Louie Giglio: Raising Hands is Not A Denominational Thing; It's A Human One.

New York Giants win the Superbowl.

Coldplay Concert.
 

New Year's Eve in Times Square.

If the Chicago Cubs ever win the World Series again, I'm sure there will be Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Charismatics, Lutherans, Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Reformers and more in the throng of fans stretching their hands to the heavens in celebration. And I'm also sure none of them are going to be thinking of the other, "I didn't know you were THAT kind of Christian." It's a human thing. Our Savior conquered death. He lives. And we will likewise if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts. That's something to celebrate!

The senior demon Screwtape to his apprentice Wormwood: "Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal...At the very least, they can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out." (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, IV & VIII)

"So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands." (Psalm 63:4)

The Hunger Games: A Short Review and Exhortation

I hear my death sentence announced. My vision blurs and narrows. My skin feels clammy and the crowd around me steps away as if to avoid the impending doom. I am given the chance to fight for my life, but I know I am too unskilled to save myself. Then a voice from behind says, "I'll volunteer! I'll volunteer!" The adjudication is transferred to the volunteer. The volunteer accepts my death sentence, and even triumphs over death. This person, my savior, lives and I live because of this person.

This substitutionary atonement imagery is part of The Hunger Games movie. It is one of its redeeming qualities. A good story cannot be told without Christian thematic undergirding. The movie also has elements of Orwellian dystopia, Marxist manifesto and gladiatorial voyeurism, which are all interesting topics to explore in themselves, but they alone cannot make a great story. The Hunger Games is not a great story. It is a decent story with some goodness in it. The main character, Katniss, gives the story goodness because she is a Christ figure.

I'm sure a lot more can be said, but the movie can serve as a Gospel centered conversation starter. The film is breaking box office records indicating a cultural craving for some goodness. Presently, this movie is a big deal. People are going to say, "it's a good movie" and "I liked it." So Christians should press into this conversation. "Why is it a good movie? Why did you like it?" The conversation can easily lead to sharing the Gospel. All of us are sentenced to death. We cannot change it. Christ saves us. Christ lives. We live. We get married. This is the greatest story ever and it's true. It, too, is a big deal, so let's share it!

They Have Rejected Me, That I Should Not Reign Over Them: Lasting Liberty Through Repentance

The Puritans, that society of early Americans, considered themselves to be a New Israel. They believed their exodus from Europe was a type of Israelite exodus from Egypt and the New England colonies were something like a Promised Land. This Promised Land came to be The United States of America. For purposes here, I will approach the task of describing an American narrative in the same typological hermeneutic. However, one important distinction must be made at the outset. America, as a nation-state, is not to be considered the New Israel, rather the Church, those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe God raised Him from the dead are the new Chosen People. This qualification transcends the geographic boundaries of The United States, but since the Church constitutes much of America, she inevitably is molded by a believing demographic. The following puts forth Christ as King and the only hope for salvation contra America the nation-state. The intent is to illuminate the cross-section of Christ, His people, culture, and politics in America.

In a message to officers of the Militia of Massachusetts, John Adams stated, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." In his Farewell Address, George Washington said that religion was the indispensable support of political prosperity. In an interview with Ladies Home Journal, Teddy Roosevelt said that a churchless community is a society on the rapid downgrade. In The History of the United States, Noah Webster writes, "the religion that has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles. This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government."

Every Founder and subsequent patriot made it clear that the success of the American experiment was rooted in a religious people, which at the time were mostly Protestant, and some Catholic and Jewish. America at large was a group of God-fearing penitents. This was America's cultural solidarity. Because fear of God bestows wisdom, Americans confessed themselves to be sinners. They repented and walked by the Spirit, not carrying out the desires of the flesh. Incidentally a tyrannical government was not needed. A penitent people will live in a community where the Church steeple is taller than town hall. This is part of the vision that Douglas Wilson gives in Angels in the Architecture, and part of a broader truth that sharp minds have known since antiquity. “When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue.” (Proverbs 28:2)  The Founders were statesmen and honorable, in part, because they acknowledged this and framed the government accordingly. They did not need to create a despotic government out of necessity because the people could govern themselves and they did not choose to create a despotic government out of megalomania for the same reason.

