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Notes and Thoughts on Isaiah 65 / II Corinthians 5:17f

17 “ For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And joy in My people;
The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.
20 “ No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and another eat;
For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,
And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain,
Nor bring forth children for trouble;
For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD,
And their offspring with them.
24 “ It shall come to pass
That before they call, I will answer;
And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox,
And dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,”
Says the LORD.

This passage has been surrounded by a great deal of debate as to when we can anticipate such blessedness. Pre-millennialist insists that this description comes to pass in the Kingdom that Christ establishes once He returns. A-millennialists insist that this description comes to pass in the eschaton. Post-millenialist insist that all that Isaiah speaks of has been inaugurated by and in Christ, and so will come progressively in Christ as His Kingdom (His new creation of heaven and earth) like the Mustard seed, increasingly reflects what it has already established in an inaugurative fashion, with the consummation being the fulfillment of what has been inaugurated and all that is becoming true progressively.

The problem with the Pre-millennialist vision is that it hasn’t grasped the reality that Christ is King now (I Cor. 15:24-25, Col. 1:13, Mt. 28:18, Rev. 1:5, Eph. 1:22-23) and has inaugurated a Kingdom that has brought the age to come to overcome this present wicked age. Premillennialism fails to see that Christ’s inaugurated and present Kingdom is like leaven that will spread throughout this present wicked age so that the Kingdoms of this World will be the Kingdoms of the Christ. Pre-millennialism fails to see that Christ as King has brought the age to come and deposited it in the Church so that the Church, because it is the community of ‘the age to come’, is the ‘age to come’ equipping institution that sends forth its Captains to victoriously assault the gates of hell as those gates, protecting various realms and lacuna of this present wicked age, stand in usurping defiance against the Crown Rights of King Jesus and the extension of His Kingdom. In the Pre-millennial vision Isaiah 65 awaits some far future day because it can’t be true now because until Christ returns defeat is the expectation and lot of the community of the ‘age to come’ (The Church) .

The problem with the amillennialists vision as it pertains to Isaiah 65 is that the language in Isaiah 65 doesn’t fit the glorified state (consummation) and that is exactly what you will find the typical amillennialist arguing. First, in Isaiah’s description you have people still dying (vs. 20). I Cor. 15 teaches that death is the last enemy to be defeated, but defeated he will be in the glorified state. Therefore, contra amillennialism, Isaiah 65 can’t be describing the glorified state because in the glorified state people don’t die.

Second, just as Isaiah describes dying in this new heavens and new earth so he describes giving birth (23). I know of nobody who teaches that in the eternal state unmarried women (Matthew 22:30) will be giving birth.

Third, the amillennialist vision, like their pre-millennialist counterparts is one of defeatism. The amillennialist believes that the Satan and Christ’s Kingdoms grow together until the end, but they insist that the growth of Christ’s Kingdom is primarily Spiritual (read invisible) while conceding that the growth of Satan’s Kingdom is both Spiritual and Visible. According to the Amillennialist Christ’s Kingdom is keeping pace with Satan’s Kingdom but like Harvey the Rabbit nobody can see it. Amillennialism’s approach doesn’t correspond to Daniel’s Rock (Daniel 2) that crushes all other Kingdoms in absolute triumph, nor does it offer a reasonable explanation of how it can be that Satan’s Kingdom grows correspondingly to Christ’s Kingdom when one of the effects of Christ’s death was to plunder Satan’s goods (Mark 3:27).

27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

If the two Kingdoms are growing correspondingly how can it be said that Christ has plundered Satan’s Kingdom? In the Amillennial vision Isaiah 65 awaits the eschaton because it can’t be true now because until Christ returns cultural and civilizational defeat is the expectation and lot of the community of the ‘age to come’ (The Church).

In the Biblical (postmillennial) vision Isaiah 65 is a perfect picture of what Christ is accomplishing and will accomplish because of what Christ has accomplished. Postmillennialists see Isaiah 65 tracking well with New Testament passages like II Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself

Scholars such as Calvin, Torrance, Beale, and Bruce, find Isaiah 65:17f to be the conceptual background text for II Corinthians 5:17f. Note the parallel between the new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 65 and the new creation in II Corinthians. Note Isaiah’s mention of the “Former things” and St. Paul’s mention of the “ancient things.”

