Puzzle Pieces

I just came across an analogy in Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology that puts to words something I have been thinking about for the last few years. Upon a first reading, the Bible can appear so mysterious and opaque to understanding. Kings and kingdoms and sacrifices and law and churches and revelations and songs and proverbs and judgment and anger and joy and brutality and grace and...how does this all fit together? How am I supposed to understand it all?
Well, Grudem compares studying the Bible and theology to putting together a jigsaw puzzle: "The more pieces one has in place correctly to begin with, the easier it is to fit new pieces in, and the less apt one is to make mistakes." This so clearly illustrates some of my frustrations and conclusions in studying the Bible in the past. At times it has been as though I have studied a single piece of a puzzle, knowing all its colors and shapes, but I have no idea where it goes. I have to put it to the side and keep working on the rest of the puzzle keeping in mind I have one piece on the side with certain colors and shapes. Eventually the puzzle fills in enough that I know where that piece should go. But at the start I had no idea. It took time and further work to figure it out.
So too it goes with Bible study. As I learn more of the Old Testament, ideas in the New become clearer. As I study one passage the light goes on in another. There is no way I could understand certain passages the first time I read them. But as I work through the Bible again and again, I pick up new things each time and begin to see how it all fits together. I view this as God's amazing wisdom in putting together a book that fits together so well and so precisely.
I look forward to working on this puzzle the rest of my life.

A Verse from a Red Hymnal

I married a girl who received a red Trinity Hymnal as an Eighth Grade Graduation present. And I couldn't be happier.
My fondness for the hymnal grows as my fondness for hymns grows. (Don't worry, my fondness for my wife whose hymnal I am fond of grows too!)
There is a verse from a hymn in that red hymnal that has captured my imagination. The verse is not one that can be sung and then buried into the pages of a closed hymnal with no lingering impact. No, it reverberates in my mind each time. After the song ends and the hymnal is tucked away on the shelf again, the image remains emblazened on my mind for it so captures the significance of what happened to me when I was rescued from my sin by Jesus Christ. It draws all the power it can from words put to music and creates a picture of the epic moment that was my salvation. These words make me rejoice! They make me rejoice for what has happened to me and they make me long that conversion would come to others.
Salvation is not described here as a salvation that saves from seemingly petty and inconsequential sins. Rather it speaks of the salvation from unescapable darkness to indescribable light. It describes a prisoner bound, chained, and trapped in a dark and rotting dungeon who has not seen a glimpse of light for ages. The cramped stone walls wrap around cold, stagnant air, sealing in the fear and guilt and shunning the light. The shackles of sin press the prisoner against the wall. Even the hope of being freed from these bonds has been ripped from the prisoner. But salvation comes suddenly and it comes powerfully and it comes invincibly. The once dark dungeon overflows with light. The shackles are loosed and slide off. The victorious one who freed the prisoner leaves the dungeon leading the freed man onward.

This verse come from Hymn #455 of that red hymnal. It was written by Charles Wesley in 1738. It is called, "And Can It Be."
Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell of, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Facts and Meaning

I just heard part of a very silly sermon rooted in a very silly idea being propogated by a very silly post-modern mindset. The preacher claimed that "ancient storytellers" (as he calls the human authors of the Bible) were not concerned with facts so much as meaning, and that, "People who get overly obsessed with the details of the early Genesis stories and whether it happened exactly the way the story teller says are missing the point." His point was clear: don't worry too much about the facts, just get to what the meaning is.

This is silly.

This is silly for many reasons, but most obviously because the Old Testament (where he was preaching from) is full of facts! It lists geneologies and rivers and cities and numbers and years and countries and animals and all sorts of very clear facts. Given the amount of time devoted to listing facts, I don't think the "ancient storytellers" would dismiss facts as secondary.

Of course history needs to be understood in terms of what it means. But it only means something when you have facts by which to derive meaning from! It's never only meaning and no facts. The meaning is grounded in the facts. I could say Jesus was crucified and resurrected and have that mean nothing to you. But I need those facts in order for there to be meaning. If Jesus never died, then sins were never atoned for. If Jesus was never resurrected, then death was never conquered! The meaning comes from the facts.

So when this silly preacher claims we get too obsessed in the facts, he is the one who is missing the meaning.

