Justin Taylor's Blog, page 235

Jonathan Edwards and American Racism: Can the Theology of a Slave Owner Be Trusted by Descendants of Slaves?

On February 1, 2012, Thabiti Anyabwile spoke at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for an event co-sponsored by the Henry Center and the Jonathan Edwards Center.

Respondents to the lecture were Pastor Louis Love of New Life Fellowship Church, Vernon Hills, and Pastor Charlie Dates of Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago responded to the lecture.

You can download or stream the audio, or stream the video.

You can also download Thabiti's manuscript as a PDF.

The talk parses the question into five variants:

1. Questioning Edwards the Man

2. Questioning Edwards' Theology Proper

3. Questioning Edwards' Theology of Slavery

4. Questioning Edwards' Ethics

5. Questioning Edwards' Hermeneutics

A New Argument for the Existence of God

You can read online James N. Anderson and Greg Welty's paper, "The Lord of Non-Contradiction: An Argument for God from Logic," Philosophia Christi 13:2 (2011): 321-338.

Here's a summary:

In this paper we offer a new argument for the existence of God. We contend that the laws of logic are metaphysically dependent on the existence of God, understood as a necessarily existent, personal, spiritual being; thus anyone who grants that there are laws of logic should also accept that there is a God. We argue that if our most natural intuitions about them are correct, and if they're to play the role in our intellectual activities that we take them to play, then the laws of logic are best construed as necessarily existent thoughts — more specifically, as divine thoughts about divine thoughts. We conclude by highlighting some implications for both theistic arguments and antitheistic arguments.

Next year Crossway will release a book from Vern Poythress that will include a similar line of argument; it's entitled Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought.

Misunderstanding Christianity and Competition: A Response to David Brooks

Barnabas Piper:

David Brooks of the New York Times published an article today called  The Jeremy Lin Problem  in which he attempts to explain the tension between the morality of sports and the morality of religion and Christianity in particular.

Brooks brings up and explores a difficult set of questions, ones that Christian athletes and sports fans truly ought to consider. However, in so doing, he creates (or at least propagates) some false dichotomies and simplistic points of view.

You can read the whole thing here.

Damn All False Antitheses to Hell

D.A. Carson:

So which shall we choose?

Experience or truth?

The left wing of the airplane, or the right?

Love or integrity?

Study or service?

Evangelism or discipleship?

The front wheels of a car, or the rear?

Subjective knowledge or objective knowledge?

Faith or obedience?

Damn all false antithesis to hell, for they generate false gods, they perpetuate idols, they twist and distort our souls, they launch the church into violent pendulum swings whose oscillations succeed only in dividing brothers and sisters in Christ.

—D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 234.

7 Lessons from the Community of Disability

Greg Lucas, author of the excellent book Wrestling with an Angel: A Story of Love, Disability, and the Lessons of Grace, writes on his blog:

The tragedy of disability is not disability itself, but the isolation it often creates. This was one of the most important lessons our family had to learn. Sadly, we learned it the hard way. But hard lessons often lead to great insights and over the past few years we have had the wonderful opportunity to gain great wisdom from several families in many different communities. While there are still many discoveries to be made along this journey, here are at least 7 helpful insights gleaned from the community of disability that have made a powerful difference in our family.

Here is an outline:

God is both sovereign and good.
You have been brought into this community for a purpose.
Disability magnifies our vision for joy in the smallest things.
Community brings much needed perspective
Outspoken men are often minorities.
When marriage takes second place to disability, it ends up in last place.
A child with a disabled sibling is anything but typical.

Why Pray If God Knows Everything and Has Planned Everything?

Here is a very fine sermon by Joe Rigney, Assistant Professor of Theology and Christian Worldview at Bethlehem College and Seminary, preached last weekend at Bethlehem Baptist Church:

Here are the three questions he answers in this sermon:

First, what does the Bible say about the sovereignty of God, and the significance and power of prayer? This is the biblical question.
Second, how does what the Bible teach about these things fit together? This is the philosophical question.
Third, why does God do things in this way? This is the theological  question.