The thinking among some is that the idea of reconciliation that Paul mentions here is a overlapping idea of Isaiah’s vision of restoration. The idea being that as one is reconciled to Christ (II Cor. 5:17), one is placed into the new creation age which is the same restorational age that Isaiah speaks of in Chapter 65. We are reconciled in Christ who is the one who stands at the Head of this restored age of which Isaiah prophesies.

So what we find in II Cor. 5 is St. Paul’s expression that the Lord Christ is the one in whom the New Creation takes place and is the one in whom the inaugurated fulfillment of the Isaiah 65 restoration takes place. To be reconciled to Christ is to begin to live in the age to come that Isaiah describes.

Calvin can write,

“By these metaphors he promises a remarkable change of affairs; as if God has said that he has both the inclination and the power not only to restore His Church, but to restore it in such a manner that it shall appear to gain new life and to dwell in a new world. These are exaggerated modes of expression; but the greatness of such a blessing, which was to be manifested at the coming of Christ, could not be described in any other way. Nor does he mean only the first coming, but the whole reign, which must be extended as far as to the last coming.”

Five Centuries after Calvin, G. K. Beale could echo that Calvin sentiment by writing,

” … Against the Isaiah background both his (Christ’s) death and resurrection can be viewed as inaugurating the true Israel, the church, into the presence of God. We suggest that just as Christ, the true Israel, was separated from the Father because of His vicarious death on behalf of His people (II Cor. 5:14-15, 21) and was restored from the exile of death to a relationship with God by means of the resurrection, so likewise is the Church restored from the exile of sinful alienation through corporate identification with Christ…. Simply put, Paul understands both “new creation” in Christ as well as reconciliation in Christ as the inaugurated fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise of a new creation in which Israel would be restore to peaceful relations w/ Yahweh.”

The emphasis here in II Corinthians 5 is that the believer is united with Christ who is the Second Adam and in whom one becomes part of a new humanity as part of the new creation. And that new humanity is described as it lives life out on earth in Isaiah 65

Obviously, some might protest that those who are new creations in Christ don’t look so new — their old way of life clings to definitively to them — but to say such a thing misses that what the Apostle is bringing to the forefront here — and that is because of Union with Christ what can be predicated about Christ can be said of the one united to Christ. Because Christ is raised he who was formerly in Adam but who is now in Christ is now raised (Romans 6:5). Because Christ is seated in the heavenlies he who was formerly in Adam but who is now in Christ is seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). Because Christ in His triumph has been invested with a Kingdom, he who was formerly in Adam, but who is now in Christ, has been translated to reside in that Kingdom of His Savior (Col. 1:13). We can well see why Paul says that ‘all things have become new.’ All of these things are declared as true of the redeemed individual, who as a member of Christ’s new humanity takes his place in the new heavens and earth that Christ has brought. As members of that new creation the Holy Spirit is progressively working in them to reverse the effects of the fall so that they increasingly personally correspond to what is true of them, in principle, because of their union with Christ. As that salvation becomes progressively true of and in them so that they increasingly become what they have been freely declared to be they take that salvation into every area of life wherein they have been called by their Savior and so being saved they bring th4e aroma of salvation to all their living and so, being salt and light, they extend Christ’s Kingdom.

The same kind of reasoning holds for the Isaiah 65 passage. In the resurrection, ascension, session, and vindication of Christ in AD 70 His always coming Kingdom has come in principle and so is coming progressively and will come consummatively, and so Christians dwell in a new heavens and earth which have been created by Christ’s victory. The former heavens and earth — which should be understood as the OT economy in the redemptive drama of Christ — have been shaken and what remains is the new heaven and earth that can’t be shaken (Hebrews 13:25f). What is not remembered in Isaiah 65:17 is who we were in Adam as well as the former ceremonial legislation, which was the shadow covenant.

Some will object to insisting that the idea that the creation of a new heavens and earth that is mentioned in Isaiah 65:17 should be equated with the end of the OT economy and the bringing in of Christ’s Kingdom. Amillennialist especially will insist that what is required by the ‘new heavens and earth’ language of Isa. 65 is a literal new universe. However, we have seen already that this can’t be true because of the insuperable difficulties that attach themselves to that kind of reading.

