Comment From an “Un-Illumined” Enlightenment Thinker

I came across an interesting quote in my reading this week. I've recently been studying on the "uniqueness of the Bible."

"The gospel has the marks of truth so great, so striking, so perfectly inimitable, that the inventor of it would be more astonishing than the hero."

What was so intriguing to me about this quote wasn't the high praise of uniqueness and "supernaturallty" that it gives scripture, but who it was that made this comment on the Scripture.

The words above are from Jean-Jacques Rousseau whose enlightenment philosophy helped "pave the way for humanistic liberalism."

While there were just as many, if not more, belligerent antagonists of the Bible throughout history as there are today (the Roman Emperor Diocletian sought to destroy ever copy of the bible in his time by burning every copy he could get his hands on) Rousseau's words make me wonder how someone could turn strictly to reason (enlightenment philosophy) yet see the bible as Rousseau did and make the decisions (philosophy and life) that he did.

It's not that reason is bad. Reason is great…Theology is, as Anselm put it: "Faith seeking understanding…" Yet, with a high view of scripture, where should our reasonings take us?

One of my favorite scripture verses is Isaiah 1.18

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool."

 

How can we recapture our "enlightend" culture today and help them to see the bible as Rousseau saw it, yet not leading them, obviously, down the path Rousseau followed?

The Simpsons: Evolution Intro

This video is so convincing! I'm a believer in evolution now! (sarcasm...) It is pretty funny though...Enjoy!

J.I. Packer on the ESV

J.I. Packer considers his work on the English Standard Version as possibly "the most important thing he has ever done for the kingdom." That's high atop an amazing list of kingdom accomplishments like Knowing God. Another compelling reason to trade in your NIV for a new ESV!

From the ESV Blog:

August 10th, 2007

Here's a brief audio clip (460KB MP3) of what J. I. Packer said about the ESV at a banquet hosted by Crossway at the International Christian Retail Show in 2006. A transcript:

I was privileged to act as General Editor of the English Standard Version, and now that I look back on what we did in producing that version, I find myself suspecting very strongly that this was the most important thing that I have ever done for the Kingdom, and that the product of our labors is perhaps the biggest milestone in Bible translation in certainly this last 50 years, and perhaps more. Perhaps I ought to be saying 100 years—I think I should, actually—because it was almost 100 years ago that the paraphrase renderings of the Bible began to present themselves, as they did, as the version that you ought to read if you want to understand the Word of God. I think that, while in the short term it was not false entirely, did set the world of Bible translation and distribution off on what long-term was going to prove a false trail.

R.C. Sproul -- Holiness and Justice Part 1

Had a friend send me this over the weekend. Great Stuff! The sound isn't synced very well but don't let that distract you from this amazing messege.

R.C. Sproul -- Holiness and Justice Part 2

Part Two...

Monday Movie Minute - 08.13.2007

"I sent you two big boats, you dummy"

So goes the punch line to Chris Gardner's son's joke about the man who drowned after praying to God to save him from the flooding waters.

Cher and I watched The Pursuit of Happyness last night. Twelve or fifteen years ago this movie would have really encouraged and inspired me. The Pursuit of Happyness is a classic "rags to riches" story in which one man's will to succeed and overcome push him to attain the "American Dream."

In The Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) is a genius of a man (he finished a Rubik Cube in one single taxi ride) who, based on some bad financial decisions, is just "down on his luck." Chris spent his family's life savings on some High Density Bone Scanners which he tries to resale for profit. Only trouble is that no doctors or hospitals seem to want them.

Chris's life is in a nose dive from the outset of the movie. The dilemmas of his financial situation begin to compound. The stress and frustration of not being able to pay the bills lead to his wife leaving him. Eventually he is evicted from his home, locked out of a motel because he can't pay for it either, and jailed for not paying his parking tickets. Chris finds himself on the streets of San Francisco with his five year old son.

