Observing the Signs
This has been a pretty cool August. We've hardly used the air conditioner at all. Temperatures have definitely been below normal for this time of year. The days are also noticeably shorter. The feel of fall is in the air, but this should be the most "summer" part of summer. Here and there I've even seen a few trees starting to turn color!

On our trip to visit my parents, we passed a number of fields of corn, a standard crop for this area. Probably the majority of the fields we passed looked pretty good, but a noticeable number of them looked pretty sorry. That had to do with all the rain we got in May that delayed the final plantings. Also, with this cooler weather, we've not had the hot days and cool nights that are optimal for corn plant growth and development.

While on our way home, we passed through a relatively brief, but heavy rain storm. As the rain started to let up, the sun came peeking through the clouds in the west. I told my daughter and her friend who was with us to look off to the east for a rainbow, for if there was going to be one, that was the optimal time. They looked and sure enough, there was a rainbow in the east. Having to keep my attention on my driving, I was only able to see one leg of it. There it was, God's bow, just as He said.

Pondering the sight of the rainbow and the progression of the seasons, I thought again of the promises made so long ago to Noah:

"While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22)

"This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth." (Genesis 9:12-13)

With the passing of the seasons and the sight of the colors of the rainbow arcing across the sky, God has once again reminded us that He is faithful and true. He will keep His promises. We can put our hope and trust in Him and His Word even as Noah did so long ago. All glory be to Him!

~ The Billy Goat ~

Going "Back Home"

We just spent a few days visiting my parents. They still live in the same area, and on the same farm where I grew up. Dad has long since stopped farming, and the land is rented out.

There are so many memories in that area; the farm I grew up on with the river cutting across the middle, the old school building, the sleepy rural town, the country roads, and the land I used to help Dad till with tractor and implement.

Now days the only farmers in the area that have their fields fenced off are the Amish. As you drive around the country side, many a barn and silo stand empty and unused. In many places the barns and silos that once stood there are long gone, including some that once stood on our farm.

When we drive up M-99, we see one barn still standing, the name "Britton" faded but still readable on its siding. My 2nd great-grandfather brought his family from Vermont to Michigan, and settled on that farm about 150 years ago. The farm stayed in another part of the family line for over 100 years before finally being sold off to someone outside the family.

Down the road and around the corner from where Mom and Dad live stands the house my grand-parents built back around 1916. My Dad was born in that house, and I spent the first five years of my life in that house. Memories... So many memories...

Mom and I went out to the Burt Cemetery where many of her family are laid to rest. We brushed the grass clippings off of Grandma's stone, and Uncle Bob's stone, and the stone for my Grandpa who died when momma was only seven years old so I never got to see or know him. Grandpa's twin brother, Uncle Stub and his wife are laid to rest there also. It's been 30 years since Grandma left us, and I still miss her...

Over in another part of the cemetery lie Grandpa's parents. My Great-grandma's stone was obscured by the over grown perennial flowers. I thinned them back, and once again the sun lighted up the engraving on the stone.

If I was to walk down the street of the old home town, very few would recognize me, and I would probably recognize even fewer, even of those I went to school with. It's been over 34 years, a major part of a lifetime. I drive the streets of the old home town as an expatriate. There is still much there I recognize, but there is also very much that has changed over the years. A part of my life is in that area, but the life now being lived there is not mine.

We are nomads, the descendents of nomads; nomads who left Europe for a better life in a new world, nomads who wandered west from New England and Pennsylvania seeking a new life in a new place. A few generations in the NW Ohio/Southern Michigan area, and then my generation wandered off again; off the farm to the opportunities of the larger cities, scattered to the four winds. There may no longer be the frontier our ancestors faced, but we still wander, and our children and our children's children will wander too.

Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans for a land he knew not of. He left Ur with only a promise, "...dwelling in tents... ... looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10) Someday we'll really "go home". That will be nice...

