Yes, God is Impassible and Impassioned...

Having just finished reading God is Impassible and Impassioned by Rob Lister, I thought about writing a review. I find that other Amazon reviewers have more than covered anything I could say regarding the merits of this work. Below I am posting a link to one of those reviews. All I can say is "ditto". On a personal note I found Chapter 10 "Impassibility and Incarnation: A Concluding Christological Reflection" to be a real "mind-bender" that has helped clarify and sharpen my own understanding of the Incarnation. For this I am humbly grateful.

I first became aware of Lister's book through a passing dismissive comment on another blog. As I have posted in a previous note, the nature of the comment was such that one wondered if the blog writer had ever read Lister's book, but was merely dismissively reacting to the title. I now believe that to be the case. Also I found this book was recommended by Dr. Ardel Caneday, a man whose theological judgement I respect. In reading this book, I found my own preliminary thoughts on the impassibility and passion of God were pretty much headed in the same general direction as Lister's thesis and argument. I have no hesitation in recommending this work to anyone having an interest in the discussion and controversy over God's impassibility and His passions.

A Review of Rob Lister's "God is Impassible and Impassioned".

The Christmas Story in the Apocolypse

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

~ Revelation 12 (ESV)

First Snowfall...

Those Who Sing About the Resurrection of the Slain Lamb

"The point that apocalyptic makes is not only that people who wear crowns and who claim to foster justice by the sword are not as strong as they think--true as that is: we still sing, "O where are Empires and Kings now of old that went and came?" It is that people who bear crosses are working with the grain of the universe. One does not come to that belief by reducing social progress to mechanical and statistical models,nor by winning some of one's battles for the control of one's own corner of the fallen world. One comes to it by sharing the life of those who sing about the Resurrection of the slain Lamb."

John Howard Yoder, "Armaments and Eschatology"; as quoted by Stanley Hauerwas in "With the Grain of the Universe"

Currently Reading...

"God is Impassible and Impassioned: Toward a Theology of Divine Emotion", Rob Lister, (Crossway, 2013)

I was first made aware of Lister's work by a dismissive passing comment on a blog that will remain unnamed here. The nature of the comment was such that one wondered if the blog writer had ever read Lister's book, but was merely dismissively reacting to the title. I also found that this book was recommended by my friend Dr. Ardel Caneday, a man whose theological judgement I respect. I have heard in recent days the impassibility of God has become such an issue in some quarters that one loose association of churches has actually split over the issue. This is not light reading. There are a plethora of footnotes included with the text. I am now halfway through this work, and so far am satisfied Lister's thoughts on the matter are headed in a direction I would be in general agreement with. I have my thoughts on the whole matter, but prefer to finish Lister's work before attempting an articulation of those thoughts.

"With the Grain of the Universe: The Church's Witness and Natural Theology", Stanley Hauerwas, (Brazos Press,2001)

This publication is the wriitten form of the lectures Hauerwas delivered at the 2000-2001 Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews. In those lectures as presented in this book form, Hauerwas gives an interpretation of American intellectual history with focus on William James, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Carl Barth. It is this philosophical and theological history that I find of interest and value. I am about a quarter or so into this one.

The Groaning and Hope of Creation

"For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

For the creation,with outstretched head, is eagerly looking forward to the revelation of the sons of God. For it was not by its own choice that the creation was subject to futility, but (it was) because of him who subjected it, in hope, because the creation itself too will be set free from its bondage to decay, so as to share the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation, with one accord, has been, and still is, groaning as in the pain of childbirth."

Romans 8:18-22 as translated by William Hendriksen, "New Testament Commentary: Romans Chapters 1-8"

"And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea." ~ Isaiah 11:6-9

There will be a day when all creation will once again exist in harmony with itself. The birds that come to my bird feeder will no longer be afraid. The emerald Ash borer attacking my Ash tree, will no longer cause it or any other tree harm. Needle cast will no longer afflict my Evergreen trees. Those animals that are our friends and pets will not get old or sick, nor will they die. The trees will not be splintered by a lightning blast, nor blown over in the storms. All will be at peace and harmony with all else in that New Heavens and New Earth. Such is the promise of God. Such is our hope and the hope and yearning of creation itself. Blessed be the name of the LORD!

