Love

I have pondered exactly how to write on the issue of gay marriage in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision to legalize it.  I am torn--not on my position on the subject, because that is firm opposition.  Rather, I am torn in exactly how to approach it.  I have friends near and far and coworkers who consider themselves to be homosexual or to be "allies."  My goal here is not to write an angry rant, because I'm not angry and it would accomplish nothing.  Certainly there is a measure of disappointment but that is tempered by the knowledge that God is God, and while man foolishly believes in his own autonomy, God will ultimately be glorified in all things.

The heart of man plans his way,
   but the Lord establishes his steps.
--Proverbs 16:9

However, I have come to face the fact that no matter what I say, no matter how calmly or reasonably I seek to discuss this, at this point there is little room for such things in the eyes of many.  The behavior of so many in recent months has made this abundantly clear: anything short of full-throated endorsement of homosexuality and its partners bisexuality and transgenderism will not be tolerated.  I don't say all this to set myself up as a potential victim; rather, I simply want to lay groundwork for this discussion, and pray that those who disagree with me will 1) actually read through this and allow me to speak for myself, rather than inserting thoughts and claims into my words that I do not actually make, and 2) understand this to be written in a spirit of love.

Pardon my tone

I have a long blog post in the works that I may or may not get finished today that will discuss issues related to the gay marriage decision and its fallout, but in the aftermath of the release of the Planned Parenthood video revealing that abortions are often performed in such a way so as to maximize the ability of the doctors to harvest organs from the dead child, I couldn't let this story pass by without comment:

Reuters: Planned Parenthood head sorry for tone in video on fetal tissue use

Let's start with just the headline.  Firstly, as the good Dr. White remarked on Twitter yesterday, "tone" seems to have become the most dastardly crime one can commit--you can say the most heinous thing imaginable, but if you say it in a nice way or in such a way that it seems like you are trying to be sensitive to others, that excuses the actual content of the statement.  Of course, given that our culture today seems to be rapidly fleeing from the idea that language has any firm meaning, I suppose this shouldn't be terribly surprising, but it is still head-smackingly inane.

Secondly, I realize that Reuters is probably using the phrase "fetal tissue" because it is considered by the bulk of the media to be the most "neutral" phrase, but I believe this is a sign that the idea of the secular worldview being completely on board with all things proven true scientifically is complete nonsense.  I still find it fascinating that in this day and age, far advanced beyond the then-rudimentary prenatal knowledge of 1973, we still continue to pretend that we haven't had it established beyond any reasonable doubt that a fetus* is a child, a separate and new life.  The only thing that could possibly make it more clear at this point would be a literally transparent womb, and we virtually have that with the incredible advances in ultrasound imaging now available.

Just a few parts of the story I wanted to comment on:

Planned Parenthood's president apologized on Thursday for the "tone and statements" of a senior staff member who was secretly recorded in a video that critics say suggests the U.S. reproductive health organization sells aborted fetal tissue. Despite Planned Parenthood's denials of the allegation, the video's release earlier this week has rapidly spurred investigations in the Republican-led U.S. Congress. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a new video statement that the nonprofit organization does not profit from fetal tissue donation.

The verbal sleight-of-hand I have been seeing by PP defenders on Facebook is ever-present: "selling" versus "profiting."  We'll let slide the fact that they absolutely do profit from providing the abortions themselves.  I'm sure once the various governors and attorneys general investigating this are done, we'll have a very clear count of exactly what sort of margin Planned Parenthood is pulling down on baby livers.

She also apologized for the remarks of Dr. Deborah Nucatola, its senior director of medical services, recorded discussing fetal body parts over lunch and wine in a restaurant. She was meeting with actors posing as buyers from a biological company. "Our top priority is the compassionate care that we provide. In the video, one of our staff members speaks in a way that does not reflect that compassion," said Richards, whose statement did not name Nucatola.

This concept continues from the above defense being used by many right now: talk about Planned Parenthood as though it's a poor put-upon woman's clinic that just happens to have some detractors.  Don't allow anyone to bring up what is actually being discussed in the video: the murder of unborn children, and that murder being done in a particular way so as to preserve certain organs for use by others.  This is being acclaimed by the defenders, appallingly enough, as some sort of act akin to organ donation (I even saw one person, without the slightest sense of self-awareness, say "You must be against organ donation" to someone writing about this in a similar vein to me right now.)  This goes along with the longtime claim of abortion rights supporters: unborn children are just tissue, their disposal is the right of the mother and is without consequence.

