It seems like so many things could be cleared up with statements like this.

So many of the confusions one finds in western forms of Christendom seem to turn on how the law is understood in relation to the gospel. It explains why one gets so many befuddled looks when trying to make the distinction between “Living the gospel vs. living in light of the gospel,” or, “While Christianity necessarily has a way of life resident within it, it is not a way of life,” or, “Christianity does not make bad people good or good people better.”

I wonder what are some other ubiquitous notions that need correction…

I must admit, it would be nice if the recent dust-up at the University of Toledo were really about what everyone thinks it to be about. Ask those involved and the suspension of Ms. Crystal Dixon for contesting a comparison between homosexuality on the one hand and being black or handicapped on the other hand is supposed to be about whether homosexual expression is in keeping with what is natural and right. Like its closely related social issue—the non/reproductive rights of women—the pundits would have us believe that the immediate debate is about the basic, brute facts found in natural law. There is good reason for that: everyone knows that when hammering out that which is common to all people we must appeal to the natural law we all live by and not make religious reference to that which only a few do. Yet a western Christendom that conflates all that has made it all but impossible to have that kind of conversation. To wit, Ms. Dixon’s stated reasoning.

I visited the blog of a CRC minister that was referred to me by a friend in mid-Michigan. This minister is a theonomist who calls Two Kingdom Theology (2Kt) a “disease”, and makes gratuitous assertions about a connection between 2Kt and gnosticism.

Unfortunately I took the bait and attempted a dialog. In return I recieved more gratuitious assertions, strawman arguments, and ad hominem attacks. Finally, I made assertions regarding what I believe concerning the nature of the two kingdoms and the Church’s role in them. Responding to this, this pastor pulled my post and hacked it apart so as to take my words out of context and do more grandstanding to show just how totally right he is for being a thenomist and how ludicrous my thinking on 2Kt is. He was even so kind as to make more assertions… this time telling me (or more correctly, those who read his blog) what I believe (which I can understand since much of my original post, that which contained my own assertions of belief, was removed or ‘reorganized’). To add insult to injury, he assured his audience that he does not care to support his claims concerning the connection between 2Kt and gnosticism.

Ever since colleague to Richard Muller, New Testament professor Jeffrey A.D. Weima, opened this up for me this is how I have understood the doctrine of the weaker brother in 1 Corinthians 8.

All this talk of Neil Diamond wanting to get inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is interesting. He deserves to be there, and anyone who disagrees reveals his both ignorance about American pop music and probably a taste for pop music that is way too narrow and boring.

Two-kingdom doctrine correctly maintains that there is no more a thing called Christian politics than there are Christian salads. At first blush this contention seems quite bold in the light of the fact that American religion, for all its official mantra about the “separation of church and state,” really does believe religion is relevant to statecraft. In the midst of both soft and hard Constantinianism wherein politics are moralized and religion is politicized, it is no small thing to suggest that Christianity implies nothing about the cultivation of society.

 

But I’ll see that controversy and raise an eyebrow.

In the course of recent events at our church to fill the pulpit I am affirmed that there is no appreciable difference in sacred and secular efforts to find someone to fill a role on behalf of others. Much as we might be tempted to think of sacred projects to be particularly invulnerable to posturing and politics or specially guided by heaven in ways that secular efforts are not, it seems that where there be human beings there one will also find these things. That might sound like a bad thing, but I actually think it is a good thing. As Reformed, we are nothing if not able to see true piety in that which appears at first blush to be impious. Whatever else the Incarnation might teach it also seems to suggest that God has desired to work through a foiled humanity, because despite its sinfulness it is still very good.

It was a mild April evening, and we outgoing office-bearers were enjoying our last Council meeting. It was the last leg of our last meeting when committees make their respective reports. The gentle and soothing refrain of “no report, last minutes are in your box” dotted the landscape of periodic and brief motions and unanimous votes. It was the homestretch. Then the Clerk forgot about something concerning “New Business” and began handing out big, stapled packets.

He told us relieved officers to let it go by as it was something that would transcend our tenure. But it was concerning something about Christian education. So I couldn’t resist.

It is always curious to me when my CRC denomination is diagnosed as being Liberal. I can’t help but think that this is mainly a way to invoke the dreaded L-word in order to make the point. But the point made always seems so very far off the mark.

My wife is our handy-man. I follow her around Lowes. I am not so liberated that I still don’t die a little inside when the guy in the apron asks what we’re looking for and I have to break eye contact, deferring to the dainty little miss who can prattle off something about quarter inches. And just to turn the knife a little for good measure, no, I don’t make up for it by being particularly good at cooking or some other conventionally feminine trait.

During my years with the Christian Reformed Church the days I could endure dominated over those I couldn’t. In the last few years there has been a reversal of sorts. This morning served to affirm not only to be a prime example of a day I cannot endure, but also just how bad things can get when an institution exchanges its confessional heritage for a seat under the Big Top. (Do bread and lentil stew just taste better under a circus tent?)

Scott Clark has recently posted a series on church membership. I have been quite enjoying it. The latest post created a mixed response for me. His representation of a high view of membership in which he likens it to marriage was fantastic. But the latter part of the post made me wonder.

So after a recent post about under-realizing the Ascension, a joking comment about the possibility of an Ascension Day service (which happens to by definition be a Thursday thing) turned into a question of what the RPW has to say about midweek services. In snippet form, the exchange went

I’ve got a whole pile of interesting resources to share today, all of which came to me courtesy of Paul Manata of Triablogue.

First off, James Anderson (whose tabular comparison of WCF, Savoy, and LBC was previously featured here at the Outhouse), has a book out, titled Paradox in Christian Theology; I haven’t read it, but it looks interesting. And as a bargain, if you’re not sure you can make it through 344 pages of philosophical theology, it would appear that Paul Manata’s (p)review offers you the whole book in under 20,000 words!

Next up, Kerux, “The Online Journal of Biblical Theology.” Perhaps a better title would be “The Vos Project,” as their mission seems to be to persist and further the work of Geerhardus Vos and his school. Having been “founded in 1986, at Escondido, CA,” I’d bet my last roll of toilet paper that Kerux springs from a certain seminary that we at the Outhouse endorse. I can’t tell whether Kerux is still in operation or not, but their online archives contain their complete production from 1986-2002. And scanning the list of authors (Baugh, Clark, Irons, Kline, Ridderbos, Van Drunen, and of course Vos), I think Kerux might deserve the ultimate honor: a link in the Confessional Outhouse Sidebar, under “Sites that Dazzle” (except that since we cannot alter the alphabetical rendering, it would be yet another site that appears before Kline Online)!

Last, but certainly not least, behold the Veritas Forum! I first went to Veritas on a recommendation to listen to Alvin Plantinga’s “Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism,” and stumbled into an archive of over 450 recorded lectures by almost 250 speakers, on any number of topics related to Christianity. May your .mp3 player ever be full, and your commute ever congested.

Sola Fidelity asked the other day, “Where did the Resurrection go?” This question reminded me of a Horton article (Transforming Culture with a Messiah Complex) I discovered quite a while ago, and forgot to blog about.