Is The Truce Over In The Culture War?

I was browsing the internet last week and found a provocative video by Dennis Trainor Jr. (aka Davis Fleetwood) commenting on a pro-life ad produced by CatholicVote.com. The ad, which shows an ultrasound graphic of an unborn child, states that the child, who will come from a broken home and will be abandoned by its father, will eventually become the first African-American president. The ad was rejected by the NBC for airing during its coverage of the most recent NFL Superbowl game. Mr. Trainor's desire was that the ad had been aired because of its potential to "reignite the culture wars that have been simmering under an intellectual ceasefire since 9/11." Mr. Trainor is apparently not a professing Christian since, at the end of his piece, he supports relegating the Bible to the mythology section of the library.

It's easy to become upset with Mr. Trainor for his views about this ad, religious faith in general and the Christian faith in particular. But, the question that must be answered is, are we on the verge of a new outbreak of the culture wars? If so, how are Christians going to respond? My concern is that we will repeat the strategic and tactical mistakes of the past.

The last twenty-eight years of Christian political activism in the Republican Party have been, well, a categorical failure. The glory days of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition were the Reagan years. Since then, there has been one disappointment and defeat after another. Today, it is difficult to see daylight between a Republican and a Democrat. I cannot perceive a substanstial difference between the two parties. They differ very little in terms of their political goals and agendas.

As the administration moves further away from sound governance (economic bailouts, inflationary fiscal and monetary policies, the Freedom of Choice Act, Hate Crimes Bill, etc.), Christians are going to become motivated to act. I am all for political activism by Christians. But how? By using the failed methods of the past, which leave men's hearts unchanged?

Christians have to decide whether they truly believe that Jesus Christ is Lord (and not Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh, or Sean Hannity, et al.) over all the nations, that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him, and that all men live and move and have their being in Him. Either Jesus has overcome the world, or Christians should have enough integrity to tell Jesus no He didn't. We must act boldly accordingly with our belief.

The truce will soon be over. But if we respond to the opposition on their terms using their methods, we will surely die. No. We must respond with the weapons that our Christ has given us: worship, prayer, evangelism, and discipleship. We must respond to opinion with Truth.

Going To Church

The 2009 major league baseball season opens on Monday, April 6, and I can hardly wait. I really enjoy baseball, particularly watching the New York Yankees play. I was born in the Bronx (named after Jonas Bronc, a Dane who was the first to settle the area in 1641. As an added bit of lagniappe, the Bronx is called "the" Bronx after the river which runs through its center), and the baseball team of my heart has always been the Yankees. But, I find going to baseball games today very distracting. It seems there are a whole bunch of activities that go on before and after the game, and in between innings, which detract from watching and enjoying the game. Today, I think more people attend a baseball game for the "experience," whatever that may mean, than for the purpose of seeing their team play and cheering them on to victory.

I also think the same attitude of seeking the "experience" is now dominating our Sundays. People often say that they are going to church. What does that mean? In my discussions with people I find they often mean, among other things:

• I am going to hear God's Word preached.
• I am going to hear our wonderful pastor preach.
• I am going to hear about Jesus and learn about Him.
• I am going to hear how Jesus wants me to live my life.

But, is this really what going to church is all about? Even if we accept the phrase "going to church," it has no meaning in itself which would lead us to a perception of what occurs after our car pulls into the parking lot. There, I went to church. Perhaps we ought to stop using this phrase of "going to church" and adopt one more biblical. I am going to worship God, the God of the Bible, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

I admit, it is a mouthful. But, I like it because this is exactly what we are called to do. God saves men by grace through faith in Jesus Christ so that they will become true worshippers of Himself (see John 4:23-24). So, what we call our Sunday activity has a direct bearing on our attitude when we enter worship.

Then, what is worship? Several years ago I attended a class on Reformed Worship taught by Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr., at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I prefer the definition of covenantal worship, as distinguished from "contemporary" or "traditional" worship, which he provides:

"Covenantal worship is service offered to God as Father through a mediator,in dependence on the Holy Spirit, in response to the grace of God revealed in the gospel that consists of adoration, communion, and edification."

You can see this is a far different understanding of worship than that of most people who say they are going to church. Therefore, just how important is worship to God and to us? In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin writes, "Surely the first foundation of righteousness is the worship of God" (II, 8, 11). Consider also the following quote of John Calvin from his work the Necessity of Reforming the Church,

"If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them allthe other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly of the source from which salvation is to be obtained" (p.4).

So then, what will you do tomorrow? Will you go to church? Or, will you join us in worshipping God?

We Have Nothing To Fear But ...