The conscience-scarring act of adopting this viewpoint vexes me to the core, and demands a cry of "Repent!" from every believer.  Not because we are morally superior, but precisely because the only reason we have any different perspective on our own humanity beyond "It's there for me to do as I please" is by the grace of God.  That we have come to encourage mothers to regard their unborn offspring, the most helpless state of human life one could imagine, as simply a clump of tissue to be disposed of is wicked, and surely it is just as wicked as those who labored to defend the institution of slavery in the United States by claiming that an institution which debased and degraded its victims to the level of animal was, in fact, for their benefit.  George Orwell certainly did not invent doublespeak, but he codified very well the thought process of humanity when it rejects its Creator and chooses slavery and death.

And so it is with "compassionate care."  I fully acknowledge that Planned Parenthood does do many good things in providing needed healthcare for women, especially women without a great deal of means.  That does not excuse the wickedness of calling the act of killing an unborn child "compassionate care."

Finally, there's this:

Richards said Planned Parenthood stood by its work helping women to donate tissue for "lifesaving" research. "We know the real agenda of organizations behind videos like this," she said. "Their mission is to ban abortion completely and cut women off from care at Planned Parenthood and other health centers."

If I may be so bold: you are bloody right it is.  Just like it was the goal of abolitionists like William Wilberforce, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Tubman to see the practice of slavery abolished and to see an end to the treatment of African-Americans as subhuman, so today those who have been set free from bondage to sin by the power of the Holy Spirit must raise their voice in protest against those who would degrade the imago Dei through this assault on motherhood and on our most helpless.

And I choose to do this by pointing out the evil in this practice, and by calling all who consider this act to be acceptable to have their eyes opened, to see the truth of what abortion really is before them, and to repent and know true forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ.  I do this because eliminating abortion is not the true end: the true end is in our work as ministers of reconciliation, calling our fellow imagebearers of God around us to the foot of the cross of Christ and to the true life only found in the Spirit.

*And I don't say "fetus" derogatorily, it's a legitimate word to describe a particular point in life just like "zygote" or "child" or "adolescent" is, or like "larva" is for an insect.  The issue comes in when the word is loaded down with the implication that "fetus" means "clump of random cells that are totally not at all anything you should worry about until they magically turn into a baby on the way down the birth canal."

Pressures of church and state

Apologies for the long delay again.  But: I have a good reason!  I have started a podcast with the help from a friend at church, and I would direct you all to check it out.  It's called Spurgeon Audio, and I am reading through the sermons and writings of Charles Spurgeon, works that have served as great inspirations to me in my walk as a believer.  I hope you will all be edified and share it as you see fit.  It is on iTunes, and the link to subscribe is at the website.

This is another entry publishing a paper I've written for the still-ongoing C3 Academy, the classes my church is putting on to help raise up leaders within the laity.  This paper is on the subject of the relationship between the church and the state.  If you are a theonomist, you may not care for this paper, but then I am not trying to please theonomists.  Read on:

The common grace of tragedy

The wickedness of men is on full display as per usual, and tonight's edition comes in the form of the latest atrocity perpetrated by ISIS.  The radical Islamist group has released video of them beheading a group of Christians, features quotes from the Qu'ran and accusing the Copts (the particular Christian group to which these victims of ISIS' murderous deeds belonged) of evil deeds against Muslims and Islam.   Naturally the response online has been vocal and strident, condemning ISIS and many calling for further action to be taken against them.  It is not my intention to weigh in on that issue, because I think the answer is a clear: Romans 13 gives the sword to governments to wield in the name of pursuing justice and defending the weak.  No, the issue here is: how should believers, seeing their brothers being murdered for their faith, react to this?  Anger is natural, but blinding and too often destructive to what we are called to do even in the face of such oppression.  There are many passages that come to mind when these events occur, and the first one that I thought of is one that I've used previously:

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them,“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”-Luke 13:1-5

I always come back to Jesus' response in times of great tragedy: He doesn't rant against Roman oppression, nor express helpless sadness at the seemingly meaningless loss of life in either example He discusses.  Rather, He turns the issue right back on those who came to Him: tragedy is not a sign that the sufferer was a greater sinner, but rather it is a warning that judgment is coming to everyone.

