Cultured and Refined February 29, 2008
Posted by Dave Mallinak in : Culture , add a comment
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Without all the snobbery
Hammered dulcimer.
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Leaves and stones unturned
Creepy crawlies undisturbed
Disturbing to us.
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JackHammer culture
Culturally old-fashioned
Following Scripture.
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Foundation building
Ultimate authority
Authoritative.
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Foundations laid
Fastened to the Solid Rock
With extra rebar.
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Practical speaking
Foundations without houses
So impractical.
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Adam is alive
Living on the adamah
Doing lots of things.
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Paideia of God
Living life to the fullest
Without the lemons.
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Salt unsavory
Headlamps hidden in helmets
Cities of the plain.
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Some savory salts
Finding ways to salt the earth
Especially slugs.
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The pillars and posts
Artistically are adorned
Truth, goodness, beauty.
Culture: What’s Not to Love February 27, 2008
Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Culture, The World, Worldliness , 19 comments Print This Post
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You hear the light, syncopated throb of the trap set, the pound of snare followed by the light rake of the wire brush on the cymbal, and then start the cat calls, loud whoops and hollers, because the teenagers know what it means. You’re quiet and they’re loud, because you both know. Your silence repudiates what the sound means. Their rowdiness signals reception. They love it. You don’t. Should they love what they’ve heard? Should they even accept it?
The World, That’s What (James 4:1-6
)
In an examination of genuine saving faith, James in chapter four exposes characteristics of the world. To start, everyone should know that God is an enemy to anyone who is a friend of the world, that is, affectionate with the world, all the drives and impulses that would be associated with it. The unwillingness to break from the world’s culture comes because of this affection (”friendship,” James 4:4, philia) for the world. And then when someone loves the world, the world no longer hates the person. If you are “of the world,” the world loves “its own” (John 15:19). The way the world treated Christ is how it will treat the friends of Christ, so if you can get along with the world, you can know why.
The term “world” refers to the man-centered, Satan-directed system, which is hostile to God, Christ, and the Christian. It’s not talking about the globe, about terra firma, or about anything physical. It’s talking about the spiritual reality of a Satan-directed, man-centered system hostile to the Lord and His nature and work. It refers to all the values, the mores, the lifestyle, the ethics, the morals, and the institutions of the world as they are established apart from and antagonistic to God.
The goal of the world is self-glory, self-fulfillment, self-control, self-
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The Culture War: Sacred, Common, and Profane Culture February 21, 2008
Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Culture , 2 comments Print This Post
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While in college I visited the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. Inside was an American Indian display with a tepee and a young dark-skinned woman sitting Indian style besides a faux campfire. A railing in front separated the exhibit from the common area. In the realm of the demonstration, the fake village was sacred. Crossing the barrier was to profane the sacred place. I found out the hard way. I gave my camera to a friend and ducked the partition. In a very literal fashion, I attempted to penetrate that American Indian culture, fake albeit. Immediately a loud, piercing alarm went off and I was quickly back to the other side, walking away, passed by rushing security with walkie-talkies.  I sensed that the guys with the uniforms wanted a continued practice of separation. The barrier was more than a decoration.
It would be great if churches cared at least as much about the things of God, to keep them sacred. Winning the culture war requires preserving the sacred by holding the line on what is sacred and what is common. That can be accomplished only by the gospel, but it will be accomplished through the gospel. It isn’t the gospel if it doesn’t set believers apart from this world system (1 John 2:15; Romans 12:2; James 4:4).
(I know this probably won’t bother you or stop you from reading the very meaty, doctrinal central portion to get to the cutting edge, practical ending, but this article will have no pictures.)
Sacred and Profane Things
Anything that violates the holy things of the Lord is considered profane. Some things have been set apart by God for His own use. They are therefore holy.  They are sanctified or hallowed. God places special boundaries around these objects, and these boundaries can lawfully be passed only on God’s publicly specified terms.ÂÂ
One sacred object was the Ark of the Covenant. It was not to be touched. It had rings on its sides through which poles were inserted, so that no one would need touch it when moving it (Ex 25:14). Furthermore, only Levites were permitted to carry it (Deut 10:8). When one man dared to reach out to steady it as it was being moved, God struck him dead (1 Chron 13:9-10). When the Philistines brought the Ark into their territory, God struck down the image of their god Dagon, and struck them with boils (1 Sam 5). They sent the Ark back to Israel on a cart pulled by oxen. They also placed gold objects into the cart as a trespass offering (1 Sam 6:8; Lev 21:7,14). God dealt even more harshly with the Israelites at Beth-Shemesh, who dared to look into it. For this act of sacrilege, God struck down over 50,000 of them (1 Sam 6:19). The interior of the Ark itself was sacred space. No one was allowed to look inside it. It was housed in the holy of holies, a sacred room inside the tabernacle and temple. Only the high priest was allowed to enter this space, and only once a year (Lev 16:2). He had to sprinkle the interior with blood as a ransom payment for himself and the people (Lev 16:14, 15). In short, this most sacred of objects was surrounded by sacred space—in fact layers of sacred space, beginning at the national borders of Israel. Inside the Ark were the two tablets of the law (Deut 31:26). The Ark served as the earthly throne of God, the place where the high priest annually placated His wrath. This is why the holy of holies in which the Ark was so holy.
