Theolatte
Nothing goes better with a steaming latte than an engaging discussion about theology and philosophy. Sit down with your favorite caffeinated beverage and peruse the thoughts of a pseudo-intellectual.
Theology, Worldviews & Philosophy
Christianity Satisfies
August 31st, 2010
Have you ever read something so profound that you felt like you had to share it with everyone?
That’s the sense I get after reading any given page out of just about any book written by G.K. Chesterton. The following is an excerpt from the end of the book Orthodoxy:
The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones. Nevertheless (I offer my last dogma defiantly) it is not native to man to be so. Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial.
Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labour by which all things live. Yet, according to the apparent estate of man as seen by the pagan or the agnostic, this primary need of human nature can never be fulfilled.
Joy ought to be expansive; but for the agnostic it must be contracted, it must cling to one corner of the world. Grief ought to be a concentration; but for the agnostic its desolation is spread through an unthinkable eternity. This is what I call being born upside down. The sceptic may truly be said to be topsy-turvy; for his feet are dancing upwards in idle ecstasies, while his brain is in the abyss.
To the modern man the heavens are actually below the earth. The explanation is simple; he is standing on his head; which is a very weak pedestal to stand on. But when he has found his feet again he knows it.
Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man’s ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this; that by its creed joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special and small.
The vault above us is not deaf because the universe is an idiot; the silence is not the heartless silence of an endless and aimless world. Rather the silence around us is a small and pitiful stillness like the prompt stillness in a sick-room. We are perhaps permitted tragedy as a sort of merciful comedy: because the frantic energy of divine things would knock us down like a drunken farce.
We can take our own tears more lightly than we could take the tremendous levities of the angels. So we sit perhaps in a starry chamber of silence, while the laughter of the heavens is too loud for us to hear.
(…the final words from Chesterton’s Orthodoxy to be posted tomorrow)
Christianity & the Unfriendly God
August 25th, 2010
The following excerpt comes from C.S. Lewis’ book Miracles (chapter 11: Christianity and ‘religion’):
“We who defend Christianity find ourselves constantly opposed not by the irreligion of our hearers but by their real religion.
Speak about beauty, truth and goodness, or about a God who is simply the indwelling principle of these three, speak about a great spiritual force pervading all things, a common mind of which we are all parts, a pool of generalized spirituality to which we can all flow, and you will command friendly interest.
But the temperature drops as soon as you mention a God who has purposes and performs particular actions, who does one thing and not another, a concrete, choosing, commanding, prohibiting God with a determinate character.
People become embarrassed or angry. Such a conception seems to them primitive and crude and even irreverent.”
Plain Christianity
August 17th, 2010
The following is an excerpt from the book Plain Christianity published in 1960 by J.B. Phillips. The book is a summary of a series of radio lectures Phillips gave for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. He was a pastor in London during WWII. It was during this time that his disappointment with young people’s lack of biblical literacy led him to produce personal paraphrases of the New Testament. C.S. Lewis was supportive of his work.
What we human beings really need, if we’re ever to know God at all, is to see Him ‘focused’ in a form that we can understand. He must ’speak our language,’ as it were, if we’re ever to have a hope of understanding the Character of Anyone so vast and so complex.
This is exactly what He has done. God did deliberately focus Himself in a human being when He became a man in Jesus Christ. ‘The word became flesh,’ wrote St. John long ago; which is another way of saying that God expressed Himself in a human being.
It is, of course, a terrific thing to believe. I haven’t much use for people who say, “oh, you mean the Incarnation,’ and let it go at that. It doesn’t seem as if they’d really sat down and thought what a staggering thing it is to believe that God in all His greatness and wisdom and splendor should deliberately stoop to become a human baby. I confess it takes my breath away.
But once you do believe it, really believe it, the rather wonderful things happen. First, you know now by looking at Jesus Christ what the eternal God is really like. you can read in the Gospels and understand for yourself what He is trying to do in this world, and what sort of people He wants us to become. You can begin to see the meaning behind the plain and obvious happenings of everyday life. In fact, once you accept Jesus Christ as the true Character of God expressed in human history you can begin to learn the real ‘facts of life.’
For Freedom Christ Set Us Free
July 15th, 2010
Two dead theologians and two living atheists debate free will….at least in my most recent blog book.
Let me explain. Tonight I’m teaching on Galatians 5:1 at the campus church: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
The topics tackled within these twenty words contained in this one verse have puzzled thinking men and women throughout the ages. To better appreciate the concept that Christ has set us free, one must first understand the biblical context of Gentile believers who were being influenced by the Judaizers. Additionally, I think it is crucial to have a historical context for the debate surrounding human freedom. Both the initial context and the historical context present a powerful picture of reality of freedom in Christ as an exclusive truth.