To be sure, there is a link between sin and suffering.  Were it not for the presence of sin in the world, there would be no suffering.  Sin brought death, pain and suffering into the world, and because the world is under the power of sin, suffering is a daily reality within it.  But the fact that a person suffers, does not indicate a direct relationship to his particular sin.--R.C. Sproul, Walking with God: Luke, p.276  

But what do we say in the face of such wicked actions?  Why shouldn't Christians just do the same thing any other seemingly reasonable person would do and arm up to go to war?  Because we do not have the same relationship with death that the natural man does, both in our understanding of what death truly is--a display of the brokenness brought into the world by sin--and in what death truly means to us as an end to this mortal life:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.-Philippians 1:21

But the fact is, most people don't see death this way, certainly not such a death as this.  It shocks, angers, saddens, and so it should.  Because outside of Christ, we simply stand in Adam and we stand to gain nothing but what we have earned through a lifetime of rebellion against God.  Death is the result of sin.  But at the same time, death can also be seen as a common grace--for observers.  Certainly, those who came to Jesus were called to heed that grace and repent, and that is the call believers must make in all tragedy: not a simplistic fear-mongering, but a sincere and loving Gospel call to repent and turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

But what of the brothers who died?  So many have died and will die, before the end, before Christ returns and sets all things right.  How do we face that?  Not recklessly, because we are called to be wise and winsome in how we live and deal with those around us.  But we can be bold, we can face danger bravely, and it is because of this that I turn to the truth expressed in the simple phrase "perseverance of the saints": God saves His people perfectly, leads them through paths He has laid to strengthen them, and there is nothing that will prevent Him from accomplishing His purposes.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.-Romans 8:31-39

I think Christians need to be wise about how we discuss this, as our Muslim neighbors are watching.  I'm not talking about AK47-wielding radicals, I'm talking about our literal physical neighbors, many of whom came here because they wanted to get away from groups like ISIS and the deadly influence they have on them and their families, wanting to worship in peace.  Yet at the same time, we know that simply escaping that is not sufficient, for apart from the saving grace of Christ they will perish in their sin just as much as the murderous radical.  There is no amount of good work that will ever balance out the scales in one's own favor, no amount of prayers, alms, service, or pilgrimage will ever put you in good standing before a holy and just God.  Only by His grace and by the atonement of His Son in your place can you have righteousness, freedom, and right standing with God.

This doesn't mean that we don't speak out against such wicked behavior, but we need to exercise wisdom, and remember that even in this God provides avenues for His Word to go forth, that nothing stops the Holy Spirit from His work.  Love your neighbors.  Do good to those that persecute you.  Our freedom even in the face of death to obey means that we ought to love well even those who wish to stand in our way.

"Easy for you to say, from your comfortable not-being-threatened-by-soldiers home in America!"  Yes, it is.  And this is something even I have to take to heart--after all, this blog is more about me preaching to myself than to anyone else.  But even here there is great need for the Gospel to go forward in the face of danger and threats, and for people to be bold in the way they love.  My prayer is that the way I live, and the way I die, are not just a common grace exercised for the momentary comfort of a rebel awaiting judgment, but that they would be used in His saving grace, in removing hard stony, sin-loving hearts and replacing them with hearts of flesh, desiring to glorify God through giving up selfishness and turning to worship the true Lord of all.    

Utterly dependent

Fireworks still echo outside, both from the seemingly infinite city-sponsored shows surrounding my neighborhood and from the many people who have taken the liberty of shooting off their own.  It's fun, and certainly there are few other American freedoms that can be enjoyed more viscerally than blowing crap up.  The reason is certainly a good one as well: the establishing in words of the founding principles of this nation, principles worth fighting for to be sure.  God blessed this nation with founders who were able to take a collection of loosely affiliated states that had plenty of their own squabbles and problems with each other, and found a nation based upon those ideals.  Founded and further forged in the fire of war, God has done mighty works in this country for His glory. 

But this is not a "And it's all going downhill because of those dang liberals!" speech.  If you look a couple posts down, you'll see something much longer I've written on the same general subject, but I felt this deserved revisiting on this, the day we celebrate our independence from England: our nation is one established by God, for His purposes and glory, subject to His will, and nothing will disrupt that.  Last night I flipped on the radio and heard a host earnestly addressing his audience that it is utterly imperative that we defeat Barack Obama in the general election--and in general, I agree that I would prefer this outcome.  I think his policies are bad and that they've had a measurably destructive effect on the country, economically and otherwise. 