We see in Leviticus 20:24-26 that God had made His people sacred and He expected them to stay that way. We can see that He reminded them of that with the clean and unclean animals, some animals being sacred and others profane. God’s people had become sacred to Him. His priesthood was sacred to Him. His temple or tabernacle was sacred to Him. Certain animals were sacred to Him.
Why Is Something Sacred?
Something is sacred because it has been judicially declared sacred by God. A good example of this is found in Exodus 3:4, 5 Read More…. God declared soil as sacred soil. It was not sacred before that time.
Christian Whirledview: Viewing the World through Worldly Eyes February 18, 2008
Posted by Dave Mallinak in : Culture, The World , 1 comment so far Print This Post
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Christopher Hitchens says that Christianity is bad for the world. In response, believing apologists have rightly asked Hitchens what warrant he has for saying that anything (including Christianity) is bad. Bad is a moral claim. Given atheism, what warrant is there for saying that one thing is bad and the next thing good? On what ground does Hitchens say that atheism is good and Christianity bad?
One answer he gives is “innate human solidarity” – in other words, what most people think is right. If we mostly agree that a thing is right, then it must be. For the time being at least. But that is not his final answer. His final answer is this: Human morality evolves. So, for the time being, what everyone thinks is moral should be considered moral. But that could all change tomorrow. Essentially, Hitchens (and others of his ilk) say that moral claims are not absolute. They are “mental constructs” — ways of understanding the world and human behavior, without any real sort of judgement (except, of course, when one deals with Christianity).
The unbelieving worldview sees the material world as the ultimate reality, and all existence evolving from that. We can only know what we can sense, what we can prove empirically, or perhaps what “makes sense” to us in a rationalistic sort of way. The Epicureans run the world, and “if it feels good, do it” is still the rule of the day.
Never is the contrast between the worldview of the believer and the worldview of the unbeliever more plain than when a faithful Christian meets an atheist. Their respective views of reality, of knowledge, and of morality will contradict directly on every point. The unbelieving atheist interprets the world without reference to God. He presumes that there is no God, and from there interprets the world for himself. On the other hand, the believer presupposes God, and accepts God’s interpretation of all things in the world.
When it comes to worldviews and their cultural effects, the contrast should be evident. If God is the absolute and ultimate Creator, then God interprets the world for us, and declares what is right and what is wrong. Since the unbeliever denies that God created all things, he also denies God’s authority in anything. If God has no authority, then man is the authority, and cultural norms set the boundaries for right and wrong.1
Since we are discussing a theology of culture, it is good and necessary that we lay out the two poles of how one might view the world. But we must also remember that God has, by His grace, moved the believer from the South Pole to the North Pole. And in our pilgrimage, some are straggling. My intention then is to expose our attraction to mud puddles, despite God’s deliverance from the miry clay.
Man fell autonomously. In the Garden, God’s authority was self-evident. The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Then, the LORD God proceeded to plant a garden in front of Adam, so that Adam saw firsthand the work of God as Creator. The LORD God created this garden for Adam, and then placed him in it, with instructions. The LORD God instructed Adam to dress the garden and keep it, and then the LORD God commanded,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
As an eyewitness, Adam saw that all of reality came from God. Adam received his knowledge directly from God, and Adam knew right from wrong because God commanded him. Adam understood God’s absolute authority as the Creator of all things to set down laws and enforce them. In other words, in his innocence, Adam had a Christian worldview.
But, there in the midst of the garden, in close proximity to the tree of life, was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree, through the suggestions of that old serpent, lured Adam away from the Christian worldview. You see, God revealed good and evil to Adam. But the serpent promised Eve that if they would eat of that tree, they would be as gods, knowing good and evil. In other words, the serpent promised Eve the ability to interpret the world independently of God. Eve was deceived, but Adam was not. In his autonomous quest for his own interpretation, Adam willfully disregarded God’s command, claiming the right to decide for himself.2
Since the Fall, men have repeated this sequence over and over repeatedly. In fact, every time a child is born, the pattern is repeated. Every one of us has fallen the same way. Autonomy ruined man, and the quest for autonomy keeps him in ruins.
