Beholding the Beauty

From the First Oration of Gregory Nazianzen (St. Gregory the Theologian), in 379 A.D. (found here [PDF], p.24) [There are] persons who in the theatres perform wrestling matches in public, but not that kind of wrestling in which the victory is won according to the rules of the sport, but a kind to deceive the eyes of those who are ignorant in such matters, and to catch applause... And now you know why I don't watch Pro Wrestling. :P

This is going to be quite short, since no less a luminary than John Calvin himself has already addressed this (which I discovered after posting Part 1). His commentary can be found here .

Preaching today has become, for an alarming portion of the church 1 , a circus. Preachers have the attitude that if they don't out-entertain everyone else, people will not listen. (This is largely true, if the "people" in question are unregenerate, which is, unfortunately, the case for the majority of people in "churches" nowadays. But I digress.) In the circles in which I personally ran (until recently), a solid exegesis of Scripture is almost unheard of. In fact, in that society, the more a preacher can manipulate the crowd's emotions through jokes, "tear-jerker" stories, etc., the more accolades he receives. (Off-topic: preachers should not be looking for accolades.) A couple of months ago (at the initial time of writing), I had the opportunity to converse with with a well-known (in his religio-social group) pastor over lunch. He is popular for his funny, upbeat, topical messages. I asked him why he preaches mostly topical sermons. His re...

In the course of research completely unrelated to this entry, I used e-Sword to search the Bible for the word "root". First item on the list was Deuteronomy 29:18: Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; I immediately remembered that Hebrews 12:15 is similarly phrased: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you , and thereby many be defiled; But they are not phrased exactly the same — not in English, at least. To determine whether the author of Hebrews was, in fact, quoting Deut. 29:18, I took a look at the Greek behind both verses 1 . Here is the Greek for the verse in Deuteronomy: μή τίς ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν ἀνὴρ ἢ γυνὴ ἢ πατριὰ ἢ φυλή, τίνος ἡ διάνοια ἐξέκλινεν ἀπὸ κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν πορεύεσθαι λατρεύειν τοῖς θεοῖ...

This article from Parchment and Pen is really good. I particularly like the quote at the end, from Thomas Oden: Because of piety’s penchant for taking itself too seriously, theology–more than literary, humanistic, and scientific studies–does well to nurture a modest, unguarded sense of comedy. Some comic sensibility is required to keep in due proportion the pompous pretensions of the study of divinity. I invite the kind of laughter that wells up not from cynicism about reflection on God but from the ironic contradictions accompanying such reflections. Theology is intrinsically funny. This comes from glimpsing the incongruity of humans thinking about God. I have often laughed at myself as these sentences went through their tortuous stages of formation. I invite you to look for the comic dimension of divinity that stalks every page. It is not blasphemy to grasp the human contradiction for what it is. The most enjoyable of all subjects has to be God, because God is the source of all jo...

Found this on another blog today: "A certain merchant in Caesarea sent his servant to the market to buy some provisions. Before very long, the servant returned looking frightened and pale. His master inquired of him the reason for his trembling. In a trembling voice he said, 'While in the market place I was jostled by a man in the crowd, and when I turned around I saw it was the Angel of Death. He looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Master, please lend me your horse, for I must go to Samaria, where the Angel of Death will not find me!' The merchant agreed, and the servant mounted the horse and galloped away in great haste. Later that day, the merchant went down to the marketplace, and saw the Angel of Death standing in the crowd. He approached him and said, 'Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?' 'That was not a threatening gesture,' said the Angel. 'It was only a start of surprise. I was as...

A sick man turned to his doctor, as he was leaving the room after paying a visit, and said, "Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side." Very quietly the doctor said, "I don't know." "You don't know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?" The doctor was holding the handle of the door, on the other side of which came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the door opens, I shall pass through with no fear, but with gla...

