They died for Easter

Michael Patton provides an argument for the historicity of the Resurrection in "What Happened to the Twelve Apostles? How Their Deaths Evidence Easter."

.... The martyrdom of some of the Apostles is more certain than others. Historians will have different degrees of certainty concerning the circumstances of their deaths. For instance, unbiased historians will not take issue with the historical credibility of the martyrdom of Peter, Paul, and James the Apostle. Many of the other accounts have decent historic validity as well. Some accounts, however, raise the eyebrow and cause us to remain agnostic. However, when boiled down to their least common denominator, it is very feasible to believe that all but one of the Apostles suffered and died a martyr’s death, even if we can’t be sure of the exact details. Amidst some uncertainty, one thing is clear—the reason given for their death was the same in all accounts. They were killed because they proclaimed to have seen Christ die and then to have seen Him alive. They all died because of an unwavering, unrelenting claim that Christ rose from the grave. They died for Easter. ....

Patton then recounts the deaths of the apostles, evaluating each for historical likelihood, for instance:

(2) The Apostle Peter Although, just before the crucifixion, Peter denied three times that he even knew Christ, after the resurrection he did not do so again. Peter, just as Jesus told him in John 21:18-19, was crucified by Roman executioners because he could not deny his master again. According to Eusebius, he thought himself unworthy to be crucified as his Master, and, therefore, he asked to be crucified “head downward.” Date of Martyrdom: ca. 64 A.D. Probability rating: A

This, essentially, is Patton's argument:

People do not die for their own lies, half-truths, or fabrications. If the Apostles truly died proclaiming to have seen Christ dead then alive and ascend into heaven, Christ is who He said He was, God incarnate who came to take away the sins of the world. .... The disciples...died for something that they claimed to have witnessed firsthand. This carries no “hearsay” but firsthand testimony. .... Here are your three options concerning the Apostles:

1. They died for a lie and knew it (unsustainable due to lack of any reasonable motive).
2. They were all delusional and crazy (but this would take more faith than any option since you would have to explain how they all had the same delusion and craziness—many being at different places and different times).
3. What they said was true. Christ did rise from the grave and is who He said He was.

It seems to me a very strong argument. One eyewitness—a very strange one—might conceivably die for something he knew to be a lie—but many? Each additional martyr to a truth they would personally have witnessed adds to the probability that the event happened. Many witnesses would be persuasive—how much more persuasive a willingness to die because of something they claimed to have witnessed?

There is much more at Patton's site: Parchment and Pen, including a downloadable pdf of the article with some discussion questions.

Thanks to Justin Taylor for the reference.

Parchment and Pen » What Happened to the Twelve Apostles? How Their Deaths Evidence Easter

Have mercy upon us

God did not abolish the fact of evil: He transformed it.

He did not stop the crucifixion: He rose from the dead.

O holy God, Holy and strong, Holy and Immortal, have mercy upon us.
By the wood and the iron,
By the wormwood and the gall,
By the water and the blood,
Have mercy upon us.

Dorothy L. Sayers, The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, 1938, The Emperor Constantine, 1951

Maundy Thursday

Various Christian denominations place greater or lesser emphasis on what is known as the Christian Year. I grew up in one that emphasized only Christmas and Easter, and observed Lent only because the local ministers' council cooperated in a Lenten series of services. Kevin DeYoung helpfully defines Maundy Thursday for people like me:

.... If you've never heard the term, it's not Monday-Thursday (which always confused me as a kid), but Maundy Thursday, as in Mandatum Thursday. Mandatum is the Latin word for "command" or "mandate", and the day is called Maundy Thursday because on the night before his death Jesus gave his disciples a new command. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34).

At first it seems strange that Christ would call this a new command. After all, the Old Testament instructed God's people to love their neighbors and Christ himself summarized the law as love for God and love for others. So what's new about love? What makes the command new is that because of Jesus' passion there is a new standard, a new examplar of love.

There was never any love like the dying love of Jesus. It is tender and sweet (John 13:33). It serves (John 13:2-17). It loves even unto death (John 13:1). Jesus had nothing to gain from us by loving us. There was nothing in us to draw us to him. But he loved us still, while we were yet sinners. .... [more]

DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed: Maundy Thursday

"Gross weakness and incompetence"

Vito M. DeStefano, a New York State Supreme Court Justice, considers Pilate as a judge and finds him wanting: vacillating, weak and unjust. After considering the historical evidence in the gospels, he concludes:

.... I cannot imagine a more unjust judge than Pilate or a more unjust judgment than the one rendered by him. Unable to hold to the correct and just decision he initially made concerning Christ’s case, Pilate attempted to shift responsibility for making a decision, first to Herod, and then, to the crowds outside the Praetorium. Moreover, rather than having the people judge the case on the evidence—as a jury would—their judgment was to be based on a ridiculous and, as we know, rigged procedure in which they were to choose between prisoners. Finally, having ostensibly placed the decision in the hands of the people, Pilate, in an unparalleled act of weakness, pleaded with them to change their judgment. ....