The deepest part of the pit of Chris's circumstances is shown in a scene where Chris locks himself and his son in a public bathroom overnight just to have a place for them to sleep. As he's sitting there on the bathroom floor, holding his son in his lap, there is a pull on the locked door, followed by knocking…then pounding. Chris covers his son's ears and tears begin to roll down his face. The misery of that situation is unmeasurable.

In another scene, as Chris and Christopher (his son) are walking down the street, Christopher looks to his dad and tells him the joke about a man who prayed to God to save him from flooding waters. Christopher explains that the man didn't accept the help of two boats that came by to help him, explaining that "I prayed to God to save me – I'm waiting for him." Eventually of course, the man drowns and arrives in heaven. "Why didn't you save me?" the man asks God.

"I sent you two big boats, you dummy."

Chris's reaction to his son's joke parallels the movie's own sense of spiritual redemption…there isn't one.

I'll admit here that The Pursuit of Happyness is of course a Hollywood movie and I do not know the spiritual life of the real Chris Gardner. Maybe he had a "God moment" through his ordeal – maybe not. Either way, this movie didn't.

Every story from Hollywood blockbusters to Old Testament Narratives is a story of redemption. For Cinderella it was getting her glass slipper back, and of course the prince that went with it. For Dorothy it was realizing that "there is no place like home."

For Chris Gardner (according to this movie) it was the "self made man."

Chris Gardner did it all, all by himself. He worked hard and overcame every circumstance to become a successful multi-millionaire. His message to us (according to this movie) is "don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something."

The main idea of this movie: The pursuit of happiness, no, the acquiring of happiness is available if you just work hard enough for it.

As the credits rolled up our TV screen I wondered, "Did Chris Gardner ever find true happiness?"

I thought of this from James chapter 4:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

A decade and a half ago I would have loved this movie. I would have walked out of the movie theatre inspired to turn over a new leaf…for the hundredth or so time. I would have said, "I can do all things…through myself." I would have emerged as a new man, again…for a few days, maybe weeks, until I was back doing the same things over and over and over again. Eventually I would be right back to where I always was, living a mediocre existence, wondering (again) what the point of it all was.

The happiness that I found in money and possessions was always fleeting. Even today, as a Christian, as a Pastor, I sometimes try to find happiness in money and possessions. But that happiness just does not last.

The redemption of joy and happiness is not the "self made man" – it's the God-Man.

Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15.5).

The point of this Monday Movie Minute is that you can pull yourself up from your own bootstraps, you can work hard and overcome every situation, you can acquire it all…and still have absolutely nothing.

Don't let the world fool you (John 14.27), don't let the American Dream be a stumbling block that prohibits you from finding real joy.

I used to ask myself what the point of life is…so many people are still searching for that answer.

Consider this answer: "To glorify God…and enjoy Him forever."

Practical Practices of a Matthew 6.33 Life

I preached a sermon from Haggai this past Sunday titled "Seek First His Kingdom and His Righteousness." I believe the biblical principle that we can distill from Haggai is the same as the title I gave the sermon. In this short, two chapter book of admonition, God really reminds His people (specifically the remnant) to seek first His Kingdom (rebuilding the temple; His house) before seeking their own (rebuilding their own homes).

The biblical principle from Haggai can easily be applied to our own lives as Christians today by living a "Matthew 6.33 Life."

Below are some practical practices of developing a Matthew 6.33 Life:

• Train Yourself for Godliness (1 Timothy 4.7) – You can't run a marathon if you can't run a mile.
  • Tithe your time
  • Daily personal prayer and worship time
  • Balanced Prayer life
    • Praise
    • Thanksgiving
    • Confession
    • Petition
    • Intercesion
• Change your view of God
  • "He must increase" – you must decrease
• Begin to look for opportunities where God is already working around you.
  • See the grocery store as more than just a place to buy groceries
  • See the coffee shop as more than just a place to buy coffee
  • Start seeing the places in your community as places to join God in what He's already doing
• Do something out of the ordinary for our Extra-Ordinary God
  • Get out of your comfort zone

I Hope You’re Not Thirsty

"I'm sorry that you're thirsty sir but I'm not allowed to give you this free water bottle."

