Justin Taylor's Blog, page 214

Is God Calling You to Be a Pastor?

A conversation with Dave Harvey, author of the new book Am I Called? The Summons to Pastoral Ministry (Crossway, 2012).

You can read Matt Chandler’s foreword and the first chapter of the book here.

See also these resources.

This Momentary Marriage: Ian & Larissa’s Story

This is a deeply moving story that I’d strongly encourage you to watch:

John Piper writes:

I tremble with the glad responsibility of introducing you to Ian & Larissa Murphy in this video. Tremble, because it is their story and so personal. So delicate. So easily abused. So unfinished. Glad, because Christ is exalted over all things.

I am so thankful for Desiring God (a free-but-not-free blog and ministry), for books like This Momentary Marriage, and for the faithful testimony of people like Ian and Larissa. May stories like this abound ten-thousand-fold.

Recommended Books for Church History and Historical Theology

Carl Trueman was once asked if he could recommend a couple of resources for students on church history and historical theology. He responded:

(1) The series being written by a guy named Nicholas Needham. It’s called 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power (Evangelical Press) and is proving to be a very good, comprehensive, but easy-to-read account of church history. It comes in several volumes.

(2) And the other book I recommend to students—the best single-volume on the history of theology —written by a Scandinavian Lutheran named Bengt Hägglund, titled simply, History of Theology (Concordia: 2007). It’s a single volume that takes you from the early church almost down to the present day in terms of the history of theology.

So those would be the two books I would recommend.

Needham’s 2000 Years of Christ’s Power is a projected five-volume history of the church, of which three volumes have already appeared:

Vol. 1: Age of the Early Church Fathers [ sample pages ]
Vol. 2: Middle Ages [ sample pages ]
Vol 3: Renaissance and Reformation [ sample pages ]

A few notes about these books:

(1) They are based on excellent scholarship, but they are quite accessible.

(2) There are virtually no footnotes, except as short explanatory material—including, helpfully, pronunciation guides on ancient places, names, and events that may be unfamiliar.

(3) This is not only a comprehensive overview of historical theology, but it also contains primary source reading at the end of each chapter, so that you are not only reading about, say, the church fathers, but also sampling their actual writings.

(4) These volumes originate in the UK, and as such, they have a different aesthetic feel in terms of cover design, font choice, typsetting, etc. than you would find in the United States.

For a better overview than this, see Tony Reinke’s helpful post.

Reviewing volume 3 for Haddington House, Carl Trueman writes:

This book is the third volume in Dr Needham’s projected comprehensive history of the church from the age of the church fathers to the present day. While Dr Needham is an accomplished scholar in the fields of church history and historical theology, in these volumes he brings his learning to bear in a manner which is easily accessible to the layperson.

In a time where neither history nor the reading of books seem to be a particularly strong part of church culture, we should welcome the fact that there are books such as these which compress so much valuable information into a such a relatively short compass is to be welcomed by all who have a concern for the church’s historic heritage. . . .

In short, this book, indeed, this whole series, is well worth purchasing, reading, and inwardly digesting.

When the Anchor Holds: Or, Why I No Longer Say “God Didn’t Cause This Birth Defect in My Child”

How do you think about God when the news comes that your second child—like your first—will be born with spina bifida?

Josh McPherson, lead preaching pastor at Grace Covenant Church in Wenatchee, WA, reflects on his theological journey through pain and suffering:

I used to say, years ago, when people would ask how I reconciled evil and suffering with the reality of a loving God, I’d say something like, “God did not cause it, but He can use it for good.” However, that answer quickly let me down. After 6 pregnancies in 6 years, 2 ending in difficult mis-carriages, a third coming dangerously close, and 2 resulting in severe birth defects, I do not say that any more. Primarily because I don’t believe it to be true.

This video is a clip from his announcement to the church (January 29, 2012) about the diagnosis.

I would encourage you to read or listen to the full sermon. It is a wonderful testimony of God’s sustaining grace.

Gideon Joshua McPherson was born Friday night, May 4, and is fighting like a champ. You can follow the CaringBridge page here.

HT: Mark Driscoll

Top 10 Most Read Books in the World

by Jared. Browse more data visualizations.