As a father, I have marveled to watch this pattern repeat itself in each of my five children. Almost as soon as they are capable of free movement, they begin to want their own way. When they can grab with their hands, they grab what is forbidden. When they can crawl with their legs, they crawl to what is forbidden. Recently, we noted this same inclination in our youngest son. He is relatively uninterested in touching, let alone playing with, any of the toys that we permit him to have. He wants the things that we have forbidden… the cupboards and knickknacks that we have commanded him not to touch. Those are the things he insists on having.
This should not surprise us. When we tell our toddlers “no,” we resist their autonomy. We should not be surprised that they find words like “no” to be offensive. They are in a natural state. We go astray as soon as we be born, speaking lies. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
This, by the way, is why we need a Savior. We need a Savior because we are alienated from God, because we are enemies in our minds, because we have gone aside, because we do not seek God. We need a Savior to be wounded for our transgressions, to be bruised for our iniquity, to bear the chastisement of our peace, and to heal us with his stripes. And, when Christ saves us, we are new creatures. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.
Yet, we are tempted when we are drawn away of our own lusts and enticed. Like Adam in the garden, we ourselves are faced on a daily basis with the allurements of the world. In our quest for a Biblical approach to culture, we would do well to remember that worldliness comes from lust. And our lusts, we could say, are our autonomous desire to decide for ourselves.
Ultimately, this is what happens whenever we take a neutral approach to the things of the world. Neutrality is one way that we strive for autonomy. If we take a neutral approach to our culture, if we avoid taking sides, if we ignore our Christian commitments in our approach to our culture, then we act as if we are lord, instead of acknowledging the Lordship of Christ in everything.
In the Garden, the LORD God commanded a particular approach to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the serpent presented another argument. The serpent avoided making the “authoritative” demand that God made, at least on the surface. The serpent merely invited Eve to step back and consider some other information. Eve was invited to consider both sides – the arguments of Jehovah as Lord and Creator, and the arguments of the serpent – before making a final decision. When Eve stepped back and evaluated the two opposing arguments, the very moment she stepped back to do this, she set herself up as the judge between right and wrong. Eve viewed the two claims as being of equal merit and equal authority, and considered herself, at that very moment, to be the ultimate authority.
And this is exactly what happens whenever God’s people take a neutral approach to culture. We see God’s commands regarding the world, and we note God’s authority to make such demands. Rather than submitting to God’s rightful authority as Lord and Creator of all things, we instead determine to look at other arguments and decide for ourselves “objectively.” At the very moment we do this, we decide by lust, rather than by submission to our Lord. Autonomy turns the Christian worldview into a whirled view of the world. We view the world through worldly eyes. And when this kind of sinful autonomy dominates our life, the love of the Father is not in us.
There is much to consider in this very important discussion of the Biblical approach to culture. But first, the foundations must be laid in the truly Biblical worldview. If we are to approach our culture Biblically, we must not approach as the Judge. We must not attempt to interpret our culture independently of God. We must not strive to be as gods, knowing good and evil. We must not make for ourselves a false idea of morals and knowledge. The world has already been interpreted for us. Judgement has already been cast. We must receive that judgement, the judgement of the Righteous Judge, we must accept it, and we must submit to it.
Footnotes:
(1) It should be noted here that if the unbeliever is correct, then there really is no such thing as “right” or “wrong,” nor could we make any sense of such a discussion. Truly, consistent atheism must proclaim that “right” is merely another way of saying “I like it” and “wrong” means “I don’t like it.”
(2) Anyone who has read Cornelius Van Til’s The Defense of the Faith will recognize my source for this analogy, which I gratefully acknowledge.
- It should be noted here that if the unbeliever is correct, then there really is no such thing as “right” or “wrong,” nor could we make any sense of such a discussion. Truly, consistent atheism must proclaim that “right” is merely another way of saying “I like it” and “wrong” means “I don’t like it.” [↩]
- Anyone who has read Cornelius Van Til’s The Defense of the Faith will recognize my source for this analogy, which I gratefully acknowledge. [↩]
Discerning the Required Differences between the Cultures of the Saved and the Unsaved February 13, 2008
Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Culture , 2 comments Print This Post
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Have you seen the Great Rock of Inner Seeking at the National Gallery of Art on the mall in Washington, DC? What about the Goddess of the Golden Thighs? And who couldn’t miss No. 8? When I saw these “works” on my senior trip in high school, I knew I had a radically different view of the world than their makers. Much to my chagrin, I’ve found out since then, mainly from evangelicalism, that I and those artists have more in common than I thought. But do I?
