Next week Aubrey Malphurs will be here for our annual Barndollar Lectures (September 19-22). Dr. Malphurs was one of my teachers when I was at Dallas Seminary. I once went to see him to talk about church planting which had been in my heart for several years. He gave me the famous DISC test and interpreted it for me in relation to whether I was “wired” to be a church planter. The conclusion was that I was wired for that. Later I planted New Life Baptist Church in Scranton, PA. I would probably not have done such a thing if I had not had encouragement from Dr. Malphurs.
Next week is the fourth annual Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics held at Baptist Bible Seminary (Sept. 21-22). Our topic is Dispensationalism and the Holy Spirit. I am a little amazed at the paper proposals that came in. Certainly they are from good men and will tackle special issues such as the baptism of the Spirit. However, there were no papers that dealt strictly with the filling of the Spirit and the debates surrounding Ephesians 5:18-21. Furthermore, there were no papers on cessation of the sign gifts. Perhaps we can come at those issues next year or in later meetings. Elliott Johnson told our steering committee last year that dispensationalists used to own the issue of the Holy Spirit. However, it has come to the place of being neglected in many dispensational circles. The council this year is partly designed to address this problem. Those of you who are traditional dispensationalists, please pray for our meetings as we interact with each other on these important issues.
God and Calamity
Sep 2
Earlier today I skimmed through the 1974 book Philosophy of Religion by Norman Geisler, one of my former profs when I was doing doctoral work in theology back in the 1980s. The problem of God and calamity is the physical problem of evil. In short form, it is the question of how an ominpotent and loving God would allow physical calamities like hurricanes, tornados, disease, etc., to cause hurt and death. This form of complaint against Christian theism is raised at many different points with calamities being only one of them.
Geisler gives an overview of his theistic solution to physical evil in the following way:
“In summation, there are many different functions served by physical evil. But all physical evil is necessary to the moral conditions of free creatures (human or angelic), which conditions are necessary for the achievement of the best possible world. Natural evils are necessary to a natural world and a natural world is essential to (or, at least not incompatible with) the conditions of full freedom that are necessary for the achievement of the best possible world.” (p. 395)
Hurricane Irene, which had downgraded to a tropical storm, came through our area (Scranton, PA area) yesterday bringing a deluge of rain and high winds. We are a little over two hours west of New York City. Some areas lost power and there was minor wind damage in the form of tree limbs downed. However, at my house the lights flickered once and nothing significant happened. We are grateful for this but join those who mourn for lost loved ones due to this storm.
When I got up this morning, the sky was crystal clear, the clearest blue I have ever seen. It is as if God used Irene to wash the sky. It has been a beautiful day.
Last week in chapel at Baptist Bible Seminary I spoke on “God and Calamity” in light of my church’s summer ministry doing tornado relief work in Alabama. It is part of my gearing up to deal with the apologetics question of how a good God could allow such things as tornados that kill people. Later that day was the earthquake on the east coast. Now with the hurricane, my students don’t want to see me preach in chapel any more!
The content of my sermon was based on Jesus’ statements in Luke 13:1-9 which seems to push believers to consider more important matters. The audio of my sermon “God and Calamity” is available online at http://www.bbc.edu/chapel.asp. Let me know what you think.
Lincoln was sometimes criticized during political elections in his career because he never joined a church. He was accused of being an Atheist. Apparently, he rejected to some degree his parents’ Baptist heritage. But as he grew older and rose in the political ranks, he seemed to talk about spiritual things more. He began attending Presbyterian churches and even had one of his children baptized. One interesting testimony is given from one pastor who asked him if he loved Jesus. His response was the following:
When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I love Jesus.
Source: A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. Their sources for this statement are documented in note 137 on page 857.
I recently read two books on Bible and science issues. One was the summary of RATE research by Dr. Don DeYoung, Thousands…Not Billions, which spoke in favor of detailed scientific support for a young age for the earth (with which I agree). I was refreshed by the honest spirit I found. At points where the evidence supported a young earth but also left further challenges in different directions, DeYoung did not duck the question and admitted the need for further research by young earth scientists. He also couched his statements in terms of absolutes when he thought things were clear but in probabilistic terminology when young earth conclusions could be held but the evidence did not rule out other interpretations automatically.
The other book I just finished is Francis Collins’ book The Language of Love. Collins is the somewhat famous head of the government genome project. He is also one of the founders of BioLogos, an organization dedicated to propagating the position of theistic evolution. It seemed for the most part to be a book recycling the old argument that similarity implies common ancestry biologically speaking. It just adds the detailed information of the human and animal DNA to the argument.