~ The Billy Goat ~

How to Think About Secularism

by Wolfhart Pannenberg, (First Things 64 (June/July 1996): 27-32)

"Whatever is meant by secularization, few will dispute that in this century the public culture has become less religious. This is not, as some suggest, simply the result of the separation of church and state that first happened some two centuries earlier. Such separation did not then entail the alienation of culture from its religious roots. In America, for instance, the end of state-established religion did not mean the end of the predominantly Christian and Protestant character of American culture. In other Western societies, the linkage between the state and one or another Christian church continued to be effective well into this century. Yet in these societies, too, we see evidence of secularization, typically much further advanced than in the United States. Secularization is not caused by the separation of church and state. The roots of the process of secularization, resulting in the present alienation of public culture from religion, and especially from Christianity, are planted in the seventeenth century...

...Christianity proposed as an alternative or complement to life in a secularist society must be both vibrant and plausible. Above all, it must be substantively different and propose a difference in how people live. When message and ritual are accommodated, when the offending edges are removed, people are invited to suspect that the clergy do not really believe anything so very distinctive. The plausible and persuasive presentation of Christian distinctives is not a matter of marketing. It is a matter of what the churches owe to people in our secularist societies: the proclamation of the risen Christ, the joyful evidence of new life in Christ, of life that overcomes death..."

(To read Pannenberg's full article click here.)

Surviving VBS & Enjoying the Experience

We survived vacation Bible school. It was enjoyable too. Over 200 children attended, with a high of 257 on the last night.

It was really fun to have an opportunity to interact with the kids in the classes. Each child had a name tag which enabled us to greet and interact with each one by name. I really enjoyed the "high fives". I'm glad I participated and was able to help.

Each night the various classes would come together for the closing assembly. In those assemblies there was plenty of loud cheering and enthusiastic singing. It was a fun and enjoyable time. But even more, it was a fun and enjoyable time with a clear focus on God and His Word. Seed was sown, and in His time, God will give the increase.

In a previous post, I talked about the relationship of children to the local church. This week's experience was an opportunity to see those principles in action.

~ The Billy Goat ~

VBS and Being "Elisha"

This coming week our church is having vacation Bible school. It will be an evening affair, running four days, Sunday through Wednesday. In the past we've had a significant number of kids from outside the immediate church family attend VBS; a good number who do not regularly attend any church.

At the urging of my wife, I signed up to help. I get to be Elisha. I'll put on the robe and beard and tell the Bible story. The costume will not be historically precise, but the effect will be there, and we'll have fun with the kids and with God's help, perhaps sow some seed that will later bear fruit in their lives.

I remember going to VBS as a child. There were the stories, the songs, the crafts, and the treats. I am not able to measure how VBS impacted me personally and spiritually. Perhaps the biggest impact was the reinforcement of the things we learned at church about the stories of the Bible. How many relatively little things like that added up over the years until that time when at the University, I found myself believing.

Now I realize how much time and effort went into those VBS sessions I attended as a child; how much those adult teachers and helpers gave of themselves on our behalf. More then a few of those teachers and helpers have since departed this world, and gone on to their reward.

Only eternity will tell what the real impact of next week's VBS will be. I pray it will be far beyond anything we can hope or imagine. For after having done all we can do in that time, the ultimate results are in His hands. Glorify Thy Name Oh LORD!

~ The Billy Goat ~

4.95 on the "Calvinist" Scale?

- another ~Billy Goat~ rant.

For a number of years I've considered myself a full blown five point Calvinist, whatever that means, and the "whatever that means" is the whole point of this article. What do you mean when you say you are a "5 point" or a "4 and a 1/2 point" Calvinist? To simply say it refers to how you stack up when measured by the "5 points of Calvinism" assumes there is an objectivity to those points that allows such a comparison. But is it really that simple?

There are some in the world of Christianity that would say I am no "Calvinist" at all because I hold to the free and full offer of the Gospel to each and every person, elect and non-elect (including Judas Iscariot). But that is exactly the point. Is it more important to be a "5 point Calvinist" or to be Biblical?