(Is this new physical universe going to have death in it? Will there be child-birth in the Consummated age?)

Therefore since Isaiah 65 can’t be referring to a recreated physical universe we must look elsewhere for an explanation. Such an explanation is found by understanding that the creation of a new heavens and new earth is prophetic language for God’s instituting His Messianic New World Order.

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John Owen helps us here as we consider God’s Messianic New World Order

In commenting on II Peter 3:15-17 which speaks about the heavens and earth being reserved for fire John Owen could say,

“On this foundation I affirm, that the heavens and earth here intended in this prophecy of Peter, the coming of the Lord, the day of judgment and perdition upon ungodly men, mentioned in the destruction of the heaven and the earth, do all of them relate, not to the last and final judgment of the world, but to that utter desolation and destruction that was to be made of the Judaical Church and state;…

Peter tells them, that, after the destruction and judgment that he speaks of, vs. 13, ‘We according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth,’ etc. They had this expectation. But what is that promise? Where may we find it? Why, we have it in the very words and letter, Isaiah 65:17. Now, when shall this be that God will create these ‘new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness?’ Saith Peter, ‘It shall be after the coming of the Lord, after that judgment and destruction of ungodly men, who obey not the Gospel, that I foretell.’ But now is evident, from this place of Isaiah, with chapter 66:21-22, that this is a prophecy of gospel times only; and that the planting of these new heavens is nothing but the creation of the Gospel ordinances to endure forever. The same thing is expressed in Hebrews 12:26-28.”

Similarly the Puritan John Brown commenting on Matthew 5:17-18, which likewise uses the language of heaven and earth passing away, could say,

“‘Heaven and earth passing away,’ understood literally, is the dissolution of the present system of the universe; and the period when that is to take place, is called ‘the end of the world.’ But a person at all familiar with the phraseology of the Old Testament Scriptures, knows that the dissolution of the Mosaic economy, and the establishment of the Christian, is often spoken of as the removing of the old earth and heavens, and the creation of a new earth and heaven.”

So we conclude that when Isaiah speaks of the creation of a New Heavens and a New Earth what is being referenced is the establishment of God’s new world order known as the renewed and better covenant as brought by our Lord Jesus Christ and not a literal new physical creation.

All of this is reinforced even more by passages like Romans 8:19-23 and James 1:17-18. In both passages we read of the recreation that has already begun.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.(Jam 1:17-18)

Both Paul and James, teach that Christians as new creatures are the firstfruits of the New Creation mentioned in Isaiah. Believers, because of the finished reconciliation work of Christ, are proof that this new creation exists now. So, in this passage we see that Christ is presently ruling and by faith we are convinced that one day this complete and total reign will be brought to a complete and total fulfillment in time and space.

Moving on we would say that the reason that Isaiah can say in vs. 17b that ‘the former shall not be remembered or come to mind’ is because of the exceeding excellence of that new order that Christ brings.

Actually, the new heavens and new earth that Isaiah speaks of in chapter 65 is the second of three re-creations that are anticipated in Isaiah 65. Before the promise of a new dwelling in vs. 17 God’s people are promised a new name in vs. 15. With the promised new name and a promised new dwelling God promises a new environment in vs. 18-23.

New name — 15
New dwelling — 17
New environment — 18 – 23

But we must keep in mind that all these realities (the new name, the new creation, the new environment) have a ‘now, not yet’ (inaugurated – yet to be consummated) component to them. We are not what we once were but we are also not yet what we will be. So, all these realities are true.

We do live in a new creation (Col. 1:13)

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

We do have a new identity (Mt. 28:19)

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Col. 3:3 — For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God

and we do experience a new environment (Hebrews 8:10f)

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

but being completely true in principle they will one day be consummatively true in the glorified State. All of this is in such a fashion that what is true in a inaugurative sense is becoming progressively true as we are sanctified and anticipates a day when it will all be consummatively true.

