Jan 20th, 2010 | Christianity, First Corinthians | No Comments
Until very recently in history families were considered to be a single economic unit. This is still part of the U.S. Tax Code. The word “economic” comes from the Greek word “oikos,” which means household. It did not mean that men “worked” and women didn’t. It did not mean that men worked outside the home and women worked inside the home. Rather, it meant that the family household was the central focus and location of work. The household was an economic unit. With industrialization, work moved from the household to the factory and/or office. The point is that over time the focus of work has moved out of the household.
It is also a well-established fact that the industrialization that has occurred over the past 200 years has not only completely changed the most fundamental structures of human society, but has had a particularly detrimental effect on the family, on the bonds of family life and on family responsibilities. It has also distanced contemporary culture from the values and norms of the Bible. So, it is no surprise that we have difficulty understanding and/or adapting to biblical culture. At best biblical culture in contemporary society operates in fits and starts. This is only to say that the Kingdom of God is not yet manifest in its fullness. → continue reading
Jan 20th, 2010 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
The following review by Adam T. Ross is on Goodreads (with comments by Doug Jones):
I had a lot of trouble with this book. I wanted to like it given how many people in so many corners have commended it to me. And there is true insight here, but I feel those insights are concealed by a theological project that cannot be maintained. Suffice it to say that when I read the prophets I do not see what he sees. This is likely my own failing, and if he is right I want to know it.
Nevertheless, his position is that the Kingship in Israel was a step backwards from the Mosaic “revolution” and that the Prophets and then later Jesus called Israel away from Kingship back to the original vision of Moses. An interesting thought for sure, and an intriguing one, but I was left unconvinced. I was thus unconvinced in three areas, 1) Kingship as regression, 2) affluence is bad, 3) the social vision of the Prophets. → continue reading
Jan 13th, 2010 | Culture | No Comments
A recent article in the LA Times carping about the unfair influence of corporations regarding elections because of funds available to corporations verses the funds available to individuals reminded me of the corporate person controversy. The issue is whether corporations are or should be considered as “persons” in the eyes of the law. The Fourteenth Amendment has been interpreted in the affirmative.
The concept that a corporation is a “person” is the legal core of corporate power. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned New Hampshire’s attempt to turn Dartmouth College into a public institution (Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. Reports 518 [1819]), the Court subordinated a state legislature to an “artificial being”: the college corporation. The Court held that a charter from the British Crown creating the college was a contract protected from legislative impairment by the federal constitution. The Court said that the college corporation provided for the maintenance of property rights by “a perpetual succession of individuals… capable of acting… like one immortal being.” The Court’s comment that “[i]ts immortality no more confers on it political power… than immortality would confer such power… on a natural person” denied human experience as it postulated an artificial world of legal “being.” … → continue reading
Jan 4th, 2010 | Christianity, First Corinthians, Sermons | No Comments
This psychological process of accommodation is the basis of the long strategy to make sin acceptable. The first time a Christian encounters sexual sin he is repulsed. It is dismissed without consideration because of the biblical prejudice against it.
Make no mistake that the Bible is prejudiced against all forms of sin, as it should be. Prejudice is not a bad thing. I am prejudiced against getting run over by a truck, and against drinking poison, against theft and against extortion, and a host of other things. I don’t have to experience such things to know about them.
The Bible is not a balanced and objective philosophical treatise, it is simply true. Truth is not balanced and objective, where balanced means taking into consideration many perspectives and objective means not having a particular point of view. God does not have many perspectives, though we must not neglect the diversity of the Trinity. God has a particular point of view, and what is more, He wants us to share that particular point of view because it provides the only means of having a sustainable relationship with Him. God is not interested in examining the various points of view about a thing. He already knows what is right and what is wrong. God does not want us considering or thinking about things are are wrong (evil) in order to make some objective evaluation of them. God has already evaluated everything, and we are to follow God’s determinations provided in Scripture. → continue reading
Dec 28th, 2009 | Christianity, First Corinthians, Sermons | No Comments
Paul has been talking about our freedom in Christ, that in Christ people are free from superstition and godless cultural practices. He began this section in chapter eight talking about various food prohibitions and practices as an example of Christian freedom. He had elsewhere discussed the fact that Christians are free from the Old Testament food laws. Here he showed that Christians are also free from pagan food practices.
What made the Old Testament food laws binding was the power of God. And what freed people from those Old Testament food laws was the power of Christ. Here he argues that only God has spiritual power, and God has given all spiritual authority and power to Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18). Therefore, the pagan gods have no power. Their sacrifices and ceremonies have no consequences, and so whatever power was thought to be transmitted to food that had been sacrificed to idols was nonexistent because false gods had no power to begin with. → continue reading
Dec 18th, 2009 | Christianity, First Corinthians, Sermons | No Comments
Just as God is identified as Trinitarian, so are His people, and so is His world. We have been created in God’s image, and God is Trinitarian. Christians are to understand the world through God’s eyes, and God’s eyes are Trinitarian. There is nothing outside of or apart from God. God is all encompassing, “infinite in being and perfection” (Westminster Confession of Faith 2:1). The point is that God is ultimately one and at the same time God is ultimately three. In God alone there is ultimate unity and ultimate diversity and/or individuality at the same time.
