Amazon’s new e-reader, Kindle, is probably the coolest electronic device I’ve seen recently (or possibly ever). Check out the video on the Amazon site. And Newsweek has a story about it. Will it catch on? Will it mean the death of the paper based book? Am I technically proficient enough to use one? And most important of all: Can I afford it?
And yet, I still love the feel of paper pages, stiff book bindings, and the smell of binding glue. I even somewhat enjoy grousing about the inadequate binding quality of some of the books I own. Maybe I can simply enjoy the benefits of both the digital and analog worlds. After all, the important things are the thoughts behind the scribblings, not the manner in which those scribbling-represented thoughts reach our brains through our eyeballs (I wonder if anyone will invent or has invented something similar for Braille readers).
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, December 03, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Flew's New Book
Former dean of intellectual atheists, Antony Flew, has written a new book about his turn to theism/deism (or just deism).
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
More words about books
This pastor's blogpost gives his take on what to read. He also links to a post by Scot McKnight on building a personal library. Two comments: they both dislike fiction (I wish I could read more fiction) and they both have good paying jobs (that's why I like the library - the books are dingier than at, say, Chapters, but at least it's free - as long as I return them on time).
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Death in the City - Chapter nine (final - and finally!)
Death in the City Chapter 9 – The Universe and Two Chairs (Final)
Schaeffer now turns his attention to how the life of faith works itself out in the twentieth-century world. (No doubt he would, were he alive, extend this to the twenty-first, as well.) Even while scientists have been seeing farther through their telescopes and at smaller and smaller things through their microscopes, thus making the universe seem much more complicated than humans had ever dreamed, in reality, the universe, from a biblical standpoint, is simple.
He gives us a parable about two men (the only men in the universe) sitting in a room on two chairs. One man is a materialist; the other a Christian. The materialist examines the room thoroughly, writes a number of books describing the universe. The Christian appreciates the effort, but informs the materialist that despite his intense study, he has missed something important. The materialist, in his system of knowledge, can describe the universe but he cannot tell where it came from. Thus, his knowledge is incomplete. The Christian, on the other hand has a book that tells him where the universe came from and that there is an unseen portion of it. Ultimately, the two reach an impasse. The materialist thinks the Christian is crazy. The Christian thinks the materialist is unbalanced because of the incompleteness of his view. Schaeffer’s point is that the two views are mutually exclusive. There can be no synthesis of the two views, only antithesis.
He writes, “What we must see is that no matter how deeply we get into the particles of matter or how much we learn by our telescopes and radio telescopes about the vastness of the created universe, in reality the universe is no more complicated than the room we have been talking about. It is only larger; that’s all. Looking at the bigger universe, we either see it as the materialist sees it or as the Christian sees it: we see it with the one set of presuppositions or the other.”
Many Christians, however, live like materialists most of the time. It is not enough to say that one is a Christian. The “new” theology is no different than materialism. The theological view that explains the resurrection as merely psychological, the rising of the Easter spirit in the hearts of the disciples, is tantamount to materialism: it generates unbelief. Liberal theology is handmaiden to materialism.
What can we say about a person who says he believes in the resurrection but doesn’t act upon his belief in faith on a daily basis? Schaeffer calls it unfaith.
Or, when it comes to prayer, if a Christian doesn’t pray or live in an attitude of prayer, he has planted himself on the materialist chair. That is, “he is living in unfaith if he is afraid to act upon the supernatural in the present life.” Unfaith turns Christianity into merely a philosophy. While Schaeffer considers Christianity a philosophy, it is more, much more. God has given us the answers to the big questions already. In this sense, Christianity is the true philosophy, one that satisfies not only the intellect but the heart, one that addresses not only the theoretical and abstract but the practical.
He concludes: “We must fight the Lord’s battles with the Lord’s weapons in faith – sitting in the chair of belief. Only then can we have any part in the real battle. If we fight the Lord’s battles merely by duplicating the way the world does its work, we are like little boys playing with wooden swords pretending they are in the battle while their big brothers are away at war in some distant and bloody land….Living supernaturally does not mean doing less work; nor does it mean less work getting done, but more…If we through faith stay in the Bible-believing chair moment by moment in practice, and do not move into the chair of unfaith, we and the world will see God act. Christ will bring forth His fruit through us.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(*This book makes a good complement to Schaeffer’s other books such as The God Who is There, and Escape From Reason (at least that’s what it says on the back of the book…) It’s short and readable, if somewhat repetitive at times. This is probably due to the fact that it’s a series of lectures. Anyway, notwithstanding the critiques thrown his way (by such great minds as Thomas V. Morris), Schaeffer is an important Christian thinker whose works should be essential reading for thinking Evangelicals. So, tolle legge. *)
Schaeffer now turns his attention to how the life of faith works itself out in the twentieth-century world. (No doubt he would, were he alive, extend this to the twenty-first, as well.) Even while scientists have been seeing farther through their telescopes and at smaller and smaller things through their microscopes, thus making the universe seem much more complicated than humans had ever dreamed, in reality, the universe, from a biblical standpoint, is simple.
