context that gives the strongest clue to what the word means in any particular usage of it, rather than what it means somewhere else.

I could add more from other passages that speak to the issue of the natural person's inability to believe, but this seems like enough to show that we are, without intervention by God, unable to believe. I've never seen exegesis of these comments from Jesus that is able to convincingly get around this. I've seen attempts, but they involved twisting Jesus' statements in improbable ways, not because the text itself warrants it, but because taking his statements at face value as they appear in the context causes problems with one's soteriological system. In other words, a presupposed system is the filter through which this chapter is interpreted, and this passage is not allowed to speak for itself, or be interpreted from the inside out without a filter.

*In my opinion, these two things--inability to obey and inability to believe--are really part of one whole inability problem, but since many who accept the first but not the second see them as separate things, I'm treating them as if they were separate things in this post.

**I've taken out the portions of these two verses that are John's commentary rather than Jesus's actual quote. I've done this so it's easier to follow the flow of his statement and see how "therefore" connects back to the previous sentence.

[Update: Rey responds here.

I respond to a comment on this post here.]

The Puritans: From Richard Baxter

Cases And Directions Against Censoriousness And Unwarrantable Judging.

Tit. 1 Cases of Conscience about Judging of Others.

Quest. I. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is?

Answer. I. There are many that you are not bound to meddle with, and to pass any judgment at all upon. 2. There are many whose faults are secret, and their virtues open and of such you cannot judge as they are, because, you have no proof or evidence to enable you: you cannot see that which is latent in the heart, or done in darkness. 3. You neither ought on pretence of charity, nor can believe an evident known untruth of any man.

Quest. Doth not charity bind me to judge men better than they are?

Answer. Charity bindeth you, 1. Rather to observe the best in them, than the worst. 2. And, as I said, to judge of no man's faults uncalled. 3. Nor to judge of that which is not evident, but out of sight and thus consequently it bindeth you to judge some men to be better than they are; but not directly.

Quest. Then a man is bound to err and believe an untruth.

Answer. No; you are not bound to believe that it is certainly true, that such a man is better than he is; because you have no evidence of its certain truth. But you are bound to believe it a thing probable or likely, likely to be true, by an opinion or fallible human faith and this is not a falsehood; for that is likely and probable to you, which hath the more probable evidence, and more for it than against it so that the thing which you are to believe immediately is this proposition: There is more evidence to me to prove it likely that this man is sincere than contrary: and consequently you believe this, and believe not the contrary, because the contrary hath no evidence. But you are not to take it as a certain thing, that the contrary hath no latent reality.

Quest. II. How far may I judge ill of one by outward appearances, as by the countenance, gestures, and other uncertain but suspicious signs?

Answer. There are some signs which are not so much as probable, but a little suspicious, and which men are very ordinarily mistaken by: as those that will judge of a man at the first look by his face; and those that will judge a studious, serious person (a lawyer, a judge, or a divine) to be morose or proud, because they are not complimentary, but of few words; or because they have not patience to waste precious hours in hearing an empty vessel sound, an ignorant, self-conceited person talk foolishly. Such censures are but the effects of injudiciousness, unrighteousness, and rash haste. There are other signs which make it probable to a wise and charitable person, that the man is bad (e.g. proud, or covetous, or a hypocrite). If with these, there are as great sins to make the contrary probable, we must rather incline to the better than the worse. But if not, we may fear the worst of that person, but not conclude it as a certainty; and therefore we may not in public censures, proceed upon such uncertainties, nor venture to divulge them; but only use them to help us for due caution, and pity, and prayer, and endeavour for such a one's recovery and help.

Quest. III. How far may I censure upon the report of others?

Answer. According to the degree of the credibility of the persons, and evidence of the narrative; not simply in themselves, but as compared with all that is to be heard on the contrary part; else you are partial and unjust.

Read the rest.

Biography: The Life and Ministry of Richard Baxter.

The Response from Canadian Tire

...to this letter. Of course, it's just a form letter that doesn't address any of my concerns, and shows that they simply don't understand the stance of most people objecting to their sponsorship of "My Fabulous Gay Wedding".

Dear Rebecca,

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback on Canadian Tire's participation with "My Fabulous Gay Wedding". As Canada's most-shopped retailer, we are focused on providing products and services that meet the needs of all our customers. The decision to sponsor this show was part of an overall marketing and advertising plan aimed at promoting our new gift registry service to engaged couples.

With respect to your question about Canadian Tire and family values, Canadian Tire strives to serve and enrich the lives of our customers and the communities in which we serve. We are focused on providing products and services to help families for every life stage event whether it is their first car, new home, wedding or new sporting activity.

We understand this is a sensitive and emotional issue for many Canadians and there are many conflicting ideas on what constitutes a "traditional Canadian family". Canadian Tire does not define what constitutes a family, we feel we should leave that to policy makers and the government. Canadian Tire is inclusive and wants to sell our products and services to all Canadians.

Again, thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback and we hope that we will be able to continue to serve you in our stores in the future.

Sincerely,

Canadian Tire Corporation Limited

Actually, the whole thing kind of makes me feel sick.

Total Inability?

Blogger is being intransigently obnoxious this morning, stubbornly keeping me from the drafts of things I want to post. It seems to be unable to submit to my commands. One might even say it is at enmity with me.

[Update: Apparently blogger has been transformed, tinkered with on the inside by the powers that be, and now willingly submits itself to me. I should be able to finish something up and post it sometime today. Is Rey's ability duck wearing his bullet proof vest yet?]

The Puritans: From Samuel Rutherford's Letters

Letter 233
To Fulk Ellis

Friends in Ireland - Difficulties in Providence - Faithfulness to Light - Constant Need of Christ

Worthy and Much Honoured in our Lord,-

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you,

1. I am glad of our more than paper acquaintance. Seeing we have one Father, it is less significant if we should never see one another's face. I profess myself most unworthy to follow the camp of such a worthy and renowned Captain as Christ. Oh, alas! I have cause to be grieved, that men expect anything of such a wretched man as I am. It is a wonder to me, if Christ can make anything of my good-for-nothing, short, and narrow love to Him; surely it is not worth the effort to try to understand it.

2. As for our lovely and beloved church in Ireland, my heart bleeds for her desolation; but I believe that our Lord is only lopping the vine-trees, not intending to cut them down, or root them out. It is true (seeing we are heart-atheists by nature, and cannot take providence aright, because we falter and deal crookedly ever since we fell), we dream of a faltering providence; as if God's yard, whereby He measures joy and sorrow to the sons of men, were crooked and unjust, because servants ride on horseback, and princes go on foot. But our Lord deals out good and evil, and some one portion or other to both, by ounce-weights, and measures them in a just and even balance. It is but folly to measure the Gospel by summer or winter weather: the summer-sun of the saints shines not on them in this life. How would we have complained, if the Lord had turned the same providence that we now complain about upside down? What if He had ordered matters thus, that first the saints should have enjoyed heaven, glory, and ease, and then Methuselah's days of sorrow and daily miseries? We would think a short heaven no heaven. Certainly His ways pass finding out.

Read the rest of this letter here.

Index to more of Rutherford's letters.

A short biography of Samuel Rutherford.

The Puritans: From John Owen

An exerpt from Two Short Catechisms, on God's providence:

Q. 1. What is God's actual providence?

A. The effectual working of his power, and almighty act of his will, whereby he sustaineth, governeth, and disposeth of all things, men and their actions, to the ends which he hath ordained for them.

Exod. iv. 11; Job v. 10-12, ix. 5, 6; Ps. cxlvii. 4; Prov. xv. 3; Isa. xlv. 6, 7; John v. 17; Acts xvii. 28; Heb. i. 3.

Q. 2. How is this providence exercised towards mankind?

A. Two ways; first, apeculiarly towards his church, or elect, in their generations, for whom are all things; secondly, towards all in a general manner, yet with various and divers dispensations.

