Arjay's Weblog

Tomb of the (Still) Unknown Ancients

"Year after year in spring, a new crop of religious dandelions pop up in our post-Christian culture.  Like the real ones growing in my yard, they make a colorful splash that briefly captures our attention, until we realize they are only shallow-rooted weeds, not beautiful flowers planted long ago in the deep rich soil of the past, such as Easter lilies."

"In a surreal moment on "Larry King Live" earlier this week, the film's producer, James Cameron (of "Titanic" fame), told us with a straight face that we should all be thankful that we now have tangible evidence that Jesus existed.  Actually, no serious historian of biblical antiquity has ever doubted that there was a historical Jesus.   Yet it tells us a lot about the state of our culture that Mr. Cameron's remark, backed by pseudo-science, could be seriously made on national television and that the film's companion book has already shot up to No. 5 on Amazon's rankings.  We are a Jesus-haunted culture that is so historically illiterate that anything can now pass for knowledge of Jesus."

Tomb of the (Still) Unknown Ancients
by Ben Witherington III

Hollywood's 'Amazing' Glaze

In the Friday, February 23rd edition of The Wall Street Journal, there was a very interesting piece on an upcoming movie depicting the life of William Wilberforce.  Here is a short excerpt:

"It is rare that a Hollywood film takes up a subject like William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the British parliamentarian who devoted nearly his entire 45-year political career to banning the British slave trade.  Alas, a lot of people watching "Amazing Grace," Michael Apted's just-released film, may get the impression - perhaps deliberately fostered by Mr. Apted - that Wilberforce was a mostly secular humanitarian whose main passion was not Christian faith but politics and social justice.  Along the way, they may also get the impression that the hymn "Amazing Grace" is no more than an uplifting piece of music that sounds especially rousing on the bagpipes."

"In fact, William Wilberforce was driven by a version of Christianity that today would be derided as "fundamentalist.""

Hollywood's 'Amazing' Glaze   -  by Charlotte Allen
from The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Page

TV's Healing Powers

Below is a link to an excellent piece from the Friday, September 15th edition of The Wall Street Journal. 

Why go to a church that is attempting to imitate the culture?  Go right to the real stuff.  The church never could compete when she lost her vision and attempted to become less like Israel and more like Egypt.  God is calling to Himself a peculiar people, and when they've lost their peculiarness - when the salt has lost its ability to season or preserve - it's ready to be thrown out.

Matthew 5:13
"You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

The piece below is one of the more brilliant things I've seen in quite some time.

R.J.

TV's Healing Powers
by Philip Kevin Goff

[excerpt]
If American culture has moved toward evangelicals' practice of making the personal public, so religion has moved in the direction of the broader culture.  The way worship is conducted in growing numbers of evangelical congregations now replicates what once was confined to the TV screen.  Sitting in your living room, you may feel just as close to the pastor as you would at the 5,000-person megachurch down the street.  Unless you join one of the megachurch's cell groups, these institutions can be as impersonal as mass media.  Moreover, a visit to your local megachurch - including Starbuck's coffee, entertaining music and drama, and a short talk that seems less like a sermon than an inspiring self-help lesson - will not seem much different than a trip to the mall.

A Chance of Faith

The Wall Street Journal of Friday, September 1, 2006 had a great piece regarding the two Fox journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were recently forced to convert to Islam while being held by Palestinian terrorists.

The article also touches on the sad state of affairs in American Christianity.  Below are a couple of excerpts and a link to the full article.  [Emphases mine.]

R.J.

P.S.  Below the link ot the WSJ article is some of the text from a postcard I received in the mail from a local "ministry" called Fair Haven Ministries .  They're an offshoot of the Reformed Church in America.  It seems to provide a great example of what this article is talking about.

"Under the sheltering wing of the First Amendment and a core civic belief that religious faith is a private matter and a private choice, religious Americans have overwhelmingly made the selection of their private faith as normal as choosing a breakfast cereal.  Sometimes the selection seems to be as inconsequential as well.  Disouragingly, large numbers of church-going Christians have no idea what their churches claim to believe."

"For Americans, on the other hand, variety of choice in any domain of life is seen as an inherent virtue, the greater it is, the greater the virtue.  Americans like to experiment, to "mix and match," and in religion it's no different than in the department store.  A friend who attended Yale divinity school a few years ago had a classmate who signed herself in as a "Catholic Buddhist."