One of the interesting comments I found by Collins was the following: “While many scientists ascribe to TE [theistic evolution], they are in general reluctant to speak out for fear of negative reaction from their scientific peers, or perhaps for fear of criticism from the theological community” (p. 202). While I can accept this concern to some degree, I find the concern to be somewhat puny next to the same concern for young earth creationists who are scientists or even those old earth creationists who don’t believe in evolution. I have a friend who teaches in the sciences in a major state univeristy. He once confided that he could lose his job if he became vocal about his rejection of evolution. There are many qualified scientists who reject Darwin’s theory and who keep quite for fear of their jobs. Also, there are many educational and research institiutions that would never hire a young earth creationist. This seems to contradict the fact that the same crowd who rejects such people also seems to trumpet pluralism and invoke it when necessay to get their viewpoints across or put other viewpoints down. All in all, who is trying to intimidate who?
God Bless the U.S.A.
Jul 4
On this day of July 4, 2011, I thought it fitting for me to make some comments on the United States of America, the nation of which I am a citizen due to God’s providence. I am proud to be an American although there are many who live here in these days who do not voice the same posture and appreciation.
Earlier this year, I read Peter Lillback’s Sacred Fire on George Washington. I came away with a greater appreciation for the Christian character and virtue of the father of our country. Then I read A. Lincoln by Ronald White which did the same for my respect of the other of the two great presidents by most reckoning, although Christian faith seemed to play less of a role in Lincoln’s life than in Washington’s. Now I am reading A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. It is a history of America from a conservative point of view. It does not treat America as a bad idea. I am about a hundred pages in. It is refreshing in that, unlike many histories, it tells a holistic picture. One example is the handling of the Spanish conquests of the Aztecs. While it is often portrayed in unbalanced histories that all or most Indian populations in North and South American before the white man came were peaceful, A Patriot’s History shows the ruthless character of the Aztec rulers toward their own people (they murdered tens of thousands). While not justifying the Spanish abuse of them, it shows what the prophet Habakkuk taught — God sometimes uses a wicked people to judge another wicked people.
While I am a Christian first and then an American, I support my country without holding an “America right or wrong” approach. But to commemorate this birthday of my great nation, I listened to Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” I also watched a couple of movies heralding some past heroes from the Revolutionary War days. Then I prayed for God’s continued blessing upon our nation and wisdom for our leaders. I ask all Americans to join me in this prayer.
Before I took the turn in my life into Christian ministry as a pastor and seminary educator, I was an aerospace engineer. I worked on the space shuttle briefly as an intern as a senior in college (back before they built it). I did most of my work on missile defense systems and especially the F-16 jet fighter. I have a largely intellectual approach to my faith and have never relinquished my love for scientific method and the field of the sciences in particular. Early on in my Christian life I became convinced of the young earth approach to harmonizing the Bible and so-called scientific discoveries and teachings. I have always believed that I can do that with a clear conscience and without surrendering my mind and rational thought.
While I was a seminary student at Liberty Baptist Seminary in the late 1970s, I had a conversation with Dr. Lane Lester, who had come to teach at Liberty Baptist College (now Liberty University) about the problem of God’s deception. If God made the universe with apparent age (stretched out the light rays, etc.), then the things that we discover through our telescopes right now bring a dilemma to our attention. The mechanics of the universe (speed of light, etc.) point to what we are seeing as having happened billions of years ago. The young earth position says that what we are seeing did not exist billions of years ago since the earth is only 6000 to 10,000 years old. Thus, God actually is deceiving us by the way that he designed things and perhaps the deception is ongoing. Dr. Lester raised this question to me. I am not sure that I had ever thought about it seriously before that time. My initial thought was that God did not have to reveal all of his “mechanics” to us naturally. He has communicated to us in other ways of special revelation. If we accept the other ways God is communcating to us, we should not have a problem of God creating the universe with apparent age.
I am originally from Alabama, in particular, from Huntsville in the northern part of the state although as a small child I also lived in Eufaula in the southern part of the state. I watched with horror as the reports came in about the tornadoes that ravaged the state and other states in late April (and in Missouri and other parts just a couple of days ago). I saw the video of the large tornado going through Tuscaloosa. After several days of trying to get ahold of my friends in Hunstville (I have no family there any more), I finally talked to some of them the week after. One of my pastor friends, Rick Johnson, told me that nine tornadoes came through Huntsville that day and he saw two of them himself from his house. Another close friend, Dr. Sam Wolfe, who helped lead me to Christ in 1974, told me that a subdivision not far from him had been totally demolished. The picture on the left below is a picture of one of the tornadoes that went through Huntsville. On the right is a picture of the tornado in Tuscaloosa for which most of the nation saw the video.
King James I
May 28
I recently completed reading a fun book – Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible by David Teems (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010). It comes at a time (400-yr anniversary) when many are appropriately examining the time period and substance of the English translation of the King James Version of the Bible. From a biblical point of view, one would have to say that the assessment of the spirituality of King James is quite lacking and any judgment of his “born again” status left in confusion. The book does not really go into these features in much detail. I do not know much about Teems and his background although I browsed the web for information. But the book is a delightful read and puts the spotlight on early 17th century England in a way that you will remember.
