My Favorite Linebacker

There is a nice article in today's Daily Progress about Jon Copper. Jon and Holly have become faithful attendees at JPBC and Jon has an incredible gift for inviting people to church. The article is a nice tribute to his character and work ethic.

JTR

Sermon of the Week: "The So-Called English Standard Version"

I am going to try a new feature here on the blog: A sermon of the week. Hopefully I'll post a link near the start of the week (I was going to say every Monday--but it's Tuesday) to a good sermon/teaching I've heard. They'll be archived under the label: "Sermon of the Week." Feel free to listen and/or post feedback.

Our inaugural sermon is actually a lecture from Theodore Letis, titled, "The So-Called English Standard Version." It is noteworthy not only for its critique of the ESV but for the general description of how the Majority text came to be replaced by the current minority text underlying most modern translations. Sadly, Dr. Letis apparently died in a car accident in 2005.

JTR

What makes youth happy?

The Associated Press had an interesting article yesterday on a recent poll of young people between the ages of 13 and 24. When asked what made them happy, the top answer was not sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but spending time with family.

Among other interesting tidbits:

Almost no one said "money" when asked what made them happy.

Being sexually active led to less happiness among teens.

Close to half say religion and spirituality are very important and over half believe in a "higher power" [of course, this is a mixed blessing but still an encouragement in evangelizing young folk].

Overwhelmingly, young people think marriage will make them happy and want to be married some day. Most also want to have children.

A high school student is quoted as saying, "I don't want to be one of those career businesswomen who just doesn't ever settle down."

JTR

Rainbows, the Trinity, and an Incomprehensible God

Last evening in Bible Study at JPBC, my mind got fixed on Ezekiel 1:28, the end of Ezekiel’s fantastic vision of God:

"Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."

I recalled, Michael Haykin’s quotation (in Defence of the Truth, pp. 86-87) of Gregory of Nyssa who used the analogy of a rainbow to describe both the mystery of the Trinity and the nature of God (see Letter 38.5):

Yet receive what I say as at best a token and reflexion of the truth; not as the actual truth itself. For it is not possible that there should be complete correspondence between what is seen in the tokens and the objects in reference to which the use of tokens is adopted. Why then do I say that an analogy of the separate and the conjoined is found in objects perceptible to the senses? You have before now, in springtime, beheld the brightness of the bow in the cloud….

Now this brilliance is both continuous and divided. It is of many colours; it is of many forms; it is insensibly steeped in the variegated bright tints of its dye; imperceptibly abstracting from our vision the combination of many coloured things, with the result that no space, mixing or paring within itself the difference of colour, can be discerned either between blue and flame-coloured, or between flame-coloured and red, or between red and amber. For all the rays, seen at the same time, are far shining, and while they give no signs of their mutual combination, are incapable of being tested, so that it is impossible to discover the limits of the flame-coloured or of the emerald portion of the light, and at what point each originates before it appears as it does in glory. As then in the token we clearly distinguish the difference of the colours, and yet it is impossible for us to apprehend by our senses any interval between them; so in like manner conclude, I pray you, that you may reason concerning the divine dogmas; that the peculiar properties of the hypostases, like colours seen in the Iris, flash their brightness on each of the Persons Whom we believe to exist in the Holy Trinity; but that of the proper nature no difference can be conceived as existing between one and the other, the peculiar characteristics shining, in community of essence, upon each….

My argument thus teaches us, even by the aid of the visible creation, not to feel distressed at points of doctrine whenever we meet with questions difficult of solution, and when at the thought of accepting what is proposed to us, our brains begin to reel….

JTR

Strong Families=Strong Churches

We had our final theological discussion of this summer last evening at the home of the Ventons. Great hospitality and a good discussion. Among topics discussed: spiritual growth; divorce and remarriage; and the believer and evolution.

Most time and passion went into the discussion on marriage and divorce. This morning, Al Mohler has an interesting blog post on "The Fate of the Family and the Future of the Church," citing the sociological research of UVA's W. Bradford Wilcox.

Wilcox notes the strong link, for men in particular, between marriage and church attendance. Men who are husbands and fathers go to church.

Mohler notes, "Marginalize marriage, depreciate childbearing and fatherhood, and say goodbye to young adult men in church."

The link between intact families and congregational vitality is a "sociological law."

This is why marriage must be defended, responsible fatherhood promoted, and divorce frowned upon.

JTR

Piper and Grudem wrangle over baptism and church membership

John Piper had an interesting post on his Desiring God site yesterday (August 9) responding to Wayne Grudem on the issue of baptism and church membership [Thanks for the tip Howard!].