I recently found a site called Sidetakers. The gist of the site is that you can anonymously post individual questions asking for advice, or "sides", where each of the people in a dispute can post his/her side of "the story". The other users of the site can then comment and/or vote their advice. I came across this post, titled "I hate my sister because of the things she has done, am I a bad person?" It's a very sad situation, as you can see: My older sister, has always bullied me since I was little. When she started to grow up my parents gave her all the attention because she was a bit of a 'lose cannon". She did drugs, drank heavily and slept around. She made fun of me in public at school, and always took everyone elses side. My sister when reaching 18 left home and told no1 where she was going. She contacted noone for 6months, we all thought she was dead. I found her through some of my friends, only because of how upset my parents were. She d...

Just got done watching this video , entitled "An Evening of Eschatology", in which each of the three major views regarding the Millenium are presented, and discussed. The event was hosted by Bethlehem College and Seminary, produced by Desiring God , and moderated by Pastor John Piper. I highly recommend this as a primer on the three views presented, and as a starting point for one's own internal journey in the area of eschatology. (If you don't know what "eschatology" is, watch the first few minutes of the video: they explain it in layman's terms.) I never thought such a "dry" subject could be discussed so hilariously. I laughed more through those two hours than through the majority of "comedy" movies/shows I've seen, put together. These men are genuinely hilarious! You can tell they truly enjoy each other's company, even though, at the same time, they vociferously object to various points of each other's positions. T...

I have given some meditation to how to present the claims of Jesus clearly, regarding His Name. There are many places in which Jesus' direct claims that He Himself is YHWH are recorded. Unfortunately, however, most modern readers are unfamiliar with the Old Testament in general, and with Jewish thought on certain personages and passages found therein in particular, which are essential to recognition of the aforementioned claims by Jesus "to be equal with God". Therefore, the majority of these claims will not be immediately obvious. I cannot just quote the relevant passages from the Gospels (and the Revelation) and expect the reader to understand. So, it will be my goal over the next couple (or more) posts on this sub-topic of this series, to lay the exegetical groundwork for comprehension not only of His claims, but of the stark clarity and exactitude of those claims. I will be borrowing heavily from a couple of key sources, and cherry-picking several others, so I will...

I just realized that I have not continued the study on the Deity of Christ! I have several posts in Draft, but have been very busy, and not able to finish them. I should probably do that. :)

Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me. May God richly bless me.... Happy Birthday to me. :-D

0. Start with the KJV. 1. Replace "thee" and "thou" with "you", and "ye" and "you [plural]" with "y'all" or "youse guys" (just kidding!); a subscript, such as "you p "; or just a marginal note. 2. Render the Tetragrammaton as "YHWH", not "the LORD". In addition, trans literate the other names of God with their underlying Hebrew/Aramaic (i.e. El Elohim, Adonai, etc.), since they are names . Marginally note the meaning (i.e. the trans lation ). 3. Update the spellings and archaic words with the modern ones (i.e. musick -> music, emerods -> hemorrhoids). 4. Marginally note idiomatic expressions as such, and where possible explain the idiom. 5. Minimize the interference of chapter and verse divisions (viz. the New Cambridge Paragraph Bible). 6. Try to cut down on the number of translator inserted words. I may update this list later on...that's all I can think of for n...

Speaking to lost people who think that God's justice doesn't include horrible things like Hell and anger being poured out on the wicked, John Piper reminds them : When blood flows as high as the horse's bridle, you will think differently about justice than when your biggest problem is an air conditioner that doesn't work.

I was recently "In the Nick of Time", a blog by Kevin T. Bauder, and came across a series by him in which he lays the groundwork for any reasonable discussion of the propriety of theater as a medium. In it, he makes a statement that applies generally, and not just to a discussion of theater. It is long, but worth quoting in it's entirety. You could replace "forbade theater" in the first sentence with whatever your favorite topic would be. Generation after generation of believers thought that biblical principles forbade theater. My generation disagrees. To which group should I listen? Suppose we were to gauge the spiritual depth of these two groups. The first group somehow preserved the faith through persecutions by pagans, betrayals by heretics, and the decadence of the Romish system. At enormous sacrifice they reformed a corrupted Christendom, built the great missionary movements, and conducted the great revivals and awakenings. When they were cal...