In the end, knowing that Christ was innocent but too afraid to go against the crowd, Pilate reluctantly condemns him to death. Yet, even in his final judgment, Pilate demonstrates moral and judicial cowardice, for he attempts to shift the responsibility for Christ’s death onto the crowd by “washing his hands” and saying, “Look to it yourselves.”

For a judge to commit any of the wrongs committed by Pilate on the bench—abrogating his duty to render a just decision on the merits, pandering to public opinion, repeatedly vacillating and temporizing, and imposing an undeserved sentence—would constitute gross weakness and incompetence. But to commit all of these acts in a single case is an abomination. That the people who handed Christ over to him may have been guilty of the greater sin (John 19:11) and that Pilate unwittingly cooperated in God’s salvific plan, does not absolve him of his guilt in failing to treat an innocent man with justice.

FIRST THINGS: On the Square » Blog Archive » Pontius Pilate: The Unjust Judge

Burning food

The baneful impact of the ethanol mandate is becoming more and more evident. While it makes food more expensive, it has a negligible—and potentially negative—impact on the environment. It increases inflation in a high-unemployment economy, while failing to significantly reduce greenhouse gasses. Agribusiness seems to be the only real beneficiary. From Congressional Budget Office [CBO]:

Over the past several years, spurred by both rising gasoline prices and long-standing subsidies for producing ethanol, the use of ethanol as a motor fuel in the United States has grown at an annual average rate of nearly 25 percent. U.S. consumption of ethanol last year exceeded 9 billion gallons–a record high. ....

....Most ethanol in the United States is produced from domestically grown corn, and the rapid rise in the fuel’s production and usage means that roughly one-quarter of all corn grown in the U.S. (nearly 3 billion bushels) is now used to produce ethanol. The demand for corn for ethanol production has exerted upward pressure on corn prices and on food prices in general. CBO estimates that the increased use of ethanol accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008. ....

Last year the use of ethanol reduced gasoline usage in the United States by about 4 percent and greenhouse-gas emissions from the transportation sector by less than 1 percent. .... In the long run, if increases in the production of ethanol led to a large amount of forests or grasslands being converted into new cropland, those changes in land use could more than offset any reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions—because forests and grasslands naturally absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than cropland absorbs. .... [more]

Director’s Blog » Blog Archive » Ethanol, Food Prices, and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

Screwed up

Michael Spencer on "Why we must embrace our brokenness and never be good Christians.":

.... I can’t imagine that any religion in the history of humanity has made as many clearly false claims and promises as evangelical Christians in their quest to say that Jesus makes us better people right now. With their constant promises of joy, power, contentment, healing, prosperity, purpose, better relationships, successful parenting and freedom from every kind of oppression and affliction, I wonder why more Christians aren’t either being sued by the rest of humanity for lying or hauled off to a psych ward to be examined for serious delusions.

Evangelicals love a testimony of how screwed up I USED to be. They aren’t interested in how screwed up I am NOW. But the fact is, that we are screwed up. Then. Now. All the time in between and, it’s a safe bet to assume, the rest of the time we’re alive. ....

You people with your Bibles. Look something up for me? Isn’t almost everyone in that book screwed up? I mean, don’t the screwed up people—like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Hosea—outnumber the “good Christians” by about ten to one? And isn’t it true that the more we get to look at a Biblical character close up, the more likely it will be that we’ll see a whole nasty collection of things that Christians say they no longer have to deal with because, praise God! I’m fixed? Not just a few temper tantrums or ordinary lies, but stuff like violence. Sex addictions. Abuse. Racism. Depression. It’s all there, yet we still flop our Bibles open on the pulpit and talk about “Ten Ways To Have Joy That Never Goes Away!” Where is the laugh track?