Grudem has apparently rewritten part of his Systematic Theology in its latest edition to frown on churches not taking a clear stand on baptismal standards for church membership. Piper pleads, "But, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, why did you rewrite page 983?" Piper makes the same claim he has made earlier that to exclude a person from Baptist church membership who has only experienced infant baptism is "virtually the same as excommunication."

He also goes on to say that (if his church would allow it) he would welcome paedobaptists like Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, R. C. Sproul, or Philip Ryken into membership.

The site also posted Grudem's response. Grudem reminds Piper that denial of church membership is not excommunication. He also makes clear that baptism is required for church membership and states clearly that he would not support a church which practices an either-or policy with regard to infant baptism or believer's baptism. I wish he had asked how the paedobaptist luminaries Piper listed would feel about being included in membership but excluded from eldership in Piper's plan.

I was a bit brothered, however, by Grudem's description of his own church's practice that allows non-members to lead home fellowship groups and his dismissal of churches that exclude those who have not experienced believer's baptism from the Lord's table as a practice of "very few of the most strict Baptist churches."

For my much longer and detailed response to Piper's maverick ecclesiological views, listen to this audio file.

JTR

Should Christians Watch Movies?

I noticed in the newsletters of a large, local evangelical church that they have been screening R-rated, secular movies. They have done this in the name of understanding the culture. Of course, many "cutting edge" churches are using video clips in worship services and sermons. A local evangelical campus ministry at UVA often screens secular movies followed by theological discussion. Is this wise?

What about the individual Christian who goes to the movie theater or rents videos? Some Christians watch hundreds of movies a year. For a sober challenge to this practice, listen to Scottish preacher David Murray's prophetic message "Should Christians Watch Movies?" I was personally convicted by this sermon.

JTR

The Tyranny of Modern Covenience

Last Sunday’s Daily Progress (8/5/07) had an interesting article by David Maurer about the Ward family who left their lives in New York City to live on a farm near Swoope, Virginia (Augusta County) trying to recreate life c. 1900 with no electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, etc.

The husband, Logan Ward, has written about the experience in a book, See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America.

In the article, the Wards describe what drove them to seek this experience:

"For a long time we loved New York, and we were thrilled to be there," said Ward, who has written for magazines such as National Geographic Adventure, Men's Journal and Popular Mechanics. "Having a child suddenly forced us to think about our choices as they would affect him.

"Also, our jobs kept us pretty stressed out. This was around 2000, and e-mail had really caught on. My inbox kept filling up and, when I tried not to answer it, that backfired.
"Heather and I both felt that the technology that was supposed to make our lives easier was making us feel enslaved."

Heather Ward was trying to make the world a better place by working at a justice-reform think tank. But travel kept her away from home a lot. Within a two-year period, she visited every continent, except Australia and Antarctica.

Pangs of guilt

Having to turn her firstborn over to the care of near strangers during the workday caused pangs of guilt and anxiety as well. She felt chained to her computer and cell phone and was troubled by her absolute reliance on technology.

"Not many people seem to question all this technology," Heather Ward said. "We all assume this is right, because it's what everyone does. And it's the only way to do your job.

"It's the only way to keep up, keep earning your income so you can keep your apartment and all the stuff that you like to have. So when you think about letting go of even one aspect of that modern life, the rest of the house of cards can fall.

"I think that's why we looked for such a radical change. We couldn't keep doing what we were doing and not have e-mail, the car, the commute or the television. The whole thing had to shift."

I read this part of the article as an introduction to my sermon Sunday evening on Leviticus 25, noting that even secular people (the spiritual convictions of the Wards is not mentioned in the article; I assume they are not believers) know deep down their need for Sabbath and for rest (expressed by the Wards in their personal revolt against technology).

In the Old Testament, there is the provision of a weekly Sabbath (one day in seven, see Lev 23:1-3); a Sabbath year (every seventh year, see Lev 25:1-7); and a year of Jubilee when debts are cleared, prisoners are freed, and a fresh start is given to all (every 50th year, see Lev 25:8-55).

In the New Testament, Christ declares the acceptable year of the Lord to be fulfilled in his person (Luke 4:16-21). He is our year of Jubilee, and the spirit of the Old Testament Sabbath continues in our marking his resurrection on the Lord’s Day.

What is the answer to the tyranny of modern convenience (unending email, cell phones, television programs, web-surfing, and text messages)? Running off to live a year without electricity and no email? Going Amish? How about starting with a day of rest in the Lord? A day of rest in Jesus, our Jubilee.

