I Think My Wife's a Calvinist



This satire is a real hoot. "She likes Spurgeon more then she likes me...."

How did Toyota Really Respond to the 9/11 Tragedy?

I recently received one of those many e-mails that come and go around the Internet all the time. This one was talking about how different automobile companies responded to the 9/11 tragedy, specifically in the area of help and contributions. The point of the letter was to applaud the "American Three", (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) and belittle alleged puny efforts or non-efforts of the "foreign" automobile companies such as Honda and Toyota. For a copy of that email, see the story at Snopes.com.

In regard to Toyota the allegation is:

Toyota (includes Lexus) - Press release with condolences posted on the Toyota web site on 09/14/01, but no contribution despite earlier press releases boasting that Toyota had high sales in July and August.

The conclusion of this e-mail encourages the reader to keep these "facts" in mind the next time one is buying a car. The implied thrust is that only the "American Three" responded in any meaningful way to the 9/11 tragedy.

Well, here is what I found at the Toyota web site:

Statement: Toyota Relief Contributions

September 18, 2001 -(updated September 25, 2001) New York, NY - In support of relief efforts and humanitarian aid, Toyota has donated $1 million to the American Red Cross. The Toyota Federal Credit Union also has established a special fund for the more than 28,000 American Toyota employees wishing to make a contribution to the relief effort. As of Sept. 25, Toyota associates, manufacturing team members and dealers have contributed more than $90,000 to the Toyota USA Relief Fund to support American Red Cross aid for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Toyota Logistics Services also has offered the use of its seaport facilities in Newark to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for any use deemed necessary, and Toyota has offered the use of vehicles and forklift trucks to emergency agencies, if needed.

The company is working with American Red Cross to coordinate a special blood drive at its sales headquarters in Torrance, California, and its many manufacturing operations across the country.

Toyota joins the rest of the nation in extending our condolences to the victims of the terrorists attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

The Snopes.com investagative article also details how the other "foreign" automobile companies responded to the 9/11 tragedy. The bottom line is that more then a few of those companies such as Honda and Nissan made sizable contributions to 9/11 relief efforts that equalled or exceeded those of any one of the "American Three".

The allegations made in this e-mail are scandalously false. It is also clear that these falsehoods are being circulated to attempt to bind the reader's conscience to buy cars only made by the "American Three".

Now whatever car you choose to buy is your own business. But if you choose to buy a Ford or GM or Chrysler product, please don't do so on the basis of a patent falsehood such as alleged in this spurious Internet e-mail. After all, "Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor." The American workers at the U.S. Honda, Nissan, and Toyota plants as well as their respective U.S. suppliers ARE your neighbors.

~ The Billy Goat ~

HOW TO THINK ABOUT SECULARISM
by Wolfhart Pannenberg

"A public climate of secularism undermines the confidence of Christians in the truth of what they believe. In "A Rumor of Angels" (1969), Peter L. Berger describes believers as a "cognitive minority" whose standards of knowledge deviate from what is publicly taken for granted. Berger wrote about "plausibility structures." People need social support in holding that a given account of reality is plausible. When such support is weakened, people need to muster a strong personal determination in order to maintain beliefs that are out of line with the beliefs of others around them. Berger's is a social and psychological analysis of the situation in which people find themselves, quite apart from the truth of what they may believe. "It is, of course, possible to go against the social consensus that surrounds us," Berger notes, "but there are powerful pressures (which manifest themselves as psychological pressures within our own consciousness) to conform to the views and beliefs of our fellow men." This is precisely the experience of Christians living in a dominantly secular culture.