He gives us a parable about two men (the only men in the universe) sitting in a room on two chairs. One man is a materialist; the other a Christian. The materialist examines the room thoroughly, writes a number of books describing the universe. The Christian appreciates the effort, but informs the materialist that despite his intense study, he has missed something important. The materialist, in his system of knowledge, can describe the universe but he cannot tell where it came from. Thus, his knowledge is incomplete. The Christian, on the other hand has a book that tells him where the universe came from and that there is an unseen portion of it. Ultimately, the two reach an impasse. The materialist thinks the Christian is crazy. The Christian thinks the materialist is unbalanced because of the incompleteness of his view. Schaeffer’s point is that the two views are mutually exclusive. There can be no synthesis of the two views, only antithesis.
He writes, “What we must see is that no matter how deeply we get into the particles of matter or how much we learn by our telescopes and radio telescopes about the vastness of the created universe, in reality the universe is no more complicated than the room we have been talking about. It is only larger; that’s all. Looking at the bigger universe, we either see it as the materialist sees it or as the Christian sees it: we see it with the one set of presuppositions or the other.”
Many Christians, however, live like materialists most of the time. It is not enough to say that one is a Christian. The “new” theology is no different than materialism. The theological view that explains the resurrection as merely psychological, the rising of the Easter spirit in the hearts of the disciples, is tantamount to materialism: it generates unbelief. Liberal theology is handmaiden to materialism.
What can we say about a person who says he believes in the resurrection but doesn’t act upon his belief in faith on a daily basis? Schaeffer calls it unfaith.
Or, when it comes to prayer, if a Christian doesn’t pray or live in an attitude of prayer, he has planted himself on the materialist chair. That is, “he is living in unfaith if he is afraid to act upon the supernatural in the present life.” Unfaith turns Christianity into merely a philosophy. While Schaeffer considers Christianity a philosophy, it is more, much more. God has given us the answers to the big questions already. In this sense, Christianity is the true philosophy, one that satisfies not only the intellect but the heart, one that addresses not only the theoretical and abstract but the practical.
He concludes: “We must fight the Lord’s battles with the Lord’s weapons in faith – sitting in the chair of belief. Only then can we have any part in the real battle. If we fight the Lord’s battles merely by duplicating the way the world does its work, we are like little boys playing with wooden swords pretending they are in the battle while their big brothers are away at war in some distant and bloody land….Living supernaturally does not mean doing less work; nor does it mean less work getting done, but more…If we through faith stay in the Bible-believing chair moment by moment in practice, and do not move into the chair of unfaith, we and the world will see God act. Christ will bring forth His fruit through us.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(*This book makes a good complement to Schaeffer’s other books such as The God Who is There, and Escape From Reason (at least that’s what it says on the back of the book…) It’s short and readable, if somewhat repetitive at times. This is probably due to the fact that it’s a series of lectures. Anyway, notwithstanding the critiques thrown his way (by such great minds as Thomas V. Morris), Schaeffer is an important Christian thinker whose works should be essential reading for thinking Evangelicals. So, tolle legge. *)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Another book meme
I like this one:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth full sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
Here it is:
"Their island is perfect for wet rice cultivation, and rice is the fountainhead not only of Balinese prosperity, but of its culture and religion as well."
The instructions don't say whether to give the title of the book. So I won't.
(via RightReason blog)
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth full sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
Here it is:
"Their island is perfect for wet rice cultivation, and rice is the fountainhead not only of Balinese prosperity, but of its culture and religion as well."
The instructions don't say whether to give the title of the book. So I won't.
(via RightReason blog)
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Are we crossing that (a)bridge(ment)?
Is the new trend to shortened classics a case of cutting fat or meat?
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Death in the City - chapter eight
Death in the City Ch. 8 – The Justice of God
Schaeffer asks: “Is God really just in judging the man without the Bible?” He undertakes a thought experiment where a newborn baby has a tape recorder placed around his neck. The recorder works only when moral judgments are being made. Throughout the person’s life, every moral act or thought is recorded. After he dies, he stands before God. God then pushes the play button and the person hears his own moral judgments as they were expressed throughout his lifetime. There are thousands of these moral judgments. At the end of them, Schaeffer has God ask, “On the basis of your own words, have you kept these moral standards?”
What can a man say in response to such a question? He can do nothing else but be silent. “God says, ‘I will judge you upon your own moral statements (those judgments upon which you have bound and condemned others), even if they are lower than moral statements should be. Are you guilty or not guilty?’ No one will be able to raise his voice.”
Men will be judged based not on what they did not know but on what they did know. “So all men must say, ‘Indeed I am justly condemned.’”
Schaeffer quotes Luke 12:2-3: “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
So is God just? If He judges based on the standards that we judge others, then His judgment is indeed just. But judgment is not the end when mercy also exists. Schaeffer states: “God has provided a way that no philosophy would have thought of. It is a way that would take us by surprise if we were not just thinking by evangelical habit. There should be everlasting surprise in it. I stand here. I am significant. God must be holy. Is all lost now that I have sinned? The answer is no! God has provided a propitiation, a substitute. There whole of God’s answer rests upon the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Because of who He is, His death has infinite value; it can cover every spot; it can remove true moral guilt (and not just the guilt feelings that exist) in the presence of God as the perfect Judge of the universe. Thus three great things fall into place: God’s holiness, man’s significance, and the possibility of man’s redemption. I don’t know about you, but I believe it is time to stand up and sing the doxology. Here is an intellectual answer that nothing else has ever presented!”