Frankly, I am at a point in life where I really do not give a big fat rat's rear end where I rank on the "Calvinist" scale. Nor do I care a whole lot where anyone else might place me on that scale. That's your problem for trying to fit me into your nice neat little categories that keep you from letting the Bible be the Bible.

In my own assesment, I woke up one morning and realized I was a 4.95 point Calvinist. No, I am not going to try to explain that. It just is, so live with it.

I also find I no longer have any patience with the "supra" and "infra" -lapsarian debate (having to do with the order of God's decrees in eternity past as they relate to salvation and the elect). When you have descended into that debate, you simply have gone beyond what the Bible reveals, and you have set your theological reasoning above the Scripture. It's my observation that the infra-supra debate is a mark of those groups and denominations that have stagnated into a Reformed confessional scholasticism to the detriment of Biblical Theology.

I could go on. God loves all people and God hates the workers of iniquity. Don't try to reconcile that with your idea of election. Let the Bible be the Bible and live with the tension. And it would not be the "end of the world" if you did live with that tension. In my own mind, the fact that God loves and hates the same people is not a tension. If there was never any love at all, there would never had been any hatred. We can only hate as deeply as we have loved. "For God so loved the world..."

~ The Billy Goat ~

Excerpts from

Jesus Versus The Eldership

by Dr. Norman Park

"Jesus and his apostles stand solidly in opposition to the modern-day authoritarian institution called "the eldership" in the Church of Christ. Unknown to early Christianity, this institution functions as a self-perpetuating, collective papacy. It is a sort of combination of the corporate board of directors and a Communist politburo. As a corporate board, it exercises total decision-making power, it asserts total administrative authority, and it claims total power to rule. As a politburo, it pursues a sleepless watchdog role over the church to maintain official orthodoxy. Results have been the destruction of congregational responsibility, reduction of members from participants to attendants, and the stifling of individual growth. This does not mean that the men who compose this latter-day papacy are bad men. As unquestioning prisoners of a closed-end orthodoxy concerning elders, which is no longer subject to examination, they are victims not unlike the many who suffer under the oppressive institution......

There were elders in the assemblies of the Lord established by the apostles but no "eldership." The former were older and spiritually mature persons who were primarily teachers and also leaders by example. The latter is a collective authoritarian institution devoted to ruling and decision-making. It has been demonstrated that Jesus, in building his church, did not create a power structure, and specifically denied the use of power to any of his disciples, saying, "It shall not be so among you." The modern eldership is a power-wielding body, arrogating to itself all decisions for the church, issuing excommunication bulls ("withdrawal of fellowship"), exercising total control over church property, declaring official orthodoxy, and practicing exclusive mastery over the church's money.......

The growth of legalism, which views the faith as a code of laws, has contributed to the growth of the eldership institution. Someone is needed to legislate, someone is needed to "watchdog" over the church to see that the code is followed, someone is needed to guard "dangerous" thinking, someone is needed to enforce uniformity--and that someone is the modern authoritarian eldership. The corporation culture has been absorbed into religious thinking. It holds that the few must rule, the many must serve. It has bred a wholesale distrust of the capabilities and potentialities of the ordinary pew occupant. The consequences of the eldership system are bad. First and foremost, it fails "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the full measure of perfection found in Christ" (Eph. 4:12). In denying the congregation the experience of decision-making and the give-and-take of interpersonal relations involved in discussion, it promotes immaturity. People who never have the responsibility of facing group problems and applying intellectual and spiritual resources to their solution will remain spiritual children...."

For the complete article at Battered Sheep Minstry click here.

Mohler: Seminaries must nurture faithfulness in a faithless world - (BP)
By David Roach & Jeff Robinson, Jun 21, 2004

"INDIANAPOLIS (BP)--Southern Baptist seminaries face the great challenge of producing faithful ministers in a faithless world, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said in a report to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis June 16.