HT: First Things

A Conversation with John Piper and John MacArthur

This was one of the most interesting conversations I’ve been a part of—an interview of John Piper and John MacArthur together (September 28, 2007). On the surface there are many similarities between these two preachers. But on another level you couldn’t find two men more different.

You can listen to it, or watch it below. Here are the questions I asked them:

When did you become aware of each others’ ministries?

How have your fathers influenced your ministries? Did they want you to be pastors?

If you could tell your younger selves one thing, knowing what you now know, what would it be?

How do you handle praise? How about criticism?

How do you counsel younger ministers and missionaries when their ministries seem fruitless?

When you get discouraged where do you go for encouragement?

What do you want to be remembered for when your life is over?

The State Does Not Have the Authority or Power to Cure All Ills

Vern Poythress:

Many Western humanists expect the state to cure all ills. When they see a problem, such as suicide, drug addiction, oppression, war, poverty, sexual exploitation, racial hatred, or mere ignorance, they are greatly distressed. Their feelings of distress and indignation are in a sense proper, but because they do not admit that the root of these ills is found in human sin, they look for immediately engineered human solutions. After all, if human nature is basically good, the difficulty must not really be that intractable. It must be solvable, and solvable now. Any delay is reprehensible. The state has the maximum concentration of power and resources for the job. Hence the state must institute a program to solve the problem. If the problem cannot be solved merely by throwing money at it, then a state-run educational program can do the job.

Hence in the twentieth century we have seen the growth of huge state bureaucracies. Moreover, in many political arguments it is simply assumed that the state is the proper agent for the job. The debates tend to be confined to the question of expediency and quantity: whether the citizens are willing to foot the bill for still another program, and whether one program rather than another will be effective.

We must break out of this foolishness. The state is not god, nor is it the savior of humanity. It cannot remedy all ills. Moreover, contrary to humanist thinking, the state’s legitimate authority is limited by God. The state does not have the right simply to meddle in any affair that it chooses. Only God has universal, unbounded authority. The authority of the state consists only in what has been delegated to it by God. The state must confine itself to doing those things for which it has a God-given responsibility.

Hence, when we see some difficulty in the world, we must not immediately clamor for state action to eliminate the difficulty. It is not enough merely to demonstrate that there is a difficulty, and that the difficulty is serious. We must always ask what are the just means for dealing with the difficulty. We must not blindly assume that state action is appropriate or approved by God. Prayer, individual action, action by churches, action by voluntary organizations, and other forms of action are all alternatives. State action needs to be justified as part of the legitimate sphere of authority given to the state. Such action is appropriate not merely if we can show that it might “help” in some pragmatic sense, but only if we can show in addition that it is just when measured by the limited authority that God has given to the state.

—Vern S. Poythress, “False Worship in the Modern State,” The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1991), 291-2. For his positive take on what should be the case, see “Principles of Justice for the Modern State.”

Science, Scripture, and the Age of the Universe

Wisdom from R. C. Sproul:

You can watch the full 1 hour and 15 minute discussion here, with Michael Horton, Stephen Meyer, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Del Tackett  joining R.C. Sproul to answer questions about the Christian mind, science, old and new earth, and more.

For those interested in these questions, especially from a Reformed perspective, I would recommend reading the PCA Study Committee Report on Creation (2000), where a number of PCA elders from various persuasions on these issues studied and debated these issues in order to produce this report. It is worth reading simply for the definitions, and also for the way in which they seek to describe the strengths of, and objections to, the various orthodox positions.

Here is a flavor regarding how they are able to agree on the essentials despite significant differences:

We have found a profound unity among ourselves on the issues of vital importance to our Reformed testimony. We believe that the Scriptures, and hence Genesis 1-3, are the inerrant word of God. We affirm that Genesis 1-3 is a coherent account from the hand of Moses. We believe that history, not myth, is the proper category for describing these chapters; and furthermore that their history is true. In these chapters we find the record of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth ex nihilo; of the special creation of Adam and Eve as actual human beings, the parents of all humanity (hence they are not the products of evolution from lower forms of life). We further find the account of an historical fall, that brought all humanity into an estate of sin and misery, and of God’s sure promise of a Redeemer. Because the Bible is the word of the Creator and Governor of all there is, it is right for us to find it speaking authoritatively to matters studied by historical and scientific research. We also believe that acceptance of, say, non-geocentric astronomy is consistent with full submission to Biblical authority. We recognize that a naturalistic worldview and true Christian faith are impossible to reconcile, and gladly take our stand with Biblical supernaturalism.

