Thesis 34- We must teach our children that the Bible is their family story.
A gracious friend recently gifted me with what may have become something of an anachronism. We in these United States are awash in Bibles. We have study Bibles for just about every station in life, and just about every theological conviction. We have more translations than we can use, and more paraphrases than you can shake a stick at. What we seem to have fewer and fewer of is what were once known as “family Bibles.” These Bibles, of course, contained the Word of God. But that also served a different purpose. The family Bible was where a family recorded the most significant events in that family. The family tree was kept there, and anyone, wanting the see a shorthand version of their own corporate history could find such there at their fingertips.
What may be lost in our plethora of Bibles is this fundamental truth, that every Bible is the family Bible, because the Bible tells the story of our family. If push comes to shove, and we are willing to look at it from something of a scientific perspective, we might be willing to accept this. Adam and Eve, after all, are the very root of our family tree. We all trace a common ancestry back to Noah. Genetically speaking, we have a connection. But there is far more to it.
Our children are constantly being seduced into other faux families. The culture sees our children in demographic terms, as members of particular markets. The culture wants my 14 year old son to see himself as a 14 year old boy, with all that means in terms of clothing, music, even language. But his identity is in Christ. He is an heir of the king, and a child of Abraham.
Which means that when we come to our Bibles we are not coming to study the history of a distant people, and how they related to God. We are not coming to a list of truths. Instead we are reading the story of our own people, and how God related to them. My paternal grandfather served in the African theater in World War II. My grandfather, however many greats back, led our people out of bondage, out of Egypt. My father has served for decades as a teacher of the Bible. My fathers, so many generations back, were prophets called by God to call my other ancestors to repent for their unbelief. Our children sing along with us that father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. And I am the child of the children who sat upon the knee of Jesus.
The Bible isn’t simply something we believe. It is instead our own story, and the story of our children. It, like a family Bible, defines what and who we are. It marks our boundaries and sets our paths. It sets our place in space and time. Jesus said to His disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, in Samaria and the outermost parts of the world. God, by His grace, brought His grace to a cold and misty northern edge of an island in the North Sea, to Scotland. And there He brought my people in, and better still, made us His people. Our children need to understand that the promise to Abraham that he would be a blessing to the nations is fulfilled in them, and that because of that promise, we who were once not a people are now not only the children of Abraham, but by faith are the children of God.
It is a deep pain to me that for the rest of my life, any time I cross paths with anyone who knew me, the first thing that will come to their mind is Ashley Madison or DUI. They may say, “Love your podcast” or more likely, “Love your dad” but my scandals, I know, come immediately to mind. It doesn’t make me angry. I get it. I’m sure if I ran across James MacDonald or Mark Driscoll my own mind wouldn’t immediately turn to ways they have been used in the kingdom. My hope, however, is that if such a meeting should ever take place, following hot on the trail of their public failures would be this thought- “Jesus saves sinners like us.”
In the three and a half years since my arrest I have sought to live in light of that promise. I have been blessed to have some work in line with some of my skills. I have been blessed to be involved as a congregant of a local church body, Pine Hills Church, where Jesus is faithfully preached. I have written a few books, published a daily blog piece and this week marks the one year anniversary of the reboot of the Jesus Changes Everything podcast. I’ve taught home Bible studies, recorded a series for some friends in India and spoken a time or two.
There are those who take the position that my scandals disqualify me from ministry. I get that. There are others who leave that door open as long as the return is not rushed. Among that group some may believe that three and half years is long enough, and others who believe it is not. I get that. I don’t pretend to know the math to figure that out. Those who are in authority over me are given that task. The same is true, of course, with respect to the whole of my spiritual walk. Having been in the public eye, albeit in a rather small pond, it has been difficult to read my critics’ declaration that I am unrepentant, and worse, seeing others believe it. Many seem to take the view that unless I can walk through those first days again, right in front of them, that my repentance can’t be real.
The truth is that my heavenly Father has removed from me all my sins, as far as the east is from the west. I walk in the joy of my salvation. And, not because I’ve been recently rescued by it, but because it has always been my heart, I want to be about the business of telling people the glorious truth that Jesus changes everything.
One thing He has changed, working through my own sins, is my reach and my support. Trying to birth and grow Dunamis Fellowship on the heels of scandal, in the midst of a pandemic is not easy. Many of you are feeling the economic impact. As are we. How can you help? Here are five ways.
1. Prayer. Would you commit to pray that God would use us in the service of His saints? That He would direct, protect and provide for us?
2. A word of encouragement. Knowing that our work is making a difference puts wind in our sails. Even feedback with criticism at least lets us know we’re reaching an audience, and may help us to improve.
3. Spreading the word. Audience grows by audience. If Dunamis has been a help to you, chances are good it could be a help to your friends. Would you let them know all that we are doing? Would you let them know how we’ve helped you?
