BLT

Not your typical biography

Written by Douglas Sweeney who is a professor of church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Chicago (that’s where Don Carson teaches too incase you don’t know) – this book is a fine introduction to Jonathan Edwards by someone who although an academic specialist on Edwards has written what I reckon is a really accessible account.

It’s not really your typical biography though – it takes a slightly different tack – in the authors own words;

Hundreds of books and articles exist on Jonathan Edwards.  He remains one of the best studied figures of our past.  But few have written books on Edwards aimed at fellow Christians, people looking for a state of the art discussion of his life in order to use him as a model of Christian faith, thought and ministry.  This is such a book…

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I recently took the time to read one of Martin Luther’s great writings of 1520 The Freedom of a Christian. 

Written three years after Luther infamously nailed a bunch of objections (known as the ninety five thesis) to the Wittenburg church door, the Freedom of the Christian is (I believe) a must read for every Christian. The more well known ninety five thesis, (which is a critique of the deplorable practice of the selling of Papal indulgences), is the spark that fanned into flame a greater debate. One of the downstream by-products of this debate was the publication of three landmark publications by Luther in 1520 – one of which was The Freedom of A Christian. 

It must be noted that Luther did not act in a vacuum. 1516 had seen the publication of a Latin New Testament freshly transcribed from the original Greek (the original Greek was published alongside). This was published by one of the brightest minds of the day namely Desiderius Erasmus. Though Greek was the original text of the New Testament – since the fourth century the Latin translation, nicknamed “the vulgate” (which means common language), had been the official bible of the church. Although at the time the concept of having a Latin bible was eminently practical (as Latin was the common language of the Roman Empire) – by the 1520’s Latin was, outside clergy and the upper class, an obscure language. 

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Well you wouldn’t read about it really would you – is this a sign of the end times? – New Zealand going through the FIFA World Cup unbeaten? – (Well really no one could have guessed that) – but how about a German octopus picking it right all the way through the World Cup? Well now let’s be honest that is slightly more believable.

If only he it wasn’t an octopus destined for the dinner plate of an irate German – if only he was a person he would definitely be worth heeding further. If only he was a person whose foreknowledge extended slightly wider than football – encompassing perhaps the greater meaning of life – he would most definitely be worth heeding further and most probably even worshipping.

It begs the question – is this why we give an octopus like Paul such media attention? Novelty factor aside – if someone (or something) knows the future it is given an elevated status is it not? So if someone predicts the future, in giving them kudos, are we not acknowledging there is a future to be known and that someone is in charge of that future and allows it to be known to certain people?

That in its essence is at the heart of the message from the Bible – there is someone that knows the future – he is God – he is in charge of that future and he reveals it to certain people – in the past he has spoken through the forefathers of Israel (his chosen people) – he has spoken through prophets – but in these “last days” he has spoken through his Son Jesus Christ. The funny thing is that Jesus not only told us the future – he is the future – and if you believe this and follow him you have a future…..and if you don’t…well go figure Einstein….

I guess at the end of the day – everyone is going to follow something to which they ascribe truth to and if it’s not going to be Jesus Christ – I can’t find a better option than the octopus;

Further reading here

As I started out on this book, despite very good reviews, I have to say I was a little hesitant.

 The thought that kept on repeating on me was how can you encapsulate the life work of any prolific theologian in twenty odd pages?  Some of these guys have published millions of pages of work?

 However when I got to the end of the book I have to humbly confess – not that the author had successfully surmised the career work of each and every one of these famous theologians – but rather that the author had successfully communicated to me the distinguishing features that each of their ministries had contributed to the rolling juggernaut that is the Christian tradition down through the ages through the Word of God.

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The other evening a fellow believer and I were harking back to the early days of when we’d only been believers a short time.

Both of us came to be Christians as adults – both of us were also brought up in non Christian homes – so we had many similar experiences particularly as we shared this revelation in our lives with our non Christian families.

