The Lives of Others

Jodi and I finished The Lives of Others last night, a German movie about life under the Stasi for the German Democratic Republic (GDR).  There aren’t too many movies that leave you shattered.  Sure, movies can help you escape; and that’s what this does.  But it’s a matter of where a movie helps you escape.  For The Lives of Others, it brings you to what is good, true, and beautiful. 

Here is a review of it from the late William F. Buckley.  It did win the Best Foreign Film of the Academy Awards, which isn’t necessarily the highlight of movie-making– or, at least it is no more.  (Remember, Titanic also won best movie.)  Still, the award does give it a nod, when it deserves at least 20 more nods.

Frame to Young Preachers

John Frame on Ethics, Preaching, and Biblical Theology

The King of Pop

“The King is dead.”  So goes the news of Michael Jackson’s death. 

Here are a few good pieces on Jackson:

Jonah Goldberg and Justin Taylor

Prayers are with the Jackson family during this time.  And what Goldberg and Taylor write is better than what I could do.  But I will say this: if Jackson was the king of pop, that doesn’t say much about pop culture.

The Love of God

In John Frame’s Apologetics to the Glory of God, he makes the point that the doctrine of the Trinity is valuable for apologetics.  Why?  Because we encounter the divine attribute of love, not as it is in relation to the world, but as it is in relation to the three persons of the Trinity.  John 17 shows us the love among the persons of the Trinity.  Therefore, God’s love is not dependent upon the world; rather, His love is self-sufficient and self-existent.  We merely need to point to the Triune God and the relationship among the three self-sufficient persons to show the goodness of love.

I’m Supposed to Be Depressed

I heard recently that a report from the National Survey of Families and Households that parents are more susceptible to depression that non-parents.  Why?  Because of all the anxiety, of course. I sure am glad I have that survey to let me know.

Hence, we see an underlying idol of today: do not be burdened.  Burdens are bad and can make you depressed.

I suppose when I think about it, my children could make me depressed, depending upon a decision they do/do not make.  And why is that?  Responsibility.  Children are a responsibility.  They are a burden.  They can bring anxiety.  Some people might call that “depressing.”   These are the same people protecting themselves from the joy of raising children.

Recapturing the Past

In response to the concerns of adopting the Belhar, a fellow pastor in the RCA wrote that we need to recapture our rich heritage. 

Is that a concern for anyone else?  The fact that this pastor writes that we need to recapture our rich heritage should tell us that we have lost our heritage.  Because we have lost our heritage, we no longer hold on to the beauty of what it means to be “Reformed.”  How can we then adopt another confession, if we are lost and have lost our “Reformed” distinctive? 

It’s like an unfaithful husband who “wakes up” and decides that he’s going to re-commit himself.  Great.  And so he goes and proclaims that he’s going to renew his vows with his wife with better promises.  Hey buddy, rather than writing new vows, go back to the ones you made at your wedding and recommit to them.

“Burnt” Offering

Peter Leithart has this to say in A House for My Name about the “burnt” offering in Leviticus 1: “In Leviticus 1-7, the first offering is the so-called ‘whole burnt offering.’  This is a bad mistranslation.  The Hebrew word (olah) means neither ‘whole’ nor ‘burnt’ nor ‘offering.’  Instead, the word means ‘to go up’ or ‘to ascend,’ and this offering should be called an ‘ascension offering.’” 

This sheds new light on this offering.  Its focus is on the ascension of the smoke, the aroma that pleased the Lord and turned away His wrath. 

It also sheds new light on the ascension of Christ.  He is the “ascension offering,” the pleasing fragrant to the Father and turned away His wrath. 

I wish I had read this before the Ascension service.  I suppose there is always next year.

Moving Beyond Pro-Life

From Wilson’s Mother Kirk: “But the real issue is the sanctity of God’s law and the  resultant dignity of human life.  Because of how He created us, we do have a permanent dignity… But still, while having great dignity, human life is not sacred.  When we speak as though it is, we leave the distinct impression that the foundation of our humanity is the source of our law, and thus the source of our protest.  This is how much of our pro-life involvement has become humanistic instead of biblical.  Human life has become a god instead of a gift, an idol instead of a valuable creature” (261).

The problem, as Wilson sees it, is that we have muddled the difference between the sacredness of God’s law and the dignity of human life.  The consequence for making human life absolute instead of God’s law is what we see in the recent shooting of the abortionist Dr. Tiller.  The foundational premise of this shooting is the absoluteness of human life. 

In other words, anyone can claim to be pro-life.  But why?  What are the reasons for advocating pro-life?  For unbelievers, the reasons can vary.  But Wilson argues that for the Christian it is because of God’s sacred law.   This is what gives human life its dignity.

A Biblical Understanding of Wealth

James Kushiner at Touchstone offers this insight on the Christian’s relationship to material goods:  “The Christian view of these things is not so much for the purpose of making society better, which might be a result, but that enslavement to mammon is a signpost on the road to perdition.”

Christianity is not a Gnostic religion, advocating that all materials in the world are evil, or that even we must separate ourselves from them; rather, Christianity is a materialistic religion.  It affirms the world and the things in the world as good.  The problem, however, is pointed out for us in Romans 1.  We have substituted the Creator with the creation.  Worse, we have enslaved ourselves to them rather than to the God above them.

A Reasonable Fear

The General Synod for the Reformed Church in America voted to accept the Belhar Confession as a standard yesterday.  Now the decision turns to the classes, which must ratify by two-thirds of the 46 classes.

I am opposed to the Belhar Confession, if you couldn’t tell from my previous posts.  Those in favor of the Belhar have reasoned that to oppose it is only out of fear.  They question whether fear is a good reason to oppose. 

But the problem is not fear, but what you fear.  In other words, is the fear a reasonable fear?  The fact that an author of the Belhar now uses it to support ordination of homosexuals is a reasonable fear.  The fact that the RCA continues its postmodern identity crisis through a dialogue regarding homosexuality is a reasonable fear.  We are not in a good position as a denomination to add an ambiguous statement of faith.  The fears are grounded.