Christian Compulsion

Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. (Philemon 1:8, 9, 14 ESV)

There is no compulsion to do good. Paul is justified, both then and in our current minds, in commanding Philemon to accept back Onesimus not as a slave, but as a brother, relinquishing any ownership he previously held of is man according to his right of possession of the slave.

However, instead of commanding him under his right as an elder in Christ, Paul instead gives Philemon the opportunity to either take his slave back as a slave, with requisite punishment for his having ran away, or to take him back as a brother in Christ, with the purpose that God might receive greater glory through this reconciliation between master and former slave and that spiritual growth may occur both in these two and in those around them observing this obviously difficult situation.

Such freedom from compulsion ought to characterize Christians today in the same way and for the same reasons. God seeks not automatons, forced and enforced confessions of non-present faith, or insincere actions done supposedly in His name. God instead seeks freely given love, sincere searchings for Him, unforced confessions revealing the true state of a persons soul.

This free expression does not negate predestination and free will. God’s working through the Holy Spirit to bring those He has called, foreordained, and predestined does not negate their human effort and prerogative to seek, knock, accept, and follow.

Such freedom ought not be limited to “spiritual” things, either. If the ultimate goal of a Christian is to see as many choose to follow Christ freely, then, by extension, the goal of the Christian in the world is to seek to allow as much freedom for as many people as absolutely possible so that all may, by the choices, words, and actions, reveal the truest view of their internal state. This is obviously done with regard for the inherent evil bound up in the hearts of all people. Reasonable laws protecting people from the predations of others are, and will continue to be so long as our Lord tarries, necessary and good. Free actions are to be allowed without censure so long as the do not infringe upon free actions and choices of others or prevent others from living freely in their own way. But such laws and regulations are to be as minimal as possible because the right of liberty is of greater worth than the freedom from pain or want.

As laws and regulations begin to prevent more than merely the excessive damage to others by actions of some and instead begin protecting people from the results of their own actions and choices, they exceed their just purpose and therefore become unjust. An unjust law is not necessarily a law that harms through lack of protection, it can also be a law exceeding its just purpose.

Paul chose to use persuasion, leaving the choice to Philemon, even when a possible result would have been the re-enslavement of Onesimus, in order that the true state of these men’s hearts could be shown. Only through such a freedom-embracing choice allowing possible ill is the responsibility of all involved kept sacrosanct.

And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” (Revelation 22:10, 11 ESV)

January 1, 2012 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

Is Modern Christian Music Unoriginal?

Kirchenchor

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Yes*.

My wife shared an article with me that asks “Is Christian Music Today ‘Genreless’ and ‘Unoriginal’?” and asked my opinion on the subject.

As a musician this aspect of Christian music has bothered me for some time. But it does not bother me so much as some, because I don’t think all Christian music is bland and blah. At the various times in my life when I considered writing or composing, it has never occurred to me to publish it in a “Christian” venue. I’d rather write and play and sing songs that have truth than pigeon-hole my music into a particular demographic. Listen to a John Denver song and you’ll generally get the idea: he sings about strong and true things. A Christian will hear his lyrics and be prompted to examine their life and praise God. A non-Christian will also be edified as the aspects of their soul that resonate with the truth of the words will perk up and be strengthened. He would have gained nothing by selling his music as “Christian” music, and the world probably would have lost much.

So perhaps some of my lack of worry is because I never considered “Christian” music to be as distinct and separate as some would consider it, even when I held to the legalistic perspectives of my youth. But some protection from that cynicism has come from my seeking out musicians that aren’t endlessly derivative. In fact, rather than spend time trying to explain how there are nooks and corners of Christian music, and even some broad swaths, that are not “genreless” and “unoriginal”, far from it. There are some artists that are veritable fields of deep and spiritually healthful music calculated not to tickle the ears of the masses, but to speak to the soul words of truth.

Pandora introduced Dirt Poor Robins to me a few years ago when they played Masquerade by this husband/wife group. It’s clever use of a well-known nursery rhyme caught my attention, as did it’s musical genius. Then the words of Rise Up, meshing the words of God to Job and Isaiah, have served at many times to bolster my spirit in difficult times. But all these pale to I Shot A Man:

Rich Mullins’ music has attracted me since I first heard Creed, and the intro to Sing Your Praise To The Lord seems to me to have effectively pre-dated most of the Classical/Rock fusion now common in the songs of Evanescence and Within Temptation. That’s not derivative, that’s original.

While no one would claim that Steven Curtis Chapman or Michael W. Smith are in any way nearly as talented musically as either Dirt Poor Robins or Rich Mullins, I think these two illustrate a second aspect of how “genreless” and “unoriginal” are not the only standards by which Christian music can be measured, especially for Christians themselves.

