Captain's BLog

March 27, 2006

Throwing Out The Baby

So it seems that the most common solution to a problem today is the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" solution. In our no-looking-back, progressive societal mind, change is always the best solution. And for the hedonistic, only-do-what-feels-good portion of that progressive mindset, the best form of change is the easiest one. The analogy goes something like this:

You're taking a bath with your baby and the water becomes really dirty. You want to get rid of that water and make way for fresh, clean water. The fastest and easiest way to do that is to throw it out. But now you're faced with a problem. Your baby is in that dirty water somewhere, but sifting your hands through the mirky water is too much trouble and draining the water would take too long. Now imagine a man walks in and tells you that you'd be much better off without the baby and that it isn't even a human anyway, so you have no real obligation to it at all. Your parental instincts are simply a product of your upbringing and your imagination. Realizing that you'd have more time and money without the baby (a thought that greatly appeals to you) you decide to throw out the water, and the baby right along with it.

This is an absurd little analogy, but it reflects the truth (and no, I'm not ranting about abortion again). I'm talking in a broader sense here about what the "progressives" are doing right now, in our very midst. Let's use a real example. Most Christians beleive, and indeed everyone used to believe that gender roles were very real. The man was to be the head of the household, as an example. For a Chritian this is of supreme importance because this notion of gender roles was set forth in the Bible, and as such it is a direct command from God. But now what was your gut reaction when I used the phrase "gender roles"? Was it bad? Did you immediately think of the mistreatment of women? This is the dirty water. Twisted minds in the medieval church took the words of Paul and the creation story and decided that because Eve was created after Adam that she was somehow less than him, less than human. But that isn't what God intended. As R. C. Sproul put it, "Eve was created to be a Queen, not a slave." Men and women are of equal value, only their assigned tasks are different (I'm not implying here that women can't work outside of the home or serve in any position of authority at all, so don't get all bent out of shape). But because of the "dirty water" of female inferiority created by evil men for the last two thousand years and beyond, feminism now seeks to destroy any notion of gender roles whatsoever, as if this is the ONLY solution to solving the problem. Like the anaology above, it is the quickest and easiest, but ultimately the worst solution possible.

Now we widen our field of view to see the real issue at hand; religion. If you were wondering who that man in the analogy is, he's your science professor, or philosophy professor, or a member of the Democratic party. He could be lots of people. The point is, he's whipsering in your ear, telling you that it's ok to throw out your own baby. In the case of religion; the crusades, the inquisition, and a host of other terrible deeds of the medieval Catholic church represent our dirty water. The baby is, of course, the true and beautiful nature of God and of Christianity. In this case it's a little harder to throw out the baby, since almost everyone believes in a higher power, if not specifically a god. Still, I hear so many people who claim to be religious or believe in a God, but want nothing to do with any form of organized religion because all it does is divide and breed hatred for your fellow man. Religion is responsible for more violence in this world than any political or economic causes, but does that make religion bad? Is religion to blame? Or is it man's perversion of religion? Another question I might ask is; is God to blame for the things men do in His name? If not, than it doesn't seem like a wise solution to reject God. So we don't. As I said, almost everyone believes in a "god" of some kind. We keep Him around for those hard times in life, so we can pray to Him or go to church, feel better, then forget about Him again. That's what that guy was doing in the analogy. Telling you that God's just sort of up there somewhere to answer your prayers, but that's about it. He hasn't really set down any rules to govern His universe, so you're free to do whatever you want, to live however you please. All that stuffy, old-fasioned crap that churches try to shove down your throat to oppress your freedom is all made-up. It sounds great, doesn't it? It's very liberating. You can live a life of utter self-gratifiction and not have to worry about all that "sin" nonsense. It's much easier to do what you want and live how you want if you just prentend that all religion is fake and God is nothing more than a comforting thoght whenever you need Him. And let's not forget that without organized religion, we don't get all the hatred and violence that it creates, so we get rid of that filthy water! Everything just works out better if religion isn't real. With no book, creed or law to follow, truth becomes relative. So eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die!

And when you die, heaven help you if you threw out the baby, and it turned out to be real after all.

March 16, 2006

Three Days In Orlando

Last weekend in Orlando was an eye-opening experience for me. The most brilliant minds and eloquent tongues of the modern Reformation (minus Dr. Godfrey) were all gathered in one place. The lectures were enlightening, the congregational singing was beautiful and inspiring, and the overall atmosphere was uplifting. Not only was it refreshing to be around so many like-minded people (and to see first hand that reformed theology is not in fact confined to small, sparse pockets of Dutch people), I now feel even stronger about entering the ministry after college. I haven't ruled out teaching yet, in fact I'd like to do both if I can.

Now then, two things stick out in my mind from the conference. The first is something Dr. Ligon Duncan brought up in his lecture, The Church's Mission. He discussed the Great Commission, and how modern evangellicals often stop short of the most important part of it. Matthew 28: 19-20 says,
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
This is actually pretty striking. We aren't simply called to get as many people into our churches as possible and then neglect to teach them all the important doctrines of God's Word. This leads to an important question, how can we teach people everything Jesus has commanded us if WE don't know everything Jesus has commanded us? We couldn't, thus all Christians are called to be theologians. The modern notion that doctrine is unimportant because "all it does is divide" is in direct conflict with the mission Christ has given to us in the Great Commision.

The second thing that sort of took me by surprise occured when I was able to get a ride from the church back to my hotel on Friday night. The two girls that gave me the ride happned to both work for Ligonier Ministries, and as I overheard them talking about work one of them expressed her relief that she hadn't had to answer any doctrinal questions all weekend. After asking her about it, she told me that she works the phoneline at Ligonier and that people often call with questions about doctrine that she has to answer. This really hit me. This girl was not much older than I, in fact she could have been a little younger, and she was answering people's doctirnal questions. It made me think, could I do that? I haven't encountered much serious opposition to Reformed theology yet, so I don't know whether or not, for all my bloviating on places like this blog, I could actually defend my doctrines all that well. I think I have a pretty good handle on the doctrine of election (not that I couldn't study it a lot more, I've simply studied it the most so far), but what about the rest? As an example, Steph's Stepfather Johnny is really big on the spiritual gifts (i.e. prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues) and believes they are a vital part of the church that "dead" churches like the URC wrongly neglect. Now I know that the Reformed tradition believes these things to have passed away after the Apostolic age, but why? This isn't something I've studied in detail and thus I can't really defend it (in fact, when I went to my shiny Reformation Study Bible for some insight, R. C. Sproul didn't seem to deny that these gifts still exist today). Even as my devotional life continues to pick up and I make daily Bible study more of a habit, this small incident is a reminder that I still have a long way to go.

As a footnote, this was the first time I'd ever heard John MacArthur speak. He was great, and he also happens to be located right here in Southern Cali, so I'd like to pay a visit to his church in the near future (like R. C. he preaches at a mega church, so I guess they aren't all bad after all, haha). I also picked up MacArthur's book, The Book On Leadership. It's been really good so far...and I figured I could use some advice. Heh. I also bought What Is Reformed Theology?, which I had signed by R. C. Sproul. Haha.

God really blessed me this past weekend, now I can't wait to go back next year.

March 06, 2006

X-Men 3: The Last Stand

Ok, so, on a much lighter note than my previous entries...

this is pretty much the sweetest thing I've ever seen...ever.

Click on me! I'm the sweetest thing you'll ever see...ever.

(By the way, only 114 days until Superman Returns)


 
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