What was that I heard? “Well….we’re getting better. That’s sanctification. I’ve been delivered!” I suppose some of us are getting better. For instance, my temper is better than it used to be. Of course, the reason my temper is better, is that in the process of cleaning up the mess I’ve made of my family with my temper, I’ve discovered about twenty other major character flaws that were growing, unchecked, in my personality. I’ve inventoried the havoc I’ve caused in this short life of mine, and it turns out “temper problem” is way too simple to describe the mess that is me. Sanctification? Yes, I no longer have the arrogant ignorance to believe that I’m always right about everything, and I’m too embarrassed by the general chaos of my life to mount an angry fit every time something doesn’t go my way. Getting better? Quite true. I’m getting better at knowing what a wretched wreck I really amount to, and it’s shut me up and sat me down. ....

Faith, alive in our weakness, looks like a war. An impossible war, against a far superior adversary: our own sinful, fallen nature. Faith fights this battle. Piper loves this verse from Romans, and I do, too. But I need to explain why, because it can sound like the “victorious” life is not Jesus’ life in the Gospel, but me “winning at life” or some other nonsense.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put (are putting) to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

The complexity resides right here: Faith is discontentment with what I am, and satisfaction with all God is for me in Jesus. The reason that description works so well for me is that it tells us the mark of saving faith is not just resting passively in the promises of the Gospel (though that is exactly what justification does), but this ongoing war with the reality of my condition. ....

.... This battle—and the victories in it—are fought by very un-victorious Christians.

I will be accused of a serious lack of good news, I’m sure, so listen. At the moment I am winning, Jesus is with me. At the moment I am losing, Jesus is with me and guarantees that I will get up and fight on. At the moment I am confused, wounded and despairing, Jesus is with me. I never, ever lose the brokenness. I fight, and sometimes I prevail, but more and more of my screwed up, messed up life erupts. Each battle has the potential to be the last, but because I belong to one whose resurrection guarantees that I will arrive safely home in a new body and a new creation, I miraculously, amazingly, find myself continuing to believe, continuing to move forward, till Jesus picks us up and takes us home. .... [read it all!]

The truth is that the more we know about the faith, and about ourselves, the more conscious we are of how far we fall short, and how helplessly dependent we are on God's grace.

C.S. Lewis:

"At this very moment you and I are either committing [selfishness], or about to commit it, or repenting it." The Problem of Pain

"How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound's worth of Pride towards their fellow-men. I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good - above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether." Mere Christianity

Thanks to Bob at In the Clearing for the reference.

internetmonk.com » Blog Archive » iMonk 101: When I Am Weak: Why we must embrace our brokenness and never be good Christians

The early Church and Baptism

At Between Two Worlds, Justin Taylor calls attention to a new book about Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries by Everett Ferguson. Taylor quotes from Ferguson's conclusions:

On infant baptism, he writes:

There is general agreement that there is no firm evidence for infant baptism before the latter part of the second century. This fact does not mean that it did not occur, but it does mean that supporters of the practice have a considerable chronological gap to account for. Many replace the historical silence by appeal to theological or sociological considerations. . .

The most plausible explanation for the origin of infant baptism is found in the emergency baptism of sick children expected to die soon so that they would be assured of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. There was a slow extension of baptizing babies as a precautionary measure. It was generally accepted, but questions continued to be raised about its propriety into the fifth century. It became the usual practice in the fifth and sixth centuries. (pp. 856, 857)

On the mode of baptism, he writes:

The comprehensive survey of the evidence compiled in this study give a basis for a fresh look at this subject and seeks to give coherence to that evidence while addressing seeming anomalies. The Christian literary sources, backed by secular word usage and Jewish religious immersions, give an overwhelming support for full immersion as the normal action. Exceptions in cases of a lack of water and especially of sickbed baptism were made.

Submersion was undoubtedly the case for the fourth and fifth centuries in the Greek East and only slightly less certain for the Latin West. Was this a change from an earlier practice, a selection out of options previously available, or a continuation of the practice of the first three centuries? It is the contention of this study that the last interpretation best accords with the available facts. Unless one has preconceived ideas about how an immersion would be performed, the literary, art, and archaeological evidence supports this conclusion. (p. 857)

There are some interesting comments at Taylor's site.

[Note: I am a Baptist who believes that a similar evolution happened with the shift of Christian worship from the seventh day to the first, and that the Scriptural authority for that change is at least as feeble as that for infant baptism. It would be great to have a genuinely objective and scholarly examination of that question. Almost everything I've seen addressing the issue has been polemical. I realize that not all Christian traditions view Scripture as the sole authority for their practices, but that is supposed to be a fundamental principle for Protestants. (To preclude any misunderstanding — Seventh Day Baptists are not among those who believe that seventh-day Sabbath keeping is the mark of any kind of special status.)]

Between Two Worlds: Ferguson on Infant Baptism and the Mode of Baptism

"For as often as you do it..."

