This Penetrating Arrow: Divine (General) Revelation

Expect to hear a lot about natural law on this blog in the coming days. There is a lot to say, and a lot of misconceptions to challenge, and hopefully shatter. Stay tuned. Until then…

From J. Daryl Charles, “Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things”:

“Our point of contact with nonbelievers, as J. Budziszewski well reminds us, is established by God himself. That reference point, that place of entry into the thinking of nonbelievers, is general revelation, which, despite humanity’s rebellion against the Creator, nevertheless penetrates the conscience of the unbeliever, so that all people are, in Pauline terms, “without excuse.” Natural law is the moral aspect of the penetrating arrow of general revelation. Without the natural law, there is no common ground, no point of connection, no meaningful engagement between Christians and nonbelievers.”

Now This Is A Hymn: Sailing Through Bloody Seas

Am I A Soldier of the Cross?

Written by Isaac Watts

Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His Name?

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord.
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith’s discerning eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.

A Package Deal: Pondering Birth Control in Light of Joshua Harris’ “Boy Meets Girl”

Before I pretend that Josh said something that he did not, in his bestselling book entitled “boy meets girl: say hello to courtship“, let me just get one thing clear: Harris never (overtly) opined on the issue of birthcontrol (at least intentionally) in the pages of this provocative piece encouraging young singles to pursue “romance chaperoned by wisdom”. He did however (and I believe rightly so), give a Scripturally founded commentary on the precious God-centered purposes for sex. Here I want to take a closer look at a few of the things he said:

“God celebrates pure sex within marriage. He invites us to do the same. “What more divine gift of celebration do we have than lovemaking?” asks Douglas Jones. He writes that the marriage bed should not “merely be a place of satisfying natural urges, but a place for delighting in the mysterious beauty of those drives. Why did God delight to entrance us with smooth skin, soft breasts, firm muscles, entangled legs, and slow kisses?”

Why did God delight to make us so? The answer is for our enjoyment and His glory. Because he is very, very good. He could have made the means by which we procreate as brief and boring as sneezing. Instead, He gave it more sizzle than the Fourth of July. And when a husband and wife revel in and thank God for the gift of sex, they glorify Him. Their lovemaking becomes a jubilant, two-person worship service!” - pg 145

Giving Bro. Harris his due, I don’t want to assume that he was speaking primarily to God’s purposes for sex in toto. I think it’s clear from the context, and the overall purpose of the book, that he is attempting to answer certain questions about the “goodness” of sex in marriage, and debunk any claims to that same “goodness” outside of the marriage covenant. However, take a look at how he makes his argument: “Why did God delight to make us so? The answer is for our enjoyment and His glory. Because he is very, very good. He could have made the means by which we procreate as brief and boring as sneezing. Instead, He gave it more sizzle than the Fourth of July.” Here, Harris uses the word “procreate”, it would seem, as a synonym for “sex”. But which sense of these words does he really intend to evoke? Is he intentionally linking God’s created purpose for sex to procreation? Why then, did it not make it into his previous “answer”?

If we are to understand God’s purposes for sex as merely 1) our enjoyment, and 2) God’s glory - are we doing justice to both General and Special revelation’s testimony to one of the clear purposes of sex in procreation? Again, I don’t think that Josh is denying that procreation is one of God’s purposes for sex. However, I do think that is one of the prevailing views of sex in much of contemporary evangelicalism. Much of popular Protestant piety has removed the idea of children from their considerations of sex, and transferred them into the area of stewardship (along with their money and their time).

But that’s just it. God didn’t make sex monetarily procreative (meaning, instead of conceiving children, we would conceive little 100 dollar bills… baby Ben Franklin’s, if you will). If that was the case, boy oh boy would we not be having this conversation! (”Are you using birth control?”… “Us?! Are you serious!? And not have a 100 dollar bill every couple of years? You must be crazy! If God wants to bless us with a hundred dollars, well then by all means, bless away!”) Ah yes, we would still deal with the question of stewardship, but then it would be in its proper context - after receiving the gift to be stewarded. But I digress…

Josh also made the point that God glorifying lovemaking is a “two-person worship service“. Amen again brother. I can’t help but think that God looks down and smiles when he sees Scriptures like Genesis 2:24 being fulfill as he meant it to be, in the covenant of marriage. But I would like to press something here. A few (loaded) questions will help set the stage:

• Who invented worship? Whose idea was it?
• Do we get the idea from Scripture (either Old or New Testament) that we can worship in any way we want?
• If worship does have God inspired purposes, are we free to change them according to our own purposes?

