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"You must by no means make Christ to seem paltry and trifiling to us, as though he could be our helper only when we want to be rid from imaginary, nominal, childish sins. No, no! That would not be good for us. He must rather be a Savior and Redeemer from real, great, grievous, and damnable transgressions and iniquities, yea, from the very greatest and most shocking sins."
- Martin Luther
"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask -- half our great theological and metaphysical problems -- are like that."
- C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
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Stephen Freeman recognizes his own limitations and knowledge
I am an ignorant man, despite posting writings on all kinds of things. But make no mistake - I am an ignorant man. Thus, I would always counsel any reader to remember, these are the writings of an ignorant man.
Why would I say this? Because it is true. How am I ignorant? I am as most of us are - I do not see the world clearly for what it is. I do not see other people clearly for what they are. I do not see myself clearly for what I am. And most importantly, I do not see God for Who He Is.
Ignorance cannot be an excuse. It should be an impetus to seek, to ask, to knock. If we do not know God we will perish - this is absolutely true. And ignorance in other matters brings its own perishing as well.
I don’t think I have always thought I was ignorant - indeed, I know I did not always think this. But as years have gone on, either I’ve become more ignorant, or I’ve become more aware of how ignorant I truly am. What do any of us actually know of another human being? The Scriptures tell us that our true life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians), thus the truth of any person is a mystery. And I know almost nothing of this mystery - not only towards myself but also and especially towards those around me. How do I know what another man needs? I do not know. God knows.
What do any of us actually know of God? I believe we only know of God what has been revealed to us in Christ. And just reading the revelation is a world away from actually knowing and “having” the revelation. That comes very slowly indeed.
The Elder Sophrony wrote that such revelations come in something like a “flash of lightning, when the heart is burning with love.” These relatively rare experiences accumulate over a lifetime:
The accumulation in the experience of the Church of such ‘moments’ of enlightenment has led organically to their reduction into one whole. This is how the first attempt at the systemization of a live theology came about, the work of St. John of Damascus, a man rich, too, in personal experience. The disruption of this wondrous ascent to God in the unfathomable wealth of higher intellection is brought about, where there is a decline of personal experience, by a tendency to submit the gifts of Revelation to the critical faculty of our reason - by a leaning towards ‘philosophy of religion.’ The consequences are scholastic accounts of theology in which, again, there is more philosophy than Spirit of life. (From his work On Prayer).
I ask those of you who read this blog to remember that I am an ignorant man and to pray for me, if you remember to. I pray for you all.
A Romanian version of this article can be found here. A French translation can be found here. Posted by Father Stephen Freeman - 5/12/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
   
Stephen Freeman learns a few things about prayer from a dying Pentecostal
Some years ago I stood by the bed of an elderly Pentecostal woman in mountains of East Tennessee. She was dying from respiratory complications - I was visiting her as a Hospice chaplain. We chatted about many things - mostly the things of God. She showed me a well-worn Bible she had owned for most of her life. In the front she had marked down the date for each occasion when she had finished reading the Bible from cover to cover. There were over 95 such dates - more than the years of her life.
As we were finishing the visit I offered prayers for her. I prayed for 5 or 10 minutes - a respectable length of prayer in the mountains. When I finished she looked up at me and said, “May I pray?” I told her, “Of course.”
She then began to pray, quietly, her breaths labored. Her prayer rose in fervor as did the shortness of her breath. Her prayer had to have lasted at least 20 minutes - it ... Continue Reading
Posted by Father Stephen Freeman - 5/12/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Peter Toon considers the innovations of TEC's view of bishops
The Episcopal Church has created a revised form of the historic Catholic and Anglican understanding of the Episcopate. To understand this we need to recall what is the traditional teaching, that has been set aside.
In the past when Anglicans have explained and defended the Episcopate, they usually have clai ... Continue Reading
Posted by Rev. Dr. Peter Toon - 5/12/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
My friend Joel Miller (the original razormouth man) made the front page of American Spectator Online on Monday. He ran the Country Music Marathon, which he swears was less like a marathon and more like a death march. Here are some snippets.
As I sit down gingerly to write this, it's Sunday, just before noon. Yesterday I ran the half-marathon here in Nashville. What was I thinking?
I'm now hobbling like an old man. Every part of my lower body hurts. My knees, hamstrings, and other parts and pieces connected by various ligaments and sinews are all threatening a sit-in -- mainly because they can't manage a walkout any longer. The arch of my right foot has filed for divorce, charging physical abuse. I dreaded church this morning. We kneel at three places in the liturgy. Would I be able to get back up? ...
Getting to six miles was a bit of a challenge. In my training, such as it was, I never got past eight miles. I remember feeling a little drained before reaching the four-mile mark, especially when I began to figure that meant I still had nine miles to go.