Schaeffer asks: “Is God really just in judging the man without the Bible?” He undertakes a thought experiment where a newborn baby has a tape recorder placed around his neck. The recorder works only when moral judgments are being made. Throughout the person’s life, every moral act or thought is recorded. After he dies, he stands before God. God then pushes the play button and the person hears his own moral judgments as they were expressed throughout his lifetime. There are thousands of these moral judgments. At the end of them, Schaeffer has God ask, “On the basis of your own words, have you kept these moral standards?”
What can a man say in response to such a question? He can do nothing else but be silent. “God says, ‘I will judge you upon your own moral statements (those judgments upon which you have bound and condemned others), even if they are lower than moral statements should be. Are you guilty or not guilty?’ No one will be able to raise his voice.”
Men will be judged based not on what they did not know but on what they did know. “So all men must say, ‘Indeed I am justly condemned.’”
Schaeffer quotes Luke 12:2-3: “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
So is God just? If He judges based on the standards that we judge others, then His judgment is indeed just. But judgment is not the end when mercy also exists. Schaeffer states: “God has provided a way that no philosophy would have thought of. It is a way that would take us by surprise if we were not just thinking by evangelical habit. There should be everlasting surprise in it. I stand here. I am significant. God must be holy. Is all lost now that I have sinned? The answer is no! God has provided a propitiation, a substitute. There whole of God’s answer rests upon the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Because of who He is, His death has infinite value; it can cover every spot; it can remove true moral guilt (and not just the guilt feelings that exist) in the presence of God as the perfect Judge of the universe. Thus three great things fall into place: God’s holiness, man’s significance, and the possibility of man’s redemption. I don’t know about you, but I believe it is time to stand up and sing the doxology. Here is an intellectual answer that nothing else has ever presented!”
Monday, April 02, 2007
Death in the City - Chapter Seven
Death in the City Chapter 7 – The Man Without the Bible
There are a few instances where Paul addresses people who did not have the Bible such as Lystra (Acts 14) and Mars Hill (Acts 17). Romans 1 is addressed to a church made up mainly of Gentiles and possibly a significant minority of Jews. Though the Jews had scriptures, the gentiles would not have; so Romans 1 & 2 constitute an extended discussion about God based not on a written revelation but on the evidence from within (conscience) and without (nature). His example is important for us who deal with a generation which has never read a bible. How does one start to speak to a person like this, by quoting Bible passages? Paul didn’t (even though, interestingly, his words later became part of the bible).
There is, Schaeffer says, a moral law in our universe which corresponds to the character of the Almighty Himself. He writes: “There is no law behind God that binds God. Rather God Himself is the law because He is not a contentless God but a God with a character….when a man sins, he sins against the character of God, and he has moral guilt in the presence of the Great Judge.”
In knowing the truth, albeit suppressed, man is different from animals. He has “moral motions, [a] need for love, [a] fear of non-being, and [a] longing for beauty and for meaning.” All men, even a Marquis de Sade who says there is none, by their actions and in their writings, demonstrate what they deny, namely that an objective morality exists. Schaeffer writes: “I have always enjoyed the thought of Kruschev sitting at the United Nations, pounding on the table with his shoe and shouting, ‘It’s wrong. It’s wrong.’ Isn’t that an interesting thing for a materialist to say? He didn’t mean that something was merely counter to the best interests of the Soviet Union. He was saying something was wrong.”
Schaeffer makes reference to several thinkers: Levi-Strauss’ work which showed that all men, from primitive peoples to cultured societies, think in the same fashion; Michael Polanyi’s (in response to Francis Crick’s determinism) view that DNA’s chemical and physical properties alone cannot explain what a man is; Mortimer Adler’s view that man knows within himself that he is not the same as non-man.
Paul’s words in Romans is as applicable today as it was in the first century: men suppress the truth of what they know. All men, primitive, cultured, ancient, modern, eastern, or western know that man is more than what their theories explain.
He writes: “What Paul is stressing here is that when you turn away from God and follow other presuppositions, the more consistent you are to your presuppositions, the further you get away from reality itself….Therefore, a breakdown in morality occurs. God says to man in this position: You are under my judgment. And so these questions arise; ‘How are men without the Bible going to be judge?’ and ‘Is this just?’”
There are a few instances where Paul addresses people who did not have the Bible such as Lystra (Acts 14) and Mars Hill (Acts 17). Romans 1 is addressed to a church made up mainly of Gentiles and possibly a significant minority of Jews. Though the Jews had scriptures, the gentiles would not have; so Romans 1 & 2 constitute an extended discussion about God based not on a written revelation but on the evidence from within (conscience) and without (nature). His example is important for us who deal with a generation which has never read a bible. How does one start to speak to a person like this, by quoting Bible passages? Paul didn’t (even though, interestingly, his words later became part of the bible).
There is, Schaeffer says, a moral law in our universe which corresponds to the character of the Almighty Himself. He writes: “There is no law behind God that binds God. Rather God Himself is the law because He is not a contentless God but a God with a character….when a man sins, he sins against the character of God, and he has moral guilt in the presence of the Great Judge.”