Something more from Russell Moore, this time from his "relaunched site." He asks "Why Is the Lord’s Supper So Rare" in so many of our churches?

.... Why is the Lord’s Supper, for so many churches, a rare event by design?

It was not so from the beginning. The ordinary pattern of the Supper in the early church, the Book of Acts tells us, was a weekly observance (Acts 2:42), a pattern of frequency that seems to be presumed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

But many of our congregations come to the Table quarterly or even less often. If you ask (and I have), some of these pastors and church members will say it’s for fear of an overly ritualistic understanding of the Supper, or in order to keep the congregation from growing callous to the Supper out of repetition. .... [more]

My Baptist church has Communion once a quarter, like the Baptist church I grew up in. I know of a church that does it once a year. I've never questioned the pattern. Moore's question is a very good one.

Moore to the Point by Russell D. Moore: Why Is the Lord’s Supper So Rare?

"It is better to bury than to burn"

Russell Moore argues that the historic Christian preference for burial rather than cremation far better represents our convictions. He made that case in Touchstone some time ago [the title of this post was his original title for that article]. Now, in Christianity Today, in "The Empty Tomb and the Emptied Urn," he explains what he doesn't mean by his opposition to cremation:

While speaking of the Christian belief in the resurrection of the flesh, I called my hearers to reconsider what their funeral plans testified about their hope for the future. I reiterated a position — long-held in the history of the church — that burial, not cremation, best pictures the imagery of death as a sleep from which one is awakened at the last trumpet. You would have thought I had tried to lead the service through an invitation hymn to the Blessed Virgin (with every head bowed and every eye closed).

As I talked to my congregants, though, I realized what was controversial was not my position. .... What alarmed my people was the thought of people they knew, now sitting in urns on their mantles or scattered across the Pacific Ocean or fertilizing a grove of banana trees in someone's backyard.

Was I suggesting, they wondered, that their friends and family members couldn't be resurrected from the dead — or that they would be resurrected permanently disfigured by the fires of the cremation oven?

Of course that's not at all what I was suggesting. After all, most people who hear the voice of Jesus on resurrection morning will have long before disintegrated into dust, through the natural process of decay. And anyway, it doesn't take any more Spirit dynamic to recompose ashes than to reactivate dead tissue.

There are many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, I noted to my disturbed flock, who have been torn apart by lions in the Roman arenas or devoured by sharks after being cast overboard slave ships or evaporated in wartime bombings. They'll be with us in the resurrection. ....

I still oppose cremation. There's a reason Christians throughout the centuries have committed the bodies of the faithful to the ground, dramatically picturing our trust in the reclamation of these very same bodies when the roll is called up yonder. But I'm careful now to explain that, whatever is the case, cremation isn't forever. Neither is amputation or mastectomies or the horrifying tattoo marks of totalitarian regimes sending prisoners to their executions. ....

But, more importantly, we ought to remind ourselves of our hope, the day when we'll be gathered on the other side of this age of cemeteries. His blessings will be known, far as the curse is found — and that includes the marks of death we bore in our bodies. We'll be home, and we'll be whole. [more]

The Empty Tomb and the Emptied Urn | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Movie posters

I enjoy movies — good ones, bad ones, guilty pleasures — films that entertain me. I'm hardly unique in that respect, I realize. But I am almost compulsive about it. My collection of DVDs recently went over 850 [OK, edit the "almost" out of the previous sentence]. I think I qualify as a fan. When I was young, the very idea that I might be able to own films and watch them whenever I wish would have seemed a pipedream. I envied some cousins whose family owned a move theater [next door to their home!] and could see any film showing without having to buy tickets. Now, of course, I can watch movies at my leisure, and, moreover, the sound and picture quality at home often surpass what was available in the theater when the film was originally released.

Steve Mason at Big Hollywood likes movies and the promotional art that goes along with them. He lists "The All-Time Top 10 Movie Posters (one man’s opinion)" and observes:

As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own.

Sometimes films do well in spite of the posters. And sometimes very bad films start out well because the promotion featured art far better than the film.

Mason's top four posters:

1. Jaws
2. Chinatown
3. The Dark Knight
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's [and the rest]
   

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » The All-Time Top 10 Movie Posters (one man’s opinion) - #1 JAWS, #2 CHINATOWN, #3 THE DARK KNIGHT

He is merciful

I have decided, from time to time, to share the Sabbath worship service from my church. This is the service we used yesterday, followed by a sermon which is not included here. The hymns are linked to CyberHymnal — when the words or tune differ from those we used, I've printed the words and linked to the tune. The Scriptures can be found by holding the cursor over the reference.