The idea of human freedom has been subjected to philosophies that purport that nature is all there is. Therefore, any sense of true freedom is impossible. However, this notion has been baptized in secular humanism in an effort to attain values and significance apart from any external absolutes. Yet, in all of this, it is only in the person of Christ where true freedom can be found.
Freedom can be defined as the possession of the ability, opportunity and desire to do what would bring one the most joy. John Piper describes it as, “Full freedom is what you have when no lack of opportunity, no lack of ability, and no lack of desire prevents you from doing what will make you the happiest in a thousand years.” True freedom is absolutely contingent on the existence of a loving Creator who is both Transcendent and Imminent. Without God we are forced to serve as our highest goal, our only measure, and our final hope.
The last paragraph of the humanist manifesto from 1933 states:
“So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.”
The late Francis Schaeffer aptly stated, “Humanists have both feet firmly planted in midair.” Without God there is no basis for values, significance or free will. In stark contrast, Jesus, the Incarnate Word, has stepped into our reality to offer us the ability, opportunity and desire to choose a life that our fallen world could never offer in a million years.
Check out my most recent blog book “For Freedom Christ Set Us Free” to read a brief summary of a hypothetical conversation between G.K. Chesterton, Bernard Iddings Bell, Will Provine and Richard Dawkins.
Punctuated Intervention
June 28th, 2010
Why do bad things happen to good people?
This is a perennial philosophical question that requires answers from every person in every generation. It is often answered with hollow rhetoric from isolated and insulated academicians. There is little comfort in religious jargon when one encounters personal loss and grief. Like a toothache, there are few options for true relief. That’s why my friend Mike Calhoun’s book is an honest and helpful resource for following Christ in a fallen world: Where Was God When.
I’m honored to be a part of the “blog tour” related to the theme of this book. Here are a few thoughts of my own about the topic of why bad things happen to good people:
RULING
Let’s begin by acknowledging the fact that God rules sovereignly over the universe. It is his creation and there is nothing outside of his purview. As Creator, God is clearly all powerful and thus entirely able to cause or prevent anything He desires.
LOVING
God has revealed himself as loving in the narrative of Scripture. The Apostle John says it powerfully, “God is love.” The fact that God is sovereign and that he has revealed himself as loving create a perceived dilemma for many people. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, how can he allow evil? This leads us to a very brief analysis of the human condition.
UNRAVELING
The first two chapters of Genesis provide complementary accounts of the creation of the world. The third chapter shocks us with man’s rebellion against the Creator. Thus, the Garden of Eden spans a mere eighty verses in the Bible. An earthly utopia seems to have been a brief experience. Anyone longing for an existence free from troubles must either seek to go back to the garden or to have God’s Kingdom established on earth. Christ has promised to do the latter.
The three chapters of Genesis reveal that man’s sin has brought about the curse of physical death, spiritual disharmony, relational strife and environmental turmoil. God has promised redemption for the cursed earth that is unraveling to the cadence of God’s providence and for the purpose of his glory. It is in the wait for this redemption that our hearts are tempted to doubt God’s promises.
STUMBLING
Humanity seeks to navigate the increasingly chaotic landscape with a broken moral compass. The free decisions of a confused populace coupled with the natural disasters prone to a cursed cosmos make for a dangerous world. The people and the planet are longing for an existence free from perils and filled with pleasure. It is what we were created for. This leads us back to God.
LONGING
God has created us for himself. In him alone can we find safety and satisfaction. In this world we can know neither fully. We can taste and know that God is good, yet we still live in a fallen world and we long for more of him. When a person places their faith in Christ, God removes their sin guilt. However, he does not remove them from their sin prone flesh or immediately transport them out of a sin saturated society.
They will suffer from both. They will hurt. They will cry. They will long for more. They will long for God’s Kingdom to be established on earth as it is in Heaven. Their longing will one day be realized.
INTERVENING
The true danger for the heart of every believer is keep a biblical perspective of God in the midst of suffering. If we are not careful we will begin to think that God operates through a method of punctuated intervention. He chooses to intervene here or there, but he essential functions like the Deistic God of Thomas Jefferson. This is not the God of the Bible.
He is always active. He is always present. He is ever sovereign. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He sees the end from the beginning. In a way too high for us to understand, our temporary sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed for those who love Christ. This can be a hard pill to swallow in the midst of suffering, but it is the promise of God’s future plans for believers.
The cursed world will continue to unravel until the time of his promised return. Until that day we can find comfort in knowing Christ and believing he will one day right all wrongs. Bad things happen to all people, believers and unbelievers alike. Disasters result from human inventions and natural calamities. Both result from the fall. Christ alone is the hope for hurting people. While we may observe grief, all who long for his return will be surprised by joy.
Until then we will laugh and weep, but most of all we will long. May your heart be encouraged as you await for the return of the redeemer. Maranatha.
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