Let me illustrate and apply this idea. How can I be an individual, a unique whole, and at the same time be part of a distinct individual corporate entity (the body of Christ)? I am who I am in and of myself, yet my identity as a Christian is interwoven with all other Christians through the doctrine of Christian unity. While we use these distinctions all the time, it is quite difficult to provide an ultimate and rational explanation for such definitions and distinctions of personal and corporate identity. → continue reading
Dec 17th, 2009 | Christianity, Sermons | No Comments
Paul had raised the ante of his accusations against the Corinthian leaders from sexual immorality to idolatry. Note that Paul did not recommend that the faithful Corinthian Christians make the effort to save those who had been captured by idolatry. He did not recommend that they maintain fellowship and try to convince the idolaters about the truth of the gospel. Rather, he told them to “flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14) They were to separate themselves from the idolaters.
He knew that not all of the Corinthians would hear him. Not all had “ears to hear” (Matthew 11:15). Some of those who had been baptized would not hear, would not heed his words, and would not be saved. He was speaking “as to sensible people” (1 Corinthians 10:15) — “wise men” in other translations. But the wisdom of those to whom he spoke was not the wisdom of intelligence. He was not speaking of intellectual or academic wisdom. Rather, he had in mind the wisdom of Christ, which he had been preaching from the beginning of this letter. He was speaking to those who had ears to hear, to those who had the ears of the Holy Spirit, to those who had been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. He was not speaking to all who were listening, but only to those who were actively and actually in Christ, to those who could hear him. → continue reading
Nov 26th, 2009 | Culture | No Comments
“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Matthew 7:6
The image that Jesus gave us about dogs and pigs is that of giving something of value to someone who cannot appreciate it. (This image is likely an allusion to Israel, but the application of it pertains to all who are blind to the gospel, whose minds are veiled.) His eye is all logged up. Being a dog or a pig, he cannot see or understand the gospel rightly—and we cannot help until we get the log out of our own eye.
The point that Jesus was making here is that we ought not to try to help those who are completely blind to the gospel—dogs and pigs. Receiving the gospel is not something that one human being can do for another. The gospel cannot be given to those who are blind to it. And if people insist on making the effort, they may get hurt—trampled under foot or torn to pieces. The gospel is the stench of death to those who reject it, and their rejection can at times be violent. → continue reading
Nov 3rd, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
This is a response to Doug Wilson’s post, The Spiritual Drive Train. I put it here rather than as a comment to his post because of the length of my response.
He suggests that knowing what not to do is not the same as knowing what to do. True enough, but knowing what not to do is vitally important and must not be neglected. For instance, the Ten Commandments inform us about what not to do. And being expressed as negatives is critically important because the negative injunction provides for the maximum freedom of expression. The idea that we can do anything except some certain things is much more permissive than the idea that we must do such and so. Maximum freedom is granted by the negativity of the Ten Commandments. Imagine how different things would be if society at large were to endeavor to obey the Ten Commandments. Dare I say that reformation would be more than half accomplished.
No, I’m not arguing for works-righteousness. I’m just dreaming a dream. What if people actually wanted to live in obedience to the Ten Commandments? Would God deny such a genuine desire? I don’t think so because the only way for it to actually happen would be for God to have inspired it in the first place — by grace, of course, and not apart from Christ.
“When that reformation begins to take shape, and numerous Christians are worshiping in the way Christians ought to be worshiping, those Christians — who happen to be politicians, auto mechanics, teachers, film directors, news anchors, poets, and cafeteria workers — will begin to live out the kind of Christian life that they learned about the previous Sunday. That will effect the transformation of society, but not by turning that society into a giant worship service.” — Wilson → continue reading
Oct 31st, 2009 | Culture | 1 Comment
Wallis-Ross
.
The engagement of Audrey Katherine Wallis of Wadsworth, daughter of Marion Wijnberg of Wadsworth and the late David Wallis of South Carolina, and Austin Taylor Ross of Marietta, son of Phillip and Stephanie Ross of Marietta, is announced.
The bride-to-be is a senior at Ohio University and will graduate with honors with a bachelor of arts in English with a minor in history. She plans on interning with Campus Crusade for Christ next year at Ohio University.
The prospective bridegroom is a senior at Ohio University and will graduate with honors with a bachelor of arts in English, with a focus on creative writing. He also plans on interning with Campus Crusade for Christ next year at Ohio University.
An August 2010 wedding is planned