I haven't really let anybody know this yet, I certainly haven't released it to the blogosphere. About two weeks ago we were asked to leave Batavia Park District property (Batavia, IL) because we were passing out free water bottles that promoted our church plant and some upcoming events we were hosting.

The immediate reason that I was given was that we were, "violating Church and State Separation Laws." Of course that's ridiculous and the head honcho of the PD (park district) later confirmed that, while that's the reason we were given, it wasn't an accurate reason.

The real reason is that the Batavia Park District does NOT allow ANY group to assemble on its property without prior approval from the PD. (What is this China? We have to get government permission for everything we do?)

So, following the instruction of the PD we filled out the forms letting the PD know that we would, again, be passing out free water bottles as a church outreach event on park district property next week with our mission team.

We found out today that we have been DENIED access to the park district because of our intent to distribute and promote our church on public park district property. Ridiculous.

Immediately I called the ACLJ (praise God for these guys) for their help. They gave us a bit of advice and counsel and we will be working with them on this issue until it is resolved and we are granted equal access to the park district.

I really wasn't going to blog on this until I read about another "church/state" issue that was posted on the Founder's Blog this afternoon. Check it out here. The title, "Finally! Prayer in Public Schools" really caught my attention.

At any rate, we see these issues on the news every now and then and it's rare, at least for me, to think that we'll ever be involved in an instance where our rights, because we are Christians, are infringed upon.

I guess this is a wakeup call for me, and for you, to realize that the secularization of our society is closer to home than we think. It's a good idea for us to make sure we know and understand our rights so that we can be ready to defend them as we work in our communities to minister, build relationships, and advance the Kingdom.

#250

Found this on my coffee cup this afternoon…

"In reality, hell is not such an intention of God as it is an invention of man. God is love and people are precious. Authentic truth is not so much taught or learned as it is remembered. Somewhere in your pre-incarnate consciousness you were loved absolutely because you 'were'. Loved absolutely, and in reality, you still are! Remember who you are!"

-- Bishop Carlton Pearson

Author, speaker, spiritual leader and recording artist

Huh?

Lightning Bugs

My Daughter is going to love Lightning Bugs.

I was lounging in the backyard tonight reading Leonard Sweet's book, The Gospel According to Starbucks and as the daylight began to fade away (my reading light too) I decided to take a pause from my reading, close the book, sit back and reflect a bit on Sweet's work.

As I sat, pondering, a lightning bug flew near, illuminated bottom and all…then it hit me…not the bug…the light bulb…over my head I mean…errr….

Noël is going to love Lightning Bugs.

I can just imagine her face now…"Wow Daddy!"

And why shouldn't she be amazed, they're amazing little buggers.

Growing up I remember my mom telling us, as we awed over the fiery creatures, when she was a youth her and her siblings used to capture them, toss them to the ground and smear them with their feet to write out their names…(my uncles' ideas I'm sure but c'mon, where's the anti-cruelty society when you need them?)

I remember one night, as a young adult, driving to Tulsa to go on vacation with a friend, right at dusk, when the conflagrating Coleopterans emerge from their (where do they emerge from anyways?) I was driving down the interstate when…WHAM one unfortunate Fire Buttom met his (or her) end by smashing into my windshield, leaving a wondrous orange smear across the glass of my 1994 pickup. I "wow-ed" over this for the next 10 to 15 miles!

But no, this blog entry isn't about the old adage: Sometimes you're the windshield…sometimes you're the bug. This entry is about being amazed.

While Sweet's book may just be the Emerging Churches (or at least Sweets) attempt at the Purpose Driven Life I have to admit that so far I like this book.

The thesis of Sweet's new book (actually came out in January of this year) is that Starbucks has taken "an old, unexcited standby – hot, dark liquid in a cup – and made it an EPIC beverage that millions of people feel they can't live without" (pg 22). Sweet gleans from the business that has us opening our wallets for $4 a cup coffees, which we even stand in line for, to draw out his EPIC life (Experiential, Participatory, Image Rich, Connective) principles and encourage us to live our lives not according to duty and guilt but to live with a "Grande Passion."

