This week I have the privilege of being in Chicago for the Gospel Coalition Conference. It has been amazing. Yesterday I heard messages by Tim Keller, John Piper, Phillip Ryken, and Mark Driscoll. Far and away the one that struck me the most was Keller. Keller did a fairly typical "Keller-esque" message on idolatry of the heart. He artfully identified and tore down numerous God's that we as Christians bow down to.
This was an interesting contrast with the hotel we are staying at. The hotel is called "Aloft", but should, perhaps, be called "Aloof". I am grateful for the church providing a hotel near the conference center and grateful that I am staying here. Nevertheless the attention to detail in the hotel is astounding. The entire hotel seems to have been designed, decorated and furnished by Ikea.
Cool lamps
Cool staircases
Cool color schemes that bounce alternately from stark solids to vivid patterns.
Even the music in the elevator music is cool.
In fact the elevator is a great microcosm of the hotel as a whole. The elevator is brush finished stainless steel from top to bottom and from a crown near the ceiling, a soft and beautiful blue lights seeps out. Then from some unscene (sic) speakers, a barrage of hip European sounding techno lurches out.
I walked in the hotel and (at least in my mind) made a motion like a 5th grader. I pumped my fist and elbow by my side and said in a loud whisper, "Yessssssssss". Again, this is all going on in my head. I love cool. A lot. A whole lot.
In fact, I worship cool. I kneel at the altar of pop culture and drink deep of the swill-y Kool-aide.
God help us, because I have a feeling, I am not alone.
After much delay, here is the second Screwtape Letter:
Dearest Wormwood, Well done young one! You have fanned the flame of fanaticism into a full-blown wild fire! Before you get too pleased with yourself, however, we must now carefully direct this passion. The best course of action at this point is to direct your patient into a strong sense of escapism. We all know that the Maker created these beings much differently than he created us. We, Wormwood, are celestial beings meant for the heavens. They are not. In fact, they were created for the hideous blue-green ball they call earth. If, using fanaticism and poor end-times theology, we can move the attention from this world to the world to come, we have won no small victory! Perhaps a bit more specifics here may help you in your quest. I have noticed from your correspondence that your subject continues to paint. By focusing his attention on escaping from this world to another, his painting will take one of two directions. It will either devolve into an over-romanticised myopic of a past that never really existed ( a sort of Rockwell-Redux), or he will abandon the painting entirely. Either one of these is acceptable. The first option is in vogue in many circles of the enemies followers. They have so trivialized art and aesthetics that they have created mountains of what we demons call, Jesus Junk. It is an incredible sight, they have created stores that are wall to wall with this hackneyed, trite art. We have successfully eradicated true beauty in the church since the 1800’s. It has been a beautiful time. Long ago, when you were still cleaning the smokestacks of hell, we had to fight against imaginations inflamed with the beauty of creation and the stories of scripture and history. The music of the enemy had the potential, along with their architecture, to transport the average churchman to another plain. We, by introducing this eschatology of escapism, have bled the church of this. We invented a phrase, “Polishing the Brass on the Titanic”. It has worked wonders in dissuading followers of the way from creating beauty and art. Above all, just remember the idea is to pull his focus from this world and keep it on endless study on misinterpretations of the world to come. If you can keep him convinced that the future is a spiritual world, disconnected and disembodied from the physical, we will be just fine. Tell Nefarii I send my regards.
Smirking in anticipation of Demise, Your Uncle, Newtape
I am writing a series of mock Screwtape Letters for a class in Theology. The letters all have to focus on Eschatology (the end of the world). Also, I am in the process of uploading the videos of Conner's Baptism to youtube. I'll post'em here when they are done.
Dearest Wormwood, It seems that your patient has become heavily involved with our Great Enemies organization. This is most disappointing, but it is not the end of the road for you. While we cannot take him away from the Good One, we can sidetrack him. One of the easiest areas to get the new convert distracted with is the “inevitable end”. I know you are trained not to think about this, but young Wormwood, desperate times call for desperate measures.
If you are to successfully derail the patient, there are two thankful options for this maneuver. One the one hand, you can make sure the patient steers completely clear of talking about the apocalypse. Convince him that John’s detestable metaphor is too difficult to understand. This apathy could easily spread to other areas. If the Revelation of John is too difficult, so is that detestable account by the tax collector. The publican often quotes Jesus and his sermons on the end and from there the apathy may be a foothold for doubt in general. Though we cannot completely take him from our enemy, we can render him useless with this tactic.
The other option, I have found, is even more powerful. Fanaticism can actually be an incredibly powerful tool in our hands. Mind yourself if you decide to pursue this course. It is terribly risky, but can be terribly rewarding. We in upper management have been working on this track for many years. We have planted seeds that have distracted His followers from many of the main points of His teaching. These seeds primarily result in endless searches of that evil book. The beauty of this is that the patients are not looking to experience that detestable Spirit, rather they are looking for proverbial bread crumbs to bolster a view that we have planted amongst the ranks of the so called faithful. Encourage you patient to read and be involved in endless speculation regarding the end of days. In doing so, he will become so engrossed in this study that he will never come out. We have promulgated much literature to this end in their bookstores. This endless (excuse my pun, nephew) study of the end times can actually cripple his development and be a great victory for you.
Above all, dear Wormwood, make this a cerebral exercise. Your patient must never begin to see that any of this information can affect his daily life. If you allow him to live out these nefarious truths the last state will be worse than the first. You must keep this on the level of unbridled, unthinking fanaticism, not on action. If you must allow for action, make sure is simply arguing with others on this topic. In fact, it may wise to consult our mutual friend, Absinthe. I believe he is working with a patient along this track. If they were to meet and strongly disagree, we may have a real plot! This could be the beginning of years of distraction for your subject, if you play your cards right.
