Happy Birthday John Calvin

July 10 is the 500 birthday of John Calvin. Calvin is one of the great theological minds of all history and has been greatly used by God. His influence is still strong today.

Coram Deo,

Kenith

On Christian Foundations

Patrick Henry: It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here. (Patrick Henry played an important role in the War for Independence and was a leading Anti-federalist in the debate over the Constitution)  

 

Noah Webster: In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people” (Webster took part in the public debates over the Constitution. He was a Federalist)

 

Noah Webster: The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence... This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.

 

Noah Webster: When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God."  The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted.

 

Alexis de Tocqueville makes this observation of early American culture in his monumental work Democracy in America: "So Christianity reigns without obstacles, by universal consent; consequently, everything in the moral field is certain and fixed."

 

Tocqueville: ...Christianity has kept a strong hold over the minds of Americans ...Christianity is itself an established and irresistible fact which no one seeks to attack or to defend. (Democracy In America )

 

Alexis de Tocqueville: For the Americans the idea of Christianity and liberty are so completely  mingled that it is almost impossible to get them to conceive of one without the other; it is not a question with them of sterile beliefs bequeathed by the past and vegetating rather than living in the depths of the soul. (Democracy in America)

 

Alexis de Tocqueville: I do not know if all Americans have faith in their religion-     for who can read the secrets of the heart? - but I am sure that they think it necessary to the maintenance of republican institutions. That is not the view of one class or party among the citizens, put of the whole nation; it is found in all ranks. (Democracy in America)

Remembering Gerry

Today is the 48th birthday of my brother Gerry. Gerry died almost six years ago, after succumbing to a three year battle with colon and liver  cancer.

 

My sister and two brothers were all born close together.  Gerry was the closest of my siblings to me in age. He was born less than 15 months after me and we grew up close. Of course, being boys close in age, he and I had our share of fist fights. I was the older and faster, but he was stockier and had more natural strength. We both had a fair amount of boxing experience by the time of our last fight.  I was seventeen and he was sixteen at the time. I started the fight, for reasons that I have long since forgotten, but I do remember being the guilty party.

This was the first and only fight between us where blood was spilt. We had several friends with us, and neither one of us wanted to look soft in front of our friends, so the fight went on longer than it would have other wise. I remember, I punched him in the face, cut his cheek and saw blood on his face. When I saw the blood, I immediately wanted to quit, but he would have none of that and we started again. After a few more punches he caught me with right to the face and I too began to bleed. He dropped his fists wanting to stop, but this time I insisted on continuing.

 

The fight did not last much longer; right about that time our dad drove into the drive way. We both stopped then. Dad was angry. He saw two of his sons fighting one another, both cut and bleeding. I will not go into detail about what happened, but our friends quickly left our yard, Dad sent Gerry and me inside then he came in. My dad but an end to that fight, as he had so  many others, but Gerry and I never fought again. Not too much after that I went in the Navy. When I returned four years later, Gerry was married and had a baby girl.

 

Gerry was always a good friend, I still miss him a great deal, but I know that we will meet again. He is with our Lord. He made his salvation sure while struggling with his cancer.

 

Coram Deo,

Kenith

 

 

 

 

 

Harmless As Doves

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. (II Tim 2:24-26)

 

In St. Paul’s epistles to Timothy and Titus he is instructing young men who have been ordained as pastors in Christ’s Church. The advice he gives above is advice that we should all heed, but it is advice that many of us too often ignore.

 

Over the years I’ve read a lot of theologians and Bible teachers. I’ve read the writings of men from the very early days of the church up until today’s theologians. I have been greatly blessed by many of them, but I have noticed that many of the teachers, in all times, have fallen short of Paul’s instruction quoted above.

 

Too often, Christian teachers forget that they “must not quarrel but be gentle to all” and also be “patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition.” This is not an isolated thing that Paul says only here, though once would be enough, instead we find these instruction many times.

 

Later in this same epistle, Paul writes Timothy and tells him “evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” and Timothy will have to deal with such corrupt people with sound teaching. He will have to “Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” (II Tim 4:2) That is hard to do, but it is God’s Word that tells us to treat those in error (or worse) this way.

