The Wise and the Fool in Controversy

I read a very good Proverb the other day:

"When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man,
The foolish either rages or laughs, and there is no rest." Prov. 29:9

This verse may be primarily referring to arbitration issues in court (see Dr. Bruce Walke's commentary), but I think that there is some truth here with regard to controversy in general be it: relational, doctrinal, political, etc...

Being wise does not mean that you avoid controversy, but wisdom is demonstrated in the way in which one handles controversy. Controversy will come to any person, but whether the person is wise or a fool is another story.

This verse says that foolish people laugh off controversy as if it is no big deal or they rage in anger and get overly worked up and take it too personally. A wise person doesn't rage or laugh. A wise person is sober and a wise person is joyfull and somehow walks that line well. I'm picturing the fool in two of the following ways: as a cable network commentator barking at someone and foaming at the mouth over the latest political issue or the a-theological hip pastor who doesn't give a rip about doctrine and just thinks biblical controversy's are meant for either endless sarcasm or perpetual passivity.

Being in a meaningful controversy means that there is no time for fun and games and constant cutsey-ness or for those that are going to shake with anger without listening to the issue at hand. The worst kinds of controvesy to be in is when someone is so furious that they don't listen to the other person or when one is so sarcastic and passive that you can tell that they really don't give a damn about you or the subject at hand and would just rather laugh you and that subject off.

Don't be that kind of person. It's possible to be wise in controversy, but no one should thrive on controversy. As the wise man, like the godly elder, is not "quarrelsome" (2 Ti. 2:24).

May God help me be wise in doctrinal controversy's, political controversy's, interpersonal controversy's, even legal controversy's, etc. This matters in your marriage, matters in your church, and matters in State. Wisdom cries out in the streets looking for people in controversy that are wise.

Francis Beckwith on President Obama's Abortion Comments

Justin Taylor posted a piece of President Obama's recent comments on abortion, and Francis Beckwith, Baylor Philosophy Professor and Senior Visiting Fellow at Norte Dame, made some comments after reading President Obama's quotes on Justin Taylor's blog. I found them very provoking and very needed.

President Obama:

"On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose.

While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.

On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere."

Professor Francis Beckwith:

"Apparently, the only way our daughters can be successful is if they are permitted to kill our grandchildren.

So, without surgery so that women can be like men, women are unequal to men. Thus, according to Obama, women are congenitally inferior unless they can have abortions.

I don't even think the worst chauvinists in the world have implied anything so outrageous."

Sometimes the assumptions of the pro-choice argument can be deconstructed from the inside out. Beckwith demonstrates this clearly and poignantly.

President Obama is right in that this is a "sensitive and divisive issue," yet I disagree that this means that the ultimate issue is coming together on finding ways to "reduce the need for abortion." That sentence does not work for anyone who believes that there is never a need for abortion.

"Need for abortion." "Need for abortion." Listen to what that is saying. It presupposes a belief and one that is antithetical to the pro-life position.

The belief and assumption that President Obama carries into his viewpoint of pro-choice is not unifying but divisive. Where one comes down on certain issues eliminates the possiblity of agreeable conclusions. I am united to eliminate (and see a decrease in) abortion, but not the "need" for it. This is not a common viewpoint, nor is it a unifying foundation that President Obama has laid.

However, I would be called narrow. I would be the one that is divisive, because the sentence is framed in such a way that anyone who disagrees with the assumptions of his "unifying" statement is forced into divisiveness. I think its better just to admit that both of us are divisive. President Obama elevates the choice of the born pregnant female over the unborn male-female, and I elevate the right to life of the unborn male-female over that of the choice of the born pregnant female. Of course, I have made just a ton of assumptions, of which I believe to be true, and so has our President.

I sincerely hope that President Obama's goal is truly to do all that he can to lessen abortion. Oftentimes, one's who hold the pro-choice position insist that they really do not want to see more abortions, but less. However, it is paragraphs like his that do not give me that impression. In his view, a born female choice is supreme, the unborn human or unborn potential human is secondary. In that model the goal is not to decrease abortion but to elevate choice. Let's not act like we agree on the assumptions.

