Alan Jacobs has re-cycled an excellent essay he wrote ten years ago as a column for the late lamented Books & Culture. He found what he had to say then particularly apropos to the present day. I don’t recall reading it 10 years ago, so maybe I missed that early edition of Books & Culture; but I’m very glad Jacobs decided to reprint this essay on his blog. Give it a read here.
Author: Joseph Ginder (Page 13 of 23)
I’m writing this on November 25. There is just enough time to get an Advent calendar to use for yourself or with your children to work your way through the Christmas season with daily reminders of what it means to us as followers of Jesus.
For children, the idea these days is that you get a “calendar” that is actually a picture of some sort with little doors that you open one per day on the 25 days leading up to Christmas day. If you choose a Christian Advent calendar, there will be something behind each door that takes you through the Christmas story leading up to Jesus’ birth. Our two youngest grandchildren are into Snoopy this year, so I ordered the Peanuts Calendar from Amazon. There are two Peanuts Advent calendars. One is completely secular and the other (the one I ordered) tells the story of Jesus’ birth in a way that may remind children of the original Peanuts Christmas special.
There are many other Advent Calendars available. ChristianBook.com has many, for example.
I recommend Wikipedia for a bit more in-depth explanation of Advent Calendars.
Often, theologians divide revelation into general and special, and mean by “general” what can be known of God through nature. By “special” they essentially mean biblical revelation or at least the explicit gospel. So the question comes down to “can a person turn to trust God through general revelation”?
I think that’s exactly the wrong question. Biblically, no one turns to Jesus unless God draws them through either general or special revelation (by these definitions). This is the beginning of the Calvinist idea no one comes to God on their own. In Calvin’s understanding, God chooses some to be saved and draws them irresistibly to Jesus (or himself). No one turns to God on their own. Quakers agree that no one turns to God on their own, but believe that God draws all people to his son (or himself) at some time or times in their lives. This draw is resistible; humans must choose to trust God as he draws them. If they believe and trust Him, they are saved by grace.
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. That’s the biblical idea. So, instead of phrasing the question into whether or not general revelation can be sufficient in the absence of special revelation, we would say that general revelation is never enough for anything beyond making people “without excuse” (as Paul says in Romans 1) and that God reveals himself and one’s need for Him to each human being on one or more “days of visitation” in which he makes it clear that we are insufficient in ourselves and that he is calling us to trust Him for purpose and direction in our lives at some level of understanding appropriate for the context. Then, we submit to him or we do not. Salvation begins when we submit to Him and trust Him as He reveals Himself to us. The explicit gospel is powerful and intended by God to be used in drawing many to Himself, of course. It is his will that we know it and spread it. But like Abraham, we must respond with belief to a time when God makes himself known to us. That can take place in the absence of anything but a human in the world and God reaching out to that human. It often takes place in the spiritual realm when the gospel is presented through apparently human means.
Further, no one is saved on the strength of their own reasoning through the words of scripture or logical argument. Rather, God speaks to a person, perhaps while he or she is reading scripture (actually, very often while they are reading scripture – at least where it is available!) It is God speaking that is both necessary and sufficient to produce a context in which a human being can say “yes” in belief and it be credited to that human being as righteousness (or right relationship with God), and that human being be “saved”. It is God that must be present, gracious, and active, and nothing less.
See John 6:44 (No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them) in addition to the many instances of Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. To be justified is to be in right relationship with God. That is the issue. Are we in right relationship to God? God initiates the relationship. We hear him, change our thinking (repent) to trust and to agree with what he says, or we do not. God calls us to trust, enables us to trust, and empowers us to believe and change without overpowering our will. Once we have moved in trust, he calls us to move some more – again and again, toward maturity, for the rest of our natural lives. It is God’s plan that this takes place in and through serving Him and representing Him in Christian community. We are a part of a body – not the body by ourselves.
Love is the hardest lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it.
-William Penn
I heard Jeffrey Greenman, President of Regent College say, in a talk on ethics:
You grow in the direction of what you ask questions about.
My corollary: It’s when I think I’ve got it figured out that I stop asking questions. Life is a good corrective to such an attitude. God isn’t complacent about our complacency.
Quoting Miroslav Volf:
We are in a major crisis of legitimacy and trust. No better time to renew commitment to trustworthiness, as individuals and communities.
Well said.
Here are the raw numbers we have to account for in our failed health care system.
Highlights.
We spend more PUBLIC money on healthcare than comparable countries with national health care systems. When you add the private money in, we spend enormously more money on health care than countries with national health care systems. I mean really enormously more!
Ask regular people with national health care if they like it. They will gripe about it. Every system has limitations.
Ask regular people with national health care if they would trade it for the American system. They would not.
Rich people should be able to use their resources to get the health care they want. Regular people need something a whole lot more like national health care in these other countries than what we have now.
If we were reasonable, we could spend less than now and get better care and cover everyone. Less GDP than now, and less GDP than France – who is already less than us. The numbers are clear. They are not complicated. They are enormously unfavorable to us and our system. They are unfavorable for any system currently under serious consideration in Washington. It is a scandalous failure of our politics and society.