Worship Theme:
“We worship God because He is Merciful”

Meditation on Holy Scripture:
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
And passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because he delights in steadfast love.
Micah 7:18 (ESV)

I. His mercies give us life.

Pulpit Readings: Deuteronomy 4:30-31; Nehemiah 9:30-31

Hymn:“Awake, My Soul, in Joyful Lays”

Awake, my soul, in joyful lays,
And sing thy great Redeemer’s praise;
He justly claims a song from me -
His lovingkindness, O how free!

He saw me ruined in the fall,
Yet loved me notwithstanding all;
He saved me from my lost estate -
His lovingkindness, O how great!

Though numerous hosts of mighty foes,
Though earth and hell my way oppose,
He safely leads my soul along -
His lovingkindness, O how strong!

When trouble, like a gloomy cloud,
Has gathered thick and thundered loud,
He near my soul has always stood -
His lovingkindness, O how good!

Responsive Reading: Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,
Who forgives all your iniquity
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide, nor will He keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.
For he knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
He flourishes like a flower of the field;
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion.
Unison: Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Hymn:“Praise to the Lord, The Almighty”

II. His mercies guide our lives.

Pulpit Reading: Jeremiah 3:12-13

Hymn: “We praise Thee, O God, for the Son”

Unison Reading: Titus 3:3-8

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

Hymn: “God of Grace and God of Glory”

III. His mercy sustains us.

Individual Readings: Luke 1:50; Lamentations 3:31-33

Hymn: “Sometimes a Light Surprises”

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new.
Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.

It can bring with it nothing but He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing will clothe His people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens, no creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens will give His children bread.

Though vine nor fig tree neither their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.

Individual Reading: Psalm 106:1

Hymn: “God Hath Not Promised Skies Always Blue”

Individual Readings: Psalm 89:1-2

Hymn: “God is Love, His Mercy Brightens”

Individual Readings: Psalm 103:17

Hymn: “Here Is Love, Vast as the Ocean”

Prayer

Converted again

Almost twenty years ago, with great anticipation, I ordered A.N. Wilson's then new biography of C.S. Lewis. It proved to be a disappointment. At least part of the reason, perhaps, was that while writing the book, Wilson had become disillusioned with Christianity. He had experienced a conversion:

By nature a doubting Thomas, I should have distrusted the symptoms when I underwent a “conversion experience” 20 years ago. Something was happening which was out of character – the inner glow of complete certainty, the heady sense of being at one with the great tide of fellow non-believers. For my conversion experience was to atheism. ....

Wilson has recently returned to Christianity, and his account, "Why I believe again," has just appeared in the New Statesman [subscription only, I haven't read it. Update: it is now online]. He also gave an an interview to the magazine, from which comes this:

What's the worst thing about being faithless?

The worst thing about being faithless? When I thought I was an atheist I would listen to the music of Bach and realize that his perception of life was deeper, wiser, more rounded than my own. Ditto when I read the lives of great men and women who were religious.

Reading Northrop Frye and Blake made me realize that their world-view (above all their ability to see the world in mythological terms) is so much more INTERESTING than some of the alternative ways of looking at life.

Of the things that drove you atheism, what have you still to resolve?

Childish playground things - religious people aren't cool, religious people have spots, wear specs, all those feelings; embarrassment at being in the same gang as people whose views sound, and perhaps are, absurd; or worse than absurd. The disconcerting sense that certain psychological types (often v unappealing) seem to be drawn to religion. I very much dislike the intolerance and moralism of many Christians, and feel more sympathy with Honest Doubters than with them.

Thanks to Tom Gilson and the Agent Intellect blog for the reference.

New Statesman - Why I believe again, New Statesman - Can you love god and agree with Darwin?

Into the wheatfield

Rev. Ahva John Clarence Bond [1875-1958] was pastor of the Plainfield, New Jersey, Seventh Day Baptist Church in 1928 when The American Sabbath Tract Society published a collection of his children's sermons, When I Was a Boy. They are good children's sermons, but I had an additional reason for interest when I recently acquired a copy. A.J.C. Bond's boyhood was also the boyhood of my maternal grandfather — they were brothers — and my mother spent the first years of her life on that farm on Canoe Run near Roanoke, West Virginia, too.

My brother and I heard many stories about life on the farm before Grandfather and Grandmother Bond, our mother, her sister, and their six brothers, moved into Salem so the children could all get an education beyond that offered by the one-room country school. I have always enjoyed learning more about what it was like before they left.