The Committee has been unable to come to unanimity over the nature and duration of the creation days. Nevertheless, our goal has been to enhance the unity, integrity, faithfulness and proclamation of the Church. Therefore we are presenting a unanimous report with the understanding that the members hold to different exegetical viewpoints. As to the rest we are at one. It is our hope and prayer that the Church at large can join us in a principled, Biblical recognition of both the unity and diversity we have regarding this doctrine, and that all are seeking properly to understand biblical revelation. It is our earnest desire not to see our beloved church divide over this issue.

The Lost Tools of Learning

James K. A. Smith recently argued that there is an integral connection the Reformed faith and Christian schooling.

And today at the Gospel Coalition blog, Brad Green looks at the virtues of classical Christian education in particular. He writes:

The best Christian education sees this task as a transformative endeavor that prepares students for (1) a meaningful, faithful, wise, virtuous life in the present, and also for (2) our ultimate destiny—to one day see God face-to-face and know him fully. Once we begin to grasp that true education is best construed as a person-forming endeavor, we are able to see more clearly the link between the gospel and education.

If you want to read an essay that provided a lot of kindling for this revival of classical education, see Dorothy Sayers’s seminal essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning” (1947).

Fine Culture and Folk Culture in Corporate Worship

As a follow-up to Doug Wilson’s post on condemning types of music and freedom to enjoy cultural creations, I thought it might be helpful to post a segment from John Piper’s seminar on corporate worship.

The New Testament Is Very Open-ended on Cultural Forms

There is very little in the New Testament about the forms and style and content of corporate worship. Following Old Testament forms too closely contradicts the obsolescence of the wineskins. God must mean to leave the matter of form and style and content to the judgment of our spiritual wisdom—not to our whim or our tradition, but to prayerful, thoughtful, culturally alert, self-critical, Bible-saturated, God-centered, Christexalting, reflection driven by a passion to be filled with all the fullness of God. I assume this will be an ongoing process, not a one-time effort.

Culture Falls on a Continuum of Folk and Fine

One way to describe the differences in how people approach worship is to speak in terms of fine culture and folk culture.

By “culture” I mean a pattern of life including thought and emotion and speech and activity.

By “fine culture” I have in mind the pattern of life that puts a high priority on intellectual and artistic expressions that require extraordinary ability to produce and often demand disciplined efforts to understand and appreciate.

By “folk culture” I have in mind the pattern of life that puts a high priority on expressions of heart and mind that please and help average people without demanding unusual effort.

For example, it’s the difference between classical music and blue grass (or easy listening or rock or show tunes or oldies or country western—all of which are “the music of the people,” though I realize there is a continuum rather than a neat box for all kinds and qualities of music.)

Or another example would be the contrast between a Shakespearean drama at the Guthrie Theatre and “The Empire Strikes Back” at a movie theater.

Or one might think of the difference between reading Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Poem “The Windhover—To Christ Our Lord”:

I caught this morning’s minion, kingdom of

daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon,

in his riding

Of the rolling level underneath him steady air,

and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a

wimpling wing.

Or, on the other hand, reading the homespun poetry of Edgar A. Guest:

It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home.

We Should Not Pass Judgment on Fine Culture or Folk Culture Per Se

There are caricatures of the excesses in both that are easy to condemn. That is not our purpose. It is more profitable to consider the strengths and weaknesses built in to both of them so as to avoid the weaknesses and affirm the strengths in both. Fine culture and folk culture have intrinsic vulnerabilities to sin and unique potentialities for God-glorifying goodness. They are redeemable.