In an age of decreasing adherence to scriptural truth, seminaries must answer the question, “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?” said Mohler, who serves as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

“We are living in a time when so many in the church are beginning to sense that there is a problem not only out there the world, but also in the church,” he said. “... In this critical turning time in human history, it is our responsibility to make certain that we do everything in our power demonstrate faith in the face of a faithless world.”

Mohler listed five imperatives to which Southern Baptists must adhere if they are to demonstrate biblical faith in the world.

First, Southern Baptists must maintain a bold vision of biblical truth.

“There is no way we will be able to demonstrate faith in face of faithlessness if we do not recover biblical truth,” he said. “This means that we must as people and as churches ... be bold all the time, evermore, courageously and convictionally before the world about what it is we believe.”

Second, Southern Baptists must renew their commitment to teach biblical truth in churches and seminaries.

The Christian teaching ministry must always be grounded in the Word of God, he emphasized. “If there is any one educational principle that Southern Baptists must embrace at this convention and keep before ourselves, it is the absolute non-negotiable, undilutable responsibility of Christian parents and Christian churches to teach Christian truth,” Mohler said. “If we do not do it, it will not be done.”

Third, Southern Baptists must experience a bold recovery of expository preaching, Mohler said.

Preachers must not merely use biblical texts as jumping-off points for their sermons, he said. Instead, they must “confront an age of biblical ignorance and biblical apathy with the vibrant living and active two-edged sword of the inerrant, infallible Word of God.”

Fourth, Southern Baptists must experience a reenergized embrace of evangelism and missions, Mohler said, adding that Christians should take joy in preaching the Gospel to the furthest regions of the earth.

“We set before ourselves that vision set before us in the Book of Revelation of that throng before the throne in eternity made up of men and women from every tongue and every tribe and every people and every nation. For the cause of the glory of God we will never retreat. We will always advance,” he said.

Fifth, Southern Baptists must raise up a new generation of leaders in the faith, Mohler said....."

It's not just our Southern Baptist friends who need to lay hold of the five imperatives listed above. These five points are imperative for the Evangelical church at large. Please note Dr. Mohler's 3rd imperative regarding expository preaching.

~ The Billy Goat ~

Excerpt from: The Blinding and Binding Teachings of Bill Gothard
by Paul Sue

"It's probably safe to say that most Christians in North America have heard of or have even attended one of Gothard's seminars. Because of the popularity and mass appeal of Gothard's ministry, attempting to question it or criticize it is to face the wrath and anathema of the legion of loyal (blindly loyal in some cases) fans. Gothardites get angry and defensive when you question their beloved leader's teachings or integrity, as if he is somehow beyond reproach or accountability."

---

If you are like me, you have always found yourself wary of Bill Gothard's teaching; specifically his sloppy hermeneutics and mis-exegesis of Scripture. Paul Sue's review of A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard & the Christian Life, by Don Veinot, Joy Veinot, Ron Henzel. (21st Century Press, 2002), will help you understand why your apprehension regarding Gothard is well founded. To read the full review, click here.

~ The Billy Goat ~

Ramblings on Texas and Spiderman 2

Things have been a little busy and hectic. There are things I want to do, and the things I need to do before doing the things I want to do.

Two weeks ago we left on vacation for Texas. The occasion was a family reunion to celebrate my wife's mother's 90th birthday. This time we drove down instead of flying. That's 1,300 miles from the Grand Rapids, MI area down to the Austin, Texas area, and 1,300 miles back. It still beat spending time at work even if the office is air conditioned.

I like the Texas/Oklahoma plains area. You can see off in the distance a good 30 - 40 miles away; wide open sky and dry heat; a good place to snowbird some day, Lord willing.

On another note, this past Friday night my daughter and I went to see Spiderman 2. I agree with those who say Spidy 2 is better then Spidy 1. I wanted to go primarily to see the special effects on the big screen, and on that point was not disappointed.
There were also some philosophical issues to deal with, and some other time I may post my comments on those aspects of the movie. It was very clear at the end of Spidy 2, that there is every intent to have a Spiderman 3.

So, have you seen Spiderman 2? What are your thoughts?

~ The Billy Goat ~