The Ten Best Things About 2010

It's time for every blog on the planet to do top ten lists. Well, we're a blog, so here's my top ten list (not listed in order of importance!):

10. Sinclair Ferguson's Podcast.
Earlier on in my journey into Reformed Christianity, I thought there wasn't anything better than hearing R.C. Sproul's teaching. Then, once I got really into preaching, it was John Piper. However, as I've moved along and become more familiar with the real Presbyterian form of Reformed Christianity, I've begun much more to appreciate the preaching of Sinclair Ferguson, who became my favorite preacher of 2010.

9. Discovering Sherlock Holmes.
Since I cannot live on a diet of strictly theological reading, I discovered the novels of Dennis Lehane, whose work I simply adore. But a little after discovering Lehane's books, I started reading the real detective himself, Sherlock Holmes. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, I have every single Sherlock Holmes novel and short story that Doyle ever wrote, all in one convenient file on my Kindle. Whenever I feel like I've pushed my brain too far theologically, I go to the old standby. He is logical, exciting, jaded, and addicted to the poppy seed, so he's still a man with feet of clay. I absolutely adore Holmes and don't know what I'll do when I actually finish reading all of his adventures. Nothing will substitute, I'm afraid.

8. Reading The Marrow of Modern Divinity.
Although I am not even a fourth of the way through reading The Marrow, I do believe that this wonderful, amazing, rich book will be the greatest thing I have found this year. It doesn't get #1 though, because I haven't finished it yet.

7. Calvinist Hip-Hop.
There are few things as thrilling as finding out that there are literally rappers who do songs about penal substitutionary atonement and openly defend the doctrine of election in their music. Discovering the Pollen Posse (as they are called in some circles; think of tulips) was a terrific thrill and made 2010 a year to be reckoned with.

6. The Birth of My Daughter, Penelope.
She's just the sweetest thing I've ever seen. At least since the last child we had. Also, the fact that we were able to have this child at home and not in a hospital is a matter for praise, because it's the first time we've ever been able to actually pull it off.

5. Love/Hate Relationship With Social Media.
Social media is honestly one of the best and the worst things about 2010. On the one hand, I get to write on this blog, which is a thrill, and I am now friends with Charles Hodge on Facebook. On the other, I am quite convinced that my digital connectedness is affecting the way I think. If you don't believe me, read Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows. It's a terrifying book to read as a Christian, because you become aware of just how short the internet makes our attention spans.

4. Ditching piracy.
This was painfully bittersweet. I still don't like to talk about it.

3. Losing my interest in music.
See #4. When you can't get tons of music for free anymore, it has a way of helping you make idols out of other things instead.

2. The Amazon Kindle.
Don't believe me? Just look at my entry from December 29th. Everything I read, practically, is on the Kindle. Couple that with the constant free books from Reformation Trust, and you've got an invaluable addition to my reading repertoire.

1. Finding our church home at Heartland PCA.
This is easily #1. Easily. Something about discovering you're not the only Reformed person in the state of Kansas has a way of at once humbling you and at the same time strengthening you in unspeakable ways. Having opportunities to teach and contribute in a real Reformed church setting has been far more transformative for my family than I ever could have imagined. We got to join the church, see our children baptized, and enjoy the fellowship of fellow Reformed believers. I don't know what I'd do without the friends I have made. Arryn and I glorify God constantly for bringing us to Heartland, and especially for bringing me under the discipleship and care of Pastor Rick Franks, who is a constant encouragement to me in many respects.

On Weed and Weed Substitutes

Some time back, a friend of mine from many years ago asked me a question regarding a "weed substitute" which has apparently been making the rounds. He wanted to know if it was Biblically permissible to smoke this substance if it was legal to do so.

We could discuss these issues in two different ways. The first way, which settles it easily, is to ask the question, "Is it legal?" If the answer is no, then there we go. Done deal. Romans 13 says that we must submit to the magistrate. This applies to marijuana, and therefore takes all of the thought out of the issue, doesn't it?

On the other hand, in only a few years, if we're really honest with ourselves, marijuana probably will become a legal substance, and so we as Christians need to decide at this moment what we will do with marijuana once it is no longer a banned substance. Since my friend asked about this legal substance "Blue Grass" (which I've never actually heard of), we ought to broaden the question and pretend that both marijuana and blue grass are both legal for the sake of discussion.