Firestick Pencil Cactus – Euphorbia tirucalli
You might want to get rid of these firestick pencil cactus if you have them. This one nearly sent me to the emergency room last night. Sam Ginder, Nathan, and I were outside playing catch and Nathan was restacking some garden decorations. One of them fell on this plant. It leaked white sap. In the dim light, I touched it to make sure it wasn’t white flies, a garden pest that I have fought before. It was sap instead. I thought nothing of it, but wiped the sap off my finger – just a drip. A few minutes later I went inside and carefully washed my hands with soap and water. A few minutes after that, I inadvertently touched my eye with my hand. And fire broke out! At least that’s what it felt like.
It took me a bit to piece together what had happened and read about this plant. And that was after a desperation shower to attempt to get rid of whatever was burning my eyes! Eventually, several minutes of cold water on my eyes/face made the immediate burning sensation calmer. I was moments from asking Susie to take me to the emergency room. After stopping the eye-burning, I just had a major headache until I was able to go to sleep for the night. This morning I have a blister where the stuff must have touched my arm. I carefully covered up, dug out the three of these I had planted a few months ago (fortunately they were still small) and bagged them. Having grandkids around, I shudder at the thought of one of them getting this toxic sap on their hands and face!
I think there should be a big warning on these plants to read before you buy them. I see them in many public spots around town. Beware of their sap!
Here’s a couple of articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_tirucalli
If you look, you can find numerous stories worse than mine!
These are the books specifically on the Revelation of Jesus Christ that I have been using lately. I always use Logos Bible software with general resources like interlinears and Greek lexicons and word study. But these are the books specifically on Revelation that I am using these days.
- Revelation for Everyone – N.T. Wright
- This is the one book on Revelation to get if you only read one, or if you want to read it devotionally day-by-day. Wright has a very informed and balanced perspective and writes (in the Everyone Series) at a popular level for regular folk. He is an excellent communicator, scholar, and pastor.
- The Bible Project
- The Bible Project is just about the best thing in biblical literacy since sliced bread. These guys offer really good video summaries on books of the Bible along with many other free resources for students of the Bible. I can’t recommend their stuff highly enough, particularly for the internet-oriented crowd. Check it our yourself, and refer your friends to this resource. Here are their two excellent 10-minute videos on The Revelation of Jesus:
And here is The Bible Project in-depth podcast series on The Day of the Lord. It’s really excellent.
- The Day of the Lord, Part 1: What’s the Deal with Babylon?
- The Day of the Lord, Part 2: Pharaoh vs. The Warrior God
- The Day of the Lord, Part 3: Solomon, the Richest Man in Babylon?
- The Day of the Lord, Part 4: The Evil Behind Babylon
- The Day of the Lord, Part 5: Jesus and the War Against Evil
- The Day of the Lord, Part 6: Revelation and Jesus in Modern Politics
- Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey through the book of Revelation – Darrell W. Johnson
- This book, based on a sermon series Darrell Johnson gave in Glendale, CA some years ago, is the one I am using to help me structure my 2017 sermon series and gauge how much background material to include. I appreciate Johnson’s care in study and exegesis and his passion. He’s an excellent preacher.
- Revelation: Four Views – Steve Gregg
- If you want to understand the range of reputable views or interpretations of Revelation, this is the book to get. Gregg did a major service for those of us who want to study the range of perspectives side-by-side. His book has proven to be extremely popular with pastors and students and is in a second edition now. I highly recommend this book when you are moving beyond casual study. Or even if you just want to understand the major perspectives
- Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the new Creation – Michael J. Gorman
- Not too long, very balanced, and recommended by many. Darrell Johnson recommended it.
- The Theology of the Book of Revelation (New Testament Theology) – Richard Bauckham
- Bauckham did not write this as a commentary, but to explain the theology of the Revelation. Very helpful.
- Revelation: A New Covenant Commentary – Gordon D. Fee
- This is a somewhat more academic commentary that is quite good.
- The Book of Revelation, New International Commentary on the New Testament – Robert H. Mounce
- This is one of the top commentaries on Revelation. As a volume in the New International Commentary on the New Testament, it is based on the Greek text; however, knowledge of Greek is not required to get a lot of benefit. For serious students of the text. I look here for help with difficult issues.
- The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation – Craig S. Keener
- This is another highly-regarded commentary that focuses more on providing possible application of the text for today’s Christian. I find Keener’s perspective helpful.
- Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination – Eugene H. Peterson
- This book by Eugene Peterson is organized thematically. It is not a verse-by-verse commentary at all, but is about understanding the Revelation.
- The Millennial Maze: Sorting Out Evangelical Options – Stanley J. Grenz
- This is not strictly a book on Revelation at all. It’s about evangelical perspectives on the end times. It’s older than Gregg’s book above, but was one of the first resources that helped me, well, sort through the maze of millenniums. It’s an IVP book written at a level that a college student can easily read.
- The Book of Revelation, New International Greek Testament Commentary – Gregory K. Beale
- This is another top commentary on Revelation, focusing on the Greek text. Really good and pretty academic. It’s useful even if you don’t know Greek. It’s not my first resource, but rather for reference when I’m digging.
“The problem of sexual confusion in our culture, which is huge, is not going to be solved by the reassertion of power.” Thus says the wise and learned Sarah Williams in these talks given at Corban University, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Williams is a first-rate scholar and does us a great service in explaining the world from which our present day came and how we got here, with regard to how we think of people and sex. I don’t know much about Corban University; but Sarah Williams I have read and listened to quite a lot over the past couple of years, to my great profit. Such great free resources are not so easy to find! This one is top notch.
Sex in the Postmodern Story, Part 1
Sex in the Postmodern Story, Part 2
Sex in the Postmodern Story, Part 3