Burning Books

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19).

My first reaction to this verse is to wince at the lost cultural heritage. It would be fascinating to know what kinds of spells and potions the people of Ephesus were using. Evangelical scholar, John Warwick Montgomery has an extensive collection of medieval texts on magic, which gave him the necessary background to write Principalities and Powers (1973). What would it mean to someone like him to have hundreds of first-century manuscripts on the subject?

My reaction is a thoroughly modern one based, I suppose, on my love of old books, my suspicion of government-sponsored censorship,[1] and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this 1953 book, Bradbury envisioned a bleak future in which television had turned the majority of the populace into mindless, self-centered morons. Wow what prescience! Since most people no longer read books anyway, the government was able to capitalize on their ignorance, and it banned the reading of books. Firemen no longer put out fires; they burned books. Sometimes whole houses full of books. Sometimes with the owner still inside.

But the book-burning at Ephesus was different. In the first place, people brought their magic books voluntarily because they saw that the power of the gospel was greater than the power of the dark side. These people were not at all interested in 21^st century anthropological concerns. They knew by experience the great spiritual harm those books had done to them, and they wanted to be free.

The reason we have trouble entering into their mind-set is that most of us have never experienced the fear close contact with evil spirits engenders. At least, we have seldom recognized the presence of spiritual evil. If we had grown up on the island of New Guinea or in certain parts of the Caribbean, Africa, or Asia, we might more easily sympathize with the courage it took for the Ephesian Christians to destroy such talismans of power.

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[1] It is not censorship when a public library decides not to purchase a book that offends community standards. Nor is it censorship if a government agency declines to pay for art that is offensive to many citizens. (Oh how I wish that would happen more often!)

The Importance of Ending Well

When Heather and I were students at Moody Bible Institute (1967-1970), the president of the school was Dr. William Culbertson. One of the things he stressed in his chapel messages was the importance of ending well. I don’t suppose I thought much about that during the early years of my ministry, but this year I turned sixty-three, and Dr. Culbertson’s exhortation has been echoing in my heart. What does it mean to end well?

Dr. Culbertson
(He looked older when we knew him.)

First, it means to maintain a good Christian testimony and reputation to the end of my life. Dr. Culbertson was contending with cancer by the time we left Moody. He was too weak to attend our graduation and he died some months later. We were not aware of his illness until very near the end of the year, but I never saw anything in him except Christ-honoring gentleness. I remember one day when I was hanging out one upper stories of Crowell Hall washing windows. My partner accidentally dropped a water soaked sponge that hit Dr. Culbertson as he walked by. I don’t remember if he even looked up as he continued walking, but all of us on the crew were petrified. We assumed that we would be called into his office and raked over the coals. After a few days had passed and nothing had happened, we decided it was better that the sponge had hit Dr. Culbertson than the vice president of the school. That may have been very unfair to the vice-president, but that is what we said.

Second, ending well means to stay at my post. In this too, Dr. Culbertson is my model. Certainly I may have to reduce my workload in a few years, or the Lord may change my assignment, but I don’t believe God will want me to spend the last years before I meet Him in idleness. I have many hobbies that could keep me occupied for a long time—fishing, hunting, hiking, reading, making telescopes, and observing the stars. Sometimes I wish I had more time for these pursuits, but I dare not make that my goal. I want my service to Christ to last as long as He gives me strength and a reasonable portion of mind. Hobbies are for renewing body and soul, not for living.

Third, ending well means pushing myself to keep growing in Christ and acquiring new useful skills, or at least maintaining old ones. For a number of years I have read the Greek New Testament through every year. This year I am reading a chapter a day alternating between Greek, Latin, and German. The goal is to keep my mind sharp and to force myself to notice things I might pass by in the familiar English version. About three evenings a week I read a chapter from the Hebrew Old Testament. This is a new endeavor made possible by the acquisition of A Reader’s Hebrew Bible, which provides vocabulary entries at the bottom of each page for words used fewer than 100 times. I have become more intentional about getting something out of my reading as well. Except on the busiest days, I make sure I write something about what I have read.

Fourth, ending well means staying flexible and being willing to try new things. I don’t know what that might mean, but I pray that the Lord will enable me to hear His quiet voice. Should we be doing something different at church? Does He want me to write another book? How can we reach out more effectively to lost people in our area and around the world? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but may God graciously keep my eyes and ears open to His work.

Esse est percipi

Warning. This posting is more philosophical than most of mine. Feel free to skip it.

Esse est percipi—to be is to be perceived. If you can’t see it, hear it or touch it, either with your senses or with instruments, it doesn’t exist. That is not exactly what idealist philosopher George Berkley meant when he penned those words, but his aphorism has spawned plenty of whimsical offshoots. For example:

If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one around to hear it, is there any sound?

If a man is in the forest by himself, and there is no woman around, is he still wrong?

I don’t call myself an idealist (in the philosophical sense) for two very good reasons. First, there may be as many kinds of idealism as there are idealist philosophers. Second, many idealists deny that matter really exists. They say that spirit (or Spirit) is the only true substance. The first verse of the Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth; it doesn’t say He just imagined them.

Nevertheless, I am attracted to certain aspects of idealism. Everything that exists outside of God was first an idea in the mind of God, and He is the one who holds all creation together. If He stopped doing that, everything from stars to starfish, including ourselves would cease to exist.

For by Him [Christ] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).