"That eclecticism was not offered to Messrs. Centanni or Wiig when they faced a choice between death and converstion at the end of a gun barrel.  In Islam, the supermarket of religious choice hasn't opened yet."

A Chance of Faith

Partial text found on a postcard from Fair Haven Ministries in Hudsonville, Michigan:

At Fair Haven Ministries, Fall is for Families!

Cheering your school team at Friday night football.  Shopping for back-to-school supplies.  Raking leaves, then jumping in the pile.  Autumn was made for families.  This fall, is it time to nurture the spiritual dimension of your family life as well?  Join us at Fair Haven for a time of strengthening your family and yourself with inspiring messages, upbeat music and plenty of new friends.  See you this weekend!

DON'T MISS FALL KICK-OFF!  Sunday, September 10  9:00 and 10:45AM

Exciting Worship Celebrations
Kick-Off BBQ @ 11:45 AM
Activities for Kids & Students @ 10:45 AM
Outer Vibe Band
Car Show

A Place for the Whole Family!

Evangelicals Learn to Love Big Government

This interesting article from last Friday's Wall Street Journal mentions the Grand Rapids-based Acton Institute as well as the Christian Reformed Church.

When I moved back to Holland in 2001, I was a Christian but didn't regularly attend church.  My wife grew up in the Reformed Church in America and her parents and many family members still attend that denomination, the oldest Protestant denomination in America.

It didn't take me too long after joining an RCA church in Holland to realize that much of what this article discusses was of primary concern to this denomination - social justice, environmental wackoism, etc. 

When we departed, my letter to the consistory basically stated that churches should be about carrying out Christ's Great Commission, not worrying about whether or not global warming and CO2 emissions are killing trees.   How many trees equal the value of one soul?  At what temperature does a condemned soul combust?  Does that burning soul generate greenhouse gasses?

I mean, come on, in 2 Peter 3:10 we learn that everything, every element, will be destroyed by fire.  How dare Christ do such environmental damage!  Whom does He think He is, the Creator or something?

My hope is that these politically and theologically-liberal church bodies will one day return to the great heritage from which they seem to have boldly departed. 

Bono and Rick Warren, both mentioned in the article, are cut from the same cloth - two men depending upon a works-based righteousness to save them, when truly it is by grace we are saved, not works.

[Queue Sountrack]   We are the world...we are the children...

Churches are free to get involved in whatever social action they see fit, but they can do it without my tithes and offerings. 

R.J.

Strange Bedfellows:  Evangelicals Learn to Love Big Government

Ash Wednesday, Protestant Style

Today's Grand Rapids Press has an article about Ash Wednesday and Lent.  Here are a few quotes from the article:

"When Bishop Walter Hurley was a child, Lent was not much fun.  He could not go to the movies.  He could not eat candy.  One year, he saved up his candy all during Lent to eat on Easter, but his brother got to it first."

"Today, Catholics are expected to abstain from eating meat, as well as on all the Fridays of Lent."

"Brenda Sanders said she will follow the fast, and give up her customary Pepsi and cigarettes on the way to work.  As she left this morning's service, she called fasting a kind of cleansing."

"It's going to make me a better person in the end, so I really can be strong and live a better life," said Sanders, 49, a medical assistant from Grand Rapids.  "That's what I was taught from day one."

Now a few words from the Apostle Paul:

"Do not handle!  Do not taste!  Do not touch!"?
These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.  Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.      Colossians 2:21-23 & 3:1 NIV

My boss lives directly across the street from me and I had the idea as I read this article to start a new Lenten tradition.  He's a Christian Reformed guy and we both enjoy barbecueing with our Weber Smokey Joe "grill pups".  I thought it would be cool this Ash Wednesday to dump the remains of last nights grilling on his front porch as a sign of my disdain for Romish ritual.  I'm sure he'd appreciate it and I have to empty it anyway before I grill some chicken tonight.  Yes, tonight!  Maybe I'll even go all the way and dump a Bell's Amber Ale on the ashes as a drink offering.

I know - I am a sick and wrong individual.  But I know my Bible and these traditions won't bring us one bit closer to Christ, as Paul clearly states.

R.J.