JTR

Vacation Reading

Back from vacation. In addition to swimming and twisting my ankle playing freeze tag in the surf with my kids, there was plenty of time for reading last week.

Theological works:

• Edward F. Hills, The King James Version Defended (Christian Research Press [original 1956] 2000).

Hills offers a classic defense of the Textus Receptus (the Greek basis for the KJV translation) as the authoritative ecclesiastical text providentially preserved by God.

• Maurice A. Robinson and William G. Pierpont, compilers, The New Testament in the Original Greek, Byzantine Textform 2005 (Chilton, 2005).

I read the Greek text last Spring and finally got around to reading the Appendix, Robinson’s article, "A Case for Byzantine Priority" (pp. 533-86). Robinson argues for the Byzantine text, over against the modern eclectic reconstruction of the Greek text.

• John MacArthur, Because the Time is Near (Moody, 2007).

The subtitle is "John MacArthur Explains the Book of Revelation." This work is intended for a popular audience. It presents MacArthur’s pre-tribulational, pre-millennial, dispensational reading of Revelation. For me it solidified how the dispensational approach super-imposes an end times scheme on the text that does not emerge on its own. I plan to write a longer review later.

Children’s historical works:

• Bruce Blivens, Jr., The American Revolution (Random House, 1958).

Wonderful overview of the American Revolution in the classic Landmark series.

• Hazel Wilson, The Story of Lafayette (Grosset & Dunlap, 1952).

Solid overview of the life of the French patriot in the Signature series.

• Edith Gray Pierce, Horace Mann: Our Nation’s First Educator (Lerner, 1972).

Interesting 1970s propaganda on the virtues of the Unitarian Mann and how he escaped the evangelical preaching of his youth to champion public schools free from religious entanglements. I did not realize that Mann had been the founding president of ultra-liberal Antioch College, which folded this year.

JTR

Spot and Drum

On vacation this week at Topsail Island, NC: (1) On the corner of Spot and Drum; (2) Sam and Lydia and cousin Emma; (3) Emma Anderson Chapel at Topsail.

JTR

Exposition of Jude: Part 6 of 25

Note: This is an occasional, verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Jude. Previous commentaries may be viewed by clicking on the "Jude Exposition" label below.

Jude 1:6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;

In Jude 1:5 we heard the sobering word that after the Exodus God destroyed those coming out of Egypt who did not believe. The theme of judgement continues in v. 6. God has authority to judge not only men but also the angels.

Jude assumes an underlying narrative that we must admit we know little about. At some point in history, in an incident not clearly described in Scripture, some of the angels apparently rebelled against God’s good design by not keeping "their proper domain." Some speculate that passages like Isaiah 14:12-14 (beginning, "How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!") refer to this cosmic, angelic rebellion. This may be, but we must be careful not to tread beyond the sure boundaries of Scripture into unfruitful speculation. The Bible does not tell us everything we possibly could know. It tells us everything we need to know to make us "wise for salvation" (2 Tim 3:15).

Whatever the circumstances of their rebellion, it is clear that God soon subdued these rebel angels, and that he holds them for a final day of judgement. They are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness" awaiting "the judgement of the great day." In 2 Peter 2:4 we likewise read that "God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus] and delivered them into the chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgement."

The warning Jude impresses upon his hearers is that the false teachers, "certain men who have crept in unnoticed" (v. 4), face a similar fate as the rebellious angels. If God did not spare angels, he will not spare men. These false teachers have also left their "proper domain." They distort the truth of God. Their end will be judgement at the "great day" (likely a reference to the second coming of Christ, described as "the day of Jesus Christ" in Phil 1:6 and "the day of the Lord" in 1 Thess 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10).

In addition to this dire warning, the believer may also breathe a sigh of relief. Thanks to the righteous life and atoning death of Christ, "God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess 5:9).

Practical application:

• If God did not spare these angels, why would he save sinful men?
  
• Have you ever considered that at the time of Jesus’ second coming, not only men but also angels will be judged by Christ? Are you ready to stand before the judgement seat of Christ (see Rom 14:10; 2 Cor 5:10)?

JTR

(Evangel article 8/2/07)

Sudden Reminders of Mortality

Though I am not in general an avid supporter of my undergraduate alma mater (to know why, read this book), I do like to follow its sports teams. It was a real shock to read the news this week of the sudden death of Wake basketball coach, Skip Prosser, at age 56 (the quad was rolled in his honor). It serves as another reminder, if we needed it, that "the grass withers and the flower fades" (Isa 40:8) and that no man knows his time (Ecc 9:12). Somehow people are not supposed to die in places where you spent your youth. Tomorrow afternoon I will get another reminder of our frailty as I lead a funeral service for a 91 year old woman.