So we've got these two substances which we are not strictly prohibited from using, in terms of Biblical commands. Does it follow that we ought to partake of something, simply because it is NOT forbidden? Most would agree, I think, that this would be swinging the pendulum a bit too far. After all,

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV).

I think these verse by Paul here are very helpful when we're considering what we will ingest and why we will ingest it. Simply because we're not prohibited from using something does not justify its use. Paul seems concerned with two questions in particular:

1. Is it helpful?
2. Will it enslave me?

I used to be quite liberal about my own use of alcohol. When Arryn and I were living in Phoenix, a friend of hers from high school took us out to eat at a Japanese steak house. He brought his boyfriend along. Being a Biblical Christian who understands that alcohol is a gift of God, when he offered to buy us drinks, I heartily accepted. However, two sake-bombers later, I realized I may have made a huge mistake. I could feel my judgment slipping.

Then, the companion of Arryn's friend explained to me that he was a Christian and that he felt bad about having a gay relationship. He wanted to know what I thought about their relationship. Now, I can't remember exactly what I said, but I do recall that it was the wrong answer. It was the wrong thing to say in that situation, but for the first time in my life, I really, really regretted drinking. Ever since then, I have been so careful in my consumption of alcohol as to resemble a paranoid teetotaler.

The point of this story is that it is a foolish decision to use mind-altering substances - either legal or otherwise, as a Christian. My own reason for it is that 1 Peter says you must always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you. I now know from personal experience that ingesting some things can, in fact, inhibit our ability to live life to the glory of God and to consistently show the real Jesus to others.

So this answer is very broad. In short, I would argue that Blue Grass may be permissible, but it is not helpful, AND it does have the potential to enslave us.

--------

Several years ago, I read an article by Douglas Wilson, "One Toke Over the Line," which I found very helpful in regard to this subject. I would be sore amiss if I did not mention it, since it goes much more in depth than I have done, here.

All the Books I Read in 2010

I started keeping track of all the books that I read this year. Since this is a book-themed blog, I thought it might be worth sharing. Notice how much fluff is in the list. That's because fluff books are easy to finish. All of the worthwhile books (such as Vos' Biblical Theology and Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics) never did get finished. I'm still working on the books that really matter.

1. Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island*
2. Dennis Lehane - Mystic River*
3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet*
4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles*
5. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Sign of the Four*
6. Bryan Burrough - Public Enemies*
7. Ron Paul - End the Fed*
8. Erik Larson - The Devil in the White City*
9. L.E. Fletcher & E. Stover - The Guantánamo Effect*
10. George Orwell - 1984*
11. Jeff Lindsay - Dexter in the Dark*
12. Jeff Lindsay - Dearly Devoted Dexter*
13. Alister McGrath - The Dawkins Delusion
14. Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
15. Peter Demant - Islam vs Islamism
16. Dennis Lehane - A Drink Before the War*
17. Collin Hansen - Young, Restless, and Reformed*
18. John Owen - The Mortification of Sin in Believers*
19. Mark Driscoll - Pastor Dad*
20. H.G. Wells - When the Sleeper Wakes*
21. Craig R. Koester - Revelation and the End of All Things
22. N.T. Wright - Simply Christian*
23. Tom Farley, Jr. - The Chris Farley Show*
24. George Marsden - Jonathan Edwards: A Life*
25. Philip Pullman - The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ*
26. G.K. Chesterton - Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox*
27. Paul Johnson - Churchill*
28. Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan - The Strain*
29. Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan - The Fall*
30. John Piper - Don't Waste Your Life*
31. Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow*
32. St Anselm - Cur Deus Homo (God Became Man)*
33. R.C. Sproul - Can I Be Sure I'm Saved?*
34. Mark Noll - The Civil War as a Theological Crisis*
35. Mosab Hassan Yousef - Son of Hamas*
36. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*

*Denotes the books I read on the Kindle. In other words, pretty much all of them.

How Not to Treat Your Congregation

There are so many things wrong with this story, I wouldn't know where to begin.

Pastor charged with burglarizing church member's home

How Adam Violated All Ten Commandments

I'm only a fourth of my way through The Marrow of Modern Divinity, but already I am prepared to call it the greatest thing outside of the Bible that I've ever read. At one point in the book, Evangelist sets forth an argument against the Legalist and the Antinomian that hinges upon Adam's violation of the whole decalogue in the Fall. He then explains exactly how it is that Adam violated all ten commandments; and he goes one commandment at a time:

1. He chose himself another God when he follows the devil.

2. He idolized and deified his own belly; as the apostle's phrase is, "He made his belly his God."

3. He took the name of God in vain, when he believed him not.

4. He kept not the rest and estate wherein God had set him.

5. He dishonoured his Father who was in heaven ; and therefore his days were not prolonged in that land which the Lord his God had given him.

