Glory to God, peace to mankind!

…There were some sheepherders living in that same area,
who were staying awake to guard their flocks of sheep overnight.

And then—look!—a Messenger from the Lord
stood over them,
and the Glory of the Lord
blazed all around them
and they were terrified.

But the Messenger told them, “Don’t be afraid!

“I’m here to tell you the good news—
great joy for this whole nation!
He is born for you today—
the Savior, who is Messiah the Lord!—
in David’s town!

“Now this will be your sign:
you will find a baby,
wrapped up tightly,
lying in a feed trough.”

Then all of a sudden there was with that Messenger
a whole legion of the Army of Heaven!
They were praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the Heights!
And on the earth,
peace to mankind,
and goodwill!”


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Remembering Patriarch Alexy II of Russia (1929-2008)

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II died last Friday near his patriarchal see in Moscow. He had served for eighteen and a half years as "Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia"—the last such Patriarch of the Soviet period, and the first of the newly independent Russia.

Alexy was born as Aleksei Ridiger in 1929 in a then-independent Estonia, the son of a German-Estonian father and a Russian mother. Earlier in his church career, he was suspected of collaborating with the Soviet government in the repression of Russian believers. However, in recent decades he had overseen a flourishing of the Russian Orthodox Church while also contributing to Russia's official coldness toward non-Orthodox Christians: Catholics, Baptists, and others. One of his greatest legacies is the 2007 reunion between the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which had been separated for 80 years.

A BBC retrospective captures some of the contradictions of Alexy's life:

Patriarch Alexiy II, who died on Friday, had an extraordinary career, in which he switched from suppressing the Russian Orthodox Church to being its champion.

A favourite of the KGB, he was promoted rapidly through the Church hierarchy, doing the Kremlin's bidding at a time when dissident priests were thrown into jail.

As the Church's effective foreign minister, he helped cover up the repression of Russian Christians, defending the Soviet system to the outside world.

He rose quickly through the ranks, being elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church at a crucial time, in 1990, with the Soviet Union on the path to collapse.

Surprisingly, perhaps, he seized the moment, and went on to oversee the revival and flowering of the Church, exuding moral authority and inspiring devotion among his followers.

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The sacrifice holiday

Today the world's Muslims are celebrating their biggest holiday of the year: "Eid al-Adha," which means "Festival of the Sacrifice."

On this day they commemorate the story of Abraham and his son which the Bible also records in Genesis 22. God tested Abraham by telling him to offer his son as a sacrifice, and Abraham obediently went to the place of sacrifice and prepared to make the offering. At that moment, God intervened and spared Abraham's son, giving him a ram to offer instead. (In the Bible, the son whose life was spared is identified as Isaac. The Qur'an does not say which son it was, but Islamic tradition names him as "Isma`il" or Ishmael.) To this day, devout Muslims slaughter a sheep or goat on Eid as a reminder of Abraham's obedience and God's mercy. They then share the meat with family, friends, and the poor, and celebrate the day as a joyful festival.

If this story belongs just as much to Christians as to Muslims, why don't we celebrate Eid al-Adha too? The answer is that, in a sense, we do. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all testify that Abraham obeyed God by bringing his son to sacrifice, but God spared the son's life and substituted a ram. Now, this true story was a symbol of something greater than itself; the Christian celebration of Good Friday and Easter commemorates the reality to which this symbol points. Messiah Jesus, the Son of God, was brought like Abraham's son to the hill of sacrifice. However, He was not spared there but killed, the "Lamb of God" offered for the sins of the whole world. And so He substituted for the life of everyone who becomes a "son of Abraham" by throwing themselves on God's mercy through Him. Abraham symbolically received his son back from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19), but God brought His Son back from death in actual fact. The greatest festival of all is the Resurrection of the Son of God, that glorious watershed of human history which we celebrate on Easter Sunday.

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Remembering that we forget

"There is such a thing as the momentary power to remember that we forget.

"And the most ignorant of humanity know by the very look of the earth that they have forgotten heaven."

—G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

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Троицкое славасловие

Джеффри Мосс

Благословен Отец Святой,
жизнь моя и хваленье!

Благословен Иисус Господь,
крепость моя и спасенье!

Благословен Всесильный Дух,
животворец Воскресенья!

Слава Отцу, и Сына прославьте,
и Духу хвала, песнопенье!

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All Saints and Reformation Day

The new online journal Basilica comments on the placement of Reformation Day and All Saints' Day next to each other on the calendar, and the implications of each for Reformed Christians.

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All Saints' Day

How appropriate for Protestants that All Saints' Day (Nov. 1) is the day immediately following Reformation Day (Oct. 31)! On Reformation Day we remember the courage of the German monk Martin Luther in speaking out for Truth against the abuses of the church hierarchy. However, the reforming voices of Luther and those like him occasioned a split in the Church that has not been healed to this day. It is good, then, to turn our hearts and minds to the whole Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and think today about all those throughout history whom He has made holy by grace. By His glorious Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, Christ is renewing the world. One day "every knee will bow...and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

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"What's Behind the Attacks on Christians in Mosul?"

Newsweek reports on attacks against Christians that have been going on in Mosul (Nineveh), northern Iraq. At least eight, and as many as 20 or more Christians have been killed, while thousands have fled the city. It's not clear who is behind the attacks.

See also "In memoriam: Father Ragheed Ganni (1972-2007)".

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Anti-Christian violence in Orissa: now at seven weeks

It has now been seven weeks since the outbreak of violence against Christians in Orissa, a state in east-central India. A Hindu priest, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, was killed along with his four assistants on August 23, and although Maoist guerrillas claimed responsibility, Christians have been blamed for the deaths. Since then the area has seen more than 50 Christians killed, dozens of churches burned down, and thousands forced to flee their homes.

Today the archbishop of Orissa, Raphael Cheenath of the ancient Syro-Malabar Church, issued a call for the state government to put an end to the violence. He claimed that the local police have conspired to stand by passively while Christians are targeted by rioters.

At times the violence has seemed to be dying down, only to flare up freshly. New fighting on Thursday spurred by the Hindu celebration of Dussehra left ten people injured, two of them critically. Meanwhile, eight people have been arrested for the August 26 gang-rape of a nun belonging to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, but the authorities have been very slow about bringing the case to trial.

Sources include "Orissa archbishop wants CBI probe" (The Times of India), "Orissa death toll rises to 52" (Catholic Culture), and "Three more arrested for raping Orissa nun" (Hindustan Times).

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A tale of two holidays

Today Muslims in North America are celebrating “Eid ul-Fitr,” the “Holiday of the Breaking of the Fast” that comes at the end of the month of Ramadan. Because I teach English as a second language and have a lot of Muslim students, I’ve been very much aware of their daytime fasting that has been going on for the last four weeks. During Ramadan, Muslims are required to purify themselves through abstaining from all food and drink, as well as sex, cigarettes, etc., from dawn until dark every day. Then the coming of Eid means three days of feasting and celebration—the biggest holiday of the year for them. This cycle of fasting and feasting was put in place during the life of Muhammad and commemorates his receiving of the Qur’an.

Although Islamic traditions like these may seem strange to us as modern Western Christians, the fast of Ramadan and feast of Eid may have been influenced by Christian practices that go back even further. A forty-day partial fast for Lent, culminating in the celebration of Easter, was observed at least from the fourth century A.D. Writing in the second century, Irenaeus of Lyons describes some different Christian customs for fasting prior to Easter, and then comments, “Such variation in the observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers.” In other words, there were some differences in how Christians fasted before Easter, but the observance itself was already ancient.

