On Sunday night, we talked about the 6th commandment and how we, as Christians, are charged with defending and preserving life. We talked about the implications of this commandment on topics like war, abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, and several others.
Near the end, I read from Hosea 4:2, "There is...no knowledge of God in the land; [instead] there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed."
I was reflecting on how much this describes our culture.
Just today, I was reading in the news about 50 Colorado high school students who walked out of class because they refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance with the line, "one nation under God."
And then I was reading the headlines for the other stories in the news: murder, immorality, murder, adultery, murder, rape. Only a handful of stories were actually NOT about murder or sexual immorality.
That may be a small and simple example, but it IS an example, nonetheless, of how there is no knowledge of God in the land; and, what do we see instead? we see "swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery." We are turning our world into a hell on the earth. There is no knowledge of God...and evil abounds.
There isn't a POLITICAL problem in the U.S. The Republicans or the Democrats aren't the problems; but neither are they the solutions. There is a SPIRITUAL problem in the U.S. And it demands a SPIRITUAL solution. We don't need to spin our wheels searching for the solution to our world's problems. God has already provided one--the Lord Jesus Christ, dead for sinners. Join me in praying and living that His solution might be seen, understood, and embraced.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Samuel Rutherford
Seeing as how I just returned from Korea, where I was speaking on Samuel Rutherford, I thought it would be appropriate to share the epitaph that is found on his tombstone in the church yard by the Tower of St. Regulus in St. Andrews.
What tongue, what pen, or skill of men
Can famous Rutherford commend?
His learning justly raised his fame,
True godliness adorned his name,
He did converse with things above,
Acquainted with Emmanuel's love.
Most orthodox he was, and sound,
And many errors did confound.
For Zion's King and Zion's cause,
And Scotland's Covenanted laws,
Most constantly he did contend,
Until his time was at an end.
At last he won to the full fruition
Of that which he had seen in vision.
Such was the life of Samuel Rutherford. Would that something similar could be said of us when he are no longer here.
What tongue, what pen, or skill of men
Can famous Rutherford commend?
His learning justly raised his fame,
True godliness adorned his name,
He did converse with things above,
Acquainted with Emmanuel's love.
Most orthodox he was, and sound,
And many errors did confound.
For Zion's King and Zion's cause,
And Scotland's Covenanted laws,
Most constantly he did contend,
Until his time was at an end.
At last he won to the full fruition
Of that which he had seen in vision.
Such was the life of Samuel Rutherford. Would that something similar could be said of us when he are no longer here.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Korea trip in more detail
We are now back in the States after our trip to South Korea, and I wanted to give more details than I was able to before.
We were guests of the Rev. Shu Changwon, there to speak at a conference that he started about 15 years ago to minister to pastors in his denomination, called the KIRP Conference (Korea Institute for Reformed Preaching). Rev. Shu funded the conference for many years from his own stipend and reflected with me often about how hard it was in the beginning to get the conference going. His personal sacrifice and his desire to see the truths of the Reformed faith embraced and practiced by fellow pastors was an encouragement to me.
Rev. Shu was educated in Edinburgh at the Free Church College and at the University of Edinburgh and in London at the London Theological Seminary. He is now serving as the Senior Pastor of Samyang Presbyterian Church in Seoul (a part of the Hapdong denomination). Rev. Shu invited me to speak specifically on Samuel Rutherford--the man I did my Ph.D. on--and I spoke this past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on Rutherford as a preacher.
While in Seoul, I was also able to preach and teach at several area churches and seminaries around the area. I lectured on Rutherford at Chongshin Theological Seminary and lectured and preached the chapel services at Daeshin Christian University, which is in Daegu.
On the Lord's Day, I preached in Yang Ui Moon Presbyterian Church--the Assistant Pastor there, Dr. Kim, who is about to become the Senior Pastor next month, was also educated in Edinburgh at the Free Church College and in the U.S. at Greenville Seminary in Greenville, SC--and in Samyang Presbyterian Church. Each church was keenly interested in our situation here after the hurricane and in how they could help and pray for us.
