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Introducing the Straw Man
Learning about logical fallacies may sound like the last thing you ever need to put on your “to do” list, but actually…
You should put it on there.
So much of what passes for argumentation against the gospel, and almost all of what people bring up to us when we’re discussing the things of God with them (and they don’t want to believe), is full of logical fallacies. That is, it’s full of just plain bad reasoning. If you’d like to learn about all the ways people (including ourselves!) use bad logic to make a case, and you’d like to do it in “humorous picture” form, I highly recommend this site which Bill Kubina sent me the link to: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com.
You can scroll through all the bad logic moves, one at a time, and even download a poster with all of them for free. Check it out.
One quote I read last night, and one I didn’t
Last night I read this passage from a guy named John Webster on the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. It’s a little dense, but very thought provoking, and so I wanted to post it here (the first paragraph), along with the quote I tried to read (the last paragraph), but didn’t have with me. I’ve included other portions from the same section as well, for context.
Unity is a relational term when applied to God: the divine unity is not monadic, relationless and undifferentiated. Rather, it is organic and dynamic, expressed in the personal histories of the sending of the Son and the outpouring of the Spirit. ‘The Divine unity is a dynamic unity actively unifying in the one Divine life the lives of the three Divine persons’. Divine unity does not lie behind the threeness of God; rather, it is the event of the peace of the divine life between Father, Son and Spirit.
This will…involve careful specification of the notion of ‘person’ as applied to God. ‘Person’ is again to be conceived relationally: the person is not an autonomous subject but rather is constituted as person in relationship and dialogue. Understood in this way, the divine ‘personality’ or ‘subjectivity’ does not preclude relationship and differentiation; indeed, it is relationship. God’s personality is God’s relatedness to himself.
If God’s triunity is thus understood as a personal, related society, then the danger of absorption of the Spirit into the person of Christ will be considerably lessened, precisely because God’s being will be seen as fully plural. A pluralist understanding of God’s being, moreover, will furnish the
basis for understanding the distinct role of the Spirit in the divine economy, related to but properly distinguished from those of
Father and Son. This will, in turn, serve to reinforce a sense of the distinct identity of the Spirit…
First, the Spirit is the one who is sent out into the world through the church and who thus demonstrates that God’s life is a life open to the creation. Because the Spirit is sent, ‘the triune God is the God who is open to man, open to the world, and open to time’. The Spirit is a protest against monadic conceptions of God in which the divine life is seen as ‘a closed triangle’, complete in the enjoyment of its own inner relationship and unconcerned to reach beyond itself into the history of the world…
The Holy Spirit: Notes from Last Night
Last night we continued our study of the Trinity by looking at the Holy Spirit. Here are the notes:
1. How we met Him:
Promised: Ezekiel 36:26-27, Isaiah 42:1
All over Jesus’ life: Luke 1:34-35; 3:15-16; 3:21-22, 4:1-2; 4:14-21
We meet Him in the life of Christ. He is completely involved with everything about Jesus from start to finish.
2. How He relates to the Son & Father:
His relationship to the Father and Son is revealed in Jesus’ teaching:
John 7:37-38 – given to Jesus’ followers
John 14:15-18 – personally distinct
John 15:26-27 – He proceeds from the Father, and is sent by Jesus. He points to Jesus.
John 16:5-15 – He is God with us, doing the work that needs to be done
Matthew 28:19 – He shares God’s name
- The Son was sent from the Father, in the Spirit, and became Incarnate. He is God with us.
- The Spirit is sent from the Father, by the some, and indwells us. He is God in us.
- (Or “The Son is God with us by becoming one of us. The Spirit is God with us by living among us.”)
3. Who He is in us:
The life of the mission of the church: Acts 1:7-8
God Himself in us: Romans 8:8-9
4. What this means for us:
- God is with us. His life is open to us. He has invited us in and included us.
- What we were missing—true life, true connection to God—God gives us by sending His Spirit into our hearts. Everything is dead and broken without Him. Everything is fixed and alive with Him.
- We have the power to obey Him, because He is in us.
- We can really know Jesus, and the Father. In other words, the Father sent the Son to become One of us, He died for us and now lives forever as a perfected Man and the Son of God, and then the Spirit came to live in our hearts—we know God, Father, Son and Spirit.
God relating to God relating to God
Much of what you find yourself thinking about when you start to look at what the Scripture teaches about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is how the three persons in God relate to each other. There’s so much in scripture about it, even though it’s often not the first thing you notice when you’re reading. Personally, I’ve discovered that, for some reason, I had developed this way of sort of “skipping over” and not noticing the things in any given verse that give us insight into how the Father relates to the Son, and so on.