Here's a fuller outline of the message

I. Biblical: What Does the Bible Teach?

Point 1: Scripture teaches that God knows and ordains everything that comes to pass.

Point 2: Prayer moves the hand of God.

Principle: The Christian life is like being drawn and quartered.

II. Philosophical: How do these two biblical truths (the sovereignty of God and the significance of prayer) fit together?

Answer: God ordains means as well as the ends

Principle: God is a Storyteller. This world is his novel. We are his characters.

III. Theological: Why would God do it this way?

Answer: For His Glory

Principle: God glorifies himself by inviting us to participate in his own trinitarian fullness, by extending his own glory so that the triune life comes to exist in creaturely form.

IV. Application

Application 1: God is sovereign. Prayer moves the hand of God. The Christian life is like being drawn and quartered. Therefore, don't allow the 'how' and 'why' questions to prevent immediate, glad-hearted obedience.

Application 2: God ordains means as well as ends. God is the Author. This is his story. We are his characters. Therefore, Be a faithful character in God's story.

Application 3: God glorifies himself by inviting us to participate in his own triune fullness. Therefore, join God in knowing, loving, and rejoicing in his own fullness and extending that fullness as far as the eye can see.

HT: @andreafroehlich

Our Salvation Is Bound Up with the Doctrine of the Trinity

Herman Bavinck's chapter on "The Holy Trinity," in his Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 2: God and Creation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), pp. 256-334, is simply masterful.

Bavinck rightly recognizes that "the great challenge facing us with this dogma is to see to it that the unity of the divine essence does not cancel out the Trinity of the persons or, conversely, that the Trinity of persons does not abolish the unity of the divine essence" (pp. 288-289). This is a negative way of stating Gregory of Nanzianus's testimony: "I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one"—a statement that Calvin said "vastly delights" him (Institutes 1.13.17).

Bavinck also sees that getting the Trinity wrong is the mother of all theological error: "Now in the confession of the Trinity we hear the heartbeat of the Christian religion: every error results from, or upon deeper reflection is traceable to, a departure in the doctrine of the Trinity" (p. 288).

The closing life-giving section of the chapter (pp. 333-334) should lead us to worship:

The doctrine of the Trinity is of incalculable importance for the Christian religion.

The entire Christian belief system, all of special revelation, stands or falls with the confession of Gods Trinity.

It is the core of the Christian faith, the root of all its dogmas, the basic content of the new covenant.

It was this religious Christian interest, accordingly, that sparked the development of the church's doctrine of the Trinity. At stake in this development—let it be said emphatically—was not a metaphysical theory or a philosophical speculation but the essence of the Christian religion itself. This is so strongly felt that all who value being called a Christian recognize and believe in a kind of Trinity. The profoundest question implicit in every Christian creed and system of theology is how God can be both one and yet three. Christian truth in all its parts comes into its own to a lesser or greater extent depending on how that question is answered.

In the doctrine of the Trinity we feel the heartbeat of God's entire revelation for the redemption of humanity. Though foreshadowed in the Old Testament, it only comes to light fully in Christ. Religion can be satisfied with nothing less than God himself. Now in Christ God himself comes out to us, and in the Holy Spirit he communicates himself to us. The work of re-creation is trinitarian through and through.

From God, through God, and in God are all things.

Re-creation is one divine work from beginning to end, yet it can be described in terms of three agents: it is fully accomplished by the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. A Christian's faith life, accordingly, points back to three generative principles. . . .

We know ourselves to be children of the Father, redeemed by the Son, and in communion with both through the Holy Spirit.

Every blessing, both spiritual and material, comes to us from the triune God.

In that name we are baptized;

that name sums up our confession;

that name is the source of all the blessings that come down to us;

to that name we will forever bring thanksgiving and honor;

in that name we find rest for our souls and peace for our conscience.

Christians have a God above them, before them, and within them.