Smirking in anticipation of Demise, Your Uncle, Newtape
My friend Phil encouraged a few friends to make a list of songs that have impacted our spiritual formation. I thought that this was a really interesting exercise.
Here's my list:
Just because You can't see... - Anathallo
Declared, Bannered - Anathallo
Intervention - Arcade Fire
(Antichrist Television Blues) - Arcade Fire
Jimmy Eat World - Goodbye Sky Harbor (for its meaning tied to Owen Meany)
My good friend Ben Coy was kind enough to give me a pre-release of his album that is coming out next Tuesday. I have been listening to it all morning, and it is honestly one of the best albums start to finish I have heard all year. It is a collection of old hymns with rewritten tunes and new hymns that Ben wrote. This is a description of the album and one of the bluesier tunes.
If you like it, check out Ben's website for more info.
As the election nears, it has become an important issue for the church.Folks on both sides of the aisle, both politically and religiously, have marshaled evidence on why their candidate is the Godly choice.This essay seeks to poignantly ignore all questions about the election and about any issues surrounding it.Rather, the intention of this essay is to carefully exegete a commonly (mis?)used passage with respect to America.
We have all seen pins, flags, banners, and other memorabilia emblazed with the following words: if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.These words come from 2 Chronicles 7:14 and in this case, the English Standard version.This verse is one of the most popular verses with regard to politics, it is even on the crest of the Presidential Prayer Team.Is this a proper use of this verse, or is it an example of eisogesis (reading our own views into a text)?
In the smallest of context, the verse comes as part of the Lord’s response to Solomon in a dream after he dedicates the Temple.The language of the passage is full of allusions to the Covenant nature of God’s relationship to His people.He has chosen to dwell in the Temple and has chosen to hear the prayers offered there.The passage requires a fundamental knowledge of two themes of the Old Testament that bear heavily on the interpretation of historical books.
Key to understanding the Old and New Testaments is the concept of Covenant.It is the overarching structure by which we see God operating toward mankind.Space does not allow a full exposition of Covenant theology here, but it is of note that it is the backdrop of all scripture.God made a series of Covenants in early Genesis leading toward the Abrahamic Covenant.In this covenant, God promised Abram a land, a seed (both singular and plural), and a blessing.Each of these became the backdrop for Israel’s concept of itself.They were the seed who was blessed by the gift of the land.Though each of these pointed the Christ – he was the seed of Abraham, the blessing to the nations and the inheritance of the elect – they also had near fulfillment in Israel.Israel, upon exiting Egypt marched (sometimes stumbled) towards the land where they would be blessed and have children.
As they move along this march again and again the theme of the “Land” is repeated.The generation who is charged with unbelief after the failure to have faith in the report of the 2 spies in Kadesh-Barnea are cursed how?By not being able to enter the land.When Moses sins, what is his punishment?He cannot enter the land.Once the people of God enter the land of milk and honey, God uses the land –which is to say the physical ground- to chastise his people.Again and again Israel’s disobedience is tied to the success of their crops.When Israel turned from Yahweh and went after the Baal’s and Astheroth, what were they doing?They were seeking better crops from the Canaanite god’s of rain and fertility, vital elements in an agrarian culture.God uses the land to bring them to repentance.The Hebrew word for this ground was c'(r>a;.This word was used for the dirt, not for the nation as a collective body.
Back to the verse at hand.When God responds to Solomon’s ritual dedication of the Temple, He renews the covenantal lease on the land of Israel.He says that when natural disaster strikes the physical land of Israel, if His people (the Jews) will rightly relate to Him, He will forgive them of their idolatry and restore the crops He has caused to cease.
So then how does this relate to us as Christians in America in 2008?First we must remember the way in which Old Testament promises come to us as believers.
God’s Covenant People (OT Israel) --------------> God’s Covenant People (NT Church)
&
he Elect of God (OT Circumcised of Heart)--------------> The Elect of God (NT Baptized in the Spirit)
We often times mistakenly draw the lines like this:
God’s Covenant People (OT Israel)--------------> God’s Covenant People (America)
&
he Elect of God (OT Circumcised of Heart)--------------> The Elect of God (NT Church)
If we properly bring this verse into the post-Cross era and listen to its words, it should sound more like this, “If my elect in the Church will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and repent of their sins, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal the church.” This verse is so important to us as the shattered kingdom of God.We need God to heal the wounds of heresy, idolatry, and unbelief that riddle our churches.We need God to hear from heaven and put the gospel back at the center of churches.
2 Chronicles 7:14 has been misused by every political party and by the church at large.May we engage in careful exegesis of the Old Testament.
I am a native of Tampa, FL living in South Carolina. I just finished my Masters of Divinity. I am married to my college sweetheart Angie and we have the coolest son on the planet, Conner Calvin. I am an arm-chair theologian and an arm-chair quaterback, and a baseball nerd. I follow the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tampa Bay Rays.
This second book in Wright's The origin of Christianity and the Question of God series focuses on Jesus as a man of his time. It compares and contrast Jesus with other radicals and would be Messiahs in Palestine around the same time.
Evangelical Theology - Karl Barth
I am interested in seeing that all the fuss is about. This is Barth's sumary of his theology. Should be interesting.
John Calvin's Exegesis of the Old Testament - David Puckett
I am interested to see the way that Calvin connected the idea of Christ and the Old Testament, plus, this should make for some fun summer reading...