The ‘not yet’ of this Isaiah prophecy is seen in the fact that though, as we have seen, the recreation has begun; Isaiah 65 describes time yet future in this ongoing recreation, when all enemies except death will have been conquered. And so now living in the New Heavens and New Earth and experiencing the new environment and having been given a new name we still look forward to the day when the voice of weeping shall be heard no more and where an infant shall no longer live but a few days.

Before wrapping up we should consider though that where the name of Christ has been spread and widely embraced things like life expectancy (20, 22) and social and familial stability (21-23) have been at their zenith. The embrace of the Gospel, which yields a life that takes seriously God’s Law Word, leads to people groups being attended with God’s blessings. (Which doesn’t mean that they still won’t face periodic hardship and trials.)

The understanding that we have advocated here complements well a passage like I Corinthians 15:25-26 where we are told that Christ

“Must reign till he has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

Christ is now reigning over the new creation but there remain defeated but yet to surrender enemies to be brought into subjection. Isaiah 65 reveals a time when most of those enemies have been brought to heel with only the last enemy of death being on the lam – and even he’s considering suing for terms of surrender. The Spirit anointed preaching of the Gospel, and the discipling of the nations is what brings these defeated but yet to surrender enemies to swear oaths of allegiance to King Christ and so is converted the Kingdoms of this World to the Kingdoms of our Lord and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Addendum

Vs. 25 is often cited against the position offered in this treatise. There are those who read this text without taking into consideration prophetic type speech and so they look for wolves and lambs to dine together and for a day when hay needs to be pulled down for the lions as well as the cattle. Because this isn’t happening it is insisted that there is no sense in which Isaiah 65 is presently true.

We should note that similar language that we find in vs. 25 is found earlier in Isaiah 11:6f. Isaiah 11 is a Messianic passage describing the future reign of King Christ. The fact that language in Isaiah 11 is repeated in Isaiah 65 should give us a hint that what is being spoken of in Isaiah 65 corresponds in some way to what is being spoken of in Isaiah 11 and that is exactly the argument that we have sought to elucidate here. In Isaiah 65 there is a new creation characterized by peace and in Isaiah 11 we learn that during the rule of the Messiah there is peace and tranquility. The Shalom that Jesus brings to His New Creation that He rules over is pictured both in Isaiah 11 and 65 by carnivorous animals dwelling with their former dinners and by carnivores that are now herbivores. In both cases what is being portrayed for the readers is the Shalom that the Messiah brings to the new creation.

To continue to tease this out in a way consistent with what we have done above we would insist that in the New Creation that is the Church we find wolves lying down with lambs as Gentiles and Jews are reconciled together and find peace in Christ’s one body (Ephesians 2:14-18), as they realize a Spiritual unity that was previously unknown. Only once man’s warfare against God has ended can his warfare against his neighbor end. Only once man has peace with God can he have peace with his neighbor. In Christ we have peace with both God and neighbor. The wolf can lie down with the lamb and the lion can munch on straw. Shalom is present in the new creation.

Tolkien & McAtee On Middle Earth Worldview

Anyone with a vague familiarity with Tolkien understands that he did not like Allegory. Tolkien preferred the genre of myth. He believed that allegory was much too explicit and believed that myth, as implicit, was much better at conveying truth. As such he was a bit prickly whenever someone sought to allegorize his work. Still, Tolkien’s work, saturated in a Christian World-view as it is, there are aspects of his mythopoetic work which clearly reveals allegorical imagery.

The theme of the Triology, in its macro sense, is the contest between good and evil. In this contest sin is seen in the ring. It is interesting that the effect of sin upon people is to claim and seize unwarranted authority and control over other peoples. In Tolkien’s thinking the effect of sin is tyranny and enslavement. There is a extraordinarily anti-statist, and anti-centralization theme that saturates Tolkien’s work and Tolkien makes the ring do the work of communicating the worst effect of sin when someone claims to possess the ring is to create Despotic social orders. That this observation is accurate is seen in the effect of the ring upon those who are tempted to claim it,

Upon Boromir’s tempting

“The Ring would give me power of Command. How I would drive the hosts of Mordor, and all men would flock to my banner! How I would drive the hosts of Mordor, and all men would flock to my banner!’

