Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Shaw on Civil and Religious Liberty

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LibertyMy previous post highlighted a quote from Robert Shaw’s commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith (download PDF version) which I have been reading. I found another paragraph in that work that I would like to share with you.

“The civil government appears to be impelled by something like infatuation, and is introducing, or giving countenance to, measures that are darkly ominous to both civil and religious liberty, as if hastening onward to a crisis which all may shudder to contemplate. The masses of the community are in a state ripe for any convulsion, however terrible, having been left for generations uneducated and uninstructed in religious truth.”

Does this resonate with you? It certainly did with me.

Shaw’s work was first published in 1845 and was written in Scotland where he was a Presbyterian minister. I heard Malcolm Muggeridge quoted as saying, “new news is old news happening to new people.” The point being that we face the same issues over and over again.

It is both comforting and chilling to think that in 1845 Shaw highlighted issues in his social climate that we are facing today. It is comforting in that we are not alone, nor are we facing a brand new challenge.

It is chilling that even a casual examination of our situation reveals the lack of progress brought about by civil government.

I live in a country that is increasingly intolerant of Christianity and is inching (slowly at this point) toward some form of totalitarian state. But even as I watch our freedom being eroded, I am reminded that God remains in control and whatever the outcome, it will be in accordance with his plan.

The one thing that can reverse our current trajectory toward a totalitarian state is a spiritual awakening. As Shaw points out, one of the contributing factors to the loss of civil and religious liberty was ignorance of religious truth. The church failed in the mission to make true disciples.

Yet, from Shaw’s time until our own, there have always been those who have faithfully proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ through word and action. This has been done under various forms of government that range from democratic to despotic.

If the church (regardless of denominational affiliation) takes seriously its mission to make disciples and properly instruct them in Biblical truth, then we can be used by God to bring about the revival that we so desperately need.

What do you think? Whether you agree or disagree, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on this. Please use the comment section below to share your opinion.

Wholesomely non-conformist

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Non-conformistMaybe it has been a problem in every age, but it is certainly a temptation in ours to look back to previous decades or centuries wishing that those conditions could be repeated now. We see religion in general and the Christian church in particular under attack in our culture. We see values that would not have been questioned as few as 50 years ago now viewed with derision.

This evening I ran across the following paragraph that speaks to this. This was written by Sinclair B. Ferguson in the introduction to The Reformed Faith by Robert Shaw.

“ . . . we must not make the mistake of either passively accepting the influences of our age, or of wishing we had been born in another era. Instead we must learn to live wholesomely non-conformist Christian lives, increasingly transformed by the renewing of our minds (as Paul puts it in Rom. 12:1-2).”

First, we need to acknowledge the fact that some of the derision Christians are under is deserved. One needs look no farther than the antics of Westboro Baptist Church to see why some view Christianity as a group of brutal and judgmental neanderthals. Those who claim the title of Christian do not always behave in accordance with the teachings and example of the one they claim to follow.

But this leads us to an amazing opportunity. If we are appropriately non-conformist we will be so to both the mutations of Christianity that we have experienced and we will be so to the surrounding culture.

We, as the true Church, have the opportunity to understand the Gospel in the context in which we find ourselves. We will have the opportunity to live out that Gospel as a light to those around us. If we do those things well, then we will have the opportunity to tell those around us about the Christ and what he really did and taught.

I love that phrase, “wholesomely non-conformist.”

That sounds a lot like Jesus.

 

A great reminder about Bible reading

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Bible ReadingI recently read Question 157 in the Westminster Larger Catechism which asks,”How is the word of God to be read?”

I found the answer to be both challenging and helpful. Here it is:

The holy scriptures are to be read with an high and reverent esteem of them; with a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God, and that he only can enable us to understand them; with desire to know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed in them; with diligence, and attention to the matter and scope of them; with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer.

When I open my Bible to read it, is it with high and reverent esteem for the text? Or am I merely doing it out of a sense of obligation?

Am I conscious that it is the very word of God as I read it (even those boring bits that I have a tendency to skip over)?

Am I seeking the Holy Spirit to enlighten me as I read?

Am I reading with a desire to know, believe and obey the will of God that is revealed in the text?

Am I reading with diligence and attention to the matter or am I merely getting a check in the box?

Do I meditate on what I read so that it can be applied to my life?

Do I have an attitude of self-denial and prayer as I read?

Some of the time the answer to these questions is yes. There are times when I am engaged in the way the catechism prescribes. But too often, I am going through the motions and not very engaged.

I suppose the good news is that even if I am not fully present in my Bible reading, some good comes from the exercise. But how much better would it be to be fully present every time I take up the Bible to read it.

One of the most surprising statements in the answer to this question is the encouragement to self-denial. I had never thought of self-denial in the context of Bible reading. But a brief meditation on this reveals the wisdom in it.

One of the struggles of the 21st Century church is the tendency for the reader to stand in judgment on the text. When this happens, we find ways of explaining away the bits of Scripture that we don’t like. The antidote to this is self-denial.

If I approach the text with humility and self-denial the result will be much different than if I approach it with a sense of superiority and judgment.

I hope that you are encouraged and convicted by this reminder to take Bible reading seriously and to approach it with the right frame of mind.

An unwanted mirror

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MirrorIn Matthew 23:13-33, there are recorded eight woes that Jesus pronounced upon the “scribes and Pharisees.” Jesus is harsh in his criticism as he unloads on his antagonists.

The danger is that we can read these woes in a way that is not helpful or appropriate.

If we take an us/them approach to these woes, we are likely to see the woes aimed at “them” and see ourselves above such behavior.

The irony in this thinking is that it is exactly the attitude of the Pharisees.

A story from the Gospel of Luke illustrates this:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”(Luke 18:10–14, ESV)

Be honest with yourself – what is your first reaction when you read this story? If you are like me, your first reaction is to think, “thank God I am not like that Pharisee.” Thus proving that I am exactly like that Pharisee.

Praise God that he has worked in us to move us away from such hypocrisy, but we would be well advised to remember that we are constantly in danger of being pulled into the gravitational pull of Phariseeism.

Rather than reinforcing our feelings of superiority, the woes in Matthew 23 should be used as a mirror to show us our trajectory apart from the Holy Spirit working in us.

It may be an unwanted mirror, but it is an accurate one.

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