Deut. xxxii. 10; Ps. xvii. 8; Zech. ii. 8; Matt. xvi. 18, xix. 2, 29; 1 Pet. v. 7. bGen. ix. 5; Ps. lxxv. 6, 7; Isa. xlv. 6, 7; Matt. v. 45.

Q. 3. Wherein chiefly consists the outward providence of God towards his church?

A. In three things; first, in acausing all things to work together for their good; secondly, in ruling and disposing of kingdoms, nations, and persons, for their benefit; thirdly, cin avenging them of their adversaries.

Matt. vi. 31-33; Rom. viii. 28; 1 Tim. vi. 17; 2 Pet. i. 3. bPs. cv. 14,15; Isa. xliv. 28; Dan. ii. 44; Rom. ix. 17. cIsa. lx. 12; Zech. xii. 2-5; Luke xviii. 7; Rev. xvii. 14.

Q. 4. Doth God rule also in and over the sinful actions of wicked men?

A. Yea, he willingly (accordingto his determinate counsel) suffereth them to be, for the manifestation of his glory, and by them effecteth his own righteous ends.

2 Sam. xii. 11, xvi. 10; 1 Kings xi. 31, xxii. 22; Job i. 21; Prov. xxii. 14; Isa. x. 6, 7; Ezek. xxi. 19-21; Amos vii. 17; Acts iv. 27, 28; Rom. i. 24, ix. 22; 1 Pet. ii. 8; Rev. xvii. 17.

Q. 5. Doth the providence of God extend itself to every small thing?

A. The least grass of the field, hair of our heads, or worm of the earth, is not exempted from his knowledge and care.

Job xxxix.; Ps. civ. 21, cxlv. 15; Jonah iv. 7; Matt. vi. 26-29, x. 29, 30.

More on John Owen.

Christian Carnival and More

This week's Christian Carnival is up at Wittenberg Gate. Despite the last minute kerfuffle, there are 30+ entries.

I also wanted to respond to some of the recent comments this morning, but I spent too much time on my letter to Canadian Tire, so I'll have to get to that later. And I want to shoot a few pellets at Rey's ability duck, but that's going to take more time than I've had recently, so I guess I'll get to that whenever it works out.

It didn't help things that youngest daughter backed her car pretty deeply into/onto the snowbank along the edge of the driveway yesterday. I don't know how she managed to do what she did. Well, yes I do, having done it myself once or twice when I was younger. It took at least an hour of shoveling and pushing yesterday to get her out, since it required removing almost the whole bank for the length of the driveway. Do I need to explain why I needed Ibuprofen (Did I spell that right? I'm too lazy to go look at the label.) this morning?

I Love Canadian Tire Money

....so this hurts.

Yes, I'm about to get political again, so those of you who get nervous when I do that can just skip over this post. I just read about this at promptings.

[Update: My original article was a little confusing because I was in such a hurry, so I'm adding an explanatory note here. Canadian Tire is going to sponsor the six episodes of Global TV's planned series "My Fabulous Gay Wedding." From the linked piece:

The Corporation has thus far refused to cancel its sponsorship of the program despite multiple complaints.

Responding to one concerned Canadian about its sponsorship of the controversial show, a Customer Relationship Representative, speaking for Canadian Tire’s “entire team” stated, “The decision to sponsor this show was part of an overall marketing and advertising plan aimed at promoting our new gift registry service to engaged couples.”]

I think the Canadian Tire Company is making a big mistake, and I've sent this email off to the address given in the linked article:

I've recently discovered that Canadian Tire will be sponsoring My Fabulous Gay Wedding. I understand that it's important for a company to appeal to all sorts of customers, but I believe that in choosing to sponsor this particular show, Canadian Tire is stepping over the line from simply being inclusive of all to promoting something that is going to offend a substantial number of the customers it already has. Like me. Like my sons.

Canadian Tire, until now, has been a big part of our lives--our first choice for almost everything except the groceries that we buy. We like the service; we like the products; we like the prices. We like the easy return policy. And we love Canadian Tire money. Since we live in the north, we don't have as many different places to shop as we might if we lived elsewhere, but we are willing to stop buying from Canadian Tire if the company chooses to go ahead with the sponsorship of My Fabulous Gay Wedding.

We believe strongly that a gay person should never be treated with anything but kindness, but we also believe just as strongly that marriage is something that is between one man and one woman. This is one of our core values, our essential beliefs, and we cannot in good conscious help contribute, through our purchasing, to a company that actively promotes something that goes against this core value we hold. So the windshield wiper and motor oil that I bought yesterday will be our last purchase from Canadian Tire for as long as we can hold out, or until we find out that the company has withdrawn it's sponsorship.

Thank you for taking the time to consider what I've written.

[Update: I rooted around a bit and found multiple confirmations of this story from various sites, some from industry promotional sites. I did learn that the rumours (I hadn't heard them) that Loblaws/Superstore were also sponsors are false.]

What is the Gospel?

Paul, to the elders in the church at Ephesus, in Acts 20:

And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. �Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, �for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. (ESV)

Question: Is there a sense in which "declaring the whole counsel of God" is the same thing as teaching the gospel? (I would base this question on Paul saying that it is because he had declared the whole counsel of God to the Ephesians that he would be innocent of their blood.)

[For some of the context of this question, check out the many, many, many entries on the simple gospel at Adrian Warnock's UK Evangelical Blog. However, I think I'm asking a different question than Adrian: he's asking, "How simple can we make the gospel and still have it be complete enough to accurately represent the whole?"; I'm asking, "What's included in the whole? How complex is it, really?"]

[Update: There's more at Blogotional.]

Round the Sphere Again

From Charlie of Another Think:

.... Jesus calls us to become first-citizens of his kingdom. In fact, he challenges us to carry his kingdom back home with us. We're to be like yeast in bread dough, change-agents in our home turf.

If the Kingdom of God feels perfectly comfortable, perhaps you've never learned to speak the language. Perhaps you've never actually crossed the border.

Read the rest of Cross-cultural Faith.

James White links to a debate done in 1985 between Greg Bahnsen and athiest Gordon Stein. It's long, the sound quality isn't that great, but it's certainly more than worth the work it takes to listen to it. I promise.

My days of parenting the wee ones are over--and if you must know, I was a marsupial mom, a constant packer of the littlest guy. I'm none the worse for it, and my children are better for it. Thankfully, I didn't have to contend with the likes of Gary Ezzo and his parenting philosophy, but if you're still finding your way through the parenting advice maze, you might find Tulipgirl's series of posts on Gary Ezzo useful to you. Here are the first two: What Ezzo Says About Me. . . and What Ezzo Says About My Kids. . ..

If you want my opinion, I think I'd have preferred just a picture of the flower. [Hat tip: The Evangelical Outpost.]

The Second Council of Constantinople, No. 11

This is the last of the anathemas, and here's where they name names and anathemetize anyone who doesn't anathametize these people as well. What do you think about this?

If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, together with their impious, godless writings, and all the other heretics already condemned and anathematized by the holy catholic and apostolic Church, and by the aforementioned four Holy Synods and all those who have held and hold or who in their godlessness persist in holding to the end the same opinion as those heretics just mentioned; let him be anathema.

The Puritans: More from William Cowper

On Opening a Place for Social Prayer

Jesus, where'er thy people meet,
There they behold thy mercy-seat;
Where'er they seek thee thou art found,
And ev'ry place is hallow'd ground.

For thou, within no walls confin'd,
Inhabitest the humble mind;
Such ever bring thee, where they come,
And going, take thee to their home.

Dear Shepherd of thy chosen few!
Thy former mercies here renew;
Here, to our waiting hearts, proclaim
The sweetness of thy saving name.

Here may we prove the pow'r of pray'r,
To strengthen faith, and sweeten care;
To teach our faint desires to rise,
And bring all heav'n before our eyes.