It is very clear from the Bible and experience that the Lord has built recurring cycles into all of life. The Flood in Noah’s time brought a great disruption, but God’s promise afterward is, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). What is true in “nature” is also true in human life: we are awake during the day and sleep at night, we alternate work and other activities with meals and rest, and the arc of our life progresses from birth to youth and maturity, and then the declining years and finally physical death.

These cycles also show up in the life of the Church, as they should. In the Old Testament God gave His people a yearly pattern of holidays, with the great fast occurring at the Day of Atonement and the greatest feast coming at Passover as the Israelites celebrated their deliverance from Egypt. Weekly sabbaths were lesser holidays, but just as important in their own right. Every week the Israelites had a day to rest and worship the Lord as they remembered His completion of the work of creation. Since the time of Christ and the apostles, the Church has developed new holidays that commemorate similar things in the light of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Our weekly day of joy is no longer the seventh-day sabbath, but the first day of week, on which Jesus Christ conquered death and brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10). And the Church has traditionally celebrated new annual holidays in place of the great days of the Old-Covenant Jews. The inter-Testamental festival of light, Hanukkah, was replaced by the new winter festival of Christmas to celebrate Messiah’s birth. And the high holy day of Passover has become Easter Sunday, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lamb which is the greatest of all days of the year.

Although the Bible does not require Christians to observe any kind of fast before Easter or feast on that special Sunday, we have far greater reasons for doing so than the Muslims have for their Ramadan and their Eid. If Muslims fear offending God through their sins, we have far greater reason to fear if we rebel against the God who is not only far away but also very near to us in the Incarnate Christ and in His Spirit. If they grieve and purify themselves during the holy month of the revelation of the Qur’an, we ought to grieve far more because we know our sins required the death of the Son of God, the Perfect Man. And most of all, if they rejoice and feast and congratulate each other at the end of the fast of Ramadan, we ought to have a joy that knows no bounds as we come to our annual bright festival of Easter: the Lord reclaiming Life and re-making the world by His glorious resurrection! They believe they have received a book from God; we know that we have received God Himself. Jesus has come, and He is making all things new.

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I Believe in the Communion of Saints

“Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won…”
—Samuel J. Stone, “The Church’s One Foundation”

The confession known as the “Apostles’ Creed” is one of the most ancient statements of faith in Western Christendom. It originated in the first or second century A.D. and developed into its present form by about 700, and it is now held in common by Roman Catholics, Western-Rite Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians and the Continental Reformed, Methodists, many Baptists, and others.

Not only is the Apostles’ Creed itself a signpost to unity among different denominations of Christians, but it also contains a ringing testimony to the unity of Christ’s people. Like most ancient Christian confessions of faith, the Creed is divided into three main sections—one on the Father, one on the Son, and one on the Holy Spirit. The third section begins: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints.” Now, we know that the Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity, the breath of God the Father and the gift of the Son. And given our heritage of covenantal theology, the Church is not foreign to our thinking. But what is this “communion of saints,” and what do we mean when we say that we believe in it?

The words that make up this phrase are not hard to grasp. “Communion” is the Greek koinōnia, “having or being in common,” a word that is often translated as “fellowship” or “sharing.” “Saints” are simply “holy ones,” that is, people who are set apart (the root meaning of “holy” or “saint”) as God’s own. Basically, the communion of saints is fellowship with the holy ones, sharing together with all God’s people. A simple concept—but when we understand the true meaning of fellowship and of holiness, the implications are profound, and the consequences stretch to eternity.

Let us begin at the beginning. Having communion or fellowship with the saints must always start with God Himself, the Holy One. What is said about Christ in Hebrews is a true description of the Triune God: He is “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26). God is glorious, supreme above His creation and absolutely free of all defilement of sin. He is His own being, eternally existing of Himself and not dependent on anyone else. All goodness and rightness are ultimately defined by Him without need for any other standard above or beside Him. He is who He is, an eternally burning flame of love and light that illuminates the whole universe and consumes anything that stands opposed to it. All this is what we mean when we confess that God is holy.

But the attribute of holiness is not limited to God alone. It is His both to have and to give, and He gives it to whom He chooses. He once set free the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, in order for them to be “a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). He told them, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). The apostle Peter quotes the same words to the New Testament people of God (1 Peter 1:16), agreeing with the words of Paul that Christians are “called as saints” (Romans 1:7). Being God’s people means being people who love what He loves, who hate what He hates, who seek what He seeks. In this life no Christian is yet completely holy, but every Christian is called to total holiness and is led by God to become what He intends. It is for this reason that we who live the Christian life (with all our remaining weaknesses and doubts) are described in Scripture as “holy.” That is, Christians all over the world—whether old or young, wise or immature, sophisticated or simple, black or white or yellow or brown—are every one of us “saints” in God’s eyes.

Now if Christians who still struggle with the trials of earthly life are saints and holy to the Lord, how much more is this true of those who have completed their work here and gone on into His presence! “He who has died has been freed [literally, ‘justified’] from sin,” writes Paul (Romans 6:7). Whoever dies in the Lord gets the best of all worlds—they are freed from their sins and yet still able to practice righteousness; they rest from their labors and yet the fruit of their good deeds follows them (Revelation 14:13); and best yet, they die to this world only to live with the Lord and await the fulfillment of life in the Resurrection (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10).

For all of the reasons just given, Christians throughout history have given great honor to those who went before us. We know by faith that we are in Christ, but they already see His face and experience gloriously what we still know only dimly and long for. And yet we have the same Lord and the same salvation as they; we share with them the same hope of resurrected glory; and we are joined together with them in the life of God the Trinity. Therefore we know that we belong to them and they to us. Everything they have is already ours by faith and in hope. While their past example points the way for us to follow, we are motivated to righteousness in the present by knowing that they surround us as a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1).

In fact, it was in just this way that the creedal phrase “communion of saints” was originally understood. The early Christians suffered severe persecutions that included the loss of many of their friends. It was especially important for them to know that those saints who had already finished the race were present with them constantly through their common Lord, Jesus. Christians who faced everything from ridicule to martyrdom for their faith could look to those who had already “fallen asleep” as examples, as forerunners, as fathers and mothers in the Way, as partakers together with them of the constant stream of life that flows from God.

In these more secular and earth-bound times, we need to pay attention to the real fellowship we have with Christians who have finished their earthly life. We are not to worship them, because after all they are still only our fellow servants, and worship is due to God alone (see Revelation 19:10). But we ought to honor and respect them, learn about their lives and seek to imitate them as they imitated Christ. We know that just as we are joined to them in the “communion of saints,” they also are joined to us. The future of the holy Church that they worked to build up during their time on earth is now in our hands. The full fruitfulness of their past labors depends on our faithfulness in the present to carry on their work—and we will pass it on to those who will come after us.

While our communion with all the saints binds us closely to past believers, it also has profound meaning for the present life of Christians. John’s Gospel records the Lord Jesus speaking again and again about the need for unity among His followers on earth. The unity of God’s flock was a key part of Jesus’ own mission: “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Love for one another would be the essential mark of Christ’s disciples (John 13:35). God has declared that He will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 48:11), but He gave it to His own Son who is the exact representation of Himself—and the Son gave glory to His disciples. Yet He did not lose any glory in giving it away, because the purpose of the gift was to join all of them together with one another and with the Father and the Son, in a perfect unity that would prove to the world that Jesus was sent by God (John 17:22-23).

