Archive for April, 2009
What If There Were…
Monday, April 27th, 2009
… a weird sect that took Jesus’s admonition to not worry about tomorrow so literally that they forbade the use of calendars? What would result?
Quick Thought on Mercy
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
God offers over-the-top mercy, but I think most of us aren’t as interested in receiving mercy as in being excused.
Josiah
Friday, April 17th, 2009
I suppose I should clarify my last post a bit. I don’t mean to argue that God is not concerned at all with state power – given a choice between a just government and an unjust government, God would undoubtedly choose the former. I strongly suspect, however, that in the absence of a just people, a just government is meaningless. It’s sort of like music and lyrics. People can talk all day about lyrics they love, post them on their blogs and such – but if the music’s no good, the lyrics certainly aren’t going to make up for it. Good music saves mediocre lyrics far more often than good lyrics saves a mediocre tune, and likewise with people and government. You can’t impose righteousness from the top down.
For some reason, I felt the need to look up Josiah this morning – a Sunday School example of a Biblical king who did right. What I had forgotten, or perhaps never really learned, is what Josiah’s reforms didn’t matter at all. The king did everything right, and God said, “Well, that’s nice. I’m still bringing the wrath down.”
Consider the words of the prophetess Huldah to Josiah:
“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’ “
All of Josiah’s reforms saved Josiah, but not Judah. You can force folks to celebrate Passover, you can use the power of the state (violence, mostly) to slaughter the priests of the idols and knock down their places of worship, you can even get everyone together and have them pledge themselves to the Lord once again. It doesn’t necessarily mean God is pleased with your society.
I’m sure it’s not entirely as cut and dry as all that (it never is), but it’s an interesting story nonetheless.
“Fundamental Principle of Christian Social Theology”
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
So here’s a fun quote from conservative writer Albert Jay Nock, courtesy of Jonah Goldberg over at National Review Online:
To take another example, the present state of public affairs shows clearly enough that the State is the poorest instrument imaginable for improving human society, and that confidence in political institutions and nostrums is ludicrously misplaced. Social philosophers in every age have been strenuously insisting that all this sort of fatuity is simply putting the cart before the horse; that society cannot be moralized and improved unless and until the individual is moralized and improved. Jesus insisted on this; it is the fundamental principle of Christian social philosophy. Pagan sages, ancient sages, modern sages, a whole apostolic succession running all the way from Confucius and Epicetus down to Nietzche, Ibsen, William Penn, and Herbert Spencer – all of these have insisted on it.
I find this quote quite interesting – I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many different sages and philosophers so neatly tied together along with Jesus! Nietzsche even! The question is – is this true?
Well – I think the sentiment that the state is mostly worthless for improving society is emphatically true. I’m not sure it’s fair to suggest that Jesus “insisted” on this particular point, although I think it’s implicit in his methodology – God did not appear to be in the habit of giving moral instruction primarily to kings and potentates, but to the people generally.
You might argue that God often spoke to people “collectively” rather than “individually,” but I find that distinction to be brain-warpingly useless. The point is, does God seek to reform the world through state power, or through the people, individually and collectively? The answer to THAT question seems fairly clear.
Good thoughts to muse on, I guess…
GraceConversation.com
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
My dad, an elder at my home congregation, is now participating in a very interesting online discussion blog called GraceConversation.com – between two more “progressive” Church of Christ folks and two more “conservative” Church of Christ folks. It’s the kind of conversation that seems like a really good thing to have, so I thought I’d post a link to it.
I put “progressive” and “conservative” in quotes because I’m afraid that terms like that may communicate more than it actually intended, as labels often do. Nonetheless, there are obviously very different groups within the Church of Christ, and the less traditionally-minded often dismiss the more traditionally-minded without really addressing their arguments in a respectful, loving way. So I’m glad that my dad is participating in this, and I pray that it helps lead the church to a greater understanding and more unity.
On a slightly related note, sometimes it bothers me when progressive Church of Christers insinuate that the root cause of the conservative’s disagreements is that they take the Bible or Scripture too seriously. They don’t necessarily say this directly, but I’ve heard it as the thrust of various arguments. The word “legalism,” for example, can connote this in certain cases. If the issue at hand is a lack of mercy, love, and unity, that is NOT from taking the Bible too seriously, or too literally, or too authoritatively, or from a hermeneutic that interprets every verse of Scripture as a binding law. It can’t be, because so much of Scripture is dedicated to precisely those things.
Proverbs 2
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
For those of us wrestling with theological issues, it may be encouraging to read Proverbs 2. God didn’t wait until the New Testament to promise wisdom and understanding to those who ask God for it.
Pardon the Mess
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
I’ve decided Reasonings will be the first thing to get the new makeover – to ChrisGuinCreations.com. For the next bit, though, it may be unsightly. Apologies.