One of Uncle Ahva's sermons:

The Sabbath Service Tree in the Weatfield

Text: And it came to pass, that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. Mark 2:23

DOUBTLESS you wonder just what the theme of our sermon for this morning means: "The Sabbath Service Tree in the Wheatfield." Are we to talk about a Sabbath service under a tree, or about a service tree in a wheatfield?

Possibly you did not know that there was such a tree as a service tree; that sounds like such a funny name for a tree. Another name for this tree is "shadbush," and still another, "June berry tree."

The first thing about the service tree that attracts your attention and makes you love it is that it blossoms so early in the spring. Before the leaves come out on the trees, or any green is seen in the woods, and before you realize that winter is over and spring has really come, some fine day you wake up to find that on the hillsides and in the woods the service trees are blossoming out in purest white. These trees in full bloom are beautiful in themselves, and then they always say to you in beautiful and unmistakable language, "Spring is here."

By and by the white begins to disappear, and along with the rest of the trees the service tree begins to deck itself out in green. For a month or two this tree is lost sight of and forgotten hidden as it is among the many trees of varying shades of green. But it is not entirely forgotten, or at least not for long.

Along about "knee deep in June" the berries on the service tree begin to turn red. The tree that was so pretty and white in April is a beautiful green in May, and becomes green and red and very pretty again in June. And now it has another attraction. Before, it appealed to the eye only. Now, not only is the tree beautiful with its loads of red berries, but those berries are good to eat. In clearing the land it was my father's custom to leave all the service trees. I think he did this because he knew the children in the home were fond of the berries.

There was no tree that my boyhood knew which brought me more happiness than the service tree. Some of the trees with the finest berries were likely to be found in the wheatfield. When the wheat was headed out and began to ripen yellow, the berries on the service tree began to ripen red and invited us to come and help ourselves.

As I look back upon my boyhood days I seem to remember better than any other the Sabbath afternoon visits to the service tree in the wheatfield. How carefully we walked, single file, parting the wheat with our hands so as not to tread it down, till we reached the tree with its abundance of red berries. During the week it had been planned, and the tree had been picked out for this Sabbath afternoon visit by the whole family.

As I think of it now I am sure the thing that gave most pleasure, the thing that now makes the visit to the service tree in the wheatfield a happy and helpful memory is the fact that it was Sabbath day, and that all the family were together. And I think it must have had the approval of the One who so long ago walked through the wheatfield on the Sabbath day in friendly chat with his disciples.

Matthew says the disciples were hungry, and that is why they plucked the heads of wheat, rubbed out the grains, and ate. Neither Mark nor Luke seems to think it worth while to mention their hunger in order to justify the act. The Pharisees who found fault with them worked so hard to keep the Sabbath that they really lost its spirit. It is fun as you pass along through a wheatfield to nip the ripened heads with your fingers, rub them between your hands, and blow away the chaff. You eat the grains not because you are hungry, but because now that you have them in your hand, plump and clean, you do not want to throw them away. I imagine it was in some such happy, playful mood that the disciples plucked the wheat as they swung along the path that Sabbath day with the Master.

Doubtless if you had the chance you would be glad this very Sabbath afternoon to walk right out of winter into June and straight to a service tree in a wheatfield. Spring is coming and soon will be inviting families to walk out together. But most of you have automobiles; how about a drive into the country?

Some years ago I was a guest in a Plainfield home, and Sabbath afternoon we went out for a drive. Cars were constantly passing us, when suddenly my host said, "Too much speed for the Sabbath," and he turned to the right and entered a quieter road.

When you have attended the morning worship, as you do; and have been present at Sabbath school, which you enjoy; and have gone to the Christian Endeavor meeting, to which you are faithful; then I think it might be a helpful and happy thing to take a drive with the family into the country. That is, provided you always turn to the right.

And it came to pass, that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields.

The black and white pictures, from the top, are the old farmhouse with Great-Grandfather Bond on the porch, one of the farm fields, and Great Uncle Ahva - who was also a pastor and, later, Dean of the Seventh Day Baptist Seminary at Alfred University, Alfred, New York. I saw the house, long after all the family had left the area and shortly before it was moved and the fields around it were inundated by a reservoir.

Truth in advertising

Touchstone recently published a report from Ecumenical News International about the decision of Protestant church authorities in the Netherlands not to discipline a pastor who is a self-declared atheist:

Hendrikse gained attention with his book published in November 2007, in which he said that it was not necessary to believe in God's existence in order to believe in "God". The Dutch title of the book translates as, "Believing in a God who does not exist: manifesto of an atheist pastor".