This divine glory is what we share in here and now—not only with our brothers and sisters who have gone on to their eternal reward, but also with those who struggle together with us in this world. The Apostle Paul (whom we are told to imitate, as he imitated Christ) was one who knew the communion of the saints as a living reality. He wrestled daily and hourly in prayer for the Christian people who were so dear to him. His concern was not only for those he knew, but also for those who had never seen his face in the flesh (Colossians 2:1). His very life was tied up with the Thessalonian believers’ steadfastness in the Lord (1 Thessalonians 3:8). Whenever any Christian was weak, he felt it in himself; any stumble by a fellow believer, and he himself was burning up (2 Corinthians 11:29).

The communion of saints means that no Christian is exempt from fellowship with any other Christian. The public actions of Christian leaders, from the Pope of Rome to charismatic televangelists and from Chinese house-church pastors to the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, reflect on all Christians everywhere. On the local level, a well-educated and wealthy church that glories in its own theological attainments but turns up its nose at the simpler brethren down the street is just as much a disgrace to the Gospel as a church that denies the foreknowledge of God or the deity of Christ—perhaps more so, because it adds hypocrisy to all its other sins.

If you truly love the Lord, and know that the church is His body, how can you be detached from the life of all the Lord’s people? Can you be satisfied with anything less than the intense agonies of Paul, in prayer for the churches and in labor with them until they are fully formed in Christ? Can you do anything other than remember the prisoners, as if you yourselves were chained with them (Hebrews 13:3)? Can you ignore the Holy Spirit’s voice telling you to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15)? In this age of information, how can you not seek to know about—and uphold with your prayers and resources—your fellow Christians in Africa, in Asia, in Australia and the Pacific islands, in Europe, in Latin America, in the Middle East?

We are in fact joined to all who are in Christ—past and present, near and far, old and young, of all tribes and languages and cultures. Let us devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the communion of saints, to know and honor our fathers in the faith, to love and serve the Christians of today, and so to glorify God in His Church as it expands throughout the world.

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The Gift of Suffering

“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.”
—Philippians 1:27-29

The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippian Christians is one of the most profound ironies not only in the Bible, but in the whole history of the human soul. Held fast in a Roman prison, uncertain if he would ever get out alive, Paul penned this letter saturated with peace and joy. He urged his friends not to be afraid of the very real enemies that they faced. Even though persecution and suffering had already come upon the Philippians and could be expected to get worse, they were to rejoice! Why? Because just as their faith in Christ had been granted to them as a gift from God, so also their suffering was a gift. Their choice to receive it from God’s hand, without fear, was a sign that all opposition to them would fail—but that they themselves would be saved.

Christians who lived (like these Philippians) in the first century after Christ could expect to receive severe and very visible persecution for their profession of faith. Many were actually put to death, following in their Lord’s footsteps as they went to execution. The deacon Stephen was stoned to death by enraged Jews in Jerusalem; James, John’s brother, was killed with the sword; and according to ancient Christian tradition, all of the Twelve Apostles except John were eventually martyred for their confessed faith in Christ. The early Church produced too many martyrs to count—men, women, and children who were faithful to the point of death (cf. Revelation 2:10). Alongside these believers who died for their faith, there were many more who were imprisoned, forced out of their homes and livelihoods, and subjected to other kinds of hardships.

Throughout history, there have been many places and times in which Christians have been forced to suffer just like our first-century forefathers. But there have also been times and places where Christians live in relative peace. We Christians of North America who live in the twenty-first century have a life of astonishing ease and comfort, in comparison with many of those who went before us. How should we respond when we read words like Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians quoted above? What should we do when we hear the even more striking words, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12)? Here Paul is making it sound as though every godly Christian is a suffering Christian! And how are we to react to the Apostle Peter’s words in 1 Peter 4:1, “Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin”? Here it sounds as if we are to positively choose suffering and seek it out—that suffering is the preferred way for us both to imitate Christ’s example and to be free from sin.

The words of Scripture are true, of course. However, even though suffering for Christ’s sake is a common experience to godly Christians of all times and places, the appearance of that suffering can be very different. We may consider the history of just one country, Egypt, as an illustration of the great range of persecutions that Christians have suffered over time. John Mark—the writer of the “Gospel according to Mark” and the first Christian bishop of Alexandria—suffered a martyr’s death when worshipers of the old Egyptian gods had him dragged behind horses through the streets of the city. Three centuries later, Mark’s successor Athanasius the Great suffered a lesser but still very real persecution, being exiled five times from Alexandria because he affirmed the deity of Christ against the Arian heretics. Samuel the Confessor, an Egyptian Christian who lived in the seventh century, was tortured for his faith both by agents of the Byzantine emperor and by sun-worshiping Berbers. In recent years, some Coptic Christians living in Islamic Egypt have suffered exile from their homes like Athanasius, physical abuse like Samuel, and in a few cases, even death like Mark. Yet for the most part they have experienced less obvious kinds of persecution: being denied a job because they are Christians, or being subjected to the spite and ridicule of others who think they are inferior. All of these kinds of suffering, from simple annoyance and harassment up to and including martyrdom, are joined together as a testimony to the perseverance and faith of the Church in Egypt throughout history.

We must never deny the importance of those Christian heroes who are called to give up their lives, or at least suffer physical torture, for the sake of the Gospel. And yet the experience of suffering that most of us face as Christians in the West is closer to that of our modern Egyptian brothers than to what the ancient ones experienced. Very few of us are called to lay down our lives or go into exile for the Gospel; many more are called to lose respect or social status, or perhaps a job opportunity with its accompanying income, if we resist compromising our faith.

For any Christian reading this paper, the questions to be asked are simple. Do you ever experience some kind of suffering—ridicule, exclusion from social circles, verbal abuse, loss of opportunity, or other hard circumstances—because of your faithfulness in living as a follower of Christ? If so, how ought you to respond to it? If not, why not? The Bible does not teach that persecution and suffering will be constant for Christians, nor does it tell us some arbitrary level to which a person must be persecuted before he can be regarded as truly godly. But if you never experience suffering of any kind for your faith, is your obedience to God really as consistent as it ought to be? Are you compromising with worldliness in your actions, speech, or even thoughts (which shape the rest of a person) and so avoiding persecution because you’re really not so different from the non-believers around you? Or are you hiding the fact that you’re a Christian, trying to “fly under the radar” rather than face the responsibility of living as a servant of God in the middle of an ungodly workplace, extended family, or social network?

While the questions to be asked are simple and hard-hitting, the choices to be made are not always clear-cut. I once went into a job interview carrying a book with a cross symbol prominently displayed on the cover; it was a copy of St. Augustine’s Confessions that I had brought to read while waiting for the interview to start. The interviewer noticed the book and felt called upon to give me a warning: I would be free to read these kinds of books and practice my faith however I wanted on my own time, but I ought not to bring these things directly into my work or be pushy about them with customers. Christians who face situations like this one need to respond, like Daniel, with wisdom and tact (Daniel 2:14). Employers, relatives, and others who set limitations on our visible practice of our faith may simply be trying to preserve external harmony between us and them. Employers are concerned that we not become deadbeat employees who abuse work hours to advance our own “spiritual” purposes. Likewise, family members who do not share our faith in Christ may prefer to stay away from arguments over religion. We need to find ways to honor their sincere concerns, make a good-faith effort to avoid unprofitable talk and actions in the name of Christ, and still maintain a Christian testimony that is both peaceable and courageous. In other words, if we do eventually find ourselves suffering for what we do and say, that suffering had better be for the right reasons.

