Rawson Street

Turning off Rawson Street

2006-08-31T22:07:00.000Z

This blog is no more.

I have started a new one where I hope to resist the urge to always scratch where I itch, and instead focus on renewing my mind. By God's grace there will be less expeling of hot air, and I will try to avoid getting caught up in what is current but not eternal.

It's been a while since I read Philippians 4:8 and decided I needed to do this, but I am finally ready to make a move to the 48 files.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Thanks again Mark

2006-05-15T18:43:00.000Z

It is more than cheeky to copy and paste an entire blog post from someone else's blog, but Mark Horne has such a good post that I would rather breach etiquette than a few less people read it.

Having one's sins forgiven is an awesome blessing, one that is greatly needed by sinful man.
Yet Paul never emphasizes forgiveness as much as justification. While justification includes forgiveness, that fact remains that justification is more frequently emphasized.
Why? What is so central about "justification" as opposed to other words that denote being counted as righteous?
The answer, I think, has to be found in the fact that God is a great King and Jesus is lord. If I sin against you I will ask you for forgiveness, but if I am brought up on charges by a public authority then I will be praying to be vindicated.
God isn't just a personal friend but also the judge of all the earth. I would be inaccurate to reduce his judicial pronouncements to only the same level of one person forgiving another.

Procrastination

2006-05-01T12:06:00.000Z

Constitutional and Administrative Law is boring me to death. All the details are so hypothetical and moot. The trouble is the longer I put it off the longer I have to wait for the criminal stuff.

It's so much easier to browse the internet in an aimless way, or write posts of no interest to anyone.

Why do you believe x?

2006-04-29T16:44:00.000Z

I've just noticed this on Rosemary Grier's profile:

What reason do you have to believe the earth is flat?
What reason do we have to believe anything? Testimony. We're all biased. So's experimentation.

I've believed that for a good few years. The apostle John (with some help from Lesslie Newbigin) taught me it:

ÂI can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?Â
(John 5:30-47)

Within a few minutes of a conversation with a non-Christian it is obvious to everyone that you believe what you do (despite the questions) because you trust (ie have faith in) the testimony of the God who sent his Son to be nailed to a cross for your sins, and who has never been shown to be unfaithful. And it is clear to you at least that the non-Christian believes what they believe because they have trouble trusting anyone else's testimony all the way - let alone God's.

Doug Wilson has a story which says something similar.

Study of culture

2006-04-29T15:42:00.000Z

Apparently John MacArthur said at Together for the Gospel that

I don’t spend a lot of time studying the culture, I think I know enough from living in it. I don’t want to be a student of the culture, I want to be a student of the Bible. (HT Adrian W):

I don't know if that has been taken out of context, and I don't know that much about John MacArthur himself so please don't take my comments as personal to him. But I do wonder because although John MacArthur may know enough about the culture from living in it, I certainly don't. And it is because I wish to be a student of the Bible, and an ambassador for Christ that I think I should study it more. I do not see the dichotomy that he sees. I have two reasons for this. One relates to my desire to see transformation of the culture (and that means other people), and the other is my desire to be transformed myself.

Everyone now knows about the dangers of Christian jargon. We know that not only can it form a barrier to preaching the Gospel because it may be not understood, but it may be so misunderstood so that it does harm. The classic example is the word 'sin'. To a Christian it means to rebel against our loving creator, running after other gods and consequently manifesting itself in abuse of our fellow creatures. To our culture the meaning is closer to 'a deducted mark for sexual immorality (among a few other things), in a test that fundamentalists believe is being conducted by a impersonal god, which when passed leads to some unearthly bliss after death’. If we are to communicate the Gospel in today’s culture, as we are commanded, we have to spot such misunderstandings and address them, even when they are less than obvious. And a earnest attempt to reach the world involves a lot more study of the culture than this first step demonstrates.

Even if we are to study the bible we need to understand what we are bringing to the text, in order to take from the text grace. The early Gnostics no doubt thought they were being faithful students of the Bible, but were totally unaware that they were distorting its message with what we can latter see is assumptions brought with them from the Greek culture of the time. Many white Christians thought that they were being faithful to what they had learnt from their study of the Bible when they treated their Black slaves to inhumanly to finance their new Georgian Terraces.

A less obvious example of the results an lack of study of culture when expounding the Gospel is in the oft-quoted comment of CS Lewis in response to the question of the uniqueness of Christianity:

"It's grace."

Grace is of course foundational to all we believe, but many other religions would claim if for themselves too (even in the way we mean it). The Bible never distinguishes Christianity from other religions in this way. In fact, the primary way it distinguishes itself is by its truthfulness. However in the early Twentieth-century culture of CS Lewis, still in reaction against Medieval Catholicism, it was a natural answer to give.

