Sermonic Tidbits — 27 July, 2014

Now, why is this Pauline Eschatological impulse that we have noted here important?

Simply because the nowness of the “age to come” has been so long buried and continues to be buried underneath the flotsam and jetsam of those in the Church who would rather overemphasize the “not yetness” of the age to come. They accuse us who preach this nowness of an “over-realized” eschatology, by which they mean that our expectations of what Christ intends to accomplish before His return is too high to the point of being dangerous. They cast their eyes upon the landscape and they see how Christians are marginalized and they say, “Thus it has ever been, thus it is now, thus it will ever be. Amen,” completely ignoring the triumph of the Gospel and of Christianity in periods throughout history.

They thus make a virtue out of the expectation that the gates of Hell shall prevail. Their theology is all Crucifixion and no Resurrection and Ascension. They see the “not yet” of our Reformed Hermeneutic as corporeally incarnating itself into all of reality and all of our living but the “now” victory of our Reformed Hermeneutic in their sermons, books, and tours is all “spiritual,” which is to say not only that it has no present tactile reality anyplace beyond the Church, but that it never will have any present tactile reality anyplace beyond the Church.

So, a very prominent manifestation of blatant unbelief in the Evangelical churches today is to allow the “not yet” to “eat up” or gut/overrule/obliterate the “already” in terms of it having any practical reality in the faith of believers. Such unbelief has got to stop for it invites the divine curse upon that unbelief. The “not yet” perspective indeed has a role to play in the eschatological orientation as the Bible defines it, but absolutely NOT one that is to the denial of the “already”. The Biblical orientation from the get-go is to live by faith, not by sight. Abraham and his family believed themselves to be possessors of the promised land of Canaan long before the actual historical arrival of Joshua and his army of conquest. In terms of the world/cosmos as a whole, we Christians are called today to stand in the same sort of shoes of faith that Abraham himself did. Everything rides on the fact of the “already”. The resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Christ mark the definitive advent — the “already” — of the “new creation”.

Ellicott On Generational Sin

“We each individually inherit special tendencies to this or that form of evil from the misconduct of our several progenitors.”
 
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
Commentary on Exodus 20:5
 
We see here that sinful dispositions and tendencies can be genetically inherited. There was a time that was not a scandalous thing to note among Evangelicals and Reformed. Different people groups can be characterized by a constellation of different besetting sins just as they can be characterized by a constellation of varying character strengths. If several generations of McAtee’s have been drunkards and wife-beaters then it is likely that I, as a McAtee need to take special care about those particular sins since I am genetically predisposed to those sins. This is not to say that sin is only genetic as if sin always = genes. It is to say that sin is not only a matter of environmental considerations. When we look at sinful tendencies in a person’s life we must consider a whole constellation of factors — environment, genetics, and errant thinking to name a few. 
 
Because of this kind of understanding articulated by Ellicott, it was understood that particular family lines, tribes, nations, and races could be generally characterized by not only their sinful weaknesses but also by their ethical strengths as well. In this, there is no materialism, Darwinism, or even genetic fatalism but instead merely a recognition that familial behavior runs in familial lines and that due to genetic considerations. Just as I might get my height from my Fathers so I might get a disposition towards envy or lust. I still remain responsible for my own sin, just as my father was responsible for his sin. To note that sinful habits may run generationally is not to excuse such sins but it is to better understand and deal with them.
 

Now of course the modern Liberal and most modern Christians, unknowingly influenced as they are by the intellectual tradition of Franz Boas believes the above kind of truth to be HERESY. The modern Christian is appalled to think that sinful tendencies can be a genetic phenomenon and that Christians might actually have certain anticipations based on knowing an individual’s familial background according to familiarity with a few generations of that same person’s background.

Some people might claim that the idea that sinful tendencies that run in familial lines would be unfair of God. However, should the pot say to the potter, “Why have you made me this way?” We are and forever shall remain our parent’s children. As Christians, by grace, each generation has to seek to rise above their familial weaknesses while burnishing their familial strengths so that God may wrench from us all the glory possible in our generation.