The Apostle Peter warns that not all of the suffering of Christians is worthy of praise. Christians may suffer for all the things that people of the world suffer for (murder, theft, unethical actions, meddling in other people’s business) and be worse off after their suffering, not better (1 Peter 4:15). On the other hand, if you are truly suffering for the sake of righteousness, several other factors must be in place. First, you have sanctified the Lord God in your heart, that is, acknowledged Him as holy and devoted yourself to Him. Second, you are ready to answer those who ask you about the source of your hope. (It’s true that Paul predicted persecution for the godly, but this is the other side of the same coin. If you never experience suffering, you have reason to ask whether you are truly living for God as you ought. But you should be asking that same question if you find that you are not filled with an inner hope, one that makes even pagans take notice.) Last but not least—in fact, Peter places this point first—if you are really suffering for righteousness, you are blessed for what you suffer. (1 Peter 3:14-15) If your suffering is for doing wrong, there is no blessing from God in it; but if it is truly for the sake of righteousness, you will know that God is with you and will vindicate you—even if you do not see this triumphant result for a long time.

Now at last we return to the second of the puzzling exhortations about suffering that we considered earlier. This one also comes from Peter: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Peter 4:1). We have seen that suffering comes in many different forms, but in one way or another should be expected by every godly Christian. Well, then, a choice to be godly is a choice to suffer; and a choice to suffer for godliness is a choice for what should be every Christian’s greatest desire: to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. If you set your mind to be godly, you are also placing yourself on the path of suffering. But rejoice! When in this way you choose to suffer for the sake of Christ, you are also putting the greatest distance possible between yourself and sin. Once you are so devoted to righteousness that you suffer for it, what place does the negation of righteousness have any more in your life? And once your mind is set on godliness and your body is imprinted with righteous suffering, you can know for certain that God is at work in you to conform you into the image of His Son.

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Mercy Children's Home, and more from Myanmar

Doug Jones posted some new photos from Myanmar: the Mercy Children's Home, and a look at the kinds of transportation Pastor Naing Thang used to visit churches in the north... Wow!

CREC Friends in Myanmar

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P. (1918-2008)

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, the courageous Russian writer and intellectual, died today at the age of 89.

Solzhenitsyn was best known for Arkhipelag GULag, in English "The Gulag Archipelago," his exposé of the Russian prison system that was first published in Paris in 1973. He was also awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize for Literature for his One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and similar writings.

Already banned from the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn became increasingly controversial in the West after his 1978 commencement address at Harvard, "A World Split Apart." In this speech he argued that liberty and culture were in decline in the West, and could not be revived unless God was again acknowledged and secular humanism rejected.

Solzhenitsyn's statement of these themes reached its fullest expression in his 1983 Templeton Address, which will serve as a fitting monument to him: "Men Have Forgotten God."

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For August: Psalm 47

(translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey Moss)

Of the Choir Director. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

All peoples, clap your hands!
Raise a shout to God with a resounding voice!
For Yahweh Most High is feared,
a great king over the whole earth.
He subdues peoples under us,
nations under our feet;
He chooses our inheritance for us,
the majesty of Jacob, whom He loves. selah

God has gone up with shouting,
Yahweh with the sounding of a trumpet!
Sing the praises of God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For the King of the whole earth is God;
sing a song of contemplation.
God has taken up His reign over the Gentiles;
God has taken His seat upon the throne of His holiness.
The nobles of the peoples have gathered,
the people of Abraham’s God.
For to God belong the sovereigns of the earth;
He is greatly exalted!

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The church in north Myanmar

Here are photos from Pastor Naing Thang's visit to several Reformed (CREC) churches in the north of Myanmar (Burma).

What a joy to see the Body of Christ gathered at the ends of the earth!

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Beards

“It is the business of these great masters to produce in every age a general misdirection of what may be called sexual ‘taste’. This they do by working through the small circle of popular artists, dressmakers, actresses and advertisers who determine the fashionable type. The aim is to guide each sex away from those members of the other with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and fertile marriages are most likely. Thus we have now for many centuries triumphed over nature to the extent of making certain secondary characteristics of the male (such as the beard) disagreeable to nearly all the females — and there is more in that than you might suppose….”
—C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

What’s so important about beards? Why do men grow them, why do some men shave them, and does it matter? And why in the world would C. S. Lewis, in his fictional account of the secret life of demons, include some women’s dislike for beards as one of the demonic success stories?

Let us begin at the very beginning. “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…. The LORD God formed man [Adam] of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being…. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said:

“‘This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.’

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 1:27; 2:7, 20b-24).

So mankind—both male and female—is created in the image of God. For this reason, men and women are equal in dignity and honor. Yet there are differences also. Adam was created first, from the dust; Eve was formed later out of Adam’s side. Adam was commissioned to work, and Eve to help him in his work. While man and woman are equal before God, they are different in their roles toward each other.

Because men and women were created to hold different positions in human society, God has ordained certain physical and societal differences between them. Obviously, men are distinguished from women by their different body shape and reproductive function. But in addition to this, God prohibited women from wearing what pertains to a man, and men from wearing women’s clothing (Deuteronomy 22:5). He decreed that a man or a woman should not take the position of the other in sexual relations, under penalty of death (Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:26-32). And by specifying of bishops and elders that such a man should be “the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6), He restricted the leadership of the church to men, even while linking the salvation of women to childbearing (1 Timothy 2:15)—a role that a man cannot perform.

And besides all these things, God gave to men (generally speaking) the ability to grow a beard.

There is no Biblical requirement that men should be bearded, or that they must wear some kind of facial hair. Yet a beard is one of the natural features that God has given men to distinguish themselves as men and not women. In fact, while beards are mentioned infrequently in the Bible, this seems to be only because it was generally assumed that men would wear them. We are told specifically that King David (1 Samuel 21:13), General Amasa (2 Samuel 20:9), Ezekiel the prophet (Ezekiel 5:1), and Ezra the priest (Ezra 9:3) were bearded men. Psalm 133 compares unity among brothers to the precious anointing oil running down into the beard of the high priest Aaron, who is one of the most important Old Testament foreshadowings of Christ. It is noteworthy that the Hebrew word for “beard” (zāqān) is closely related to the word for “elder” (zāqēn), which helps to illustrate the symbolic value of the beard as a mark of honor and wisdom.

On the other hand, there are only ten Biblical references to shaving the beard, and every one of them is related to either disease, idolatry, judgement for sin, or deep mourning. Consider the list that follows:

1. If a man has a skin disease, he is supposed to shave himself as part of the process of quarantining the potential leprosy (Leviticus 13:29-34).

2. A leper who is healed is to shave his entire head as part of the cleansing ritual (Leviticus 14:9), since his hair and beard were associated with the leprosy that he had before.

3. God prohibited cutting off the edges of the beard (Leviticus 19:27), a practice which was connected with idolatrous pagan worship, just like making cuts in the skin (1 Kings 18:28).

4. Priests, because they were holy to the Lord, were especially forbidden to shave the edges of their beards (Leviticus 21:5).

5. The Ammonite king Hanun seized David's messengers and shaved off half of their beards (along with cutting off half of their robes) as a way to especially humiliate them. David graciously told them to stay in Jericho until their beards grew back, so that they would not be exposed to public shame (2 Samuel 10:4-5). In the Greek translation of this passage, it says that the men were “dishonored” (the verb is atimazō), and the Apostle Paul uses the same root word to say in 1 Corinthians 11:14 that long hair is a “dishonor” (atimia, noun) to a man. Comparing these two passages, both a shaven face and long hair are considered to be dishonorable for men, because they go against what is natural to them and obscure the distinction between men and women.

6. Isaiah describes the coming judgement on Israel metaphorically by saying that the king of Assyria would cut off their beards and also shave their heads and their legs (Isaiah 7:20).

7. Isaiah says that in the coming destruction of Moab, the Moabites would shave their heads and cut off their beards—as a sign of either judgement or deep mourning, or both (Isaiah 15:1-2).