The Grand River, Ada, Michigan USA

The Grand River, Riverside Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

Bear Corn (Squawroot)

Conopholis americana: Bear Corn, also known as Squawroot. It is edible if you are really hungry. Picture taken June 4, 2015 in the Lowell State Game Area north of Lowell, Michigan.

Moccasin Flower or Pink Lady's Slipper

Cypripedium acaule Aiton: Moccasin flower, Pink Lady's Slipper: May 28, 2015; I found this in the Lowell State Game Area north of Lowell, Michigan. #Donotpicktheflowers

Fallasburg Covered Bridge

The Fallasburg Covered Bridge goes over the Flat River at the south end of Fallasburg Park located north of Lowell, Michigan. Yes, you can drive your car over this bridge.

Sharing in the Suffering of Christ

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:16-17)

What does the Apostle mean when he says, "... if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."?

The word translated “if indeed” in verse 17 is used only 6 times in the New Testament. (See also Romans 8:9, I Corinthians 15:15 and 1 Peter 2:3 where this word is used.) It is not the common word translated “if” in the majority of the New Testament places where the English word “if” is used. It carries the sense “if, as is the fact”. It is a way of saying since “X” is true, “Y” is also true. Since we are the children of God, we will suffer with Him (Christ), and since we will suffer with Him, we will also be glorified with Him. This verse is not at all pointing to our suffering as a way of “earning” our glorification. To be a child of God, is, in this life, to suffer with Him, and to “suffer with Him” in this life is a sure sign that we will also be glorified with Him.

"Mention must here be made of the mechanics of translation. In the Authorized Version we read: ‘If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together’. The whole exegesis, the whole interpretation depends upon a right understanding of this ‘if so be’.

We have a key to his meaning in verse 9: ‘But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.’ We have there the same expression ‘If so be’. And we have seen that it can carry only one meaning. It means ‘since’ there and it means ‘since’ here. What the Apostle is saying therefore is this: ‘If children, then heirs; heirs of God , and joint-heirs with Christ; since we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together’. So the translation should not be ‘If’ but ‘since’, or ‘If, as is the fact’; or ‘Seeing that’, ‘In view of the fact that’. There is nothing conditional about the expression. The Apostle is saying, ‘As we are suffering with him now, we shall also experience the glory with him’." (Martin Lloyd-Jones)

How are we to unnderstand what it means for the Christian as the child of God to “suffer with Him”; to share in His sufferings? At his point we need to examine some of the other passages of Scripture that talk about the Christians experience of suffering and tribulation.

These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

So they (the Apostles) went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. (Acts 5:41)

After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21-22)

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Corinthians 12:26)

Blessed be 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. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me. (Philippians 1:29-30)

......we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know. (1 Thessalonians 3:2-4)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. (1 Peter 4:12-13)

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

What is it that we are to understand from all of these passages of Scripture?

" Suffering is a very common theme in the New Testament, particularly in the writings of the apostle Paul. As Christians we are baptized into the death of Christ, and we are called, in a certain sense, to participate in the sufferings of Christ, in the tribulations of the Kingdom of God. The purpose of these sufferings is not to accrue any merit but rather to solidify our identification with Jesus and to work out the redemptive purposes of God. Tribulation is to be expected in the Christian life. Paul, however, says that if we share in Jesus’ sufferings we will also be glorified with Him. Just as Jesus has been exalted and been given the promise of the fullness of the kingdom of God, so we will participate in the glory that the Father gives to the Son." (R. C. Sproul)

Several considerations as to why the fact that Christians will suffer should not surprise us.

1. Though redeemed and no longer under condemnation, we still live in a physical body on a physical earth, both of which are not yet full redeemed. This point will be made in the verses that follow that speak of the whole creation “groaning”. We see this in the deterioration of physical health, and in the fact that if the Lord should tarry, we also will experience physical death.

2. Though redeemed, but not yet glorified, we still have the battle with the remnants of sin that comes from our flesh.(See verses 12-13.)

3. We live in a world order that is hostile towards God, and does not, nor is willing, to subject itself to God. “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!” (Mathew 10:24-25)

4. Over all of these other things, there is our Sovereign God and Father’s loving redemptive purposes and work in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ; at times in ways of providence that are way beyond our understanding even as it was when He dealt with Job; the ultimate end being our eternal good and the exaltation of His glory.

How should the Christian view and respond to sufferings in this life?

1. What is your only comfort in life and death?

Answer:

That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

~ Heidelberg Catechism

(These notes are taken from a Bible study I prepared and presented to a Men's Bible Study group at our church.)