4. Financial gifts. If you’ve meant to support our work, now would be a great time. We have, apart from putting food on our table, ongoing expenses. Nothing, however, helps us carry on and plan for the future like ongoing, monthly support. Giving is simple. Just click on the donate button and follow the directions.
5. Last but not least, recognizing the reality of my own sins and my need for grace, let me ask this of you- never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his scandals.
A few weeks ago Dunamis Fellowship began a new project. In addition to the daily podcast, Jesus Changes Everything, we are producing a series of questions and answers simply called Ask RC. These are posted weekly on our youtube channel here
Our goal is three-fold. First, many of the questions considered are just the kinds of questions unbelievers might google answers for. I’ve covered, “Who is Jesus?” “What is heaven?” “Why is the church full of hypocrites?” among many others. My desire is to provide truthful, biblical answers that at the same time proclaim the gospel. Second, my hope is that even Christians who know the answers to these kinds of questions will use them to help others and to equip themselves. Third, other questions deal with issues especially germane to those who are already believers. I’ve considered “What is predestination?” “How can we be better witnesses?” “How should Christians view the Old Testament?” among others.
These short, direct recordings fit well into our strengths, and our prayer is that God will use them mightily. Would you be willing to give a listen? Would you like, share and subscribe? And, would you please send suggestions for questions? You can send them via email to hellorcjr@gmail.com. I would love to tackle any questions you may be wrestling with. Would you also join us in praying that these questions and answers would find those who will be best served by them?
Once there was God, and nothing else. This stretches the mind. It is doubly difficult because we first try to imagine vast expanses of nothing, a sort of infinite sea of black. But there is no expanse, and there is no black. Then we try, treading on dangerous ground, to envision the triune God, who is invisible. Nevertheless, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were, and nothing else was. There was no time when They were not, though there was a They when time was not. If we really understood this, there would be no doubters as to the sovereignty of God in His works of providence, or of election. Because there was God and nothing else, there are no conditions of which He is not the ultimate cause. Because the Bible begins with “In the beginning God,” the Bible teaches unconditional election.
When we deny this truth we do so by denying one of the most fundamental of truths, the law of causality. This law recognizes that every effect must have a sufficient cause. If something happens, it happens because something caused it to happen. That’s a fancy way of saying that you get nothing from nothing. There never was nothing. We know this for two reasons. First, the Bible doesn’t begin with “In the beginning nothing,” but “In the beginning God…” Second, if there ever was nothing, there would have to be nothing now. You can’t get something for nothing. Even in metaphysics, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that the elect are in fact made such conditionally. The most common view is that God elected those whom He saw, by peering down the corridor of time would choose Him. But we can, in this argument choose anything as God’s condition for election. Suppose He elected all those who have an odd number for their shoe size. Both of these look like conditions. They serve as a measurable way of separating the elect and the reprobate. The trouble is that in both instances, and indeed in any like condition, a part of the equation is hidden. If we push the causes for the conditions back far enough, eventually we will get back to “In the beginning God.” What, for instance, would God foresee if He peered down the corridor of time? Only those things of which He is the ultimate cause. If He foresaw that I would choose Him, we are left asking why I would choose Him. Our Arminian friends will try to squirm away from giving any kind of meritorious answer for that why, knowing that we’re not supposed to have reason to boast.
It doesn’t help. Whether I chose Him in this make believe unplanned future because I was smarter or dumber, more or less pious, begs the same question again; How did I get that way? I can’t make myself smarter or more pious, unless I am already smarter or more pious than the reprobate. Not even Cinderella’s step sisters could choose, or change, their shoe size. The trail will lead back to God. If He foresaw that I would choose Him, because of my piety, He foresaw the fruit of the piety that He gave me in the first place.
If the difference is not meritorious, it doesn’t help any. Suppose God looked down the corridor of time and saw that I would choose Him. The reason, what separates me from the lost, is the godliness of my parents, that they worked faithfully to raise me in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I certainly didn’t choose my parents, and so cannot take any credit. But who did choose my parents? God did. And who gave them the godliness to raise me in such a way? God did. The final answer is always, “God did.”
In short, if there are conditions for election, then God determined who would meet those conditions. How He made the choice as to who would be given the conditions simply moves the question back one step. He then must have elected unconditionally who would be elect. Naturally causes are rarely if ever so individual. Usually effects come about because of the convergence of several causal factors. We can rarely if ever pinpoint those causes. But God can. If there were some sort of secret recipe of causes that either brings the faith that saves, or brings the hypothetical faith that God foresees in election, if it takes the combination of godly parents and personal piety, and hearing the ad for the Billy Graham crusade on the radio, God still makes the soup. He wrote the recipe, and mixes the ingredients.
Unconditional election is simply another way of saying that God is the sovereign one, that He alone is the ultimate cause of whatsoever comes to pass. To be sure He uses secondary causes, the faithful proclamation of the Word, the heartfelt prayers of the saints, the work of apologists and preachers, an ad on the radio, even the conscience of the yet unregenerate elect. But it is He who is using these things, to bring about what He purposed from before all time, when there was God and nothing else.