I come from a sub-culture that puts a high value on knowledge of facts and a low value on emotion. Even with a great help from John MacArthur’s fellow conference speaker John Piper, I still do not think that I have come to understand my culture’s influence on my faith in this area. I still don’t really understand what my culture finds so attractive in wealth so I read about it, because I know it is affecting my study of the bibles teaching on it. I need to study the culture as well as the Bible to do this, and both feed each other.

That was a rambling post, and the result of far too little studying of the culture, and studying and imbuing the Bible. Sorry, sometimes I get the itch to write.

New Richard Gaffin book

2006-04-25T21:15:00.000Z

I hate to make this blog an extension of my constant thirst for new books (or at least the idea of new books), but if I have any American readers of a Presbyterian bent they may be interested to know that due out this coming month in the UK is a new book by Richard Gaffin entitled By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation (Oakhill School of Theology Series) (published by Paternoster). The blurb states:

This book is about Paul's understanding of how the individual receives salvation. What does the application of salvation to sinners involve for him? Does he distinguish between salvation accomplished and salvation applied? What is the place of justification in his theology? Gaffin argues that our union with Christ must be central to any attempt to understand Paul's theology of salvation.
'Gaffin brings together a lifetime of reflection on Paul's letters [in] ... this encouraging study.' Dr David Peterson, Oak Hill

It is just a short book which appears to be based on his lectures at the 2004 Oakhill School of Theology, but I like my books short and it should be at least a little interesting considering his lack of published books.

Nagging questions at the end of Acts

2006-04-25T20:31:00.000Z

Peter Leithart suggests:

The canonical ordering of the NT does not carry the authority of the text itself, but it is not irrelevant. [...]
The narrative of Acts, especially its concluding chapters, sets up the theme of Romans. When we get to the end of Acts, the question on our minds is not "how can I find a gracious God?" but "what is God doing with Israel?" (I am not, however, suggesting that these are unrelated questions.)

Without even getting onto Romans, I feel like chipping in that as an ordinary work-a-day Christian in the world, what I think when I finish reading Acts is: 'I stand in the ripples of the spread of the Gospel out from Jerusalem to Rome. How then am I to fit into this continuing story?' More than any other book of the bible, when I read Acts I wonder about how Dave Kirkman fits into the story of God's plan for the world. I want to stand in the footsteps of Stephen, Peter and Paul. I may like them just be one of the tools of God in his mission, but it is a great mission to be part of. One that despite numerous seeming-step-backs is actually always moving forward to it's destination. I know we shouldn't read our experience into that of the original readers, but I think my thoughts will be closer to that of the early Christian hearing Acts, than 'what is God doing with Israel?', as important as that question is. In fact, that is a question rarely asked by the characters of Acts themselves.

Of course the question at the end of Acts should be broader than the me-centred one that I have suggested. I think it should be 'what is Jesus going to do next?', when you consider what we read in Acts he has already done. (As Chris Green says 'The Acts of the Apostles' could easily be renamed 'The Acts of Jesus Christ')

PS. Speaking of the canonical ordering, I must remember to share Iain Provan's great thoughts on the ordering of the Minor Prophets. I spent a good 20 hours or so listening to his introductory lectures on the OT recently, and there was much that was thought-provoking in them.

Reason #1 to give thanks for Tim Keller

2006-04-23T18:32:00.000Z

"What is our Christian hope? Is it just heaven? Is that it? If it is just heaven we just have compensation for all the things we have lost. And we have lost so much…But if the future is a new heavens and new earth, if the Christian hope is not just a compensation for what we have lost, but a restoration of the world and the life we have always wanted, that changes everything with regard to suffering.

…

If heaven is a compensation for all the stuff you have always wanted but never going to have, that is one thing, but if the new heavens and new earth is our hope, and it is - and therefore we have a restoration of everything you ever wanted - the new heavens and new earth will make every horrible thing you every experienced nothing but a nightmare… and as a nightmare will do nothing but infinitely, correspondingly, increase your future joy in glory, in a way that it wouldn’t have been increased if you had never suffered it. And that is the ultimate defeat of evil. To say evil is an illusion or that you are going to be compensated for it is one thing, but to say that evil will be in the end the servant of your joy - that’s astounding. The Christian hope does not just compensate you for your suffering, it undoes it - it absolutely undoes it. Our momentary affliction achieves an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

…

You don’t just accept suffering, because you know God does not want it. You certainly don’t just avoid suffering, because you realise how God can use it. You don’t embrace suffering, like some kind of masochist, because you realise that this is evil, this is evil, God doesn’t want this to happen. But look how God has worked out in Jesus Christ so that even evil will be the eventual servant of our joy and our glory."