8. Eighty men came to Mizpah with their beards shaved off, their clothes torn, and their bodies cut, to show their profound grief over the ruin of Judah by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 41:5).

9. Jeremiah also prophesies that the men of Moab would have bald heads, clipped beards, cuts on their hands, and sackcloth on their bodies, because of the coming judgement (Jeremiah 48:37).

10. Ezekiel was to shave his head and beard as a sign of the destruction of the people of Jerusalem for their wickedness and rebellion (Ezekiel 5:1-5). (Similarly, Ezra pulled out some of his beard and tore his clothes as a sign of deep mourning over apostasy among the Israelites, Ezra 9:3.)

Along with all of these references to beards, there is Isaiah’s prophecy of the sufferings of Jesus. He speaks of three ways in which Christ’s enemies dishonored Him: they beat Him, they spit in His face, and they plucked out His beard (Isaiah 50:6).


Thus a consistent pattern emerges in the Bible’s references to beards: For men, wearing a beard tends to be a mark of honor and even of wisdom. On the other hand, shaving of the beard is mentioned only in connection with malignant diseases, idolatrous rituals that were banned in Israel, destructive judgements, great disgrace, or deep mourning. Whatever we may think of it in our day, in the Bible it was normal for men to have hair on their faces—and whenever they deviated from this pattern, something was deeply wrong.

Throughout the centuries, much Christian writing and tradition has preserved the same positive attitude about beards on men. Only a few examples from the Church Fathers and the time of the Reformation will be given here. St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215) wrote of beards as an important God-given distinction between men and women: “How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest—a sign of strength and rule.” St. Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258) added, “The beard must not be plucked. ‘You shall not deface the figure of your beard,’” citing Leviticus 19:27 as his authority. The fourth-century “Apostolic Constitutions,” which had great authority in the formation of church law, also quotes Leviticus when it urges, “Men may not destroy the hair of their beards and unnaturally change the form of a man. For the Law says, ‘You shall not deface your beards.’ For God the Creator has made this decent for women, but has determined that it is unsuitable for men.”

When the Western or “Catholic” Church split from the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1054, they condemned the East for many things, including having non-celibate clergy who wore beards. The two issues were apparently connected. Roman Catholic clergy took vows of celibacy and also were clean-shaven, rejecting the beard because of its association with male sexuality. On the other hand, many of the leading Protestant Reformers grew long beards at the same time that they rejected clerical celibacy and other church traditions that they viewed as unscriptural. (And although William Shakespeare does not exactly speak for the whole of English Protestantism, he does have Beatrice say in Much Ado about Nothing, “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.”)


It would be wrong to say that for men to be clean-shaven is sinful or wicked. However, God has generally designed men’s faces to grow hair. When a society like our own prefers to have men’s facial hair shaved off, it shows that it does not value masculine honor, since it removes one of the natural marks distinguishing men from women. It is as if either idolatry, shame, illness, or judgement—the Biblical situations in which we see men being shaved—has become the norm for our culture.

Some people may object that Christian men ought to have an agreeable appearance, and a beard detracts from that. In part, this objection is based on worldly preferences that are not founded in Biblical teaching; in fact, the desire to conform to secular standards of attractiveness is sometimes condemned in the Bible when it goes against deeper standards of modesty and beauty (see 1 Corinthians 11:3-16; 1 Timothy 2:9-10; 1 Peter 3:3). However, there is some truth in the objection as well. Trimming or shaping one’s beard, choosing to wear different styles of beards or mustaches, or going clean-shaven when there are strong external reasons for it, are all very acceptable style choices for Christian men. But as we make these choices, we ought to remember that godless Western culture has a deep-seated resentment against men who are masculine (along with women who are feminine). Christian men should always be watchful to do what we can to resist that trend, showing by our appearance as well as our behavior that we honor the role God has given to us as men.

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Poetry: Rich Mullins, "Calling Out Your Name"

The American singer-songwriter Rich Mullins (1955-1997) composed a body of songs that were generally contemporary in their style, but often timeless in the depth of their content. His rhapsodies about the praises of God in nature are poetry in their own right, sometimes calling to mind the work of such earlier authors as Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Calling Out Your Name
by Rich Mullins

Psalm 19:1-6, Psalm 65:5-13

Well the moon moved past Nebraska
And spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills
And angels danced on Jacob's stairs
Yeah, they danced on Jacob's stairs
There is this silence in the Badlands
And over Kansas the whole universe was stilled
By the whisper of a prayer
The whisper of a prayer

And the single hawk bursts into flight
And in the east the whole horizon is in flames
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

I can feel the earth tremble
Beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves
And the fury in the pheasant's wings
And there's fury in a pheasant's wings
It tells me the Lord is in His temple
And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move
And a love that can make the heavens ring
And I've seen love make heaven ring

Where the sacred rivers meet
Beneath the shadow of the Keeper of the plains
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

From the place where morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever 'til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope

The hope that this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
And I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

And I know this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And with the prairies I am calling out Your name

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The Trinity and the Bible

One of several thoughts that arose during a discussion with Patrick (Pak Wa) Yau over his postings on "The Fake Four-God Bible".

The doctrine that God is Trinity, three Persons in one divine Being, helps us both to trust the Bible and have hope that we can understand it.

God the Father is the source of the Bible. He is the Giver of the Word. The trustworthiness of the Bible rests on His authority.

God the Son illuminates the Bible. Without Jesus, it would have been very difficult for us to hear and understand God's Word. But in Him, God has become one of us so that we have a person to match with that Voice. The Bible is illuminated by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, by the way He lived and talked when He was with us on earth.

God the Spirit interprets the Bible. If it were not for the Holy Spirit, true explanation of the Bible's teachings would be beyond us. But Jesus promised to send His Spirit to be with us, so that we would understand the things that God has spoken to us. The presence of the Spirit in the Church makes it possible for us to know that we are interpreting God's Word rightly, because the Spirit of the same God is with us teaching us how to read it. The right interpretation of the Bible flows from submission to the Spirit of God, who is present among us and lives in us.

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Poetry: St. John of the Cross

San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross, 1542-1591) composed some of the most beautiful poetry of love for God that has ever been written.

Here is his "Cantar del alma que se huelga de conocer a Dios por fe" (Song of the soul that rejoices in knowing God by faith), in Spanish and with an English translation from Carmelite.com.

Qué bien sé yo la fonte que mane y corre,
aunque es de noche.

1. Aquella eterna fonte está escondida,
que bien sé yo do tiene su manida,
aunque es de noche.

2. Su origen no lo sé, pues no le tiene,
mas sé que todo origen de ella tiene,
aunque es de noche.

3. Sé que no puede ser cosa tan bella,
y que cielos y tierra beben de ella,
aunque es de noche.

4. Bien sé que suelo en ella no se halla,
y que ninguno puede vadealla,
aunque es de noche.

5. Su claridad nunca es oscurecida,
y sé que toda luz de ella es venida,
aunque es de noche.

6. Sé ser tan caudalosos sus corrientes.
que infiernos, cielos riegan y las gentes,
aunque es de noche.

7. El corriente que nace de esta fuente
bien sé que es tan capaz y omnipotente,
aunque es de noche.

8. El corriente que de estas dos procede
sé que ninguna de ellas le precede,
aunque es de noche.

9. Aquesta eterna fonte está escondida
en este vivo pan por darnos vida,
aunque es de noche.

10. Aquí se está llamando a las criaturas,
y de esta agua se hartan, aunque a oscuras
porque es de noche.

11. Aquesta viva fuente que deseo,
en este pan de vida yo la veo,
aunque es de noche.


For I know well the spring that flows and runs,
although it is night.