Boromir strode up and down, speaking ever more loudly: Almost he seemed to have forgotten Frodo, while his talk dwelt on walls and weapons, and the mustering of men; and he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be; and he cast down Mordor, and became himself a mighty king, benevolent and wise. Suddenly he stopped and waved his arms.”

Upon Galadriel’s tempting,

And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of a Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark but beautiful and terrible as the morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth. All shall love me and despair!’

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

‘I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.’ ”

Upon Gandalf’s tempting,

“With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly….Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.”

Upon Sam’s tempting,

“His thought turned to the Ring, but there was no comfort there, only dread and danger. No sooner had he come in sight of Mount Doom, burning far away, than he was aware of a change in his burden. As it drew near the great furnaces where, in the deeps of time, it had been shaped and forged, the Ring’s power grew, and it became more fell, untameable except by some mighty will. As Sam stood there, even though the Ring was not on him but hanging by its chain about his neck, he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.

In that hour of trial it was his love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
‘And anyway all these notions are only a trick, he said to himself.”

In each of the temptings the power of the ring (the embodiment of sin in Tolkien’s work) is unto becoming a Tyrant in a Statist reality where all are slaves who serve the possessor of the ring. So, for Tolkien, sin is corporate and while effecting the possessor of the ring, its broader effect is to create centralized statist social orders. For Tolkien, sin is Statism.

Of course as the ring is sin, then Frodo becomes the sin bearer and his quest is a Via Dolorosa. However, Frodo is not the only Christ image in the Trilogy. Tolkien has three characters that answer to the imagery of Christ. Gandalf is Christ in his office as Prophet. It is Gandalf’s wisdom that guide the Fellowship. Gandalf is known as a truth speaker and without the counsel of Gandalf the Fellowship would not have made it through Moria. Gandalf, also gives his life for the Fellowship and is reborn (Resurrected ?) to lead his people against evil. Aragorn is Christ in his office as King. Aragorn, as Strider, goes through his humiliation, but as he keeps faith, he is finally exalted to his rightful place on the throne and takes a name (Elessar) to which all must bow. Frodo, fulfills the Christ imagery serving as Christ as Priest. The free people’s of Middle Earth are saved by Frodo’s representative and substitutionary sacrifice for them. Frodo, as the Priest, bears the sin of Middle Earth and expiates the effect of the Ring by bearing it to the crack of doom.

Tolkien’s work finds Frodo, the sin bearer, being supported by the Church. In Tolkien’s creation of the “Fellowship of the Ring,” we have a picture of the Church. For Tolkien the Church is comprised of men from “every tribe tongue and nation,” and yet all members of the Church still retain their people group identity. The Church comes together in order to do the work that it is called to do, but it does so on the distinct and separate strengths of each people group who still retain their particular ethnic identity (Dwarves, Elves, Men, and Hobbits). So, while the Church is Universal for Tolkien, it is also particular at the same time. Tolkien, thus honors the idea of the “One and the Many” in his vision of the Church. It is also interesting that Tolkien gives us a Church with tares. In the fall of Boromir we see a Church that is not perfect. And yet even for Boromir there was repentance. Another thing we must not miss in Tolkien’s view of the Church is that it is the Church militant. For Tolkien, the Church is at war against wickedness in high places.

Another Tolkien view of the Church might be found in the character of Samwise. Samwise is a picture of the Catholic laity. He serves the needs of the sin bearer and is the servant of Fellowship. Samwise, as the Church, fills up the sufferings of Christ and so identifies with the sin bearer that he himself will bear the ring for a period of time thus imitating his master. Samwise identity in the novel is wrapped up in Frodo’s identity. In the Trilogy we see the Samwise Character grow (he is sanctified) as he serves the needs of his master Frodo.

The Fellowship of the Ring, as the Church, is given grace for the contest of the quest in a sacrament of the Lembas. The Lembas strengthen the Church as they are relied for sustenance. The more the Church has to rely upon the Lembas the more the Lembas tie spirit and will to physical exertion. The sacredness of the Lembas is seen in how the wicked blanch and sputter when they come into contact with the Lembas. The Lembas are for the Church and those outside the Church find as much death in the Lembas as the Church finds life in them.

