The Truth about the Babe in the Manger

Each year, as the Christmas season unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that a large number of people in our society have got it all wrong. I am not here referring to the crass commercialism and materialistic self-indulgence, which are the most prominent aspects of the American Christmas scene. My concern is not about the hijacking of God’s great gift of His Son as an excuse for lavishing perishable goods upon ourselves with reckless abandon. These are but the symptoms of a deeper problem, one with roots in the preaching of the Word of God.

What bothers me more and more each year is the way Jesus is presented to the masses. It troubles me that our contemporaries are being cheated out of the true meaning of Christmas and the whole truth about Jesus, as they enjoy Christmas carols happily intoned by people who otherwise give no indication of faith; as they and their children watch sappy TV programs designed to divert us from Christ while seeking to preserve the message of peace on earth and good will toward men; and as they participate in Christmas programs and pageants that act as though Christ’s coming on that first Christmas were the end of the story, rather than its beginning. 

But most of all I’m troubled by the complicity of today’s preachers in this vast deception, as they serve up Christmas sermons that reinforce false ideas about Jesus and Christmas and what His coming means for the world. Surely there is more to the message of Christmas than a seasonal dose of peace and good will, expressed in a veritable shark feed of gifts and giving?

We are rightly disgusted with the way Christmas has been taken hostage by the powers of getting and spending and the advocates of an Abelardian Christ. Each year their message is the same: “Behold the Christ-Child, sent by God to show us the way to peace and good will! Now let us show our good will by giving gifts to loved ones, as we rest in the peace of their thusly reciprocated love.” Then, on December 26, after we have returned such of those tokens of love and good will as did not bring us precisely the peace we sought, it’s back to the grind-‘em-up, eat-‘em-up world of staying alive in uncertain times. The thought that preachers today may be aiding and abetting this false notion about Christ and His coming should trouble us all.

But, lest you mistake my intentions, I’m not here auguring for more clarity in the message of peace and good will. What I’m seeking is more balance in our preaching, more accuracy in depicting the Christ-Child of Bethlehem, more of the truth about the Jesus we preach at Christmas.

What I’d like to hear is a little more bad news in the sermons we deliver at Christmas.

THE GOOD NEWS IS BAD NEWS
The Good News of Jesus Christ is only good to those who find favor with God, as the angels announced on that first Christmas morn (Luke 2:14). All those who see in the incarnate Son of God the hope of forgiveness, redemption, and a new life of obedience to God will find the peace and good will of Christmas all year ‘round. For many, many others Jesus comes like a sword, bringing conviction of sin, public exposure of unrighteousness, and condemnation (Luke 2:34,35). In particular, the Good News of the Christ-Child’s birth is really bad news for the devil and his troop, for those who cling to earthly relationships above all else, and for all who find in wealth and things the fulfillment of their highest hopes. For all these, Christmas should come around each year with dread, fraught with warnings of judgment and calls to repentance.

Bad news for the devil. The coming of Christ is horrible news, truly disastrous news, for the devil and those who follow in his destructive ways. As Paul explains, the coming of Christ in the manger foreshadowed the victory of Christ on the cross, where the devil and all who adhere to his deceiving ways were disarmed, openly shamed, and utterly destroyed (Colossians 2:15). Anybody who prefers a lifestyle of lies and deception, taking advantage of others for personal gain, or holding grudges against others, should be troubled by the news that a Baby was born at Christmas who came to put an end to all such wickedness. That smiling, cherubic Child had a glimmer of wrath in His eyes, as John Milton reminds us in his Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity. After cataloging the rout of pagan gods and false philosophies occasioned by the Savior’s birth, Miltonshows us how to preach the message of the Babe in swaddling clothes. The devil, he writes,

            …feels from Juda’s land
            The dreaded infant’s hand,
                        The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyen [eyes];
            Nor all the gods beside,
            Longer dare abide,
                        Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine;
            Our Babe to show his Godhead true,
            Can in his swaddling clothes control the damnéd crew.

How about a little more of this Jesus at Christmas time? The One who wrecks the plans of every deceiver, oppressor, liar, and vengeful person? The One before whose coming all who incline to such practices should be called to repentance and faith?

