Good News for Me

I’m on a new schedule where I get up stupidly early to run, then come in reasonably early to work and spend some time in the Word before everything comes to life. This morning I had a really good run (approaching 3 miles, if you’re interested), but that meant that by the time I hit the Bible I was in that euphoric-but-very-tired place that comes about an hour later. Due to my probably-sinful dependance on coffee in the mornings, my brain also wasn’t quite working yet. All that resulted in a shiftless, half-asleep, mind-wandering time of attempted Bible reading and prayer.

Imagine my delight, then, to read the following:

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12-14)

Thank God my standing with him depends on the finished work of Jesus. If it depended on mine I’d be in a bad way.

Miscellenies

Which usually means “brain too fried for extended train of thought.”

Dr. Seuss. Now there’s a man who found something that worked and rode that train as far as it would take him. I mean, some of us might be dissuaded from writing poetry if all we could do to rhyme was make stuff up. Not the Doctor.

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One thing that can ruin a good compliment: the word actually.

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Blast from the past: I listened to Pearl Jam’s Ten yesterday on a run. Those guys rock, in the truest sense of the word. And just think, at the time there were several bigtime bands that rocked like that. Not like these kids today with their emo and their hair gel…

What is Hebrews About?

I love the introduction to Hebrews. The author skips the pleasantries and jumps right into his subject: the supremacy of Christ.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Heb 1:1-4)

Hebrews will take this idea, the supremacy of Christ, and turn it over like a diamond, looking at it from several different angles (seminary friends will please forgive the plagiarism). Even in this brief introduction, the author tells us several things about Christ that demonstrate his supremacy over all things.

• He is the culmination of God’s revelation to man– the final, most clear way God speaks to us about himself.
• He is the “heir of all things,” the one to whom God has given authority and power over the entire creation.
• He is the agency through which God created the world, so that he “inherits” what he himself has already created.
• He is the shining forth of God’s majesty; he displays exactly who God is and what he is like.
• He continually sustains the entire creation by his very word.
• His redemptive work now complete, he sits at the right hand of God the Father.
• He is superior to every created being, including supernatural ones like angels.

Eleven Types of Christian Blog Commenters

A guest post from my friend Sean after this brief introduction.

I’m a believer in at least the potential value of blogs as a way of Christians interacting (I’m writing one, right?). But usually I back off that view for a few days after there’s a long, controversial exchange on one of the blogs I read.  If you think this is over the top, go to Between Two Worlds or Challies.com and look at pretty much any post with 20 or more comments. (Usually by that time the blog authors, who are great guys, have moved on to other work, like their real jobs.)

The Eleven Types of Christian Blog Commentators (blatant stereotypes to follow):

1. The liberal/skeptic/atheist - This guy is always pretty off base because most of the arguments are based on a different world-view, but after 3-4 posts he always throws up his hands in disgust, says how stupid Christians are, and claims that these arguments are exactly why he doesn’t read Christian blogs (which is exactly what he he was doing at the time).
2. The credentials guy - As the argument progresses, this guy likes to point out that he knows Greek and Hebrew/has a degree in X/is a professional X/has many non-Christian or minority friends, etc. This usually happens when his argument is no good, so to prove its good he adds some “credentials” to it.
3. The guy who always calls for repentance - No explanation needed, except that he himself has never, nor will ever repent of anything on an internet message board.
4. The “don’t judge me” guy - Almost everyone on the boards is afraid to by pigeonholed as anything, so as soon as someone calls them on what they’ve said (and usually the caller is dead on), the guy backs up and claims you don’t really know me (well buddy, what I do know is that you are a jerk on the internet, so you’re probably a jerk in the rest of your life). Sometimes this guy has some crazy made-up handle, because Phobiatos looks much cooler than Bob Davis. Ironically, this guy almost always passes judgment on his accusers.
5. The Bible quoter - Just loves to quote random Bible passages without explaining their context or how they apply, as if the rest of us never considered the Bible but after reading 7 random phrases from the Scriptures, we’re completely convinced. This guy is also usually aghast that the argument keeps going after he obviously just solved the issue and has no concept that people could conceivably interpret passages differently.
6. The dude who doesn’t read any comments - Look, if you go to a blog post with over 25 comments, then it is a given that the thread is no longer about the original post, but rather some dudes in a cat fight, so don’t interrupt their thrilling debate with some random comment about the original topic. This guy is usually redundant, and is always ignored.
7. The guy pimping his blog - Just stop. If you made a good point on your blog about the issue at hand, then cut and paste it, don’t add a link to your insanely boring blog with white type on a black background with some lame title about your special Christian journey.
8. The guy calling for mommy - See this all the time on BTW. Somebody can’t handle the debate so they call on JT to just swoop in and end it all. Are you kidding me? You want JT to police your idiotic comments? Lets take away from his Christian ministry so he can tell you morons to just shut up.
9. The indignant jerk - Always thinks his view is the only way, no matter how meaningless the topic. Usually after many mean post, someone calls him on it, but he claims he has people who know him, like a pastor or an accountability partner. So even though he is a jerk, only his buddy can tell him so, and none of us. Just a hunch, but I bet his buddy is also a jerk.
10. The “innocent” questioner - The worst. All he does is pose questions, all the while claiming he is not making any points or really saying anything. Probably loves Brian McLaren. His questions can only be answered one way, and that is the exact point he is making. The most frustrating is when you try to argue with him, he backs off and claims he never actually said anything, just questions. Talking to him is like trying to nail jell-o to the wall, only if that jell-o is heretical poison that is falling into innocent children’s mouths. Can’t stand this guy.
11. The actually innocent questioner - Usually some sort of wide-eyed student whose come to the mecca of Christian knowledge (the blog) to pick the greatest minds of our generation. Does this guys have any friends? Professors? Family? Church? If you are coming to a message board for advice, it is already to late for you, buddy.