(From the sermon Christian Hope and Suffering preached on 16 May 2004)

Unfortunatly that quote does not do total justice to Tim Keller's preaching on hope, but it is still so good I had to get it typed up.
If you want to know more about Tim Keller try Steve McCoy's page of resources, or his profile for Mark Driscoll's gig, but he is all about the preaching (so go buy some mp3s).

Three crosses

2006-04-20T22:11:00.000Z

And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. (Mark 15:29)

Two nobodies, and the King of the Universe, humiliated demonstrations of Roman justice, indistinguishable from each other to those passing.

Reading a bit of the passion narrative in Mark yesterday I realised that there are few better images of how Jesus counted himself among the sinful and condemned for our sake. At the moment I cannot help seeing image after image in the Gospels showing how Jesus made himself equal (if not less) than those who were created through him. It really is an amazing thing... why doesn't the world realise the shocking nature of it? Why can't I communicate it to those who think there is nothing about it worth even having an opinion about?

Also, once you have considered this truth, why is it that images of the three crucifixions always make Jesus' cross more prominent than the other two?

Theological development and spiritual distraction

2006-04-19T21:19:00.000Z

Richard Gaffin on Gerhardus Vos and Herman Ridderbos:

Both men have, independently, com to the same basic conclusion. Further, this conclusion represents a marked shift so far as the traditional Reformed consensus is concerned. the center to Paul's teaching is not found in the doctrine of justification by faith or any other aspect of the ordo salutis [by which he means 'the application of redemption in the life history of the individual sinner']. Rather, his primary interest is seen to be in the historia salutis as that history has reached its eschatological realization in the death and especially the resurrection of Christ.
(p. 13, Resurrection and Redemption: A Study in Paul's Soteriology; P & R Publishing)

I think this quote sums up the major development in my theology over the past two years. It has been great to realise how God's plan for redemption is less man-centred, but more fulfilling in its audacious enormity. YHWH is no god of privatised religion, and he makes big claims.

On a more critical note, I think Gaffin overestimates the uniqueness of his heros (if not their brilliance).

Anyhow...Good night folks! I'm off to follow Dave Bish's (implicit) suggestion and spend some time in the bible. In the day-to-day routine of work I must admit I am struggling to remember Carson's words that I read a long time back:

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

What I have been waiting for?

2006-04-18T21:34:00.000Z

Romans: A New Covenant Commentary by William J. Dumbrell

Finally I have come accross a commentary by a respected biblical theologian on a NT book. As a bonus, it is short, recently published, and not too expensive.

I am due a good book.

And the Lord relented...

2006-04-18T21:27:00.000Z

I listened to a Stuart Townsend song yesterday which prayed for God to 'relent'. It really struck me that I had never heard a modern song, or even a prayer, that used that word which to me evokes so many OT passages of God's grace (see ESV search). When I wondered about this I also realised that it was not a word, or even a concept, that is found much in the NT.

I am considering what all this may mean. I have some ideas... does anyone else?

Not another church sign...

2006-04-12T18:58:00.000Z

Not usually one to post on these things but I spotted this today, and as the blogger who took the picture said: 'Wouldn't it be depressing if the sign's message were true?'

Praise him it is not.

PS. I think I may be blogging again soon (properly). It has struck me this week, that I am no longer not blogging because I'm busy, but because I am lazy.

Relevant writing

2006-03-16T00:03:00.000Z

In an age when there are so many Christian books purporting to be relevant to the 21st century, or to the reality of our lives, this is the first book I've read that actually delivers. I would never have bought a book with this title unless it had been by Tim Chester. I suspect this is because I am a Christian snob, but thankfully my great respect for Tim Chester won over. This is the most beneficial book I have read this year. A perfect mix of big picture Christianity, and day-to-day practicalities (ala Proverbs). I thank God for this book.

Buy The busy Christian's guide to busyness from IVP, and read extracts here.

PS It's a mark of my pride that I can barely prevent myself slipping in that I am reading far more intelectual/leftish books at the moment too (e.g Walter Brueggemann) but you cannot argue with that which truly satisfies.

You heard it here first...

2006-03-03T18:42:00.000Z

For all you UCCFers who read this blog: He may not be there yet but I confidently predict that Pete Dray will soon be the latest Staff Worker to enter the blogosphere.

I've been kidnapped...

