Justin Taylor's Blog, page 254

Memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism in 90 Days

Yep, there's an app for that.

The Pulpit and the European Financial Crisis

What can pastors—who are not experts in either politics of policy—appropriately say from the pulpit about the European financial crisis?

Greg Forster—whose book The Contested Public Square: The Crisis of Christianity and Politics (IVP, 2008) may be the single best volume for an introductory survey of Christianity and politics in the past 2000 years—gives a very helpful answer.

Here's a snippet:

No doubt America's church leaders are as concerned as anyone else about the grave news emerging from the European financial crisis. It threatens a disruption so serious that every economy in the world would be damaged. But pastors may naturally ask what, if anything, it all has to do with their work as the spiritual leaders of God's people.

I don't think pastors are called to become experts in international finance. However, I do think the European crisis intersects with the daily work of stewarding the mysteries of God and equipping the saints for discipleship in the American context.

One of the most important callings of the pastor is to equip the saints in discerning and carrying out the various callings God has for them in every aspect of their lives, including as members of their civil communities. And thinking Christianly about our daily calling to be good citizens in our homes, workplaces, and communities actually provides unique insight into the financial crisis and what we, as ordinary citizens, can do to make a productive contribution to the good of our neighbors and nation.

Read the whole thing.

P.D. James on Tradition and Relevance

Novelist P.D. James:

We live in an age notable for a kind of fashionable silliness and imbued with a restless desire for change.

It sometimes seems that nothing old, nothing well-established, nothing which has evolved through centuries of experience and loving use escapes our urge to diminish, revise or abolish it.

Above all every organisation has to be relevant—a very fashionable word—to the needs of modern life, as if human beings in the twenty-first century are somehow fundamentally different in their needs and aspirations from all previous generations.

A country which ceases to value and learn from its history, neglects its language and literature, despises its traditions and is unified only by a common frenetic drive for getting and spending and for material wealth, will lose more than its nationhood; it will lose its soul.

Let us cherish and use what we still precariously hold.

Let us strive to ensure that what has been handed down to us is not lost to generations to come.

—P.D. James, "Through All the Changes Scenes of Life: Living with the Prayer Book," in The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present and Future: A 350th Anniversary Celebration, ed. Prudence Dailey (Continuum, 2011), p. 51.

HT: Gerald Bray, via Brad Green

Whither YRR?

Kevin DeYoung:

Tis the end of the year, the time to reflect on what has been and what may be. For several months I've been pondering a post on this thing that's been called Young, Restless, and Reformed. What's good? What's bad? What needs to be celebrated? What needs to addressed?

For starters, it may be time to retire the name. . . .

Read the whole thing.

The Difference between Union and Communion with God

Kelly Kapic:

It is important to note that Owen maintains an essential distinction between union and communion.

Believers are united to Christ in God by the Spirit. This union is a unilateral action by God, in which those who were dead are made alive, those who lived in darkness begin to see the light, and those who were enslaved to sin are set free to be loved and to love. When one speaks of "union," it must be clear that the human person is merely receptive, being the object of God's gracious action. This is the state and condition of all true saints.

Communion with God, however, is distinct from union. Those who are united to Christ are called to respond to God's loving embrace. While union with Christ is something that does not ebb and flow, one's experience of communion with Christ can fluctuate.

This is an important theological and experiential distinction, for it protects the biblical truth that we are saved by radical and free divine grace.

Furthermore, this distinction also protects the biblical truth that the children of God have a relationship with their Lord, and as a relationship, there are things that can either help or hinder it. When a believer grows comfortable with sin (whether sins of commission or sins of omission) this invariably affects the level of intimacy this person feels with God. It is not that the Father's love grows and diminishes for his children in accordance with their actions, for his love is unflinching. It is not that God runs from us, but we run from him. Sin tends to isolate the believer, making him feel distant from God. Then come the accusations—both from Satan and self—which can make the believer worry he is under God's wrath. In truth, however, saints stand not under wrath, but in the safe shadow of the cross.

While a saint's consistency in prayer, corporate worship, and biblical meditation are not things that make God love him more or less, such activities tend to foster the beautiful experience of communion with God. Temptations and neglect threaten the communion, but not the union [Works, 2:126]. And it is this union which encourages the believer to turn from sin to the God who is quick to forgive, abounding in compassion, and faithful in his unending love.

Let there be no misunderstanding—for Owen, Christian obedience was of utmost importance, but it was always understood to flow out of this union, and never seen as the ground for it. In harmony with Bunyan and other Dissenters like him, Owen "insisted upon a very personal and emotional experience of union with Christ and the Holy Spirit," and out of this union naturally flowed active communion.

Kelly M. Kapic, "Worshiping the Triune God: Insights from John Owen," introduction to John Owen, Communion with the Triune God , ed. Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor; foreword by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), pp. 21-22.