 

In Matthew 10 Jesus, speaking to the twelve disciples, tells them that “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Now the mission they were going on was a very particular one, but I believe this part of Christ’s instruction is valid for all of us at all times. If you are defenceless, as a sheep is to a wolf, than it is good to be very wise and we Christians should seek wisdom and act wisely. We should also be “harmless as doves.”

 

Jesus and Paul are both instructing disciples on how to treat unbelievers they confront with the truth of the Gospel. If we are to be gentle, patient, humble, and longsuffering when we deal with unbelievers and evil men, it stands to reason that we should treat fellow believers, with whom we disagree, with as much or more gentleness, and longsuffering, but too often Christians have been brutal to fellow believers who disagree with them on even minor points of doctrine.

There is something wrong with that. It is wrong and a very poor testimony to the unbelieving world around us when they see these nasty disputes between believers.

 

Reformed Christians’ seem to be particularly guilty of showing no quarter, to fellow believers, who differ with them, whether they are within or without the Reformed camp. One reason for this is Reformed Christians take theology very serious, which is a good thing, but our theology must include what Christ and His Apostles taught in Scripture on how to deal with unbelievers and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

We MUST deal with our fellow Christians in love and, if there is need for correction, (which I think we all need at some point) we must correct them in love, with gentleness, humility and great patience. We should be harmless as doves when dealing with wolves; I would hope we can be harmless as doves when dealing with our fellow sheep as well.

 

Coram Deo,

Kenith

 

 

 

More "Mere Christianity"

One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sin: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my foot and I forgive you, you steal money from me and I forgive you. But what shall we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announces that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.  In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words imply what I can only regard as silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

 

Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that he is ‘humble and meek’ and we believe him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

 

I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)

 

 

 

 

C.S. Lewis on Temperance

“Temperance is, unfortunately, one of those words that has changed its meaning. It now usually means teetotalism. But in the days when the second Cardinal virtue was christened ‘Temperance’, it meant nothing of the sort. Temperance referred, not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further.  It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers; Mohammedanism, not Christianity, is the teetotal religion.” C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.

A Quote: C.S. Lewis

"…as St. Paul points out, Christ never meant that we are to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only 'as harmless as doves', but also "as wise as serpents'. He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim… The fact that what you are thinking about God Himself (for example, when you are praying) does not mean that you can be content with the same babyish ideas which you had when you were a five-year-old. It is, of course, quite true that God will not love you any less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He every one to use what sense they have…God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all.” Quoted from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.

Simple?

If Christianity were something we were making up, of course we could make it easier, but it is not. We can not compete in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with fact; of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about. C.S. Lewis

The Bible is not a simple book, and the Christian faith is, in some ways a very complicated one. Our understanding of God is more complicated than many people can abide by. We believe in one God, and yet we believe that God is a unity of being. He is one and he is three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This idea of God offends many. They insist that God must be one, a simple unity. Or, they insist that we admit that we actually believe in three gods. But the Scriptures teach God is a unity and a plurality in one God, He is a trinity. That is not a simple view of God and it is here that numerous individuals and groups have broken with the Christian faith.

We Christians believe that Jesus is wholly man and we also believe that he is wholly and fully the eternal God incarnated in human flesh. This too is a difficult teaching that offends many. They are willing to accept Jesus as a prophet or a great moral teacher. They are willing to accept that Jesus was filled with God’s spirit, but they frown at the doctrine that he can be fully God and fully man at one and the same time. This is teaching of Scripture is not simple or easy.

Christians believe that God took on human flesh and humanity by being conceived in the womb of a young virgin. This again is a teaching that many reject as preposterous nonsense. They don’t, so much, mind God appearing in human flesh, but the idea that he was born of a virgin, that a helpless infant was fully God is beyond what many can accept as reasonable. Unitarians reject the virgin birth.

The cross of Christ is also offensive to many who disbelieve the Christian faith. The God/man being punished for the sins of others is another concept that is not in all aspects a simple one. Why do we have to believe in a blood sacrifice? It is not a simple teaching and is despised by many.

The simplest statement of the Christian Faith is the Apostles Creed.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.

The Christian Faith is a faith based on events that took place in history. The Bible is mostly a divine history of the fall man and God’s work of redeeming work in history to save man and the bring in a new heavens and a new earth.

The teaching the Bible about God and His Christ are not simple, but they are truth.

Coram Deo,
Kenith