JTR

Check out the newest Geico ad

Thanks again to Steve Hills for sending me this link for the newest Geico ad. I also like the post on the same site, "TULIP VBS brings shocking response from parents."

Smiles, JTR

Pausing to give thanks for the Reformers

Another Hungary trip reflection.

At the end of the week, we took a Saturday (7/7) trip into Budapest. While there we visited the Szent Matyas Templom in the Buda Castle district. This ancient church was the site of the coronation of Istvan (Stephen) the first Christian king of Hungary a thousand years ago. It was converted into a mosque when the Turks controlled Hungary. Legend has it that the battle to retake the building was turned by an apparition of Mary to its Muslim defenders.

While inside we visited an upstairs church museum which contained numerous relics, including a shriveled foot of some saint and a tooth from St. Francis of Assisi.

Before we left the dark, cavernous sanctuary, I had to pause to give thanks for men like Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers who recovered the gospel and proclaimed it throughout Europe and into places like Hungary. What courage it must have taken to boldly preach Scripture and proclaim its focus on Jesus as the one Mediator between God and men rather than on Mary and the saints! What incredible superstitions they must have encountered with the truth of God’s Word!

JTR

"Tank" Parents

The Daily Progress had an interesting article yesterday about UVA’s orientation for parents. UVA administrators are concerned about college student parents who are too involved in the lives of their children. Whereas they used to speak about "helicopter" parents who hover over their children, they now speak of "tank" parents who want to be on the ground with their children.

Reflections: What’s wrong with parents hovering over their children or being on the grond with them, especially when they are a mere 18, 19, or 20 years old? Do university administrators expect parents to pay thousands of dollars in tuition, room, and board for the education of their children and then not hold any expectations for the quality of their child’s experience? If parents are not to hover, and the university abdicates any in loco parentis role, who is responsible for these young adults? The implied answer, of course, is that they are to act like autonomous, independent adults. These are the same administrators who will later lament the problems of sexual harrassment, bigotry, and under-age drinking by young adults on campus.

The same day of the article, I had my Monday staff meeting with our interns. We are reading J. R. Miller’s book Home-Making (originally published in 1882; reprinted by Vision Forum, 2004-06), discussing a chapter each week. Our chapter for Monday was "The Children’s Part," and it could not have expressed a more diametrically opposite view than that of the UVA administrators.

Miller encourages children (even into young adulthood) to seek the counsel of their parents:

The advice of godly and loving parents never wrecks souls. Thousands are wrecked because they will not be guided by it, but none by following it. The children that speak every thought, every hope, every ambition, every plan, every pleasure in the ear of their parents and consult them on every matter, will live safely. At the same time they will confer great happiness upon their parents by confiding so fully in them, for it is a great grief to parents when a child does not confide in them and turns away to others with the sacred confidence of his heart (pp. 133-34).

Long live "tank" parents.

JTR

A Hunger to Hear God's Word

Adapted from Call to Worship on Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Last week I drove by a local bookstore and noticed a long line of people flowing down the sidewalk. They were waiting for a ticket to be able to purchase the much-hyped new release in a popular series of juvenile fiction.

Seeing that line led me to ponder our hunger for reading the Word of God. Do we have as strong a desire to read the Holy Scriptures as these have to read a work of fiction?

It also reminded me of the scene recorded in Nehemiah 8 when the people of Israel returned from exile in Babylon:

Nehemiah 8:1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. 3 Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

Can you imagine being so hungry to hear the Word of God that you would gather with a throng of people "as one man" to hear "the Book of the Law of Moses" read "from morning till midday"? Some of those in that square had gone years in exile without hearing and understanding the Word of God. They were starving to hear a word from the Lord.

Each Lord’s Day when we gather for worship we are declaring to the world that we hunger to hear and receive God’s truth. May God make us attentive to the hearing of his Word.

JTR

Evangel article 7/24/07.

A Family Trip Over the Mountain

A couple of years ago, we started a tradition of family day trips on summer Fridays--my official day off from work. I found that if I stayed home I ended up working, studying, emailing, etc.

Last Friday, our family took a trip Westward over the mountain. We hiked Humpback Rocks on the Skyline Drive and walked though the Appalachian farm display. Llewellyn bought "Living with Chickens" in the park bookshop to know better how to care for our brood.