Along those lines, I found this summary of lots of Biblical data from Fred Sanders very helpful:
The Father loves the Son, sends the Son, and glorifies the Son. He also sends the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, in response to his request, and is worshiped in the Son and in the Spirit. He and the Son indwell one another. He has life in himself and has given to the Son to have life in himself. He is the judge and has committed judgment to his Son.
The Son was with God in the beginning, in the bosom of the Father, and was and is God. He made all things. He was sent by the Father, became flesh, and lived among men. He obeys the Father, prays to the Father, and after his resurrection ascends to the Father. He asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit, sends the Holy Spirit himself, and breathes out the Spirit on his disciples. He and the Father indwell one another. He receives from the Father life in himself and the right to judge.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, is sent by the Father on the Day of Pentecost in response to the Son’s request, and is also sent at that time by the Son. He is breathed out by the Son. He bears witness of the Son and brings glory to him.
The three work together in harmony. Through the Holy Spirit, they come together to the disciples, who as a consequence live in the Father and in the Son.
[From The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything]
Mo Sabri, the Muslim rapper who loves Jesus.
This has nothing to do with the music; but take 5 minutes and watch this video of Mo Sabri, a young Muslim guy who raps about his belief in Jesus:
(Feed readers can watch it on YouTube here.)
A few things to notice, and a few questions we need to think over:
- That’s not a bible verse that opens the video. Did you catch it?
- Do you agree or disagree with lyrics like: “The son of a virgin, they say it is illogical/probably improbable, but God made it possible/Gabriel told Mary that her son would be phenomenal/He was a walking hospital, with heathen he was compassionate/He healed the sick, raised the dead. Shout out to Lazarus/I’m talkin’ about Jesus of Nazareth”? What does this indicate to you?
- What’s the main message? I would say it’s that Muslims believe in Jesus too. But I think there’s an even greater push…that Muslims like this are the true followers of Jesus. Do you feel that during the song?
- How would you respond to Mo if he was your friend and brought up these thoughts to you in a conversation?
A key thought for me in thinking through things like this is what Paul said to the Corinthian church: “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted–you may well put up with it!” (2 Cor 11:4) .
In other words, people can talk about Jesus but actually not be talking about the One we worship. And they might even seem to get really close (“Shout out to Lazarus!”). And they might be nice and reasonable. It can happen. It does happen. (Incidentally, read 2 Corinthians 11:13-14 to see why Paul isn’t at all freaked out by this fact.)
But all this means we must know who the Jesus we worship really is. Is He, in essence, just a nice guy who had miraculous powers and taught us to love each other? If we just do those things, are we following Him? Is that what He was after?
Our Monday night studies in the Trinitarian nature of God are key for all this, by the way…
Another Round for Tim Tebow
Not to keep harping on this, but it’s current, so…
You would think that if there was one kind of person who wouldn’t need to give a thought-out defense of a biblical view of human sexuality, it would be a super-positive star athlete who’s spent his integrity-filled life being sacrificially helpful to people. But, as we’re seeing, this is the issue of the day.
Fox News ran this story yesterday, about Tebow and a speaking engagement he has this weekend at Liberty University:
Gay rights activists are demanding Tim Tebow back out of a speaking engagement at Liberty University just two weeks after pressuring the New York Jets quarterback to cancel a speaking engagement at the First Baptist Church of Dallas.
Tebow is expected to speak this weekend at Wildfire – a men’s conference hosted by the conservative Christian university. His remarks will be closed to the general public.
The professional football player is well-known for sharing his faith in Christ – but in recent weeks he’s come under fire from the national media and gay rights activists for speaking in churches that follow biblical teaching.
Huffington Post called Liberty a “notoriously conservative private college with an anti-gay reputation.” And more than 10,000 people have signed a petition launched by Faithful America calling on the quarterback to cancel his speech.
“Liberty University isn’t just another conservative Christian college,” the group stated. “It’s ground-zero for a global assault on the legal rights of gays and lesbians – and a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the religious right.”
You can read the rest of the article here.
A Weekend in the Word: April 19-21
I mentioned this Monday Night, but here’s the official announcement:
On Friday April 19 we’ll return to the site of our Autumn Weekend of Prayer for a whole weekend to study God’s word together. We’ll study through an entire book during the weekend (most likely a shorter one, like a New Testament letter). You can expect a variety of different formats for our study, from typical large-group studies to Q&A sessions to discussion groups to individual time to read on your own.
Last year’s weekend was an excellent time together, and I’m really excited for another chance to experience the blessing of Christian community centered around God’s word for. Of course, prayer and worship singing will be a large part of our gatherings, as we let God’s revealed truth lead our hearts to talk to Him, ask Him for things, seek His presence, and praise Him. The weekend will take place at the Camp at Old Mill in Brandamore, PA.
