Here’s an interesting post from Doug Wilson at Blog and Mablog entitled Wishing I Could Vote for George W. Bush. He argues that Bush’s leading us into idolatry (celebrating Ramadan in the White House, interfaith prayer services at the National Cathedral, etc.) is more dangerous than Kerry’s leading us into who-knows-what. Almost thou persuadest me . . .
However, Kerry still seems the more dangerous of the two. Government’s job is to protect the citizenry, not to lead in the worship of the one true God. (The latter is the church’s job) If we have leaders who honor God, well and good. However, if we have Buddhist candidates who are men of good character and who are willing and able to lead our government to do what God has instituted government to do, i.e. to wield the sword, to punish lawbreakers, and to protect the innocent, then we as Christians should vote for the Buddhists. Granted GWB should not be worshipping at Shinto shrines and professing Jesus Christ at the same time. Wilson very charitably points out that perhaps as a layman GWB is somewhat confused and needs some good counsel from his Christian brethren. However, Kerry does not seem to be susceptible to Christian counsel at all. I doubt Kerry will lift a finger to protect this country from its enemies, and I know he is not willing or able politically to protect innocent babies from abortion. Does anyone believe that Kerry would hesitate to proclaim himself a good Catholic and and at the same time do the very things we’re criticizing Bush for doing? And I’m intelligent enough to know that either Kerry or Bush, barring an act of God, will be our next president. So, the correct choice seems obvious to me.
Archives
Join Me in Glad Adoration #3
We sang this hymn in church this morning, and I liked it very much. The tune we used is apparently modern, but the words, as you can see, are very old. It fit in well with the reading I’ve been doing for American Literature: William Bradford, Jonathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet. Also, the sermon from Malachi, chapter 2 referenced Jonathan Edwards and his godly seed and our responsibility to be teachers of truth.
What’er My God Ordains Is Right
text: Samuel Rodigast (1675)
music: David Braud
1. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth
He is my God, Though dark my road
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all
2. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content, what He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day
3. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true, each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart
4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all
Eusebius
Go here for a nice digestible post from the blog View from the Foothills about Eusebius’ History of the Church. The point of the post is that Eusebius clearly refutes the fantasy/history found in Dan Brown’s The Davinci Code.
Church of the Week #3
In honor of “where I came from,” I chose this church, First Baptist Church West Columbia, South Carolina, as my “Church of the Week” by googling the words “southern baptist church traditional.” I’ve never been to this church, but it looks exactly like all the Baptist churches I grew up knowing and loving. The church is 104 years old. They have an organ and a piano. They sing hymns from a Southern Baptist hymnal! They call their Sunday morning Bible study time “Sunday School.” They have RA’s and GA’s and WMU. The pastor sounds like a good old Soouthern preacher, and their other ministers are grown men–except for the youth minister who looks to be about 20-somethng. (All traditional Southern Baptist youth ministers are required to be under 35 years of age.) I didn’t know there were any more SBC churches that still had all these things in place. Ah, nostalgia!
Nehushtan
2 Kings 18:4 He (Hezekiah) removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
My pastor preached on this text this morning, and although I don’t think it was the pastor’s intention, God used his sermon to confirm to me that our family should leave the Southern Baptist denomination. His basic thesis was that good snakes (things, rituals, traditions, programs that focus and anchor our faith in God) sometimes become bad snakes (things that lead us into idolatry and cause us to be blind to the new thing that God is doing). As I said in an earlier post, I have been Southern Baptist all my life. I love Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong, Sunday School at 9:45, The Old Rugged Cross and Victory in Jesus, the Cooperative program, Glorieta, and Sunday School literature published by the Sundday School Board. I received my undergraduate degree from a Southern Baptist university, Hardin-Simmons in Abilene. I have been a member of six different Southern Baptist churches over the past 45 years. I believe what Southern Baptists believe.
However, I am seeing that God may want to do a new thing in my life and that of my family. In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby says that we are supposed to see where God is at work and join him there. Well, I see God working in my children to cause them to grow in character and Christian maturity at the Evangelical Free church that we are visiting. I don’t see them growing or learning at our Southern Baptist church. Our SBC church seems to me to be stuck in the past in a bunch of church growth methodology and feel-good pop psychology religion. That is a harsh assessment, and I can’t guarantee that the church we go to (if we go) will be completely different. But it seems to me today that God is telling me that I’ve been holding on to an old dead snake, even burning incense to it. I need to let go and move on to the new thing.
(By the way, I realize that it’s an oversimplification and a distortion of God’s Word to say that The Story of the Snakes means that we should always give up the old ways in favor of whatever is new. Change is not always good. The Holy Spirit and Scripture must finally rule in all things.)
I found this excellent sermon on Nehushtan by Spurgeon.
Church of the Week #2
I found this church on the web here. The pastor, Chris Seay, came here from Waco where he helped found University Baptist Church. Eldest Daughter has visited UBC, and she says the music is too loud. They meet in an old HEB grocery store, and they’re fond of candles. It’s a sort of Baptist concession to liturgical worship, I guess. Anyway, getting back to EcclesiaThis article by Marla Pierson Lester gives a good overview of what the church is all about. As far as I can tell, they’re basically Southern Baptist in doctrine, but they’re trying to create a church that will minister to and evangelize the people of the Montrose neighborhood in Houston. For those not familiar with Houston, Montrose is known for its arts community and for its homosexual community. Often times the two overlap. Interesting quote from the article:
Kenley sings in the chorus of the Houston Grand Opera and lent her voice to the final meditation in Chilson’s yoga class. She wasn’t impressed by her first visit to Ecclesia. “It was just not my thing,” she says, describing herself as a “traditional Baptist girl.” Then she went to Germany for an opera audition. By the time she returned, she was ready for a church drastically different from any she had known.
Church of the week
I’m very interested right now in churches and “how we do church” and how different churches are carrying out God’s commission to them. I suppose this is because we’re thinking about, praying about, changing churches after having been members of the same Southern Baptist church for almost eighteen years. We’re not angry with anyone in our church, nor does our church have any serious doctrinal problems as far as I know. So why are we thinking about leaving? We have several reasons, and I’m not sure any of them are good enough. At any rate, I’m starting a new feature on the blog called “Church of the Week.” I’m going to look around, on the internet and out in the “real world,” and see if I can find some evangelical churches that are doing things that are both innovative and true to historic Christian theology and practice. I’m not looking for gimmicks; I am looking for a church that is not following the herd but rather following God’s call. My theory is that radically following what God is saying to a given church will produce a church that looks different in some ways from other churches but also similar to many churches that have existed throughout Christian history. Any nominations for “church of the week” are welcome to go in the comments section. The church you nominate doesn’t have to be in Houston, but if not it should have a website so that I can (sort of) visit. Or you’ll have to give me a detailed description.
My first “church of the week” is the one we are thinking about moving to: Trinity Evangelical Free Church, Friendswood, Texas (near Houston). I find several things intriguing about this church:
Continue reading
Can anything good come out of Waco?
I just read this NYT article about new trends in Praise and Worship music and somethng called The Passion Experience. If you go by this report, Jerusalem on the Brazos is sending out waves that reach all the way to New York and beyond. More power to them. I recently read something else that mentioned Louie Giglio and The Passion Experience, and it sounds like a good deal.
Baptist churches
I found this blog entry on “Visiting a Baptist Church without Getting Embarrassed.” I especially liked the part about visiting with or without tattoos, dreadlocks, etc. I think I’ll try it.