Archives for August 2014

George Herbert has been one of my favorite poets since 2005 or so. One of his longer poems, the Church Porch, contains an interesting few stanzas concerning the vigorous or strenuous life that would fit right into a book by Teddy Roosevelt. If you aren’t a fan of poetry, just read the bold lines:

Flie idlenesse, which yet thou canst not flie
By dressing, mistressing, and complement.
If those take up thy day, the sunne will crie
Against thee: for his light was onely lent.
God gave thy soul brave wings; put not those feathers
Into a bed, to sleep out all ill weathers.

Art thou a Magistrate? then be severe:
If studious; copie fair, what time hath blurr’d;
Redeem truth from his jawes: if souldier,
Chase brave employments with a naked sword
Throughout the world. Fool not: for all may have,
If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.

O England! full of sinne, but most of sloth;
Spit out thy flegme, and fill thy brest with glorie:
Thy Gentrie bleats, as if thy native cloth
Transfus’d a sheepishnesse into thy storie:
Not that they all are so; but that the most
Are gone to grasse, and in the pasture lost.

This losse springs chiefly from our education.
Some till their ground, but let weeds choke their sonne:
Some mark a partridge, never their childes fashion:
Some ship them over, and the thing is done.
Studie this art, make it thy great designe;
And if Gods image move thee not, let thine.

This is very motivating reading. If God’s image in you, stir you not unto your child’s education, then let your own image! Remove all sloth from your life and do useful, soul enlarging things (fill thy breast with glorie!). Whatever your employment do it with such excellence that your life or at least your death will be glorious! Flee idleness, run not from the troubles of life by sitting about pouting. Aha! Great stuff.

Why you should read it:

1. It is one of the few “church Bibles” we protestants have. Even though it was produced by the state of England, at the time, that was indistinguishable from the Anglican Church.
2. It is an important piece of literature in Western Civilization.
3. It isn’t under copyright.
4. It is the inspired writ, so reading it is just good for you.
5. Pulling a quote from the KJV has a poetic effect that is rhetorically useful simply due to our built in reverence for the king’s English.
6. Due to the effort required to follow each sentence, if you’re a lazy reader, you may find yourself reading it more carefully.

Why you should read other translations:

1. The King James Bible can be hard to understand (this can be remedied with a dictionary).
2. The King James Bible, though it has some excellent renderings, also has some places where the rendering is uncertain (look up the marginal notes and the 1611 preface). Certain modern findings related to ancient Semitic languages have helped us, especially in OT translations.
3. The Greek Text underlying the King James Bible, though a marvelous achievement in its day, has been advanced upon in many ways. Note: if you wish to have a Greek Text on the cheap, you can get that version from the Trinitarian Bible Society website for 10 bucks. I don’t know that any other bound edition of the GNT is so inexpensive. (Note: that website seems to be a KJV Only website, but a ten dollar GNT is hard to pass up if you don’t already have one. I have that text type GNT already, otherwise I would buy it.)
4. Because you should read the Bible in the dialect most similar to your own if you aren’t a Bible scholar.

 Commenting upon the phrase, “Praise the Lord, oh my Soul,” Calvin observed:

Although his heart was truly and seriously in the work, he would not rest in this, until he had acquired still greater ardour. And if it was necessary for David to stir himself up to the praises of God, how powerful a stimulant must we require for a more difficult matter when we aim at the divine life with self-denial. As to the religious exercise here mentioned, let us feel that we will never be sufficiently active in it, unless we strenuously exact it from ourselves. As God supports and maintains his people in the world with this view, that they may employ their whole life in praising him, David very properly declares, that he will do this to the end of his course.
John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 5 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 285.

Calvin is pretty clear that the Christian life is a strenuous life. It’s certainly no easier than Stoicism, but it is certainly more rewarding.

I really do believe that the best opportunity any human being has is this:

28 Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς. 29 ἄρατε τὸν ζυγόν μου ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς καὶ μάθετε ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι πραΰς εἰμι καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ εὑρήσετε ἀνάπαυσιν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν· 30 ὁ γὰρ ζυγός μου χρηστὸς καὶ τὸ φορτίον μου ἐλαφρόν ἐστιν.

Come to me all who are weary and weighed down and I will grant it that you should rest. Take my yoke upon yourselves and learn from me , because I am meek and humble hearted, then you will find rest in your souls. For my yoke is good and my burden is bearable. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Following Jesus, in the sense outlined here is much easier, in the long run, than ascribing to various isms, ologies, and ians. This is the same Jesus who says to do very hard things, but the rest offered in the kingdom is worth it.

But I’m not talking about the difficulties of following Jesus. I am talking about another set of difficulties. Following Jesus in a day to day, mystical, communal sense has intellectual difficulties but, by and large, is simple. Pray daily, stay away from evil, treat others with dignity, take the Supper with God’s people often, hear the Scripture read and explained often, turn your thoughts hourly toward Jesus, his Spirit, and his Father, don’t correct people lightly, forgive those who ask you to, don’t buy frivolous stuff, and most of all remember that God is gracious and good and that all of your salvation is a free gift. This seems to summarize the simplest aspects of the Christian life that are contained in the New Testament.

But, the brain work of determining which of our beliefs are from Jesus and his apostles, how metaphysics interacts with revelation, how ancient anthropology gives us a clearer insight into Scripture, etc are all, in my mind, very important. But, those habits of thought are also not necessarily helpful for the average Christian who does not work with people hostile to the gospel or who does not have to apply the gospel to the lives of several dozen people on a weekly basis like a pastor or Sunday school teacher.

I do think that studying the Scripture in an academic fashion is important for everybody who can. It certainly is not necessary in the way that knowing the basics of the gospel of Jesus is necessary. Similarly, studying theology is something important for everybody who can do it. I suppose the rule in all things is this:”…we know that everybody has knowledge. Knowledge arrogates, but love builds up. If any supposed that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know, but if anybody loves God, this one is known by him (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3 Geoff Translation).” If your studying gives you A) knowledge that can improve your lot and that of your neighbor B) greater love for God C) greater love for others then stick with it. If it creates arrogance, frustration with people who don’t study the same stuff, or a mean spirit then you should probably stop studying at the academic level altogether for a while and simply memorize important passages of the New Testament and put them into practice.

Anyway the academic study of Scripture and theology bears great fruits for those who are called to the task by pious curiosity (to add a deeper dimension to discipleship), position (pastor/teacher), or need (evangelist, apologist). But going beyond certain basics when you cannot yet, by practice, determine the difference between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14) is dangerous.

But, as I say all of this, I still think about several evangelical myths that, though they may not be ultimately deadly to faith are nevertheless false and perhaps laughable to many who give the issue a modicum of thought.

Is it possible that we have a tendency to unnecessarily complicate certain things and an equally silly tendency to over simplify certain other things?

 

The Four D’s of the Christian Life:

1. Get your finances in order in three easy steps.
2. Have an extra sexy super duper sex life in three easy steps (with Bible verses).
3. Go to small group Bible study every week.

If you do these four things (Just remember: the four Ds!) you’ll be a mega member of a mega church mega family.