We then drove over to the Cheese Shop in Stuarts Draft. You have to love this little Mennonite owned store with all its unique goods and natural foods. I also like the Scripture sign outside the business. You see these signs all over the little town. Quite a different culture over in this area.

We then stopped in at the P. Buckley Moss Museum, which I did not realize was free to visit. It was a good family day.

JTR

Pastor Lajos

It is hard to describe the energy of Pastor Racz Lajos (The first name is "Lajos"; Hungarians place last name first and first name last). I said the other day that if he had not been a Pastor I think he would likely have been a very successful business-man. Lajos has an entepreneurial spirit which aids him immensely as a church planter. Lajos has drawn a cadre of other young families to his ministry. He typically trains them for a season and then sends them out to plant churches.

I first met Lajos 17 years ago when he was in his early 20s and a student at the Hungarian Baptist Seminary (then located on the Rozsadomb in Buda-it has since moved to its pre-WW2 location in Pest, reclaiming the building which the communist government took away without compensation and gave over to the North Koreans to use as their embassy). Lajos was constantly on the phone while we were there.

He is married to Mariann and God has blessed them with four children (a son Manase; twin girls, Ana-Abia and Priscilla; and a newborn son Jakim). Both Lajos and Mariann have a Jewish ethnic heritage. One thing I noticed while in Bicske was that it seemed the families (especially of believers) were larger than I had remembered when I lived in Budapest. It may just have been that we were in the country and not in the city, but I do not think this was the only factor for the believers. Hungary, like the rest of Europe, is facing rapid population decline. I was talking to one young couple in the church (Ilona and Miki) who have two infant children and telling them that some Christian families in the US are also getting larger and some have embraced this as a strategy for long-term culural influence ("if you can't beat 'em, outbreed 'em) not to mention obedience to the Gen 1:28 mandate.

JTR

The Miracle of a New Baptist Meeting House in Bicske, Hungary

We were all impressed with the new church building at Bicske. When we were there four years ago the church's only building was a small structure about the size of a double wide trailer that had previously been used as a pub and a horse stable. They were in the process of building a new building with their own labor when a German company came along who wanted to buy their property--located near the main highway between Budapest and Vienna and on the main road into Bicske. They negotiated selling a parcel of their land and having the German company construct a brand new building. Pastor Lajos could only describe it as a great 'csoda' (miracle). Bicske, a town of 10,000, now has a Catholic church building, a Reformed (Presbyterian) church building, and an impressive Baptist meeting house. The building holds a sanctuary, offices, and apartments to be used for housing faculty for the Bible College. It also stands out visibly from the highway.

JTR

Back from Hungary

Photos:

My daughter Hannah and I in front of the Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest.

JPBC-ers and Bicske-ers overlooking the town of Tatabanya, Hungary.

OK, Howard I'm finally getting around to a new posting. We're back from Hungary. Today is the first day that I've felt like I had a real handle on my jet lag. This was my third trip back to Hungary after living there from 1990-92. I made previous trips in 2000 (to Bekes) and in 2004 (to Bicske). Every time I go back it seems the country has changed more and more from those early post-communist days of 1990-92.

Here is part of this week's Evangel article:

We are back from our trip to Hungary. Here are a few snapshot highlights:

• Having fellowship with the members of Bicske Baptist Church;
• Seeing the church’s beautiful new building;
• Meeting Laci, a young man who is studying in the Slavic Gospel Association sponsored Bible School that meets in the church building;
• Watching our JPBC team lead the outreach English camp and listening as team members shared their personal testimonies of faith in Jesus Christ with our students each day;
• Watching Dalton States, Jesse Scruggs, and Hannah Riddle blend with Hungarian children in the universal languages of friendship and play;
• Standing on a scenic overlook of the nearby town of Tatabanya and listening as Pastor Lajos tells us this town of 70,000 people has only about 200 believers in a handful of small churches;
• Talking with a teen in our camp who emphatically told me he did not believe in God;
• Sitting at an evening campfire cookout and listening as Pastor Lajos tells how some Hungarian Baptist Pastors were imprisoned and separated from their families under communism and how he was berated by his school teachers for going to church;
• Praying with Americans and Hungarians in the town of Tata, Hungary and in Komarom, Slovakia and praying for God to raise up a people to praise his name in these towns where there is very little evangelical presence;
• Seeing several of our camp students attend worship on Sunday morning at Bicske for the first time;
• Listening as Chip Case and Amy Scruggs presented powerful personal testimonies in Sunday morning worship at Bicske.

More Hungary reflections later.

JTR