You can download a registration form here.
To register online: click here.
Let me know if you have any questions!
The Son and the Father: Notes from Last Night
Last night we continued our study in what it means for us that God is a Trinity. We looked specifically at how Jesus revealed himself to be the Son of God the Father, and the implications of this self-revelation of God.
Intro:
Last week, we saw how God revealed himself as the only true God in the Old Testament, and left all kinds of hints that there was some unsaid details about who He is; and that Jesus came in the NT and demonstrated that there is plurality in God…Jesus is now included in our understanding of God.
1. What we see (in the life of Christ): Jesus is the Son of the Father.
Matthew 3:16-17 Right from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry we see that there’s something new and special going on, with a voice (clearly God) speaking from heaven, someone distinct from the voice, the Holy Spirit, descending onto Jesus, and Jesus being recognized as a the unique, totally pleasing Son of God by God’s own voice from heaven.
John 3:16-17 Jesus spoke like this right from the beginning of His ministry, as here, in this famous passage, He mentions His Father as distinct from Himself, and yet includes HImself uniquely in the purposes of the Father. This leads us to this important principle: How God saves us shows who He is. Or you could say it this way: God chose that the way He would save us would show us who He is. Specifically, Jesus shows us that in God is more than one person. Specifically, there is Son and Father. He lets us in on the relations in God, on his relationship to the Father, and their conversation.
See John 5:16-30
The Son: does only what He see the father do (19); responds to the Father (20); is sent by the Father (23); Gets life “in Himself” from the Father (26); gets authority from the Father (27); seeks the Fathers will (30).
…yet: knows everything the Father Does (20); like the Father—Gives life to whoever He wants (21); Judges all (22); receives the same honor as the Father (23); His word gives everlasting life (24); raises the dead (29)
The Father: Doing things that the son does (19); loves the Son (20); commits judgment to the Son (22); Has life in Himself, and grants to the son to have life in himself (26); gives son authority to execute judgment (27). Also John 3:15-17 … gives His Son out of love for the world, to save us.
2. What this means (about God Himself): God was always Father and Son.
John 17:4-5, 17:24 This relationship of Father and Son has always been who God is.
Key: John 1:18, 14:9 – Jesus is not just showing us things about his time on earth, but about God
3. What this means to us:
1. God is happy, and fully alive (relationally), in Himself. Before the universe, there was life and love.– There was Father and Son and Spirit with each other. (and conversation, planning, glory)
2. Jesus shows us God (John 1:18)
a. God the Son, sent, doing the Father’s will, sacrificing Himself humbly
b. God the Father (seen in Him), loving the world and sending His own Son, to heal us:
So what Jesus shows us about how He relates to God is true of the way it’s always been. Jesus shows us, first, that relationship, love, exists in God, and also some of how the relationships work. Jesus is God the Son, being sent by, obeying, loving, and displaying God the Father. Or, as one commentator put it: “The Father is the divine fountainhead in which the being of the Son has its source; the Father is God sending and commanding, the Son is God sent and obedient.” (CK Barrett)
Ending Discussion Questions:
- Does God need us to be happy? To have company?
- Is it more God-like to command or to obey? Is it more Godlike to send or be sent?
- What kind of new view of God emerges when you begin to see these things?
Skipping the DTR
Greg Peters, a Professor at Biola University, has an interesting article about current campus dating practices, and how different it is from how he and his wife got together. I thought it had some (funny and) helpful advice:
Getting Back to the (Dating) Basics
I spend most of my time working with undergraduate students, directing them academically through the Torrey Honors Institute or offering life and/or pastoral advice as they learn to navigate the oftentimes difficult and uncertain terrain of adulthood. I love what I do and I would not trade it for any other job. What I have noticed, however, in the nearly eight years that I have been teaching at Biola University and working with these undergraduates is that they tend to overthink certain areas of their life and none more so than romantic relationships. As I recently talked with one of my students about some relationship advice that she overheard me give when we were traveling together in Italy she said, “You should write a blog about this.” So, I am. Many who follow the “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” train will not like what I have to say nor will those who choose to think of romantic relationships only in terms of courtship as opposed to dating. But keeping in mind that I work with exceptionally heady students I offer the following advice.