Now switch gears a little bit:

• Who invented marriage?
• Who invented and created man, woman, sex, and the ability for it to be procreative?
• Who then has authority over how it is engaged in?
• If we view sex as a form of worship, then are we free to change its inherent, and Created procreative qualities for our own purposes?

Harris goes on in his book to quote Bethany Torode (which should be noted here is the co-author, along with her husband Sam, of the book “Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception“…. Small world, don’t you think? lol). In quoting her, he writes, “the problem among many Christians is that we “don’t acknowledge sexual intimacy as a whole package.”" And she couldn’t be more correct. That particular quote was addressing Josh’s decision not to kiss his fiance prior to their marriage, but it carries with it quite a commentary on the way a majority of Protestant couples view marriage, sex, and procreation as well.

Many Protestants have bought the lie that sexual intimacy is a buffet of blessings, providing them with as much of what they’d like to enjoy at the time - and none of what they’d rather save for another trip. To compare it to Old Testament worship, we light the fire and leave the sacrifice at home. Did we come to worship? “Oh yes”, we readily affirm. But we came on our own terms, holding back what we’d rather not “burden” ourselves with. That my friends is not biblical worship. And I’d like you to prayerfully consider that, as Oliver O’Donovan notes, “the procreative and relational aspects of marriage strengthen one another, and each is threatened by the loss of the other. This is a knot tied by God, which men should not untie.”

Thank you Josh, for the challenging book. As you can see, it definitely got me thinking…

‘BH

Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama (oh yeah…)

Speaking of the Moral Order: Literature in the Kingdom of Christ

This quote is a shout out to my brother J. McGregor over at the heady musings blog. He sent me a link to J. Daryl Charles’ book “Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things” a few weeks ago, and I got the book in a few days ago. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but you just wait, I’ve got a lot to ponder over and share with you all right here. Man, do I ever! But today’s excerpt is Charles’ commentary on the importance and effectiveness of contending for “permanent” Truth through the use of literature.

“Writers such as G.K. Chesterton, T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy Sayers, and C.S. Lewis, despite being generations removed, retain immense popularity among American Christians, due to their extraordinary fecund imagination and lucid defense of Christian basics… Of these writers, literary critic Ian Crowther has well remarked; “it was never enough simply to capture the spiritual aridity of modern life,” which they did splendidly. “It was also necessary to speak of a moral order which, although only perhaps surviving in scattered remnants in contemporary society, may yet be restored by the expressive power and beauty of the written word.” - pg. 34-35

 

Kind of makes this conference sound all the more amazing:

HT: irruption

“Being Human” to air on EWTN next week

The second edition of a fantastic pro-life documentary, featuring none other than the Brazos County Coalition for Life (where I got my start in the Pro-Life movement), is due to air nationally next week on EWTN (known to most Protestants as “the Catholic channel”…lol). It’s going to highlight some of the “40 Days for Life” campaigns that took place across the nation (and world!) last year, and share why abortion is a burden that every Christian has a responsibility to bear…and to fight.

For Truth and Justice,

‘BH

Motherhood: High and Noble Calling

I knew I was going to like this book:

[Josh Harris on one way single women can practice mature femininity]

“Cultivate the attitude that motherhood is a noble and fulfilling calling.

Today many people scorn motherhood and the skills associated with managing a home. In our culture children are viewed as a nuisance, and motherhood is considered a waste of a woman’s talents. A college counselor once told me that the majority of the female students she worked with secretly longed to get married and have kids, but they were too ashamed to admit it. What a tragedy!