It is possible to honor someone with who you vehemently disagree with. I do honor President Obama as my President, and in honor, I radically express my disagreement with him. Somehow this can be done without compromise and with civility.

Spirit & the Word - Calvin's Institutes 5

John Calvin: 

"But I answer, that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason.  For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.  The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delievered the message with which they were divinely intrusted...the only true faith is that which the Spirit of God seals on our hearts."  Institutes of Christian Religion, Vol. I, 72-73.

A Defective Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

"...in Acts 10.  We read in verse 44 that 'While peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.'  And if your doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not include this idea of the Holy Spirit falling upon people, it is seriously, grievously defective.  This, it seems to me, has been the trouble especially during this present century, indeed almost for a hundred years.  The whole notion of the Holy Spirit falling upon people has been discountenanced and discouraged, and if you read many of the books on the Holy Spirit you will find it is not even mentioned at all, a fact which is surely one of the prime explanations of the present state of the Christian church."

Joy Unspeakable, 115-116.

Honor and Pray for President Obama

(Image Source: Huffington Post)

The Survival of the "Dream"

Dr. Alveda C. King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, states:

"How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother."

Quoted via John Piper's sermon,"When is Abortion Racism?"

'Zona Cardinals, I Don't Have to Choose Another

Regarding the Card's playoff run, I wrote,

"I'm pulling for Arizona in the playoffs this year, but when they get kicked out I'll have to choose another."

Well, I don't have to choose another.

Can you say, "Larry Fitzgerald."

A Controversial Statement

The "Doctor":

"Let us put it as plainly as that: you can be baptized with the Spirit and not show the fruit of the Spirit..." Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit, 76

Think about that for a moment.

As a Christian, whether you agree or disagree with that statement will determine the way you handle and respond to certain revival movements and certain individual people, as well as, yourself.

Cultivating a Knowledge of God in the Heart - Calvin's Institutes 4

John Calvin,

"And here we must observe again...that the knowledge of God which we are invited to cultivate is not that which, resting satisfied with empty speculation, only flutters the brain, but a knowledge which will prove substantial and frutiful wherever it is duly perceived, and rooted in the heart." Insitutes of Christian Religion, Volume I, 57.

The World a Mirror to Behold God - Calvin's Institutes 3

John Calvin states,

"...we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him...first, wherever you turn your eyes, there is no portion of the world, however minute, that does not exhibit at least some sparks of beauty; while it is impossible to contemplate the vast and beautiful fabric as it extends around, without being overwhelmed by the immense weight of glory.  Hence, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, elegantly describes the visible worlds as images of the invisible (Heb. xi. 3), the elegant structure of the world serving us as a kind of mirror, in which we may behold God, though otherwise invisible."  The Institutues of the Christian Religion, Volume 1, 51.

Measure Yourself Against the Majesty of God - Calvin's Institutes 2

Calvin states,

"...men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God." 39

This measurement against God is not self-annihilating but leads to a true self-understanding.  As Calvin says earlier,

"...it is evident that man never attains to true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.  For (such is our innate pride) we always see ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity." 38

We cannot know ourselves until we know God.  If the self is put in first place all manner of folly follows.  The American passion for searching for self-meaning is self-destructive because the self cannot be found without relationship to God.

All quotes from John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Wisdom & Spirit

The religious leaders on the Council that Stephen was brought before in the book of Acts were:

"...unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking." Acts 6:10

Sophia and Pneuma! Wisdom and Spirit! How the church of Jesus Christ needs both!

I am stunned by Stephen's unbelievable knowledge of the Old Testament as he begins to preach, and of the power of God that rested upon him both in the conviction that was felt after his sermon (7:54) and the signs and wonders that were done before his sermon (6:8).

Stephen is indeed an unusual combination. May God raise up more unusual men!

Awkward Conversations with a Father-in-Law

Jacob the patriarch's conversation with his to be Father-in-law Laban:

"Then Jacob said to Laban, 'Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.'" Gen. 29:21

Sam Storms Definition of Idolatry

Dr. Sam Storms

"Anything and everything that to any degree whatsoever displaces the centrality of God in the human heart is idolatry."