The Tale of Two Cultures
God paints separate, highly distinct pictures of His own culture and that of the devil, without a smidgin of confusion. God’s people alone are born of Him (1 John 3:1-3) and no others (1 John 4:4-6). His belong to Christ (1 John 3:7-10) and everyone else to Satan (1 John 5:19) their prince (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). All things in Christ endure forever with everything on the other side transient, fading (1 John 2:17) and under God’s judgment (1 John 4:17). Love for God is utterly incompatible with the world (1 John 2:15). God describes citizens of His kingdom as exiles from the world (1 Peter 1:1; Hebrews 11:13) and aliens (1 Peter 2:11) who seek another city (Hebrews 11:10). Paul states the difference in 1 Thessalonians 5:5:
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
The Lord Jesus Christ embodies all of God’s goals for His people and Jesus was not of this world (John 17:14; 18:36), refused to pray for it (John 17:9), opposed its ruler (John 12:31; 14:30), and is now its judge (John 9:39; 16:7-11). Jesus came to divide the one side from the other even within one’s own family (Matthew 10:36). His saints are peculiar people (Titus 2:14), a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5), filth and offscouring to the world (Lamentations 3:5; 1 Corinthians 4:13). In contrast with the inimitable words of Rodney King, we really can’t all just get along. We’re not supposed to. We’re to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh (Jude 1:23).
So Christians aren’t supposed to be close to what and how the world is. The world, the opposite of Christ, organizes around self in substitution for God, characterized by self-righteousness, self-centeredness, self-satisfaction, self-aggrandizement, and self-promotion. Except for ultimate outcome, we can barely detect the difference today between the world and the church. Instead of turning the world upside down, churches have turned much like the world.
Understanding the Meaning
To maintain His ordained differences, God expects His people to understand the meanings of patterns of human activities and the symbolic structures that give those activities their significance and importance.
Read More…
Christian Worldview: Viewing the World through Christian Eyes February 8, 2008
Posted by Dave Mallinak in : Culture , 1 comment so far Print This Post
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While we are in this world, we will want to be of this world. Our flesh craves the world, and will not stop loving the world until the day of adoption (Romans 8:20-23). So long as we are in the flesh, we will long to be of the world.ÂÂ
I recently read David Brainerd’s diary and journal, as edited by Jonathan Edwards. One (among many) of the thoughts that grabbed me as I read was Brainerd’s desire to be rid of his sinful flesh. As holy a man as Brainerd was, he still struggled with his flesh. Never was that struggle more apparent than when David Brainerd was preparing to leave civilization as he knew it, and head into the wilderness to preach the gospel among the American Indians. In his diary entry on Wednesday, February 2, 1743, Brainerd relates his struggle.
Having taken leave of friends, I set out on my journey towards the Indians, though I was to spend some time at East Hampton on Long Island, by leave of the commissioners who employed me in the Indian affair; and being accompanied by a messenger from East Hampton, we traveled to Lyme. On the road I felt an uncommon pressure of mind; I seemed to struggle hard for some pleasure in something here below and seemed loath to give up all for gone. Saw I was evidently throwing myself into all hardships and distresses in my present undertaking. I thought it would be less difficult to lie down in the grave; but yet I chose to go rather than stay. Came to Lyme that night.
I suppose that at some level we can all relate to Brainerd’s struggle.
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The Surrender of a Sanctified Culture February 6, 2008
Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Culture , 6 comments Print This Post
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If you visit a mental ward, a crazy house, you will see two distinct cultures—the inmates and the doctors and staff.  Most people would agree that they want that difference. Because of the clear delineation we get the humor in the statement, “The inmates are running the asylum.” In the rest of the world, things aren’t so easy to distinguish anymore. We’ve reached a point in the United States where many are proud to have blurred the lines where there was once a sharp contrast.ÂÂ
Is There to Be a Christian Culture That’s Different than the World’s?ÂÂ
In general, culture refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Those structures of symbol are music, literature, rhetoric, art, architecture, and fashion, among others. In simple terms, culture is a behavior or way of life.
Can we judge one culture to be superior to another? God’s way is better than man’s. In Isaiah 55:8, 9, God tells us:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God is holy, that is, He is majestic, high above, and separate from His creation.  God wants the culture of His people to be, as much as possible, the same as His.