Who wrote Hebrews?

The beginning of what might become a long series of posts on the book of Hebrews.

The book of Hebrews is formally anonymous– that is, the text of the letter doesn’t identify an author. Because of that, there’s been a lot of debate throughout church history about who could have written it. In fact, there was debate in some circles on its even being inspired, largely because of its anonymity.

Possibly because of this, a couple of early Fathers credited the epistle to Paul, although they recognized that the Greek was different from Paul’s. Other Fathers disagreed, but eventually Jerome and Augustine attributed the book to Paul, and that became, more or less, the majority view until the Reformation. (Sometimes you’ll see Bibles that call it The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews).

But now, the idea that Paul wrote Hebrews is almost universally rejected by critical and conservative scholars alike. There are several strong arguments against Paul’s being the author.

• The lack of self-identification. If Paul wrote Hebrews, it’s the only extant letter of his without his name as the first word in the text.
• Significant differences in the style of the Greek. (This isn’t always a dealbreaker, but in a case where authorship is unclear it can be helpful.)
• The central doctrine of the book of Hebrews is the high priesthood of Christ, a doctrine Paul doesn’t mention in the 13 letters that bear his name. It would be strange for Paul to write an entire book on this idea, yet never bring it up elsewhere.

But the strongest indication by far that we’re not dealing with a Pauline letter comes in Heb 2:3-4.

[H]ow shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (emphasis added).

The reason this is a big deal is that the author is setting himself apart from the apostlic circle (”those who heard [Jesus]“) and placing himself in the second generation of believers, who heard the gospel from the apostles and not the Lord himself. Paul, on the other hand, is always careful to identify himself as an apostle (see the first sentence of any of his letters), and assert that he learned the gospel from the risen Christ himself. In other words, he would go in the category of “those who heard,” the first group to proclaim the gospel they learned from Christ.

So if not Paul, who? There have been lots of suggestions, including Apollos (who was “eloquent and accomplished in the Scriptures,” Acts 18:24), Barnabas, Priscilla and Aquila, and the church father Clement (whose letter quotes extensively from Hebrews). But these are really just guesses; there’s really no hard evidence to back any of them up. At the end of the day, the best answer we can give to the question “Who wrote Hebrews?” is “We don’t know. But probably not Paul.”

Stuff White People Like

Winner #4 of the Stuff White People Like contest: Comparing People to Hitler. A must-read.

Thoughts on The Shack

This isn’t a book review (even though I’m posting it in that category). I haven’t read The Shack yet; I will. This is a reflection on the controversy the book has generated, which is why I’m weighing in without having read the book. For background, you can see the publisher’s page for The Shack, Tim Challies’ reviews of the book (a short one and a long one), a response from the publisher to the book’s critics, and the book’s Amazon page, where there are a lot of reviews and comments.

People who like The Shack like its presentation of God and the love he has for people. It seems that for many, the book is a breath of fresh air, presenting God as Someone to be known and interacted with, rather than something to be studied. People who don’t like The Shack believe it presents a defective view of Scripture, the Trinity, the atonement, and even that it hints at universalism. You can imagine the controversy.

Personally, I’ve been concerned at some of the excerpts I’ve read, but I’m even more frustrated with some of the responses to the book’s critics. Frequently you’ll see fans of the book say “It’s a story, it’s not a theological treatise.” Implication: the book shouldn’t be judged or scrutinized the way a theology book would be. Well, fair enough– we shouldn’t read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe like we would Grudem’s Systematic Theology. But The Shack happens to be a story in which the persons of the Trinity speak to a person, telling him things about God, himself, and the Christian life. When you’re depicting God speaking to a person, communicating things about himself, it seems to me you want those things to line up with Scripture. Some reviewers think The Shack fails on that front– they say it denies God’s wrath toward sin, muddles the doctrine of the Trinity, and implies or outwardly states other errors.