2006-02-26T12:20:00.000Z

I have little time before my captors return but I wanted you know that I am alive, although sadly with little chance of further communication in the forseeable future. I would give me up for dead if I was you - I may never be able to escape their grasp again.

If you see any of the following culprits, please do not approach them yourself - they have taken away the best years of my life... and worst of all I have let them.

Posts worth chewing over

2006-02-19T12:05:00.000Z

This is a well written post by Alistair Roberts with much to think about for Calvinists like me.

This one is also worth thinking about for those of us much influenced by John Piper's particular emphases.

Moral Climate Change

2006-02-12T12:57:00.000Z

Tom Wright being a senior bishop in the established Church got to speak on the recent Religious Hatred Bill in the House of Lords (after the vote bizarely). His speech was top notch:

What we face, my Lords, is ‘moral climate change’, comparable to other forms of climate change and equally dangerous. The 1960s and 1970s swept away the old moral certainties, and anyone who tries to reassert them risks being mocked as an ignoramus or scorned as a hypocrite. But since then we’ve learned that you can’t run the world as a hippy commune. Getting rid of the old moralities hasn’t made us happier or a safer. We have discovered that we do indeed need some guidelines if chaos is not to come again. But once the foundations have been eroded, where will you find firm ground on which to build new moral fences? Can we, as a recent correspondent to the Times suggested, invent and agree upon two or three basic moral standards out of thin air?
This uncertainty, my Lords, has produced our current nightmare, the invention of new quasi-moralities out of bits and pieces of moral rhetoric: the increasingly shrill and polymorphous language of ‘rights’, the glorification of victimhood which enables anyone with hurt feelings to claim moral high ground, and the invention of various ‘identities’ which demand not only protection but immunity from critique.
It was this messy but potent combination of neo-moralities, my Lords, that generated the Religious Hatred legislation of which your Lordships, rightly in my opinion, took a dim view, and whose key elements were narrowly voted down in another place last week. It is the same combination which has produced a world in which it is thinkable for a University Christian Union to have its funds seized, and to be denied the right to meet, because it will not allow non-Christians equal membership. Many other examples could be given.
...Within the new world of civility for which we must work, we desperately need to take the religious dimension seriously and not wave it away as irrelevant. I quite see that some secular commentators are now dismayed to discover that neither Christianity nor the other great religions has withered on the vine as they had expected – indeed, as their ideology had demanded. But it is only these late-modern shibboleths, I believe, which are preventing us from realising that healthy religion and healthy public life do truly belong together and that the attempt to keep them apart leads to a dangerous vacuum which may well be filled by unhealthy styles of religion and by unhealthy forms of public life. All this is clearly visible in some parts of America as well as elsewhere....

Read the rest here.

Brilliant

2006-02-07T19:23:00.000Z

Mark Lauterbach writes:

one of the turning points in my own thinking on this was to notice the "tone" of the NT. As I read through the apostolic letters I was struck by how, with the exception of Galatians 1, there is always a sense of patient hope in the background. Try reading Colossians or 1 Peter with an angry voice -- then try with gentleness and clarity. It is clear that the realities of the new creation controlled their perceptions -- both in addressing sin clearly and in fueling faith for the pursuit of Christ. No self-righteous or chiding tones here! And even Corinthians and Galatians move into a confidence in the Gospel mode very quickly

-------edit:-------

Hmm.. on second thoughts maybe it needs some caveats... I'll have to think about that...

a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." (Matt 17)

The Lord's Service (our service to God or his to us?)

2006-02-05T14:20:00.000Z

I never have any time at the moment, but I figure I can spare a few minutes to share a quote from The Lord's Service by Jeff Meyers. I think I deserve some blogging time, especially as I managed to recently read the entirety of Against Christianity (a brilliant book, and ridiculously quotable) without posting on it. I recently posted on how I could not understand how Meyers could find fault with David Peterson's book on worship. The chapter this quote came from made it clear for me.

'In view of the one-sided emphasis in some Evangelical and Presbyterian circles that the congregation gathers to give praise to God and not to get anything. I must insist on the lopsided, impoverished nature of this posture....The first sentence in John Frame's popular book on worship is "Worship is the work of acknowledging the greatness of our covenant Lord"....This notion must not be permitted to go unchallenged. It is only half of the truth, and the second half at that.

First, and above all, we are called together in order to get, to receive.' (his emphases, p. 93f.)

If you have any problems with this idea a little musing over what we know of OT worship confirms this was certainly the case then, and I do not think there is enough in the NT suggest that this was overturned with Jesus. And to bring Christian Hedonism into the discussion (something Meyers does not do), there is nothing more honouring to God than coming to him to receive. Entering his presence with the idea that you have something to offer to him really is ridiculous.