Bad news for those who cling to human relationships. Jesus Himself said it: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-law” (Luke 12:49-53). It’s curious the way we look to Christmas to heal old wounds in the family.  Just this once, for this brief space, we try to set aside our differences and cling to the ties of blood that we like to think make us one. Many Christians go along with this desperate ploy by downplaying their faith at Christmas time. They don’t want to offend unsaved family members or tear open old wounds inflicted through past attempts to win a lost relative to the faith. And preachers don’t want to offend any of those twice-a-year visitors who have come along with friends and family to hear the Good News of peace on earth and good will toward men. So they don’t dare present the Christ-Child as the one who came to divide humanity along the lines of faith, those who are uncompromisingly committed to following the Bethlehem Babe against those who are determined to be the masters of their own fates. We want people to believe that, somehow, we can all just learn to get along in this world. We can be tolerant of one another, even if our toleration means confirming people in their lostness. And we use Christmas, of all times of the year, to promote this deception.

Should we not rather say to people what Jesus did: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26)? How about more Christmas preaching that emphasizes the exclusive claims and whole-life demands of the One who came for our salvation?

Bad news for those who hope in wealth. Finally, Christmas is bad news for all those who look to wealth for their greatest joy and purpose in life. The rich young ruler, you will recall, went away sad from Jesus at the thought that he would have to give up his wealth in order to be His disciple (Luke 18:23). But Jesus didn’t back down.  He told His disciples it would be very difficult, well nigh impossible, in fact, for those who cling to wealth to enter the Kingdom of God. If we are determined to find our happiness, satisfaction, and purpose in life in the accumulation of things, then we must resolve to leave off following Christ, for we cannot serve two masters. We may try to deceive ourselves into thinking we can, into thinking that we can invest the greatest amount of our time, energy, creativity, and interest in making a good living, with just a pittance left over for the work of the Kingdom; but this is the devil’s lie, and we are his followers, not Christ’s, if we cling to it. 

And we are the devil’s spokesmen, not the Lord’s, if we allow the people of our churches in any way to think this is true. How about a little more preaching at Christmas time that calls us to abandon the ways of the world, to take up a sacrificial and simple lifestyle, and to follow the Babe of Bethlehem wherever He leads, at whatever cost?

TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS
We will only recover the true meaning of Christmas when preachers begin proclaiming the whole message of Christ from their pulpits. We can expect the world to continue in its vain deceptions about peace on earth and good will to all. But let the line stop at the pulpits of the land. The Good News of Christmas is for those who trust in Christ and follow Him as fishers of men. For all the rest – all the liars, deceivers, oppressors, clingers, smoothers-over-of-differences, greedy, covetous, and selfish – the message of Christmas is one of shame, wrath, and judgment. Try that out for your Christmas Eve sermon.

But don’t forget the message of hope goes out to all such people, for the coming of Christ is the coming of life and forgiveness, even for wretches such as we. Remember, I’m only calling for more balance in Christmas preaching. The whole truth about Jesus must include His condemnation of sin; but it must not fail to announce the hope of everlasting life. We will be faithful to His purpose in coming if we make both the hope of Christmas and the warning of Christmas central to our preaching of Jesus.

T. M. Moore is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He serves as Pastor of Teaching Ministries and Director of the Center for Christian Studies at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tenn. He is the editor of the series, Jonathan Edwards for Today’s Reader (P & R), the latest volume of which is Praying Together for True Revival. His book, Consider the Lilies: A Plea for Creational Theology, will be released in May, 2005, by P & R. Audio messages and lectures by T. M. can be secured from WordMp.3.com. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in Concord, Tenn. He can be reached at nacurragh@aol.com. All Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Crossway).

Cornelius Van Til’s, Christian Apologetics

A review of Cornelius Van Til’s, Christian Apologetics, edited by William Edgar (Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing, 2003, 2^nd edition).

I was reading this little volume while Susie and I were camping along the Little River in the Smoky Mountains, and she looked up from her reading and asked, “How many times are you going to read that book?” I responded that this is just the first time I’ve read this edition, although, as she well noted, I have read previous editions of this little syllabus many, many times in the past.

Bill Edgar and P & R are to be heartily congratulated for bringing Van Til’s introduction to presuppositional apologetics back into print in this more serviceable volume. Edgar’s introduction and notes help to make Van Til’s sometimes tedious writing clearer and more compelling. For those unfamiliar with presuppositionalism, or whose only understanding of this apologetic method is by way of its detractors, this little volume is a must.