1. That eternal spring is hidden,
for I know well where it has its rise,
although it is night.

2. I do not know its origin, nor has it one,
but I know that every origin has come from it,
although it is night.

3. I know that nothing else is so beautiful,
and that the heavens and the earth drink there,
although it is night.

4. I know well that it is bottomless
and no one is able to cross it,
although it is night.

5. Its clarity is never darkened,
and I know that every light has come from it,
although it is night.

6. I know that its streams are so brimming
they water the lands of hell, the heavens, and earth,
although it is night.

7. I know well the stream that flows from this spring
is mighty in compass and power,
although it is night.

8. I know the stream proceeding from these two,
that neither of them in fact precedes it,
although it is night.

9. This eternal spring is hidden
in this living bread for our life's sake,
although it is night.

10. It is here calling out to creatures;
and they satisfy their thirst, although in darkness,
because it is night.

11. This living spring that I long for,
I see in this bread of life,
although it is night.

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The Blessings of Fasting

A paper that I wrote recently for Greyfriars' Hall.

“Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: … ‘When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’ ” (Matthew 5:1-2; 6:16-18, ESV)

In the few years of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ gathered a group of disciples and taught them about the Kingdom of God. He knew that He would be with them in body only for a short time, and that the teachings He gave them in those days would lay the foundation for the faith of His disciples throughout all future history. Christ spoke to them about the greatest and most essential things: the need to trust in Him, the progress of the Kingdom in history, blessings and curses, murder and adultery, love and hatred, obedience to God, prayer, and…fasting. But if most of these topics are treated in today’s evangelical church as very weighty and serious matters, why is fasting so widely ignored?

Oddly enough, Jesus’ teaching on fasting (as quoted above) comes right in the middle of His “Sermon on the Mount”—a passage that many present-day Christians take as proof that what they do with their bodies is not so very important. After all, didn’t Jesus just finish saying that the poor and despised of the world are blessed in the spiritual realm, where it really counts (Matthew 5:1-12)? Doesn’t He argue that murder and adultery are committed in the heart long before they work themselves out into physical actions (5:21-28)? Doesn’t He say that there is no need to worry about food and clothes—just seek first God’s kingdom, and you’ll have all that you need (6:25-33)? And finally, doesn’t He warn that even people with all the right words and actions can fall short of truly knowing Him (7:21-23)?

But right in the center of this same foundational sermon, there it is—the teaching on fasting. God the Son came to earth and became man, walked among us on two human feet, endured the weaknesses of hunger and thirst, suffered and died and rose again, in part so that He could give us these teachings about abstaining from food for a time—how we ought not to do this, and how we ought to.


As this passage itself makes obvious, fasting was not a new concept in Jesus’ time. The Old Testament Church practiced many kinds of fasts: national fasts (2 Chronicles 20:1-4), group fasts (2 Samuel 1:11-12), and individual fasts (Nehemiah 1:4); annual fasts (Leviticus 16:29-31) and special occasional fasts (Ezra 8:21-23); public fasts (Ezra 9:3-5) and private fasts (Daniel 9:3); absolute fasts without food or water (Esther 4:16), “normal” fasts by abstaining from food only (2 Samuel 12:16-17), and partial fasts (Daniel 10:2-3); fasts for public concerns (Judges 20:25-26) and for personal ones (1 Samuel 1:6-8). Old Covenant believers were continuing in these practices in Christ’s time (cf. Luke 2:36-37). Just as with His teachings on other aspects of the Law, the Lord was affirming the divinely-ordained practice of fasting by setting it free from hypocritical abuses. If His disciples did not fast while He was with them, it was only because with Him they had a continual wedding feast. But in the future, He said, He would be taken from them, and that would be the time for fasting (Mark 2:18-20). The disciples of Jesus learned this lesson well; several kinds of fasts are clearly illustrated and taught in the remainder of the New Testament (see Acts 10:30; 13:1-3; 14:23; 27:33-38; 1 Corinthians 7:5; 8:13; 2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27).

How, then, should we fast? A study of Biblical teachings and examples of fasting will illustrate why Christians ought to fast and when we would do well to fast, while also giving us direction about how to fast. First, however, what is fasting? A survey of dictionary definitions for the English verb “fast” gives the common idea of abstaining from all or some foods (and perhaps drinks as well) as a religious observance. The Hebrew and Greek words used in the Bible for fasting can suggest either simply abstaining from food, or else humbling or afflicting oneself through this kind of abstinence (as at the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:29, and Ezra’s mourning for the sin of the people, Ezra 9:5). Although abstinence from food is the common thread running through most Biblical examples of “fasting,” the idea of humbling oneself to mourn or to seek the will of God is also prominent, as we will see.

A first reason why to fast, as described in Scripture, is to recognize our dependence on God alone—a lesson that is especially necessary in our current situation. Americans in general are as well fed as any people that the world has ever seen. Even while people in many parts of the world are starving, it is said that the average “poverty-stricken” American is overweight to the point of obesity.

When Jesus “had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry,” and yet He still refused to turn stones to bread. Like the Israelites who ate manna in the desert, He knew that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:1-4; Deuteronomy 8:3). We may recognize—in theory—our absolute need for God to provide. But until we abstain from food for a few days and feel the extent of our weakness, do we really know just how much we are in need of Him?

Closely related to this first point is the value of fasting for humbling ourselves. The returning exiles under Ezra (8:21-23), holy David when his adversaries were sick (Psalm 35:13), and even the Gentile Ninevites at a time of repentance (Jonah 3:5-9), all fasted as part of the process of humbling themselves before the Lord and seeking His mercy. Some people might object that regular fasting can fail in this purpose and even become a source of pride, as it did with the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable (Luke 18:11-12). But the Bible recommends fasting as generally useful for humbling ourselves. The chance of hypocritical pride should not stop us from fasting, any more than it should keep us from praying at all!

One of the most obvious purposes of fasting is to help in devoting ourselves to prayer. Not only can fasting aid Christians’ prayer life by humbling us and directing our minds toward God, but it can also reclaim the time that would otherwise be given to preparing and eating meals. Anna the prophetess devoted herself to fasting and prayer night and day (Luke 2:36-37), and Cornelius’s earnest prayers with fasting were the occasion for the Gospel to go out to the Gentiles (Acts 10:30-31). There are times when we should support the intensity of our prayer by fasting not only from food, but also from sexual relations (1 Corinthians 7:3-5) and even sleep (1 Samuel 15:10-12; Luke 6:12-13). However, we need to be especially careful to set limits to these fasts, to keep from harming ourselves or defrauding our families from what is due them.

A final reason for fasting, and probably the one that is most ignored in our day, is to seek God’s face corporately. Over time Jesus’ words about not fasting “before men” have been perverted to make fasting (if it is practiced at all) into an exclusively private and individual exercise. But the Bible often speaks of fasts on the part of whole communities of God’s people—whether that be a household (2 Samuel 1:11-12), or a church as represented by its leaders (Acts 13:1-3), or the whole covenant community in a city or region (Esther 4:3, 16), or an entire godly nation (2 Chronicles 20:1-4). Some might object that a whole church could not fast together sincerely or that the proclamation of a fast for an entire church body would be too controlling or cult-like. But these objections fly in the face of what we see God’s people doing throughout the Bible, and they prove nothing against churchwide fasts that could not be argued equally well against churchwide worship services. When there are occasions that call for it, the American Church must recover the practice of corporate prayer with fasting. This may well be the one thing that can turn back the tide of selfish individualism among American Christians before it completely overwhelms us.