In knowing the truth, albeit suppressed, man is different from animals. He has “moral motions, [a] need for love, [a] fear of non-being, and [a] longing for beauty and for meaning.” All men, even a Marquis de Sade who says there is none, by their actions and in their writings, demonstrate what they deny, namely that an objective morality exists. Schaeffer writes: “I have always enjoyed the thought of Kruschev sitting at the United Nations, pounding on the table with his shoe and shouting, ‘It’s wrong. It’s wrong.’ Isn’t that an interesting thing for a materialist to say? He didn’t mean that something was merely counter to the best interests of the Soviet Union. He was saying something was wrong.”
Schaeffer makes reference to several thinkers: Levi-Strauss’ work which showed that all men, from primitive peoples to cultured societies, think in the same fashion; Michael Polanyi’s (in response to Francis Crick’s determinism) view that DNA’s chemical and physical properties alone cannot explain what a man is; Mortimer Adler’s view that man knows within himself that he is not the same as non-man.
Paul’s words in Romans is as applicable today as it was in the first century: men suppress the truth of what they know. All men, primitive, cultured, ancient, modern, eastern, or western know that man is more than what their theories explain.
He writes: “What Paul is stressing here is that when you turn away from God and follow other presuppositions, the more consistent you are to your presuppositions, the further you get away from reality itself….Therefore, a breakdown in morality occurs. God says to man in this position: You are under my judgment. And so these questions arise; ‘How are men without the Bible going to be judge?’ and ‘Is this just?’”
Monday, March 19, 2007
Death in the City - Chapter Six
Death in the City: Chapter 6 – The Significance of Man
Educated men of the modern era have increasingly turned to determinism as an explanation for our existence. Determinism is usually expressed as one of two varieties: chemical determinism, where life is just the outcome of chemical forces, and psychological determinism where humans are not responsible for what they do or who they are. Man has been reduced to simply a cog in the giant machinery of the cosmos.
Schaffer emphasizes that the biblical view is radically different. Quoting Romans 1:21-22, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” he states that if man can truly turn away from the truth, then man is wonderful: he “can really influence significant history.” A creature made in God’s image cannot be trapped in determinism. Man’s ability to choose, even to turn away from his creator shows his greatness.
Naturalistic humanism leads to a lessening of man’s significance. Only the biblical view can produce a real humanism, one that recognizes man’s greatness. Humans are not part of a theatrical play where the lines are set. Humans are responsible beings. Their choices influence history. To be sure, man is lost; but he is great. He matters.
Christianity is not Platonism which views the body as bad and the soul as the only thing that matters. God made the whole man; therefore “the whole man is to know salvation, and the whole man is to know the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The great teaching of the resurrection of the body is not just abstract doctrine; it stands as a pledge and reminder of a very important and a very hopeful fact.” God made humans with both body and soul, so He is concerned with both. He made man with intellect and so He is concerned with the intellect. He created man to be artistic so He is concerned about the creation of art and beauty through such creative capabilities.
Salvation, then, is not concerned with just a small area of our lives. It applies to every part, every division of our being. “Man is separated from God…he is separated form himself, thus the psychological problems of life…he is separated from other men, thus the sociological problems of life…he is separated from nature, and thus the problems of living in the world, for example, the ecological problems. All these need healing.”
Educated men of the modern era have increasingly turned to determinism as an explanation for our existence. Determinism is usually expressed as one of two varieties: chemical determinism, where life is just the outcome of chemical forces, and psychological determinism where humans are not responsible for what they do or who they are. Man has been reduced to simply a cog in the giant machinery of the cosmos.
Schaffer emphasizes that the biblical view is radically different. Quoting Romans 1:21-22, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” he states that if man can truly turn away from the truth, then man is wonderful: he “can really influence significant history.” A creature made in God’s image cannot be trapped in determinism. Man’s ability to choose, even to turn away from his creator shows his greatness.
Naturalistic humanism leads to a lessening of man’s significance. Only the biblical view can produce a real humanism, one that recognizes man’s greatness. Humans are not part of a theatrical play where the lines are set. Humans are responsible beings. Their choices influence history. To be sure, man is lost; but he is great. He matters.
Christianity is not Platonism which views the body as bad and the soul as the only thing that matters. God made the whole man; therefore “the whole man is to know salvation, and the whole man is to know the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The great teaching of the resurrection of the body is not just abstract doctrine; it stands as a pledge and reminder of a very important and a very hopeful fact.” God made humans with both body and soul, so He is concerned with both. He made man with intellect and so He is concerned with the intellect. He created man to be artistic so He is concerned about the creation of art and beauty through such creative capabilities.
Salvation, then, is not concerned with just a small area of our lives. It applies to every part, every division of our being. “Man is separated from God…he is separated form himself, thus the psychological problems of life…he is separated from other men, thus the sociological problems of life…he is separated from nature, and thus the problems of living in the world, for example, the ecological problems. All these need healing.”