Cornelius Van Til died in 1987. He was one of the foremost Christian thinkers of the twentieth century, and his apologetic method has won many followers and just as many opponents. His writing is controversial because he calls into question the validity of most popular apologetic programs, especially those that posit a common neutral ground with unbelievers and rely heavily on reason and evidences as the way into the Gospel. Often charged with promoting fideism in the place of good-faith reasonableness, Van Til instead taught an apologetics of uncompromised faith, rigorous argument, and utter dependence on the convicting Spirit of God.

Van Til did not reject reason and evidences; in their place, as part of an overall program of proclaiming and defending the Biblical worldview, they are certainly proper and effective. But Van Til taught that the Biblical approach to apologetics requires arguing from presuppositions. The believer endeavors to show the unbeliever that he cannot hold his professed views consistently without utterly destroying all hope of truth and knowledge, and calls him at the same time to consider the truth of God and Scripture as the only viable life and world view.

Christian Apologetics is the best place to start in understanding Van Til’s method, and this second edition of his syllabus is a vast improvement over previous ones. Bill Edgar’s introduction and notes are very helpful in guiding us through the presuppositional method. Edgar, himself an effective apologist, is as reliable an interpreter of Van Til as we have today, and his many comments and interpretive notes should help the reader unfamiliar with Van Til to begin to grasp his approach to defending the faith of Christ.

This little book has some of my favorite Van Til quotes and images:

“Apologetics is the vindication of the Christian philosophy of life against the various forms of the non-Christian philosophy of life.”

“If we can successfully defend the fortress of Christian theism, we have the whole world to ourselves.  There is, then, no standing room left for the enemy.  We wage offensive as well as defensive warfare.”

“It is therefore the business of Christian apologetics to challenge the non-Christian view of morality and to show that unless the will of God be taken as ultimate, there is no meaning to moral distinctions.”

“It is part of the task of Christian apologetics to make men self-consciously either covenant keepers or covenant breakers.”

The method of presuppositional apologetics is really little more than an extension of the proclamation of the Gospel. It begins with the Gospel, stands squarely on the Gospel at every point, demands obedience to the Gospel, exposes everything that is not the Gospel for the deception that it is, and relies on the Holy Spirit to impress the truth of the Gospel on those with whom we reason. Christian Apologetics ought to be required reading for every preacher and evangelist – which is to say, for everyone who takes up the challenge to follow Christ as fishers of men.

T. M. Moore is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He serves as Pastor of Teaching Ministries and Director of the Center for Christian Studies at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tenn. He is the editor of the series, Jonathan Edwards for Today’s Reader (P & R), the latest volume of which is Praying Together for True Revival.  His book, Consider the Lilies: A Plea for Creational Theology, will be released in May, 2005, by P & R. Audio messages and lectures by T. M. can be secured from WordMp.3.com. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in Concord, Tenn. He can be reached at nacurragh@aol.com. All Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Crossway).

An Advent Meditation

Advent as the first season in the Christian year or church calendar focuses on longing, on expectation, and on preparation for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who redeems God’s very good but fallen creation.

This longing, this yearning for Christ’s coming to defeat evil in all its forms and to make all things new has its origin in the experience of Israel in Egypt. There, Abraham’s descendents ached for God to break into their situation of slavery in Egypt and deliver them from injustice, oppression and misery. As Exodus 2:23 says, “And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.”

Many centuries later, the tribe of Judah found itself in exile in Babylon, one of the fiercest nations ever to exist on the face of the earth. They, too, hoped and prayed for God’s messiah or Anointed One to intervene in their desperate situation, bring judgment on their wicked captors, and return them to their homeland which God would restore in ways beyond imagining. As Isaiah 52:7 states, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’

But this longing for God’s coming in salvation did not cease with Israel’s deliverance from Egypt or Judah’s restoration Jerusalem. Pious Jews living in Palestine in the first century under the harsh tyranny of the Roman Empire also pined away for God to act in a mighty way to destroy their oppressors and usher in the new age of blessing and joy. The righteous Simeon was among this group who was looking for the consolation of Israel, as was the devout Anna who anxiously awaited Jerusalem’s redemption. But unlike many who never knew the Lord’s Christ, both Simeon and Anna saw, and heard and held Him—Jesus the Messiah—even as an infant. As Simeon sang in Luke 2:29-32, “Now Lord, You do let Your bondservant depart in peace, according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”

