Thanksgiving and Evolution

I wrote the following for our local paper.

In an increasingly ungrateful society, I find it interesting that Thanksgiving Day is still being observed this year. When the thanksgiving observance was first instituted, there was no question as to whom people were to express their thanks. Gratitude to the Sovereign Creator was considered to be the appropriate sign of humility and maturity. Only the proud and immature would not want to recognize their dependence.

As we watch our society continue its drift away from acknowledging the true God as Creator of the universe, I marvel that even though the unscientific and illogical theory of evolution has mutated over the years, people are still drawn to that “explanation” of the universe’s origin. Why is that? It is no secret that the early proponents of evolution liked this bankrupt theory because it allowed them to live the way they wanted to live without having to give an account at the end of their days. Evolution is about not having a Creator who determines the rules for living. And if there is no Creator, then there are no absolute rules of conduct. And if there are no rules of conduct, then I am free to live as I please. No one can tell me how to live. Welcome to modern America.

On the one hand evolution provides no one to whom we can be thankful. One does not and cannot thank blind chance or millions of years of purposeless stumbling. One is not thankful or accountable to the Great Nothing of evolution. The Great Nothing offers no eternal hell or endless punishment for those who reject it. At the same time, the Great Nothing will not comfort you when your spouse or child dies. The Great Nothing will not strengthen you against temptation. The Great Nothing will not forgive your sins. The Great Nothing does not control all things toward a specific purpose. The Great Nothing offers no hope and no guidance.

On the other hand, the Creator God of the Bible offers hope, comfort, direction, forgiveness, strength, and accountability. It may be true that some versions of broader Christianity seem to offer little more than evolution. That’s in part because they have rejected the Biblical accounts of creation in Genesis 1-3. Throw out the Creator, and you throw out what He offers humanity in and through His Son, the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

God created all things by means of His desirous will (Revelation 4:11). It brought Him pleasure to speak this universe into existence out of nothing. It brought Him pleasure to send His Son to die on the cross and rise from the dead so that our sins might be forgiven (Isaiah 53:10). It brings Him pleasure when His creatures trust him in the darkest of times (1st Peter 4:19). It pleases Him when His creatures turn in humble gratitude and say, “Thank You.”

You're Not So Humble As You Think You Are

A recent series of lessons in Family Bible Time at Calvary focused on pride and humility.  Perhaps that is what caused me to notice this quote from C.S.Lewis in "The Horse and His Boy." At the end of chapter 10, the Hermit says to Bree, the talking Narnian horse:

My good Horse, you've lost nothing but your self-conceit. No, no, cousin. Don't put your ears back and shake your mane at me.  If you are really so humbled as you sounded a minute ago, you must learn to listen to sense.  You're not quite the great Horse you had come to think, from living among poor dumb horses.  Of course you were braver and cleverer than them.  You could hardly help being that.  It doesn't follow that you'll be anyone very special in Narnia.  But as long as you know you're nobody special, you'll be a very descent sort of Horse, on the whole, and taking one thing with another. (emphasis added)

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Leave It In The Car Next Time!

It has been my unpleasant experience to observe various pastors using their cellphones in a nonsensical fashion.  Things really need to change.

One pastor answered his cell phone in the middle of his sermon at a mid-week service.  Yes, he later apologized and attempted to explain why he did so, but he no longer had as good of reception with his audience as he did with his phone.  "The Word's important, folks, ... but, say... can you hang on just a sec'? I gotta take this.... Now, where were we?"

Another instance was at a burial service.  Scanning the crowd to see if everyone had finally arrived, I spied a pastor, standing not too great a distance from the coffin, on his cellphone chatting away. "Yep... Nope... At a cemetery... Should be done pretty soon... I don't know... Later..."

Guys, these things ought not to be.  Shut 'em  off or leave them in the car.  You are not married to your cellphone, nor is it a permanent appendage to your ear.  Shame on us for setting such examples to the flock. What do such behaviors tell the sheep (and the goats) about our priorities?