And though as a Protestant I have no use for Mary-olatry it is clear that Galadriel is Tolkien’s virgin Mary in the Trilogy. Galadriel gives gifts to the Fellowship and the ring-bearer in order for them to complete their quest. She is seen as having a privileged position among those who are considered the great. She is responsible for organizing the White Council and creates beauty in all she touches. She so thoroughly woos Gimli (the Tolkien Protestant?) that in a act of repentance for his previous unbelief he asks for a lock of her hair as a gift upon their parting.

In closing, I would like to return to the idea of the ring representing sin — a sin that always creates a Tyrant in those who claim it. That Tolkien hated Statism and made possession of the Ring equivalent to establishing Statist and Centralized social order is seen again in a different way at the very end of the book. In the chapter “The Scourging of the Shire,” Tolkien gives us a Shire where the effects of the Ring (Tyrannical social order) has turned the community of the Hobbits ugly. Frodo, takes sin to the crack of doom and upon his return home he finds the work of sin he cast away having done its work in his home. In this chapter, we see again, what we see throughout the Trilogy — a tyrannical social order created by the lust of power can only be overcome by stiff resistance at great cost.

Tolkien & Predestination

J.R.R. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic who, like G.K. Chesterton, had no love lost for Protestants or for the Reformation. Yet, despite his Roman Catholicism there is a strong strain of Reformed Predestinarian thought in his Trilogy. There are several places where this explicitly reveals itself,

I.) In the “Fellowship of the Ring,” Frodo inquires of Gandalf how it is the ring came into Frodo’s possession. Gandalf’s response reveals a hint of high Reformed decretal predestinarian theology,

“Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.” (1.2.116)

II.) In the second explicit instance of predestination peeking through the works of Tolkien, we find Elrond recognizing that some reality higher than himself has summoned those who were in attendance at Elrond’s War Council

“The Ring! What shall we do with the Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies? That is the doom that we must deem. That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find council for the peril of the world.”

III.) The third explicit reference is woven all through the Trilogy and indeed forms one of the major themes of the Tolkien’s literary labors. This work of predestination has to do with the role Gollum (Smeagol) plays in the destruction of the ring. Several times throughout the novels (including the Hobbit) the death of Gollum is toyed with. Bilbo stays his hands in the Hobbit. Samwise resisted the urge to strike down Gollum. The sparing of Gollum’s life becomes part of a significant dialogue between Frodo and Gandalf,

“It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him when he had the chance.”

“Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.”

Likewise the predestined end of Gollum is hinted at Elrond’s War Council at Rivendell. Upon learning that Gollum has been freed from the captivity of the Wood Elves Gandalf says,

“Well, well, he is gone. We have no time to seek for him again. He must do what he will. But he may play a part yet that neither he nor Sauron has foreseen.”

Indeed, someone who is Reformed who reads the Trilogy has the sense that the story is one long series of predestined happenstance. The Ring comes to Bilbo who passes it to Frodo. Frodo leaves just in the nick of time before the Ringwraiths arrive making inquiry into his whereabouts. Merry falls prey to the Barrow-wights only to lay claim to one of the few weapons that could be used to eventually injure the chief of the Nine — an injury that sets him up for a death blow from a woman who should not be on the Battlefield. The different parties find themselves in Elrond at just the right time though no one has “arranged” the Council. Boromir tries to take the ring which puts Frodo on the path that had to be taken in order to destroy the Ring. Merry and Pippin are captured by orcs in an event that will eventually trigger great movements in the story line.

Over and over again the story line in the Trilogy is merely the unfolding of a predestinarian sequence. This is so true that even the tragic events are incorporated to move the story along to a predestined end. Denethor goes mad thus removing the Steward from Gondor so that the King can now reclaim his throne. Gollum leads Frodo and Samwise to Shelob’s lair where Frodo is brought low by Shelob’s fang and yet in the doing of this evil Frodo and Samwise find a path into the dark land.

Tolkien’s use of predestination does not negate though the free will of his characters. They do what they cannot help but do and yet they do so because their free will moves them to that end. Boromir freely practices his treachery and yet that treachery is caught up in a larger predestined plan to move to a predestined end that is both anticipated and unanticipated at the same time.

