De Timore

Recently, while listening to a Christian economic expert discussing how Christians ought to view the economy, I noticed the person's use of the term "Rational Fear".  What does this mean?  According to his usage, it refers to a fear which has a legitimate basis.  Is this actually a  Biblical idea for a Christian to have such a fear?  Though many may not know it, this issue of fear is crucial to how Christians live their lives.
First of all, what is fear?  Fear, to quote Noah Webster,
     " In scripture, is used to express a filial or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subjects of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being, and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. This is filial fear.  Slavish fear is the effect or consequence of guilt; it is the painful apprehension of merited punishment."
Let us consider these two types of fear.  Slavish fear is caused by guilt and a knowledge that one will be punished for wrong-doing.  In this case, one has sinned and should ask for forgiveness and God promises to forgive.  If one "fears" that God has not forgiven, then he doubts God and has sinned (I john 1:9), and should again ask for forgiveness.  As for "filial fear", this is reserved to God only (Deut. 6:13).  If we give this fear to any one or anything else, we have committed idolatry and  sinned and so must ask for pardon.  So we see that both types of fear should not be found in Christians except in relation to God.  If it is given to anything else, it marks sin and a lack of trust in God.  
But what about recognizing evil and feeling anxiety over it?  First, Feeling anxiety shows a lack of trust in God's sovereignty and is a sin. We cannot always avoid anxiety, but as Luther said, "necessity does not imply ability."  Second, recognizing evil is not a sin.  Anxiety is a sin, but apprehension of risks, dangers, etc. is not evil in itself.  If it leads to despondence or anxiety, then it, is but recognizing danger is both wise and required in order to be a responsible Christian.
And therein lies the error in the notion of "rational fear".  What is really meant by this is apprehension, not fear.  This should not be another sin to avoid on our vast list.  It should be both liberating and comforting.  As David said in Psalm 23, "I will fear no evil".  This should free us to leave God in control and not deceive ourselves into thinking we are, as well as make us have a renewed realization that God is sovereign over all things and that worrying will help nothing.  No matter ow much we dread some evil, it will still happen or it will not.  In the end, God controls all and promises to protect us; "The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul." (Psalm 121:7) And that is a comforting thought.

Language and the Real World

Carson Spratt theorizes…

I’ve been thinking about the relation between language, self-knowledge, and power over the physical world. While this might seem a little erudite at first, it can actually be fascinating.

My thoughts on this started when my family began to attend a new church when I was ten years old. I walked in the doors, and was presented with an entirely unfamiliar phenomenon: everyone was blurred. No, not in the visual sense, but in the mental sense: I could not see anyone. A large, jostling crowd flowed around me as I tried to comprehend this. Why did everything look so strange? Later that day, the answer snuck up behind me and hit me over the head. The factor which had changed everything was my lack of names. I knew no one, and therefore I had no idea what they were called. Without the ability to name people, my ability to distinguish them from one another failed completely. Of course, I came up with temporary names like “the guy with the blonde hair”, or “that tall girl in the green dress”, and I began to see the people as individuals for the first time. Before that, it had been a mob of unrecognizable flesh. Now, it began to distill into persons. As we attended that church for a longer and longer period of time, I learned everyone’s names. The blond boy was Nathaniel, the girl with the green dress was Riley: now I could single them out, and separate them from the rest of the world, labeling them as individual entities.

Then, a couple years ago, I reread C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. During the course of my perusal, a line from Out of the Silent Planet, and then one from That Hideous Strength leaped out at me.

“He saw nothing but colours – colours that refused to form themselves into things. Moreover, he knew nothing yet well enough to see it: you cannot see things till you know roughly what they are.”

“He (Mr. Bultitude, a bear) did not know that they were people, nor that he was a bear. Indeed, he did not know that he existed at all: everything that is represented by the words I and Me and Thou was absent from his mind. When Mrs. Maggs gave him a tin of golden syrup, as she did every Sunday morning, he did not recognize either a giver or a recipient. Goodness occurred, and he tasted it. And that was all.”