In his book, Hendrikse recounts how his conviction that God does not exist has become stronger over the years.

"The non-existence of God is for me not an obstacle but a precondition to believing in God. I am an atheist believer," Hendrikse writes in the book. "God is for me not a being but a word for what can happen between people. Someone says to you, for example, 'I will not abandon you', and then makes those words come true. It would be perfectly alright to call that [relationship] God."

At least he is honest about what he believes — his superiors, though, seem very confused about their responsibilities. Episcopalians in this country have demonstrated, somewhat surprisingly, that they have limits:

Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island deposed Ann Holmes Redding, citing abandonment of Communion of The Episcopal Church.

Although Wolf has described Redding as a "woman of utmost integrity," the bishop said she "believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim," according to a statement by the Rhode Island diocese. ....

An ordained minister in The Episcopal Church for over two decades, Redding made headlines in 2007 when she told the Seattle Times she was "100 percent" Muslim and Christian. Her story was first revealed in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia's newspaper, the Episcopal Voice. ....

Convinced that her new Muslim faith did not contradict her beliefs as a Christ follower, Redding declared she was both a Muslim and a Christian.

"Both religions say there's only one God," Redding said, according to CNN, "and that God is the same God. It's very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven't shifted my allegiance."

She also said she does not believe that God and Jesus are the same and believes Jesus is divine just as all humans are divine. .... [more]

Unlike the Dutch "pastor" she does at least believe in God, although her deficient understanding of who Jesus was [and is] marks her as no more a Christian than he is.

Update: And Christian priests who are Druids?

Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: Church OK With Atheist Pastor, Episcopal Priest Defrocked After Refusing to Recant Muslim Faith| Christianpost.com

"A nicer attitude"

From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

suttee
Date: 1786
: the act or custom of a Hindu widow willingly being cremated on the funeral pyre of her husband as an indication of her devotion to him....

It is said that a British district officer in India, coming upon a suttee, was told that it was their custom. He replied that hanging those involved was his custom. The British outlawed the practice and suttee is illegal in India today. We seem to be in danger of regressing from that sense of moral certainty.

The founder of the Swiss assisted suicide clinic Dignitas was criticised yesterday after revealing plans to help a healthy woman to die alongside her terminally ill husband.

Ludwig Minelli described suicide as a “marvellous opportunity” that should not be restricted to the terminally ill or people with severe disabilities. ....

Mr Minelli, a human rights lawyer, told the BBC that the British were obsessed with the requirement for a patient to be terminally ill to justify an assisted suicide. “It is not a condition to have a terminal illness,” he said. “Terminal illness is a British obsession. As a human rights lawyer I am opposed to the idea of paternalism. We do not make decisions for other people. We should have a nicer attitude to suicide, saying suicide is a very good possibility to escape.” .... [more]

suttee - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Dignitas founder plans assisted suicide of healthy woman - Times Online

Is Easter pagan?

In an article at Christian History, Anthony McRoy systematically refutes the idea that "Easter" has any connection to possible pagan antecedents, and concludes:

...The Christian title "Easter" ... reflects its general date in the calendar, rather than the Paschal festival having been re-named in honor of a supposed pagan deity.

Of course, the Christian commemoration of the Paschal festival rests not on the title of the celebration but on its content—namely, the remembrance of Christ's death and resurrection. It is Christ's conquest of sin, death, and Satan that gives us the right to wish everyone "Happy Easter!"

He notes that:

The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan associations of the English and German names for the celebration (Easter in English and Ostern in German). It is important to note, however, that in most other European languages, the name for the Christian celebration is derived from the Greek word Pascha, which comes from pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover festival.

Even if there were some preceding pagan holiday or practice, that wouldn't prove anything — any more than it does for Christmas, or Halloween for that matter. As McRoy points out:

Of course, even if Christians did engage in contextualization—expressing their message and worship in the language or forms of the local people—that in no way implies doctrinal compromise. Christians around the world have sought to redeem the local culture for Christ while purging it of practices antithetical to biblical norms. After all, Christians speak of "Good Friday," but they are in no way honoring the worship of the Norse/Germanic queen of the gods Freya by doing so.

But, in fact, in the case of Easter the evidence suggests otherwise: that neither the commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection nor its name are derived from paganism.

Good history and good sense.

Even the bunny and the egg — like Santa Claus and the Christmas tree — are , at worst, relatively harmless distractions.

