Events and Reviews

I haven't blogged much lately for a couple of reasons. I believe there's a difference in blogging and journaling. Blogging generally deals with the sharing of ideas; journaling with more internal, introspective, and sometimes private, issues. Most of my thoughts recently are in the second category, suitable for a dog-eared notebook. Also, I am aware that the greatest percentage of my social contacts are electronic, which is troublesome to me. I would give up Facebook, except I find that the "message" function is more efficient and enables me to contact more people privately than regular e-mail. Interesting that Facebook precludes Facetime. "Brave new world, to have such creatures in it." Anyway, here's what's been happening with me recently.

Events: Christ Covenant Church in Sevierville, to which I was connected for eight years, voted this spring to disband. Their last service was on Good Friday. I found this very sad. I had hoped for resurrection in their midst. Goodness knows a lot of people have loved that church and its school and poured themselves into it over the years. I have also had an opposite reaction, something akin to freedom, because it means that the reasons that I came to Sevier County in the first place are no longer there. It makes it easier to be defined by the future instead of by the past.

Another event is the change taking place at Trinity Chapel in Knoxville, where we've been members for the last eight years. Changes in leadership are moving us in a direction that will emphasize house churches, leadership training, and a need for exegetical, expository preaching and teaching. If you know my past, you know that I am salivating over this. I'm trying to heed John Kellogg's word to "be expectant, but don't have expectations," but I do believe there will be a renewal of ministry for me at Trinity. Regardless, we are embedded there.

Reading: Last month I finished Copan's Is God a Moral Monster?, an apologetic for the Old Testament against the "new atheists." I thought the description of the new atheists was more helpful than his defense of the faith. Two things: the new atheists are attempting to prove that non-believers can be just as happy and fulfilled in a world without God as Christians claim to be in a world with him. They proclaim a scientific evolution from which respect, compassion, and a love for beauty emerge. This strikes me as a bit odd, since the heart of evolutionary theory is survival of the fittest--"Nature, red in tooth and claw." Or as Doug Floyd pointed out somewhere, atheists who dwell in a non-metaphysical world are arguing their point from metaphysics.

My own observation about the new atheists is that they are old atheists with a shriller voice. They are angry. Religion is the bane of civilization. Jihad, the crusades, modern evangelism, and (I suppose) Zionism, are all of the same cloth. Fundamentalism in any form is the enemy ("A man who is willing to die for something is also willing to kill for it."). I hear this shrillness filtering down to plain everyday secular folks. It makes calm discussion difficult, and is a little scary.

Copan's defense of the Old Testament God had some good points, but left me feeling like the depths were never explored. He reminded his readers that the Old Covenant was temporary to the point that it was eviscerated. There are some good exegetical studies--but Copan will probably never live down his exegesis of Deuteronomy 25:11-12. It isn't for public consumption. I'll "message" you about it on Facebook if you request it.

I prefer the "Christ is on every page of the Old Testament" approach to reading the Old Covenant. Verne Poythress did some seminal work along these lines in The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses (1991), as well as Jim Jordan in Through New Eyes (1988). You can tell by the dates that I am behind the times. There may be more and better expositions of that approach now. I realize it opens a new can of worms (did Jesus wipe out the Canaanites?), but it's the most consistent approach for a Christian. I didn't feel that Copan explored that angle sufficiently.

I also found a copy of Hannah Whitall Smith's The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life in a drawer that has a bookmark in it from Anne's college days. I am wearing a mask as I read it because the dust sets off my allergies. I categorize her with a number of "inner life" authors like Torrey, Murray, Tozier, and, later, Martin Lloyd Jones. I think of them as "pre-charismatic" evangelicals. It interests me that some of them referred to the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" (see Lloyd-Jones' Joy Unspeakable) without emphasizing charismatic gifts. It's ironic to me that modern evangelicals shy away from this terminology because it might identify them with the Pentecostal/charismatic renewals. There's evidence in the early evangelicals that the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" is part of their heritage.

The message in Secret is that Christ has done everything for our salvation, and we walk by faith. Utterly simple, and most readily forgotten. I have to be told what amounts to the gospel every day. I would prefer to live in carnality and complacency, or, if I'm sufficiently stirred, slide over into legalism and self -salvation. Only the gospel frees--but we have to preach it to ourselves everyday because the kudzu of performance based acceptance never stops creeping into the dark corners of our lives. This is a great book and needs to be reread every few years.

One last comment: We’re headed for a week at Hilton Head. We have a place at Shipyard. Beth will be with us, and David and Channon will be on the island the first few days. We’ll also spend some time with Anne’s Mom. Beach, book, and Copa de Oro in my morning coffee.