What, then, are the right occasions for fasting? Several different categories can be found in the Bible.

First, there are fasts at times of mourning and repentance. A fast can at once help us express humility as we consider past sins and defeats, and prepare us for a chastened and wiser life in the future (cf. 1 Samuel 31:8-13; 1 Kings 21:27-29).

Second, there are fasts at times of personal or social crisis. On these occasions, fasting helps add intensity to our prayers as we cry out to the Lord for deliverance (cf. Judges 20:25-26; Esther 4:1-3).

Third, there are fasts meant to support any other occasions of earnest, focused prayer. Daniel fasted at the end of Judah’s seventy years of captivity as he prayed for God to honor His promise by returning the exiles to their land (Daniel 9:1-3). Times of special prayer with fasting are the only exception to Paul’s command that husbands and wives not deprive each other of physical relations (1 Corinthians 7:5).

Fourth, there are fasts at major beginnings and commissionings, to devote the work and the people to God. Thus Paul fasted for three days at the beginning of his Christian life (Acts 9:8), the leaders of the Antiochian church fasted twice as Paul and Barnabas were set aside for missionary work (Acts 13:1-3), and the ordination of elders in every new church was accompanied by prayer and fasting (Acts 14:23).

The Word of God gives us several cautions that ought to accompany our fasting. In a culture where the habit of godly fasting has all but disappeared, it is a higher priority for us to recover the practice of fasting than to guard against potential abuses. “It’s hard to steer a parked car,” as the saying goes. However, in the hope that the American Church will soon see a revival of Biblical fasting in both its corporate and individual forms, we may also consider a few warnings. First, of course, we must be on guard against hypocrisy and be sure that our fasting is for the Lord, not merely for men to see (Matthew 6:16-18; cf. Luke 18:11-12). We should protect against the pitfalls of extreme self-denial by concentrating on the rich blessings we receive in fasting: the Word of God (Luke 4:1-4; cf. Job 23:12), the nourishment of obedience (John 4:31-34), and the pleasure of restoring the poor (Isaiah 58). We must be careful to balance fasting with feasting, so that our fasts do not lose their meaning (cf. Zechariah 7:5-6; 8:19). And finally, we need to remember that fasting itself is temporary. It will come to an end with the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9), in which all our fasts and all our feasts will be fulfilled in one glorious, never-ending banquet.

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Christian Jews attacked in Israel

An AP article in the Washington Post today describes the sufferings of Messianic Jews (Jews who believe in Jesus as the Messiah) at the hands of their fellow Jews in Israel.

Despite their small numbers (only about 10,000 in Israel), these Jewish followers of Christ have suffered a variety of attacks in recent months. Last October, a church used by Messianic Jews in Jerusalem was damaged in an apparent case of arson, and a month ago Orthodox Jewish zealots set fire to a stockpile of Christian books. But the worst of the attacks came on March 20 of this year. Ami Ortiz (shown above), the 15-year-old son of a prominent Jewish Christian pastor, lost two toes and part of his hearing in the explosion of a booby-trapped gift box sent to his family.

While believers in Jesus are not overtly persecuted in Israel, the government has placed certain limitations on "proselytization" by them (speaking out in the name of Jesus). In some cases Christian synagogues have been closed, and authorities have tried to revoke the Israeli citizenship of some Messianic Jews. And three months after Ami Ortiz was maimed in an attack that police believe was carried out by fellow Jews, no arrests have been made in the case.

Read the full article here.

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Canada: Gay rights trump freedom (and truth)

In June 2002, Canadian pastor Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the editor of an Alberta paper, opposing the "homosexual agenda" that (he said) has been targeting children and corrupting North American culture since the 1960's. Rev. Boissoin, who has a ministry to at-risk youth, was chairman of the Concerned Christian Coalition at that time.

An anti-Christian activist (a certain Darren E. Lund) complained to the province's human rights commission. Rev. Boissoin was investigated, and two weeks ago an Alberta "Human Rights Panel" issued its sentence against him.

Judge Lori Andreachuk ruled that both Rev. Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition are prohibited from "publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals," and furthermore, "all disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are directed to be removed from current web sites and publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc."

Not only that, but they "are prohibited from making disparaging remarks in the future about Dr. Lund or Dr. Lund’s witnesses relating to their involvement in this complaint," and are required to pay $5000 in damages to Lund and also $2000 in expenses to one of his witnesses. What is especially odd here is that the complainant (Lund) did not even claim that he had been harmed by Rev. Boissoin's remarks—only that he had experienced "pain and suffering" while filing and litigating his complaint!

If this ruling is allowed to stand, both religious freedom and freedom of speech are dead in Alberta. Chillingly, the judge's decision explicitly states that "the publication’s exposure of homosexuals to hatred and contempt trumps the freedom of speech afforded in the [Canadian] Charter." In other words, if a single "human rights" judge feels that your comments may expose homosexuals to hatred (no matter how compassionately those comments are expressed, and whatever "exposure...to hatred" might mean)...then to that degree, your freedom of speech no longer exists.

Sources: "The Corner" on National Review Online, Ezra Levant, Decision on Remedy in the Lund case, "Homosexual Agenda Wicked" (Rev. Boissoin's original letter to the editor). HT: Blog and Mablog

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On denominationalism, and being a Christian

An excellent quote from the writings of Samuel Davies (1723-1761). Davies was a Presbyterian pastor in Virginia whose preaching led to many conversions and new church plants in the later stages of the First Great Awakening. He served for a while as Patrick Henry's pastor, and later succeeded Jonathan Edwards as President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).

Please read this quote carefully. It's definitely worth your time.

“What an endless variety of denominations, taken from some men of character, or from some little peculiarities, has prevailed in the Christian world, and crumbled it to pieces, while the Christian name is hardly regarded?... what party-names have been adopted by the Protestant churches, whose religion is substantially the same common Christianity, and who agree in much more important articles than in those they differ. To be a Christian is not enough now-a-days, but a man must also be something more and better; that is, he must be a strenuous bigot to this or that particular church….

“Every man will find that he agrees more fully in lesser as well as more important articles with some particular church than others; and thereupon it is his duty to join in stated communion with that church; and he may, if he pleases, assume the name which that church wears, by way of distinction from others: this is not what I condemn. But for me to glory in the denomination of any particular church, as my highest character; to lay more stress upon the name of a presbyterian or a churchman than on the sacred name of Christian; to make a punctilious agreement with my sentiments in the little peculiarities of a party the test of all religion; to make it the object of my zeal to gain proselytes to some other than the Christian name; to connive at the faults of those of my own party and to be blind to the good qualities of others, or invidiously to represent or diminish them: these are the things which deserve universal condemnation from God and man; these proceed from a spirit of bigotry and faction, directly opposite to the generous catholic spirit of Christianity, and subversive of it. This spirit hinders the progress of serious practical religion, by turning the attention of men from the great concerns of eternity, and the essentials of Christianity, to vain jangling and contest about circumstantials and trifles. Thus the Christian is swallowed up in the partisan, and fundamentals lost in extra-essentials….

“You may, if you please, call yourselves presbyterians and dissenters, and you shall bear without shame or resentment all the names of reproach and contempt which the world may brand you with. But as you should not be mortified on the one side, so neither should you glory on the other. A Christian! a Christian! let that be your highest distinction, let that be the name which you labour to deserve. God forbid that my ministry should be the occasion of diverting your attention to anything else.”

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"Is it just Jesus in disguise?" or, Eucharistic Docetism

The legend tells us of an encounter between the young St. Francis and a leper on the plains outside Assisi. As Francis was riding along, he saw the man, disfigured by such hideous sores that Francis almost turned to flee from him. But the love of God overcame his revulsion. This dignified young man—the son of a wealthy merchant—got down from his horse and embraced the man, and kissed his open sores.