The Seventh Word

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. ~ Luke 23:46

These words,"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," have been repeated by countless Christians on their way to death. We Anglicans pray, at the Commendation in the Liturgy for Burial, "Into they hands, O merciful Savior, we commend thy servant." Christians repeat these word in imitation of Jesus and because we assume these are words of comfort as we face the unknown that death names. These words can and should comfort, but that these words comfort us should not hide from us that these last words of Jesus before his death name his willingness to embrace the ice-cold silence of hell. accordingly these words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," are every bit as frightening as Jesus's prior cry of abandonment. Jesus is not comforting himself; he is gesturing to the Father that he is ready to face the final work that only Jesus can do.

Stanley Hauerwas, "Cross-Shattered Christ"

Propaganda and the Death of Truth

In an age of 143 character quips and 10 second sound bites, the one yelling loudest and longest supposedly "wins". But what do they win? Has anyone ever really changed their opinion on an issue on the basis of tweets and sound bites? Look at who the social media blurbs are addressed to. "Liberals are really going to be mad when they see this!" "Conservatives just don't understand x, y, and z." Ninety nine percent of such social media sound bites are preaching to the choir. Liberals will not be mad, because they will not see the blurb, and if they did, they will not care. Conservatives will not be reading your brilliantly contrived propaganda sophistry, and if they did they will pick it apart in other blurbs you will probably not see, let alone read. Watching all of this going on in social media is like watching a comedy, but sadly, as with much comedy, the roots of that comedy are found in tragedy.. Welcome to the post-modern world. Behold the fruit of your post-modernity...

So this week, once again as they have done so many times before, the propaganda machines from all sides of the political fence are generating "drama" out of some issue or other; said drama calculated to advance the specific agendas, goals, and world views of the groups behind those propaganda machines. Emotions are appealed to on both sides and critical scrutiny and careful dispassionate rational thought and discussion is the casualty of the sophistry and "new speak" used to bend popular political and cultural will and thought into channels that feed the never ending lust for power and control of said groups. ...and all under the rubric of "news"... Of course "propaganda" is a word little used or understood. We can't talk about the nature of propaganda lest we expose the house of lies and deceit the propaganda machines have created. May God Almighty have mercy on us and deliver us from this scourge...

The Second Word

"Truly I tell you, today you will walk with me in Paradise..."

Accordingly it is almost impossible for us not to identify with the thief's request. Please, dear Jesus, remember us. Insure that our lives will have significance so that we will be more than bubbles on the foam of life. Jesus's crucified companion, however, does not ask to be remembered so that his life will have significance. Rather he asks, as the Psalms have taught Israel to ask, to be remembered when Jesus comes into his kingdom. Such a request makes sense only if Jesus - a man undergoing the same crucifixion the thief suffers - can fulfill such a request. We desperately ask to be remembered, fearing we are nothing. In contrast this thief confidently asks to be remembered because he recognizes the One who can remember...

Here in this crucified Messiah, we see the love that moves the sun and the stars. To be "with Jesus" means we are not "lost in the cosmos," but rather we can confidently live in the recognition, with faith, that God is not other than the one found in Jesus of Nazareth. How could we ever think we need more than this thief? Like the thief we can live with the hope and confidence that the only remembering that matters is to be remembered by Jesus.

Excerpt from: "Cross-Shattered Christ", Stanley Hauerwas; (Brazos Press,2004)

Salvation is of the Lord

...It is all of God. Man cannot save himself, and the Law of God cannot save him, because it is weak through the flesh, our flesh. And even if the salvation planned and prepared by God Himself had to depend upon our flesh - my faith, my holding on, my abiding, or anything else - it would fail. But, thank God, it does not depend upon us at any point; it is altogether from God: it is God's action upon us at any point; it is altogether from God: it is God's action from beginning to end. The God who saves us is the God who keeps. He keeps us, we are in His hands, it is God's action.

This is vital to the whole argument of the Apostle. You can not have assurance of salvation, you can not have certainty of your final glorification unless you realize that salvation is altogether of God..."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "Romans: Exposition of Chapter 7:1 - 8:4: The Law: Its Functions and Limits", (Comments on Romans 8:3-4)

Pannenberg's Legacy

The Strange Legacy of Theologian Wolfhart Pannenburg

Obituary published in Christianity Today.