Twentieth Century Summary By Malcolm Muggerdige

We look back upon history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulated and wealth dispersed. Shakespeare has spoken of the rise of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.

I look back upon my own fellow countrymen, once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world, most of them convinced in the words of what is still a popular song, that the God who made them mighty will make them mightier yet. I’ve heard a crazed cracked Austrian that announced to the world a reich that would last a thousand years. I’ve seen an Italian clown that said he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I met a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin, proclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aureleus, more enlightened than the Shoka.

I have seen America wealthier, and in terms of military weaponry more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so had the American people so desired, they could have outdone a Caesar or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquest. All in one lifetime! All in one lifetime! Gone! Gone with the wind. England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy.

Hitler and Mussolini dead and remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominated for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keeps her motorways running and the smog settling. With troubled memories, and painful memories, of a disasterous campaign in Vietnam, and the victory of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime! All in one lifetime! Gone! Gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of these solemn supermen and self-styled Imperial diplomatists stands the gigantic figure of one person because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind may still have hope. The person of Jesus Christ. The more I look at the saviors of men, the more beautiful the Lamb of God looks to me.

—Malcolm Muggeridge, Former Editor of Punch Magazine, and a former BBC Anchor

Implications of the Experiment on Beauty

In the last couple of weeks, an article that appeared in The Washington Post has been causing quite a stir both on the streets of Washington D.C. and in the blogosphere. Almost every blog that I regularly visit had the article linked with some comments. For those who have not had a chance to read the article, I highly recommend it. It is not only a fascinating experiment, but extremely well written.

The article takes the reader through an experiment that the newspaper conducted in a Washington D.C. subway. They wanted to know if, when confronted with beauty in an out of the ordinary place, people would recognize and appreciate that beauty. They arranged for violinist virtuoso Joshua Bell to play incognito in the subway during the morning rush. The results are fascinating.

For some reason, this article touched my emotions. I was mad, sad, happy, appreciative of Bell’s talents, and a host of other emotions all rolled into one. I am still not certain why it touched me in that way, but I have some ideas.

I found several theological implications in the piece that may have elicited my emotional response. I just want to discuss one and let you read the rest. The article describes person after person walking by, not noticing or paying any attention to the music. Until the camera catches a small child trying to stop as his mother pulls him toward the exit. The author says that the children always tried to stop, but the adults never let them. Children recognize beauty. Joshua Bell is a fantastic violinist, but his art is nowhere close to that of God. How often do I go through a day without noticing the beauty around me that God has created?

John Piper on Joy

I heard Piper say this in one of his sermons on Romans:

"The enjoyment of God, above all else, is the deepest way that God's glory is reflected back to him. The enjoyment of God terminates on God alone and is not performed as a means to anything else. It is the deepest reverberation in the heart of man of the value of God's glory."

I thought I would post this bit of satire by Steve Turner. Ravi Zacharias often quotes it when talking about the pitfalls of relativism.

"Creed"

by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy is OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything is getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in
horoscopes, UFO's and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man
just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher
although we think His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same--
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,
then it's compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
and the flowering of individual thought.

"Chance" a post-script

If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.

Replacing the Gospel with the Periphery

This a summary of a point made by D.A. Carson in a lecture given in 1994:

Carson says that it takes three generations to completely replace the passion for the gospel with a passion for the things on the periphery (such as the abortion issue, poverty, etc). The generation of the early 1900's had theological differences but their passion was still the gospel. They were passionate about substitutionary atonement, the inerrancy of Scripture, and the Diety of Christ. Carson then says that we have moved into a new generation where if you ask someone if they believe in these same things they will say yes , but when you probe them and find out where their passion is, it is not precisely with the gospel anymore. It is with the abortion issue, or homeschooling, or womens ordination. He then makes it very clear that these are important issues that should not be ignored, but if we lose the center, we lose everything. "We have a move toward a kind of evangelicalism that assumes the gospel but is passionately focused on one or more things on the periphery: single issue Christians. And then you are only one generation from displacing the gospel with the peripheries."

Carson's point is profound, especially since it came twelve years ago. In this new age of the "social gospel," we drift futher and further from the Christ-centered gospel that is so evident in the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation. While social action is extremely important for Christians, it cannot be mistaken for the gospel.

"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and glory and blessing." -- Rev. 5:12

If anyone is interested in listening to a two-part lecture by D.A. Carson on those chapters, here are the links taken from Monergism.com http://www.careyconference.net/audio/1994-carson/1994-1-Carson-ATranscendantGod.mp3
http://www.careyconference.net/audio/1994-carson/1994-1-Carson-ATranscendantGod.mp3

David McCullough on John Adams

So I am wrapping up my reading of David McCullough's book, John Adams (Simon and Schuster, 2001), and must say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. I don't mean that it is one of the best biographies I have ever read, but one of the best overall books I have ever read. This is the second book by McCullough that I have read (1776 being the other) and I have fallen in love with his writing style. I usually find biographical and historical works to be dry and blandly written, but McCullough's works are different; his books read more like a story.

From his massive contributions to our country during the American Revolution, through his time as foreign diplomat, and to his presidency and beyond, the book takes the reader on a journey through a large portion of the second president's life. One of the great side stories of the book is the one that familiarizes the reader with Abigail Adams, the president's fiercely loyal and brilliant wife, who was a woman before her time.

So if you've got the time or even if you don't, I recommend picking this book up and getting to know Mr. and Mrs. Adams as you never have before. Enjoy!

(I believe that Powell's bookstore in Portland has the book on sale for $8.)

Relatively Risk-Free

Can a man’s faith be measured by the amount of risk he takes for the kingdom of God? John Piper told a story that went something like this: “In one of the former Russian republics, a group of children were playing in a field when a land mine exploded, tragically killing several of the kids. One girl survived the initial blast. She was hurt badly by the blast and could not move. She cried for help, for someone to come save her. The problem was that she was lying in a minefield and no one wanted to risk moving into that field to save her.” What would I have done? Jesus said a couple things that when put together make me think the proper action would have been to head into that field. He said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 19.19), and “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28.18). So what do I think the neighborly thing to do would be? Well, that seems obvious, but the key is in the Matthew 28 passage. If I believe Jesus to have “all authority,” then I should proceed with confidence to help the girl. Not with confidence that I will return unharmed with the girl in hand, but confidence that Christ is in control and if I perish this day, then it is under his authority. I don’t know if there is a direct correlation between faith and risk, and in some selfish way I hope there isn’t. Because if there is, my relatively risk-free life is a dead giveaway.

“Show me a place where hope is young and a people who are not afraid to love.” – Aaron Tate