From sermon "Seeing Feeling Doing and Speaking: A Simplified Missional Strategy," 11/16/08.

The Idolatry of False Teaching

Greg Beale:

"The last verse of 1 John says, 'Guard yourselves from idols.'  It is possible that he is referring to literal idols, but more likely he is summarizing the argument of the whole epistle of 1 John, which is a warning against believing the false teaching that Christ was not truly human or, in other instances, that Jesus was not fully God.  John is saying that when we trust in false teaching, which is a false substitute for truth, then we are guilty of idol worship.  The church must guard itself from venerating false theology as a substitute for the true."  We Become What We Worship, 284-285

Guarding oneself against worshipping idols is watching one's desires and one's beliefs.  If one's desires are craving something more than God it is an idol and a false god.   Also, if one is believing something different than what God has said in His Word one is trusting an idol and a false god.  

Therefore when you are checking your heart for idol worship check your desires and your beliefs.  What/Who am I desiring?  What/Who am I believing?

Adam A Failed Guardian of the Garden

GK Beale states:

"Adam failed in the task he was commissioned to do, which include not permitting anything unclean and antagonistic to God to enter into the Garden temple...Thus Adam did not guard the Garden, but allowed a foul snake to enter, which brought sin, chaos, and disorder into the sanctuary and into Adam and Eve's lives.  He allowed the serpent to rule over him rather than ruling over it and casting it out of the Garden."  We Become What We Worship, 132.

According to Beale's argument, Adam shouldn't have been surprised at the snake's appearance, but as subduer and ruler of the earth and keeper of the Garden, he should have removed the snake from the Garden.  

It makes me think: what snakes are in the garden I've been entrusted with?  Maybe "sins" haven't been committed yet, but is there a snake that I am overlooking in the garden of my life: my wife, my marriage, my schedule, etc...

It also provides another take on the seeds of the sin of Adam beginning not by a surprise visit of the serpent and conversation with Eve, but as the passive neglect of Adam not ruling and subduing as he should.

Simple & Sinful - Calvin's Institutes

I believe the Institutes of the Christian Religion will find its way often into my blog this year, as I have set forth in the task of reading it.  I am not alone in this.  The prefatory address to the massive Institutes is to Francis, King of the French, and in it Calvin offers reasons why he is writing.  One of them is because of the attack of "bad men" upon the doctrines in it and the the lack of "sound doctrine" in King Francis' realm.  A particular area of disagreement I have with Calvin in this first address is that he says his work 

"is written in a simple and elementary form adapted for instruction." Institutes of Christian Religion, 3.

Simple?  Elementary?  Ha!  If this is simple and elementary then almost all in the modern church are simple and elementary.  Well, no comment.  Lord, help us.

But most agreeable to my soul is that Calvin does not disagree with the opinion of those who are against his cause and the cause of the Reformers that they are indeed sinners and insignificant.  It is hard to call a Reformer like Calvin insignificant and sinful when it is the foundation of Calvin's theology.  He writes:

"We, indeed are perfectly conscious how poor and abject we are: in the presence of God we are miserable sinners, and in the sight of men most despised--we are (if you will) the mere dregs and off-scourings of the world, or worse, if worse can be named: so that before God there remains nothing of which we can glory save only his mercy, by which, without any merit of our own, we are admitted to the hope of eternal salvation..." Ibid, 5-6.

The Government Shall Be Upon His Shoulders

Some good words by NT Wright from his Christmas Eve sermon:

"‘Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders.’ Unless you sigh with relief at those words, you haven’t really been listening...

The election of Barack Obama has been hailed with wild delight around the world. Desmond Tutu sounded crazy with joy talking about him on the radio – even while being realistic about the fact that the black revolution he helped to inspire has failed to confront Robert Mugabe. Oprah Winfrey said on election night that there had ‘never been a night like this on the planet earth’, which may have been over-egging the Christmas cake just a little. The whole world was hungry for hope, and now Obama, who is indeed brilliant, charming, shrewd and very capable, is being told that the government of the world is upon hisshoulders, and we expect him to solve its problems. Poor man: no ordinary mortal can bear that burden. Nor should we ask it of him. The irrational joy and hope at his election only shows the extent to which other hopes have failed, making us snatch too eagerly at sudden fresh signs. And that can only be because we have forgotten the Christmas message, or have neutered it, have rendered it toothless, as though the shoulder of the child born this night was simply a shoulder for individuals to lean on rather than the shoulder to take the weight of the world’s government...