In a secular milieu, even an elementary knowledge of Christianity—its history, teachings, sacred texts, and formative figures—dwindles. It is no longer a matter of rejecting Christian teachings; large numbers of people have not the vaguest knowledge of what those teachings are. This is a remarkable development when one considers how foundational Christianity is to the entire story of Western culture. The more widespread the ignorance of Christianity, the greater the prejudice against Christianity. Thus people who do not know the difference between Saul of Tarsus and John Calvin are quite certain that Christianity has been tried and convicted as a religion of oppression. When such people do get interested in religion or "spirituality"—their interest being a natural reaction to the shallowness of a secularist culture—they frequently turn not to Christianity but to "alternative religions."
.................
"The absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to secular standards in language, thought, and way of life. If members of a secularist society turn to religion at all, they do so because they are looking for something other than what that culture already provides. It is counterproductive to offer them religion in a secular mode that is carefully trimmed in order not to offend their secular sensibilities. In this connection, it seems that mainline churches in America have yet to internalize the message of Dean Kelley in his book of a quarter century ago, What people look for in religion is a plausible alternative, or at least a complement, to life in a secularist society. Religion that is "more of the same" is not likely to be very interesting.

I hasten to add that this is not an argument for dead traditionalism. The old-fashioned ways of doing things in the churches may include elements that are insufferably boring and empty of meaning. 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."

Whatever you may think about the thesis set forth by Pannenberg in the complete essay, the above excerpts give a pretty accurate picture of the place Christianity has in an increasingly secular culture and society.

These excerpts also puts the finger on some of the pressures behind some of the recent trends in the Evangelical world. I am thinking specifically of the more extreme manifestations of the emergent movement (ala Brian McLaren). I am not sure our friends in that movement always realize how much of their thinking comes from a cultural cistern that is just as broken as the one they are being critical of.

The point is one I've made before in another place. As Evangelical Christians, we are always to some degree or another going to have to be counter-cultural if we are to remain faithful to the message God has called us to be faithful to. To quote from a previous post:

On the one hand we have to resist the modern mindset that wants to rationalize everything and in so doing, erase the tension and mystery we find in Biblical theology. We resist that view of reason that says all questions can be answered. We also assert that rational apprehension of God’s truth is not enough to save, but there has to be with that apprehension the experiential (existential) encounter and communion with the God which that rational apprehension points us to.

On the other hand we resist that post-modern epistemology that makes meaning meaningless and definition undefined. Words have some objective meaning and definition. If that were not so, we could not communicate at all with one another and God communicating to man through His revelation of event and Word would be just as impossible. We resist the Neo-Orthodox view that the only “truth” is our existential encounter with a “God Word”. In reading the Bible we are not listening for the Word of God, we are listening to the Word of God; an objective Word given by God in time and space.

.... Biblical Christian Evangelical epistemology calls me to embrace both objective (rational) reality outside of myself, and the existential experience of being able through that objective reality to know and commune with the Sovereign God of all creation as my Lord and Savior.

If that sounds a little like "both/and" it's because it is. This affirmation also brings up the question of the Christian's relation to Modernity and Post-modernity. Can a Christian say they are a modernist or a post-modernist? Am I a post-modernest because I view Scripture as meta-narrative? Or is the truth of the matter that once again we are neither/nor?

Shalom!

~ The Billy Goat ~

Christus Victor - Looking at the Atonement

Un/limited Atonement or Multiple Intentions View (Four Point Calvinist Position)

1. Statement of the Position
God’s intentions in the death of Christ are complex not simple, multiple not single: 1) Christ died for the purpose of securing the sure and certain salvation of his own, his elect. 2) Christ died for the purpose of paying the penalty for the sin of all people making it possible for all who believe to be saved. 3) Christ died for the purpose of securing the bone fide offer of salvation to all people everywhere. 4) Christ died for the purpose of providing an additional basis for condemnation for those who hear and reject the gospel that has been genuinely offered to them. 5) Christ died for the purpose of reconciling all things to the Father.

"Extent of the Atonement: Outline of The Issue, Positions, Key Texts, and Key Theological Arguments"; Bruce A. Ware, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, page 3

About a month ago I came across the above article by Dr. Bruce Ware. I have to confess a certain sympathy for some of the points he makes regarding how we view the atonement. Please read the whole article to set what I say below in context.

The one primary purpose in the atonement is the glory of God. Any other purpose, including the salvation of the elect, is secondary to that. The atonement has purpose that includes more then just individual salvation. There is a cosmic purpose relating to the whole created order. As another writer put it:

"As this story illustrates, we need both penal substitution and Christus Victor to properly understand Christ's atonement. Penal substitution explains the heart of Christus Victor--how exactly Christ defeats the Devil, and Christus Victor supplies the larger context for penal substitution.

