Category: Church

The Church, the Church, and the Church

7/18/2018

I didn't know too much about Eastern Orthodoxy before preparing to move to Romania. While I still have much to learn, I have spent the last year picking up pieces of information, talking with individuals who identify as Orthodox and making my own observations. There are many aspects of Orthodoxy which stand out - aspects of theology, worship, traditions, etc. But perhaps the first and most apparent aspect which will stand out to any onlooker is the Orthodox church buildings. Orthodox buildings are far more ornate and opulent than Catholic and Protestant churches. They catch the eye with the glimmer of gold you can see from miles away. Learning about Orthodoxy has lead me to believe that one of their major emphases is on the beauty and experience of God. Their architecture is meant to accost your senses and the sensual experience only grows from the outside in, as your entrance into the church greets you with many colors and the smell of incense.

Cheap Grace

6/17/2018

"Ce e bun, e rar."
That which is good, is rare. I was introduced to this Romanian phrase the other week at Bible study, when our Romanian leader for that week put this idea forward and asked whether everyone agreed with the statement. Such a statement seems true on its face. Yachts, diamonds, vintage wines, and front row seating at a concert are wonderful things, but extremely rare. They're something you savor when you experience them, and often pay a high price to obtain them. The more magnificent something is, the rarer and harder to obtain it will be.

For the most part, all of us agreed with the phrase. While I typically shy away from universal statements, it at least seemed generally true. It does seem like the best things are rare. After discussing the Romanian phrase, our leader then asked a tough follow-up question. "If the love and grace of God is so wonderful, how could it be so plentiful?" The implication, of course, was that if God's love was so amazing, it would be rare and difficult to obtain, but we know that God's love is endless and readily available. Our leader pointed out that a grace like that presented in the gospels seems like something that would devalue itself. Flooding the spiritual market with grace, like flooding the economic market with money, would make the value, wonder, and power of grace diminish. I appreciated this question, as our Romanian leader had grown up with a very strong emphasis on merit. This notion of free, unmerited grace was new to him. It seemed like he found it interesting and compelling, but couldn't figure out how such a thing could be real.

The Argument for Infant Baptism and Sprinkling

1/27/2018

If you don't want to have to read this in parts and click through all the links below, you can download the whole file here.

the_argument_for_infant_baptism_and_sprinkling.pdf
File Size:	309 kb
File Type:	pdf

the_argument_for_infant_baptism_and_sprinkling.docx
File Size:	56 kb
File Type:	docx

Part 1: Circumcision and Baptism - Introduction, importance, and the connection of baptism's symbolism and application between the Old and New Testaments

Part 2: Sprinkling and Consecration - The connection between the mode of consecration in the Old and New Testaments as well as the identification of the person of the godhead responsible for cleansing and consecration, the Spirit.

Part 3: The Family and Federal Headship - Explores how God has deemed the children of believers holy, and how representation through federal headship is a beautiful aspect of God's grace to us as seen particularly through God's view of our holiness via Christ. This provides a framework for how we, in our independent, decisional culture can baptize individuals before their own faith in view of their parent's faith.

Part 4: Contextual Evidence - Addresses some of the problematic logistics of immersion, specific baptism events in the NT, and some of the "problem passages" for sprinkling as the mode of baptism (e.g. Jesus's baptism and the Eunuch's baptism)

Part 5: Church History - Church Father quotes from (approximately) the first 350 years of church history following the writing of the first NT books. I also very briefly address a few key archaeological points.

Part 6: Counter-Rebuttals - I very briefly address what I believe to be some of the most common and/or strongest counters to the case I laid out (Israel vs. the church, one verse zingers, Greek word baptizo, circumcision practiced alongside baptism, and "just because").

Part 7: Conclusion and Resources - Self-explanatory

The Argument for Infant Baptism and Sprinkling (2): Sprinkling and Consecration

12/29/2017

God's Mark on His People Under the New Covenant: The main argument for the baptism of infants, then, is that we are simply continuing in the directive and symbolism that God has instituted and never expressly retracted. Though that concept is vital to discussing the argument for infant baptism, I now want to move into the mode of baptism, which I argue is done by having the element (water) come upon the object (individual being baptized). Paedobaptists (those who baptize infants) will argue that just as we can assume a continued directive as to the objects of God's mark, so we can find a continued directive as to the mode of God's mark. Since the bloody mark of circumcision seems to be done away with (Galatians 5:2, Acts 10, Acts 15, I Corinthians 7), I will argue that the mark of water is a continued symbol from the OT by exploring how water or other elements were used to mark in the OT, as well as what those markings represented.