The Grand Rapids Press
Bishop calls celebration of Lent a 'special time'

The Dismantling of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands

I ran across a great article today by Johan D. Tangelder at the Banner Of Truth website.  In this 4-page piece, some history is given as to why the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands [GKN] fell apart. (Gereformeede Kerken in Nederland)

The parallels could not be clearer with American churches, even those of Dutch heritage such as the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church.

Simply surfing around these denominational websites will reveal church organizations that have lost focus on Christ and his work and have become engrossed in such things as "social justice", global warming, and the Palestinian conflict.  The adoption and promotion of politically-liberal causes do not good, solid churches make.  One can only hope that these churches as well as many others in the United States and around the world will once again see the Lord in all His glory, as Isaiah did, and become once again truly Reformed.

Here are a few short excerpts from the article, followed by a link to it. 

"Until the 1960s GKN membership increased yearly by 10 to 12 thousand.  By 1973 the increase was only four souls.  On the first of January 1975, the first decline was noted, a total of 1000, afterwards the decline became a flood of departures.  In 1993 Prof. Dr. A.P. Bos of the Free University stated that 10,000 leave the GKN yearly for other pastures, some as sheep who no longer have shepherds in their own denomination and no longer view their church as mother but as stepmother."

"The dismantling of the GKN did not happen overnight.  It was such a slow and quiet process that many scarcely realised what was happening in their denomination.  It did not become public until the Synod of Sneek (1970-71) which chose not to discipline Kuitert and his followers who denied Adam's fall into sin."

"[GKN minister Lindeboom] stated the GKN has become not only a dialogue church but also a pluralistic church, which means that every viewpoint receives equal treatment and acceptance.  Some theologians promote feminist, black, liberation, or homosexual theology.  Lindeboom notes that a new theology, filled with old heresies, conquered hearts;  a bureaucratic development arose;  doctrinal latitude became widespread;  local congregations came under pressure - the fundamentals of the faith were undermined.  He comments that he can't escape the impression that with all the theologizing and preoccupation with church affairs, and also in many sermons, the contact with Jesus Himself has vanished."

Full article
The Dismantling of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope y'all have a great holiday.  Marci and I are off on Friday so we've got a nice 4-day weekend.  Snowy and cold, yet nice.  Better tune up my roof rake.

I'm not big on holidays, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Thanksgiving as that  is the posture we need to assume always before God - 24/7, 365 days a year.

I guess the saddest thing about Black Friday (that's the day after Thanksgiving when consumers bless manufacturers and retailers with their cash) is that it seems to betray a  certain lack of contentment.  I'm not saying people can't enjoy shopping, but getting up to be at the mall at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning  is more a disease than a hobby or pastime or useful endeavor,  in my very humble opinion.  In other words, those folks are NUTS!  They ALL deserve each other.

Can't we have 24 or 48 hours without commerce screwing it all up?

I've found the secret that Paul spoke of in Philippians, chapter 4, and it's a dandy for those who have ears to hear:
(not a foppish dandy like Prince Charles, but, well, you know what I mean)

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him wh0 gives me strength.

Contentment.  No batteries required.

Grace and peace,

R.J.

P.S.  I haven't read the sermon below yet, but I can tell you without reservation that it is most excellent.

Knowledge.  Worship.  Gratitude.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1763.htm

Stupid Church Tricks in Grandville, Michigan

No, that's not Corey Feldman from "Stand By Me".  It's Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church down the road in Grandville.   (Corey's on the right)

I guess how it works in the "emergent" movement is the uglier the glasses, the holier thou art!

You'll read the Detroit Free Press article below and immediately recall the time that Jesus assembled the disciples and had them cut up their credit cards.  I did.  It's right there in Mammon 3:16.  And the kickin' band!  Who can ever forget Peter on the Stratocaster in the upper room?  Man, that Rock rocked!!!

I said it in my blog piece  on Bell a few months ago and the question still comes to me:  Mr. Bell, who commissioned you to "disorganize religion"? 

I recall a certain Serpent who did a very good job back in Genesis.

The Detroit Free Press
November 11 2005
An Unconventional Pastor Looks to Disorganize Religion

2 Excellent Al Mohler Columns

Here are links to a 2-part piece by Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I thought they were flat-out awesome.

R.J.

Homosexuality in Theological Perspective - Part 1

Homosexuality in Theological Perspective - Part 2