I heard a challenging sermon this weekend on the Christian’s relationship to “the world.” It was on the whole a well-balanced sermon, but it was particularly challenging to me because of the baggage I brought to it. I grew up, until my teen years, in a German Bretheren church that emphasized a retreat from “worldliness.” My emotional baggage about what constitutes “the world” is therefore heavy.
Ecclesiastes 7:2 tells us
It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of every man;
the living should take this to heart.
Last week my friend Jeff at The Dawn Treader posted the horrible news that a friend of his — Clete, a sixteen-year-old young man, the son of his former pastor — was killed by a drunk driver. Today Jeff posts about Clete’s funeral. I encourage you to visit that house of mourning. You’ll see there the story of someone in whom the love of Christ overflowed, in simple things like bear hugs. You’ll see what really matters most in life.
I didn’t know Clete or his family at all, and I know Jeff only from our blogging interactions and a few emails and Skype calls. But I’m profoundly grateful today for Jeff’s generosity in sharing Clete’s story. My heart is broken for the tragedy that has visited Clete’s family and friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, but my faith and sense of purpose have been refreshed by the story of this yound man’s life. May my epitath be as profound.
Rich Garnett at Mirror of Justice raises an interesting question about whether the Church should adopt the principles of the free software movement. Rick’s entry refers to an article suggesting that the ideals of the free software movement are consistent with Catholic social teaching regarding the dissemination of information, and that the Church should publish its electronic materials in non-proprietary formats.
This morning I punished my 7-year-old son for something. The punishment was that after school he was to go to bed until dinner time. My wife later called me at work after she and the kids had finished dinner. It seems my son had done homework downstairs before dinner, and is now claiming that he is no longer punished because the punishment specified confinement “before dinner” and it is now “after dinner.” Ok, he didn’t say the “specified confinement part,” but it was a pretty good lawyerly agrument nonetheless.
My friend Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost raises some interesting questions about whether Christians, Jews and Muslims worship the same God. Joe’s answer, in short, is that we do not worship the same God because of Christianity’s triune understanding of God and specifically because of our belief in the divinity of Christ. I’ve heard this argument periodically bandied about in Evangelical circles.
I don’t buy this line of argument. I think it mixes who God actually is (ontology) with what we know and believe about Him (epistemology) and what sort of belief in Him results in salvation (soteriology).
God is no less God, as an ontological being, if our understanding and knowledge of Him is imperfect. If we follow this line of reasoning all the way, no one would truly be worshipping God unless the worshipper has a perfect knowledge of God. Since no one can claim a perfect knowledge of God, we’d all be excluded as worshipers.
We certainly can cite many passages in the New Testament that speak of salvation being made available only in Christ. Clearly, the New Testament scripture teaches that saving faith is only faith in Christ; no one is saved apart from Christ; no one who rejects the divinity of Christ can claim to have saving faith.
This soteriological question, however, is a different question, than the whether Muslims and Jews have at least some degree of knowledge of and faith in the same God, as an ontological being, that we Christians worship. Scripture reveals God’s nature progressively. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob clearly is presented in scripture as the same God we Christians worship. We Christians believe we understand more of His triune nature than Abraham, Isaac or Jacob did because of God’s progressive revelation of Himself in scripture and in the person of Christ. The epistle to the Hebrews certainly confirms the continuity between genuine faith under the Old and New Covenants. God has not changed, but we now know more about Him through Christ and are offered a new covenant based on that deeper knowledge.
So, I think it is more accurate to make a distinctions based on progressive revelation and what constitutes saving faith under the new covenant rather than to define a non-triune understanding of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as constituting a “different” ontological being than the God Christians worship.
This distinction between ontology, epistemology, and soteriology gives us Christians common ground with Muslims and Jews on many basic things relating to the nature of man, morality, and natural law, while leaving us free to differ on matters specific to soteriology without resorting to universalism.
Two articles in today’s Wall Street Journal caught my eye. (Unfortunately I can’t link to either article because WSJ’s website is subscription only.)
The first article discusses changes in the “Ferberizing” and William Sears’ attachment method. Ferberizing involves letting a baby cry, without any comforting, so long as the baby is dry and fed. The attachment method involves always responding instantly to the baby’s cries, even if that means never getting any sleep. The big surprise: advocates of both methods now acknowledge that a balanced approach is better than either extreme. Yes, the common sense of the gazillions of moms and dads who came and went long before Ferber and Sears prevails. Duh.
The second “duh” article involved how to determine whether an online purchase will be subject to state sales tax. The writer suggests first Googling the selling company to determine whether they have offices in your state that might subject them to local sales tax. After that, the article says, try a “purchase run-through” by hitting the “checkout” button. Again, duh! Why bother with all that Googling, which is likely to get you mired in links about arcane state tax law issues. Go right to the “checkout” button. If you see sales tax listed, you’re paying it, and if you don’t want to pay, don’t confirm the purchase. Unless you find state tax law inherently interesting, in which case you probably need to take an Ambien and get a good night’s sleep.
Consistent with my “I’m-a-parent-and-I-don’t-get-out-much” stage of life, I just recently saw Star Wars III, Revenge of the Sith for the first time. Here are a few thoughts and some questions about the movie. (Warning: if you haven’t seen the film yet, the following discussion contains spoilers.)
Jeff at Dawn Treader and I are starting a series on Titus. Titus is one of the Apostle Paul’s “pastoral letters” and is part of the New Testament.
Paul’s pastoral letters were written to leaders of the early church. They include 1 and 2 Timothy as well as Titus. Timothy is probably the more well-known of the recipients of Paul’s letters. So who was Titus?
Here is a good rubber-meets-the-road issue for faith-and-policy wonks like myself. I learned recently that the sleepy little town in which I live is considering an ordinance that would require a regular inspection of every residence in town by the Building Inspector. Currently, inspections are only made after the completion of new construction under a building permit. The ostensible reason for the new ordinance is that there has been a flurry of off-permit do-it-yourself home improvement lately that has slipped through the inspection net. The real reason may be less sanguine.
For those who are interested in faith-science issues, I’d like to promote two great resources I’ve come across. The first is the website of the American Scientific Affiliation. The ASA offers some diverse and welcome perspectives on how to integrate Christian faith and science. There has been interesting chatter on their listserv about intelligent design, including some useful critques and defenses of ID by scientists operating from a faith-based perspective. Their journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith also is detailed and interesting.
The second resource is The New Atlantis, a journal about faith perspectives on technology and society. It’s another thick, thoughtful read for technophiles interested in how Judeo-Christian theology and ethics intersect with biotechnology, computers, the internet, and other emerging technologies in our culture. (Hat tip to Dawn Treader for the link to this journal from his site.)