No one can argue that Smith and Chapman more than make up for their lack of talent with a great depth of spirit and honesty in their Christian walk. I think recent events probably brings this more to the forefront in Chapman’s life, but I get the same feeling from Smith’s music as I do Chapman’s: they are both real men with real hearts of God who sing to the utmost of their ability praises to their Lord and Savior. Granted, these men play rather key roles in my own spiritual growth, proving to be catalysts in my breaking free from the legalism that captured much of my youth. Hearing This Was Her Time during a televised Billy Graham Crusade showed me irrefutably that contemporary styles of music were not devilish, and at my first (and only) concert, Chapman had the son of Nate Saint and Mincayani himself as guests on stage pushing an upcoming film on their stirring story. At that same time we’d been studying the story of Jim Elliot and Nate Saint at home and this coincidence confirmed to me further that God was being glorified through modern music as well as through the old.

But regardless of my own attachment to these two, they both use their derivative and unoriginal music to make joyful noises to the Lord, edifying and encouraging Christians who hear them in their own walks. That, to me, indicates music that is successfully Christian, regardless of it’s stylistic grade.

This brings me to a final point: more is gained when music is appreciated for what it is than criticized for what it’s not. Music that is good for Christians comes in two flavors: music designed to encourage praise of God in a corporate or private setting, and music designed to encourage good living. I listen to much more of the latter in my personal music library, and this latter category also contains much music not written for, or even by, Christians. The former category has certain inherent limitations imposed by it’s purpose: it must be singable, accessible, and “relevant”. In a word, it must be popular. It is generally mostly in the latter category that you’ll find music that is interesting, technically creative, stylistically challenging, in short, original and genred. Unfortunately, it is the former, singable, accessible, “relevant” music that you hear on KLOVE or whatever your local praise-fest station is, and it is this style that is mostly what is thought of when you hear some comment about how dull and stupid Christian music is.

The author of the article ended by saying that Christian music ought never have moved beyond hymns, stating that is the only “true” Christian music genre. I assume he’s forgetting that a hundred or more years ago when most of those hymns were written, they were in the style of the popular music of that culture. It has been as many in the church have gotten stuck in a 300-year-old music style that the church has grown old and stuffy and concerned about things like walking down the aisle, saying the “sinner’s prayer”, developing theologically questionable habits that are more about pew-warmer’s comfort and less about letting none perish. Not that these two trends are necessarily causal, but they certainly are correlated.

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October 1, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

Quintessentially American

Originally posted January 24th, 2006. Written while in Italy a few weeks earlier.

I’m writing this on a notepad while on a train speeding across Italy. While passing through the Formia station a few Americans got off the train and stood for some moments on the platform before moving off to their destination. I’d spotted and heard them while on the train and, though I’d not talked with them I just wanted to let them know another American is adventuring in Italy and our paths had crossed (don’t think this makes sense? try living alone in a foreign land and see what odd things come to mind).

So I’m casting about for a sign or signal they’d immediately recognize which would associate the signer (me) as American. Thumbs Up? No, everyone does that, everywhere, and it’s universally recognized. V for Victory? No, I’d just look like a blond-haired, fair-skinned, blue-eyed Asian posing for a photograph trying to look American. Several other signs where thus considered and discarded before I found one that would unmistakeably label me as America.

I did not make this sign as I was too far away while the train was at the platform, and they’d moved off before the train passed by where they’d been, and they’d likely have been very offended.

Yes I have not seen this particular gesture since leaving the good ol’ US of A, and I’ve not really missed it either, until now. The one sign I could show that would definately label me as American was the binary 4, the raised central, the birdie, “the finger”.

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September 22, 2011 Posted Under: America, Culture   Read More

My People Perish

“They had zeal without full knowledge, hope without understanding, religious practice without clear theology.” ~ J. Julius Scott Jr., Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament

“My people are destroyed” said God.

While you could say the small prophet Hosea spoke to a different time and people, look around today and you’ll see it is still true. God’s people are destroyed. Beaten back on every front, surrendering left and right the ground of morality and decency and charity. Christian responsibilities co-opted by conniving socio-political systems that seek to enslave through manufactured need rather than free by salvation of the soul.

But why are God’s people destroyed?

It isn’t, as one would gather from visiting churches today and listening to the people and the pastors and reading the glut of how-to-fix-Christianity books, that they lack heart or soul, or truth or depth in their feelings of devotion. It has nothing to do with with a lack of action by them on behalf of the gospel. It isn’t that they are too involved in the culture, and it isn’t that they are too distant from it. It isn’t that they don’t read their bibles, or because they protest at abortion mills. It is not for any of these reasons that God’s people are destroyed.