Only through deep devotion to the child who is born to us, the son who is given to us, can we make sure that the government really is upon his shoulders, and so prevent our good intentions being misdirected to serve our own ends, real or imagined. ‘O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing’: we come here tonight, aware that the kingdom Jesus came to bring needs to be worked out in the real and tough challenges that lie ahead of us globally, nationally and locally but aware, too, that if it is Jesus’ kingdom we are working out we cannot get enough of Jesus himself, cannot worship him enough, cannot ponder him enough, cannot invoke him enough, cannot love and adore him enough, cannot taste him enough."

Vision 2025

I was reading in the Global Prayer Digest, and found a wonderful vision by Wycliffe to have a translation of the Scriptures underway in every language by 2025.  It is called Vision 2025:

Wycliffe leaders challenged the Body of Christ to accelerate the pace. Vision 2025 was born. The goal? To see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by the year 2025. The ultimate goal—God’s Word accessible to all people, so that everyone has an opportunity to have an intimate and life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Pray that God would raise up translators to fulfill this vision, and pray for Wycliffe's many other needs.  Right now Wycliffe says that every 5 days a new translation project is begun!  What a wonderful calling it is to be a Bible translator.  You can give to Wycliffe as well to help them fulfill the financial needs that this vision requires.

NFL Playoff Predictions

The Divisional playoffs are set:

AFC: Baltimore vs. Tennessee and San Diego vs. Pittsburgh
NFC: Arizona vs. Carolina and Philadelphia vs. NY Giants

My predictions:

AFC championship: Baltimore vs. San Diego
NFC championship: Carolina vs. Philadelphia

What I'm rooting for:

AFC championship: Baltimore vs. San Diego
NFC championship: Arizona vs. NY Giants

I'd like to see Arizona versus San Diego in the Super Bowl, but that's not going to happen. I'm pulling for Arizona in the playoffs this year, but when they get kicked out I'll have to choose another. This is anyone's year. Carolina or Baltimore will probably win it all, but I will give the edge to Carolina as champions.

The wonderful thing about predictions is one gets to see how wrong one was. Good times.

Some Startling and Saddening Pornography Statistics

I've been reading some of the articles of a study regarding pornography that took place at Princeton by various scholars.  Some of the statistics in this study are very startling and very sad:

• Approximately one in four Internet search engines requests is related to pornography (Internet Pornography Statistics, 2008).

• Every second, there are approximately 28,258 Internet users viewing pornography (Internet Pornography Statistics, 2008).

• Every day there are approximately 116,000 online searches for child pornography (Internet Pornography Statistics, 2008).

• Approximately 30 percent of Internet pornography consumers are female (Internet Pornography Statistics, 2008)

• At the November 2002 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 62 percent of the 350 attendees said the Internet had been a significant factor in divorces they had handled during that year. It was further revealed that 68 percent of the divorce cases involved one party meeting a new love interest over the Internet; 56 percent of the divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic websites; and 33 percent of the divorce cases cited excessive time communicating in chat rooms (a commonly sexualized forum) (Dedmon, 2002).

• the majority of people struggling with sexual addictions and compulsivities involving the Internet are married, heterosexual males (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000).

Manning, Jill C, Ph.D., LMFT.  "The Impact of Pornography on Women" 

To make these stats hit home a little more look at it this way, during your lunch break 101,728,800 users are or had been viewing pornography.  Think about how many times you use Google or another search engine to search for whatever it is you search for, well, 25 percent of every search is for pornography.  30 out of a 100 women view pornography though studies show that they do not do so as compulsively as men.  Therefore pornography is not just a male problem.  Divorce is often influenced by pornographic use.  It effects many marriages nowadays negatively.  When you think of people who view pornography don't first think of young, adolescent and college-age single men, but think of married men probably with families.   Finally, sadly, child pornography is a major problem.