6. He massacred himself and all his posterity.

7. From Eve he was a virgin, but in eyes and mind he committed spiritual fornication.

8. He stole, like Achan, that which God had set aside not to be muddled with; and this his stealth is that which troubles all Israel, the whole world.

9. He bear witness against God, when he believed the witness of the devil before him.

10. He coveted an evil covetousness, like Ammon, which cost him his life, and all his progeny.

From The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher

In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson Free on Kindle Today

Thank God for Reformation Trust. They keep making their books available for free on the Kindle, and that is a great ministry to Christ's church, in my opinion. It is also a great reason to get a Kindle. Today only, they have made available Sinclair Ferguson's book In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel-Centered Life. It is available by clicking here.

Noted theologian, pastor, and educator Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson explores aspects of the person and work of Jesus in his latest book, In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel-Centered Life. This collection of articles, published earlier in Tabletalk magazine and Eternity Magazine, is designed to help believers gain a better understanding of their Savior and the Christian faith, and to live out that faith in their day-to-day lives. In fifty short chapters arranged in six sections, Dr. Ferguson shows that Christ, who is fully God, took on humanity that He might be the Great High Priest of His people as well as the once-for-all sacrifice; that He now ministers to His people through His Spirit, crowning them with great and precious blessings; and that believers are called to duty, from cultivating contentment to mortifying sin. In Christ Alone is packed full of nuggets of Scriptural truth that will spark and fan the flames of the believer s love for the Savior who is so beautiful in His person and so faithful in His work on behalf of His beloved sheep.

One of the big advantages of this book is that is is composed of 50 short chapters which read well for use in devotions. With chapters such as "Union with Christ," "Playing the Second Fiddle Well," and "The Practice of Mortification," I am very excited to dig into Ferguson's book.

A Real Conversation That I Just Had...

PHARMACIST: Alright sir, your son's prescription is ready; I just need to know his birthday so I can confirm the sale.

ME: Uh... I don't know his birthday.

PHARMACIST: Well, I need his birthday, or else I can't give this to you.

ME: Well, I can tell you what year Jonathan Edwards was kicked out of his church.

PHARMACIST: Unfortunately, that won't help us get you your prescription.

ME: It won't help you do a lot of things.

God's Grace vs. Allah's Justice

I've been reading Mosab Hassan Yousef's book Son of Hamas. In this book, Yousef - a son of one of Hamas' founders - discusses his devotion to Allah, and then his subsequent exposure to Christianity. In the book, He becomes a follower of Jesus and leaves the Islam of his fathers behind. From the very first moments when the Christian evangelist enters Yousef's life, I haven't read a page of the book without finding myself wiping tears away. Being a Calvinist, myself, and just seeing God sovereignly drawing Yousef to Himself as Yousef tells the story is truly remarkable. People get saved every day, and yet there is nothing common about each and every individual having their heart softened by the Gospel and experiencing the grace of God for themselves, one person at a time.

What follows is the passage where Yousef describes first meeting Jesus in the pages of the New Testament:

I understood that we all share the same common enemies: greed, pride, and all the bad ideas and the darkness of the devil that live inside us. That meant I could love anyone. The only real enemy was the enemy inside me. Five years earlier, I would have read the words of Jesus and thought, What an idiot! and thrown away the Bible. But my experiences with my crazy butcher neighbor, the family members and religious leaders who beat me when my father was in prison, and my own time at Megiddo [a prison] had all combined to prepare me for the power and beauty of this truth. All I could think in response was, Wow! What wisdom this man had! Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). What a difference between him and Allah! Islam’s god was very judgmental, and Arab society followed Allah’s lead. Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, and I thought of my uncle. I remembered a time when he received an invitation to attend a special event and how angry he had been that he was not given the best seat. It was as though Jesus was talking to Ibrahim and every sheikh and imam in Islam. Everything Jesus said on the pages of this book made perfect sense to me. Overwhelmed, I started to cry.

Mosab Hassan Yousef
in his book Son Of Hamas

I recommend this book very highly. Although I have not finished reading it yet, I know that the church needs to hear Yousef's story.