No, it is because they lack sense. Because they are not intelligent about what it is they believe. God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Passing through a bookstore, do you breeze past the Theology section? Do you see a book titled “Systematic Theology” and your eyes glaze over? Do you come across a difficult section of scripture and you skip past it looking for greener pastures for your soul? Does the thought of countering charges of biblical inconsistency or addressing the basic points the foundational principles behind baptism cause you to shiver? Why is this? Do you fear that you don’t know enough about “those things”, that such things are better left to pastors and some nice but weird people who God has made specially for debating and defending the faith and that scary thing called “Apologetics”?

God may not have called us to defend our faith before a television audience with Larry King. He may not even care whether or not we show up at the local park and talk to strangers about Him. But He wants us to not be destroyed.

We avoid destruction through knowing, first and foremost, what it is we believe. And not in simple Sunday School terms that haven’t advanced since 2nd grade. It is the responsibility of each and every Christian, to the extent of their own ability, to know why they are saved, what they are saved from, who saved them, and how that salvation came to be. For most people, the extent of their own ability is far beyond where they are now.

We avoid destruction through also knowing why it is we believe what we believe. This requires knowledge of the history of the Christian faith. We do not live in the only important time. It is a general fault that the majority of each generation thinks only in terms of their own generation. But the world, humanity, and Christianity are all very much older than any one of us, and are likely to continue on much longer than any one of us. Those troubling issues we deal with today are in no way unique. Brilliant people have struggled and pondered and argued over every nitty-gritty detail of the various ideas that comprise orthodox Christian theology, and there are very good reasons why the most universal and general beliefs of orthodox Christianity are what they are today. Even a little knowledge of how we came to believe what we believe can help defend ourselves against the destruction of predatory and untrue belief systems and cultish ideas.

We avoid destruction, in short, by studying to show ourselves approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Can you rightly handle the word of truth?

I doubt I’ll ever be able to handle the word of truth. But that will not stop me from learning and honing and studying and growing in knowledge so that I may escape destruction.

Hosea 4:4-6
4 Yet let no one contend,
and let none accuse,
for with you is my contention, O priest.
5 You shall stumble by day;
the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

2 Timothy 2:14-19
14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene… 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

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September 3, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

You Cannot…

…bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Reverend William John Henry Boetcker

A concise description of the conservative viewpoint.

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July 22, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

The Book I Wanted To Write

The Book that Made Your World How the Bible Created the Soul of Western CivilizationI love books that give the big picture. I also enjoy books that give details and argue over interesting and important minutia. Books that do both tend to be hit or miss, in my experience. The Book That Made Your World does both, and does them pretty well.

The book is thick, but don’t let that deter you. Vishal Mangalwadi argues, in clear and concise prose, for the basis of many specific good attributes of Western Civilization upon the Christian Bible. Addressing the roots of liberty (government and morality), compassion (medicine), the free market (trust), missionary work, education, and several other key aspects of a successful culture, Mangalwadi shows how Western Civilization has done the best job of creating and growing these, and how their current forms and expressions (as distinct from what we may have considered their historic forms) are directly or indirectly attributable to the Bible and Christianity in general, and often, the Reformation in particular.

It has been a dream of mine to write a book arguing factually for the supremacy of conservative ideology and Christian theology and their connection and relationship. While not addressing conservative ideology specifically, by nature of expressing support for the primary forms of Western Civilization as being tremendously beneficial to the entire world, The Book That Made Your World essentially is a book of conservative thought. And by showing the basis of these systems of our culture in Biblical Christianity, Mangalwadi has written a book critical to our world and culture at this time.

Disclaimer added under protest due to the anti-free speech ambitions of the Obama administration: I received a copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers and BookSneeze.com in exchange for writing a review. They did not pressure me in any way to write a favorable review.

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June 7, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

Working Well

Is capitalism evil? Many today think it is, or at least believe it is more likely to cause harm than good.

Despite the incredible evidence surrounding us in the West in general and the United States in particular, many who have benefited greatly from capitalism still decry it. Theodore Malloch attempts to show that idea for the deceit that it is.

He’s not the clearest in debate, nor the strongest in argument, but you cannot deny that his argument carries weight. But what is his argument?

Michael Novak, writing in the foreward of Theodore Malloch’s book Doing Virtuous Business, claims that it was Adam Smith who asked the most important revolutionary question. Not “What is the cause of poverty?” which could have only showed how to create more poverty, but “What is the nature and cause of the wealth of nations?” This question showed the path to create wealth, not for Adam Smith, but for billions of people across the world.

In the intervening years much has been lost about the connection between doing what is right and doing what is profitable. Ayn Rand began with Nietzsche and ended in cold, heartless, and frankly mindless pursuit of gain for gains’ sake. Rand has supplanted Smith as the prime purveyor of the principles of capitalism, and this is a travesty because one cannot get human worth from Rand. Neither can one get human worth from Smith, but Adam Smith knew that there was more to profit than making money, and more to business than making profit.