Monday, March 05, 2007
C.S. Lewis's Case for Christ
C.S. Lewis’s Case for Christ by Art Lindsley (IVP, 2005)
Lindsley’s book takes a brief and concise but quite thorough look at the thought of Lewis and the importance it has for those today who are seeking for answers to the meaning of life. It covers Lewis’ views on myth and imagination, rationalism and miracles, chronological snobbery, the problem of evil, belief in God as wish fulfillment, postmodernism, relativism, non-Christian religions, and death and immortality. The discussion on all these topics hinge on the person of Jesus Christ whom Lindsley, through the lens of Lewis’ writings, considers to be worthy of trust and commitment
Each chapter begins and ends with the narrative device of a Lewis seminar given at a bookstore (such as, say, Chapters or Borders bookstore). This allows for some discussion between a cast of characters (e.g., an atheist, a pluralist, etc.) that gets the ball rolling for the main body of text. The exposition that Lindsley provides is quite good. He gets Lewis’ main points without getting lost in the smaller details. Given the short and succinct, yet satisfying, nature of his explanations, this book would make a great introduction to Lewis for those who are asking the question: “Why should I believe in Christ?”
And those familiar with Lewis should find this book interesting as well.
Lindsley’s book takes a brief and concise but quite thorough look at the thought of Lewis and the importance it has for those today who are seeking for answers to the meaning of life. It covers Lewis’ views on myth and imagination, rationalism and miracles, chronological snobbery, the problem of evil, belief in God as wish fulfillment, postmodernism, relativism, non-Christian religions, and death and immortality. The discussion on all these topics hinge on the person of Jesus Christ whom Lindsley, through the lens of Lewis’ writings, considers to be worthy of trust and commitment
Each chapter begins and ends with the narrative device of a Lewis seminar given at a bookstore (such as, say, Chapters or Borders bookstore). This allows for some discussion between a cast of characters (e.g., an atheist, a pluralist, etc.) that gets the ball rolling for the main body of text. The exposition that Lindsley provides is quite good. He gets Lewis’ main points without getting lost in the smaller details. Given the short and succinct, yet satisfying, nature of his explanations, this book would make a great introduction to Lewis for those who are asking the question: “Why should I believe in Christ?”
And those familiar with Lewis should find this book interesting as well.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Morris on Books
Philosopher Thomas V. Morris has written a couple of articles on the value of reading good books.
Reading Great Books and Living the Good Life
Reading Great Books Part 2
Reading Great Books and Living the Good Life
Reading Great Books Part 2
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Fly the flag at half mast
I've decided, due to financial constraints, to not renew my subscription to Books and Culture. Fortunately, they're online (that's how I found out about the Plantinga review; otherwise, I would have waited for the paper issue to arrive, usually by the third week of the month in question). But still, it's nice having the actual thing in my hands (at least, it was nice). I highly recommend the magazine to all lovers of books.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Best Opening Lines...
...for books that is. This is one person's list of the 100 best first lines from novels.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Death in the City – Chapter Five
Death in the City – Chapter Five: The Persistence of Compassion
So what was the result of Jeremiah’s faithfulness in preaching to his own “post-Christian” society? “They gradually increased [his] punishment…stocks, to a prison, to a dungeon.” It takes great courage to stick to an unpopular message. Giving up would be much easier. Evangelicals can exist in their little ghettoes if they wish, ignoring the real dire situation facing their culture. Or they can follow the way of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah never saw any change in his lifetime. One can assume his trials were psychological as well as physical. We need to speak out for truth regardless of whether we see any immediate results. But, Schaeffer warns, those who are faithful to the truth will also experience times of discouragement. They will pay a real price psychologically. “It is possible to be faithful to God and yet to be overwhelmed with discouragement as we face the world….So many people seem to think that if the Holy Spirit is working, then the work is easy. Don’t believe it! As the Holy Spirit works, a man is consumed.”
Schaeffer sums up his take on Jeremiah. First, in such a time as ours, a negative message is required before a positive message can be given. Before giving the gospel, we must spend time explaining modern humans’ existential dilemma – to show that they are “more dead” than they could imagine; that is, morally dead because they are separated from God.
Second, we must acknowledge that our culture is under God’s judgment. We must emphasize this reality. Third, Christians who say they believe in truth must practice truth. Relativism will rust the church from the inside out. The outside will look shiny and new while the foundation rots away until it’s too late to repair it. Schaeffer quotes from his book The God who is There: “The full doctrinal position of historic Christianity must be clearly maintained; it would seem to me that the central problem of evangelical orthodoxy in the second half of the twentieth century is the problem of the practice of this principle.”
Fourth, we must understand that knowing truth and practicing it will cost us much, in terms of, for example, our family life, academic life, professional life, etc. Fifth, though the price be high, we need to keep on preaching the truth.
He writes: “Christianity is not a modern success story. It is to be preached with love and tears into the teeth of men, preached without compromise, without regard to the world’s concept of success. If there seem to be no results, remember that Jeremiah did not see the results in his day. They came later. If there seem to be no results, it does not change God’s imperative. It is simply up to you and to me to go on…whether we see the results or whether we don’t. Go on.”
So what was the result of Jeremiah’s faithfulness in preaching to his own “post-Christian” society? “They gradually increased [his] punishment…stocks, to a prison, to a dungeon.” It takes great courage to stick to an unpopular message. Giving up would be much easier. Evangelicals can exist in their little ghettoes if they wish, ignoring the real dire situation facing their culture. Or they can follow the way of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah never saw any change in his lifetime. One can assume his trials were psychological as well as physical. We need to speak out for truth regardless of whether we see any immediate results. But, Schaeffer warns, those who are faithful to the truth will also experience times of discouragement. They will pay a real price psychologically. “It is possible to be faithful to God and yet to be overwhelmed with discouragement as we face the world….So many people seem to think that if the Holy Spirit is working, then the work is easy. Don’t believe it! As the Holy Spirit works, a man is consumed.”
