Magination Run Wild

Ah, liberal Christians.

How they do let their Maginations run wild sometimes.

You’ll see what I mean in a minute.

First, a little history ...

Lining Things Up

The Maginot Line was a massive French fortification that ran 943 miles between the Alps and the English Channel. The brainchild of Minister of War André Maginot, it was designed to repel attacks from Germany. The horrors of the trench warfare in the first “War to End All Wars” had persuaded the French of the need for better national defenses. The Maginot Line had everything going for it: super thick concrete, steel-wedge gun turrets that were impervious to bombardment, large, air-conditioned living areas for troops, supply storehouses, its own railway …

Doesn’t Always Mean What We Think It Means (9)

On at least six occasions, both Peter and Paul encourage Christians to be sober.

I use the word “encourage”, but they actually command it; we should not view sober Christianity as optional. Nevertheless, there is no high-handedness about the instruction: in Paul’s case at least, it’s “Let us be sober.” All believers from apostles to babes in Christ need to adopt this attitude, whatever it might involve. Paul too was striving to achieve that which he commanded.

Of course, to be sober we need to have a scriptural idea what sobriety involves.

That Wacky Old Testament (17)

Worldwide, 50 million people live in slavery. Yes, in 2024.

India has 11 million slaves, China almost six million. In fact, 86% of the world’s 195 countries still have some form of modern slavery, including the US. 22 million of our world’s slaves are in forced marriages, 40% of these being children (defined as below the age of eighteen).

It gets worse.

Anonymous Asks (323)

“What should be the focus of a Christian funeral?”

I always remember attending a Roman Catholic funeral at which a sobbing relative hurled herself on the casket, her howls of grief painfully and embarrassingly audible in an almost-empty room with high ceilings and a lot of stained glass. She probably lay there for less than a minute, but it seemed like forever.

I’ve never seen that sort of thing at an evangelical memorial, but you can never rule it out.

The Way to the Top

Once there was a facet who aspired to be world’s biggest diamond.

Once there was a telescope lens who thought he should be the object of the astronomer’s eye.

Once there was a cog who thought he was a factory.

And once there was a created being who said, “I will make myself like the Most High.” When he fell, he took the whole world with him.

Mining the Minors: The Post-Game Show

So then, 212 posts. I almost hate to see the end of it. This series might be the most fun I’ve ever had writing about the word of God for free in my spare time (of which I currently have way, WAY too much). I’m not sure how many of our readers benefited from it, but nobody benefited from it more than I did.

I started with the idea that Andy Stanley is wrong about the Old Testament’s irrelevance to the Christian message. I’m more convinced than ever of that. The gospel is anchored to an Old Covenant narrative and worldview, and the Christian “case in the marketplace”, as Stanley refers to it, depends on respecting and making use of the entire story God has told the world concerning his Son.

Too Hot to Handle: God and the Child of Divorce

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

Larry Taunton has a link up to this Washington Post story about divorce and its effects on the next generation. The Public Religion Research Institute says children of divorced parents are significantly (12%) more likely to become non-religious adults.

Tom: You’ve taught thousands of teens in your thirty-ish years in the education system, IC. What do you think: does that sound plausible?

Immanuel Can: Absolutely. I believe I’ve seen it in the changes in behavior of the average student, but more tellingly, in their personal reporting of their feelings and attitudes.

Tom: In your experience, how would that show itself?

A Profound Apology

So I was supervising some young Christians, along with at least one unbeliever. They were viewing an apologetics video. It was one that had been professionally produced — you know, the kind that had enough money put into it to reasonably approximate Hollywood or TED Talk production values. Their local church had made it available, off that Christian video-streaming service that some churches seem to like.

The topic was “Why Does God Allow Suffering and Tragedy?”

What a great topic, I thought. Whether you’re a Christian or an unbeliever, that’s got to be something you’ve asked yourself, because you don’t live long in this world without running into some kind of suffering. If you’re fortunate, it’s small; but it’s astonishing how huge the things some children face can be.

Sin-Words in Scripture

There are many ways to go wrong in this life. Accordingly, the writers of God’s word use a broad spectrum of vocabulary to deal with the concept of sin. Listening to a recent recorded message from the son of a good friend, it occurred to me that it might be useful to start compiling a biblical “sin dictionary” to try to cover all the bases.

That turns out to be a little more difficult than one might think.

Marriage and Education

As a pastor, Doug Wilson is concerned about an over-reaction to egalitarian feminism that disparages the idea of providing daughters with a “rigorous education”. Later commentary suggests Doug’s idea of rigorous means something like a “general liberal arts education … at the college level” (university in Canada). He feels discouraging one’s daughters from pursuing such an education is “a really bad idea”.

