Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Gift(s) of the Spirit

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Published
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bcg
on 30 December 2007
in *Starred, Bible and Church
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This topic has been mulling over in my mind for a long time.  Since the 'rediscovery' of charismatic gifts and the phenomenal growth of the Pentecostal church, I suppose it has been a hot topic for the church generally.

I am currently reading Knowing God by J.I. Packer, a chapter a night – a fantastic book, which I will review when I'm done – and last night I read chapter 12, 'The Love of God'.  Packer makes some excellent points which happen to coincide with my own feelings on this subject, so I will quote him, and then comment.

In Romans 5.5 Paul says, 'God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.'  Packer says:

Paul is not talking of faint and fitful impressions, but of deep and overwhelming ones.

...

Paul assumes that all his readers, like himself, will be living in the enjoyment of a strong and abiding sense of God's love for them.

Third, notice that the instilling of this knowledge is described as part of the regular ministry of the Spirit to those who receive him – to all , that is, who are born again, who are true believers.  One could wish that this aspect of his ministry was prized more highly than it is at the present time.  With a perversity as pathetic as it is impoverishing, we have become preoccupied today with the extraordinary, sporadic, non-universal ministries of the Spirit to the neglect of the ordinary, general ones.  Thus, we show a great deal more interest in the gifts of healing and tongues – gifts of which, as Paul pointed out, not all Christians are meant to partake anyway (1 Cor. 12:28-30) – than in the Spirit's ordinary work of giving peace, joy, hope, and love, through the shedding abroad in our hearts of knowledge of the love of God.  Yet the latter is much more important than the former.

...

It will be tragic if the concern for revival that is stirring at the present time in many places gets diverted into the cul-de-sac of a new Corinthianism.  The best thing that Paul could desire for the Ephesians in connection with the Spirit was that he might continue towards them the Romans 5:5 ministry with ever-increasing power, leading them deeper and deeper into knowledge of the love of God in Christ.

...

Revival means the work of God restoring to a moribund church, in a manner out of the ordinary, those standards of Christian life and experience which the New Testament sets forth as being entirely ordinary; and a right-minded concern for revival will express itself, not in a hankering after tongues (ultimately it is of no importance whether we speak in tongues or not), but rather a longing that the Spirit may shed God's love abroad in our hearts with greater power.  For it is with this (to which deep exercise of soul about sin is often preliminary) that personal revival begins, and by this that revival in the church, once begun, is sustained.

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 133-134

I wholeheartedly agree with Packer.  The Spirit's work is so much more than we might sometimes be led to believe – he gives so many gifts to each and every Christian, not least the fact that they are believers!  Of course the 'sporadic gifts' are important – I have no doubt that God heals people today – but focussing too much on them leads us to forget the more important, universal gifts.

I want to sit down one day and read a proper and full exposition of the work of the Spirit – I believe Calvin in particular does this well.

Everything we do as a Christian is a gift of the Spirit!  We live entirely by grace, which God gives us in the power of the Spirit.  In talking so much about 'the gifts', in constantly asking the question 'what is my gift?', 'what is my ministry', we forget that all we have is a gift, and that we are given all we have in order that we might serve God and each other, and steward creation aright.  If we get this sorted in our Christian lives, then we will have the right perspective on the 'sporadic gifts' as well – they are not for ourselves, but to enable our service of others, to build up the church.

Given all this, I would argue that it is not just 'conservative' Christians who 'quench the Spirit' (1 Thessalonians 5.19) by refusing to allow space for his work publicly – 'charismatic' Christians do the same by focussing too much on the particular gifts the Spirit gives, and too little on the primary, universal gifts that he gives.  Both are important in the life of the church – but the universal gifts are much more so; the balance needs to be restored.

I think that the greatest miracle is not a dramatic healing but someone who dies in Christ.

Broadband

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Published
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bcg
on 23 December 2007
in Sci & Tech and Web
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At last! The great broadband scam is being curtailed by Ofcom, and not a moment too soon. The old 'up to 8mb' line so beloved of broadband providers has finally come under harsh criticism by Ofcom.

The recommendations are that on purchase, customers are advised of the likely speed they will actually get, and be able to switch to a lower/cheaper/different package if they do not receive that speed in the first two weeks.

However, what they don't address, and which is a bigger problem for me, is line contention. During the day the speed of my broadband at home (Tiscali up to 8mb, never more than 4mb) is absolutely fine. But in the evenings, and at weekends, it is pitifully slow. I mean so slow that simple web pages like the Google home page won't load. The reason is that you share your broadband 'pipe' with, usually, 30-50 other people. Therefore, if everyone uses it at the same time (such as evenings and weekends) the speed drops dramatically.

As more and more people use broadband, I would like to see companies do something about this. My previous broadband provider, plus.net, had a specific policy whereby they prioritised normal web traffic, such as viewing websites, so we were always able to check the news at a decent speed and check our emails, no matter what time it was. The trouble is, with so many online TV and video services, streaming is becoming more popular, and using up loads more bandwidth that was previously the case. I'm not interesting in streaming – but I am interested in fast email, and fast browsing.

Atheist carol-singing

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Published
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bcg
on 23 December 2007
in Culture and Theology
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I was preparing to blog on an article I read in The Times the other day, and this morning discovered a friend had done just that! His blog post is here, the original article is here and some letters sent to the editor in response are here.

Apparently Richard Dawkins, outspoken and well-known atheist, enjoys singing carols at Christmas. Libby Purves writes:

How can his famous, well-modulated voice choke out the word 'adore', apropos a God he calls a 'misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully'?

diagacht argues that one can appreciate the 'culturally significant pieces of music' without making any statement of belief by singing them. I'm not sure that is the case. I think there is a difference between observing (e.g. appreciating some Bach at a music concert) and participating (e.g. singing Christian carols at Christmas).

