Jesus and the Father

The internet monk wrote a post about Edwards and trying to teach his famous sermon “Sinners in the hand of an angry God.” While he respects the place that this sermon has in the history of American literature, he is not so positive about its impact on American Christianity.

Actually, I’m not an Edwards’ fan. As far as I am concerned, he made the entire Christian faith much more difficult and considerably less Jesus shaped than I believe that it is. Despite his brilliant intellect, Edwards seems to be about more about speculation and revivalism than the Gospel. His desire to awaken unconverted church members sounds very familiar to me, and his rhetorical intensity is familiar ground as well. I heard it all in the front row of fundamentalistic revivalism growing up. An inscrutable angry God demanding we wake up and realize we’re going to hell. Yes, church member who thinks he’s saved, that means you.

It’s bizarre that a man who was the most brilliant mind of his time, and the inspiration for various waves of awakening from Calvinism to Charismata, doesn’t come off to me nearly as impressed by Jesus and the Gospel as he is by the sovereignty of that “Divine Being” he keeps talking about.

I have not read enough of Edwards to make a claim quite like this, but in regard to his famous sermon (sinners in the hand of an angry God), I absolutely agree with imonk. For many people “God” is a very, very angry deity, and the only way to avoid his “wrath” (read, very heavy punishment) is to trust that it has been vented on his son. This, however, is not the picture that we get when we take the whole scripture into account, especially when we look at the portrayal of Jesus (in whom dwells the fullness of the deity in bodily form).

So many of us have spent so much time thinking about “God” in general (which normally means we are thinking about the Father as being something quite different from the Son) and we have forgotten the importance of Jesus for our revelation of God.

I actually had a person ask me a while back to spend more time talking about the Father and less about Jesus, as they could not understand this constant focus on Jesus.

I think they missed the point.

Jesus makes the Father known (Mt 11:27 [cf. Lk 10:22]; Jn 1:18; 6:46; 17:25).

New Calvinism and the Times

Image via Wikipedia

Mark Driscoll, over at The Resurgence, noted this article from Times magazine which points out the renewal of interest in Calvin’s theology. While the article is not all that kind to Calvinistic theology, it notes its increasing dominance within Christianity; noting the new ‘hit’ songs express a distinctly Reformed flavour.

Calvinism is back, and not just musically. John Calvin’s 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism’s buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism’s latest success story, complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination’s logical consequence, predestination: the belief that before time’s dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not), unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.

Driscoll notes that there are some very distinct ways in which New Calvinism is distinct from Old Calvinism.

Four Ways ‘New Calvinism’ is So Powerful

1. Old Calvinism was fundamental or liberal and separated from or syncretized with culture. New Calvinism is missional and seeks to create and redeem culture.
2. Old Calvinism fled from the cities. New Calvinism is flooding into cities.
3. Old Calvinism was cessationistic and fearful of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. New Calvinism is continuationist and joyful in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Old Calvinism was fearful and suspicious of other Christians and burned bridges. New Calvinism loves all Christians and builds bridges between them.

I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. Growing up in a decidedly Reformed tradition, I always new this theology was powerful. Billy Graham reportedly refered to the Christian Reformed Church of North America as “the sleeping giant”.

One thing that I would like to add to the power of Reformed thought is that fact that all of our lives are lived in honour and glory to God. This connects our daily lives with our “Sunday” lives. There is no distinction between what we do in church, and how we live our life. We have been given gifts to produce a culture which brings glory to God. We have been given talents to build signposts to God’s kingdom, build things which allow others to see a glimpse of God’s peace, God’s shalom.

May we all offer our hearts and live to God, promptly and sincerely.

(By the way, the picture above is John Calvin’s seal which has become the seal of both Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI.)

calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport: a review

Try and imagine a pious Dutch Calvinist in a airport with a young pagan prostitute. Niki, the prostitute, asks Jake, the Dutch Calvinist, about his beliefs and Jake launches into a summary of the Canons or Dort using the acronym TULIP.

This image from the film Hardcore is how Richard Mouw opens his book Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport: making connections in today’s world, making it clear that this book is not going to ignore the historical distance between the codifying of Calvinist thought in something like the Canons of Dort, and today. Mouw realises that the formulation of the teachings is not that helpful to today’s day and age, but the actual teachings are indispensable.

Mouw goes through the various headings of TULIP (Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints) indicating the strengths and weaknesses of each. Time and again Mouw brings us back to the main thrust behind this particular formulation of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation); salvation belongs to the Lord. All of Calvinist thought, says Mouw, is an attempt to take this seriously in every aspect of life and faith. This, Mouw feels, is best explicated by the doctrines set forth by the Canons of Dort.

Since Mouw has fallen in love with a very specific tradition, it is easy to see how he argues in favour of that tradition. He does so, however, respecting differing opinions and claiming nothing more than this formulation makes the most sense to him (both theologically and experientially). This, for me, is the best part about this book. There is a grace expressed here by Mouw which is refreshing.

This grace, says Mouw, is what is missing from the encounter that he cites at the beginning of the book. Its not that Jake’s theology was wrong, but that he did not express it in how he talked to Niki. There are other placesthat provide a much richer starting point to talk about our dependence on God, such as the Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer One.

Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A: That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

In a world that desperately needs the grace and love of God, Mouw’s book provides a refreshing reminder.

coincidence?

Interestingly enough, given my post below on Calvinism (which I did before praying the daily office), this passage is one of the readings for the daily office from the Northumbrian Community.

Psalm 131:1–3 My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

Coincidence?

calvinism

I am rereading Richard Mouw’s book Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport mainly because I want to be reminded what it is that I love about Calvinism. In my tradition there is an oral exam before Ordination, which will be happening this Friday (1:30pm, Atlantic time if you wanted to remember me in prayer). In preparing for this I have been going over all of the summaries and other things that give one the bare facts; answer the question what is Calvinism?

But I know there is more than that. There is a richness to a theology which takes many of the either/or dichotomies of the faith and says both/and. When something is mysterious and hard to understand, like the relation between God’s sovereignty and our free will for example, many say it is all in God’s sovereignty or that it is all up to our free will. Calvinists, on the other hand, say it is both all in God’s sovereignty AND up to our free will. How that works has not been that well articulated, but the fact that both God’s sovereignty AND our free will is well attested in scripture is thoroughly proven.

So, if the Bible says both, then we have to believe both and let God sort out the difficulties that lie in the supposed contradiction.

I was recently talking with a person who has had a really rough life, running from God at every turn, despising those who she saw as hypocritical representatives of him on earth. But all along the way God was pulling her to him, she told me. She gets the most fervent peace (in the face of cancer which has not killed her yet, but she is sure it will) from God’s sovereignty.

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high;

I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.”

(Psalm 139:1-24, ESV)

Who could say it better than that?