Was Easter Borrowed from a Pagan Holiday? | Christian History

"Descended into hell"

Nancy Guthrie quotes J.I. Packer to explain that "hell" isn't "Hell" in the Apostles' Creed:

Whenever I recite the Apostle’s Creed in a congregation, I tend to hold my breath to see how the person who typed in the PowerPoint will handle the “I believe in...the holy catholic church.” Too many times it is mistakenly capitalized and I cringe. And it is obvious why the mistake is so often made. The term “catholic” in our day has come to denote a denomination rather than it’s true meaning describing the universal nature of the church of Jesus Christ.

I have to admit that I have often wondered exactly what the creed means when we say that Jesus, “descended into hell.” And I’m guessing I am not alone. .... Packer helps us understand.

The English is misleading, for “hell” has changed its sense since the English form of the Creed was fixed. Originally, “hell” meant the place of the departed as such, corresponding to the Greek Hades and the Hebrew Sheol. That is what it means here, where the Creed echoes Peter’s statement that Psalm 16:10, “thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades” (so RSV: AV has “hell”), was a prophecy fulfilled when Jesus rose (see Acts 2:27–31). But since the seventeenth century, “hell” has been used to signify only the state of final retribution for the godless, for which the New Testament name is Gehenna.

What the Creed means, however, is that Jesus entered, not Gehenna, but Hades—that is, that he really died, and that it was from a genuine death, not a simulated one, that he rose. .... (more)

Crossway.blog » He “Descended Into Hell”

Whence came the lamp?

Russell Moore is right:

Before their bedtime each night, I’m reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my three oldest sons. I’m doing this because it’s a great story. But I’m also doing it because Lewis’s Narnia stories are, I believe, what shaped and molded my moral imagination as a child. I believe they are directly part of the means the Spirit used to point me to the truer Narnia in Christ. But by starting with the first book in the series, I realize I’m walking into a debate as well as into a wardrobe.

Some fellow Lewisphiles insist the series begins with The Magician’s Nephew. I disagree, emphatically.

The Magician’s Nephew is what would be called in today’s film lingo a “prequel,” rather than a beginning. ....

The first books of the Narnia series offer mysteries (Where did the White Witch come from? Who is the professor, really?), but they’re mysteries one doesn’t notice as mysteries. That waits until later.

Narnia’s Wardrobe or Magician’s Nephew: Which Comes First?

"The will of God is our sanctification"

Part of an interview with Kevin DeYoung:

Your church is across the street from a major state university. What are some of your favorite resources to point the college students in your church to?

I think college students want meat. We do them a disservice by expecting so little of them, intellectually and spiritually. We try to point our students to classics from people like C.S. Lewis, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards. .... We’re pretty convinced, however, that reading the Bible is the best thing for every college student..

Your new book (Just Do Something) is set to be released the day this interview hits the web. Why did you write a book on that particular topic?

I’ve spoken on the will of God in a number of different settings over the years and the response has always been remarkable. Most Christians, especially younger ones, really struggle to find God’s will. They get baffled by all the decisions in life—marriage, job, school, retirement—and are desperate for God to tell them what to do. This approach to God’s will makes Christians too passive and swallows us up in a mess of guilt. ....

What should people expect (and NOT expect) from your book on finding God’s will?

The whole gist of the book is that the will of God is our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). If we love God, love others, and obey the commands of Scripture, we have the freedom to make decisions “on our own”, because such a life is already in the will of God. My book doesn’t offer guidance on how to discern God’s will like some magic eight ball. It’s not that God can’t ever show up in surprising ways, but we shouldn’t be waiting around for writing in the sky before we move out of our parent’s bedroom, find a job, and start serving God where we’re at. .... (more)

I just now received notice from Amazon that my copy of the book has shipped.

NEXT | April 2009 Webzine

"The main things are the plain things..."

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

per·spic·u·ous Pronunciation: pər-ˈspi-kyə-wəs\ Function: adjective Etymology: Latin perspicuus transparent, perspicuous, from perspicere Date: 1586 : plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation "a perspicuous argument" — per·spi·cu·ity \pər-spə-ˈkyü-ə-tē\ noun

Kevin DeYoung:

Of all the classic doctrines under assault in our day, the one that is most often questioned by the most number of people with the most far reaching implications has to be the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture. Simply put, the perspicuity of Scripture means that the essential teachings of the Bible are clear and accessible. The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.

DeYoung is blogging his way through A Clear And Present Word: The Clarity of Scripture, by Mark Thompson. Thompson describes the traditional arguments against perspicuity and observes that (in DeYoung's words) "these five traditional objections have only been magnified by postmodern philosophy." The series of blogs is to be found here, at DeYoung's blog, DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed. DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed: A Clear and Present Word (1)