"Today we are too much about what we do , and not enough about who we are ." — Paul Washer

I was reading I Peter again the other day, and when I came to the beginning sentence of chapter 3, I noticed 1 something in it's grammatical structure that I haven't noticed before. This item is not so much a correction of previous error in my thought on this sentence, but rather an expansion of it. Before I get into what I noticed, let me repeat the sentence itself: Likewise, ye wives, [be] in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation [coupled] with fear. First, let me point out that the popular teaching 2 on this verse is that a believing woman's unbelieving may husband may yet be won through her biblical submission to his authority, even though he may (at first) reject the authority of the Scriptures. Now on to the actual discovery, which is found at the end of the first verse. The application listed above implies a reading of ...

I just read this great article , on "Christ, the breath of our nostrils", out of Lamentations 4:20ff. I think the Expostulation to sinners at the end is particularly well written. It has definite Jonathan Edwards overtones, don't you think? Particularly this bit: Do you doubt that God would put you to torment? Look to the cross, where he was pleased to put his own Son to torment for sins, and look to the lives of Christians everywhere who, although indwelt by the Spirit of Christ himself, he is pleased to bring through many trials and tribulations; and do you doubt that he will have the heart to put you to shame and torment? Your life is fleeting and uncertain if Christ is not your breath, and it may be cut off at any time, and you will be plunged into the fiery chasm of God’s eternal wrath. Flee to Christ at once, or you will be left utterly without hope!

No, this is not a political post (although I might do one using this title on my political blog ). :) I was reading a book the other day, and I was once again reminded of an old analogy used by ecumenicalists to explain their god, and how he is the same god all the other religions have. The analogy goes something like this: There were once three blind men who came upon an elephant. They said to each other: "Well, this is a strange creature! What is it?" The first, who had caught the tail, said, "It is like a long rope." The second, touching the massive leg, replied, "That's impossible. This is very sturdy, like a strong oak tree! This creature is nothing like a rope." The third, hearing the descriptions of the others, and comparing it with the elephant's trunk, which was his point of contact, laughed, saying, "You're both very wrong! The creature is not a rope, nor a tree, but like a large snake. How could you both be so silly?...

You don't tell men that they are saved; you tell men how to be saved. God tells them that they are saved. — Paul Washer

Don't worry...I haven't forgotten about the blog. I'm just really busy lately.

Turns out I'm a Covenant Theologian -- at least insofar as totally agreeing with this post makes me one. :) This is, IMHO, a great breakdown of the Abrahamic Covenant and how it applies/doesn't apply to us (and the Jews, a.k.a. the "Israelites according to the flesh") today. Let me know what you think!

"the anonymous" W. Holmes made a good point in the first comment on this post . This post is a reply to that. (I tried to do this as a second comment, but the Comments don't allow the "<sup>" HTML tag, which I use for my footnotes. That said, here's my reply: -------------------------------- Great thought, W. I completely concur. As Moses said in Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." What "things" are revealed to us now? All things (that we need to know, anyway), are revealed in Christ. Indeed, even though the "secret things belong unto the LORD", we can know all we need to know and understand about Him, since He has revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ, His "Son...Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," 1 an...

Should a hymn, which has endured the test of time, be stripped away from God’s people merely because it does not appeal to the ear of individuals who do not love God? — Dan Miller, Pastor From his article at Sharper Iron.org .

I finally got together, this afternoon, with the Watchtowerites for a discussion over coffee. From our phone conversations setting up the meeting, I was let to believe that we would have at least 45 minutes, and possibly an hour. For the last couple of weeks, I have been studying, as a refreshment and expanding of previous study, the topic of the Deity of Christ: that His title as the "unique Son of God" necessitates that He is "God the Son". Well, we started the conversation by looking at the the Watchtower organization's "restoration of the name" to the New Testament. If you read the New World Translation, you will notice the name "Jehovah" popping up all over the New Testament, where it is not in the Greek. The Watchtower avers that the name was in the originals, but was written out of them in reverence for the name. They cite Hebrew Translations "from the 14th century onward" that include the Tetragrammaton ("YHWH...