He expected a difference between Israel and the nations around her.
Leviticus 20:26
Leviticus 22:31-33
The Lord intended Israel to be different than the nations around her. He laid out particular behavior and activities that she was to fulfill and also required her not to imitate what the other nations did and how they acted. God teaches the same thing in the New Testament for the church.
Romans 12:2
1 Peter 1:14-16
Since God’s people (believers) represent God, they must live differently than those around them.  The culture of the world is not going to represent God, so Christians can’t live in common with it. Their lives must take on distinct actions and symbols that reflect God. One way the Bible communicates this is that they are “in the world” but are not “of the world.”
Jesus expressed this contrast in John 17, when He prayed for believers. In v. 11 He says, “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.” And then in v. 16, He says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Are the Only Differences Those Expressly Stated in Scripture?
From the Old Testament texts, God’s goal for Israel seems to be more than merely fulfilling all the commands that He gave. The New Testament passages require some nuanced and sophisticated application.  For instance, we must understand what it is to be “of the world.” This is more than just disobeying explicit directions from Jesus. We aren’t to conform to the world (Rom. 12:2 Read More…).  Therefore, we have to know what “the world” is, so that we don’t conform to it.
Cultured JackHammers, Twice Refined February 4, 2008
Posted by Jack Hammer in : Culture, Jack Hammer , 3 comments Print This Post
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We’s got enculturation. Jest check under our fangernils. Y’ll see fer yerself. W’re civilized too. We’s got manners, and we ain’t afeered none to use ‘em. We meby ain’t su high-fallutin’ as some mat lak, but we got class! We’s in a class all ar own, iff’n I may be so bold.
We ain’t no rednecks neither. Jus ‘cause we got a gun rack on our ten speed don’t meen nothin’. We bilt us a porch on our trailer. And its pert near a werk of art. We carved a heart on the tree in the back yard… at’s why mu wife thinks I’m an auteest! An we luv thet thar Classical music. Ceptin’ thet we cain’t figger why ain’t nobody usin’ the jackhammr in the precussion section. We’s thankin’ thet wood be an improvement, ‘specially on ‘em songs lak Beethovan’s fifth, or thet ther Chaekuvsky feller’s 1812 Ovrature.
To top ‘er all off, we’ve got us a werldview thet jes won’t quit. Wait’ll y’all hear’t. We’s a-thank’n thet y’all ‘ll be downright immpressed ta ‘ear how all we’ll be applyin’ it. TeeVee, moovies, art, literture, mewsic, drama, even ole’ Al Gore’s famous invention. We’ll be runnin’ outa time afore we’r a runnin’ outa materials. Some stuffs beootyful, and some’s downrat ugly. But it all ‘ll be a-fittin’.
So y’all come set at yer ‘puter fer a bit, and we’ll be a-fillin’ ya in on the latest JackHammer topic. Keep ‘er comin’!
Woe to the Man with Many Masters February 1, 2008
Posted by Dave Mallinak in : Missions , 8 comments Print This Post
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The Bible is silent about deputation. That certainly does not mean that deputation is unlawful. Nor does it mean that we couldn’t be Scriptural and still do deputation. It is just to point out that deputation is an invention of man.
And I’m not persuaded that deputation is the best way to finance missionaries.
Of course, someone is sure, about this time, to parade out the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” argument. But I’m not so sure that will work on this issue. Who says it ain’t broke? And what is that gray tape I see wrapped around its underside? Is it possible that we have been using this system so long, and this system is so ingrained in our way of thinking, that we no longer consider the problems inherent to the system?
Many of those who actively read and comment on this blog are Independent Baptists. Many believe that God works through the local church, that the only lawful authority for ministry is the local church. Those who hold this idea as doctrine (as I do) also believe that a missionary should be sent by his local church, and that his local church should be his authority while on the field.
And this brings up the first problem. Because, when a missionary has fifty supporting churches, he has fifty bosses. Granted, he can tell a supporting church to drop him at any time. He is not required to do what his supporting churches say. He can say, “this is what I am, and this is what I do, and you can take it or leave it.” He is not required to answer questions about his ministry, unless the questions come from his sending pastor. But the fact that he is not “required” to do any of these things does not mean he feels no pressure to do them. And who can blame him? After all, some if not all of his supporting churches have godly pastors and godly people. No doubt these supporting churches have good reasons for their expectations. It is only natural that a missionary would want his supporting churches to be happy with the job he is doing.
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