On the Double Blessing of Christ by Chris White

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus..”  Romans 3:23-24

Recently I completed a series of readings through John Calvin’s venerable Institutes of the Christian Religion.  One of the insights Calvin had is what he called the double blessing of Christ.  I want to pass it on to you for your reflection and edification.  What Calvin noted was that God really could have forgiven all of us with just a word.  Justice can be satisfied in any way of God’s choosing and if he wanted to show complete clemency, it is His universe and His prerogative.  But instead God chose to send His only Son to die on the cross in our stead.  In this way God would be able to show us how grievous our sin really is before Him while sparing us.  We would also know from this costly sacrifice that God loves us to such an extent that He would not even spare himself to redeem us.  What is even more amazing is that Christ had to voluntarily let himself die because as a sinless human he was not subject to the curse and therefore immortal.  What a magnificent and mysterious redemption we have been given.  God made sure that it was extravagantly costly to Him so that in our justification we are given the gifts of certainty about his love, forgiveness, and the resurrection to come.

A Very Short Treatise on Collective Wisdom and Its Proper Application by Chris White

 Most of us remember the wildly popular television quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  The contestant would be asked a series of progressively harder multiple choice questions with a chance at winning a huge cash prize at the end.  If a player was stumped on an answer he had three “lifelines” to help him.  The most fascinating of the three in my opinion was “ask the audience”.  The collective audience was asked their answer and the majority report was put on a bar graph for the contestant to see.  Statistically, the audience selected answer was 99% correct which means that, at least in terms of trivia, the breadth of knowledge in a crowd probably trumps a single expert.

One place I believe the “collective wisdom of the crowd” can be a real failure is in spiritual matters or perception.  Consider the 12 spies sent in to Canaan (See Numbers chapter 32 in the Old Testament).  They all saw the same things yet only two of them trusted in God to go forward while the other ten looked at the situation strictly from a human standpoint and to the general “freaking out” of everybody suggested that God wasn’t able to help them do what He had told them to do.  Listening to the wrong voices in this matter was recorded as a terrible mistake with great consequences in the narrative of scripture.  The Lord made Israel live in the wilderness 40 years rather than give this unbelieving generation the promised land as a discipline for their unbelief. 

In the church of antiquity, there was a screwball idea floating around that Christian disciples should ask Mary (the mother of Jesus) to pray for them.  A lot of people were quite critical of this idea especially since it cannot be directly taught from scripture. But it gained currency over time because a small crowd of powerful bishops and theologians supported it.  This seems like the opposite problem of listening to the minority when you probably shouldn’t.  Certain people tend to thrive off of being in the minority and will always hold anything widely believed as suspect from the start.  Only the few ever see the truth is the thinking.  But this is not always the case is it?  Many times the majority does have it right.  More on that later.

 I know there have been times I have sought spiritual counsel from a ‘multitude of counselors’ (Pr. 15:22) only to find such a multitude of answers that I was more in the dark than before on the way I should go.  I guess this could be called a collective “I don’t know!”.  So, when should I trust the breadth of the crowd as wise spiritual counsel?

First answer: only when you really need it.  There are a lot of issues we grapple with that are clearly and directly addressed by scripture.  We shouldn’t need to get a second opinion on whether or not to live purely or with integrity.  If you have to ask if it would be dishonest to do something, then chances are it is and you already think so, so why even ask?  What separates you from a beast is your conscience.  God gave you this to develop as a moral being and learn to choose the good and reject the evil.  God’s Word studied regularly will help condition your conscience towards God’s will which is a good thing.  If you have a God-conditioned conscience, it really will be the reliable guide you need it to be.

Second thought on this: are those whom you ask steeped in the truth of the scripture?  Do they actually demonstrate scriptural truth in their lifestyle?  Approaching people who do not live and learn from scripture is like asking a blind person to help you read a road map.  There are some real limitations to the value of advice from people without spiritual perception.  They may be wise (or at least really clever), but their wisdom will reflect the view that God is not very important.  Counsel always needs to be given a valuation because it is not all worth the same.

Third and final thought: when it is supplementary to your own prayers, fastings, and wrestlings with God.  There is a saying in business that tasks may be delegated but never responsibility.  Since we are directly accountable to the Lord for our lives we should seek his counsel first and seek to discern His voice on the matter. The counsel of other wise people should be supplemental and confirming but not primary.  If the Holy Spirit indwells the Lord’s people, then there will be a recognition of others that you have heard His voice and are moving in the right direction.  Many centuries ago the Christian church came up with a test to put up any fresh idea about doctrine.  It essentially asks has this thought been something that the whole church, in every place and in every time believed?  This question was based on the idea that the Holy Spirit indwells his church and thus has a built-in communal discernment from God that is trustworthy and reliable.