Behold! At thy commanding word,
We stretch the curtain and the cord;
Come thou, and fill this wider space,
And help us with a large increase.

Lord, we are few, but thou art near;
Nor short thine arm, nor deaf thine ear;
Oh rend the heav'ns, come quickly down,
And make a thousand hearts thine own!

---William Cowper.

Christian Carnival Entry Info

From Kim Bloomer at Sharing Spirit:

So far I've gotten three great articles to post for my turn at hosting Christian Carnival this week. If you'd like me to post your article, please either send it to my channel at here or to my email at Kim ATT aspenbloomnutrition Dott com.

I'm sure my readers will enjoy something different and new on Sharing Spirit.

No deadline is given, but it'd be some time Tuesday evening. Why not find something you've posted since the last Christian Carnival (that'd be since last Wednesday morning) and enter? Here's what you need to send to Kim:

Title of your Blog
URL of your Blog
Title of your post
URL linking to that post
Description of the post

Remember to put "Christian Carnival entry" in the subject of the email so it isn't overlooked.

[IMPORTANT UPDATE: There may be some sort of a glich so that the host listed in these instructions won't be able to host the carnival. If you sent an entry to the addresses listed above, will you resend it to ChristianCarnival ATT gmail DOTT com? If the regular host can't do it, Dory at Wittenberg Gate will post the carnival instead.]

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 10

If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity; let him be anathema.

Short and sweet. Any comments on this one? Any objections?

The Puritans: Regulative Principle of Worship

The Puritans had a high view of scripture, and wished to order their lives by the principle of sola scriptura, and one of the ways this emphasis showed in their society was in their view of what was acceptable in a worship service. They believed that the true worship included only those practices specifically commanded by God. From The Regulative Principle of Worship by C. Matthew McMahon:

Simply the Regulative Principle States this: True worship is only commanded by God; false worship is anything not commanded. This was the Puritan’s view of worship. As Samuel Waldron has said, "It seems that one of the major intellectual stumbling blocks which hinders men from embracing the Regulative Principle is that it involves the idea that the church and its worship is ordered in a regulated way different from the rest of life. In the rest of life God gives men the great precepts and general principles of his word and within the bounds of these directions allows them to order their lives as seems best to them. He does not give them minute directions as to how they shall build their houses or pursue their secular vocations. The Regulative principle, on the other hand, involves a limitation on human initiative in freedom not characteristic of the rest of life. It clearly assumes that there is a distinction between the way the church and its worship is to be ordered and the way the rest of human society and conduct is to be ordered."

There was some difference among the various Puritan groups in how this worked out in the services, but for the most part, this meant that only psalms were sung in worship services, since the book of Psalms was seen as the divinely inspired songbook. There would be no instrumental accompaniment. There was no liturgy or liturgical holidays, since neither of these things are prescribed in scripture. There is no command for Christ's followers to celebrate the birth of Christ or his resurrectiion on special days set aside for that purpose, so the celebration of Christmas and Easter was forbidden.

The Regulative Principle of Worship is not something I've looked into much, and isn't an issue I'm very interested in. If I had to give an opinion off the top of my head, I'd say the Puritans, along with those before and after them who adhered to this principle, may have mistaken the description in the New Testament of what was done in worship as a prescription of all that can rightly to be done. If this is an issue that interests you, here are a few links (in addition to the one given above) that you might find interesting:

• Exclusive Psalmody
• The Puritan Principle of Worship
• Preface to the 1640 Bay Psalm Book

Only in the Yukon: Yukon Quest

And they're off! One of the dog teams starts the 1000 mile race to Fairbanks.

From the Yukon Quest information page.

At the Top of the World, in the Yukon-Alaskan Interior, an epic event takes place every year that few people from "down south" have experienced. Covering 1000 miles between Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and Fairbanks, Alaska during the depths of the Arctic winter, the Yukon Quest is the "Toughest Sled Dog Race in the World."

The Yukon Quest Trail follows historic Gold Rush and Mail Delivery routes from the turn of the 20th Century. Once a travel highway of the Northern frontier, the trail comes alive each February with the breath of hundreds of sled dogs. Teams of one human 'musher' and 14 canine athletes, travel for two weeks, racing through some of the last pristine wilderness remaining in North America.

Look at the smiles. Those dogs are just happy to be running.

The Puritans: Sunday's Hymn and Sermon

There are more obscure hymns from John Newton that I could have chosen to feature this Sunday, but I thought I'd use Amazing Grace because it's an example of something written by a Puritan that would be recognized by almost everyone. At the bottom of this page at Cyber Hymnal, are links to the words of this song in 11 languages. Undoubtedly, it's been translated into many more languages as well, but these 11 give us a glimpse at how widespread the influence of this hymn is.

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, Who called me here below,
Shall be forever mine.

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.

---John Newton. [Listen. Do you think John Newton would approve? You might want to look up the Regulative Principle of Worship before you answer.]

---

Today's featured sermon is from Jonathan Edwards. Instead of going to the obvious, which would, I suppose, be Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I've chosen Edward's farewell sermon, preached at the First Church in Northampton, MA, after he was voted out as pastor. Here are his farewell words to the youth of the congregation:

I would apply myself to the young people of the congregation.

Since I have been settled in the work of the ministry in this place, I have ever had a peculiar concern for the souls of the young people, and a desire that religion might flourish among them; and have especially exerted myself in order to it. Because I knew the special opportunity they had beyond others, and that ordinarily those for whom God intended mercy, were brought to fear and love him in their youth. And it has ever appeared to me a peculiarly amiable thing, to see young people walking in the ways of virtue and Christian piety, having their hearts purified and sweetened with a principle of divine love. How exceeding beautiful, and conducive to the adorning and happiness of the town, if the young people could be persuaded, when they meet together, to converse as Christians and as the children of God, avoiding impurity, levity and extravagance, keeping strictly to rules of virtue and conversing together of the things of God, and Christ, and heaven! This is what I have longed for, and it has been exceeding grievous to me when I have heard of vice, vanity and disorder among our youth. And so far as I know my own heart, it was from hence that I formerly led this church to some measures, for the suppressing vice among our young people, which gave so great offense, and by which I became so obnoxious. I have sought the good, and not the hurt of our young people. I have desired their truest honor and happiness, and not their reproach: knowing that true virtue and religion tended not only to the glory and felicity of young people in another world, but their greatest peace and prosperity, and highest dignity and honor in this world, and above all things to sweeten, and render pleasant and delightful, even the days of youth.

But whether I have loved you, and sought your good more or less, now committing your souls to him who once committed the pastoral care of them to—nothing remains, but only (as I am now taking my leave of you) earnestly to beseech you, from love to yourselves, if you have none to me, not to despise and forget the warnings and counsels I have so often given you. Remember the day when you and I must meet again before the great Judge of quick and dead, when it will appear whether the things I have taught you were true, whether the counsels I have given you were good, and whether I truly sought your welfare, and whether you have well improved my endeavors.

I have, from time to time, earnestly warned you against frolicking (as it is called), and some other liberties commonly taken by young people in the land. And whatever some may say in justification of such liberties and customs, and may laugh at warnings against them, I now leave you my parting testimony against such things, not doubting but God will approve and confirm it in that day when we shall meet before him.

If You Belong To My Jesus, Then You Belong With Me

I swiped that title from the old signature line of a friend who loved nothing more than arguing theology on a certain discussion board. Although he was very firm in what he believed and highly valued the truth, he wanted it known that agreeing with him on all the issues wasn't necessary to be included in his group. It was enough for him that you belonged to the same Lord he did.

Belonging to Christ is not a matter of having all of our theological ducks lined up. Thank goodness it isn't, or none of us would be included. There are undoubtedly boundaries for our ducks, and there are a few of our ducks that need to toe the line or we are not in the group at all. Some of those crucial ducks are noted for us in scripture. John tells us, for instance, that anyone who does not confess that Jesus is the Christ is not from God. We know with certainty where someone's theological duck needs to be on that issue if they are to be included with us. Many of our debates, however, are in-house debates.