Mysteriously, however, this Jesus did not turn out to be the kind of Messiah everyone was expecting. He did nothing about the Romans, for they were not the real enemy. But what He did do was far more important: He judged the evil one, He atoned for sin, He conquered death. For the true tyrant was Satan; the true barrier was transgression; and the true enemy was death. Christ’s kingdom victory has reconciled the world to God, established a new creation, and brought faith and hope, righteousness and peace, love and joy into the hearts and lives of those who believe. In this, the longing for final redemption, anticipated in Egypt and in Babylon long ago, is fulfilled in Christ our Lord.

Longing, then, is the mood of this season of Advent. At this time of year, we put ourselves in the situations of those long ago who stood on tiptoe, looking ahead for the Savior to come. For this reason, we empathetically sing this great Advent hymn: “O come, O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

But this Christian season of Advent is not merely a matter of trying to imagine what it was like to long for the first coming of Jesus, and celebrating a past event. Rather, this Christian season of Advent should also cause us to long for His coming now into our world and into our lives, and also in the future when He returns again and sets the world to rights. For Christ has come, but Christ also comes again.

How we should long for, pray for, and work for the inbreaking of God’s redemptive kingdom in Christ into our world and culture today—to bring peace to war torn Iraq and justice to Sudan; to bring reconciliation to Palestinians and Jews battling over rights to land; to quell the threat of nuclear build up in Iran and North Korea; to bring civility to American politics in a nation deeply divided over cultural values; to deliver people trapped in a lifestyles of materialism and consumption; to end the holocaust of abortion and thwart the promotion of euthanasia; to protect the dignity of human life from destructive biotechnologies; to strengthen the bonds of heterosexual marriage and the sanctity of the home; to curb the increasing sexualization of our culture and the objectification of women; to renew truth, goodness and beauty in artistic expression and the media; to restore sanity to professional sports; to revive integrity and diminish corruption in business; to overcome racism and bring justice to the marginalized; to purge ecclesiastical scandal and superficiality and bring substance and vitality to the churches. And so on. As we can see from this litany of deep concerns, how great is the need for God’s rule of righteousness and peace.

Are you longing for Christ’s advent in these public domains? Do you yearn to see Christ’s kingdom make a difference in our culture and in the world? Cultivating this kind of longing, this kind of yearning to see the world repaired in Jesus Christ is what Advent is all about.

But it is also about the satisfaction of the longings of the human heart. How many people there are who live lives of quiet desperation, who are desperately longing for and need Jesus Christ (even if they don’t realize it). Desperate housewives and desperate husbands. Desperate mothers and desperate fathers. Desperate sons and desperate daughters. Desperate girlfriends and desperate boyfriends. Desperate students and desperate professors. Desperate employers and desperate employees. Desperate friends and desperate roommates.

Two contemporary songs put these feelings of desperation on display, yearnings to find fulfillment, longings of the human heart that can only find satisfaction in Advent. The chorus to Avril Lavigne’s song “Anything But Ordinary” in her CD Let Go expresses these powerful human aspirations poignantly:

Is it enough to love?
Is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
Is it enough to die?
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please.

Similarly, these words from Switchfoot’s tune “Meant to Live” also demonstrate how the empty heart will not and cannot be satisfied by anything on its own in this fallen world, but is searching for something beyond to give it genuine life.

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life….

So you see, just as the Israelites in Egypt, Judah in Babylon, and the Jews in Jesus’ day longed for the coming of God into their worlds to save them, to give them second life, so we long for the same today in our individual lives. This, too, is what Advent is all about, as we sing in these lines from “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.”

Come, Thou long expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee.
Come to earth to taste our sadness, He whose glories knew no end;
By His life He brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.

Advent longing must then transition into Advent expectation. For just as God acted in the past, so He will act faithfully in response to our needs as well. The hopes of the people of God in the past have been fulfilled and they will be fulfilled again. We must expect that God will come, holding us accountable for our sins to be sure, but then bringing redemption and showing us great grace.