What Christmas is All About

Free Richard D. Phillips Book for Kindle

Reformation Trust has - for today only - made What's So Great About The Doctrines of Grace? by Richard D. Phillips free in the Kindle store.

In What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace?, the Rev. Richard D. Rick Phillips shows that the doctrines of grace, those theological tenets more popularly known as the five points of Calvinism, are comforting, faith-strengthening, and humbling teachings. In six short chapters, Rev. Phillips demonstrates conclusively from Scripture that this view of salvation exalts God and makes plain His great love for man, which drove Him to do all that was necessary to redeem a people for Himself. In his opening chapter, Rev. Phillips cites the calling of Isaiah the prophet to show that a proper understanding of the sovereignty of God leads to a willingness to serve, a humble obedience to God s commands, a holy boldness, and a firm reliance on sovereign, saving grace. Then, over the next five chapters, he deals with the five doctrines of grace one by one-total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints providing thorough explanations, answering objections, and showing how the doctrines advance Christian living. What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace? is a compact, highly readable treasure chest of scriptural wisdom.

Thomas Boston: Union With Christ and Communion

I came across an interesting argument for union with Christ in the writings of Thomas Boston. In the course of his two-volume work An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, Boston makes many compelling arguments against the Lutheran understanding of justification with respect to the discussion of the doctrine of union with Christ. One of the more novel and fascinating arguments that Boston makes has to do with the Calvinistic understanding of the Lord's Supper.

If this union be not a true and real one, but a mere relative one, the sacrament of the supper is but a bare sign, and not a seal, exhibiting and applying Christ to believers. For without this real union, the feeding on Christ's body and blood truly and really in the sacrament cannot be; which yet is the doctrine of the scriptures, and of our Larger Catechisms, proved from the words of institution, 'Take, eat, this is my body.' For if there be a true and real feeding, there must be a true and real union, as there is betwixt the food and our bodies into which it is incorporated.

The only way in which we truly take the Lord's body and blood is spiritually. As Boston points out, communion involves taking Jesus into us and being spiritually united to him. If we are not truly united to Christ by faith, then, Boston is arguing, we cannot be said to spiritually partake of Jesus in communion, either, in any true sense.

Tron Legacy and the Ontological Trinity

I finished watching TRON: Legacy earlier today, and I was struck by one relationship in the film which seemed particularly significant, from a Christian perspective. In the film, Kevin Flynn, who has been trapped in The Grid for over 20 years, is at war with C.L.U., who happens to be a program created by Flynn long ago to run The Grid and make it a perfect place. However, C.L.U. began eliminating perceived imperfections in the programming, effectively committing genocide on the inhabitants of The Grid.

I was not particularly interested in the relationship between C.L.U. and Flynn until a scene later in the film. At one point, Flynn's son, Sam, talks about how C.L.U. went bad. Flynn stops him, however, and says that C.L.U. is a perfect image of himself, and the C.L.U. is only doing what he was told - and that, very well. He then tells Sam that C.L.U. is him because he's a perfect image of himself. The thing which went wrong was that at the time he had created C.L.U., he didn't understand everything about perfection that he should have. This was the conversation that really caught my attention, because this idea of a person having a perfect image of themselves immediately struck me as reflecting a distinctly Edwardsian understanding of the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son within the Trinity.

According to Edwards, Jesus is the perfect image of the Father:

Therefore as God with perfect clearness, fullness and strength, understands Himself, views His own essence (in which there is no distinction of substance and act but which is wholly substance and wholly act), that idea which God hath of Himself is absolutely Himself. This representation of the Divine nature and essence is the Divine nature and essence again: so that by God's thinking of the Deity must certainly be generated. Hereby there is another person begotten, there is another Infinite Eternal Almighty and most holy and the same God, the very same Divine nature.

In support of this understanding, Edwards cites 2 Cor. 4:4; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:15; and Heb. 1:3. Now, for Edwards and Augustine, the relationship of Father to Son is one of love, eternally generated by the Father having an eternal, infinite, perfect, and ceaseless love of His own being. Note that there was a never a moment in time when this relationship began; it is an eternal one and has always existed.