Of course, just because something's an in-house debate doesn't mean it's not important. If we value the truth, then we value even the small details of the truth, and discussions over the correct understanding of something that's laid out for us in scripture is never just niggling. If you've done very much debating over doctrine, you understand how often the devil really is in the details. Big doors turn on small hinges.

I hope you'll remember, should you ever find me arguing strongly against a doctrine you adhere to, that I also firmly believe that "if you belong to my Jesus, then you belong with me." I just like messing with with your ducks.

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 9

If anyone says that Christ ought to be worshipped in his two natures, in the sense that he introduces two adorations, the one peculiar to God the Word and the other peculiar to the man; or if anyone by destroying the flesh, or by confusing the Godhead and the humanity, or by contriving one nature or essence of those which were united and so worships Christ, and does not with one adoration worship God the Word incarnate with his own flesh, as the Church of God has received from the beginning; let him be anathema.

The Puritans: From William Perkins

Of the Body of Scripture

The body of Scripture is a doctrine sufficient to live well.  It comprehendeth many holy sciences, whereof one is principal, others are hand-maidens or retainers.

The principle science is Theology.  Theology is the science of living blessedly for ever.  Blessed life ariseth from the knowledge of God.  John 17:3. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Isaiah 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant [viz. Jesus Christ] justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. And therefore it ariseth likewise from the knowledge of ourselves, because we know God by looking into ourselves.

Theology hath two parts: the first of God, the second of His works.

---William Perkins, from The Order of  Salvation and Damnation: The manner in which men are saved. Read a short biography of William Perkins, who is often called the "father of Puritanism" here.  

The Puritans: More on John Bunyan

Check out From Bedford Jail at Locusts and Wild Honey.

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 8

If anyone confesses that the union took place out of two natures or speaks of the one incarnate nature of God the Word and does not understand those expressions as the holy Fathers have taught, that out of the divine and human natures, when union by hypostasis took place, one Christ was formed; but from these expressions tries to introduce one nature or essence of the Godhead and manhood of Christ; let him be anathema. For in saying that the only-begotten Word was united by hypostasis personally we do not mean that there was a mutual confusion of natures, but rather we understand that the Word was united to the flesh, each nature remaining what it was. Therefore there is one Christ, God and man, of the same essence with the Father as touching his Godhead, and of the same essence with us as touching his manhood. Therefore the Church of God equally rejects and anathematizes those who divide or cut apart or who introduce confusion into the mystery of the divine dispensation of Christ.

The Puritans: Providential Puritan Quotation Generator

No need to come here for your Puritan quotations, when you can have one of these.

And while we're on the subject of the Puritians, Part 4 of Elizabeth Bunyan's exciting story is here. Thanks to Violet for posting this series so I can link it as part of Puritan month.

Round the Sphere Again

From Women4God Blogs, more examples of the diversity of experiences among Christian women:

• Molly of my three pennies worth tells me she lives in the frozen north, too. She describes herself as

  ....a 29 year old lover of Yahweh, and thinks she got hitched to the world's best husband (plus, he said he'd take me out for dinner if I'd type that). She is also the insufferably proud mother of 5 youngsters (the #5 being due this May), wonderer of wonderings, thinker of thoughts, and humble offerer (is "offerer" even a word?) of opinions...

  In Stay Home Mom (The Dark Side or Just the Sad Side?), Molly suggests that a little training and preparation for the difficult job of being a stay-at-home-mom might make things a little easier.

  The logistics required and the tasks you are called to perform as a sahm are overwhelming, I'll be the first to admit. But I'm not sure if the fault lies in the "unspoken dark side" of staying home. I think that miserable side is there, for the most part, simply because we walked into something completely unprepared for the job. So the answer isn't going to be found in voicing our complaints louder. It's in properly preparing the next generation of mothers, so that they don't have to flail through all the confusion and unexpected "surprises" that we've had bogging us down.

  
  
• Ups N Downs. Lori introduces her blog like this:

  Welcome! If you have ever wondered what it'like to raise a child with a developmental delay, here is your chance to peek into our lives and find out.

  In this post, Lori laments the premium place on perfection in our society.

  According to the March of Dimes, one out of every 28 babies born in the U.S. will have some type of birth defect. That is over 150,000 babies per year. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 20% of the population has some sort of disability. With statistics such as these, it is surprising to me that magazines, television, and movies pretty much ignore this part of the population.

And from our token man in this installment of our blog stroll, more on the names of God from The Irvins.

• Jehovah-tsidkenu
• Jehovah-shammah
• Lord (Hebrew: Adon, Adonai)
• Almighty God (Hebrew: El Shaddai)
• Most High God (Hebrew: El Elyon)
• Everlasting God (Hebrew: El Olam)

Judge Throws Out Missing Baby's Body Case

After the boy Amber Gooch was carrying was stillborn in winter, the family placed his body in care of a hospital for a spring burial. After the body disappeared, the case went to court.

A jury decided in November that North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji, Minn., should pay Amber and David Gooch $150,000 for emotional distress.

Now, however, the trial judge has thrown out the case, saying that he made a mistake in sending it to the jury, that Minnesota law doesn't allow awards in such cases and that the Gooches' attorney made improper arguments to the jury.

This story takes place in my hometown, so I had to link to it. You'll find the rest of the details behind the judges decision here. From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune.

We Are Dust????!!

Once I sat in church in front of a little boy who was reading along with the congregation as we read those words. He stopped reading immediately, turned to his mom and said loudly with disgust, "Huh? We are dust???!!!"

Yes, it's a shocking truth isn't it? Our lives are like vapors, here today and gone tomorrow. The temporal nature of this life and of this world is something we'd rather not think about. But of course, sooner or later, we're forced to face it, and we're better for it. When the surgeon who found the cancer all through my husband's abdomen came in after the surgery to discuss things with him, he described his situation like this: "You have mortal written across your forehead a little larger than the rest of us." Those words were a gift. They didn't take away hope, but they expressed the right sense of urgency.

Ash Wednesday gives us the same sort of gift. It's a day to think about the word mortal that we all have written across our foreheads, to consider the brevity of our earthly lives, and the need to make our days count by focusing on things of eternal value. And it's a day to look forward to the Resurrection of Easter, the day that gives us hope of immortality, for Christ's resurrection brings immortality to those united with him.

For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him. (1 Corinthians 15:22-23 NET)

Reading all of 1 Corinthians 15 is the perfect way to reflect on the hope Ash Wednesday is directing us toward.

[Update: Mark D. Roberts writes of Ash Wednesday and mortality, too.]

The Puritans: From John Bunyan

OF MAN BY NATURE.

From God he's a backslider,
Of ways he loves the wider;
With wickedness a sider,
More venom than a spider.
In sin he's a considerer,
A make-bate and divider;
Blind reason is his guider,
The devil is his rider.

---John Bunyan, from A Book for Boys and Girls.

(Read more of John's wife Elizabeth's story here. (Read Part 1 and Part 2 first.)

Why I Love the Doctrine of Total Depravity

I came to Christ when I was very young. For almost as long as I can remember, I have been a crooked arrow being made straight rather than a crooked arrow spinning wildly. My testimony doesn't start with "I was a teenaged prostitute drug-dealing felon, but God saved me." Nope. "I was a naughty five-year-old" is about the worst I can do.

And this is why I love the doctrine of total depravity. An honest look at it is the best antedote for pride. In case you don't know, coming to Christ as a youngster and being protected from some of the more easy to spot sins can be a recipe for pride, but the uncomfortable truth of total depravity is the great equalizer.

When Paul says

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another (Titus 3:3 NET)

the "we too" includes me. You may not have seen it, if you'd known me, because I certainly didn't have much of an opportunity to express those passions and desires fully in a visible way, but the seed that blossoms into evil and envy and hate was there germinating in my heart.