I think it is fair to posit without lengthy elucidation that this is not the case anymore. The American collective has impregnated itself in an unholy conception of rebellion and given birth to the Leviathan state. “Those who will not be ruled by God will be ruled by tyrants.” (William Penn, The Sandy Foundation Shaken). This is not to say there exists only two tyrants in which to choose, but that that there are two rulers in which to choose. Both are necessary at this point in redemptive history, but one is perfect and one is not. And the more a people incline their hearts to the Perfect Ruler, the closer they get to perfect liberty.

T. S. Eliot in Christianity and Culture defines the culture as the cult, or the common worship. American worship is becoming less common because of indignation towards the one true God and a love of many false gods, therefore incurring an amercement of judgment. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19) The common worship of old America was weaved with the strands of God-fearing and righteousness. Now the country is comprised of God-mockers and decadents. The post-modern wants to thread different strands, but it does not work. “He who sets to work on a different strand destroys the whole fabric.”(Confucius, Analects II. 16) These innovators may give us their tapestry, but it will look something like a pile of shredded rags. The final work is the annihilation of a cohesive and functioning society.

But the unbelieving are not the first cause of deterioration. Though one might think they were since evangelicals clamour for state control in a panicked frenzy.  While this is an important battle, it is only one battle and only a battle. The war is won in the sanctuary of the Church. Here is where the cause is found. Everything else is ancillary. The spiritual and thereby cultural suicide of the unbeliever is a result of the church failing to be Holy because "without Holiness, no one will see God.” (Hebrews 12:14) This does not excuse the unbeliever of his unbelief, but it contributes. If we are to admit this is where to find the first cause, then I would contend that willful unrepentantance in the places of worship is why it is the first cause. Like Gideon removing the Baals and the Asherahs at night because he feared reproach, the new Israel is also frightened to restore proper worship. Though she is given authority to do this by edict of the King, she has refused to obey and thereby has been an irresponsible steward. And so Legion is released because her transgressions are many. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in the heavens and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in the heavens.” (Matthew 18:18) America has gone from righteous to unrighteous, not because of the foolish pagan, but because of the witless believer.

So what is the Christian's response in this unrighteous America? In the City of God, Saint Augustine argues that the best citizens in the City of God  become the best citizens in the City of Man. America is a group of people given for Christians to serve, whether they are saints or pagans. Whether they are ravenously tearing it to tatters or quietly building it to the glory of God, does not, in my estimation, affect a Christian's faith in a God who commands His followers to love their neighbor - even if their neighbor is crucifying them. Jesus did not defiantly throw down His cross and say, "Hey, I have my rights!" But He did die so that men could be free, even while they were still sinners. (Romans 5:18)

"American society, our lives in common as Americans, is only possible to the extent we share and seek to live up to a common, orverarching story rooted in memory, custom, and current practice." (Bruce Frohen, American Culture) I agree with Frohen's thesis. Notice he had to qualify the term "American society". I do not think the term is going to go away, but it definitely does not mean the same thing it once did. There are remnants of the old, common American culture, but it is being turned over to a multiculturalism which is really a common worship of something else and something ugly, certainly not Christ. But this is what earthly kingdoms do. They ebb and flow by the moon. Thankfully the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing like this, and in the King of Heaven and Earth I place my hope and faith. This does not mean I no longer love this passing kingdom. It is because I love my heavenly home first that I love my earthly dwelling better. There is nearness of the Eternal King and His words are "the time is fulfilled." If Americans would repent and believe then there will be lasting liberty.

The Cost of Thinking

Ignorance is bliss. Something in us recoils from this statement and yet understands its profundity. After all, Adam and Eve lived in paradise without the knowledge of good and evil. Intellectual elites seem to be crotchety, disgruntled and detached. And the teenage girl driving in her car, with the windows down and radio blasting Lady Gaga, seems quite content and happy in her oblivion to the good or evil which pours from the speakers. So why pursue the knowledge thereof?