Theodore Malloch, in Doing Virtuous Business, attempts to bring to life the original thoughts and ideals of Adam Smith, expanding with his own idea of Spiritual Capital, to point the way for those who wish to pursue business while maintaining their humanity. While I felt most of the book fell rather flat, the argument itself stood well. Reading the first two chapters, the last two chapters, and the appendices, which catalog businesses started and run well with goals beyond the bottom line or the shareholders, will provide as good an argument as you’ll get from reading the rest of the book. But the book is a rather short one, so reading the whole thing doesn’t put one too far behind.

All in all I do recommend this book, not to those who think capitalism is evil and need convincing otherwise, but to those who know it cannot be inherently evil but are batted about by those who do.

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April 15, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

Music ‘Cuz I Feel Like It

I’ve played this on piano (don’t ask me too right now, I can only play the first couple lines any more), but I think Bumblefoot owns this song.

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March 24, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

Book Review: The Jesus Inquest

The Jesus Inquest by Charles Foster

X and Y duke it out in a battle for the minds and hearts of the readers of The Jesus Inquest. If you accept, as X does, that belief in the Christian is belief in a lie, and as both X and Y, that to believe a lie is a terrible thing indeed, you will fight wholeheartedly to convince those who believe this considered lie of the truth, as you see it. And Y is no less hearty in his defense of the same.

X and Y are figments of barrister (lawyer) Charles Foster’s literary imagination. Two fiends for truth who wage epic battle through the pages of The Jesus Inquest, arguing and counter-arguing the aspects of Jesus‘ death, burial, resurrection, and subsequent appearances and final ascension using logic, reason, evidence, history, science, and any and all other tools they can muster There can only be one victor, and on the outcome hangs the foundation of faith for billions of people through history and today.

The book began as Charles Foster encountered his own doubts and need to substantiate what he’d believed regarding the epitome of Christs life and all human history. In the truest sense, his heart cannot believe what his mind will not accept. And so he set out to research and investigate, beyond the just-so stories of  Lee Strobel and Josh McDowell.

As a barrister Foster is used to being able to see and argue both sides of an argument, and he brings this skill to good use through creating not a devil’s advocate, but two characters of reasonable intelligence with deep grasps of their respective positions, their strengths and weaknesses, and the others preferred points. These two characters, X and Y, meet in the pages of The Jesus Inquest. The arguments from the anti-Christian X always come first. Some may say this weakens him as the final word always then goes to the pro-Christian Y. Foster wrote the book for his own purposes and this structure affirms that.

The Jesus Inquest is clear and readable. In creating the two characters as he did, Foster saves the book from being a simple tit-for-tat straight and dry comparison of facts and arguments. The conflict between the two holds the facts and arguments to a narrative which remains interesting and engaging.

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March 21, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More

Loving God, Loving Each Other

Gratuitous Family Picture: My children William and Tatiana

In Sunday School we wrapped up a series on knowing God’s will with a session where our teacher asked us for verses that applied what we’d learned to actual practice. The key verses were very quickly reached, the great commandments, as they are called:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40

How do we know we are really loving God as we ought? By what measure can we tell that we are giving to God what is His, our love and devotion?

This is complicated because our relationship with God primarily occurs inside us, in our hearts and minds. It has repercussions externally, but the primary work of this relationship goes on inside. This is a problem because we ought not trust our insides, our heart and mind, so much as we do. We know that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) So what our hearts may be telling us about our relationship with God could well be inaccurate. The heart of man is also continually involved in reconciling the actions of man with the beliefs of man, and it becomes very adept at rationalizing wrongs and glossing over failures and errors, and because we want to believe that we are good people, we become complacent, accepting our own word of the state of our being, and so we are complicit in our own self-deception.

This does not bode well for us. God will judge our hearts more easily even then man can judge his actions. He is the Maker and understands us in totality. There is no aspect of us He does not know thoroughly.

So by what measure can we tell whether our hearts are in true fellowship with God?

While the heart may be deceitful, it cannot lie always. Our actions, those doings and sayings of us that go out from us and interact with and affect others, come from our heart too, and they are a much more honest sort of measure.

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.Luke 6:45

Here is the measure we can use. While we cannot use our own hearts reports as factual evidence of the state of our relationship with God, we can use our actions and interactions.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

To love other people is to love God. The true love of other people will indicate a heart condition of true God-love, for it is from the fullness of our heart, a fullness of love in our heart, that our mouth will speak love, and our hands will do love, and our actions will work love. And that perfect love which will do all this is the love that flows from knowing and loving God

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1st John 4:20 & 21

March 14, 2011 Posted Under: I Pandora   Read More
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