This includes me, too:

And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly lived according to this world's present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest... (Ephesians 2:1-3 NET)

Yep, there I was, in the evil band of those marching along the wrong path. I looked innocent enough, with my ringlets and ruffly dress and patent leather shoes, but what you couldn't see is that I, too, was being energized by a spirit ruled by the prince of the power of the air. Yet God, in his mercy, reached down and plucked me from the power of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of the Son (Colossians 2:13 NET).

Total depravity is both the nastiest and loveliest of truths, because it's only by seeing exactly what I was that I can understand what has been done for me. Knowing the depth of God's love comes only as I fathom how far he had to stoop to grasp me.

[Update I: Beyond the Rim relates this truth to our attitude toward others.}

[Update II: And Tim adds to the discussion, too.]

[Update III: The Irvins join in too.]

The Puritans: Elizabeth Bunyan, Part 2

Read more at promptings. It's beginning to get exciting.

The Puritans: From John Newton

On why Christians suffer:

Again, how could we, without sufferings, manifest the nature and truth of Gospel-grace! What place should we then have for patience, submission, meekness, forbearance, and a readiness to forgive, if we had nothing to try us, either from the hand of the Lord, or from the hand of men! A Christian without trials would be like a mill without wind or water; the contrivance and design of the wheel-work within would be unnoticed and unknown, without something to put it in motion from without. Nor would our graces grow, unless they were called out to exercise; the difficulties we meet with not only prove, but strengthen, the graces of the spirit. If a person were always to sit still, without making use of legs or arms, he would probably wholly lose the power of moving his limbs at last; but by walking and working he becomes strong and active. So, in a long course of ease, the powers of the new man would certainly languish; the soul would grow soft, indolent, cowardly, and faint; and therefore the Lord appoints His children such dispensations as make them strive and struggle, and pant; they must press through a crowd, swim against a stream, endure hardships, run, wrestle, and fight; and thus their strength grows in the using.

---John Newton, THREE LETTERS TO MRS H---, LETTER I: The School of Suffering

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 7

If anyone using the expression, "in two natures," does not confess that our one Lord Jesus Christ is made known in the deity and in the manhood, in order to indicate by that expression a difference of the natures of which the ineffable union took place without confusion, a union in which neither the nature of the Word has changed into that of the flesh, nor that of the flesh into that of the Word (for each remained what it was by nature, even when the union by hypostasis had taken place); but shall take the expression with regard to the mystery of Christ in a sense so as to divide the parties, let him be anathema. Or if anyone recognizing the number of natures in the same our one Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word incarnate, does not take in contemplation only the difference of the natures which compose him, which difference is not destroyed by the union between them -- for one is composed of the two and the two are in one -- but shall make use of the number two to divide the natures or to make of them persons properly so called, let him be anathema.

The Puritans: Elizabeth Bunyan

I have been busy, busy, busy, so I thought I'd have to just skip posting anything Puritan today, but Violet of promptings has stepped up in my place and posted part one of a story she has written on Elizabeth Bunyan, the second wife of John Bunyan. Go read it, if you're longing for your daily Puritan fix; and if you're not, read it anyway.

And while I'm thinking of it, if you want to join in on the Puritan festival going on here this month, put the link to anything Puritan related that you've posted in the comment section of any of the Puritan posts and I'll link up to your post. The more the merrier, don't you think?

Of Contests and Carnivals

Yep, big news all around this morning!

First up, there's the announcement of the February giveaway at Challies.com. And what is this month's big giveaway? It's an autographed copy of The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, PLUS a hardcover copy of The Reformation Study Bible (ESV).

Anyone with an email address can enter the draw, so don't be a loser! Click on the banner to sign up for this giveaway. You'll also find more details there about these wonderful prizes.

There's exciting news on the carnival front as well. Vox Apologia IV is now posted at FirstPete315.com. Vox Apologia is the new apologetics carnival, and this time the subject for the carnival is "What happens to those who have never heard the Gospel?"

Then there's the Christian Carnival, which will be held at Dunmoose the Ageless this week. Here are the instructions for entering:

Send your submission to Dunstan at dunmoose ATT yahoo DOTT ca. Please send only one post dated since the last Christian Carnival. Include this information:

Blog name
Blog URL
Post title
Post URL
Post description

The submission deadline is Tuesday night (Feb 8) at midnight EST. Remember, it always helps the host prepare things earlier if you send your submission in as soon as you can.

What Happens To Those Who Have Never Heard The Gospel?

This is the question given as the theme for Vox Apologia IV, this week's apologetics carnival, and the question I'm answering in this post. I believe we've been given a fairly complete answer to this question in scripture. Paul lays things on the line for us regarding the pagan world that was contemporary to his time in Romans 1, and there's no reason the conclusions he draws concerning them would not apply to those of any day or age who do not hear the gospel.

Here is what Paul says is happening to those who, unlike his own nation Israel, are ignorant of God's law and the truth that God reveals in it:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. (Romans 1:18, 19; NET)

Even without any verbal revelation from God, they are under God's wrath. Later on in the chapter we see the way this wrath of God is already being expressed--he is allowing them free rein to live out their baser instincts (verses 24, 26, 28), and they are suffering the natural consequences of their wicked actions. As a result of the unrestrained freedom that God has allowed them, the societies they live in are dominated by evil and hurtful behaviour exhibited among the members (verses 29-31). This freely expressed evil makes them deserving of death (verse 32), and as they continue in their sin they are "storing up wrath" for themselves that will be displayed on the day of judgment (2:5-9). We might think of it as a ball of judgment rolling down a hillside, picking up worse and worse consequences as it rolls along.

That, in a nutshell, is what happens to those who have never heard the gospel. They spiral downward until the day of judgment when the full weight of God's wrath against their sin is expressed. The question one might ask, however, is on what basis God responds in wrath toward them if they have never been exposed to the requirements of the law or to the good news of the gospel.

Paul explains that the ball of judgment starts rolling not because these people know the requirements of the law and break them, or because they know the gospel and refuse to believe it, but because God makes something about himself plain to them and they purposefully suppress that knowledge. What is it, then, that God makes plain about himself to them?

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. (Romans 1:20; NET)

Even those without any verbal revelation from God are shown something about him by the testimony of the created order. They can't see God, but they can see his creation, and creation gives them a message about God that they cannot miss.

First of all, when people look at creation, they can't help but understand that there is a Creator. The only reasonable explanation for what we see around us is that there is a creative power somewhere behind it. We all know, deep down, that in order for creation to exist, there has to be a Maker of creation. Secondly, creation tells us that the power that created still exists, for we can see that the universe continues to be sustained as it is. The created system keeps on working, and this shows that the creative power is behind it keeps on working. Furthermore, the witness of creation tells us that the Creator of the universe is much bigger, stronger, and smarter than we are, so much so that the only conclusion we can come to is that this Creator is wholly unlike us and wholly unlike any of the other creatures. We all understand something of the otherness--or divinity--of the Maker. This is what everyone knows about God from creation.

People also know something about what their response to the Creator ought to be: They ought to worship him and be thankful to him. And this is where the culpability of those who haven't heard the gospel lies. This is why they are without excuse.

So people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles....

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:20b-23, 25; NET)

People know, deep down, that God is not like them--that he is completely beyond what his creatures are--and that this "God of the beyond" is the kind of god they should be worshiping and thanking. However, instead of worshipping an eternal divine creator, people purposefully choose to worship images of created beings. They willfully choose idolatry, when they know, underneath their intentional suppression of truth, that these are idols, and that these idols do not represent the Creator who is. There is something about the truth of God that they can glean from creation that they don't like, and so they trade downward: they exchange the truth of God for the lie of idolatry. This their initial fault; this is the lever that starts the judgment ball rolling.