So far I've gotten just as far, in the book, for Sweet to introduce EPIC, I'll be reading (and hopefully finish) the book over the rest of the week and let you know what else I stumble upon.

But for now I just wanted to tell you all that my daughter is going to love Lightning Bugs…amazing.

The first few chapters of this book have my wondering: what are the things in our lives that used to amaze us so much, they amaze our kids, but we're so busy or so involved in "something else" that we're missing? (And now I have My Favorite Things running through my head…) What are the little things (Lightning Bugs) or the big things (standing on the western shore of Maui knowing the next thing out there, way out there, is Japan) that WOW us but we're too preoccupied to be amazed?

"Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded." – Habakkuk 1.5

My daughter is going to love Lightning Bugs…

600 DPI?

A recent post on Wired (the web world for Wired Magazine) caught my attention. The title, "Scanning the Iliad With a 39-Megapixel Camera" grabbed me for two reasons. One, I'm a nerd, and two, I'm an apologist.

Nerd: First of all, this is the secondary reason for my writing, actually I didn't intend to write this at all but…I like scanning books too! For graduation from seminary I bought myself a tablet PC (it's so cool.) Now, for my library, I buy my books, cut off the binding, and scan them into my tablet PC. That way I can read them, annotate them, write and rewrite all over them, and carry my whole, marked up library, anywhere I go. Plus their all searchable, which makes finding something I know I read somewhere, sometime, a lot easier to find.

Apologist: One of the most popular lines I get from skeptics is, "you can't really trust the bible, and it's been translated so many times over so many years. How can it really be accurate?"

A very common misconception.

The facts of the New Testament alone (which is nearly 2,000 years old now) are staggering and would make any skeptic scratch their head and say, "hmmm, interesting."

The Wired post that I noted above explains that the oldest complete copy of Homer's (not Simpson) Iliad, the Venetus A, is being digitally scanned. The Venetus A manuscript is from the tenth century, and one of only 647 existing copies of Homer's work.

Big deal right?

Well, actually the Iliad is a big deal. It is arguably one of the most important literary works every penned. Google any English, or Literature professor in the world, email them, and ask them how important the Iliad is to our understanding of literature, language, and culture.

Anyways, 647 manuscripts and fragments have survived since Homer wrote the Iliad back in the 8^th (or 7^th or 6^th) century BC.

Impressive right? And you don't hear Classical Literary Scholars doubting the authenticity of the Iliad do you?

So, what about the New Testament?

The most recent count (from 1980 according to one source) the number of New Testament manuscripts and fragments was 536. Oh, wait, typo…I meant to say 5,366! Wow! Of these, there are 34 complete New Testaments dating from the 9^th to the 15^th Centuries. The oldest fragment is a portion of the Gospel of John, which has been dated somewhere between A.D. 117-138.

So there are literally thousands more manuscripts of the New Testament than such an important literary work as the Iliad doesn't that say something about the authenticity of the Bible?

"No," you say…"there are so many errors and inconsistencies in the Bible and surely in all of those ancient manuscripts".

Actually, according to the best textual criticism, the New Testament is accurate to 99.5% and of the discrepencies (about 400 words) none affect any significant doctrine.

Anyways: For a better read on the authenticity of the New Testament check out this web page, which I pulled most of the facts I've quoted above from.

There is substantial evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament. It's just plain hard to argue against it. So, why aren't classic literary scholars trying to debunk the ancient manuscripts of the Iliad? And why are so many skeptics trying to debunk the NT?

I think the reason is Truth. The Bible presents truth, and Truth (Jesus). It proclaims one way, versus many ways ("I AM the way…"). It details morality, absolutely. And it sings the Good News that a perfect God loves unperfect people. But who wants any of that in our Post Modern world?

I do…