 Case in point – I remembered telling my Dad over the phone from the other side of the world (I was in London).  “Dad I’ve got something to tell you – I’ve become a Christian” I excitedly said.  There was a distinct pause over the line …..”um.. what kind of church is this?” he said – I could almost hear his brain ticking over.  At that point I was very much tempted to say – “Well Dad it’s really great – it’s actually the hairy naked arsonist church just round the corner – I’ve just given them my life savings and was wondering if you could send over some more money?” – of course as per usual you think of these witty answers much later.

 With the great benefit of hindsight – we both laughed at such experiences.  We found it amusing that our families were concerned as to whether we’d gone a little bit over the top on this Christian business and this was just a tad obsessive. 

 Yet we also laughed at the hypocrisy of it all – imagine if what we’d confessed to our parents was that we’d committed ourselves to a rugby team – we’d brought some kit – we committed to two training nights a week – a game – an after match and then a day (typically Sunday) to recuperate – what would their response be – would they then be a little concerned that we’d gone over the top – and that this was all a tad obsessive? – I don’t think so.

 Just a thought….

I recently spent some time reading what probably is the benchmark book when it comes to the cross – namely “The Cross of Christ” by John Stott. There is no doubt it is an absolute classic of a book – thorough and wonderful focused to boot and with a clarity and attention to detail that Stott is so wonderfully blessed with.

I’ll be honest – it is not a book you rush through – infact – it is one that over years I have spent a great deal of time in – slowly reading pages over and over again as I endeavour to fathom the enormity of how much God the Father loves me as evidenced by the death of his Son – of course I’ll never get there this side of heaven – but I’ll enjoy the journey in the meantime.

I want to point you to another book that I found that may be a helpful firestarter for the Opus Magnus that is the Cross of Christ – written by Don Carson – basically this book is based on a series of five talks given at Mars Hill Seattle in 2008.

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Stumbling Block

I am currently reading a book by Michael Green – called “Evangelism in the Early Church”. I haven’t finished it yet but was quite struck how well the writer articulated why the Jews found the cross a stumbling block.

To them the worship of a crucified Messiah was distinctly blasphemous – the Old Testament made it perfectly plain that anyone hanged on a stake was resting under the curse of God.

This was the stumbling block to the Jews referred to in Acts and many other letters.

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Do penance at my place

Pope Benedict – the head honcho of the Roman Catholic Church says in this article that in light of the horrific legacy of sexual abuse the Church has “a very deep need” to recognize that it must do penitence for its sins and “accept purification”, he said.

Now I’m not going to descend into the quagmire of historical wrongs that the Roman Catholic Church has been implicated here – rather I want to focus on the words the Pope used here.

In particular the word penance.

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Here’s a really interesting article on All White – Rory Falloon – about how he became a Christian.

Very Interesting – have a read.

here’s the news article from This is Plymouth

Not the triple jumper you ninny

I am most certainly a fan of the writing style of Iain H Murray – however I was a little apprehensive at venturing away from his favourite biographical subject Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones. Murray knew Lloyd-Jones personally – it showed in his biographies – (they were flipping brilliant) – so I was curious to see how he handled a subject whom he did not know personally, and whom lived some time ago, namely Jonathan Edwards.

In case you didn’t know – the writings of Jonathan Edwards have recently had a bit of a revival – in particular through the ministries of people like Tim Keller – but before that thanks in no small part to the Banner or Truth Trust which was kick started over 45 years ago by Lloyd-Jones and his desire to encourage Christians to read the many good Christian authors which, prior to the trust, were sadly out of print.

This is not really a book review as such (it is a decent book by the way) rather I just wanted to cherry pick a couple of points of the book which I though are quite relevant in our own day and age.

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Darius would've made a good lawyer

Darius was not a Jew – he was the king of Persia but he enabled the Jews returning from the Babylonian exile to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem.

Darius issued a decree in conjunction with the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem after the people of Israel had been restored to their country.

Here it is;

 Ezra 6:11

I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.

Now that’s what I call a decree.

According to this article the recent dive in the US Equity markets which amount to $1 Trillion US dollars (for the record that is $1,000,000,000,000 USD) was triggered by a typo made by one share market trader.

Think about that for a minute – one guy – one typo – one trillion.

Also note that the mistake was a matter of typing in a “b” instead of an “m” – so let’s refine my earlier statement.