The only way out of this downward roll is the power of the gospel to save people from it.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16; NET)

Even those of the Gentile world--a world that stood in Paul's day without verbal revelation from God--could be saved only through the gospel. The gospel is the hope for escape from the downward roll toward God's final judgment--a death spiral that starts as a result of a wrong response to what can be known about God from the testimony of creation.

This is why, later on in chapter 10 of Romans, Paul says, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news (10:15; NET)." Paul is announcing the new era: the time when the good news of the gospel goes out to all people, when there is no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile, when the promise that "all who call upon the Lord will be saved" is declared. It is a glorious day, a day of hope for all, but the good news of that hope still needs a means of transmission. Preachers need to be sent to proclaim that good news so that those who hear it can believe it and call on the name of the Lord (10:11-15). Hearing the gospel and believing is the only way to be delivered from the downward spiral of judgment that begins when people reject the knowledge of God that can be gleaned from creation.

The Puritans: Sunday's Hymn and Sermon

From William Cowper:

God Moves in a Mysterious Way
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the LORD by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev'ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow'r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
GOD is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

---Listen.

---

From Thomas Manton, a sermon on Isaiah 53:6. Here's what he says the statement "all we like sheep have gone astray" implies:

1. That we are brutish in our sin and defection from God: it could not be expressed but by a comparison fetched from the beasts; we were like sheep led aside in a sensual way. Man aimed at being equal with God, and he was made beneath himself: Ps. 49:12 'Nevertheless, man being in honour, abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish.' He continued not in the honour of his creation, and in that excellency and dignity wherein God had set him; but became like a beast, governed by his senses and lower appetite. It is true of all men, they do not continue in the excellency of their being, they have lost much of the dignity of their reason, and are more led by sense, as the brute creatures are. And therefore you have the saints often complaining: Ps. 73:22, 'So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee.' I was as behemoth, a great beast. Sometimes they have no command of their affections, but are merely led by the unruliness of appetite or passions: so Prov. 30:2, 'I was more brutish than any man;' that is, he was no more able to gain heavenly knowledge, whereby to be wise for heaven and salvation, than brute creatures are able to wield man's reason, whereby to apply themselves to the affairs of this life. Therefore man is often compared to beasts for fierceness and cruelty, as the prophet calleth the proud oppressors cows: Amos 4:3, 'And ye shall go out of the breaches, every cow at that which is before her.' So for their rude wanton simplicity, they are compared to 'a wild ass's colt,' Job 11:12. And here to a sheep in decay of knowledge and government. In the general, then, it implieth something brutish in us, and that through the fall we have slipped beneath the excellency of our rank and being.

2. Proneness to err. No creature is more prone to wander and lose his way than a sheep without a shepherd, which is easily seduced. So are we apt to transgress the bounds whereby God hath hedged up our way: Jer. 14:10, 'Thus saith the Lord unto this people, thus have they loved to wander.' They loved to try experiments in a way of sin. Man indeed would fain transmit the fault from himself, as Adam doth obliquely upon God: 'The woman which thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat,' Gen. 3:12. It may not be the shepherd's fault if the sheep wander, but their own nature, their aptness to wander. When we bring ourselves into inconveniences, we are apt to murmur, and secretly to accuse God in our thoughts, as if he did not sufficiently provide for us. Solomon saith, Prov. 19:3, 'The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord.' It is our own folly, and we blame our own fate, our evil destiny, and those unlucky stars that shone at our birth; and in these things we blame God himself. The saints themselves have been guilty of this evil, fretting at God for what inconvenience comes to pass through their own sin and folly. 2 Sam. 6:8, it is said, 'David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah.' He should have been displeased with himself and his own ignorance, to order the ark to be carried upon a cart, when it should have been carried upon the priests' shoulders. Thus, as sheep, it noteth to us self-abasement, because of our own proneness we did it as sheep, and they are apt to wander.

3. Our inability to return, or to bring ourselves into the right way again. It is like a sheep, not like a swine or a dog; these creatures will find the way home again, but a sheep is irrecoverably lost without the shepherd's diligence and care: Jer, 50:6, 'My people have been lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains, they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.' The farther they go the farther they will be from the flock, and in a very sad condition. It holdeth good too here; for we do not know the way back again to God. Austin saith, I could wander by myself, and could not return by myself. And God saith as much, Hosea 13:9, 'O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help.' That is done in a moment which we cannot help to all eternity. Our destruction is from ourselves, but our reparation from God. The good shepherd bringeth home the lost sheep upon his shoulders, Luke 15:5.

4. It noteth our readiness to follow evil example. A sheep is animal sequax, they run one after another, and one straggler draweth away the whole flock: Eph. 2:2,3, 'Wherein in times past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.' There is Satan, corrupt examples, and evil inclinations, the world and the flesh, all concurring to ruin man. We easily swim with the stream and current of others' examples, and do as they do; and even so men take and do a great deal of hurt by evil examples. Thus sins are propagated, and we live by imitation; like sheep, we draw others out of the pasture together with ourselves. Sheep go by troops, and so do men follow the multitude to do evil; and what is common passeth into our practice without observance.

5. The danger of straying sheep, which when out of the pasture, are often in harm's way, and exposed to a thousand dangers: Jer. 50:6,7, 'My people have been like lost sheep; all that have found them have devoured them.' So are we in danger to be preyed upon by the roaring lion, and the dogs and wolves that are abroad. In our sinful estate we are as sheep whom no man taketh up, being out of God's protection, and so a ready prey for Satan. See how pathetically the prophet describeth the misery of Israel: Hosea 4:16, 'Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.' Oh! consider what it is for a poor solitary lamb to wander through the mountains, where, it may be, some hungry lion and ravenous wolf looketh for such a prey. Even so it is with straying men, their judgment sleepeth not; it may be the next hour they will be delivered over to destruction Rom. 3:16, 'Destruction and misery is in their way, and the way of peace they have not known.'

From A Practical Exposition of the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah, the sermon on The Sixth Verse.

Yes, We Have Snow!

Listening to Hole in the World from Eagles, the Very Best of.

View from the Deck

June 12, 2004.

February 5, 2005:

The Puritans: From Thomas Boston

Why God alone created the world:

This will be evident from the following considerations:

1. The world could not make itself; for that would imply a horrible contradiction, namely, that the world was before it was; for the cause must always be before its effect. That which is not in being, can have no production; for nothing can act before it exists. As nothing has no existence, so it have no operation. There must therefore be something which has existence in itself, to give a being to those things that are; and every second cause must be an effect of some other before it be a cause. To be and not to be at the same time, is a manifest contradiction, which would infallibly take place if any thing made itself. That which makes is always before that which is made, as is obvious to the most illiterate peasant. If the world were a creator, it must be before itself as a created thing.

2. The production of the world could not be by chance. It was indeed the extravagant fancy of some ancient philosophers, that the original of the world was from a fortuitous concourse of atoms, which were in perpetual motion in an immense space, till at last a sufficient number of them met in such a happy conjunction as formed the universe in the beautiful order in which we now behold it. But it is amazingly strange how such a wild opinion, which can never be reconciled with reason, could ever find any entertainment in a human mind. Can any man rationally conceive, that a confused jumble of atoms, of diverse natures and forms, and some so far distant from others, should ever meet in such a fortunate manner, as to form an entire world, so vast in extent, so distinct in the order, so united in the diversities of natures, so regular in the variety of changes, and so beautiful in the whole composure? Such an extravagant fancy as this can only possess the thoughts of a disordered brain.

Read more.

Intelligent Design and a Scientifically Falsifiable Creation Model

The Physicist reports back from a lecture and "Skeptics Panel" at UC Davis in "Does the cosmos reveal a creator?".