You are familiar with these words that Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke on the ocassion of his first inauguration as President of the United States on March 4, 1933. As the economic depression began to take a firm hold in the United States, Mr. Roosevelt was elected to bring change and hope to the American people. In 1932, the year of his first election, the unemployment rate was at 23.53%; the next year it had risen to 24.75%, the bottom of the depression. The American stock market had lost 90 percent of its value between 1929 and 1933. The nation's unemployment rate continued to porpoise during his first two terms between the high of 1933 and a low of 14.18% in 1937. These percentages represent between 12.8 million and 7.7 million unemployed Americans, respectively. By the time of the 1940 presidential election, Roosevelt's third run for the White House, unemployment had decreased to 14.75%.

I can certainly understand why Mr. Roosevelt made this famous statement during his inaugural address. I certainly wouldn't want a president who was elected in the midst of a crisis saying, "Folks, sit down, shut up, and strap yourselves in because we have no idea where or when this sleigh ride is going to end!" This might have been true, but it would not have been wise for any newly elected leader to make this statement. More recently, on March 13, 2009, Mr. Larry Summers, who is President Obama's top economic advisor, said that the "excess of fear" must be stopped before economic recovery can begin, even citing Mr. Roosevelt's nothing to fear statement of 76 years ago.

I think they have got their finger on the right pulse. The problem is fear, and there are many things that we should rightfully be concerned about. But I am not convinced that they have an answer. Now, I know this seems simplistic, but watching these men tackle this very serious problem reminds me of the television series House. You know the doctor runs from diagnosis to diagnosis of a patient who is days, hours, minutes away from dying; pitting his staff against each other and himself; flagrantly violating hospital rules and being rewarded for it by turns in the clinic. Most times he wins, sometimes he loses. But the last scene is usually of himself contemplating his most recent case, and never seeming to learn anything from it. It is Sherlock Holmes, graduated from Harvard Med, and addicted to painkillers because they help him do his job.

But President Obama and Mr. Summers' patient has the worst disease of all. Fear. You know the fear I am talking about. The fear that seems to not only create a chasm in your belly, but which so focuses your concentration that you become unaware of the conversation around you. The type of fear which forces you to ask the question, "What am I going to do if...?" and leaves you trembling at the response. That type of fear which takes hold of you so deep within your being that you become consumed with it, unable to function. The type of fear which quickly moves to a despair that no person outside of yourself can be of any help. I don't think Mr. Obama has any clue of how to deal with that fear. But Jesus Christ does.

If we have any hope in this life, whether that life be characterized by economic ruin, the loss of family through divorce or death, or the receiving of the sentence of death because we have inoperable cancer, that hope is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. To lay hold of that hope, we Christians must humble ourselves in prayer. Not the type of praying we have been doing for so long, with our lips moving and our hearts far from Him. But praying as if our very lives depended upon it, for our lives do.

Do we pray like Moses, interceding for the people of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai? Do we pray like Daniel? Do we pray like Solomon, pleading for wisdom? Do we pray like Hezekiah while Sennecharib is at the wall? Do we pray like Jesus? Why not? Have we forgotten all the benefits of the Lord? Have we forgotten what He has done in response to such praying?

The great weakness of the church is our prayerlessness. If we are to see any relief of our fears, it will come only upon our knees as we beseech God, who delights in mercy, to visit us because perfect love, and only His perfect love, casts out fear. It is time we went to prayer.

Coffee with Chris

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by a Starbucks for coffee (venti Amercano, extra shot, room) and sat down outside while waiting for my son's basketball game to start at the gym across the street. Just as I got myself settled down to quietly enjoy the first late afternoon of spring, a fellow sat in the seat next to me, took out his laptop, and commented on what a lovely afternoon it was. "It is grand, isn't it?" I said to him.

His name was Chris, and he often came to Starbucks because, as he told me, it was the only place where he could get a cup of coffee, have a cigarette, find an electrical outlet for his laptop, and enjoy the afternoon. Guess it doesn't get much better than this I told him.

I asked Chris if he telecommutes for his work, and he said no, that he was a philosophy graduate from a local university. His field of study was moral philosophy, which he said was the most difficult of the philosophy disciplines. Myself, being a graduate of the Yogi Berra school of thought (when you come to a fork in the road, take it), I asked him about the conclusions regarding life he has drawn. Our conversation quickly turned to the biblical Christian faith.

The next twenty minutes was taken up with some of the most exhilirating discussion I have had in a long time. There we were, two men with diametrically opposing views, discussing the person and work of Jesus Christ. He was a man unlike any other, said Chris. Why do you think that is, I replied. Because Jesus loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. I wish all men could do that, Chris said. The world would be a better place.

Indeed, it would be.

The conversation was wide ranging and included Plato, Seneca, Calvin, Luther, Moses, Isaiah, Kant, Van Til. And all in twenty minutes. If you were a fly on the wall listening, ideas and opinions flew around seemingly at random, and left spattermarks in the air around us. It reminded me of a Jackson Pollock work.