Just as God delivered the Israelites from Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land, and just as He restored Judah from Babylonian captivity and rebuilt Jerusalem, and just as He sent the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, so in this Advent season we should expect Him to do great and mighty deeds in our world, in our lives, and in the lives of those we love. Do you think this is impossible? God is a God of the impossible! Do you think He has forgotten? God is a God who remembers His covenant and keeps His promises!

Indeed, one of the three purple candles on the Advent Wreath is the candle of hope and expectation. The flame on top of the candle reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12), that He illuminates our deep darkness both spiritually and intellectually, and that as the beneficiaries of His light, He calls us in turn to be light in the world (Matthew 5: 14-16). God has acted, is acting, and will act again. This is what we should expect Him to do.

But we must be prepared when He does. Only a few were ready when Jesus came the first time, folks like Simeon and Anna as we have seen, and people like Elizabeth, Zacharias, John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus. But most were not ready. Most of us are probably not very well prepared even now. So as the first season of the Christian year, Advent provides us with the opportunity to get ourselves back into shape spiritually. Advent is the time to be renewed spiritually, so that we will be ready to remember and celebrate Jesus’ incarnation and birth at Christmas time. Yet many of us miss the true significance of this sacred season because we were too busy or distracted.

So what should we do? I would recommend four things briefly. First, Advent is the right time to repent, perhaps of some specific sin or sins, and especially of our spiritual sloth or indifference. When we repent, we not only change our minds, as the Greek word (metanoia) literally suggests. More importantly, we are to change our lives. This is where Advent spirituality must admittedly begin, with a radical change in our walk with God and in our way of life in the world.

Second, Advent is also a time for prayer—praying as you always would, but also asking God to reveal to you the deeper meanings and implications of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Give thanks to God for Christ’s coming and for His coming again, and explore in prayer how these horizons frame your understanding of life and shape your callings and purposes as a child of God living in this world.

Third, Advent is a time for meditation. We need to set some time aside to be alone and to think. Reflecting on God and Scripture, reading a stimulating book, studying aspects of creation and culture are pursuits that will enrich the meaning of this time of the year. Advent ought to nourish intellectually and spiritually. 

Finally, Advent is also good for making fresh commitments to God that are heartfelt and achievable. If we make New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of each new calendar year, we should also make genuine spiritual commitments at the beginning of the new Christian year. God will reveal to you in what areas of life you need a fresh start. Ask Him, and He will open the door.

Advent, then, is a time of longing, expectation, and preparation. May God place within us a great desire to see Christ coming and at work in the world and in our lives, and may He prepare us to be ready for it when it comes.

David Naugle is professor of Philosophy at Dallas Baptist University where he has served for 14 years. In addition to teaching and working with students, he maintains an active schedule of writing and speaking.

Ex Nihilo and Per Verbum

What have we learned up to this point in our study of a biblical worldview? First of all, we have learned that Jesus was the smartest person who ever lived, that He had a deeply biblical view of life, and that we, as His disciples, should have the same so that we can think and live as He did. Second, we have learned that in order to develop a biblical worldview like our Lord’s, we need to understand the overall story of the Bible through the lenses of creation, fall, and redemption. Third, we have seen how this big picture of the Bible joins the “bits and pieces” of the faith together into a systematic unity, binds the Old and New Testaments into one coherent story, and replaces a dualistic, compartmentalized perspective on life by a vision of biblical wholeness. Fourth, we have examined the story of creation and learned how it answers basic questions about our location, identity, and purpose. Fifth, we have studied the fall of humanity into sin and learned about its devastating consequences.

After today’s lesson, which is the midpoint of our study, we will take an in-depth look at the history of redemption as it is promised in the Old Testament through covenants fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. We will conclude this series of lessons by using our worldview framework to develop biblical perspectives on four practical areas: vocational calling, education, the media, and competing worldviews.

Of course, our goal in all of this is to acquire a comprehensive biblical view of life. During the turbulent days of the second World War, Dorothy Sayers bemoaned the fact that “We have rather lost sight of the idea that Christianity is supposed to be an interpretation of the universe.” It is this larger vision of our faith that we are striving to recover. But we have an even more important goal than this. We want a biblical view of life so that we can be about the business of kingdom living here and now.