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 6

If anyone says that the holy, glorious, and ever-virgin Mary is called God-bearer by misuse of language and not truly, or by analogy, believing that only a mere man was born of her and that God the Word was not incarnate of her, but that the incarnation of God the Word resulted only from the fact that he united himself to that man who was born of her; if anyone slanders the Holy Synod of Chalcedon as though it had asserted the Virgin to be God-bearer according to the impious sense of Theodore; or if anyone shall call her manbearer or Christbearer, as if Christ were not God, and shall not confess that she is truly God-bearer, because God the Word who before all time was begotten of the Father was in these last days incarnate of her, and if anyone shall not confess that in this pious sense the holy Synod of Chalcedon confessed her to be God-bearer: let him be anathema.

This section is affirming the truth that it was the incarnate God that Mary carried and gave birth too--that Jesus was fully God and fully human from conception onward.

Of course, those of us who are protestant, are going disagree with the word ever-virgin being used to descibe Mary, believing that is not something that can be directly inferred from scripture.

Any questions, comments, arguments having to do with what is said about the nature of Christ in this anathema?

[Update: He Lives puts the statements of the early creeds in the context of early church heresies. Those of you interested in the "descended into hell" issue discussed here last November will want to check this piece out.]

The Puritans: From Ralph Erskine

Smoking Spiritualized

PART I

This Indian weed now wither'd quite,
'Tho' green at noon, cut down at night,
Shows thy decay;
All flesh is hay.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

The pipe so lily-like and weak,
Does thus thy mortal state bespeak.
Thou art ev'n such,
Gone with a touch.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

And when the smoke ascends on high,
Then thou behold'st the vanity
Of worldly stuff,
Gone with a puff.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

And when the pipe grows foul within,
Think on thy soul defil'd with sin;
For then the fire,
It does require.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

And seest the ashes cast away;
Then to thyself thou mayest say
That to the dust
Return thou must.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.


PART II.

Was this small plant for thee cut down?
So was the plant of great renown;
Which mercy sends
For nobler ends.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

Doth juice medicinal proceed
From such a naughty foreign weed?
Then what's the pow'r
Of Jesse's flow'r?
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

The promise, like the pipe, inlays,
And by the mouth of faith conveys
What virtue flows
From Sharon's rose.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

In vain th' unlighted pipe you blow;
Your pains in inward means are so,
'Till heav'nly fire
Thy heart inspire.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

The smoke, like burning incense tow'rs
So should a praying heart of yours,
With ardent cries,
Surmount the skies.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

---Ralph Erskine

What can I say? It was a different time.

The Puritans: From Cotton Mather

From The Duties of Parents To Their Children.

How often in a week, are we Diverting ourselves, with our Children in our Houses? There thy stand before us; There is nothing to hinder our saying some very profitable thing for them to think upon; well, can you let fall Nothing upon them, that it will be worth their while, for them to think upon?

What, Nothing of God, and Christ, and of another World, and of their own Souls, and of the Sins that may Endanger them, and of the Ways which they may take to be Happy? Doubtless, you may say something.

And who can tell? It may be after you are gone to behold the Face of the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory, these your Children will Remember Hundreds of profitable Instructions, that you have given them; and Live upon them when you that gave them, are Dead.

---Cotton Mather.

Round the Sphere Again

In this installment of our blog stroll I thought I'd feature a few of the blogs in the new Women4God Blogs aggregator. As I write this, Women4God has blogs from 34 different Christian women. Catez from Allthings2all is the one who set up the aggregator and manages it, and she reminds us that "Christian faith is expressed in a variety of ways." Women4God Blogs is proof of that! So let's enjoy a bit of that variety:

Kim at Upward Call likes to think of her blog as a little like talking with neighbors over the back fence. Kim is a homeschooling mom of three, and her children are featured in many of her posts, but so is her love for reading and theology and pens. Go read a bit and see if you don't wish Kim were your neighbor. (Although, right now I think I'd prefer coffee at the kitchen table to any outdoor chatting!)

Claire Bug is the blog of the mother of a young man in pilot training in the Air Force, so she calls herself Pilot Mom. When you visit her blog, you'll not only find photos of her military son, but lots of other tid-bits, too, like some humourous comments by children on the subject of love, and thought on God's grace.

Waterfall at A Sort of Notebook likes poetry and music. One of my biggest finds on her page is a link to The Internet Piano Page. She also posts poetry from Emily Dickenson and Milton.

Cindy at Notes in the Keys of Life is a radio announcer, so she gets to interview interesting people, and give us excerpts from her interviews on her blog. Her latest one was with Joni Eareckson Tada, and Cindy posts some words from Joni on euthanasia. The tone of Cindy's blog is upbeat and cheerful, so she's always a lot of fun to read. (I do think she's wrong about the poetry of Scotland's bard, but I'm in a magnanimous mood so I'll let that go.)

There you go. Isn't the variety of gifts and interests to be found in the women of God a wonderful thing? Each one expressing themselves in different way, allowing us to see into their lives and loves, spreading a little of the fruit of Spirit in the blogosphere.

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 5

If anyone understands the expression -- one hypostasis* of our Lord Jesus Christ -- so that it means the union of many hypostases, and if he attempts thus to introduce into the mystery of Christ two hypostases, or two persons, and, after having introduced two persons, speaks of one person according to dignity, honor or worship, as Theodore and Nestorius insanely have written; and if anyone slanders the holy synod of Chalcedon, as though it had used this expression in this impious sense, and does not confess that the Word of God is united with the flesh hypostatically, and that therefore there is but one hypostasis or one person, and that the holy synod of Chalcedon has professed in this sense the one hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ; let him be anathema. For the Holy Trinity, when God the Word was incarnate, was not increased by the addition of a person or hypostasis.

[*Hypostasis is a Greek word meaning "being" and here it is used synonymously with person.]

Well, they didn't mince words, did they? Any comments? Questions? Hairsplitting?

Flushing a Ptarmigan and Other Rambling

Prognosticating rodents aside, here in the Yukon we know there'll be at least six more weeks of winter, because it'd take at least six weeks for all this snow to melt. Yes, we have snow, nearly record amounts of snow. So much snow that we've been having a hard time keeping up with the shoveling, and it's getting harder and harder to find a place to put the snow we remove from the driveway. Youngest son does most of the snow removal, and he's tired.

Yesterday, the dog and I trudged through a trail in the bush on our walk. Even though it's a well-traveled trail, we were the first hikers to pass since the last snowfall. Trailblazing is hard work. Well, it's hard work for me. Taffy leaps through the snow like a ballerina, while even the word "trudge" sounds too graceful for what I do.

So there we were, Taffy flying, and me stumbling along on the virgin trails, when a big bird whooshed up from inside the snowdrift right beside us and flew into the trees alongside the trail. Ptarmigan hide right down in little hollows in the snow and just stay there, impossible to spot with their white feathers. They even swoop down into the snow so that they leave no tell-tale footprints to give their location away. But we'd come too close and that spooked her (or him--a real birder could probably spot the difference), so she flew off, leaving only a depression in the snow.

Ptarmigan are more reserved than ravens. A raven doesn't see a dog and a woman hiking by as a threat, but rather as an afternoon's entertainment. Nothing is more fun for an idle raven bird brain than tagging along as we hike, flying from tree to tree beside the trail, spying on us as we walk by, and swooping down toward the dog just often enough to keep her on her toes. (If you've been around ravens much, you're not surprised by this scientific news.) Yesterday afternoon, one followed along for almost the entire walk, leaving us only as we came back through the city street. Something more interesting came up, and he left us for a new distraction. Yes, even a raven eventually found our rambling boring.