Schaeffer sums up his take on Jeremiah. First, in such a time as ours, a negative message is required before a positive message can be given. Before giving the gospel, we must spend time explaining modern humans’ existential dilemma – to show that they are “more dead” than they could imagine; that is, morally dead because they are separated from God.
Second, we must acknowledge that our culture is under God’s judgment. We must emphasize this reality. Third, Christians who say they believe in truth must practice truth. Relativism will rust the church from the inside out. The outside will look shiny and new while the foundation rots away until it’s too late to repair it. Schaeffer quotes from his book The God who is There: “The full doctrinal position of historic Christianity must be clearly maintained; it would seem to me that the central problem of evangelical orthodoxy in the second half of the twentieth century is the problem of the practice of this principle.”
Fourth, we must understand that knowing truth and practicing it will cost us much, in terms of, for example, our family life, academic life, professional life, etc. Fifth, though the price be high, we need to keep on preaching the truth.
He writes: “Christianity is not a modern success story. It is to be preached with love and tears into the teeth of men, preached without compromise, without regard to the world’s concept of success. If there seem to be no results, remember that Jeremiah did not see the results in his day. They came later. If there seem to be no results, it does not change God’s imperative. It is simply up to you and to me to go on…whether we see the results or whether we don’t. Go on.”
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Death in the City - Chapter Four: An Echo of the World
Here, Schaeffer examines whom Jeremiah was speaking to. It was not merely to the ordinary man on the street, but included the leaders, to kings, prophets and religious leaders anyone drawing the people away from God. His audience included even the land itself.
An example: “The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth” (Jer. 34:19-20).
But his sharpest criticisms were aimed at the religious leaders who were leading the people astray. Jer. 2:8 – “The priests said not, ‘Where is the Lord?’ and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.”
Just as then, so today many religious leaders are leading people astray, away from God’s truth. Many try to treat people with love by toning down the message of Scripture. Today’s leaders and yesterday’s prophets are not speaking for God. Schaeffer says they are merely “taking the social consensus of their day and speaking as though that was the Word of God”. Their message is just an echo of those in society, those whom we could call secularism’s priesthood, such as unbelieving philosophers, scientists and sociologists. They merely couch the message in theological jargon.
In previous generations, even if the culture at large was mainly deistic, one could still walk into a church and hear the truth. This is not the case anymore in many churches. What you hear today are echoes. Jer. 23:30 – “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.” One prophet repeats a message he heard from another prophet. The theology of today is likewise merely an echo, an echo of what “man says, what materialistic society teaches, what materialistic psychology teaches, what materialistic economics teaches, what materialistic philosophy teaches.”
Schaeffer asks, “Do you expect God to sit there and just…say, ‘Isn’t that nice?...And if such a god existed what…would be the use of having him?”
Men of today are no different from those of Jeremiah’s day. Schaeffer says, “Men today do not perhaps burn the Bible…But men destroy it in the form of exegesis; they destroy it in the way they deal with it. They destroy it by not reading it as written in normal literary form, by ignoring historical-grammatical exegesis, by changing the Bible’s own perspective of itself as propositional revelation in space and time, in history….You who call yourselves Bible-believing Christians…should be filled with wonder and amazement that men dare so treat God’s Word.”
An example: “The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth” (Jer. 34:19-20).
But his sharpest criticisms were aimed at the religious leaders who were leading the people astray. Jer. 2:8 – “The priests said not, ‘Where is the Lord?’ and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.”
Just as then, so today many religious leaders are leading people astray, away from God’s truth. Many try to treat people with love by toning down the message of Scripture. Today’s leaders and yesterday’s prophets are not speaking for God. Schaeffer says they are merely “taking the social consensus of their day and speaking as though that was the Word of God”. Their message is just an echo of those in society, those whom we could call secularism’s priesthood, such as unbelieving philosophers, scientists and sociologists. They merely couch the message in theological jargon.
In previous generations, even if the culture at large was mainly deistic, one could still walk into a church and hear the truth. This is not the case anymore in many churches. What you hear today are echoes. Jer. 23:30 – “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.” One prophet repeats a message he heard from another prophet. The theology of today is likewise merely an echo, an echo of what “man says, what materialistic society teaches, what materialistic psychology teaches, what materialistic economics teaches, what materialistic philosophy teaches.”
Schaeffer asks, “Do you expect God to sit there and just…say, ‘Isn’t that nice?...And if such a god existed what…would be the use of having him?”
Men of today are no different from those of Jeremiah’s day. Schaeffer says, “Men today do not perhaps burn the Bible…But men destroy it in the form of exegesis; they destroy it in the way they deal with it. They destroy it by not reading it as written in normal literary form, by ignoring historical-grammatical exegesis, by changing the Bible’s own perspective of itself as propositional revelation in space and time, in history….You who call yourselves Bible-believing Christians…should be filled with wonder and amazement that men dare so treat God’s Word.”