                                                                         

Beethoven's Perseverance by Chris White

“Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”  2 Cor. 1:3-4

At age 32, Ludwig von Beethoven was so deaf he could no longer perform in concert. As a virtuoso pianist, Beethoven was the ‘rock star’ of his day having both popular acclaim and financial rewards for his music.  But deafness robbed him of more than a career.  Ludwig von Beethoven was also a real people-person and enjoyed socializing and intellectual conversation.  No longer able to hear most things, he felt it better to withdraw from society rather than ask people to shout things or constantly repeat them.  Despite the grief of losing the ability to perform or socialize, Beethoven made a choice to continue his work as a composer.  Tempted to despair and suicide, Beethoven found solace in his art and wrote some of his best works after losing his hearing.  In making a decision to persevere despite his personal suffering, he also made the world a richer place through his music.  Some people say his condition could be cured or alleviated today with hearing aids or cochlear implants, but it begs the question: would we still have some of the great works we do if personal loss hadn’t forced him to stop performing?  I don’t know the extent of Beethoven’s faith commitment, but I do see here an example for all of us on how to face suffering and loss in a Christian way.  First of all there is no sense in pretending that loss isn’t painful or real.  We are not spared from sorrows or grief as believers, only hopelessness.  Secondly, the suffering we encounter is only temporary and always purposeful.  Just as the Father wouldn’t have sent His only Son to the cross if there was a better way, our afflictions are not without a purpose for our highest good.  We don’t usually struggle with that unless we are in the thick of things and then we question how this could possibly be good for us at all!  The short answer to this is we tend to confuse our personal happiness with God’s highest good and they generally are not the same.  We want pop-beads when God wants to give us pearls.  Finally, we look to see where our lives and ministries can be maximized in our current reality rather than continually mourn what is forever lost.  In 2 Corinthians chapter 1:3-7 Paul and Timothy tell of their afflictions but note that in them they found God’s comfort in great measure and found they were also able to minister in a greater way to all who were suffering and afflicted.  In persevering in their suffering, their ministry was expanded in an unexpected way.  May we all humbly submit to the pressures of the Master’s hand that we might become the vessels of honor He desires.

What Almighty Cannot Do by Chris White

“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?”

                                                    (Job 11:7)

God is referred to as almighty over 300 times in the Old Testament.  While this should certainly steer our hearts towards awe and reverence, we should also be reminded that He who holds all divine power is Himself a loving Father.  As I was reflecting on God’s divine power,  I was reminded of an exercise we all had to do in theology class during ministerial training.  We had to list all the things God almighty cannot do (I came up with 4, but there were many more):

1.      God can’t lie or be unfaithful.  This is a contradiction of His character and heart.

2.      God can’t do the logically inconsistent (no rocks so big He can’t lift them or create a shade of black that looks white.)

3.      God cannot be limited by our limitations—He has infinite possibilities of creativity and the laws of the universe (which we only faintly understand) may be more flexible than we realize.

4.      God cannot be unjust.  His justice is a reflection of His Holiness and thus to violate this would be to violate His very self.

All these things are comforting mostly in the sense that they make a single statement that God is not like we are.  We do all these things with the greatest of ease and we can be thankful that God would not do any of them.  But there is a sense in which the “almightiness” of God is of great comfort to us.  This is found in Romans 8:28 where we read “for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”  We know in our heart of hearts, no evil, no problem, no sin, no power is so great that God is overcome and unable to bring His good plan for our lives to fruition.  Nothing shall keep us from the love of God because He is almighty.  Keep that close to your heart today.

Why Christian Scholarship is an Essential Enterprise by Chris White

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Desiderius Erasmus

The year is 1403 and many religious scholars living in Constantinople are seeing the handwriting on the wall.  For nearly 1000 years their city has been a glimmering diamond of civilization and an impregnable fortress against enemy attacks.  But things have changed and it seems inevitable that this capitol of Eastern Christianity will fall to the Turks.  In hopes of preserving their lives but also their faith and culture, many of these scholars began removing ancient manuscripts of the Bible and philosophers from the doomed city and carrying them back to Italy.  Meanwhile in Italy, many scholars were growing excited as they were learning to read and study Greek. For nearly 900 years the Catholic Church had been reading the Latin translation of the scriptures and now they were able study and compare their New Testament against manuscripts in the original languages.  One young Italian scholar by the name of Lorenzo Valla was both excited and troubled by his explorations in these ancient manuscripts.  One troubling discovery was that the biblical word for repentance (metanoia=change of heart and mind) had been translated in Latin as penance (paenitentia=regret, making satisfaction).  Valla’s writings would later conclude that the Catholic Church’s entire system of penance and use of indulgences had its basis in mistranslation of the Bible.  Valla’s scholarship was later noted by Desiderius Erasmus who, 100 years later, would create the Textus Receptus, a Greek New Testament from which Martin Luther and others would use in modern translations of the Bible as well as their efforts to reform the Christian Church.

All Christians are called to ministry but for most of us, this ministry is one of service and sharing the simple message of Christ with the world.  But it is vitally important that some in the Church continue the painstaking work of Biblical scholarship making certain that the things the rest of believe and share are truly the ideas contained in Holy Scripture.  Learning languages long out of use, carefully comparing words, reading endless books on scripture and history, visiting archaeological sites and finds may all sound like the work of someone who lives in an “ivory tower”, but such work is very necessary and something on which we Christians all must depend if our faith is to retain its historic shape and credibility.  I write not as one who is a part of this enterprise for such critical work is beyond my abilities and temperament, but one who is full of gratitude to those who before and now guard the “deposit of faith” entrusted the church by Christ and his Apostles.