I think it fair to assert that many, especially youth, are passively complicit in living this proposition if not entirely proactive in their avoidance of thinking deeply. But are these, we'll call them "sleepers", in bliss? Maybe, for a time, but what of the big questions? The questions which everyone thinks and which every person is confronted in the solitude and silence. Is the sleeper filled with bliss when asked about eternity, pupose, goodness, God? Nay, the sleeper is filled with horror, and resigns himself to the convenient lie that permits the slumber to continue. The squirmy, hollow, convictionless responses tells a story of mother bliss abandoning her children at the steps of reality. These unhappy and sleepy orphans testify to the falsity of their own maxim.

However, an element of truth is present in the phrase. Consider Ecclesiastes 1:18, "In much wisdom there is much grief. And increased knowledge means increased pain." So giving up ignorance precedes an inverse effect of gaining grief and pain. And coming to understand ultimate Truth and wisdom means a crucifixion of yourself (Luke 9:23). Even the serious thinking pagan knows this, for Socrates said, "is not philosophy the art of learning how to die?" But the pain and grief is joyfully endured because the Christian, the one who loves God with all his mind, knows how it ends: resurrection unto eternal life - eternal life with the Redeemer. And so, followers of Christ, know and grow in understanding of the way things are, but suffer in doing so. And it is a beautiful thing, for Paul said "we glory in our sufferings." (Romans 5:3)

Why Apologetics?

"Most people scorn or ignore apologetics because it seems very intellectual, abstract and rational. They contend that life and love and morality and sanctity are much more important than reason.

Those who reason this way are right; they just don't notice that they are reasoning. We can't avoid doing it, we can only avoid doing it well. Further, reason is a friend, not an enemy, to faith and to sanctity, for it is a road to truth, and sanctity means loving God, who is Truth.

Not only does apologetic reasoning lead to faith and sanctity, but faith and sanctity also lead to apologetic reasoning. For sanctity means loving God, and loving God means obeying God's will, and God's will is for us to know him and to be "ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15).

- Kreeft & Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Ch. 1, The Nature, Power & Limitations of Apologetics, 20-21.

The Muslims Are Coming!

Opened my email to find a forwarded message from a friend about the National Day of Prayer being canceled. I read further to find that the originator was exhorting Christians to be enraged concerning the cancellation and the favor shown to Muslims over Christians. It went on to read that the Christian should be fearful for the direction this country is going.

"The direction  this country is headed
   should strike fear in the heart of every Christian,
   especially knowing that the
   Muslim religion believes that if Christians cannot be
   converted, they should be annihilated."

I thought this statement to be especially unChristian. It assumes that Christians fear for their lives because of Islam. But Islam is not something to fear. Like Elijah laughing at the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, the Christian knows of its powerlessness. The mujaheddin cannot do anything to the Christian that is a cause for fear. If a Christian dies by the scimitar, he gains Christ. If the Christian lives under Sharia, he suffers like Christ. If everything tangible is stripped from the Christian, he still loses nothing, because it was all considered nothing in the first place. The Christian is a Stoic in this sense; he is unshakable because the world cannot take from him what has been promised. Martin Luther, in his 95 Theses, writes,

Christians should be exhorted to be zealous to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hells.
And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace.


For the Christian, "to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) And to live like Christ often entails suffering, like a lifelong crucifixion until they are dead, buried and resurrected; like the prophets and saints of antiquity who "were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them." (Hebrews 11:34-38) These were all commended for their faith.

I am not saying that Christians should invite this kind of torture from those who hate them, but it should not be a thing to be feared. And if it is to be resisted, it is to be resisted only in as far as the Christian has an absolute love for his God, and therefore his neighbor and does not want his countrymen to be subject to such hostilities. The impetus for resistance should be out of love not fear.

It seems to me, that the only thing Christians have to fear is God. Because "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10) And it is wisdom that will help to steer the country in the right direction. However, ours is a world, as Malcolm Muggeridge states, "of empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersing." Such is the nature of the Kingdom of Man. It adheres to a law of undulation. In fact, one could say that the most basic thing about the Kingdom of Man, or the most foundational thing is that it oscillates. And anyone who builds their house on a shaky foundation should have reason to fear, because the house will crack and crumble. But the Christian's Kingdom is fixed. It does not waiver. It is constant and it is eternal. It is perfect for building a house because the foundation is faithful.