To assist us in this purpose, we need to nail down our theology of creation and the fall. In this lesson, therefore, we will present some several theological principles that will round out our thinking about these two vital areas.

Our discussions up to this point have contained considerable theological content. But we can still make an advance. Hopefully the following concepts about creation will stimulate our thinking and increase our understanding of this foundational doctrine in Scripture.

CREATION IS OUT OF NOTHING (EX NIHILO) AND BY GOD’S WORD (PER VERBUM)
The historic teaching of the Christian Church is that God the Trinity, by His free, sovereign will and through the command of His omnipotent Word, brought the entire universe into existence out of nothing. Verses six and nine of Psalm 33 affirm this classic point of view: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made; And by the breath of His mouth all their hosts. ... For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.”

This doctrine stands in sharp contrast to Plato’s perspective that God created the world out of eternally existing raw materials (ex hulas). It is also quite different from the pantheistic point of view which asserts that God by necessity fashioned the universe out of His own divine being (ex Deo). This teaching, which affirms that God in His goodness is the author of the whole creation, is also distinguished from dualistic conceptions of reality that ascribe the physical universe to an evil deity and the spiritual universe to a good one.

The ex nihilo doctrine also maintains a clear distinction between the infinite Creator and His finite creation. It ascribes contingency (or dependency) to the entire universe. It attributes eternity to God alone. It implies that reality is fundamentally personal in character since it is created and upheld in its entirety by the infinite, personal God.

Though God is separate from His creation and stands above it in His transcendence, at the same time He is intimately involved in the world He has made in His immanence. A distinguishing characteristic of the biblical view of life is that God is a God who comes, a God who visits His people, a God who breaks into history and human lives and performs mighty deeds (see Psalm 150: 2). He is not an absentee Creator who merely “watches us from a distance” as in the deistic worldview. Rather, God is fully engaged with His very good, personal universe that He made out of nothing by His word over which He rules and in which He works. These are the basic tenets of classic Christian theism.

CREATION IS DESIGNED BY GOD’S WISDOM AND GOVERNED BY HIS LAW
God’s concern for His world is not only detected by His direct intervention in it through mighty deeds, but also because He designed it by His wisdom and governs it by His law. Wisdom is personified in Scripture as a “Master Craftsman” or “Artisan” assisting God in fashioning the universe according to a perfect divine plan. As Psalm 104: 24 puts it: “O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions” (see also Job 28:12-28; Proverbs 3:19; 8:22-31; Jeremiah 10:12). God’s knowledge and skillfulness are on display in everything He has made. As one theologian says, “The whole world is thus the realization of an idea of God; a book containing letters, large and small, from which his wisdom can be known.” God has worked His wisdom into the very constitution of the universe. Therefore, if we want to live wisely ourselves, we must understand how God has made the world and submit to it. We must have knowledge of His blue print for human life and order our way accordingly. Human wisdom, put otherwise, is “ethical conformity to God’s creation.”

Another way of saying this is that God’s laws govern everything. All realms of reality—physical, moral, spiritual, cultural—have a certain divinely ordained structure to them. In some cases, especially in nature, these laws function automatically. The work of gravity, the orbits of planets, and the metamorphosis of a butterfly are good examples. In other cases, especially in moral, spiritual, or cultural affairs, people must discover these laws and obey them. This is certainly true in marriage and family life. The proper operation of a church, or a business enterprise, or a school also depends upon discovering and obeying the laws that govern them. All of these (and other) domains are principled and unique. They have particular purposes and must not be confused. There are right and wrong ways of functioning in each of them.

One of my favorite examples is in the area of farming. God’s laws even govern agriculture. According to Isaiah 28: 23-29, how to plow is not something the farmer decides on his own. Rather “his God instructs him and teaches him properly” (v.26). When it comes to harvesting the crops, again, the farmer does not determine the process. Instead this matter “also comes from the Lord of hosts, who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great” (v.29). So it is with every sphere of life. God’s wisdom penetrates them all. His laws preside over everything. Perhaps this is why David prays in Psalm 119: 34, “Give me understanding that I may observe Thy law.” May be it is also the reason why Solomon exhorts in Proverbs 2:2, “Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding.”