There Are Intrinsic Vulnerabilities of Fine Culture

Intrinsic vulnerabilities of high culture include elitism and snobbishness. In demanding high levels of intellect and skill, it easily inflates the ego of those who succeed in it, and tempts them to look with contempt on folk culture with its simpler achievements. It easily isolates technical expertise from the larger issues of life and attempts to give it intrinsic value instead of defining its value in relation to other, more important spiritual and personal realities. It is inevitably less accessible to average people and therefore tends toward performance rather than participation, and this performance orientation carries again the tendency toward an atmosphere of aloofness and distance.

There Are Intrinsic Vulnerabilities of Folk Culture

Intrinsic vulnerabilities of folk culture include a laziness and carelessness. There is an intrinsic drift toward increasing indifference to simple disciplines that define excellence at the most rudimentary levels (for example, using bad grammar in worship songs like “you reigneth” or having “you” and “thou” in the same line. This is not like the word “ain’t” in “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.” It’s like singing “Thou ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.”). Folk culture, with its intrinsic anti-intellectualism tends to short circuit the mind and move the emotions with shortcuts. Thus folk culture is not generally a preservative force for great Biblical doctrine.

There Are Positive Potentials of Fine Culture

The positive potentials of fine culture include the preservation of what we might call the “life of the mind.” Fine culture is more likely than folk culture to inject into the stream of society the commitment to think hard and think clearly. It is more likely than folk culture to keep the intellect from atrophying. It is especially crucial that Christians not surrender the life of the mind to the secular world, first, because it belongs to God, and he commanded us to love him with our minds, and, second, because we will lose succeeding generations if we do not have intellectually credible expressions of faith to pass on to them.

Further, fine culture has the potential of preserving the very concepts of truth and excellence and beauty as objective ideals rooted in God as our Absolute. Folk culture tends always to exalt what works. It is intrinsically pragmatic and colloquial and does not measure its achievements in terms of objective, absolute ideals, but generally in terms of wide appeal and practical effect. Fine culture tends to march the beat of a drummer other than mass appeal or practical effect. At its best it strives to create images of excellence and beauty and truth that echo more faithfully the ultimate excellence of God. Fine culture thus has the potential (if not contemporary success) of helping preserve the real complexities of truth and thus guarding against the intrinsic tendency of folk culture toward over-simplification and eventual distortion.

Fine culture has the potential of touching some emotions that folk culture will not touch. Folk culture tends toward what can be commonly shared and therefore minimizes what is rare. However, some emotions that belong to God are rare and profound and may be awakened and carried best through the expressions of fine culture. For example, there are probably some senses of grandeur that find preservation and expression best in some grand and magnificent artistic statements that are not part of folk culture.

There Are Positive Potentials of Folk Culture

The positive potentials of folk culture include meeting people where they are in order to communicate. Folk culture affirms the importance of building bridges of shareable experience. It is a go-and-tell mentality rather than a come-and-see mentality. It goes the extra mile to make its vision accessible to the average person.

Folk culture keeps the truth clear that elite groups of intellectuals and artists that look with contempt on the common man and his needs and tastes are not admirable persons no matter how accomplished their talents. Folk culture has the potential of reminding us that God must have loved the common people because he made so many of them. Folk culture is by nature incarnational: it clothes its claims with the skin of ordinary people and affirms implicitly the value of getting through to the mind and heart of the masses.

Folk culture at its best has the potential of touching emotions that fine culture will not generally touch. Thus folk culture honors the preciousness of average wonders. Falling in love, taking a walk, eating a good meal, talking to a friend, swimming in the ocean, having a baby, planting a garden—all these are likely to be the subject of folk culture creations and communications. It helps us not to neglect ordinary beauty.

All We Do Is on a Continuum Between Folk and Fine

In the church all that we do falls somewhere on the continuum between fine culture and folk culture: our music, our architecture, our furnishings, our dress, our written materials, our preaching and teaching, our conversation between services, etc.

We Should Take the Strengths and Weaknesses of Both into Account in Our Planning

In thinking about our worship forms and about the general tone and atmosphere of our church, we should take the possible weaknesses and potential strengths of fine culture and folk culture into account. We will hopefully be able to affirm all that is good in both cultures and find a way both to “be ourselves” (which is partly inevitable) and be what we need to be to honor the excellence and truth and beauty of God and reach out to all the kinds of people God is calling us to touch.