(Imagine if I were to write a story about Jesus that presented him as a pedophile. Christians would be outraged. Can you imagine me objecting, “Hey, I’m not saying Jesus actually was a  pedophile; it’s just a story!” It wouldn’t fly. When we speak of God, we need to be very concerned that we speak the truth.)

Second, it’s clear from the publicity surrounding the book both that it’s being presented as more than a story and that it’s being read as more than a story. The publisher says The Shack “offers one of the most poignant views of God and how he relates to humanity that has been written in our time. It will not only encourage those who already know him but also engage those who have not yet recognized his work in their lives.” Some quotes from the endorsements:

• “If God is all powerful and full of love, why doesn’t He do something about the pain and evil in our world?   This book answers that age old question with startling creativity and staggering clarity.”

• “The Shack is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God.”

• “When I read it, I felt like I was fellowshipping with God.”

It’s really not fair to tout something as being this life-changing and then object when people want to examine the accuracy of the contents. The Shack, although a story, is trying to teach people something about God. Christians, then, have not only the right but the duty to judge what it teaches by Scripture. And if what it teaches is unscriptural or anti-scriptural, Christians have the right and the duty to reject it, no matter how good the story is.

Wordle

If you’re trying to kill time this afternoon, get ready to thank me. Via JT I learned today of Wordle, a program that generates a word tag from whatever text you paste. If you’re not familiar with word (or tag) clouds, they’re based on frequency, so the words are sized according to how often they’re used.

This is from a paper I wrote a couple of years ago on Revelation 19:11-16 (it was one of the longer texts I had).

ESV Children’s Bible

The ESV Children’s Bible is not a story Bible like The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Big Picture Story Bible. It’s a little more like a study Bible for kids, although there aren’t notes on every page (which is probably good, since kids don’t need much help being distracted from reading!). It includes the entire text of the ESV, illustrations every few pages with additional related Scripture references, and a brief introduction to each book. The illustrations look pretty realistic (Jesus doesn’t look American, for instance) and don’t seem to me to trivialize the text. The captions and introductions emphasize that the Bible is a book about who God is and what he does.

But what really sets this Bible apart are the study materials at the beginning and end, which are adapted from materials developed by Children Desiring God, the children’s ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis (where John Piper serves as pastor). As you would expect from Desiring God, these are excellent. Here are some of the topics covered:

• The Bible, God’s Message to Us
• What the Bible Says About Itself
• About the ESV (in kid-friendly terms!)
• Who is God? What Is God Like?
• God Makes Himself Known (creation, conscience, Bible, Jesus)
• God Chooses a People for Himself (Abrahamic covenant)
• The Ten Commandments (and how they show us our sin)
• The Gospel of Jesus
• Sanctification
• The Promises of God
• Go Into All the World

As you can see, this is more than you usually get in a resource for kids (there’s even a dictionary at the end). And it’s all very well-done-adults could stand to read through it as well! It’s great practice for beginning readers, and I would guess that by about 7-8 kids could begin to read & understand a lot of the supplemental stuff by themselves. Most of all, this edition does a great job of pointing to the Bible itself-it’s not gimmicky or cheesy. Setting the supplemental stuff apart from the text of the Bible helps underscore this. The Word of God is powerful and effective, and this is a great way to train young children to study it and take it to heart.

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor

At the Desiring God Conference in the fall of 2006, John Piper and D. A. Carson were asked what encouragement they might offer to pastors of small or rural churches, who will likely never see the kinds of crowds or have the kind of exposure Piper and Carson do. In his response, Carson spoke of his father, a Baptist church planter in French Canada who labored for years with very little fruit, and the effect his life has had on Carson’s own perspective on numbers and influence. It was a touching tribute (which you can read here or listen to here).

This spring Carson published Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, a short biography of his father, Tom Carson, drawn largely from Tom’s diaries. I’ll venture a guess that unless you’ve heard of this book, you haven’t heard of Tom Carson. He was an obscure pastor in the recesses of French Canada who preached the Gospel, prayed for the people in his town, and routinely went through bouts of depression and discouragement when his church didn’t grow. This book is a realistic portrayal of a very human figure, and it’s very encouraging to other ordinary Christians. Carson never spoke at conferences or wrote bestsellers; he just faithfully preached the Gospel and tried to love people for years and years. The final paragraphs are so powerful I’ll share them here.

When [Tom] died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man-he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor-but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.”

This quick read would be a great addition to your summer reading, and especially a great gift for your pastor. It’s both challenging and encouraging, and a reminder that we’re called to run whatever course God has marked out for us, whether large or small.