CREATION AS REVELATION AND SACRAMENTAL
God the Trinity is the Creator of the universe and His laws and wisdom oversee it all. We are not surprised, then, if the whole creation—every creature in it, and every particle of it—declare God’s glory and make Him known. God has revealed Himself in the person of His son Jesus Christ—His living, incarnate revelation. He has revealed Himself in Scripture—His special, written revelation. He also discloses Himself through creation—His general, natural revelation. Indeed, through faith in Jesus Christ as He is revealed to us in Scripture, we come to understand who God is, and that the world as His creation, speaks of Him everywhere.

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Romans 1:20 states, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Isaiah 6:3 literally reads, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the fullness of the earth is His glory.”

Creation is one colossal doxology. We see the presence and love of God in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat! God reveals Himself through creation as the place where we work and play, live and love. The whole cosmos has a sacramental character. It is drenched with sacred significance. Life is shot through with God’s presence. It is charged with God’s grandeur. This holy vision of reality ought to enable us to see Him in everything and prompt us to a life of joy and gratitude.

CREATION HAS A THEOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL PURPOSE
Creation is the first doctrine taught in Scripture. It is foundational to a biblical view of life. We would be mistaken, however, if we thought that it was primarily a philosophic or scientific concept. To be sure it does tell us why something is here rather than nothing at all. It has implications for the creation and evolution debate. Yet its true significance is deeply spiritual. We can see this in at least four ways.

First, it teaches us who God is. It exalts Him as the sovereign, omnipotent, wise, good, and loving Creator (Job 37-38; Psalm 19: 1-6; Isaiah 40). Second, it teaches us who we are. We learn that the Lord Himself is God; He made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100: 3). The doctrine of creation puts our lives in a proper perspective before God and humbles us. Third, it strengthens faith. If God can create the world, He can certainly redeem it. If God is the Maker of heaven and earth, He can surely minister to me at my time of need. Creation guarantees new creation both individually and cosmically (Psalm 33: 6-12; 65: 6-7; 89: 5-12; 121:1-2; 134: 3; Isaiah 40:28-31; 42: 5-9; 2 Corinthians 5: 17; Revelation 21-22). Finally, the doctrine of creation simply prompts us to worship. So with John we say: “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

Next time we will review the theology of the fall.

David Naugle is professor of Philosophy at Dallas  Baptist University where he has served for 14 years. In addition to teaching and working with students, he maintains an active schedule of writing and speaking.

The Whole Truth of the Incarnation

“God sends His Son―here lies the only remedy.” So said Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his celebrated book The Cost of Discipleship. What more appropriate thought is there to introduce our December edition of the Worldview Church E-Report. As we move into the Advent and Christmas seasons, we are uniquely conscious of God’s gift of His Son to be the Lord and Savior of the world, and we are grateful. To help you reflect on this superlative matter, you will find a brief Advent homily written by yours truly that focuses on the themes of longing for God to come, expecting Him to do great things, and preparing for God’s work when it arrives. Plus you will also find my regular commentary on a biblical worldview. This time I pause to take stock of the progress we have made so far, and to review several important theological themes related to the doctrine of creation.

T.M. Moore sets forth some hard hitting words in his Issachareans column that call for a more “balanced” presentation of Christ through preaching at Christmas time. The image of Jesus so often presented this time of year is rather benign. He is frequently proclaimed as a soft, mushy advocate of peace and good will only, minus the tougher elements of His gospel teaching. But these tougher elements of the kingdom that Jesus launched spell out bad news for Satan, for secularists, and for materialists. While salvation is available even for the most hardened, T.M. believes that the whole truth about Christ needs to be told, even if some of these neglected teachings might offend. His is a sobering word that needs to be heard, yes, even at Christmas.

To round out this last installment of the Worldview Church E-Report for this year, T.M. also offers a succinct review of Cornelius Van Til’s Christian Apologetics, as this book has been recently re-released by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, and edited by William Edgar. Edgar’s annotations make a difficult text easier to grasp, and Moore’s own review will give you a taste of what to expect in this short, but important book.