There is something refreshing in reflecting on how Tolkien mutes the role of predestination in his Trilogy while at the same time having that predestination as being central to the novel’s movement. Tolkien’s predestination comes in the context of characters who emphasize repeatedly the necessity to be faithful to the task they are called to regardless of how dark the situation is. This predestination of Tolkien’s does not negate the peril of the situation but it does provide the sense that regardless of what outcome is ordained the role of Men, Hobbits, and Elves is to be faithful to the task at hand. None can see the definitive end of what the predestined plan is (even if their is a nebulous sense of the reality of a ordained plan) but all must understand that they must play the part assigned to them regardless of the opposition or the incredible odds against success.

I would submit that Tolkien’s trilogy gives a pretty fair reading of the concrete impact of the Reformed truth of Predestination is to have upon those who embrace the Reformed faith.

McAtee Contra Bahnsen

www.davidbahnsen.com/index.php/2013/01/01/i-can-not-believe-how-badly-some-people-miss-the-point/

First, understand that Bahnsen writes like a neo-con. This means he is a progressive though he interprets everything from the right side of the left. He is not a conservative in any legitimate sense of the word.

Bahnsen

There is nothing to celebrate or bemoan in what happened over the last 24 hours. A little rule-of-thumb of mine may be appropriate to share here: When BOTH parties say they want a certain thing, you can bet that after a whole lot of posturing or politicking and time-wasting, that thing is going to happen. It is not that easy when only one party says they want something. BOTH parties said they wanted the bottom four tax rates to stay where they were. BOTH parties said they did not want the estate tax exclusion amount to revert to the preposterous $1 million level. BOTH parties said they wanted a dividend tax rate at 20% or lower. It is no surprise that all these things are happening.

Bret

There is plenty to bemoan with this legislation.

1.) progressive income tax is a plank in the Marxist manifesto. The fact that any group of wage earner’s tax is going up is plenty to bemoan. Bahnsen has embraced the premise that progressive income tax is something that we just have to live with. I bemoan that we have a progressive income tax instead of a flat tax or something like a flat tax.

2.) The fact that we are getting more spending then tax cuts is outrageous. Not only does the McConnell Tax Hike stick it to the middle class, it raises taxes $41 for every $1 in spending cuts. Those spending cuts are ephemeral as there is $330 billion in new spending and a $4 trillion price tag over the next ten years. This plan is not fiscally responsible for a people who own their souls to the Chinese and are borrowing against future generations wealth.

3.) Keep in mind that with this deal more than 80 percent of households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes.

Both Hollywood and NASCAR get carve outs. So too do wind energy companies.

Bahnsen

Now, do I want my income tax rate going up? No, and I think it is immorally high even at 35%, let alone 39.6%. However, anyone telling you that the Senate or House voted for a tax increase is lying, and they know it. The law of the land was for a dramatically higher increase in rates across the board to kick in, and there have been huge reductions passed in the last 24 hours from all of those legally set levels. In other words, a tax cut was passed, not a tax increase. Did the Republicans hold their ground about not agreeing to see the top rate go from 35% to 39%? No. Did the always-pompous Obama keep his sworn campaign pledge for rates to go up on all incomes above $250,000? No, with all the leverage in the world he folded like a bad poker hand and agreed to a $450,000 income level for that increase. There are things to like and things not to like, but there is simply no debating that it is better than what we were going to get – by a mile.

Bret

This is typical compromise political speak. Bahnsesn doesn’t know what we were “going to get” so how can he proclaim that this is “better then we were going to get?” This is like a virgin being told that she has to choose between becoming pregnant or contracting a STD and then upon becoming compromise her chastity saying, “Well, I may have gotten pregnant but I didn’t get a STD and so being pregnant is better than I was going to get by a mile.”

What if she had just said “no.” What if the Republicans had just said “no?” Who knows what we would have got?

Bahnsen

So why are people like Erick Ericson so mad? Because this plan does not cut spending the way we want. Well, no kidding Sherlock (I like the real expression better). It does not tackle deficits and debts because THE WRONG PARTY WON THE ELECTION.

Bret

More compromise from Bahnsen. He is cut from the same cloth as Boehner and McConnell.