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Death in the city - Chapter three
Death in the City – Chapter Three: The Message of Judgment
Schaeffer continues his look at Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Just as he wept, we too must weep over our church and culture. Neither Jeremiah’s life nor his message was easy. So must our message be. Schaeffer writes: “Christianity is not romantic, not soft. It is tough-fibered and realistic. And the Bible gives us the realistic message I am convinced the church today must preach if it is to be any help in the post-Christian world.” Such a message will make us unpopular both in the church and in the culture.
In Jeremiah’s day there was much external religiosity, but the people had turned away from God to other things. Thus, He rejected their offerings and sacrifices. “When men turn away from the propositional revelation of God, it destroys the acceptability of our worship to God. We are not jousting over abstract theological terms. We are dealing with a question of believing God and believing his revealed truth.”
Jeremiah also rebuked the people’s apostasy. This is the hallmark of our current generation and shows up in the church as relativism. “Men no longer believe that there are absolutes, and more and more it has become the accepted thing not to speak the truth….As men have turned away from God, who alone gives a basis for absolutes in truth, men have become untruthful and hypocritical with each other.”
Jeremiah also rebuked the people for looking to the world for help, everywhere except to God. But that help failed. In the same way the church today looks elsewhere, to mere psychology, to new theology. Schaeffer is adamant that we must look directly to God for help. “It must be the Lord’s work done in the Lord’s way.”
As a result, Jeremiah’s message to the Jews was: utter destruction. “When men turn away from God, the city becomes the city of destruction.” Jeremiah 9:11 says, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”
Schaeffer concludes: “Our generation needs to be told that man cannot disregard God, that a culture like ours that has had such light and then has deliberately turned away stands under God’s judgment. God is a god of grace, but the other side of the coin of grace is judgment. If God is there, if God is holy (and we need a holy god or we have no absolutes), there must be judgment….The final reality is that God is really there….But does your Christianity end with something less than God who is there?
Schaeffer continues his look at Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Just as he wept, we too must weep over our church and culture. Neither Jeremiah’s life nor his message was easy. So must our message be. Schaeffer writes: “Christianity is not romantic, not soft. It is tough-fibered and realistic. And the Bible gives us the realistic message I am convinced the church today must preach if it is to be any help in the post-Christian world.” Such a message will make us unpopular both in the church and in the culture.
In Jeremiah’s day there was much external religiosity, but the people had turned away from God to other things. Thus, He rejected their offerings and sacrifices. “When men turn away from the propositional revelation of God, it destroys the acceptability of our worship to God. We are not jousting over abstract theological terms. We are dealing with a question of believing God and believing his revealed truth.”
Jeremiah also rebuked the people’s apostasy. This is the hallmark of our current generation and shows up in the church as relativism. “Men no longer believe that there are absolutes, and more and more it has become the accepted thing not to speak the truth….As men have turned away from God, who alone gives a basis for absolutes in truth, men have become untruthful and hypocritical with each other.”
Jeremiah also rebuked the people for looking to the world for help, everywhere except to God. But that help failed. In the same way the church today looks elsewhere, to mere psychology, to new theology. Schaeffer is adamant that we must look directly to God for help. “It must be the Lord’s work done in the Lord’s way.”
As a result, Jeremiah’s message to the Jews was: utter destruction. “When men turn away from God, the city becomes the city of destruction.” Jeremiah 9:11 says, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”
Schaeffer concludes: “Our generation needs to be told that man cannot disregard God, that a culture like ours that has had such light and then has deliberately turned away stands under God’s judgment. God is a god of grace, but the other side of the coin of grace is judgment. If God is there, if God is holy (and we need a holy god or we have no absolutes), there must be judgment….The final reality is that God is really there….But does your Christianity end with something less than God who is there?
Monday, December 18, 2006
Death in the City - Chapter Two: The Loneliness of Man
The current generation has a hunger for meaning in life (this seems to apply as much today as is did in 1968). Unfortunately, the “dust of death” is everywhere. They hunger for meaning because they have forgotten their main purpose in life. To quote the Westminster Shorter Catechism, our chief purpose is “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Both parts of that succinct statement are needed. Since we’re made in His image, genuine fulfillment can only be in reference to God which brings about an “affirmation of life”. In Christianity the whole man needs fulfillment. This is unlike Platonism where the soul finds final fulfillment and the body is minimized.
Even though, like today’s generation, the Jews of Jeremiah’s day turned away from the true God, they at least turned to idols, recognizing that there was something out there. Only recent modern generations have turned away to God to a belief in a purely materialistic universe. But this means we’ve turned away from the only one who can comfort us and bring meaning, the infinite-personal God who is there.
What are the consequences of turning away from God? Not only the loss of individuals but the loss of our culture. Insofar as the culture was built on Reformation principles, turning away brings death to the city. Schaeffer quotes Lamentations 1:19. “I called to my lovers but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city while seeking food to revive their strength”. He extends the word “city” to include the concept of “polis”, the sociological group or culture.
But what sort of death will this be? It manifests itself most sharply in the form of loneliness. If we reject God, believing that there is no God, then there is no purpose for man’s existence. He is surrounded by thousands or millions of others in the city and yet he is lonely.