I had not been working at Biola long when I heard the letters DTR mentioned in conversation. I had no idea what they stood for nor did I really care to know. Occasionally I would hear a student say something like, “Oh, they had a DTR last night and are no longer together.” Or, “They had a DTR and now they’re dating.” From comments like these I came to learn that whatever DTR meant it had something to do with relationships. After hearing about these DTRs multiple times I finally asked a student, “What does DTR mean?” It elicited quite a response – something between embarrassment and amusement. Come to find out, DTR means “Define the Relationship.” It’s the conversation that students have that makes or breaks a relationship. Now mind you, the relationship could still be in its infancy, just getting off the ground and the DTR in this context decides if it will go any further. In other cases the relationship could be two or three years old and might be getting to a point where the couple either gets engaged or decides to call it off. This conversation would also qualify as a DTR. If one person in a relationship decides that he/she wants to end of the relationship then they have to initiate a DTR, which leaves the other person wondering “what just happened.” Simply put a DTR is any conversation between two interested parties that either makes or breaks a relationship. Figuring this out made me feel that I had cracked some sort of a code, getting a better understanding of an undergraduate college student’s mind.
Since then, however, I have learned that DTRs are really just lame excuses for overly intellectual students to avoid having to respond to their emotions. Whatever happened to the days when a young man and a young woman met one another, fell in like, fell in love and then got married? Whatever happened to “attraction” and why is everything reduced to a thought project? I’ve been happily married nearly nineteen years and, obviously, that’s the romantic relationship that I know the best. And, if I may humbly say, I also think that it has been a healthy and wholesome relationship since the day that we met. And, believe it or not, we never had a DTR or the equivalent of a DTR. This is how things happened:
August ’92– We were introduced to one another in a hallway at college. A common friend thought that we might have something in common since I am from Virginia and my wife had just lived in my hometown for the past two years. A few days later we had a great two hour or so discussion. Talking with her was really easy. We began to hang out in the same friend circle.
September ’92 – I knew that I was in like so I invited Christina on a date. I was terribly nervous, she was not. A couple of weeks later I asked her out again. She said yes. Two dates down and I was still in like. I paid for both the dates so that there would be no confusion that these were dates.
Early October ’92 – Because I liked her I sent her flowers. I knew that she would love them and I wanted her to know that I liked her a lot. She loved the flowers. Our times together changed. Our conversations were deeper and we sought out each other’s presence. She was in like too.
Late October ’92 – While on fall break from school we had an opportunity to spend time with one another. We spent a day together where she introduced me to some of her friends from outside our college. By now it was clear that we were on the brink of a dating relationship. Late that same night we started dating. No one asked, “So, should we start dating?” We knew we liked each other and that was enough. In fact, by now we knew that we loved one another. Our times together had been sufficient enough and our conversations significant enough for us to say this to one another. Again, neither of us asked, “So, are we in love?” We knew we were so we said so.
September ’93 – We got engaged. We knew that the main purpose of our dating was to determine if we wanted to marry one another. What would have been the point otherwise? So no one asked, “Should we get married?” We knew that we loved one another and we knew that the next step after dating is engagement.
July ’94 – We got married. There was no need to discuss if we should get married since that is the point of engagement. Again, there was no “Should we…” discussion. We met, we liked, and we loved, so we married.
So, what’s the point of all of this? Well, I just wanted to emphasize again that my wife and I never had a DTR. We showed each other where we were at in our friendship, dating relationship, engagement and ultimately marriage with our actions. We did not find a bench in the park and talk ourselves blue in the face, we let our relationship develop naturally and as it progressed we adapted ourselves to the new stages, expressing our like and love in words and actions. When I thought she looked beautiful, I told her. When I wanted to show her that I loved her, we went somewhere nice or I gave her a gift. When I wanted the campus to know that I was in love with her, I wrote it in large letters and put it in my dorm window (true story). What I never did was schedule a DTR.
My advice to college students today (or at least the ones that I work with) is to quit thinking so much. Relationships are really not rocket science, especially if you believe that God made us to be relational people. If you see a guy or girl that you think is attractive, introduce yourself. If you meet someone who you think is interesting, tell them so. If you find yourself in like, show them. If you fall in love, proclaim it. If you want to date, ask them. If you want to get engaged, get on your knee.
Thus, to all of my students, let’s put an end to DTRs and get back to the basics!
“Not only to be high and great, but also to be small and lowly, as we are.”
Probably shouldn’t post while emotional…But studying for Monday nights is leading me into some amazing places. Just read this prayer, from an old theologian, and it’s overwhelming me!
Lord our God, you wanted to live not only in heaven, but also with us, here on earth;
not only to be high and great, but also to be small and lowly, as we are;
not only to rule, but also to serve us;
not only to be God in eternity, but also to be born as a person, to live, and to die.
In your dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, you have given us none other than yourself,
that we may wholly belong to you.
This affects all of us, none of us has deserved this.
What remains for us to do but wonder, to rejoice, to be thankful,
and to hold fast to what you have done for us?