Christus Victor informs us that salvation aims not merely at individuals but is for the entire world. God intends through Jesus "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." Our personal salvation is part of something larger than ourselves. We belong to the church, the body of Christ that extends the Kingdom of God in the world."

"Don't Stop Believing", Dr. Michael Wittmer, (Zondervan, 2008) page 96

I also confess a certain sympathy for a view of the atonement that does not force me into performing exegetical gymnastics to defend either a particular redemption view or a universal redemption view. Both sets of passages can be allowed to say what they say.

Am I saying that now I am now a 4.0 point Calvinist? No, I'm only reiterating what I said a few years ago about calling myself a 4.95 point Calvinist in order to deliberately irritate those on both sides of that issue. What I'm finding is there is more then that at stake. In looking back, I see just how some areas of Reformed theology are actually anthropocentric in spite of the claim to be theocentric.

Jesus reigns!

~ The Billy Goat ~

The Hymn of Post-modern Paganism

The lyrics below are from the 1969 Rock Musical HAIR. This song epitomized the hopes of the Anti War/Hippie movement of the time. It was at this juncture the Marxist utopia dream was merged with astrological millenealism; the “Age of Aquarius” with its false hopes and empty dreams. Those popular cultural expectations never entirely faded as the 1960's hippies became stock brokers, college profesors, and "community organizers". As I listen to the "messianic" rehtoric of the left wing demagogues of our day, I hear the echos of those earlier days. But the Age of Aquarias will not arrive on the wings of Air Force One. The false promise of the Age of Aquarius will end in dashed hopes and shatterd dreams just as all other 20th century messianic secularism has ended.

~ The Billy Goat ~

Aquarius

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

As our hearts go beating through the night
We dance unto the dawn of day
To be the bearers of the water
Our light will lead the way

We are the spirit of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
Angelic illumination
Rising fiery constellation
Travelling our starry courses
Guided by the cosmic forces
Oh, care for us; Aquarius

Why we need to pray for President-elect Obama

The admonition to pray for Kings and rulers and those in authority was given to a 1st century church living under a Cesar who claimed deity, and killed Christians in the arena. (1 Timothy 2:1-3)

The challenge many Evangelical professing Christians face is to be Christian in an Obama administration. We may not feel like it. We may detest and hate some of his policies, but we are not relived of the obligation to pray for OUR president even as 1st century Christians were obligated to pray not to, but for THEIR Cesar...

I do not agree with Christians that voted for Obama, but the fact that they did does not damn them to hell, or make them any less of a brother in Christ....

God is still sovereign. God still rules the history of this kosmos. Obama's election is from our Sovereign God's hand and as such we better be very careful what we say about it.... The question is not "Why?" The question is "Why not?" Are we so much better then those 1st century Christians? I think not.

Shalom,

~ The Billy Goat ~

Judge Diane Hathaway's Election Spin

It was an odd piece of campaign literature. Many of you who live in Michigan probably received it. From its initial appearance one would get the distinct impression that there was a possibility that hunting would not be a part of Michigan's future.

As you looked this piece of literature over, you find the assertion that current Michigan Supreme Court Justice Cliff Taylor is the culprit.

"Cliff Taylor cast the deciding vote on a case that bans people from hunting on their own private property."

But never fear! Hope is near. Diane Marie Hathaway is running for Michigan Supreme Court Justice, and she is going to uphold Michigan's proud heritage of hunting. Just vote for her for Michigan Supreme Court Justice instead of the incumbent Cliff Taylor.

A footnote on the inside page of this literature refers to the case of Czymbor's Timber, Inc. v City of Saginaw. The courts opinion on that case is on-line at Czymbor's Timber, Inc. v City of Saginaw .

A perusal of that opinion is revealing. The whole issue has to do with who in the state of Michigan has the authority to regulate where hunting is allowed in relation to who has authority to ban the discharge of weapons within the boundaries of a local unit of government. The dissent opinions focus on those issues, and the issue of private property, though important, was incidental to the legal issues in the case.