They are coming for us. We have reached a cultural tipping point wherein many of the convictions of Christians, things once universally held, that right and wrong are real and we are all often wrong, that men are men and women women, that it takes one and only one of each to make a marriage, that Frederick Douglas was an honorable man, are not only a minority report but are treasonous lies that must be punished. Once respectable, sometimes even begrudgingly admired, the church of Jesus Christ looks to the world like a conglomeration of rapacious Nazis on the one hand and craven Quislings on the other. When we disagree with the fevered folly of snowflake victimology we’re Adolph Eichmann. When we grovel and parade our woke credentials we’re Neville Chamberlain. How then should we live?
Faithfully, in the light of the gospel. When God sent Nebuchadneezar to destroy His temple He was not destroying the true faith. He was tearing down idols. When God sends us Cultural Marxism as our regnant folly He is doing exactly the same thing. We won’t, we can’t avoid the train wreck for one simple reason- because God sent it for us. And He sent it because He loves us.
He loves us too much to leave us still clutching our household gods. He will rip from our fingers our cultural respectability. He will wrench from our grip our social standing. He will burn to the ground our totems of personal peace and affluence. Our calling is to let go, and to praise the wonders of His grace, to thank Him for being so good to us. The Good Shepherd chasing down His lost sheep may just look like wolves at our door.
To live faithfully we must be willing to be hated by the enemies we love. We must sacrifice our standing and embrace our kneeling. We must stop defending our honor and start proclaiming His glory. We must tell those who will drag us into the social coliseum as spectacle to feed their bloodlust how they too can have peace with the living God. We must, in short, heed and embrace the words of Jesus.
Our Lord, our hope, our King told us that we are blessed when all men persecute us for His name’s sake. How can we do anything but rejoice over this strange turn of events? How can we see it as anything other than blessing pouring out of the windows of heaven? The gospel not only tells us, and the world, how we might have peace with the God we so bitterly offend, it also tells us that the kingdom has come. Our culture’s sprint to Gomorrah isn’t proof that such isn’t so, but proof that it has come. The hatred we experience from them is the love we experience from Him, powerfully reminding us we must love only Him.
If we must weep let us not weep for what we have lost. Let us instead weep for the lost. The mad are to be pitied more than feared, as we remember that such once were we. He rescued us. May He rescue them.
Not a thing, if we mean by “house church” a church that meets in a house. One can make all manner of arguments about the best architectural forms for public worship, but no one, I suspect, would suggest that this kind of building or that is, in itself, sinful. The issue with house churches then isn’t with the house, but with the church, or lack thereof. There is a rather great gap between a group of people who are under authority gathering together to worship the living God while meeting in a house, and a home wherein the father, or the parents, decide for themselves that they are a church. The one has biblical precedent and standing. The other is rank rebellion, and a recipe for disaster.
I understand the temptation. It’s not often easy to find a church that does well what it’s called to do. It can get frustrating showing up Sunday after Sunday and being gawked at for keeping your children together during the service. It can be maddening when the pastor keeps preaching against judging others, all because he suspects you of judging him. Wouldn’t it be so much nicer, so much safer, so much more comfortable, not to mention, so much more convenient, if we did it ourselves? They told us we couldn’t do school at home, and we proved them wrong. Why not just do church at home as well?
Because we all need to be under authority. Because there is no one on the planet to whom God has said, “You just answer to Me. No need to bother with any human authority. They, after all, are all sinners.” No, we all need to be under visible, earthly authority, for our own protection, and for the protection of our families. That protection needs to be publicly affirmed, and measurably administered. That is, I need to be in a place where a specific group of men, called to this critical role, can confront me on my sin, and command me to repent. Hebrews 13:17 commands that we “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give an account.” How often have well-intentioned Christians left the local church because it failed to honor the Bible, and came up with this program and that, or failed to encourage modesty, or had a praise band, and those whose consciences were too tender to stay, end up in churches where there are no elders and deacons as the Scripture clearly and expressly commands?
Friends, this problem is rampant in certain circles. And here is why. The world told us that we should only one or two children. We didn’t listen. Our parents told us we should not homeschool our children. We didn’t listen. The elders told us that our children should be in Sunday School and the youth service. We didn’t listen. Now remember that I not only believe children are a blessing, that we ought to homeschool them, and that the family ought to be together at church, but believe that actually doing these things is the right decision. But isn’t it just possible that it is also evidence that we have a hard time with authority? Isn’t it possible that we have reached the conclusion that wisdom dies with us? Isn’t it possible that we will have no one to rule over us, despite the plain teaching of the Bible that we must?
What we really need is more humility. We need a deeper understanding of our own sin, more than a deeper knowledge of the sins of the saints at the traditional church down the road. We need a consciousness of our own deceitful hearts, such that we recognize our need to be under authority.