Accordingly, Doug recently banged out seven theses on the subject to make his case.

Anonymous Asks (322)

“Who is the ‘friend who sticks closer than a brother’?”

The line comes from a section of Proverbs attributed to King Solomon. Many Hebrew proverbs state a truism twice in slightly different words. Other times, the two statements contrast. Either way, the first line usually provides a clue to the interpretation of the second, or vice versa. In interpreting proverbs or poetry, I try to let whichever part is easiest to understand guide me through the bit that’s a little tougher.

In this case … hoo boy, good luck.

The Triumph of the Cross

Some time back, I remember hearing a famous pop singer prating on about being “born this way”. To her, the package with which she entered this world constituted an excuse for anything she might do as an adult that others might consider immoral, perhaps including God himself. To be “born this way” explains and justifies all.

In that respect, she spoke for much of her generation.

Mining the Minors: Malachi (9)

New Testament quotations and allusions to Malachi are primarily (though not exclusively) related to the role of John the Baptist as the herald of Messiah who would make ready for the Lord “a people prepared”, tying together the two halves of our Bibles and bridging the 400-year revelation gap between the Testaments.

Let’s go through these in as close to chronological order as possible.

Too Hot to Handle: Where Would You Like to be Judged?

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

Not all religions acknowledge coming judgment, but Christianity does.

Tom: As we discussed last week, Immanuel Can, the Bible teaches there is both a general judgment of sinners and a separate, distinct judgment of Christians. That division was not clearly traced in our Old Testaments, and most Jews know next to nothing of it.

But it’s there in our New Testaments, and getting rid of it involves ripping out whole pages of Paul’s epistles.

Immanuel Can: Lay it out for us, Tom: what’s the difference?

Attack of the Killer Reason

“Chaaaaarge!”

A half-dozen knights leap over a hill to attack a rabbit.

Unexpectedly, the little white bunny turns and attacks the knights, killing some and wounding others.

“Run away! Run away!”

Scattering shields and armaments, the terrified knights clamber back over the hillock, and duck in shame.

*   *   *   *   *

It’s a famous scene called “The Killer Rabbit” from the 1975 comedy feature film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’m reminded of it every time I converse with a Calvinist.

“Shut Up, He’s God”

“Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?”

In Romans 9, Paul teaches that God has mercy on whomever he wills and hardens whomever he wills. The apostle then notes a potential objection: “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” I’ve quoted the apostle’s response above: “Who are you to answer back to God?” In essence, God made you, and it is his right to do as he pleases with you. As the Gospel Coalition’s Justin Dillehay puts it, Paul “questions the critic’s right to even lodge the objection”.

Luther and Jezebel

October 31 is Halloween to some. This year, it’ll also be the 507th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. That’s as good a day as any to celebrate the beginning of Protestantism, though it took another dozen years or so to formally organize the new denomination.

It was not the first major split in church history, nor was it the last, but Catholics and Protestants have been sparring about it verbally (and sometimes physically) ever since.

Anonymous Asks (321)

“I just graduated Bible college without finding a partner. Would taking a pastorate improve my prospects?”

Having only just graduated, and being presumably somewhere in your mid-twenties, if your primary concern is attracting women, I recommend starting a rock band. That’s a sure-fire profession for wannabe chick magnets. A pastorate, not so much.

Of course, if you can’t sing or write music, that’s a bit of a problem. Let’s work with your original suggestion a little.

Inequality and Envy

Blessings are unequal. Love is unequal. Reward and punishment are unequal. Even trials and tribulations in this life are — you guessed it — unequal. (Perhaps we should be grateful for that last one.)

To some, God’s economy looks a tad irregular, perhaps even unjust — at least, by the measure of man. Others rationalize the plain wording of scripture away, or deny it by hypothesizing that God actually does treat everyone equally, but just in neat, invisible ways we can’t observe or quantify, a theory for which neither life nor the Bible provides any evidence. Still others don’t read their Bibles enough to notice the issue.

Mining the Minors: Malachi (8)

A word of thanks to any of our readers who have made it through even a portion of our massive Mining the Minors project as we begin winding down the series. To date, we have posted a grand total of 210 straight Saturdays, or over four years, on the messages of the twelve Minor Prophets, a task I felt many questions about attempting back in September of 2020.

At the time, I wondered if such a lengthy series might not be cut short by the Lord’s return. I expect that’s still possible, and if not this series, perhaps the next.