Now, though I do not hunt, I know people who do. Of the hunters I know, their number one concern is hunting safety and respect for the laws regulating hunting and the use of firearms and archery equipment while hunting. They recognize there are times and places where the government has authority to say how, when, and where hunting can take place, and that authority is exercised in the interests of safety and wildlife conservation management.

The bottom line is that in my reading of the court's opinion, the future of hunting on private land in the state of Michigan is not threatened by the majority opinion of the Michigan Supreme Court ruling in this case. Don't take my word for it. Go to the link above and read the opinion for yourself. It is also my judgement that this piece of campaign literature from Diane Hathaway is simply misleading.

But there is more. I have in my hand the 2008 Voter Guide from the Michigan Family Forum (MFF). In that guide I found the following:

Cliff Taylor is endorsed by Right to Life of Michigan, Citizens for Traditional Values, Michigan Fraternal Order of Police, Chamber of Commerce, and the Farm Bureau AGRIPAC. He was renominated for MI Supreme Court Justice by the Republican State Convention.

Diane Hathaway did not respond to the MFF's repeated requests for information. Oh by the way, she was nominated for MI Supreme Court Justice by the Democratic Party State Convention.

But there is still more. Check out the Judgepedia listing on Judge Diane Hathaway, and to be fair, here is the Judgepedia page for Judge Clifford Taylor .

The bottom line is that Hathaway's campaign piece on hunting is a blatant spin attempt to garner votes from hunters, and make a play for the "traditional values" voter.

Any guesses as to who I will be voting for in the race for Michigan Supreme Court Justice?

The Bridge

To where do the bridges go?
The ones in my dreams
That arc high into the sky
To a far off place I can see
Only indistinctly,
But a place that beckons to me.

When I go on those bridges,
Up those high arcs
That defy design.
Only so far can I go.
Vision fades. I awake.
What is over there
I do not know,
But in those dreams
To that place I must go.
To where do the bridges go?

© Oct. 3, A.D. 2008

The Story

 

Creation

In the beginning all was well
With the world new and fresh.
Unspoiled by death’s rot,
Untainted by evil’s breath.

Harmony in all creation
Dwelling in peace and joy
Existing in praise and song
And holy adoration.


Fall

Pride the first sin
Of the fallen arch-angel,
With hate and malice he brings
Into this perfect creation.

Fatal choice our parents make,
Those created in His image.
Now death shadows the earth.
Death infects their lineage.


Redemption

Early promise made;
A proto-evangel.
A bitten heel;
A crushed head;
A promise of redemption.

A perfect Lamb of God;
A sacrifice for sinners..
A cross, an empty tomb,
Resurrection and ascension.


Consummation

Seven seals
Seven trumpets,
Seven vials of wrath.
Vengeance is Mine says the Lord.
Judgment comes at last.

A New Heavens;
A New Earth;
A New creation singing.
Tears are wiped away;
Joy is everlasting.

 

(Revised September 27, AD 2008)

Use of the Word θλῖψις (thlîpsis) In the New Testament

Thayer’s Lexicon: a pressing, pressing together, pressure
Metaphor: oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits

Translated in the NASB as:

Affliction: Matthew 13:21; Mark 4:17, Acts 7:10, 7:11, 20:23; 2 Corinthians 1:4 (2 times), 1:8, 2:4, 4:17, 6:4, 7:4, 8:2, 8:13; Philippians 4:14; Colossians 1:24, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 3:7, 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 1:6

Anguish: John 16:21

Distress: Philippians 1:17, James 1:27

Tribulation: Matthew 24:9, 24:21, 24:29; Mark 13:19, 13:24; John 16:33, Acts 14:22; Romans 2:9, 5:3, 8:35, 12:12; Ephesians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; Hebrews 10:33; Revelation 1:9, 2:9, 2:10, 2:22, 7:14

Trouble: 1 Corinthians 7:28

This word study was precipitated by my involvement in a men's Bible study where we are studying the book of Revelation.

~ The Billy Goat ~