We did get one day to look around Seoul, and Dr. Kim graciously showed us the Gyeongbokgung Palace in downtown Seoul, a palace that dates to the 14th century and the Josean Dynasty, and took Jennifer and I shopping in an outdoor market area that reminded me a lot of the French Quarter but perhaps without the French/Spanish architectural influence! Seoul is a HUGE city that, because of the mountains, offers breathtaking views at many points. Samsung and Hyundai, in particular, are both based there.
The people we meet were extremely gracious and went out of their way to make our visit pleasant. We are grateful to have met these dear brothers and sisters. Please join me in praying for the abovementioned churches and seminaries in South Korea and for the work of the gospel there!
We were guests of the Rev. Shu Changwon, there to speak at a conference that he started about 15 years ago to minister to pastors in his denomination, called the KIRP Conference (Korea Institute for Reformed Preaching). Rev. Shu funded the conference for many years from his own stipend and reflected with me often about how hard it was in the beginning to get the conference going. His personal sacrifice and his desire to see the truths of the Reformed faith embraced and practiced by fellow pastors was an encouragement to me.
Rev. Shu was educated in Edinburgh at the Free Church College and at the University of Edinburgh and in London at the London Theological Seminary. He is now serving as the Senior Pastor of Samyang Presbyterian Church in Seoul (a part of the Hapdong denomination). Rev. Shu invited me to speak specifically on Samuel Rutherford--the man I did my Ph.D. on--and I spoke this past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on Rutherford as a preacher.
While in Seoul, I was also able to preach and teach at several area churches and seminaries around the area. I lectured on Rutherford at Chongshin Theological Seminary and lectured and preached the chapel services at Daeshin Christian University, which is in Daegu.
On the Lord's Day, I preached in Yang Ui Moon Presbyterian Church--the Assistant Pastor there, Dr. Kim, who is about to become the Senior Pastor next month, was also educated in Edinburgh at the Free Church College and in the U.S. at Greenville Seminary in Greenville, SC--and in Samyang Presbyterian Church. Each church was keenly interested in our situation here after the hurricane and in how they could help and pray for us.
We did get one day to look around Seoul, and Dr. Kim graciously showed us the Gyeongbokgung Palace in downtown Seoul, a palace that dates to the 14th century and the Josean Dynasty, and took Jennifer and I shopping in an outdoor market area that reminded me a lot of the French Quarter but perhaps without the French/Spanish architectural influence! Seoul is a HUGE city that, because of the mountains, offers breathtaking views at many points. Samsung and Hyundai, in particular, are both based there.
The people we meet were extremely gracious and went out of their way to make our visit pleasant. We are grateful to have met these dear brothers and sisters. Please join me in praying for the abovementioned churches and seminaries in South Korea and for the work of the gospel there!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Korea Update
I said I would try to post updates from Korea. Well, I am finally able to do so! We arrived in Seoul on Tuesday late afternoon, after a LONG 15 hour flight from Atlanta. We went right to dinner with our hosts and then checked into our hotel for the night.
On Wednesday morning, we drove a little way to Chongshin Theological Seminary where I was able to lecture to about 50 or so seminary students about Rutherford. A friend of mine from the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Moon Byung-Ho, is now the professor of systematic theology there. He translated my lectures into Korean as I spoke in English.
After traveling back, we had lunch with our hosts at a Japanese restaraunt and then dinner at a local church prepared by several of the ladies in the church. I preached the Wednesday evening service, which again was translated into Korean as I spoke. The pastor of this church has translated over 79 books from English into Korean. And is well known for this valuable service he has rendered.
On Thursday morning, we traveled by high-speed train down to Daegu and Daeshin University, where I preached during their chapel services to about 400 or so students. The chaplain for the university, Dr. Whang, translated the sermon as I preached. After chapel, I lectured for almost 2 hours to a seminary systematic theology class.
After spending the night in Daegu, we took the train back to Seoul today, Friday. We are hoping to meet up with another Edinburgh friend, who is temporarily in Seoul also, to see some of the city tomorrow. Then I will be preaching on Sunday. And the conference begins on Monday.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone again soon and to give a more complete update then.
On Wednesday morning, we drove a little way to Chongshin Theological Seminary where I was able to lecture to about 50 or so seminary students about Rutherford. A friend of mine from the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Moon Byung-Ho, is now the professor of systematic theology there. He translated my lectures into Korean as I spoke in English.