Ministry, the Spirit, and the Church (5): The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church in Romania

12/29/2017

Allen’s thoughts align very well with what God has been teaching Catalina and me. While we are organized, goal driven, intellectual, philosophical, theological people – God has put those things asunder time and time again. Those things we love, which can be great goods if we make them a means, are terrible ends. But all too often, we end up placing the aforementioned things before God and believe that we are implementing them and using them for him. In reality, we end up subverting God’s means and ends so that we can maintain our methods and our control.

The Argument for Infant Baptism and Sprinkling (6): Counter-Rebuttals

12/29/2017

Possible Rebuttals:
- I see several ways one can try to avoid the great weight of the cumulative case I have laid out above. The first is to argue that Israel and the church are different entities. This is how John Piper argues. I think the multitude of passages that call us Abraham's offspring, the true Israel, etc, should be weighty enough to determine that there is at least a huge similarity which warrants a continuation of such an important directive as that of marking the visible covenant community. In fact, we know there is. Even if baptism isn't a direct continuation of circumcision but rather a new way of marking God's people, both ideas are still accomplishing the same type of thing. Even if the church is distinct in some ways from the covenant community of Israel, I don't see how we escape the similarity of the requirement to mark community members, and I don't see how we can mark members in a way that is less inclusive than before. The marking of the covenant community now includes women and anyone who professes faith. The gospel expands, not contracts the scope for inclusion. How sad for the covenant community of Christ to expel those whom God formerly included in his community - infants and children - from the markings of the visible community.

Ministry, the Spirit, and the Church (1): Losing Control

12/29/2017

The phrase “losing control” tends to have negative connotations. We often use such a phrase when describing someone under the influence of anger, drugs, alcohol, or stress. When we are no longer in control, we tend to gravitate towards disorder or destruction – of ourselves or of others. It is only our maintenance of control that guides our steps along an appropriate, productive path. I would like to suggest, however, that “losing control” gets a bad rap. In our self-focused humanity and our independence-focused culture, I think losing control is actually of the utmost importance.

Ministry, the Spirit, and the Church (4): Overbearing Morality

12/29/2017

The first two problems we’ve already addressed are pretty big hang-ups for we Westerners. But I have to say, I think this final problem- the problem of imposing our morality - is probably the most difficult for us to overcome. I believe this is because we tend to find our biggest sense of validation in our perceived morality as it compares to others. God is holy and it is my sin that separates me from God, therefore if I am holier (which is equated with being more moral), then God must love me more and I must be a better Christian. An imposition of our moral standards is done in large part for our own validation. But it is also done because it provides us with a sense of direction and control as we guide new believers and churches.

Ministry, the Spirit, and the Church (2): Overbearing Doctrine

12/29/2017

Rewind missions several hundred years and you’re likely to picture conquistador style missions. When the political arm of the state would go to take territory for the kingdom, they’d send along spiritual representatives to take souls for the Kingdom. Hindsight makes it very clear that all those missionaries did was impose their political philosophy over top of their Kingdom philosophy. In reality, all that they did in the name of the Kingdom was done not for God, but for nation. They conflated the Kingdom with the kingdom. Fortunately today we have learned our lesson and never superimpose our political means, goals, and ideals over God’s…

Ministry, the Spirit, and the Church (3): Overbearing Methodology

12/29/2017

Cleanliness is next to godliness, as the saying goes. Though most Christians I know could identify that quotation as a falseism and not a quotation from the Bible, I truly think most of us in our inmost being believe such a statement. Now, we may not believe it in its proper form. We may socially judge someone with a dirty car or a dirty house, but we likely wouldn’t consider them less godly on this account. But if we expand the strict definition of cleanliness to a broader definition of order and organization, it would be hard for many Christians I know to deny their belief in the above quotation. God is a God of order. The stipulation of an elder requires that they have order within their family. Order is opposed to entropy and chaos, two antitheses of God. These notions extend themselves and in our culture come up most notably in regard to finances. In the conservative circles I used to and still do run in, financial struggle is often thought of as financial disorder, and is very often subconsciously linked to ungodliness. Conversely, the leaders of the churches I’ve observed tend to all be intellectually and financially ordered very well. We value order – particularly order of the financial and intellectual kind.