We are so mad because even though the Republicans won the house they cave at every turn. We are so mad because the Republican moderates (Boehner & Cantor’s people) are forging a ruling coalition with the Democrats against Republican conservatives. Has Bahnsen forgotten how divided Government works? Given the 2012 vote that gave the House to the Republicans and the Presidency to Democrats the people obviously wanted gridlock. All because a Democrat wins the Presidency doesn’t mean that he gets what he wants when there is a decidedly Republican Congress. Bahnsen reasoning is curious.

Bahnsen

The so-called resolution to fiscal cliff is a joke, but that is not because it is a bad piece of legislation. The bad piece of legislation was the initial bill that failed to build in tax reductions on a permanent basis back in 2001 and 2003. Elections matter. Do not ever set policy on the presupposition that your party will never lose again. And when you do lose, do not act like you didn’t. The time to flex our muscle and block spending where we legally can is coming. But there was no possible way to do that yesterday.

Bret

There was a way to do that before this deal. Boehner could have held the debt limit increase that Obama wants in a very short time hostage. He could have used that as a leveraging chip but he didn’t and when the time comes around to debate the debt ceiling limit the Republican will cave AGAIN. Why elect Republicans when they are not going to be fiscally responsible?

Bahnsen

For Republicans mad about this deal, I suggest you do what always has to precede real political improvement in a Republic: Win your elections. The Libertarians and Paul-bots have been sitting around crying in their beer for over thirty years while they capture 1% of the voting public’s attention. Do not stoop to their loser level. Win an election, then demand a harder line on spending. For now, we were facing something far, far worse, and we got an improvement. Keep your eye on the ball, friends. This is a long war.

Bret L. McAtee

This is a untempered statement by someone not thinking through the implications of what he says.

Republicans won MASSIVELY in 2010. Did they do anything? Did they stop the debt ceiling limit? Did they do anything to investigate this President? No .. instead what we got with a Tea Party propelled victory is a Neo Con Speaker. Clearly winning elections do not matter as Rockefeller Republicans dance cheek to jowl with Socialist Democrats. Boehner is not a conservative and neither is McConnel or Bahnsen.

And why is he moaning about the Libertarians if they are so insignificant? Me thinketh Bahnsen doth protest too much.

We are being turned into a slave people and the best Bahnsen can do is lash out at Libertarians?

Wedding Prayer

Dread Sovereign and Benevolent God, thou who art the creator and preserver of all life, author of salvation and giver of all grace, we beseech thee that thou would look with favor upon thy Church that Christ did Redeem and especially upon this man and woman who are members of thine covenant and who are now entering in the Holy State of matrimony which you have ordained to be a model of Christ’s love for His Church.

Grant them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of the life that you have ordained for them to share that they may each be to the other a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy.

Grant, we beseech thee, that their wills and affections may be so knit together in your will and affections that they may grow steadily in love, thus experiencing the peace and tranquility that you intend for domestic life. Pour out upon them thy Holy Spirit so that they may together with all God’s people grow up in the grace and knowledge of thy Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through all the years that lay before them.

Open their eyes and grant them grace that they may see when they hurt each other, and then cause them to recognize and acknowledge their sin and to seek each other’s forgiveness and yours.

Make their life together a sign of Christ’s love to this sinful and broken world, so that their unity may be evangelism to the world’s estrangement, their acts of forgiveness a testimony to the world’s brokenness, their joy a witness to the world’s despair.

Bestow upon them, if it is your will, the gift and heritage of children, and the grace to bring them up to know you that they and their generations that follow may constitute a Holy Host unto the God of Hosts to be used for your bidding for the advancement of your cause.

Grant them the prayers of thy people attendant here and grant that they may join their own prayers with these, your people, that your name might be seen as to be majestic as it never ceases to be.

Fix them within a community of faith where all can be sharpened to think your thoughts after you. Grant them the fellowship of like-minded believers that together your community may take every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

And then Father, when their days come to an end, and their descendants gather around them to extend their last visitations here, gather Anthony and Rachel to hear thy pronouncement of “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter now into thy Master’s rest.”

Grant them and all of us to live all our lives before thy face.

In the glorious name of the Resurrected and Triumphant Christ

Amen