Please don’t believe our culture’s lies about motherhood. If God has placed that desire in your heart, don’t be embarrassed about it. The Bible encourages younger women to learn homemaking skills from older women. Learning to keep a home and love a husband and children is part of God’s plan for the complete training of young women (Titus 2:3). Don’t hesitate to learn the practical skills that will one day allow you to serve a family. Search out godly mothers in your local church from whom you can learn.

You can possess biblical femininity without being married or having children. As a single woman, you can express your femininity by practicing hospitality and by caring for and nurturing people in your life. But you can also honor God’s plan for womanhood by agreeing that motherhood is a high and noble calling.” - pg 119-20, Boy Meets Girl

Amen, brother Josh, amen.

‘BH

Good Ole Boys Like Me

Here’s a classic country song that does a masterful job of intertwining  the struggles and ironies of life. Notice the depth of the Christian allusion, as opposed to contemporary country music (”Jesus take the Wheel”, etc). Like many art forms, it takes a little familiarity with the context to really value the piece.

Yeah Don, those Williams boys still mean a lot to me too.

Don Williams, “Good Ole Boys Like Me”“:

Hag on Cash: The Man in Black

Short interview and one of Johnny’s greatest songs (how about that for political commentary in song):

“As Beloved Children”: One of Many Scriptural Allusions Being “Birth Controlled” into Unintelligibility

Think about it friends. When a culture, even our so-called American “Christian” culture, alters the status of children into choices - does it not undermine our entire understanding of Scriptures’ references to them? At the moment there is still enough ingrained understanding of the family left from generations past to lend us an historical Christian understanding of children - but those notions are no longer the prevailing norms of contemporary culture. We can only survive off of their example for so long. Devoid of our own cultural experience in valuing children as God and Scripture values them, we may indeed lose any bearing to what verses like this really mean…

“…keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
(Exo 34:7)

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children– “
(Deu 4:9)

“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!”
(Psa 31:19)

“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”
(Psa 34:11)

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.”
(Psa 103:13)

“Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.”
(Pro 17:6)

“The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.”
(Isa 38:19)

“Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.”
(Jer 3:14)

“gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.”
(Joe 2:16)

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
(Mat 7:11)

“but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
(Mat 19:14)

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”
(Joh 1:12)

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,”
(Rom 8:16)

“my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!”
(Gal 4:19)

“And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
(Heb 2:13)

When you lose your understanding of the doctrine of children, what then can be said for the doctrine of sonship, adoption, new birth, the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and on and on? By no means is the doctrine of children the linchpin of our theology; but make no mistake, there was one child who was born, who is in fact the linchpin of our theology, Jesus Christ, the revealed Son of God. In fact, He’s not just the linchpin, He is everything (period).

Therefore, we must take great care to guard our doctrine closely brethren, because it is indeed a child-rich gospel that we preach. It’s not just your family - it is God’s, and he’s got plans for it to testify of his grace and his gospel.

Think about it.

‘BH

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…”
(1Jn 3:1)

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As Beloved Children

(W.Hank Balch © 2007)

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” - Ephesians 5:1

“As beloved children, you say?”

“But, what is a child?”, we ask and reply,

“Oh, yes, a child. We know about children.”

Those are burdens.

Those are challenges.

Those are time.

Those are money.

Those are hungry.

Those are dependent.

Those should be planned.

Those should be few.

“Oh, yes, a child. We know about children.”

Those are discernible miracles.

Those are prudently sought gifts.

Those are optional blessings.

“Oh, yes, a child. We know about children.”

Those are after-thoughts.

Those are by-products.

Those are secondary.

“Oh, we know about children, but we don’t know children.”

To “know” is to love. To be known is to be-loved.

Adam knew Eve.

But we do not know children.

We know ourselves.

We are primary.

We are central.

We are autonomous.

We are independent.

We are the decision-makers.

We’ve become the lords of our bodies.

We’ve become the suppliers of our wombs.

We’ve become the author and finisher of our offspring.

We’ve become the alpha and omega of our intercourse.

We’ve become reluctant fathers, and unwilling mothers.

Oh, we know about children, but friends, we don’t know children.”