Suggested Prayers Regarding Sin

Thomas Manton (1620-1677) wrote regarding the relationship of prayer and sin in his commentary on James (Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.224):

Lord, if ever sin overcomes me, let it be a burden and not a pleasure. (p. 224)


Lord, deliver me from one evil person, and it will suffice." (p. 225)

We Bury One of Our Own Today

This afternoon we will participate in a funeral service for Stan, a dear friend, discipler, and church member. We gathered last evening at the funeral home in his hometown to express sympathy to his family, as is the custom of our region.

Stan farmed his entire life, but from the turnout at the funeral home, one would have thought a local dignitary of some sorts has passed away. A constant line of people, young and old, patiently waited to shake hands and exchange hugs with his wife and children.

Today we will seek to exalt Stan's God in the service.  I will be preaching (more than teaching) from John 8:31-59 on the nature of genuine faith. The Gospel was a precious matter to Stan.  He gospelized frequently during the last half of his earthly life.  He was born of God at the age of 40, and sought to share that same Good News with others till the day he died.

Following the indoor service, we will carry his body across the road to bury this man who fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the Faith.  His body will be laid  to rest among the remains of his great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and siblings. But as he would say, "Don't look for me here.  I've gone to be with Jesus."

He stood for Truth long after various pastors backpedaled. He challenged us all to be truthing in love. Well done, my friend. Till we meet again.

Isaiah Series Updated

Our church's web site was recently updated to include the latest notes from my series in the book of Isaiah.  I have completed chapters 40-43, which outlines can be found here. They form a basic outline for me to teach from, but by no means are a restrictive manuscript that I slavishly follow.

One of My Friends Died Today

Toward the end of a long 14+ hours day of work yesterday, a decades-long friend suffered a brain aneurysm while spreading manure to the glory of God while driving his old tractor. He was found unconscious on that tractor and taken by ambulance to a local hospital, and then air-lifted to the regional hospital. He entered his eternal home this morning just before 7 AM. Well done, and well run, my dear friend.

This man stimulated my life spiritually beyond most people in my circle of acquaintances.  He farmed to the glory of God.  He raised cattle to the glory of God. He raised hogs to the glory of God.  He cleaned hog barns to the glory of God. He climbed and repaired silos to the glory of God.  He handed out church bulletins on Sunday mornings to the glory of God.  He talked regularly with young children and teens at church to the glory of God.  He took people out to eat to the glory of God. He taught himself to play guitar and sang with his dear wife at numerous nursing homes to the glory of God. He ate deserts at church fellowship meals to the glory of God. He loved his wife to the glory of God.

He was in the the Word and prayer every morning, and allowed that Word to dwell richly within him. He consistently grew in Christ-likeness as few people I know. Perhaps this is in part because one of his most frequent early-morning prayers was, "Lord, give me wisdom.  Use me today for Your glory." When I grow up, I wanna be like Stan.

Where Are The Alert Elders?

Hebrews 13:17 is one of those texts found in the NT that gives to us what the ekklesia is commanded to do toward elders as well what elders are to be doing. We have here the shepherd-flock relationship precisely defined and described. Some time back here at Calvary I taught through this passage. During that study we learned the following:

1. God gives specific commands for the flock to obey--be persuaded by and yield to the elders (i.e. assent to their teaching and defer to their rule, even if, or especially if, your opinion is contrary.  Quite obviously, if your elder is teaching  something clearly unBiblical that is a different matter for a different post.)
2. God gives specific leaders for the flock to obey--the ones leading you (i.e. those who are leading through the teaching of the Word as the previous elders had done in 13:7)
3. God gives a specific reason why the flock is to obey these commands--because they are keeping alert on behalf of your souls as those who will give an account (i.e. the flock will not stay alert to surrounding dangers, but leaders must; see also Acts 20:28-31 for Paul's warning and personal example)
4. God gives a specific purpose for being persuadable and yieldable--in order that they may be doing this with joy and not with sighing, because this is unprofitable to you (i.e. recalcitrant sheep bring inner groaning to the shepherds, which is turn hinders the intended result)
   

Oh that God would enable us as shepherds as stay alert in these dangerous times.  Oh that God would enable our flocks to be persuadable and yieldable to the faithful teaching of His Word.