The JW I was talking to put off our meeting, because he wanted to bring along "a buddy," who wasn't able to make it that day. Then, on the newly appointed day (last Saturday), I called, and he put it off again, claiming he is tired from a long week of "Bible training". He asked to "tentatively" schedule it for Wednesday, to which I agreed. I am going to attempt to record the conversation (with his permission, of course) if/when we finally get to it.

Together for the Gospel, 2008 conference, Session 7: How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice , by John Piper. Quote starts 13m23s. The quote is in context of I Tim. 6:9, and pastoral ministry. The world is not going to glorify Christ because they see that Christians are wealthy, and healthy, and prosperous. Very simple reason why: that's what they live for! So you use Jesus to get it? They use other means to get it. They're not impressed! Jesus is the ticket? When the show starts, you throw the ticket away! They don't need your ticket. They're not impressed! You should really listen to the sermon, since there are nuances of expression that don't come through in transcription. :)

I just split this blog into two. I started a new blog called On Freedom and Oppression , and moved a few of the posts I had here over there. Beholding the Beauty is still my main blog, since the majority of my posts are related to spiritual things, but I really got the sense that the political stuff needed it's own space to play in.

...but thou hast in love to my soul [delivered it] from the pit of corruption: for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back. (Isaiah 38:17) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8) Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love [is] the fulfilling of the law. (Rom. 13:10) Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. ... Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it...(Eph. 5:1, 2, 25) But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness w...

I'd like to start this series by asking the question: Why am I doing this? Why am I taking all this time to prove plainly from the Scriptures that Jesus is God -- not a created being inferior to the Father -- Who is one with the Father not just in purpose, but also in substance? What difference does it make whether we see Him as a created being or the One Who has no beginning? Why is it important that we understand what the phrase "the Son of God" means? First, Jesus thought it was important enough to explicitly take time to make sure His disciples "got it," and had the Holy Ghost record the lesson through Matthew. When He was here, some of the people were confused about Who He was: His identity. Let's take a look (Matt. 16:13ff): When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some [say that thou art] John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one...

The place I work is an actual office, but it is in a neighborhood. As I was pulling into the parking lot, two gentlemen from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (commonly called the "Jehovah's Witnesses") were crossing the entrance. They waited to cross until I was parked, and started to address me through my open window. Now, it has been some time since I had any substantial interaction with any from this (IMHO) cult, and I was in a particularly spunky mood today, so I grabbed by Bible off of the front seat next to me, and prepared for battle. (Disclaimer: I make it sound as though my attitude was one of wanting to destroy these men. It was not. In fact, I realized that they are trapped in false teaching, and only want to destroy their belief in that. I want them to see our matchless God and Savior in all of His wondrous glory -- not as a created, and therefore necessarily inferior, being.) They began the conversation by mentioning my Bible (it's a rather la...

The Lord is so good to me. He instructs me constantly, even in my faults. Over the weekend, He has taught me even more the value, meaning, and joy of sanctification: living daily in the grace of God by applying the same faith that brought justification -- faith in His Son. This past week at Family Camp, Dr. Fox brought a great message on advocacy of Jesus, and how that relates to our daily forgiveness for sin. I really enjoyed the messages all week, and was greatly instructed in the Lord; and that message was no exception. So, of course, I got an opportunity to apply that teaching. Unfortunately, I yielded to temptation in a certain area, and in doing so I sinned! (Don't look at me in that tone of voice! cf. Matt. 7:1-5; Rom. 2:1; 1 Cor. 4:5, James 4:11, 12; 1 John 1:8-10) Instantly, the Holy Spirit worked me over with conviction, and assured me constantly that my fellowship with the Father was going to be pretty much nonexistent until we got this thing taken care of. At once,...

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. (Ps. 40:1-3) And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, and to record, and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel: Asaph the chief, and next to him, Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obededom: and Jeiel with psalteris and with harps; but Asaph made a sound with cymbals; Benaiah also and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God. Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the LORD into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. "Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sin...