Bonhoeffer continues his thoughts about Christ in his The Cost of Discipleship this way:

It is not enough to give man a new philosophy or a better religion. A man comes to men. … And thus He does not create around Him just a new way of thought, will, and action, but he gives us the new image, the new form. … But it is not the same image as Adam…. Rather, it is the image of one who enters the world of sin and death, who take upon himself all the sorrows of humanity, who meekly bears God’s wrath and judgment against sinners and obeys his will with unswerving devotion in suffering and death, the Man born to poverty, the friend of publicans and sinners, the Man of sorrows, rejected of man and forsaken of God. Here is God made man, here is man in the new image of God (p. 340).

May these thoughts accompany you during your pilgrimage of faith this December, and may God our Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you all this sacred season.

Blessed Advent and Merry Christmas!

David Naugle

David Naugle is professor of Philosophy at Dallas  Baptist University where he has served for 14 years. In addition to teaching and working with students, he maintains an active schedule of writing and speaking.

Apparently J.P. Moreland didn’t get Marx’s memo about philosophers. He’s only supposed to talk about the world, not try to change it. But the distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology—and author of such weighty tomes as Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview and Scaling the Secular City—is less concerned about Marx’s views than he is those of the secularists and postmodernists he reduces to ash in this challenging and encouraging little book.

If you only read one book by a philosopher this summer, read Kingdom Triangle. You’ll be impressed by J.P.’s grasp of the issues, the sweep of his critique of contemporary thought, and the laser-like focus of his recommendations. You’ll also be amazed to hear a philosopher speaking so personally, clearly, and boldly about the practical way out of our contemporary intellectual, moral, and spiritual morass.

J. P. Moreland is unfazed by the rants of atheistic secularists or agnostic postmodernists. As he shows so clearly, no one in any unbelieving camp has a leg to stand on which he hasn’t borrowed from Biblical truth. J.P.’s evaluation of the presuppositions and foundational assumptions of contemporary unbelieving worldviews is insightful and appropriately dismissive. The unmasking of radical unbelief seems so easy in his skilled hands. In a few non-technical sentences he is able to expose the chinks in the non-existent philosophical armor of radical unbelief and to penetrate it with rapier-like reason, grounded in Biblical truth. Why can’t we all do that?

Because, as J. P. points out in his second major section, we don’t have the minds for it. The brains, yes—but not the minds. We have become lazy and undisciplined in training our minds to think God’s thoughts after Him, and it’s time we put our noses to the grindstone in this matter. The vapidity of contemporary intellectual thought has created a gaping hole in meaning that could well be filled by thoughtful and outspoken believers, disciplined to understand all of life from a Biblical perspective and bold to talk about it without apology.

Moreland warns “emerging church” types that, while they have some good ideas about engaging the culture, they need to be very thoughtful and careful that they don’t swallow the culture wholesale, lest they become, ironically, completely swallowed up by it. Christian leaders need to understand secular and postmodern thought, but they need to critique it according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to confront and silence anything that raises its head against the knowledge of God, and to exalt the name of Jesus in every area of their lives.

Such a renewal of the Christian mind cannot proceed, however, without renewal in our souls. If we thought reading and understanding contemporary philosophy was hard, what will we do when we have to begin adopting spiritual disciplines to pervade and sustain every moment of our lives? Moreland is his usual straight-up-get-a-life self in calling the followers of Christ to stop making excuses for insipidity in the spiritual life and roll up their sleeves and get to work on the disciplines needed to renew our souls.

And, as we do, let’s make a little more room for the Spirit of God to have His way with us, shall we? In the final chapter of part 2, Moreland may surprise his readers by his unabashed support of “signs and wonders” as yet-valid manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, this chapter seems a little skewed in that direction, almost to the detriment of our being encouraged to seek the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the daily, “ordinary” matters of life and relationships. But J.P. understands this and cautions against too much pursuing of the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit (they are, after all, extra-ordinary). Still, he has no patience for cessationists or mealy-mouthed-maybes when it comes to the present work of the Spirit. His exhortation here, as well as throughout, needs to be carefully and prayerfully taken to heart.

Each chapter is filled with practical advice, personal illustrations, and helpful guidelines for beginning to engage the “Kingdom Triangle” of mind, soul, and Spirit with greater fervor, consistency, and effect. There’s something here every one of us can do to begin reclaiming the field of battle for the Lord.

T. M. Moore is dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet). He and his wife and editor, Susie, make their home in Concord, Tenn.