Belief in Plenary Inspiration of the Word of God

John Owen (1616-1683) addressed the religious enthusiasts of his day with A Defense of Sacred Scripture Against Modern Fanatacism [sic] written originally in Latin in 1659 (published by Soli Deo Gloria in 1994, though I have the 6th printing from 2007.)

On pp. 827-833 Owen lists 10 points referring to Scripture that refute "inner light" enthusiasts.

1. If the revelation of the divine mind which is made in the Scriptures is perfect and absolutely complete, then what need can there possibly be for new revelations, imagined or real, of inner light, spiritual irradiation, uncontrolled enthusiasm, heavenly inspiration, angelic colloquies, or what-not, to instruct us in the ways of God and our duty?  What aid is there to our salvation, or benefit to the greater glory of God?
2. The Bible operates in a unique way, having its own peculiar manner of operation and efficiency, working on the inner and moral nature, which is adapted to be effected by such a written revelation.
3. The Holy Spirit very seriously condemns and rejects all attempted additions to the words of the Bible, of whatever kind they be, and along with them necessarily all of these supposed ways and means to the knowledge of God and communion with Him of which these fanatics boast.
4. When God so frequently enjoins upon us and proclaims that we must pay diligent attention to the Scriptures (His Word), and that lest we be snatched from or turned aside from the true and correct knowledge of Him by the efforts of deceiving spirits, new revelations, groundless imaginings, false teachers, boasts of dreams or visions, angelic communications, or any such enthusiastic manifestations, then the rule which He proposes as antidote to all such must be perfect.
5. That to which we are nowhere, never, sent by God in order to learn the directions for our duty cannot be any rule, principle, canon, or (if I may so speak) directory of faith, knowledge, or teaching or obedience.
6. For all things which it is needful to examine and prove, we are required to do so by the touchstone of the Scripture, and the test of all is their agreement or otherwise with the written Word.  What fails to so agree cannot be considered, individually or collectively, as rules for faith, obedience, or the worship of God.
7. The great uncertainty of the teaching and practice of all these fanatics.  What is under every aspect confused, uncertain, and contradictory must be fallacious.
8. From our knowledge of the devices of Satan.  He is a stranger to all religion who has no insight into how that father of lies has, from the foundation of the world, used the mask of pretended revelations and interior inspiration to patch together his cunningly devised fables and false reasonings, for the sole purpose of training men in the paths of deceit, and so dragging them down to eternal destruction.
9. In praising their inner light we, in fact, see these fanatics dragging forth from darkness into the sunlight false doctrines, things heretical and contrary to the Word of God, matters pernicious and blasphemous.
10. It is evidence of no small importance to consider how these enthusiasts, following their leaders and acting out their principles in rejecting the rule of the written Word, are daily and in so many places impelled to destructive ways, to wicked idolatry, to fornication, blasphemy, and to wanton vandalism.

Looks like these things could also apply to some within the continuationist realm of our day.

Reminders for Shepherding Theologians

In Book 6, Chapter 9 of his book Biblical Theology, John Owen (1616-1683) concludes his chapter and book with six reminders to true theologians. (see pp. 699-703)

First, everyone who devotes himself to the study of holy literature should keep it firmly before his mind, in all of his reading and meditation, that the all-holy God is, in an [sic] special manner, close to him as he works....

Second, it is in the student's own interest that he carefully weigh up and monitor what progress he is making both (a) in all of the truth which he is busy digging out of the Word, and (b) in acceptable worship of God....

Third, the student of theology must demonstrate by his life the absolute authority of the Scriptures, and show himself devoutly submitting his own will and judgment to the authority of the Bible in all matters....

Fourth, a great help for the investigation of truth is the diligent study of the Holy Scriptures in those languages in which they were written by the Holy Spirit....

Fifth, all of these activities, and any others of similar nature, are always to be preceded, accompanied, and closed by continuous and heart-felt prayer....

In addition to his studies, let the student keep up a regular and godly connection with those who practice holiness and true religion as demonstrated by gospel standards.