After traveling back, we had lunch with our hosts at a Japanese restaraunt and then dinner at a local church prepared by several of the ladies in the church. I preached the Wednesday evening service, which again was translated into Korean as I spoke. The pastor of this church has translated over 79 books from English into Korean. And is well known for this valuable service he has rendered.
On Thursday morning, we traveled by high-speed train down to Daegu and Daeshin University, where I preached during their chapel services to about 400 or so students. The chaplain for the university, Dr. Whang, translated the sermon as I preached. After chapel, I lectured for almost 2 hours to a seminary systematic theology class.
After spending the night in Daegu, we took the train back to Seoul today, Friday. We are hoping to meet up with another Edinburgh friend, who is temporarily in Seoul also, to see some of the city tomorrow. Then I will be preaching on Sunday. And the conference begins on Monday.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone again soon and to give a more complete update then.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Trip to South Korea
I will be leaving first thing in the morning for about a week and a half in Korea, where I'll be lecturing in several seminaries and preaching in area churches. I hope to be able to post an update or two from Seoul, where we'll be. If not, I will most certainly be giving a complete update upon my return.
Stay tuned. Same blogger time. Same blogger channel.
Stay tuned. Same blogger time. Same blogger channel.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
The abdication of the mind
Today the average non-Christian is liable to believe that Christianity is a religion of the heart and not of the mind and that to be a thinking person is to be a non-Christian. Such an idea, prevalent as it is, actually is the farthest thing from the truth. Christians have allowed this false dichotomy between mind and heart to exist. We have even fostered it. One hears, quite freqently in many varieties, such nonsense as "I don't want doctrine, I just want Jesus." Well, you can't have Jesus without doctrine. Knowing Jesus means, by definition, knowing things about Him. We cannot separate the mind and the heart. Trying to do so, is something like me saying that I can love my wife without knowing her or anything about her. Love is always a product of knowledge.
Even lust is impossible without the mind. Here we might be tempted to think that we could lust simply by seeing something or someone we want. But without first having some idea developed in our minds of what we want, of what we consider attractive, there would be no lusting. All we need to do to prove this is to recognize that the idea of "beauty" is different. It is in the "eye of the beholder." It has even changed over the generations. What previous generations considered to be beautiful is oftentimes quite different from what our generation considers to be so. Even lust requires the mind.
It is Christianity that has propagated the intellect and the use of education within the world. In America, this was done by the usual targets of a repressive belief system, the Puritans. As Richard Hofstadter, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, has said:
"The Puritan clergy founded the tradition of New England intellectualism; and this tradition, exported wherever New Englanders settled in large numbers, was responsible for the remarkably large portion of the country's dynamic intellectual life throughout the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth."
And as Moses Coit Tyler has added:
"In its inception [Puritan] New England was not an agricultural community, nor a manufacturing community, nor a trading community: it was a thinking community; an arena and mart for ideas."
Why has Evangelical Christianity, then, given over the mind to science or some other such field? Why have we thrown the mind out of our worship services and Sunday school classes? Why have we orchestrated the church to "feel" rather than to "think"?
Even lust is impossible without the mind. Here we might be tempted to think that we could lust simply by seeing something or someone we want. But without first having some idea developed in our minds of what we want, of what we consider attractive, there would be no lusting. All we need to do to prove this is to recognize that the idea of "beauty" is different. It is in the "eye of the beholder." It has even changed over the generations. What previous generations considered to be beautiful is oftentimes quite different from what our generation considers to be so. Even lust requires the mind.
It is Christianity that has propagated the intellect and the use of education within the world. In America, this was done by the usual targets of a repressive belief system, the Puritans. As Richard Hofstadter, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, has said:
"The Puritan clergy founded the tradition of New England intellectualism; and this tradition, exported wherever New Englanders settled in large numbers, was responsible for the remarkably large portion of the country's dynamic intellectual life throughout the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth."
And as Moses Coit Tyler has added:
"In its inception [Puritan] New England was not an agricultural community, nor a manufacturing community, nor a trading community: it was a thinking community; an arena and mart for ideas."
Why has Evangelical Christianity, then, given over the mind to science or some other such field? Why have we thrown the mind out of our worship services and Sunday school classes? Why have we orchestrated the church to "feel" rather than to "think"?
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