Fall 09 Classes

May-October = 5 months since my last post. I think that has something to do with summer school knocking down 8/10 pins of my life. I don't really know what happened to summer. More or less for me it went from spring straight to fall (with the exception of ice-cap melting heat).

Now I am half way into my first semester of my second year of seminary. A whole new load of classes and challenges. Perhaps in short overview form, I will offer a summary of the classes I am taking:

Greek Exegesis
My most time consuming class. The highest complement I can pay this class is that I am now more capable of opening the Greek New Testament and understanding what it means. Greek has not gripped my attention as Hebrew has, even though it is a wonderful language. This class has focused so far on understanding the significance of the different uses of nouns and verbs in the language. I look forward to the point when the puzzle pieces that have been separated into the edges, corners, and middle pieces are fit together to give the big picture.

Hebrew Exegesis
Besides focusing on a completely different language, this class is completely different than Greek Exegesis. That may be due to the fact that I have a stronger foundation in Hebrew than Greek which makes this class come across as more helpful and significant. One of the first classes our professor systematically taught through a few verses of Ruth. I was stunned at how much he was able to explain about the text from the grammar of the text. Most exciting was the feeling that I am being trained to be able to pull out depths from the Bible like he had just done. That is the focus of this class: to help the student exhaust the resources of grammar for understanding the books of the Old Testament.

Music and Worship Ministries
I now know how to lead a hymn by flapping my hands in the air! I hope I will never have to, but just in case, I now have an emergency toolkit for leading a hymn at church. The best part of has been a quick overview of the history of modern music, originating in the monastic chants and continuing in development to the modern day. I have become more convinced of the fact that the New Testament is silent on specifics of worship styles in church, but I have also become more convinced of the importance of worship music in church for the sake of unity, not in spite of unity.

New Testament Studies
Probably my favorite class of the semester. We have spent half of the semester studying the Gospels and Acts. I wish we could spend five years in these books. The professor addresses the author, date, purpose, themes, literary structure, and major interpretative issues of each book. After this class, I don't think I will ever read the gospels the same again.

New Testament History
Focuses on the 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. It gives the backgrounds of the culture and religions that abound during the era of the New Testament. The professor focuses on drawing spiritual lessons from the history, thereby avoiding the pitfall of rote memorization history classes.

Wisdom in Ecclesiastes

This post comes from a synopsis paper on the book of Ecclesiastes I had to write for my Old Testament survey class. The question I am answering is seen below.

What did the book of Ecclesiastes teach concerning how to live wisely in this world of futility?

A quick glance at the book of Ecclesiastes will yield the perspective that “all is vanity” (1:2); therefore even living wisely has no value. However, once beyond the immediate shock of a book of the Bible suggesting that “all is vanity,” one will see that, although there is a sense of futility to this world, there is still a rock solid reason for living wisely. The wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes is in showing that living by human wisdom will expose the futility of the world, while living according to God’s ways produces the full life.

Solomon gives a clue to the reason things of this life and world appear so futile when he writes, “…[God] has put eternity into man’s heart…” (3:11). With a man’s heart holding eternity, it is no wonder this world, which is composed of temporal things, appears so futile. If a man seeks joy only in the things of this world he is not living wisely because he is foregoing the fact that he is meant for eternity. Nothing in the world will bring full satisfaction. Solomon says that he sought to indulge himself with pleasure (2:1), working hard (2:18), and human wisdom (2:12), and found that they all were worthless and ultimately futile (2:17). None brought full satisfaction. Living wisely, therefore, does not involve seeking the things of this world only.

The seeming futility of the world does not open the doors to living however one wants. Solomon realizes an important principle when he wrote, “…God will judge the righteous and the wicked…” (3:17). There is an appointed time for judgment of man. If there is judgment then there are consequences for actions. Ecclesiastes teaches that life must be lived with a view to judgment. Much else may be uncertain about life, but judgment is not. It is coming and should impact the way one lives.

In the vein of judgment, Solomon discusses approaching God (5:1-7). Solomon declares, “fear God” (5:7). Wise living in this world recognizes that the God of heaven and earth is to be approached with reverence. There is no futility to fearing God. In fact, Solomon states that “it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God” (8:13). In contrast, “it will be well with those who fear God…” (8:12).

