Saturday, June 29, 2013
Excerpt from The Perfect Game by Terrence O. Moore
At one point, Lanny complained that Rocky would have been the best movie ever except for there being too much "lovey-dovey crap" in it. Joey, in his innocent way, reflected a minute and then said, "That's funny. I thought the point was that Rocky couldn't be a great fighter until he had something to fight for."
Friday, May 10, 2013
Look Back, Fight On
We live in an "ego theistic" culture: the self is God. Historically, this is nothing new. When everyone does what is right in his own eyes, chaos inevitably follows. Disorder cannot reign and is typically overthrown by a dictator, who rises up to restore order. Christians, teach your children history. Teach them how to express the lessons of the past in a way that inspires and ennobles souls in the present. Teach them rhetoric. There is an obvious "wrongness" to the hot issues of our day, aside from the fact that they cross God's good boundaries. We need to find a way to express this so the world can hear it. We are so shrill and defensive, when the reality is we have God's Word, history and common sense on our side.
"Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent."
--Excerpt from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee
...If you fight against God's enemy,
God will in justice ward you as His soldiers;
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your childen from the sword,
Your children's children quits it in your age.
Then in the name of God, and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords.
(Shakespeare's King Richard III, Act 5, Scene 3, Line 254-265)
"Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent."
--Excerpt from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee
...If you fight against God's enemy,
God will in justice ward you as His soldiers;
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your childen from the sword,
Your children's children quits it in your age.
Then in the name of God, and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords.
(Shakespeare's King Richard III, Act 5, Scene 3, Line 254-265)
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Relativism Revisited
This excerpt is from a summation of a message John Piper gave at the Ligonier conference in March 2007. My husband and I attended, and I took notes, which is the only way I can keep my mind disciplined. Piper listed seven destructive effects of relativism and warned us to teach our kids where this leads.
1. Relativism commits treason against God. A revolution against the objective standard is a revolution against God. He is the ultimate, external, objective standard, valid for all. When relativism says there is no external, objective standard, he speaks like an atheist and commits treason. Relativism does not come out and say, "I will not submit to your law," he says, "There is no law." If you do not try to overcome relativism, you are complicit in treason.
2. Relativism cultivates duplicity. Believing relativism to be true is contradictory. Nobody tries to live relativism consistently. It cultivates duplicity because it won't stand up philosophically or practically. They say they believe it but they don't live it, so it breeds hypocrisy and is morally corrupting. The very processes of thinking commit the relativist to principles that are self-contradictory. The philosophy is shot through with self-contradictions. It is immoral. People do not live as relativists. A professor will teach it in a classroom, but when he gets home he will be upset if his wife does not understand that his words mean just what he intends to communicate to her; they have one objective meaning. You believe that what you write has an objective meaning. Nobody is a relativist in a court room where objective innocence hangs on objective evidence.
3. Relativism conceals doctrinal defection. The effect on language is devastating. If you believe there is absolute Truth, words are so very important. In a culture, where Truth is scorned, where there is no objective external Truth, then language becomes power-broking. When objective Truth vanishes, then language is no longer the humble servant. It creates its own reality. Language no longer defines Truth. It defines preferences. It is not the presentation of reality, but the creation of reality. Language has a devious capacity for concealing the truth.
When it comes to the creeds, J. Gresham Machen said in 1925 that someone can affirm the creeds of the church but be totally separate from the reformed faith: Language is no longer a strong affirmation, it is saying, "I find this confession useful." Vague, indirect speech lets others think you are still orthodox when you're not.
Relativism corrupts the high calling of language, makes it a criminal covering doctrinal defection of those afraid to say, "I've left the faith."
4. Relativism cloaks greed with flattery. Flattery is using language to make people feel good so that you can get something from them. Language must be submissive to reality. Language should not be a pretext for greed by becoming flattery.
5. Relativism cloaks pride in the guise of humility. Relativism looks humble but it isn't. When Truth goes, so does humility. If there's Truth, universally valid for all men, then we must submit to it -- "understand" it, or stand under it -- not stand over it as a ruler. You're a servant of the Truth. What happens to your soul when you decide it's not there? You become so humble you can't discern the Truth, therefore, you don't put yourself under it. Relativism protects arrogance. It is the essence of original sin -- pride. It poses as humility. It puts on humble clothes and walks around the streets speaking of humility, but it chooses every step it takes on that path. It says, "I WILL choose." We need many humble childlike simple people willing to say, "The king has no humble clothes on."
6. Relativism enslaves people. The Bible says the Truth will set you free. Relativism teaches a view of Truth that makes it undefinable. Fog does not free people from sin. They stay in chains.
Relativism leads people away from a love of the truth and so enslaves them and destroys them.
7. Relativism leads to brutal totalitarianism. When relativism reigns, everyone begins to do what is right in his own eyes; no one puts themselves under the Truth. Society begins to break down. Relativism leads to chaos, and at a certain point any ruler will be welcomed who can restore order. You end up with a dictator. Relativism, while professing unfettered freedom, ultimately destroys freedom.
1. Relativism commits treason against God. A revolution against the objective standard is a revolution against God. He is the ultimate, external, objective standard, valid for all. When relativism says there is no external, objective standard, he speaks like an atheist and commits treason. Relativism does not come out and say, "I will not submit to your law," he says, "There is no law." If you do not try to overcome relativism, you are complicit in treason.