Our salvation, both in this life and in the life to come, is bound up with the doctrine of the Trinity.

Amen! Praise be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit—three in one!

You Can't Legislate Morality

Martin Luther King Jr.:

Now the other myth that gets around is the idea that legislation cannot really solve the problem and that it has no great role to play in this period of social change because you've got to change the heart and you can't change the heart through legislation. You can't legislate morals. The job must be done through education and religion.

Well, there's half-truth involved here.

Certainly, if the problem is to be solved then in the final sense, hearts must be changed. Religion and education must play a great role in changing the heart.

But we must go on to say that while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated.

It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also.

So there is a need for executive orders.

There is a need for judicial decrees.

There is a need for civil rights legislation on the local scale within states and on the national scale from the federal government.

—From an address at Western Michigan University, December 18, 1963.

Hospitality and Generosity in the Luther Home

The Luthers' living room at the Black Cloister

When Martin Luther (the 42-year-old former monk) married Katharina von Bora (the 26-year-old former nun), perhaps it was appropriate that they moved into the dilapidated Black Cloister, which had once housed forty monks, including Luther—who had lived there for fourteen years.

On the night of the Luther's public wedding ceremony and celebration, Andreas Karlstadt—a frequent adversary of Luther's—showed up at their door. He had fled the Peasants' War and was seeking shelter. Martin invited him to hide at the Black Cloister—and Karlstadt stayed for eight more weeks!

The house was filled with the sound of children. The Luthers had six children in their first nine years of marriage—three sons, and three three daughters (one of whom died at a few months of age, another at the age of 13). And then a few years into their marriage, the Luthers took into their home the six children of Luther's sister. They also raised Katherine's nephew. Martin often told them stories, taught them songs and games, played melodies on his lute, and instructed them in the faith.

University students often ate and boarded there, and Luther's letters make reference to a steady stream of guests either coming or going.

There was a waiting list for those who wanted to room and board with the Luthers—no doubt because of the stimulating theological education and conversation, but also because for many years the Luther didn't charge anyone for room and board.

As Martin lectured and wrote and debated and preached and traveled, Katie drove the wagon, took care of the field, bought cattle and put them out to pasture, brewed beer, prepared food for the graduation banquets, rented horses, sold linen, served as Martin's publishing agent, and often nursed him back to health during his frequent illnesses.

Luther was very generous to the poor, and refused to charge for lecturing or to accept honoraria for his writing. The dynamic soon proved unsustainable, and the Luthers struggled with debt. But God always provided. Luther once wrote:

God put fingers on our hand for the money to slide through them so He can give us more. Whatever a person gives away, God will reimburse.

Another time Luther said:

Riches are among the most trivial things on earth and the smallest gift God gives to a person.

Luther compared their poverty to the riches he had found in marriage:

My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus [sixth century B.C. king famed for his riches].

Once, when Luther thought he was dying, he wrote:

My dear son and my dear Kate. I have nothing [in worldly goods] to bequest to you, but I have a rich God. Him I leave to you. He will nourish you well.

This word proved prophetic. Luther died in 1546 at the age of 62. Katie would live seven more difficult years without many earthly goods, dying in 1552 at the age of 53. But among her final recorded words was that the desire of her heart was to "cling to Christ like a burr to a dress."

Prosperity and money are not inherently bad, but they must be informed by the gospel. The Luthers could have made different choices, but at the end of their day, their lives are a testimony to the vision Martin so eloquently wrote about:

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.

Strength through Weakness

How would Paul's perspective change how we view God, the world, and ourselves?

Romans 8:26a. "The Spirit helps us in our weakness."

1 Corinthians 1:27b. "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong."

2 Corinthians 12:10. "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses. . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong."

1 Corinthians 2:3. "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling."

1 Corinthians 15:43. "[Our body] is sown in weakness; it is raised in power."

2 Corinthians 11:30. "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."

2 Corinthians 12:9. "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

2 Corinthians 13:4. "For [Jesus] was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God."