The first quote re-affirmed my first observation, that Language is connected with the idea of recognition, and is key to distinguishing and labeling the items in the world around you. The second one, I thought, was another clue. The bear has noself-recognition, and therefore, he has no language with which to express the idea of self, or of anything else, for that matter. Alternatively, think about humans. When we are babies, we do not speak. When we are adults, we do speak (some of us profusely.) What has changed? The idea of self. Babies are like animals, in that they cannot distinguish one thing from another in the world. One day, however, a new idea (they’ve never had one before) suddenly pops into their heads: what is this…thisthing? And immediately, they are forced to come up with a word to describe this thing, which is separate from the world and under their control: I. From there, their vocabulary begins to grow, and as they begin to name things, they can separate them from the huge blur which is the world to them.

The third thing which I thought about language is that language gives power over the physical world. We see a prime example of this in Genesis. Adam, having been created, does one particular task even before he has a wife: he names all the animals. When does he do this? Immediately before he is given dominion over them. Naming is power: without a name for something, we can never deal with it in any sense. In order to firmly hold something in our minds, and work with it, we attribute a placeholder to it, an x to call it when we speak. Take, for example, mechanics. They have a special vocabulary all their own, to talk about engines. Why? Because they work with engines, and must be able to have power over engines: so they name the different parts. Imagine a conversation between mechanics without the names of the engine. “1st mechanic: What’s the problem here? 2nd mechanic: Erm…that thing there. 1st mechanic: This one? (wrenches it out) 2nd mechanic: No! the other one! The sort of round doohickey…” These mechanics are going nowhere. Without the ability to name the parts, they have no power over the engine, or even the ability to communicate with each other. Without names, every part would be indistinguishable from any other, until the mechanics began to describe, and name it.

So, the three things I am trying to say are that: A. Language is essential to the recognition of everything in the world. B. Self-recognition is the origin of our personal grasp of language, and C. Language gives power over the world. And why would these things be so? There can only be one reason: because God spoke the world into existence, and therefore, language is intimately connected with everything we do. (For further thought, consider human languages, the language of DNA, and the language of mathematics. Enjoy.)

Illegal Aliens (If any of you are still there?)

As I have read and studied the scriptures on the subject of the treatment of Aliens and Foreigners in the land, it has become obvious that there is a fundamental problem in our land. Here in California it is a "front and center" issue. The two "sides" of the issue seem to both be way off, but I can't seem to find any good christian discussions that aren't of the "hooray for our side" variety.

So here is the rub. The scriptures tell us as Christians to care for the aliens and the foreigners. The left wants to dehumanize them through treating them like pets. The right demonizes them and wants to scapegoat them. To care for them might be harboring a criminal. To not care for them leaves them to be "cared for" by the pinkos. The economic problem (at least around here) is deep and wide and the insanity of minimum wage and the destructiveness of protectionism have created a huge black market (like always) that above-boarders are having hard time competing in. Combine this with the free college education that has created a whole class of educated fools that have no skills or work ethic, but have too much pride to take a labor job and you have a California style economic tail spin that only the illegal aliens are going to survive.

So here is my question. What do I tell people? What should I be saying to people when they ask?

On Education and Christianity

Once again I am back from the dust covered shelves of our memories. In a recent discussion, education was brought to the front and center of the battle. It is amazing how few Christians actually know what the most affective way of preserving the Faith is. In Proverbs 22:6 it says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." this is very basic, teach your kids and they will learn. Sadly modern Americans have not learned this. Since the 1800's Americans have sent their children to public/government schools. We as Christians have failed in the most basic form of discipleship and missions; training our children. Psalm 127 says, "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." going off of this analogy, why would we send our arrows to the enemy (atheistic schools)? Obviously we are going to get shot in the butt. We are basically saying, "Here, take our weapons, form them the way you want to, and then send them back in whatever form you deem best." No warrior in his right mind would give his sword to the enemy blacksmith for honing or send his arrows to those hostile to him for repairs. We must raise our Children rightly or else we will never prevail against the gates of hell. Public schools teach that every religion (except Christianity) is right. Why would we want our children taught this? All their friends are taught to believe this. Given the choice between their cool friends and their family, which do you think they will choose? We need to saturate our children in Christian culture. We must make them Christian to their innermost being. When asked who they are they should respond without hesitation, "I am a Christian." I thank God that my parents cared enough to send me to a Christian school where Christian values are actually taught. There are only two choices for Christians that apparent at the moment, home-school or private school. This is how we must stand on education or we will fall. This is war. Our kids are in boot-camp. Let's make sure that they know which side they are on.