The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople, No. 4

If anyone says that the union of the Word of God with man was only according to grace or function or dignity or equality of honor or authority or relation or effect or power or according to his good pleasure, as though God the Word was pleased with man, or approved of him, as the raving Theodosius says; or that the union exists according to similarity of name, by which the Nestorians call God the Word Jesus and Christ, designating the man separately as Christ and as Son, speaking thus clearly of two persons, but when it comes to his honor, dignity, and worship, pretend to say that there is one person, one Son and one Christ, by a single designation; and if he does not acknowledge, as the holy Fathers have taught, that the union of God is made with the flesh animated by a reasonable and intelligent soul, and that such union is according to synthesis or hypostasis, and that therefore there is only one person, the Lord Jesus Christ one of the holy Trinity -- let him be anathema. As the word "union" has many meanings, the followers of the impiety of Apollinaris and Eutyches, assuming the disappearance of the natures, affirm a union by confusion. On the other hand the followers of Theodore and of Nestorius rejoicing in the division of the natures, introduce only a union of relation. But the holy Church of God, rejecting equally the impiety of both heresies, recognizes the union of God the Word with the flesh according to synthesis, that is according to hypostasis. For in the mystery of Christ the union according to synthesis preserves the two natures which have combined without confusion and without separation.

[Here are brief explanations of three of the heretical views mentioned here.

Nestorianism was the view that there were two distinct persons in Christ: a human person, and the divine person. To be fair, it should be noted that Nestorius, whose name this view bears, probably didn't hold to this view.

The view taught by Apollinaris, known as Appollinarianism, was that Christ was one person consisting of a divine nature in a human body. He had no human mind or spirit.

The view of Eutyches, called Monophytism, who taught that the human nature of Christ joined with the divine nature in such a way that the human nature was absorbed into the divine nature, and a third sort of nature resulted. There was a variant of this view that taught that Christ's human nature disappeared into the divine, and the resulting nature was only divine.]

Questions? Comments? Calling all nitpickers!

This Week's Christian Carnival

You'll find it posted at Wittenberg Gate. Go read.

The Puritans: From Anne Bradstreet

Here followes some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666.

Copyed out of a loose Paper.

In silent night when rest I took,
For sorrow neer I did not look,
I waken'd was with thundring nois
And Piteous shreiks of dreadfull voice.
That fearfull sound of fire and fire,
Let no man know is my Desire.
I, starting up, the light did spye,
And to my God my heart did cry
To strengthen me in my Distresse
And not to leave me succourlesse.
Then coming out beheld a space,
The flame consume my dwelling place.

And, when I could no longer look,
I blest his Name that gave and took,
That layd my goods now in the dust:
Yea so it was, and so 'twas just.
It was his own: it was not mine;
Far be it that I should repine.

He might of All justly bereft,
But yet sufficient for us left.
When by the Ruines oft I past,
My sorrowing eyes aside did cast,
And here and there the places spye
Where oft I sate, and long did lye.

Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest;
There lay that store I counted best:
My pleasant things in ashes lye,
And them behold no more shall I.
Under thy roof no guest shall sitt,
Nor at thy Table eat a bitt.

No pleasant tale shall 'ere be told,
Nor things recounted done of old.
No Candle 'ere shall shine in Thee,
Nor bridegroom's voice ere heard shall bee.
In silence ever shalt thou lye;
Adieu, Adeiu; All's vanity.

Then streight I gin my heart to chide,
And didst thy wealth on earth abide?
Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust,
The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?
Raise up thy thoughts above the skye
That dunghill mists away may flie.

Thou hast an house on high erect
Fram'd by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent tho' this bee fled.
It's purchased, and paid for too
By him who hath enough to doe.

A Prise so vast as is unknown,
Yet, by his Gift, is made thine own.
Ther's wealth enough, I need no more;
Farewell my Pelf, farewell my Store.
The world no longer let me Love,
My hope and Treasure lyes Above.

---Anne Bradstreet.

[A short biography of Anne Bradstreet can be found here.]

I Hereby Declare...

...February to be Puritan Month on this blog. I'll be posting quotes, poems, hymns, etc, from various Puritans throughout the month.

To get us started, here's a quote from Ebenezer Erskine on humility, from The Humble Soul the Particular Favourite of Heaven:

And I think, that a man never passes the verge of moral humility, till self-righteousness be dethroned, till the high and towering imaginations of the man's own righteousness by the law be levelled by the mighty weapons of the gospel, and he brought to submit to the righteousness of God for justification, which is, in the gospel revealed "from faith to faith.

Christian Carnival Entry Info

I don't know how I missed this, but I did. Now I'm late, and there are only a couple of hours before the deadline. But if you see this in time, why don't you go back over what you've posted this week and enter something?

Christian Carnival is at Wittenberg Gate this coming week.

Please get your submissions to me by midnight, EST (Eastern US), Tuesday, Feb. 1st. Earlier submissions are welcome, so I can begin drafting the post.

Send your submission to wittenberggate att comcast dott net

Include your:
        Site name and main URL
        Post name and post URL
        Short description of your post
        Trackback URL, if you want a ping

There you go. Get crackin'!

You're Gonna Need a Quality Shoe

If we expect the road of our life to be all freeway, or even all paved sidewalk, we're going to be disappointed. Jesus warned his disciples that in this world they would have trouble. Why should we expect it to be any different for us? Eventually something nasty is going to happen to everyone of us. We're all going to run into difficult circumstances, and we may have to endure them for a long time. It's just the way of the world, and we are in the world.

Of course, Jesus didn't tell his disciples how difficult things would be for them because he wanted to scare them, but rather to prepare them for it. When persecution and difficulty came, he didn't want them to be blown away by it. When I read how the apostles responded to the persecution they faced, I can't help but think that they remembered what Jesus had said.

Do you remember Jesus' words of warning?

In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage--I have conquered the world. (John 16:33 NET)

He told them that they could expect to experience extreme difficulties in the world, and that the reason they could face those expected trials courageously was because he had been victorious over the world. So what happened the first time the disciples faced trouble after Jesus ascended? How did they react?

It's all recorded for us in Acts 4. Peter and John were held in jail overnight, and then brought before the Sanhedrin where they were threatened by the rulers in an attempt to get them to stop preaching. When they were released, they joined together with their brethren and prayed this prayer:

Master of all, you who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, who said by the Holy Spirit through your servant David our forefather,

Why do the nations rage,
and the peoples plot foolish things?
The kings of the earth stood together,
and the rulers assembled together,
against the Lord and against his Christ.

For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do as much as your power and your plan had decided beforehand would happen. And now, Lord, pay attention to their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage, while you extend your hand to heal, and to bring about miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. (Acts 4:24-30, NET)

It's their very first persecution, and you might expect that since they, of all people, knew the power of the Lord, they would ask God to make the road easier for them--to take the persecution away. But that isn't what they asked. Instead, they asked God to give them the courage to keep on speaking the gospel in the face of the persecution.

They expected trouble. And from the gist of the whole prayer, I think we can say that not only did they expect trouble, they viewed their trouble as part of God's plan for them. Their prayer opens with an acknowledgement of God as creator, and continues by recognizing that not only did God predict what would happen to Christ, he planned it and was the deciding power behind it. So, instead of asking for their troubles to be taken away, they accept them as something God has purposefully allowed them to suffer, and ask him for the boldness they need to keep on going as they face these threats.

Jesus had told them they could expect trouble, but to be courageous; and what they ask for is courage. "I have overcome the world," Jesus said, and they understood that. I think they also understood that just as God had worked Christ's victory over the world through his suffering, he would also spread the news of Christ's victorious work through their suffering. The threats made against them were part of God's plan to bring good things to them and to the world.

So, too, it is with us. As long as we're here in this world, we will face suffering, but we can face it with courage because Christ has overcome the world, and our suffering is bringing about the fruit of his victory. It is working God's good purpose in our own redemption and the redemption of the world. Our troubles help conform us to Christ's image, and they make us better servants of the gospel. In many cases, they work in the same way Paul's imprisonment did: they turn out to advance the gospel.

All our troubles--and we'll have them--work together for good purposes, because Christ has overcome the world. We'll need our sturdy shoes, but we can hike on knowing that the difficult trail is the best way to reach that perfect end. We can take courage, and when we don't have it, we can ask for it, knowing that a prayer for courage in trouble is a prayer that pleases God, and one that he is pleased to grant:

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously. (Acts 4:31, NET)