I am learning a lot from this book, although, Meyers has failed to convince me of many things he believes. Despite this his book asks many questions that English Evangelicalism could do with thinking about. The least effect he would have would be to challenge people to think purposely about what church services should look like; sadly though, I cannot see many in Britain reading it.

I do wonder about a couple of things though. Firstly, what conclusions Meyers would have come to if he had spent his life in a country with centuries of experience with an institutional church that worships much as he suggests. Secondly, why he only seems to think about one sort of church gathering, the main meeting on a Sunday, and how he would apply his insights to the varying church meetings from the very informal meeting of two Christians for coffee, to prayer meetings, to home groups.

...I really would love to sit in on a conversation between him and Tim Chester and Steve Timmis in Sheffield (A conversation with Pete Ward would just be messy).

Note to self...

2006-02-04T12:58:00.000Z

Re-read Mark Horne's sermon on 1 Corinthians 14 and properly digest it.

God's gifts

2006-02-01T21:44:00.000Z

I just feel like broadcasting to the world how great it is to receive prayer letters from people I know. I have received a few recently and it is so, so encouraging and praise-inducing to hear about the amazing diversity and quantity of different ways that God is working in our world.

I am in a great mood... I must just determine to be more disciplined in praying the requests.

If you open your eyes you can see how God is working, and praise him for it. So often I wander around with my head down, and eyes shut and wonder why I am not 'in the mood' to praise God.

Back to work at 9am tomorrow, 3rd floor of Yorkshire House. I wonder what God is doing there...?

An apology and random bits

2006-01-28T13:14:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I have been very busy, as well as trying to put a bit more time into other relationships. All my blogging time has been spent reading or commenting on other blogs so little has happened here. I have had a few bloggable thoughts, but non that have really been burning to be published. I am trying to read as much as my limited time permits and have just started The Lord's Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship by Jeff Meyers, who is one of interesting bunch of American Presbyterians who I have only recently discovered. They are so fascinating because they share my theological ancestors and are still passionately protestant but yet are so different to the Conservative Evangelicalism of the UK and Australia that I know and love. Where this is most obvious is in their view of what Church meetings should look like, which Jeff Meyers book focuses on. A portion of Meyer's bibliographical essay illustrated this very fact vividly for me:

'Most of the exegetical and biblical theological work done on worship has been extremely disappointing. For example, David Peterson's Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship gets the whole purpose of sacrificial worship exactly wrong. We don't engage God, as Peterson thinks; rather, He engages us. The whole book is flawed because of this one sided, Pelagian perspective.' (p. 420)

I haven't read Peterson's book but I've read some of his other books. His pedigree is solidly Conservative Evangelical, showcasing the best of that branch of the church emphasis on Biblical Theology, expository preaching and good sense. I have never heard a bad word before about Engaging God, but rather endless praise. The last thing I would expect is criticism for a 'Pelagian perspective' that is 'exactly wrong'. I am bemused and curious about what is going on. Interesting reading lies ahead.

Elsewhere I think Rosemary's good sense, and heart for God means I may have to put étrangère on my favourite blog list. Also Ant Adams has made me determine to be a bit more purposeful in my reading, and although I probably will not follow him with chosing a author for the year I am now determined to enjoy some meals, rather than snacks, provided by John Stott, and finally read the 1536 edition of Calvin's institutes which has been siting on my shelf for a long while (prompted by Mark Horne, it is a long time since I feasted on the standard 1559 edition).

Wanting to listen to some lectures on worship?

2006-01-15T22:07:00.000Z

Then get your teeth stuck into these - a veritable 'who's who' of the theology and practice of worship (HT: Bob Kaufin).

A joke containing a rebuke

2006-01-15T21:54:00.000Z

No time to post much, but in my previous post on a lecture by Lesslie Newbigin, I missed out recalling a great point during the questions afterwards when a questioner excused some past timidity by his Englishness. Newbigin responded as follows:

You know the story about the English lady who was explaining to a Black Pentecostal that although English are so unexcited and sober in their worship as compared to the black Pentecostals.
She said, “it doesn’t mean that we don’t love our Lord we love him very much, but we English are very restrained in expressing our emotions”
And the pastor said, “yes, I understand that, I’ve been to a football match myself”

It's quite funny, but it also contains a stinging rebuke to those in the church that excuse the lack of emotion in worship by their nationality. I remember once listening to John Piper on CD making a similar biting comment to an English audience .

Of course there is more than one way to express emotion in worship.