In this respect, the comparison between the Father/Son and Flynn/C.L.U. does break down. Flynn and C.L.U. are not related by love, and are strictly temporal in their relationship. Nevertheless, it is helpful to consider Jesus, who is a perfect image of a perfect Father; and then contrast him with C.L.U. who is a perfect image of the imperfect creator of The Grid. With C.L.U., we have a perfect Tyrant, distributing justice and ruling with a mechanistic iron fist. With Christ, we have a perfect Savior, knowing his Father's will perfectly, and reflecting his father perfectly in all that He does.

Nature and Grace Conflict in Malick's The Tree of Life

I am someone who believes that every movie Terrence Malick ever made has been a complete masterpiece. I have consistently, for the last decade, said that The Thin Red Line is the greatest movie ever made, and I have not backed off on that claim. (By the way, Fox Searchlight - lets consider giving that movie the Bluray treatment, please!) For years and years I had been reading about the development of the script for his new film The Tree of Life, and to me it has always sounded like the most quintessentially 'Malick' movie that Malick has ever made. What I thought might interest our readers about the project is this prevalent theme - both in the trailer and in the film's synopsis - of nature and grace in conflict.

Here is the official synopsis for the film:

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950’s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick’s signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life.

The way that the movie appears to set nature against grace is interesting, but judging from some things I've read from the elusive Malick in other places, it appears that the movie is set to bring nature and grace together, concluding in some respect that brute nature is unendurable apart from grace and forgiveness. It does appear that forgiveness is an integral part of the storyline.

As with all of Terrence Malick's movies, don't expect this to be a straightforward polemic advocating one specific view of the universe (as an example, Jesus probably won't be making an appearance; but neither will Buddha or Mohammed). Rather, it has always appeared to me that Malick's films are designed to cause the audience to interact with the story, to consider what they're seeing, and think about the nature of the universe. His films always cause me, for example, to think about and reflect on the pain, brevity, and beauty of life, as well as to glorify God for the short time he has given us, seeing every moment as the gift that it is. I'm looking forward to offering my thoughts on this beautiful film on May 28th, God-willing - the day after it hits theatres. It will not get here too soon.

Lasserre On Calvin's Advice to the Huguenots

For years, I have heard about a friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's who defended pacifism from a Reformed perspective. The man was Jean Lasserre, a French Reformed pastor whose defense of pacifism rested primarily upon the Decalogue. This position of Lasserre's was most fully expressed in his book War and the Gospel (at least a third of the book is committed to the Sixth Commandment). Having recently obtained a copy for myself after much searching, I have every intention of reading it. As I was examining some of the footnotes (I was looking to see who he quotes the most, and I see a lot of Calvin and a lot of Barth), I came across this fascinating gem that might spark some interesting discussion:

A striking example of how hard it is to draw a line between lawful and unlawful war is to be found in Calvin's tergiversations on whether French Protestants might defend themselves by arms against their enemies, the Dukes of Guise. The day after the massacre of Vassy, he frankly encouraged and helped the Huguenots to organise their army, finding many fine pretexts, resting on great principles, to authorise such action. But quite soon afterwards, in April 1563, he wrote: "I shall always recommend that arms be abandoned and that we should all perish rather than return to the confusions that have been experienced."

Joel Beeke's Living for God's Glory Free Today on Kindle

Joel Beeke's book Living for God's Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism is available today for free download on the Amazon Kindle, for today only. From the book's summary:

The theological system known as Calvinism is often caricatured or simply dismissed as a relic of the past. But as Dr. Joel R. Beeke shows us in this comprehensive treatment, Calvinism, also known as Reformed theology, is biblical, God-centered, heartfelt, winsome, and practical. As such, it is uniquely suited to help Christians fulfill the purpose for which they were created-to live to the glory of God.

With the gifted help of eight contributors, Dr. Beeke traces the roots of Calvinism and sets forth its doctrinal distinctives, then explores how Calvinists live out their beliefs in every sphere of life, from their private devotions to their service in the church, from their marriages to their careers, from politics to ethics. Through the examples of John Calvin himself, the Puritans, and other Calvinists of the past, this God-exalting belief system emerges as a timeless guide for Christian living.

The book's contributors: Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson, Dr. James M Grier, Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin, Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman, Rev. Ray b. Lanning, Dr. Robert W. Oliver, Ray Pennings, and Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas

This is a pretty substantial volume, weighing in at over 400 pages in the print edition. As a matter of fact, I just saw someone bring this book to our church's mens' theology night, and I immediately felt something akin to joy when I saw that Reformation Trust had made it available for free, today.