I took encouragement where I could get it. I had the iPod going with a mix of Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Glenn Kaiser. Nothing like a ripping guitar solo to keep up your spirits. ...
Pretty soon I was in the homestretch. I didn't weary until the final mile, which unlike the last five or so, seemed to go on forever. I was still moving quickly. I brought my time per mile down almost another dozen seconds. But that last bit was tough. When I geared up for my final push across that glorious finish line, I barely got up any extra speed. I thought "sprint." My body disagreed. Wasn't anything left. ...
I FINALLY MADE my way to the Nelson tent in the parking lot and lit up a cigar. My friend Jamey arrived a few minutes later with a cooler of beer and began dispensing. "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish," he said, quoting Proverbs.
Check out the full thing here! Posted by Jamey W. Bennett - 4/30/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 1 Responses
R.C. Sproul Jr. presses forward with a cross on his back and a fat soul
The Bible is full of promises. Most of them boil down to something terribly simple. God says to us, “Obey Me and be blessed. Disobey Me and be cursed.” This is God’s one covenant with man. Of course, praise God He has added a crucial addendum - it us possible to receive the blessings for the obedience of Another, and for that same Other to receive the curse due to us for our sin. Given that reality, however, we still see, especially in the Psalms, an expectation of comparative blessing for sinners who trust in the coming Savior and the comparative cursing on those outside God’s grace. The wicked will not stand. They shall soon be cut off. But the righteous shall be like a tree planted by the waters. While we recognize that proverbial promises are not designed to be math- that is, when God says those who do x will receive y, He is expressing the pattern by which He works, not algebra, still there is weight here. We should expect greater blessing the more we are able to submit to His Word.
Then we hear the promises of Jesus. We should not be surprised when we are persecuted. We are promised trouble in this life. We are told to expect hatred from the world. In the old covenant we are tempted to expect the believing family to move from blessing to blessing, to enjoy prosperity, health, friendship, even admiration. In the new covenant it looks like we should expect to pick up our cross daily, that we will move from trouble to trouble, from heartache to heartache. What gives?
Our confusion flows out of a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of blessing. Consider for a moment the children of Israel as they march toward the Promised Land. Certainly their lives began with hardship, as they suffered under Pharaoh’s yoke. But then they behold the miracles of God. He hears their prayers and delivers them in a spectacular display of both His power and His favor. But they grumbled. They complained. Our Father sent them water from a rock. He sent them first bread, and then meat. He, in a word, prospered them. But we are told in turn that because they grumbled He sent them “leanness in their souls.” Their bellies were full, but their joy was emaciated.
The blessings of God are not, typically, prosperity, health and honor. They are instead things like love, joy, peace, patience. Indeed these fruits find their most fertile soil in the context of hardship. The man who meditates on the law of God day and night may not grow a thriving business. He may not be much beloved in his community. But he will mourn his own sins. He will be poor in spirit. He will not enjoy great power, but will be mindful of God’s power, resting in his own meekness. He will hunger and thirst for righteousness. Meditating on the law of God, he will know his sin, his need for mercy, and so will show mercy, making peace even as he suffers under the sins of his enemies.
Such a man, of course, can look forward to pleasures at His right hand forevermore. But he need not wait for blessing. God will draw near. He is the reality of which all other blessings are but shadows. Such a man will walk through this world carrying his cross, and rejoicing in the very fatness of his soul. May He be pleased to make of us such men.
Be sure to check out the weekly (or so) email from the Highlands Study Center, The Kingdom Notes, featuring a short, encouraging word from R.C., as well as the latest news, specials, and other interesting things going on in their neck of the woods. To subscribe, send an email to info@highlandsstudycenter.org and tell them that you want to receive the Kingdom Notes. Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. - 4/30/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Franklin Sanders discusses the blessings of Rogation Days
Every spring colonial Americans observed an ancient Christian custom: Rogation Days. “Rogation” comes from a Latin word, rogare, “to ask or pray.” During Rogation Days farmers walked the boundaries of their land, stopping at the four corners to pray God to bless their work, their lands, and their cattle with fruitfulness.
By walking their boundaries and praying over them, farmers also learned another, deeper lesson: to pray that God would preserve them from covetousness that might move them to encroach on a neighbour’s land. They prayed that God would make them content with those good things he had already provided, and they he would bless their crops just planted.