Chris is looking at Christ through the eyes of his presuppositions. To Chris, the world is material, observable, phenomenal, and ultimately unknowable. But God, the self-authenticating, self-attesting Creator of this material, observable, phenomenal world has revealed Himself, His thoughts, and His desires to men. His ultimate revelation is in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our understanding of all life has its beginning and end at the cross of Christ. Apart from the cross, life and creation does not make sense.

Chris and I shook hands, and I went to my son's game. I got there shortly after the second half started. Great game, disappointing loss. Sorry Matthew, but I'm proud of you and your team for the way you played and conducted yourselves. Basketball season is over, and boy's volleyball season starts in two weeks at the very same gym across the street from the very same Starbucks.

Gee, I hope to see Chris again.

It's About Time

In a recent special report issue Time magazine announced that the New Calvinism is number three of the top ten ideas changing the world right now. Time states that the New Calvinism is Evangelicalism's latest success story. Keep in mind, this is the same Time magazine that asked the question, "Is God Dead?" on its April 8, 1966 cover. That cover story was preceeded by another story printed on October 22, 1965 concerning the God is dead movement. What a difference 40 years makes! In 1966 we had just moved from Queens to northern New Jersey and the biggest worry of my fourth grade life was whether the Yankess could turn a miserable 1965 season (sixth in the American League with a record of 77-85) and go to the World Series. They didn't. God wasn't the only one who was declared dead that year.

Now Time magazine has said that the new Calvinism is making a comeback, although it doesn't quite look like its old self. While the story is short (very short) on details about what the "New Calvinism" means, I am very encouraged to see it appear in print, and in Time because it gives Christians a point of contact with society to tell them of Jesus and the cross. I know there will be some Christians who may view the story as shallow and not worth thinking about. But, hopefully there will be many others who will see this as an opportunity to show dying men, women, and children the mercy that God has freely shown men in the cross of Christ.

What are we waiting for?

Grab the Third Rail

In his inauguration speech of January 20, 2009, Mr. Obama said that the nation must choose hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Nice words, nice sentiment. I thought this rhetoric might last a couple or three months. It lasted at most 16 days, by my count. Frustrated that the economic stimulus package (I'm sorry, did I laugh out loud?) was stalled in the Congress, Mr. Obama warned of dire consequences if it did not pass and quickly. Oh, and the unity of purpose over conflict and discord throw-away line? That lasted three days. During negotiations with congressional leaders of both parties regarding the stimulus package, Mr. Obama responded to Republican complaints with, "I won." I guess it is good to be the king.

But is he? To tell you the truth, I think that the election of Mr. Obama, coupled with the leadership of Senator Reid and Representative Pelosi in the Congress is the best thing that has ever happened for Christians since, well, the election of Mr. Clinton. The greatest danger we now face is not from a hostile legislative, executive, or judicial branch of government. The greatest danger we now face is that we will respond to this warfare without the spiritual weapons Jesus has given us.

It is time for us to grab the third rail, the spiritual weapons have lain collecting dust over the last several generations. We must return to biblical worship and prayer. And we must do this as one people, or we shall surely continue our mooing and mooching.

Finally, something that we can get excited about.

Welcome!

Welcome to Mooing and Mooching Cows!

One evening I was listening to someone read from Tom Wright popular commentary on the book of Acts entitled Acts for Everyone. He wrote that the "mainstream" church (whatever that is) had become much like a friend of his who once received medication for clinical depression. The lows were gone, which was good, but so were the highs. His friend had become like a mooing and mooching cow, never getting much excited about anything.

The church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the United States (and perhaps elsewhere) has become much like mooing and mooching cows. We never seem to get excited about anything. We don't suffer persecution, sure ridicule and disdain, but hardly what one could call persecution. Neither do we experience refreshment or revival from a visitation from the Lord. Nor do we seem eager to have Him visit us. We just seem to be mooing and mooching our way through this life.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs, and I pray the Lord will use this blog for His glory.

I am a nobody. I am not particularly wise, nor eloquent. I can boast of no great accomplishments, nor do I expect to achieve any noteriety in the remaining years the Lord has for me. In other words, I am probably like most people.

But, ordinary people think about life's most important questions all the time. What does the future hold? How can I prepare my sons for their future? How can I assist others to draw closer to Jesus, confident when they do, He will draw near to them? How can I do the same for myself? What does the Bible say about my condition, and what hope do I have on a moment by moment, day by day basis? How can I live my life to the fullest in the service of Christ my King?

I hope to explore these questions and many others in the days and weeks ahead. I invite you to read, think, mediatate, and respond. I believe that I will learn more from you than anyone has ever learned from me.

Once again, welcome.

In the bonds of Christ's love, Tom