But he insisted that Obama will "destroy this country" if he's reelected, that there is little to no chance of recovery if he does.  Is he right?  Maybe, in the sense that this country may tend towards socialist ideals and a notion that one may as well just accept the handout, rather than fight the growing machine.  But this country's destiny is in the hands of God.  It his the common grace of law and order that He has extended us that has maintained it, and God willing continue us into the future.  He has appointed our leaders for His purposes and it is his nation to give and take away.  I will vote, I will discuss and debate, but my desire for those opportunities, and especially for the words I speak is that they point to Jesus as the real hope of the world.  There is no ultimate political solution, no government that will perfectly rule, no politician or despot or king that will organize a society into perfection except for the King of Kings. 

I do pray for God's mercy on this nation, but that mercy may look like difficulty and struggle as God goes after hearts and removes comforts from our lives so that we cannot shut Him out.  Friends of mine who have been working on mission in nations that actively persecute Christians report that believers there will sometimes pray that we here will undergo more persecution ourselves, that we might become more active and less complacent about our walks.  I don't know if I'd care to ask for that myself, though I do ask that God would begin to transform many hearts across this land and historically, that has not happened during times of great wealth and comfort. 

My hope is in no elected or unelected man.  It is in Jesus, and in God's grand design to transform men's hearts from rebellious and sinful into obedient and loving, to break the bonds of sin for all of us by showing us the cross of Christ and letting us know the immense price paid for our salvation.  I pray that I would love the Lord more and that I would shed sins that hold me back from displaying that love, things like selfishness and greed, and a lust for earthly things.  We are a free land, but we are utterly dependent on a God that loves us and calls us to live as adopted and redeemed children, heirs of the greatest treasure in the universe.

The innermost lie

Each day I load up my Facebook homepage, and I see a growing cascade of frustration and anger roll down the page. My conservative friends and my liberal friends, seeing grave threats in the other, commenting harshly and posting links to their favorite bloggers/columnists/videos that impugn their target. Doom is spelled out, should the other win--and not simply because the other believes certain things, but because there is a moral imperative to victory, and an immorality to the other, to the point where anyone even speaking in defense of said other simply cannot have a conception of anything right, like someone who believes down is up and the moon is the center of the universe.

There have been a lot of concerned writings out there calling for a return to some sense of decorum, for people to return to a more civilized discourse; while I would certainly prefer that, that's not my point. My point here is to call the dichotomy we see in our world a lie: the man across the street with an opposing political sign in his yard, or who is attending a protest against what you want, or who is on TV running for office in opposition to your candidate, he is not your enemy. We look back on the past and scoff at how foolish people were, how they could endorse some of the hatreds humans held in the past, yet today we embrace all new hatreds and defend them with just as much fervor as before. We are able to consider each other evil, and therefore believe that other people are so below contempt that it would be better if they were dead. An exercise that might be helpful here is to consider the thoughts that pass through your head as you have conversations or read the news: who can you regard thusly? How are you able to justify in your mind speaking evil of other men, no matter how right you may consider yourself to be?

I contend that while humanity has discovered much of the wonders of the universe and amazing technologies that link our world together and let us do incredible things, the idea that humanity is somehow more advanced in its heart and mind than in centuries and millenia past is a conceit of the modern age, not true by any observable definition. Even the good things we do become excuses to embrace self-righteousness and attack others for not being as charitable as we are.

This manifests on a larger scale in the political battles going on, carried to a personal level through the reposting of articles, videos and images on social media that are designed to transform "the opponent" into "the enemy." The man who holds an opposing view is not to be contended with, to be engaged in reasoned debate. He is to be villainized and demeaned; find the worst, most awkward picture of him, put a snarky caption on it and your job is done: he is now beneath you. The question of what this does to one's heart raises, but being Right is more important.

Two passages always cross my mind when I see these things scroll by on my Facebook homepage no matter the political stripe. The first is perhaps the most obviously applicable, Ephesians 6:12: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Paul is speaking to believers telling them to engage in life in the strength of the Lord and not their own strength. This verse, as is normal for the Bible, cuts two ways: it calls believers to rest in God knowing that He provides strength to engage the challenges we face. But just as much, it serves as a reminder that the men and women around us, no matter how belligerent, disagreeable or even dangerous, are not our enemies. The only thing separating us is grace, a grace which we are called to preach and walk in lovingly towards them.