Rogation Days were set aside as a time to restore not only physical, but also spiritual boundaries. During Rogation Days old enemies were urged to forgive and forget old grudges, so that they might be reconciled a ... Continue Reading
Posted by Guest - 4/28/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Jamey Bennett joins conversation with Luther, Calvin, and Paul on the sufferings of life
Colossians 1
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Many Christians haven’t put much thought into the Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. Many Christians, thinking “heaven is my real home,” think that eternity is wrapped up in an ethereal existence up in foggy clouds. We tend to think we’ll all have wings, look like babies, and play goofy harps all day while thinking about soft things such as feather-down pillows. We tend to think so-and-so died and went to heaven or hell and that’s it. Many of us don’t know much about the resurrection of the body, and some Christians even mistakenly expect to get “a new body” at the time of death (as opposed to a renewed body). I remember sitting in a Bible study ... Continue Reading
Posted by Jamey W. Bennett - 4/21/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
George Grant glimpses into one of the most insignificant significant moments in American history
According to the majority of eighteenth and nineteenth century historians, the most remarkable event during America's Founding Era did not take place on a battlefield. It did not occur during the course of the constitutional debates. It was not recorded during the great diplomatic negotiations with France, Spain, or Holland. It did not take place at sea, or in the assemblies of the states, or in the counsels of war. It was instead when the field commander of the continental armies surrendered his commission to the congressional authorities at Annapolis.
It was instead a humble demonstration of servanthood. It was when General George Washington resigned his officer's commission.
At the time, he was the idol of the country and his soldiers. The army was unpaid, and the veteran troops, well armed and fresh from their victory at Yorktown, were eager to have him ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. George Grant - 4/21/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Peter Toon addresses the importance of primary metaphors in stating and forming Anglican identity
Within those who call themselves “orthodox Anglicans,” sharing a common commitment to basic dogma and ethics, and who believe that The Episcopal Church has gone off track and is heading into apostasy, there are differences of opinion, leading to distinct schools of thought and forms of action, which in some cases leads to some hostility.
I want to suggest that each of these schools of thought is held together by one or more basic and powerful metaphors; and around this metaphor there is what cognitive scientists call “frames” – that is mental frames, which govern the way one sees, understands, communicates and acts. A common American way of referring to the presence of a “frame” is “mindset.” (How “frames” are created and how they are changed is not under consideration here, simply the fact of their existence not only in religious faith and affiliation but als ... Continue Reading
Posted by Rev. Dr. Peter Toon - 4/21/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Brandon Vallorani offers some thoughts on moving from dispensationalism to Biblical optimism
Have you ever wondered why the Church is still here after 2,000 years? At one time, I believed that we were living in the last days of human history and that Jesus was going to return at any moment to rapture His church and judge the world. I grew up in the 70’s, when apocalyptic books like The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey were taking the American church by storm. In addition to hundreds of sermons on the subject, I remember quite vividly the time our church played the Thief in the Night film series.
In case you don’t remember, the series consisted of the following frightening films:
1. A Thief in the Night
2. A Distant Thunder
3. Image of the Beast
4. Prodigal Planet
The powerful and terrifying concept of an imminent apocalypse defined my view of Christianity well into my married years. And as much as it may have helped me to develop a fear of ... Continue Reading
Posted by Guest - 4/21/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Stephen Freeman challenges certain assumptions about that Great Divorce
On one of the roads leading into my small city a billboard has recently appeared. It is part of a larger campaign by a nationally known evangelist who is to have a revival in Knoxville. The sign is simple. In very large bright yellow letters (all caps), the sign says: HELL IS REAL. In small letters beneath it, in white, that can be read as your car nears the sign is the statement: so is heaven. Like the small bulliten boards outside of many Southern churches, this sign belongs to a part of our culture that has been with us a long time. But everytime I see this sign, my mind turns to the subject of ontology (the study of the nature of being). Thus I offer today some very basic thoughts on the subject of being - a classical part of Christian theology.
The first thing I will note is that you cannot say Hell is real and Heaven is real and the word real mean the same thing in both sentences ... Continue Reading
Posted by Father Stephen Freeman - 4/21/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
 George Grant learns, reads, marks and inwardly digests the Early Church Fathers, and you should, too!
Like America’s Founding Fathers, the Patristics are often invoked but seldom actually read. They are often referenced but seldom actually quoted. Though they are at the heart of traditionalist sloganeering, they have in fact, only rarely actually contributed to the traditions they supposedly have inspired. Today they are the great unknowns, these Church Fathers. Even in those communions which place much emphasis on Apostolic Succession—the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Copt—there is scant knowledge of those who succeeded the Apostles. Their words and works are seldom more than anecdotally revered.The irony of this goes beyond the obvious—the fact is the writings of the Patristics are imminently readable and widely available. The earliest Christians were both literate and literary. They were people of the Book and of books. As a result, their refined letters, sermons, tracts, commentaries, manifestos, credos, dialogs, proverbs, epigrams, and sagas were carefully, preserved, anthologized, and preserve ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. George Grant - 4/19/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
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