It should be noted, although Solomon expounds the futility of pursuing the pleasures of this life, there is pleasure in this life. There is joy in a wife (9:9), eating and drinking, and toil (3:13). These are God’s gift to man (3:13). Therefore, the conclusion one ought not to reach is that people should flee from joy. There is joy in this life, and it is God’s gifts, however, there are caveats to that joy. It must be sought within the boundaries of what is allowed by God (12:13), otherwise it will not go well in the judgment.

Solomon’s conclusion for living life wisely in this world of futility is that one must “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (12:13). All will face death, both the righteous and the wicked, the wise man and the fool, but there will be judgment, and it will go well for some and not well for others. Therefore, the ultimate wisdom for this life is to fear God, for He is the One who is the judge, and keep His commandments.

Minimizing Sin is Minimizing Hope

Sin can very uncomfortable to talk about. So uncomfortable in fact, that there has been a trend to practically deny the existence of the word! To change the way we speak is to change the way we think. The terminology for sin has been transformed by some to become "mistakes," or "sickness." Using terminology like this can be dangerous. Take sickness. If we begin to discuss sin as sickness, the implication follows that the sinner merely has contracted some illness, through no fault of their own. This trend seeks to avoid the uncomfortable reality that humans are indeed culpable for their actions - refusing to identify one's condition as sinful and instead calling it illness deflects the guilt and places it anywhere but on the one who is guilty. It is very natural to want to minimize sin. We don't like being notified of our shortfalls one bit, and it is uncomfortable to tell others of theirs.
I don't have in mind here that we ought to run around self-righteously calling others sinners. The point here is that the denial of sin is the denial of hope.
Why is denying sin denying hope? Because Jesus Christ died for sinners! He died for those who recognize they are sinful and need Him for the forgiveness of their sins. When sin is minimized, so is the cross. Everybody on the planet has the same problem of sin. The Bible is very clear about that and does not shy away from addressing it. Some have problems with illnesses, certainly, but all have problems with sin. And it is sin, not sickness that separates us from God. Therefore, our ultimate need is for our sin problem to be taken care of. That is what Jesus came to handle. When sin is not addressed as sin we are denying hope. But when sin is addressed as sin, we have the most glorious hope to offer and be offered.

An Issue to Ponder

Friends and Family,

Today, I come to you with a topic very dear to my heart. And I hope as you finish reading this post, it will be very dear to yours.

For decades, we Americans have pursued noble issues. Freedom and democracy. Equality and justice. The support of animal populations endangered or ignored. However, there is a great injustice facing us today. A glaring issue that has been hanging over our heads for years. There is an entire population in our country, perhaps forgotten, or even worse, neglected by the majority of Americans for the past 20 years.

Smurfs, who once invited us into the deepest moments of their lives, allowing us a glimpse of what it is like to be small and blue, have now completely disappeared, only leaving behind worn out relics of a purer time. We were all, each and every one of us, invited to see their weekly struggles with vicious cats and evil sorcerers. But now, after two decades of their seclusion, we the American people have lost our true vision of who these sentimental modules of annoying songs really are.

Lest history scorn us, let us devote ourselves to an accurate remembrance of what these noble creatures are, and what they are not:

What they are not:

Purple.

What they are:

Blue.

What they are not:

Stuffed animals to squeeze and hug.

What they are:

Living, feeling creatures, or maybe robots.

Unless we regain this vision of Smurfdom, only time will show us what we truly lost. Perhaps it was our neglect that drove the Smurfs to their seclusion. Perhaps it was the poor choice of habitat, residing only miles from their mortal enemy, who wore them to the brink of extinction each week. Perhaps it was our rejection of their unusual social structure, which was not egalitarian in nature, but largely dominated by effeminate generic males, led by a white beard mystic, Papa Smurf. While it is indeed unusual to have a society with only one female (who is simply known as Smurfette), somehow this bee-like subsistence has sustained them for epochs dating back to the last ice-age. The primary conclusion one must reach when pondering the uniqueness of the female smurf in smurf culture is that female smurfs are, simply put, violently territorial.

People, how could we let these blue ones escape us? We don’t even know if they’re mammals! I’ve never seen one with fur! They might even lay eggs. We just don’t know at this point.

A few facts we do know regarding Smurfs:

Nobody has ever killed a smurf.

They are fanatical about pumpkin carving.

They never give in to torture.

They are the only self-conscious creature naturally born with a hat.

They are fiercely antagonistic towards Snorks.

They do not employ the use of typical weapons, but generally resort to guerrilla warfare.

They use an archaic written language consisting of hieroglyphs