Given the strength of Dawkins' antipathy towards God and religion in general (particularly the bit Libby Purves quotes above), I do find it amusing that he enjoys singing carols so much.

The Perfect Christmas

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Published
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bcg
on 19 December 2007
in Culture and Theology
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This evening we watched Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Christmas on BBC2. Normally I love watching Heston – the 'culinary alchemist' – with his very male cooking; it's all gadgets, industrial equipment, perfectionism, and lots of lovely rich butter. And he gets to use liquid nitrogen!!

However this evening's episode left a bitter aftertaste. One of his first comments was about his starter – apparently there are three vital elements to a nativity play: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We heard all about the 'three kings' travelling through Oman where they probably picked up their frankincense. And who were they for? 'The newborn baby' – not once in the whole programme did I hear the name 'Jesus'.

Now, I know that it isn't a Christian programme – Heston's comments about his perfect Christmas, which involves roaring fires, the smell of Christmas trees, roast goose and so on, reveal the total secularisation of Christmas into something sentimental, an excuse for the family to eat a slap-up meal in front of a roaring fire – but to talk about Christmas, including the nativity story, without mentioning Jesus' name, is quite something.

But that wasn't the worst part. He managed to come up with something tasteless at best, at worst extremely offensive. He served communion wafers dipped in something that smelled of babies. I have a high tolerance level – I am not offended by The Life of Brian, for example – but that really jarred with me. Using communion wafers in a Christmas meal is crass and, I think, offensive.

Of course, if anyone complains, the media will probably make them out to be fundamentalists who can't take a good joke. However, taking one of the central acts of the Christian faith and turning it into a starter for your Christmas meal, is not a good joke.

The wrath of God was satisfied

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Published
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bcg
on 18 December 2007
in Bible, Church and Theology
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I have been reading some of the minor prophets recently, and it hit me quite how angry God is with his people, and with the nations surrounding them. Of Ninevah God says, 'Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts...' followed by some fairly graphic and disgusting things (Nahum 2.13, 3.5-7 etc). Micah begins with the promise of destruction for Israel's idolatrous behaviour. Obadiah condemns Edom, Jacob's brother Esau, for gloating over Israel's misfortune. And so on.

This made me think. Most obviously I suppose, it highlights just how angry God gets with sin. A stereotype of Protestant preaching is 'fire and brimstone from the pulpit', which reflects God's anger and just wrath, while perhaps being a bit over the top. It is an uncomfortable message, and not one people want to hear – it doesn't sit easily with the general understanding of God as a benevolent father with a big white beard. More serious are Richard Dawkins' attacks on 'the God of the Old Testament' for such unpleasant displays of vengeance and anger; unpleasant, that is, to our modern 'tolerant' sensibilities.

There are two dangers here. The first, corresponding to the uncomfortableness that people feel, is to deny God's wrath. This underestimates sin, and reduces God's holiness. Even claiming it is part of the Old Testament understanding of 'territorial gods' is false, because it is in the New Testament too. It is simply not the case that the God of the Old Testament is vengeful and the God of the New Testament is peaceful.

If we are seeking to be faithful to the Bible we cannot avoid the fact that sin makes God angry. Therefore, just as sin is not confined to the Old Testament, so God's anger isn't confined to the Old Testament. If you want proof, look in a concordance under 'wrath' and 'anger' – not to mention Jesus' display of anger in the temple (Matthew 21 etc). God's righteous anger is a central part of the message of the whole Bible, perhaps at its clearest in the prophets.

The second danger, corresponding to Dawkins' attack, is to stop here, and simply emphasise how angry God is with us 'miserable offenders', effectively denying the message of grace clearest in the New Testament (though present also in the Old). For the Bible tells us that yes, God justly punishes sin, and therefore we sinners deserve death, but that he also loves us and wants to have mercy on us. The interchange in Hosea is particularly astonishing, as we read of God's love and justice wrestling with each other.

It is for precisely this reason that the cross is absolutely central, for on the cross God's love and justice meet – they are both defined entirely and exclusively by the cross. It is on the cross, as Jesus bears the penalty for our sins, their consequence, that God fulfils his justice, whilst at the same time fulfilling his love, as he sets us free from that penalty through Jesus.

If we take the Bible as a whole, we see the Old Testament preparing us for and pointing us to the cross. It is on the cross that the tension between God's love for his people and his righteous judgement of their sins is resolved. The curses of the Old Testament, the condemnation that God speaks over the nations, over his own people, all of that wrath is poured out on Jesus, and we are saved by his blood.

And so we return to the minor prophets. As I was reading Nahum I realised that on the cross, God spoke those curses to his own Son, who willingly and obediently put himself under those curses. And he did that because he loves us so much, and because we have disobeyed him so much, and because he is so holy and just and righteous and faithful.

So on the cross, God's wrath was indeed satisfied – and, in the frequent alternative words to In Christ Alone, God's love was glorified also. However, we need to make sure we strike the balance between God's wrath and his love, so we don't cheapen his love, and so we don't turn God into Dawkins' stereotype. This balance is struck by Paul in some important verses in his letter to the Romans, on which note we will finish.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 5.6-9 (ESV)

Here we go again..

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Published
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bcg
on 17 December 2007
in Culture
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Millions of drivers' data 'lost'

The government has done it again – this time it's 'the details of 3 million candidates for the driving theory test.' There is currently a report being researched – 'A full version of the report is expected by spring 2008.' And not a moment too soon, this data loss is getting to be ridiculous.

Explosions

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Published
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bcg
on 16 December 2007
in Quotations
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Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.

Jef Raskin