The X in X-mas

Many Christians take issue with the X in X-mas but what they probably don't realize is that the X is the Greek letter at the beginning of Χριστός meaning Christ. X is commonly understood as the abbreviation for Christ. Therefore X-mas and X-tian are perfectly valid and good abbreviations for Christmas and Christian. Now one might understand the worry that people might forget what X stands for, but we should remind rather than fight it as if it was a heretical doctrine. I am not sorry if I offend any one but the truth is that the X in X-mas is not a heretical doctrine and it is in fact a perfectly good abbreviation.

God Use Obama.

After the past elections, I have been torn. On the one hand I would have liked to have had Palin in office, but I cannot help thinking that the present regime might bring Christians and our nation closer to Christ. It is evident from history that the Church flourishes under oppression and that the greatest Christian eras were times of turmoil and hardships. I pray that God would use President-elect Obama in a great way to awaken and reform His bride the Church.

Palin for president

Been thinking a lot about our most recent discussion. It has been odd to be almost tempted to vote republican for the first time ever by the fact that the person running is old enough that he might die and be replaced with someone who I could handle to have as president. But I keep wondering, if I vote republican, will my soul survive?

Women Leaders in Church and Government

From a biblical standpoint their is a serious fault in our church and society by letting women lead in worship and government. The first thing that is to be understood is that I find the fault for this not in women (they are just filling in where men have neglected their duty), but in men. Men have grown fat, lazy, and effeminate. They have stepped down from the pulpit and government to take the dormant role of sit in front of a flat screen T.V. all day while the wife brings home the bacoln. I will hold, unless proven wrong by scripture, that it is unbiblical for women to lead. Adam was made first and Eve made after as a helper to Adam. Usually the helper is lead by the master not visaversa. The main point of my post is that men need to wake up and start baring their responsibility instead of sleeping on the job.

The Delayed Revelation of Triunity

I have often been confused at the seeming newness of the doctrine of the Trinity in the New Testament. In my opinion, the doctrine is obviously taught in the New Testament, but it is veiled in the Old Testament so much that, though there are hints and shadows, you could not discover the Doctrine of the Trinity without the New Testament. But the reason that the doctrine is veiled in the Old Testament is that we are kept at a distance from God by Sin. We are never let into the inner life of God because one of his works in the Old Testament was to keep us at a distance from his inner life. It was not until after Jesus has died and rose from the dead that we were brought into the inner life of God, at which point the reality of the Trinity was revealed to us. The High Priest entered the direct presence of God once a year, but we live in the presence of God because we are washed by the blood and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. The veil was torn that had kept us out of God’s presence and now we experience the Trinitarian life. The Triunity of God was not revealed to us because we were not close enough to experience the reality of it, but when sin was done away with on the cross, we were reconciled to God and brought close enough to experience and enjoy the Triune life of God.

I believe that this is what Jesus means that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven (the new covenant Church) is greater that the greatest of the Old Covenant Church. the Church after the resurrection and ascension is brought into the inner fellowship of the Spirit, Father, and the Son (Col. 2:1-5). There are obviously veiled hints, for example, God's image is male and female, so there has to be somekind of diversity within God if his image has such a diverse kind of diversity, but there is always only one God. But until Christ comes, the hints seemed to be purposefully veiled. What do you think?

Concerning Pastors and Preachers

Our culture has made a ,for the most part, very accurate statement concerning pastors by calling them preachers. Preachers today are not the nurturing shepherd of the scriptures, but merely some one who preaches at people for hours on end so they can dip their hands in the offering. Pastors are to watch over Christ's body ,the Church, as a husband is to care for his wife. If this is how these preachers treat the church, what what is their marriage like? preachers have shrunk back from their duty. However God has still given faithful pastors to us. The preachers of our day need to wake up and realize that they are held account able to God for how they cared for their flock, whether they guarded, fed, and watered them or let the wolves and hunger take them.