He concludes, “In Jeremiah’s day God worked into history upon the basis of His character, and He continues to do so….God judged [the Jews] as they had turned away from Him. He will do the same in our generation.”
Even though, like today’s generation, the Jews of Jeremiah’s day turned away from the true God, they at least turned to idols, recognizing that there was something out there. Only recent modern generations have turned away to God to a belief in a purely materialistic universe. But this means we’ve turned away from the only one who can comfort us and bring meaning, the infinite-personal God who is there.
What are the consequences of turning away from God? Not only the loss of individuals but the loss of our culture. Insofar as the culture was built on Reformation principles, turning away brings death to the city. Schaeffer quotes Lamentations 1:19. “I called to my lovers but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city while seeking food to revive their strength”. He extends the word “city” to include the concept of “polis”, the sociological group or culture.
But what sort of death will this be? It manifests itself most sharply in the form of loneliness. If we reject God, believing that there is no God, then there is no purpose for man’s existence. He is surrounded by thousands or millions of others in the city and yet he is lonely.
He concludes, “In Jeremiah’s day God worked into history upon the basis of His character, and He continues to do so….God judged [the Jews] as they had turned away from Him. He will do the same in our generation.”
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Death in the City - chapter one
Death in the City by Francis Schaeffer (IVP, 1968)
Chapter One
This book is an adaptation of a series of lectures Schaeffer gave at Wheaton College in 1968. He starts the book with the question: How should orthodox, bible-believing Christians view life in a post-Christian world? His goal is to attempt to answer this question through the lens of Jeremiah, Lamentations and Romans.
To those who long for revival, Schaeffer offers this corrective: “There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation.” He also admits that reformation is incomplete in the absence of revival. The two go together. He writes: “Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life.”
He lays the blame for the directionless and morally bankrupt nature of our society on human foolishness. Quoting Romans 1:21-22, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasoning”. This foolishness in rejecting God is not merely religious foolishness, but intellectual foolishness. Man has taken a position that is out of step with what he, if he really examines things carefully, knows to be true about the universe. Thus, he is left in a position of intellectual and personal tensions. He laments that, while humans have always turned from God, the speed with which western society has rejected God in his own generation is remarkable.
His phrase “post-Christian”, is now part of the evangelical lexicon. In the generation before his, Christians could have had common ground on which to discuss question of value, ethics, and religion; but in the course of a generation, western (European/North American) culture has abandoned its cultural, religious and intellectual heritage.
He sums up the result of this rejection with strong words: Western culture is under the wrath of God.
There is currently a popular praise song called “Days of Elijah”. Schaeffer, however, believes that we are living in the day of Jeremiah. He writes: “The book of Jeremiah and…Lamentations show how God looks at a culture that knew Him and deliberately turned away. But this is not just the character of Jeremiah’s day of apostasy. It’s my day. It’s your day.”
How does God judge? Unlike Zeus who throws down thunderbolts, God can directly intervene or he can simply turn away, letting the natural course of history do what it has always done. Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. These are the civilizations that make up the detritus of history. Western culture is in danger of the same fate. He concludes the chapter with this statement: “As the Jews of Jeremiah’s day were hungry for bread and had no comforter, our post-christian world is hungry in state and society and in the individual longings of the heart, for it too has turned in our own day from the only sufficient Comforter.”
Chapter One
This book is an adaptation of a series of lectures Schaeffer gave at Wheaton College in 1968. He starts the book with the question: How should orthodox, bible-believing Christians view life in a post-Christian world? His goal is to attempt to answer this question through the lens of Jeremiah, Lamentations and Romans.
To those who long for revival, Schaeffer offers this corrective: “There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation.” He also admits that reformation is incomplete in the absence of revival. The two go together. He writes: “Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life.”
He lays the blame for the directionless and morally bankrupt nature of our society on human foolishness. Quoting Romans 1:21-22, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasoning”. This foolishness in rejecting God is not merely religious foolishness, but intellectual foolishness. Man has taken a position that is out of step with what he, if he really examines things carefully, knows to be true about the universe. Thus, he is left in a position of intellectual and personal tensions. He laments that, while humans have always turned from God, the speed with which western society has rejected God in his own generation is remarkable.
His phrase “post-Christian”, is now part of the evangelical lexicon. In the generation before his, Christians could have had common ground on which to discuss question of value, ethics, and religion; but in the course of a generation, western (European/North American) culture has abandoned its cultural, religious and intellectual heritage.
He sums up the result of this rejection with strong words: Western culture is under the wrath of God.
There is currently a popular praise song called “Days of Elijah”. Schaeffer, however, believes that we are living in the day of Jeremiah. He writes: “The book of Jeremiah and…Lamentations show how God looks at a culture that knew Him and deliberately turned away. But this is not just the character of Jeremiah’s day of apostasy. It’s my day. It’s your day.”
How does God judge? Unlike Zeus who throws down thunderbolts, God can directly intervene or he can simply turn away, letting the natural course of history do what it has always done. Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. These are the civilizations that make up the detritus of history. Western culture is in danger of the same fate. He concludes the chapter with this statement: “As the Jews of Jeremiah’s day were hungry for bread and had no comforter, our post-christian world is hungry in state and society and in the individual longings of the heart, for it too has turned in our own day from the only sufficient Comforter.”
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