How does Jesus Christ hold all things together? Well, by His power, of course, but because He is omniscient and omnipresent, He sees all things (Psalm 139). If it were possible for God to stop seeing His creation, it would no longer be here.

The all seeing eye of God may lie behind one of the greatest mysteries of modern science. According to quantum mechanics, two particles or photons born together out of the same subatomic event are entangled. No matter how far apart they may travel, what happens to one immediately affects the other. Einstein thought that this consequence of quantum mechanics demonstrated that the theory must have a serious flaw. However, the fact of entanglement has been demonstrated in the laboratory.

How can widely separated twins have instantaneous communication with each other? I am not a physicist, but I suspect two factors at work. First, I think it may be possible to devise a theory that provides a suitable explanation for entanglement. I hope so, because that would be very interesting. But second, I believe that God’s perception of all creation—the perception that allows the world to continue existing—is also the perception that enables this entanglement to work. He is always everywhere, so instantaneous communication between widely separated parts of His creation is no problem for Him.

Notice what I am not saying. I am not claiming that God fills in the gaps of our physical knowledge—thunder, for example, used to be God’s voice, now it is just the sound of a big spark passing through the air. No, the biblical picture of God is not that simple. Rather, in every event, certain natural and explicable causes are operating, but at the same time God is at work upholding and sustaining those processes and bringing about His will through them.

As Psalm 104:21 says, “The young lions roar after their prey And seek their food from God.” The lions have to hunt; that is nature. God feeds them; that is His secret work, of which the lions are totally unaware. So God speaks powerfully in the thunder, which is the sound made by a big spark. God sees entangled particles as one and upholds the physical process by which entanglement occurs.

A Word to the Wise

Jesus prayed, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.”

Those with an above average IQ start out with a spiritual disability. There is no spiritual benefit to ignorance because eternal life depends on knowing God the Father and His Son (John 17:3). But neither is there a special spiritual benefit to intelligence. To the contrary, the intelligent may think—like all ancient and modern Gnostics—that they are saved by the strength of their intellects.

The intelligent are given a tool to use for the glory of God, that is, their minds. The physically strong are given their strength; the artistic are given their sense of color, tone, or proportion. All these are to be used for God and by God’s strength.

The weak are given their weakness, which they must present to the strong to be helped by them, neither demanding help, as though it were due them, nor refusing help through fear of being a burden, for both of these responses are forms of pride.

And so all of us must become little children if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven.

2012 Apocalypse

Contrary to the wackos, the conspiracy theorists, and a recent movie, the world will not end on December 21, 2012. First, although the thirteenth Baktun cycle of the Mayan calendar does end then, the Mayans did not associate anything special with that date. Second, the sun will not line up with the galactic center on that date. Third, there is no special alignment of the planets on December 21, 2012. All of these issues are clearly explained by E. C. Krupp, chief astronomer at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Krupp is a frequent contributor to Sky and Telescope, the premier magazine for amateur astronomers, and the astronomy of ancient civilizations is one of his specialties. Here is a link to his article, "The Great 2012 Scare" from the November 2009 issue.

There is also a good theological reason for saying that the world will not end on December 21, 2012 or at any other time that some unbalanced publicity seeker announces. When the disciples asked Jesus to nail down a date, He replied, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8-9). Furthermore, Jesus said, "The Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect: (Luke 12:40). So when a group of Christians or atheists or cultists expects Him to come, He's not coming then.

When Jesus talked about His Second Coming, He frequently emphasized three things. (1) You cannot know when He is coming. (2) Keep on doing your duty, so that when He comes He will be pleased with you--preach the gospel, care for the poor, love your neighbor. (3) There will be very hard times throughout this age, but suffering is not a sign of the end. Therefore, endure it without giving up your faith in Christ.

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson is one of the most amazing stories I have read in a long time. It is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what is going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And it is simply a good, inspiring read. For a longer review, here's a link to a friend's blog.

http://faithlit.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/books-not-bombs/

Whom Does God Love

While handing out tracts at “The Great Allentown Fair,” I have read the slogans of innumerable T-shirts. Among the blasphemies, the beer commercials and the “I’m with stupid” mottos, I saw one T-shirt that sums up the spirit of our age.

Our me-centered culture needs to hear that God’s chief concern is not to give us stress-free, fun-filled lives. You and I are not the focus of His affection. Putting it more bluntly—God loves His eternal Son far more than He loves you.

Since God’s love is infinite, we may suppose that He has an infinite love both for His adopted children and for His eternal Son. This cannot mean, however, that He loves us in exactly the same way and to the same degree as He loves Christ, for if the Father loved any creature exactly as He loves His Son, He would be placing the value of that creature on a par with the value of God. I believe that God’s love for His adopted children is infinite, but Georg Cantor has shown that some infinities are larger than others. For example, there are more points on a line one inch long than there are integers. Therefore, even if the Father’s love for His adopted children is infinite, it is not a contradiction to say that His love for His eternal Son is greater.

Why, then, are we here, if we are not the main attraction? Why did God make us? What in the world is God doing? The thesis of this book is that God’s love for His Son is the reason that He created the world. The bond of love between the Father and the Son is the bedrock on which creation, redemption, judgment, and final glory ultimately rest. This divine love is the primary beauty; all the beauty we experience in the world around us is a secondary kind of beauty that depends on and reflects the beauty of God.

The fact that God loves His Son far more than He loves us has two astonishing corollaries: First, God created us because He loved His Son; second, He loves us because He loves His Son.