2. Relativism cultivates duplicity. Believing relativism to be true is contradictory. Nobody tries to live relativism consistently. It cultivates duplicity because it won't stand up philosophically or practically. They say they believe it but they don't live it, so it breeds hypocrisy and is morally corrupting. The very processes of thinking commit the relativist to principles that are self-contradictory. The philosophy is shot through with self-contradictions. It is immoral. People do not live as relativists. A professor will teach it in a classroom, but when he gets home he will be upset if his wife does not understand that his words mean just what he intends to communicate to her; they have one objective meaning. You believe that what you write has an objective meaning. Nobody is a relativist in a court room where objective innocence hangs on objective evidence.
3. Relativism conceals doctrinal defection. The effect on language is devastating. If you believe there is absolute Truth, words are so very important. In a culture, where Truth is scorned, where there is no objective external Truth, then language becomes power-broking. When objective Truth vanishes, then language is no longer the humble servant. It creates its own reality. Language no longer defines Truth. It defines preferences. It is not the presentation of reality, but the creation of reality. Language has a devious capacity for concealing the truth.
When it comes to the creeds, J. Gresham Machen said in 1925 that someone can affirm the creeds of the church but be totally separate from the reformed faith: Language is no longer a strong affirmation, it is saying, "I find this confession useful." Vague, indirect speech lets others think you are still orthodox when you're not.
Relativism corrupts the high calling of language, makes it a criminal covering doctrinal defection of those afraid to say, "I've left the faith."
4. Relativism cloaks greed with flattery. Flattery is using language to make people feel good so that you can get something from them. Language must be submissive to reality. Language should not be a pretext for greed by becoming flattery.
5. Relativism cloaks pride in the guise of humility. Relativism looks humble but it isn't. When Truth goes, so does humility. If there's Truth, universally valid for all men, then we must submit to it -- "understand" it, or stand under it -- not stand over it as a ruler. You're a servant of the Truth. What happens to your soul when you decide it's not there? You become so humble you can't discern the Truth, therefore, you don't put yourself under it. Relativism protects arrogance. It is the essence of original sin -- pride. It poses as humility. It puts on humble clothes and walks around the streets speaking of humility, but it chooses every step it takes on that path. It says, "I WILL choose." We need many humble childlike simple people willing to say, "The king has no humble clothes on."
6. Relativism enslaves people. The Bible says the Truth will set you free. Relativism teaches a view of Truth that makes it undefinable. Fog does not free people from sin. They stay in chains.
Relativism leads people away from a love of the truth and so enslaves them and destroys them.
7. Relativism leads to brutal totalitarianism. When relativism reigns, everyone begins to do what is right in his own eyes; no one puts themselves under the Truth. Society begins to break down. Relativism leads to chaos, and at a certain point any ruler will be welcomed who can restore order. You end up with a dictator. Relativism, while professing unfettered freedom, ultimately destroys freedom.
Monday, April 22, 2013
John Piper on Grieving
Comforting truths from an open letter by John Piper:
"There is a paradox in the way God is honored through hope-filled grief. One might think that the only way he could be honored would be to cry less or get over the ache more quickly. That might show that your confidence is in the good that God is and the good that he does. Yes. It might. And some people are wired emotionally to experience God that way. I would not join those who say, “O they are just in denial.
"But there is another way God is honored in our grieving. When we taste the loss so deeply because we loved so deeply and treasured God’s gift — and God in his gift — so passionately that the loss cuts the deeper and the longer, and yet in and through the depths and the lengths of sorrow we never let go of God, and feel him never letting go of us — in that longer sorrow he is also greatly honored, because the length of it reveals the magnitude of our sense of loss for which we do not forsake God. At every moment of the lengthening grief, we turn to him not away from him. And therefore the length of it is a way of showing him to be ever-present, enduringly sufficient.
"So trust him deeply and let your heart be your guide, whether you honor him one way or the other. Everyone is different."
-- John Piper, Letter to a Parent Grieving the Loss of a Child
"There is a paradox in the way God is honored through hope-filled grief. One might think that the only way he could be honored would be to cry less or get over the ache more quickly. That might show that your confidence is in the good that God is and the good that he does. Yes. It might. And some people are wired emotionally to experience God that way. I would not join those who say, “O they are just in denial.
"But there is another way God is honored in our grieving. When we taste the loss so deeply because we loved so deeply and treasured God’s gift — and God in his gift — so passionately that the loss cuts the deeper and the longer, and yet in and through the depths and the lengths of sorrow we never let go of God, and feel him never letting go of us — in that longer sorrow he is also greatly honored, because the length of it reveals the magnitude of our sense of loss for which we do not forsake God. At every moment of the lengthening grief, we turn to him not away from him. And therefore the length of it is a way of showing him to be ever-present, enduringly sufficient.
"So trust him deeply and let your heart be your guide, whether you honor him one way or the other. Everyone is different."
-- John Piper, Letter to a Parent Grieving the Loss of a Child
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Ordering Our Days
Philosophy requires people to think about ultimate purposes, true happiness, justice, beauty, the good ... If people don't order their lives according to these ultimate questions, then they won't usually serve the ultimate things. They will serve the moment. They will serve whatever their particular passing appetite is. But they won't put their whole life in the service of the good. .... That is not the way to true happiness. ... We need to figure out, maybe everyday, what the highest, ultimate things are, [use those to order our lives,] and then go about doing those smaller, but still important, things.
--Terrence O. Moore
Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? Teach us to order our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
--Terrence O. Moore
Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? Teach us to order our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
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