And so the Christian puts his trust in this foundation, eliminating the fear, but still builds on the undulating one. His care for earthly kingdoms is still one of divine calling, like Adam tending the garden, or Kings appointed to reign over cities. It is demonstrated over and over in Scriptures that Christians do care for the ephemeral, but they understand, too, that it is ephemeral. Thus, a Christian's reaction to a withering flower is not one of shock or fear. The Christian loves his neighbor, who may put his trust in the flower, as beautiful as it may be, but unlike his neighbor the Christian does not dread when the flower finally turns ugly and bows to the passage of time. He knows that it wilts and that it is not a thing to be trusted.

It is good to call Christians to civic duty and to be active in just cause. Christians are called to do so. But fear of death should not be the animus, instead it should be love for God, who commands Christians to love their neighbor. A soldier does not fight a war because he fears for his life; he fights because he loves his brother.

How Gingrich Is Worse Than Clinton

Recently Newt Gingrich launched a platform on his website dedicated to defending himself against the attacks of his political opponents. On the site, he compares himself against Bill Clinton, stating, "I'm no Bill Clinton." Newt never committed perjury being the difference. So Newt never lied under oath. Really? When he promised to love his wife until death; was this not an oath? Clinton, for however much a sham his marriage may be, is still married to his first wife. Newt has been married three times...I think. Hard to keep track of these things.

The social mores of the post-modern world frown upon this type of infidelity, but accept it. It is assumed that his current state has reached some type of resolve. Christians assume the same, but should they? Christians do not, or at least should not, determine what is righteousness according to the world, for that is our own righteousness, but what is righteousness to God. So accepting this premise, and accepting that God has spoken to us through the prophets of antiquity, we look to the Scriptures to view God's standard of righteousness. From Scriptures we know that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." We will never attain the righteousness God requires for us to be with Him. This is why Jesus Christ died as an atonement for our sins in order to place us in right standing with Him. And this Jesus, whom Christians claim to follow, said, "Repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand." Why must we repent if God has died for our sins? "Shall we take God's grace as a license to sin," Paul asks the Romans. "By no means," is the answer. We are to turn away from our sins, to hate what is evil and to cling to what is good. So we look at what God calls good in marriage. Jesus points to the proper form of marriage by recalling the beginning in Matthew 19 - Adam and Eve. One man and one woman for life is the model form of marriage. Anything that deviates from this is not a marriage, but a form of adultery against the original partner.

Accepting this to be true, it can be deduced that Gingrich is currently committing open adultery, not a third marriage. The woman he is with now is not his wife, but his mistress, whom Christians everywhere accept as his wife. How did we come to this dull resignation? This right standing before the world, and unfortunately before fellow Christians, is made possible through the auspices of a divorce and then remarriage, which is clearly defined as adultery in the Scriptures. But we are beyond the protection of cultural norms, are we not? And our goal is not right standing before the mass of men, but before God alone. Christians are held to a standard of righteousness that God has called His followers to, well, follow.

Clinton apologized and acknowledged what he did as wrong. And, yes, I doubt the sincerity of his repentance. I believe more in the sincerity of his regret for getting caught. Nonetheless, Clinton is a lesser fraud than Newt. Newt displays his sin like Sodom. He does not even try to conceal it, as Clinton had. The prophet Isaiah warns that those who sin in such a manner, bring evil on themselves. And Paul says that those who sin in such a manner bring evil upon the community. I think Gingrich to be a prime candidate for the GOP according to worldly standards. But in this case, I am a single issue voter who will not be supporting this particular principle of darkness. For it wraps itself in comfortable warm blankets of Truth, but usually never in cold shrouds of Falsity. Which makes it difficult to see, but I see it and refuse to partner in it.

Let me be clear in saying that Gingrich should not be branded with Hawthorne's scarlet letter. To do so would make his sin permanent and unforgivable. I am saying that Gingrich willingly wears the letter and we do not acknowledge it. Though we should acknowledge it as long as he wears it. The sin is indefinite as long as Gingrich does not repent. As such, he should be treated like Hester and worse than Clinton.