Vaclav Havel and Kim Jong-il

Joe Carter reflects on the legacy and fate of two remarkably different leaders:

There is no sinner so depraved—not even Kim Jong-il—that our merciful God cannot save him. And there is no human so righteous—not even Vaclav Havel—whose good works can gain him entrance into heaven. By his death and resurrection, Jesus atoned for our sin and secured our justification by grace—not by our works. The deaths of these men should serve as a reminder of our need to spread the message that heaven is not the final destination for good men and women, but rather the home for those who have been bought by the blood of Christ.

To be sure, we can still be profoundly grateful for Havel's accomplishments on earth. In fact, only eternal justice can secure the standards by which we measure Havel a hero and Jong-il a villain. Havel used the common grace provided by his Creator to do much good (though not ultimate good). Provided with life, conscience, and imagination, Havel used his gifts to help others imagine a life free of persecution and tyranny. In contrast, Jong-il used the gifts of common grace to enslave and oppress those he was called to protect.

Reflecting on their lives in the light of common grace will lead us to a greater appreciation of Havel's kindness and a deeper abhorrence of Jong-il's cruelty. But it should also stir within us a longing to share the fullness of the gospel.

Read the whole thing.

On Union with Christ (and Tom Schreiner Rapping)

Thabiti Anyabwile has a good summary of two recent podcasts at Christ the Center on union with Christ. In the first one,  "Union with Christ," they discuss with Lane Tipton "several dimensions of the Reformed discussion of union with Christ including Lutheranism, definitive sanctification, and the incorporation of transformative aspects into justification." In the second one, "Union with Christ, a Response," they get Michael Horton's response to some of these criticisms.

It looks like a profitable discussion. But really, wouldn't you rather hear Tom Schreiner rap on the subject of union with Christ with Curtis Allen?

Union with Christ Feat. Tom Schreiner by Curtis Allen

You can download the song here.

Logic Illustrated at the Breakfast Table

The "square of opposition" is a nifty way to see several logical relationships between four types of propositions. Substitute something in for S (subject) and P (predicate) and you can see how this works. Let's use "Evangelical" for "S" and "Republican" for P. So there are four possible relationships:

A: All Evangelicals are Republicans (universal affirmative)
E: No Evangelicals are Republicans (universal negative)
I: Some Evangelicals are Republicans (particular affirmative)
O: Some Evangelicals are not Republicans (particular negative)

There are multiple observations that can be made, but here are a just couple of practical implications.

1. If you want to refute a claim, identify what kind of thing is being proposed. In a sense, the stronger the claim the easier the potential refutation. For example, if someone affirms a universal (A or E), one only needs to find a single example to count as a "contradiction" (follow the diagonal line). In other words, if I claim A (All Evangelicals are Republicans) you only need to provide one counter-example of an Evangelical Democrat to demonstrate O (Some Evangelicals are not Republicans). Similarly, in responding to E (No Evangelicals are Republicans) you only need to find one Republican Evangelical to demonstrate the contradictory I (Some Evangelicals are Republicans).

2. In making a claim, avoid universal claims unless there can be no possible exception. Make a claim that you can defend.

A couple of years ago at the breakfast table my 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter provided a nice example of the square of opposition in action:

4-year-old: I know everything.

6-year-old: No, you don't.

4-year-old: Yes, I do!

6-year-old: Ok . . . then what do cheetahs eat?

4-year-old: I don't know.

6-year-old: Then you don't know everything!

4-year-old: [Stunned silence.]

Score one for the 6-year-old. She took his propositional claim ("I know everything") and intuitively recognized that in order to refute it, she did not need to prove the contrary claim (i.e., "You know nothing") but only had to show a contradiction with his proposal (i.e., "There's at least one thing you don't know"). And of course if he had given the right answer—they eat eat gazelles, impala, deer, and also rabbits, frogs, birds, lizards, eggs, and watermelon—that still wouldn't have proven his claim. She would just need to figure out another contradiction.

Inside Kim Jong-Il's Diabolical World

A look inside the gulags of North Korea. As you watch, remember that many of those being tortured and massacred are brothers and sisters in Christ, members of Christ's body. "The number of prisoners held in the North Korean gulag is not known: one estimate is 200,000, held in 12 or more centres. Camp 22 is thought to hold 50,000. Most are imprisoned because their relatives are believed to be critical of the regime. Many are Christians, a religion believed by Kim Jong-il to be one of the greatest threats to his power. According to the dictator, not only is a suspected dissident arrested but also three generations of his family are imprisoned, to root out the bad blood and seed of dissent." (source)

A Labor of Love

Jill Phillips, performing "Labor of Love" from Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God, with scenes from The Nativity: