The Word is Not Chained

2 Timothy 2:8-9--"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for while I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!" (ESV)

These two verses might be amongst the most encouraging for a Minister of the Word. When I first arrived in Malawi this past summer, I was placed in a sort of mini-crisis. After spending the better part of a year planning this trip around the primary task of teaching in a theological school, there seemed a fair chance that my team would be rebuffed by the school and would be left to come up with a new primary task in a land that was totally foreign to us. More than any other time in my life, I devoted my days to prayer and Scripture. God poured his Word upon my parched heart--in particular with these two verses.

Not only the preacher, but all Christians should find encouragement in these verses:

1) Consider your predicament--you are weak, sinful, and suffering--either internally or externally. Each time the God puts His Word upon your tongue in any setting, it is done in spite of you. You are shackled in every part by the chains of sin.

2) Consider your hope--God does not need human vessels to carry His Word into this world, but He elects and even delights in doing so. You are given the privilege of taking the very Word of God into a sinful world--piercing darkness with light. If this Word does not share in your shackles, then it means that what it is sent forth to accomplish will not be thwarted. Thus, you need not question your salvation if you are a Christian, because God's Word has given you the content of your hope and promised you that it will never be taken away (cf. Rom. 8:36-39). You need never despair of purpose or meaning in this life, because you know that God will continue to use you to bring Himself glory. His Word will speak beyond your shackles, with the result that people will know that it is God who speaks and moves--not you. Finally, you need not fear suffering or even death. It is not the messenger who matters as much as the Message, which will continue to advance throughout the world through the Church.

Paul knew that his chains revealed the mighty power of God's Word, and we should share in that confidence. When the great Church father, Athanasius died, God raised up the Cappadocian Fathers. When the Calvin and Luther and the other great early Reformers died, God raised the Protestant Scholastics to continue the purification of the Church. When Warfield, Kuyper, and Bavinck died in the early 20th century, God raised up my hero, J. Gresham Machen. When Machen died, God raised up luminaries like VanTil, Murray, and Berkhof. Today, even as the Western Church declines, we have great lights in figures like Horton, Vanhoozer, and Piper. In addition, God is raising up more leading lights from the majority world by the day.

It is amazing to watch God's Word move, unrestrained by the sin and suffering that afflicts the Church. May the Church be a pillar and foundation for this great Word, that it may be lifted high and God's Name be glorified!

Moving Toward McCain; A Great Opportunity

On the political front, I have recently experienced an inward shift to Sen. John McCain. There are a few issues with which I would take exception to the Senator, but he is generally conservative. On most issues, he stands on the right side (no pun intended). Amongst most of the presidential candidates, there seems to be an air of political opportunism. Not so with McCain--his politics are as sturdy and unwavering as his principles. If he modifies a policy position (such as immigration) he doesn't try to disguise the change, but rather explains why he has changed his approach (i.e. the American people hated his old position and wanted it moderated).
**************************************************************************************
I preached and taught Sunday school at a Korean Presbyterian church today, and it went very well. People responded well to the sermon, and several teenagers were astounded by the Sunday school lesson on "The Gospel According to Genesis 3." If you ever want to talk about the Gospel in Genesis 3, please talk to me. I love talking about it. By God's grace, the pastor of that church has asked me to preach and teach until I leave for Christmas Break. For the next three weeks, I'll be a visiting pastor of sorts (recognizing I'm not yet ordained) at a Korean church. Go figure! I loved the people, as well as the preaching and teaching, so I'm currently psyched!

Revelation: Pictures to Set Our Eyes Upon

The command in the early verses of Hebrews 12 to "set our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith" might seem a bit trite to those agonizing through the ravages of our fallen world and natures. How do we know that the same Jesus who rocked the face off of this world some 2,000 years ago will come in similar fashion to finish the job? It is great to know that we are saved, but what are we saved into? Will we be riding clouds while playing some sweet, state-of-the-art harps?

These are just a few of the questions that should prompt us to read the final chapter of God's Word, which happens to describe the final chapter of human history as well. The book of Revelation is a book about the last days--our days. All of the days between the first and second coming of Christ are the "last days." Thus, Revelation is our handbook to Christian living in this dark and dispiriting time.

It shows us that even as human history seems to descend on a downward trajectory, Christ is on His march to the throne. As we imitate the Lamb who was slain for us, the slain Lamb is showing that death not only has no hold on Him, but is merely a precursor to His eternal reign on the throne. What a great contrast: the One slain for sin is the One who will assume the throne to judge the world!

Another great contrast: the great host of the redeemed will be wearing white robes cleansed by His blood. How does blood make things white? Well, there we have the story of the cross, where Christ took our filthy rags of sin (Is. 64:9) upon Himself and clothed us in His robe of righteousness, that we might be seen as pure in the eyes of God. In fact, He who cleansed us will also be given authority to judge us. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

Finally, we will end up in a new heavens and earth, where there will be no more hunger or tears. The Lord will be our light and the river of life will flow through His eternal city. There are two trees, as in the Garden of Eden, but replacing the old tree of knowledge of good and evil is a second tree of life. There will never again be a possibility of falling away from grace as in the Garden, because Christ has given us that assurance.

Isn't it great to know the end of the story? May we live our lives with the knowledge that what Christ has started as the Author of our salvation, He will complete as the Perfector. His words "It is finished" on the cross were not in vain, but a declaration that what He has started for His people, He will finish. Praise God!

Gratitude in Two Parts

I figured that I should submit at least one random thought for consideration under the pretence of Thanksgiving. Like Christmas, Thanksgiving can often be one of the most depressing days of the entire year. People utter "thanks" through gritted teeth as they consider all the unwanted gifts they have received in the past year: monotony, lack of appreciation, broken relationships, even death.

The Christian should not become bogged down on days such as this one. Instead, we recognize that gratitude involves two points of reflection: the gift given and the recipient of the gift. We often thank God for His grace in Jesus Christ, but don't ponder why His grace is so great. When we think upon the laundry list of life's sorrows and woes, we see the shadow of our sin as God casts His light upon us. Instead of gritting our teeth and grieving, we give thanks that in spite of our sin and the brokenness of our world, God has lavished His grace upon His children.

"Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." (Rom. 12:1)

We cannot out-sin God's grace, though we sure try. Grace is God's demerited favor toward rebels, and our gratitude should be informed by that fact. Let us live accordingly.

Mission: Malawi

I had the privilege of traveling to the small African country of Malawi during each of the past two summers. The focus of the first trip was on preaching and social service; the second was on teaching future pastors. Both trips were great benefit in very different ways. I love Malawi.

That said, Malawi is at a crossroads. There are just as many orthodox Presbyterians in the central part of Malawi as there are in all of America (about a million). Contrary to the popular paradigm, the poor villagers in Malawi would rather see an influx of Gospel teachers and preachers than large sums of money. A year after mass famine, I witnessed firsthand poor, rural congregations giving of their meager resources so that the Word of God might be promoted.

Competing with this strong and vibrant Christian body are threats of both an external and internal nature. Externally, Islam is growing, "Christian" liberalism is diluting the Gospel, and Christianity is often merged with tribal witchcraft. Internally, the impulse to compromise on the Gospel grows stronger by the day because of the money offered by liberal Western denominations. Also, there is an incredible shortage of pastors which means that most of the hungry, young Christians are not getting fed.

This is where my vision for Westminster Seminary California comes into the picture. After my scouting expedition two summers ago, I led the first ever team from WSC to Malawi last summer to spend several weeks teaching at the lone orthodox seminary in Malawi. The school is impoverished and has only three full-time teachers, but it serves as a beacon of hope for the Church nonetheless. The need for orthodox seminary teachers and students from WSC is even more dramatic this year as the largest seminary in the country went bankrupt, which creates a lot more tension for our small orthodox school in central Malawi.

Please pray for Josophat Mwale Theological Institute--that they would continue to stand for Truth, even at the cost of financial aid. Pray that another team would be gathered from WSC this summer, that we would development deep friendships with the school and its students that will carry over into our pulpits in later years.

Republicans in Decline

Many would describe the low popularity of Republicans to be the inevitable result of pragmatic concerns. The war in Iraq has made Republicans look incompetent and uncritical of their own plans. Reiterating the decades-old offer of lowering taxes has made them captive to the cliche. Even their tough line on immigration seems to reinforce the old stereotype of Republicans as racist and incompassionate.

The pragmatic concerns are too simplistic, however. What we are currently seeing is likely a philosophical backlash against Republicans--not for their conservatism, but for their nursing of the stale beer of modernism. Older voters still desire the meaty steak of principle, while the younger generations are clamboring more and more for the sizzle of rhetoric. The rise of this mysterious philosophical movement called "postmodernism" must be dealt with by the Republican Party. While postmodernism is hard to define, a core characteristic is found in its rebuttal of modernism. It lacks some of the optimism in human ingenuity and it sees truth as a means for power. It also has forsaken the abstract principles for concepts that touch people and imbue their lives with meaning.

Enter: Republicans. The Iraq War is very unpopular, likely because it smacks of an antiquated idealism. Diverting his course from the original realist argumentation, President Bush began to speak of bringing democracy to an evil tyranny. Even supporters don't buy that as a legitimate argument for war in Iraq. We are over there because Saddam Hussein left his WMD program to our imagination, which can run away with itself because of past wars and genocides brought about by the Hussein regime.

Our approach to immigration seems great in principle, as does personal savings accounts for social security, but until we can define these issues in personal terms, we'll continue to lose the battle for hearts and minds. More and more of the electorate is coming to hate abstractions. Insetad, they want people who can relate to them on a personal level, captivating their dreams for a better tomorrow rather than their aspirations for a "higher" principle.

This does not mean compromising on principle, but realizing that politics=principle + people. There are two horizons of understanding: the objective principle and the subjective interpretation. It is integral for the Republican Party to understand that they can't rely simply on knowing their principles, but knowing their people as well so that they can effectively communicate those principles. The times are changing, and unless Republicans learn to deal with that reality very soon, they will learn again what it is like to spend half of a century in the political minority.

Sorrow in Suffering

<--Michelle Goss (1982-2002), at dinner before our prom night.


Rachelle Goedhart (1983-2005), Calvin student photo.

















My oldest cousin, Laura, is grieving right now because her best friend from college was shot to death last week. Two men followed this girl home and shot her execution-style in order to take her laptop and car (to see more on this, go to Laura's sister's site link, which is linked to this page under "WTS Cousin's Blog"). This provides another one of those unending "What the hell?" moments that humanity must constantly suffer through.

It is that vein that I opted to write about suffering and include the photos above. The first is of Chelle--my first prom date and kiss. She was a wonderfully brilliant girl who remained one of my good friends until she died at age 20 of ovarian cancer. The second picture is of my friend, Rachelle--a friend who struggled with depression and self-image until alcohol and sleeping pills killed her at age 22. Both of these gals had incredibly bright futures, and I cannot help but think that all of life will be a bit dimmed by their absence.

There are many horrible responses to those who are suffering. When I grieved over Chelle, some tried to tell me how they knew exactly what I was going through, as if no death is unique in itself. Others scolded me for picking up smoking, because it could kill me. How ironic! The more generous in heart would quote verses like Romans 8:28, as if knowing that God had a purpose for me would negate the fact that my friend no longer had a purpose in this world.

It is amazing how people try to beautify suffering and death. Whenever tragedy strikes, we start pointing fingers, because, heck, if there was an obvious failure on some person's part, then human virtue and ingenuity will prevent such failures in the future. The California wildfires were handled magnificently by communities and public officials alike, but you wouldn't know so from the public finger-pointing.

So what do we do when terrorists level towering buildings and thousands of lives? When cancer or pills take the young? When fires wipes out every hard-earned possession and link to the past?

For one, we avoid easy answers. Humanity cannot eliminate evil with utopian dreams and to minimize the effects of suffering and sin is inhumane. The word of Solomon translated "meaningless" in Ecclesiastes could likely be fairly translated as "f'd up" in the modern vernacular. It connotes frustration and helplessness in the face of a screwed up world. So much that happens makes so little sense to us.

Second, we have some guiding principles that don't explain, but guide us through suffering:

1) The brokenness of the world is humanity's baby. This world is f'd up because humanity f'd it up soon after the beginning of human history. The human nature that we anchor our hopes to for some sort of utopian ideal is the the same human nature that obliterated the beauty of God's Creation in every sense and would ruin this world entirely if not for God's common grace. Our perceived answer is in reality our greatest problem.

2) The God whose ways are not our ways doesn't give our simple minds an easy answer to the problem of suffering, but He does give us an authoritative response: the cross. God's love manifested itself in grace (demerited favor) for sinners and mercy for the suffering. Thus, He sent His Son, fully God and fully man, to live perfectly within our screwed up world, finally paying the price of our rebellion on a Roman cross. For the Christian, this means hope.

So as I and others ponder the unbearable sorrow and endless flow of tears that this world produces, I turn to God. I may occasionally cry out "Where are You in all of this?", but I know the answer even as I ask the question. He was here in the person of the Son, taking sin and suffering upon Himself so that His children by faith would know a day when there would be no more tears.

Carried by Christ

Courage is an incredibly attractive quality. It took a hobbit named Frodo into the depths of an evil kingdom and it took a wizard named Harry to the precipice of an unnoticed death. C.S. Lewis says that such accounts are memorable because they mirror the greatest of all accounts: the historical work of Christ on the God-forsaken cross. Many of my favorite quotes (displayed on my Facebook site) are those that show a courage drawn from the work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

One such quote is from the famed Dr. David Livingston--the first missionary throughout much of Africa. People marveled at his exploits and kept telling him to come home before he died in his work. His response: "Cannot the love of Christ carry the missionary where the slave trade carries the trader?" Livingston saw the horrors of the largely unheard of Islamic slave trade of eastern Africa, and sought to combat it with the Gospel. If evil (or even a civic good) could carry a man to a certain length, cannot Christ carry His followers to those same points and even further? Livingston eventually died in his work, fulfilling his words "In this work I truly live; in this work I hope to die."

This sentiment echoes in my ears whenever I consider doing missions work in Malawi or Sudan, or prepare for the Army Reserves Chaplaincy. If people must face death for a cause other than Christ, I will surely face death alongside of them and perhaps even on behalf of them, that they may know Christ--or at least have His name ringing in their ears. This is not reckless bravado. I cannot carry the Gospel anywhere, only recline my sinful heart upon the Gospel, which could carry me anywhere.

That said, I received the following email from the NAE Chaplains Commission tonight:

"It is with great sadness that I must inform you of the death of Chaplain (MAJ) Maury Stout, United States Army. He was buried with full military honors at the Leavenworth Veterans cemetery on Friday, November 16...

Maury was a gifted speaker and teacher. He was given and faithfully completed responsibilities way beyond his rank and the Chaplaincy will be indebted to his contributions for years to come.
Maury leaves behind a wife and 5 dear children. Please remember them in your prayers."

It sucks to read something like that, but encouraging to know that this man is now with our Lord in glory. Being carried by Christ means being carried to suffering and even possibly death. Yet, in these ways, we know that our faith is forever secured, because we are following the footsteps of our Savior and are likewise being hated by the world.

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." (Acts 20:24) These were the words given to me by Chaplain Cooper at Calvin College right before leaving for seminary. They were the words of Paul as he left his beloved Ephesian brothers for a likely martyrdom. Martyrdom is not our goal--only God's glory and whatever that entails.

First Round of Corrections

Seeing that I don't believe in revising previous pieces of writing, I would to make a couple of clarifications pertaining to the previous article (thanks, Mom).

1) I disagreed with those who pit the terms "Reformed" and "Evangelical" against one another. Those who disavow the Reformed label believe it to be inconsistent with evangelism. I argue to the contrary. Those who eschew the Evangelical label do so on the grounds that it contradicts the Confessional basis of Reformed theology. I similarily argue to the contrary. To both of these contentions, I vehemently believe that Confessional, Reformed theology gives birth to the only true, evangelical impulse.

2) Let me clarify my use of "indicative" and "imperative." By indicative, I am simply describing a propositional truth that God sets forth in His Word. God's Word is filled with these truths--all of which are grounded in the grand narrative of redemptive-history and centered upon the hero of the narrative: Jesus Christ. By imperative, I mean those exhortations concerning Christian conduct. These imperatives are rooted in indicatives. For example, we are told in Romans in 12:1 to "offer ourselves as living sacrifices" only after we are first told to do so "in view of God's mercy."

3) Finally, let me clarify my specific description of American culture. Those -isms that describe many movements in American culture may also be used to describe movements in many other cultures (though some are not, such as fundamentalism). In the previous article, I focused exclusively upon American culture because the phenomena I was describing is much more common here than in other countries like Malawi. For example, in Malawi, I would talk more about the problem of syncretism between Christianity and paganism, rather than a false dichotomy between Reformed theology and being evangelical.

Hope those clarifications help!

A Reformed Evangelical?

In response to my claim to be a Reformed Evangelical, one man once told me that such a pairing was impossible. His not-too-subtle implication was that Reformed theology had absolutely nothing to do with evangelism. This false dichotomy is also sometimes propagated in Reformed circles. Perhaps these folks think that being evangelical is antithetical to being confessional, which is the proper, systematized grounding of Reformed theology.

I would argue to the contrary with regard to each of these points. To be evangelical is to believe in the imperative to go out and make disciples--to engage the world primarily through bringing God's Word to bear upon sinful human hearts. It avoids the fundamentalist temptation to retreat into a "holy huddle," while also avoiding the liberal temptation to transform Christianity into a civil religion built around ethical principles.

Moreover, I would contend that one can only be truly evangelical if they are Reformed in theology. God always roots the imperatives in His Word into a series of indicative truths, including God's sovereignty, man's depravity, and the atoning work of Christ. These truths usher forth gratitude in the heart of the redeemed, which in turn breaks forth in evangelism and the many other fruits of the regenerated heart.

Those free-will Arminians who turn faith into a work and place salvation on the shoulders of sinful men only see true conversions in spite of their beliefs, not because of them. They are also in danger of repeated Rome's heresy of turning God's law into an illusory ladder to heaven, but which is in actuality an escalator to Hell.

Throughout his epistle to the Galatians, Paul condemns the teachings of the Judaizers, who attempt to pervert the law into some sort of supplement to the Gospel. In chapters 3-5, Paul in essence says "You idiots! The law is a standard for salvation, not a tool. It tells you what is required, but doesn't get you there. It sets the bar so far from the grasp of sinful hands that only One could grab it. By Christ's perfect obedience, death, and resurrection--by living perfectly according to the law and paying for our desecration of the law--He has earned grace for His children. We have nothing to do with it." Therefore, be grateful, Christians. You were bought at a price and nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:36-39). That's an indicative, so get off of your butt and offer a sin-tainted hell of an imperative as your worship.

One final note--I will follow in the reasoning of my hero, J. Gresham Machen, and reject evangelicalism as a body of which I'm a part. Christianity is not an -ism, and shouldn't be reduced to any -isms, whether political (i.e. communism, socialism, capitalism) or theological (i.e. liberalism, fundamentalism, evangelicalism). We are the Church--guided objectively by God's Word and subjectively by the Holy Spirit. Our outward point of unity is our Confessions, and our inward point is the love of Christ which has been poured upon the Church. To reduce Christianity to an -ism is to equate Christianity with all of the -isms in American society, beneficial or detrimental. I'm sorry, but Christianity is so much more.