And most important to remember, Paul was not writing to an audience of free Americans who can go or not go to a religious service of their choice. He lived, and died, in the Roman empire at a time when being a Christian didn't simply earn scornful Facebook remarks--it was likely to earn death. Paul is speaking to an audience of people who could have been arrested and murdered for their beliefs and telling them, "The man who comes to arrest you, the governor who sentences you, the executioner who picks up the axe or sword or opens the lion cage: pray for them, preach the Gospel to them, love them. All they can do is send you to Jesus, and there is no greater gain a man could ask for." And not one to live different from his preaching, Paul did the very same, as documented in Acts and his letters.

I have been blessed to be a part of a church that is not single-minded politically by any means, and having a campus in a college town like Denton and another in middle class Flower Mound helps that quite a bit. It brings a constant reminder that Jesus was not about political ends, nor did He come to endorse a platform for election. I think at all churches Christians need to remember this: your opponent is not your enemy. Your opponent is not who you are defeating, and no matter where you stand on an issue, no matter how close it is to your heart, your ultimate goal is to be able to speak the truth of the Gospel in love into his life.

The other passage is a little more complex as it relates to this, but I think it bears discussing:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are being saved, both Jews and Greeks, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.--1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Paul sets up two camps, Jews--in a more global conception, religious types--and Greeks, Gentiles--those with a secular worldview. The religious root their wisdom in the idea of a deity who they are able to please, and therefore because they are able to perform the right acts and not perform the wrong ones, they feel justified. The Jews had the law and sought to live by it, though because our rebellious human nature is opposed to living in this way there was of course a system put in place to atone for sin, of which there was no end.

Those from the secular viewpoint seek to understand the world, believing that the power of man's mind and the understanding he can unlock of the world, there is an end to suffering and pain, a perfection that awaits all people arriving on the same page. Yet all attempts to reach this hit one huge roadblock: as broken people, we have no true conception of what such a thing looks like. Any system set up to try to enforce a particular image inevitably becomes tyrannical and murderous towards those who would point out its flaws, while systems like our own that seek to balance debate and allow people to pursue their own lives become targets for those who point out the injustice in letting the weak and helpless fall to their own fates.

And so, we arrive at Jesus, the power and wisdom of God. God gave the Jews their religious system, but laced throughout it was blatant images of what the Messiah would do when He came, how atonement would once and for all be wrought. But because Jesus came not as a conquering king but as a lamb led to slaughter, a man who was cursed and died accursed, he was a stumbling block for the religious, just as He is today. Whether 2000 years ago or in the present day, the religious demand a Messiah who will justify them as they are in their own righteousness, not call them to a deeper righteousness rooted in a faith that is itself a gift which cannot be earned.

And of course, the whole idea makes little sense to a man who is wholly earthly and irreligious in his views; the problem is error, the solution is correcting the error. But if the lens through which you look is broken, each correction simply leads to new error, ultimately leading to a state of being utterly and completely lost. It is only by the grace of God that a man who sees himself through that cracked lens is able to suddenly know the truth of the state of his heart: to see the sin piled up, the wrongs committed against others and against God, and yet in that moment to know that God reveals this for the purpose of calling him to Himself. That great love has cracked open so many hearts hardened by the world, puffed up by knowledge but not finding truth.

We look at each other, seeing the faults, knowing the wrongs and pointing to them, demanding correction while we excuse our own. We see the hypocrisy all around us, but try to hide our own. It is a part of the human condition; in John 21, even Peter reveals his willingness to run to this defense when speaking with Jesus:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”--John 21:15-23

And again, in Galatians, Paul talks about how quickly Peter retreated into Jewish legalism for fear of how he was being seen by other Jews:

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”--Galatians 2:11-14

Each of us is called to be accountable to God for ourselves, for what he has given us as responsibility. We are not excused by the error of the world or of others, nor by our inability to perform up to par; indeed, it is that inability to live up to the standards of true righteousness that convicts us. However, we are justified by the Gospel, by the fact that Jesus died and absorbed the wrath of God for sin, and in believing and walking in that faith we are free to pursue God's call on us to the best of our ability. Our mistakes, our slips and struggles are not merely excused--they are covered up, and what is seen is the pure righteousness of Jesus Christ in our lives. We could ask for no better gift from God.

I close with a reminder that this is not a plea for a return to civility, for civility is nothing more than a covering of the lie within our hearts. This is a call to believe in the Gospel and be saved, to be truly free.