One finger – one guy – one typo – one trillion.

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Golfer falls down cliff

We’ll here’s an unusual story – bloke goes looking for his golf ball and ends up thirty meters down the bottom of a cliff nursing some pretty serious injuries – thankfully he lived and is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

But isn’t it a rather quirky storyline – I don’t know the ins and outs of the whole story – but how seriously must you be looking for your golf ball to not notice the thirty meter precipice beneath your toes.

here’s the news article from the Herald

I have to say too that if this is an illustration of a greater truth – it is a great one – similarly how are we in so many aspects of our lives so concerned with looking for the figurative golf ball that we omit to notice the cliff that is yawning beneath our own toes.

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This week in New Zealand we remembered Anzac day – (short for Australia New Zealand Army Corp) – we remember the loads of young blokes that laid down their lives for their country in foreign fields – sadly we also remembered the three young lads who died in an army chopper crash on the day – and the one survivor left wondering – why me?

Like many Kiwis I have made the trip to the place where our young nation blooded its identity – where many of its young men gave of their lives in service of their country – namely Gallipoli.  I stood on the top of Chunuk Bair marveling at how on earth anyone could scale to the top of such a massive hill under enemy fire as the Wellington battalion did.  I was flabbergasted at the stark contrast in gradient between where our boys were supposed to land and where they ended up landing – what a waste!  I cried like a baby when the guy on my bus found the grave of his uncle at Lone Pine Ridge and pulled out a gum tree leaf all the way from his homeland. 

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Oh he's just a big softy

The beach went for miles – it was long and sweeping – golden sand dunes with the waves roaring in and crashing down in a heap before being sucked out again.  All this against the backdrop of the snow speckled mountains – it was picture perfect.

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Inspired by the concept of the first letter to the Corinthians where Paul answers a series of questions posed by people in the Corinthian church – Driscoll seeks to emulate the concept by going through the most controversial questions voted on by visitors to the Mars Hill website.

The questions (in countdown order) that Driscoll goes through are as follows:

Birth Control
Humour
Predestination
Grace
Sexual Sin
Faith and Works
Dating
The Emerging Church
The Regulative principle

On the whole I liked this book – I must say that after having so many books co-authored by Gerry Breshears it is quite refreshing to have one that is written only by Driscoll – nothing against Breshears per se it is just it is nice to get back to some “one on one” time with Driscoll.

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hp u r ok plse b careful

Of late in the mighty nation of New Zealand law changes have been introduced which prohibit the drivers of vehicles from using their handheld mobile phones whilst they are driving.  In other countries such legislation has been around for some time – but for various reasons, which I won’t go into here, we in this country have only just got round to it.

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As you read through the New Testament you can clearly pick up that the true church of God is more akin to a family than it is to a corporation. 

The importance of family is not just stressed at the macro level of the church family (aka every believer) – but it is also stressed at the micro level (aka Mum, Dad and the kids).

Case in point letters such as 1 Timothy which tell us that if we want to quality check potential church leaders the place you start is their home – if you have kids yourself (as I do) you’ll know – there is no hiding there – facades are quickly washed away – and we see clearly using the “little” church (the household) as the litmus test as to whether potential leaders can front up for the “big” church.

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Here in New Zealand we were blessed with, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful birds in all of creation.  Here are a few – you’ve probably seen them on stamps and coins over the years;

Huia – Laughing Owl – South Island Kokako – PioPio – Bush Wren

All these species are absolutely superb and unique in design, yet sadly they are all extinct.  I thought I’d focus on one bird – the Huia.  The story of the Huia, last seen in 1907, is a tragic story worth telling.  There is, I think, a valuable lesson to be learned in this tale.

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For those of you who don’t know Jerry Bridges he is a bit of an elder statesman on the conservative evangelical scene in the States.  He is best known for his book “The pursuit of Holiness” and has done a power of work with the Navigators’ collegiate ministry over the years.

I read “The Pursuit of Holiness” some time back and found it very helpful so I felt this was worth a read – it seems pretty popular on Amazon so I thought others might find a review helpful at this point in time.

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