All of this is captured by proverbs that used to be commonplace such as “good seed makes a good crop” and alternately, “behavior goes to seed.” These kinds of truths were so obvious that our fathers made maxims to live by out of them. Today, observing what I have observed here is considered controversial and even racist.

Pactum Institute Press Release — Christian Education Under Attack From EU

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/press-releases/children-s-right-to-christian-education-is-threatened-by-the-european-commission?fbclid=IwAR3-pcGoBo9JUYCAfnzTb12R679_FNyOlzxD4t35Cmt00V4k7rAmnqlBdUI

The superiority of a Christian education over other philosophies of education is evident in the fact that only in the Christian faith the unity of truth is upheld in that all truths find their coherence in the fact that they are all God-given. Facts, derived from the Latin word “facere”, which means “to create” ultimately derive their meaning from their Creator. Furthermore, the correct interpretation of facts are intrinsically tied to the recognition of Jesus Christ as Logos, in and through Whom all realities find their origin, meaning and purpose. Thus, in an ideal world, all children should receive a Christian education since all alternatives are substandard and inferior. However, given the current state of Western civilization, this ideal will probably, for the time being, remain elusive. Nonetheless, the Pactum Institute is dedicated to promoting the right of every child to receive the best education and so, wherever this right is threatened, the Institute and its members regard it as our duty to vocally speak up against such violations of children’s rights.

Sermonic Tidbit — 26 July 2015

John 6:32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

We would not have done this text justice though if we were to have stopped here. The fact that the Lord Christ is a greater Moses is only penultimate to the thrust of the Miracle. As we learn later in this chapter the ultimate purpose of the Miracle is to point to Christ as He who is the Bread from Heaven. The Lord Christ is the bread of God who comes down from heaven and gives His life for the World (John 6:33).

This passage reminds us again that there is no life apart from Christ who was broken by God on the Cross as God’s Bread for God’s people. Those who refuse this bread of heaven remain dead from their spiritual malnutrition. Christ was broken that we might be made whole and there is no wholeness for those who remain apart from Christ crucified, risen, and ascended.
Again we are reminded that there is no life outside of Christ. All adherents of other religions must repent before Christ and His work on the Cross. If men remain outside of Christ they remain outside of God’s favor. Because we are pro-Christ we are anti all other religions and proclaim that those religions are death and the adherents of those other religions are but dead men walking.

Sermon teaser II

Charlotte CRC — Morning service
26 July, 2015

Trueman Does Heidegger

If reason you cannot stand
The poet might be your man
He’s light in the loafers
plays tune on his shofars
he’s better than the rational caveman

“In such a world, arguments, even irrefutable arguments, will not suffice. We need something more comprehensive, something to capture imaginations. We need a philosophy of undergraduate education that offers visions of beauty, that connects the fields of knowledge our modern world has torn apart and isolated, and that speaks to the human desire for meaning. A good start might be making the study of poetry, that medium which at its best makes human language carry almost more significance than it can bear, a compulsory course for freshmen. If the narrative and aesthetic of the world are gripping, then we must show that ours are more gripping, rooted as they are in real beauty and real truth.”

Carl “Heidegger” Truman

Martin Heidegger was an Existentialist theologian who wrote reams and reams of theology and in one large volume he comes to the end and gives this advice; “Listen to the poet.”

Methinks that Truman is channeling Heidegger who being Existentialist was also at the same time neo-orthodox.

In this paragraph, we read our British Ph.D. make the case of “poetry” over “argumentation.” If he is making an argument for poetry wouldn’t he be better served using poetry to “argue” for poetry? Why provide a rational argument in favor of poetry when poetry is superior to the rational argument?

This idea that somehow the imagination bypasses argumentation and reason is just utter tripe. Even if the imagination “connects” it connects on the basis of some shared univocal point of meaning that was arrived at by the rationality of “line upon line and precept upon precept.”

I have no problem teaching poetry to undergrads. I love poetry. But the argument that poetry is going to circumvent argumentation is an argument that only a Ph.D. could come up with.