Sometimes the story is told with a postscript. When Francis remounted his horse and turned to say good-bye to the leper, the man had vanished. The leper had been Christ in disguise.

The addition to the story gets something right, but at a deeper level it is very wrong. If the leper was Jesus and no one else, then what about the sores? What about the rags? Were they only for show, so that Jesus could teach a lesson in disguise and then pass on? But what if the leper was really a leper—a poor man suffering from a grotesque disease—and Jesus was present in him in the midst of his leprosy?

Here is the problem with the doctrine of transubstantiation, the teaching that the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper are changed by Divine power into the literal body and blood of the Lord Jesus, and so cease to be bread and wine. If this is true, then this food and drink cannot bring us to Christ, because the moment they begin to do so, they are no longer food and drink. But if we eat real bread and drink real wine, and through them really eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood ... then God is really in the world, in things and in people. Then Francis met a man with a real and horrible disease, and in him he really met the Lord. Then the Word has really become Flesh. Then Christ really is the Savior of the world. Not a "savior" who would take us out of the world, but a Savior who sends us into the world (John 17:15-18). He has not come to annihilate the creation and put Himself in its place. No!—He has come to take His place in the creation, and so make it truly become itself, what He created it to be.

Because His brothers were really there craving your help, because they really were needy and weak—because it was for them that you did it, He says, you did it for Him!
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’ ” (Matthew 25:40).

Because it is really bread that you break and eat, therefore you receive the Body of Christ. It must be and remain bread so that you, through it, may receive His real body into yours! If bread had to be absent for Christ to be present, then we could never meet Christ in the material things of God's creation. But it is bread, real bread!—wine, real wine! so that in it we may really meet our Lord!
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:14-17).

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Ascension Day

Today--forty days after Easter, the holiday of Christ's resurrection--the Church celebrates His ascension into Heaven.

The Lord Jesus ascended
to His Father;
He sat down at the right hand
of the Mighty One.
From there He will return in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and there will be no end to His reign.

"Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'

"Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'"
--Acts 1:6-11 (NKJV)

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History

"The history of the world should purport to be annals of the government of the supreme King."

--Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné (1794-1872), Swiss historian and pastor

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פסח (Passover)

Pesach (Passover) began last night at sundown.

Exodus 12:12-14 "'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.'"

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Pope speaks out against divorce, abortion

At a Catholic congress on marriage and family, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the Catholic Church's stand against divorce and abortion. These, he said, "are serious offences... which violate human dignity, inflict deep injustice on human and social relations and offend God himself, guarantor of conjugal peace and origin of life.... They also affect innocent victims, the barely-conceived and unborn infant, the children caught up in divorces."

At the same time, Christians are called to help bring peace to people who have been affected by these tragic events: "The Church has the duty to be close to these people with love and delicacy."

(Source: Breitbart via Right Mind)

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CHRIST IS RISEN! Rejoice!

Christ is risen from the dead,
by death He has trampled Death,
and to those in the tombs
He has granted Life!

Joy has come into the world,
Death and the Devil are vanquished,
Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah!

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Good Friday: "It is finished!"

(Night at Golgotha, Vasily Vereshchagin)

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"Pray that we may be one"

Matthew Petersen has some very good thoughts here on the quest for Christian unity, and the dangers of being dismissive or patronizing toward Christians in other communions than our own.

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Palm Sunday

Rejoice greatly,
Daughter of Zion!
Raise a shout,
Daughter of Jerusalem!
Look! Your king
is coming to you,
Righteous, and possessed of
salvation-victory is he,
Lowly, and riding
on a donkey,
On a colt,
the offspring of beasts of burden.

—Zechariah 9:9

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Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop and martyr (1942-2008)

We, Christians of Mesopotamia, are used to religious persecution and pressures by those in power. After Constantine, persecution ended only for Western Christians, whereas in the East threats continued. Even today we continue to be a Church of martyrs.
—Mar Paulos, Nov. 26, 2007

Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul in northern Iraq, was found dead on Thursday after having been kidnapped two weeks ago by a group of Islamist gunmen. He had served as archbishop of the Chaldean Catholics of Mosul for seven years. (Mosul, the archbishop's hometown, is the Biblical city of Nineveh.)

Three of the archbishop's companions were killed in a gunfight during his kidnapping, as he returned home after Mass on February 29. There are conflicting reports about the cause of death of Mar Paulos himself; there are some suggestions that he died from preexisting health conditions made worse by the circumstances of his captivity, while others claim he was shot.

(Sources: The Times Online, AFP)

May the God who was preached in Nineveh by Jonah the prophet and by Mar Paulos, and Jesus His Son, bring perfect peace to Mosul and to all Iraq and the Middle East. May He reduce His enemies to obedience to Christ, through the testimony that His servants offer in both life and death.

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The marks of the true Church

One of the pressing concerns that resurfaced during the Protestant Reformation was how to distinguish between true and false churches. An answer chosen by the early Reformers was that a true church is one that preaches the Word of God purely and administers the Sacraments properly; these two "marks" are noted in the Augsburg Confession (1530) and in the writings of John Calvin (1509-1564). Later, concern for the continuing purity of the Church led Protestant theologians to add the faithful administration of church discipline as a third necessary "mark of the Church." The resulting "three marks" appear in Article 29 of the Belgic Confession (1561), and a variation on them is suggested in Chapter 25 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).

However, as a means of identifying what is a true church, these "marks" make a somewhat odd and lopsided combination. As pastor Brian McLaughlin points out, the two or three marks have come to represent for many North American Christians the whole essence of the Church, as if the church was a place where you came to hear preaching, eat the Lord's Supper, and (maybe) experience the corrective power of church discipline. For the ordinary Christian, participation in these things tends to be passive, and one's daily life can be largely unaffected.

Shouldn't love be acknowledged as one of the essential elements of any true church? If so, these words of Pope Benedict XVI (from his 2005 encyclical "Deus Caritas Est") provide a better description of the marks of the Church:

The Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.

No matter how correct their preaching and sacraments may be, a church without love is a dead church. If we discuss the essential nature of the Church but ignore the centrality of Christian love and its natural results (which include church discipline, missions, etc.), then we lose everything and gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

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Obama as America's new religious hope

It is impossible for human beings to be truly irreligious. A person who chooses not to belong to one of the "traditional" religions -- Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. -- may not express religious devotion in quite the same way, but it will still be very much a part of their life.

An editorial by Kathleen Parker from The Orlando Sentinel suggests that for many young Americans, this religious fervor is now being directed to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Parker writes, "[Obama's] rhetoric...drips with hints of resurrection, redemption and second comings.... He's a rock star. A telegenic, ultra-bright redeemer fluent in the planetary language of a cosmic generation. The Force is with him."

She goes on to add with frightening insight, "In post-Judeo-Christian America, the sports club is the new church. Global warming is the new religion. Vegetarianism is the new sacrament. Hooking up, the new prayer. Talk therapy, the new witnessing. Tattooing and piercing, the new sacred symbols and rituals.

"And apparently, Barack Obama is the new messiah."

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Who gets the credit?

In his post "Credit where Credit is Due," pastor Evan Wilson argues that judgment for sins and salvation by faith must work on the same principle. He goes on to propose that this principle must be centered on the work of man, not the work of God. In other words, the argument goes, if mankind can be justly held responsible for his sins, he must also be given full credit for his own saving faith--which therefore cannot be caused by God.

The ensuing discussion/debate in the comments section, between Evan and several others including myself, may be of interest to some.

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