Tag: wisdom

Valuing Wisdom

Is wisdom in demand? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Ecclesiastes 7:11-13 reads:

Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
12 For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
13 Consider the work of God:
who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Do you know what economics is the study of? If you said money, you’re wrong.

Economics is the study of scarcity and demand.

Unfortunately in our world, we have a lot of demand for wisdom and there’s a great scarcity.

Knowledge and wisdom are different. You can have a lot of knowledge and be a fool in the area of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing the right way to live. Knowledge can be a part of that, but if you have knowledge and don’t have wisdom, you will likely do more harm than good.

In this case, the Teacher talks about money and says that wisdom is good with an inheritance. What good does it do you to have a lot of money if you don’t know the proper way to use it? This is the case when you have people who win the lottery and their lives become worse instead of better. Some of you might say that playing the lottery is wrong either way, but aside from that, the same could be said for people who receive a huge inheritance suddenly and don’t know the proper usage and handling of money.

If you know how to use money properly, you can do a great deal of good with it. (Say, donate to my Patreon?) Keep in mind this doesn’t mean just throwing money at every problem. There can be a great danger in just giving money to people who don’t know how to use it as you can be shortcutting them in harmful ways. I recommend When Helping Hurts on that front.

If you have knowledge, wisdom helps there too. I hate to say it as someone in a PhD program, but sometimes people with PhDs can be really dumb. Why? Because that knowledge does not mean that you have wisdom. Meanwhile, there can be a little old lady in your church who might not have even graduated from high school and yet is a fount of wisdom.

Wisdom will help guide you in how to live. It will help you learn what your goals in life should be and how to best pursue them. It will help you learn to make wise decisions as well.

How do you get wisdom? One way is to learn the fear of God. It’s also to learn from those around you. Read good books that will challenge you. Listen to people who are older and wiser. I have a team of allies around me personally that when I struggle with something, I go to one of them. I also have a therapist which is immensely helpful.

Job taught us the value of seeking wisdom comparing it to silver and gold mined from the Earth. We are told to forsake all else in the pursuit of wisdom.

Perhaps we should listen. We can start having the supply to meet the demand.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

This is Madness!

Or is it Sparta? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In this section, the Teacher writes about considering madness and folly. As I wrote in my paper on the topic:

The Teacher then turns to consider madness and folly. He does not tell us what all this consisted of and unfortunately, commentators do not have a clear idea either. Bartholomew says it consists of behavior considered senseless and irrational.[1] Perry probably gets closest when he says this could refer to the opposite of wisdom.[2] Another problem with understanding what the Teacher means by these terms is that the words for madness and folly show up nowhere else in the Old Testament except in this book.

The Teacher says nothing about how this testing takes place. It would seem obvious that this could not take place with the usage of wisdom. How does one wisely explore the opposite of wisdom? Could perhaps the Teacher have gone out and observed the Fool from the book of Proverbs and learned from the experience of others?

However he gains his information, there comes a surprising change in the book when the Teacher declares wisdom better than madness. (2:13-14) The person who has wisdom can see where he walks. The Teacher makes the comparison saying that a life lived in the light ranks above one lived in the darkness.

Unfortunately, while the life of wisdom comes out better than the life of folly, in the end, what difference does it make? Perhaps one could say that if Solomon wrote the book, he might have in mind a situation like the one described in Proverbs 7 where a young man gets seduced by the wayward woman and does not realize that her house leads to death. True enough, but even if one lived with full wisdom, they too will one day go to a place of death. What good has happened to them in the end overall? How can one say that they lived a better life if the result of both folly and wisdom occurs at a cemetery? Hence, the Teacher again ends this section saying it describes life under the sun.

So is it better to be wise? Yes. However, no matter how wise you are, in the end, you will still die. There have been many great men of wisdom that we have no idea about today. Right now, I am going through a book called The Moral Argument. I have read so far about many people that I have sadly never heard of. I suspect most Christians haven’t heard of them either.

Not only that, but even the ones that people do remember, we tend to not know many of their philosophies today. Aside from biblical figures, who we don’t know as we should, we can also include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and even the great scientific minds as well. Consider how many people consider the Middle Ages to be the Dark Ages unaware entirely that there were plenty of people doing great scientific work in that day. Ask people to name a medieval scientist and they will likely say Galileo, who didn’t even live in that period!

So what about another option? If pleasure doesn’t deliver and wisdom doesn’t, what about work?

We’ll discuss that next time.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

[1] Bartholomew, 130.

[2] Perry, 79.

 

The Search Begins

What can wisdom do for you? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

The Teacher decides he is going to begin the quest for meaning. I do call him the Teacher in this and if you’re wondering why, it’s because while I do hold to Solomonic authorship, my arguments do not depend on the Teacher being Solomon. That is my position, but if I found incontrovertible proof that this was someone just impersonating Solomon, I would not have to revise my understanding of the book.

The Teacher does say that the business man has been given is unhappy. No beating around the bush again. Not only that, but he attributes this to God. God has given something to man that is sad. Man has a desire to find meaning in the world. Man has a desire to make sense of it all. We are not all philosophers, but all of us to some extent have this desire in us.

If something is crooked, it cannot be made straight and something lacking cannot be counted. This points to a futility then in the search of sorts. If God has done this, we cannot undo it. If God has given us a desire to find order in the world, we cannot shut that off. If God has given us a desire to find meaning in life, we cannot shut that off. Some people do think life is meaningless, but that does not mean that they want it to be. There is a difference between wanting life to be meaningless and concluding, even wrongly, that life is meaningless.

In a statement that is definitely reflective of Solomon, the Teacher says he has acquired wisdom and knowledge beyond any who came before him. If the Teacher cannot figure out the answer to this question, then who can? The Teacher has said he is not going to hold anything back in his quest. He wants to know what makes a life worthwhile.

In the end of this section, he makes a negative statement about wisdom. Today, we would describe it as saying “ignorance is bliss.” There is a reason we often protect children from some realities of the adult world as they grow up and let them experience them gradually. It is because of the perceived innocence of children that we don’t want their childhoods destroyed by painful realities. We treat it as something unnatural when a child comes to know the nature of death all too soon.

Many of us who have knowledge do enjoy what we have, but at times, it can also be painful. Sometimes to have good theology can produce pain. Consider how C.S. Lewis once said his fear was not that God did not exist. It was “Yes. He does exist, and this is what He is really like!” Of course, there is some false information in that, but the knowledge that God exists doesn’t always bring joy. Sometimes it brings fear and sorrow. Sometimes knowing God is good is painful when one realizes what is being allowed and one cannot make sense of it.

But the Teacher will try.

Next week, we’ll really get into his searching.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Is That Feeling From God?

What is the fallacy in the modern approach to decision making? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I’m taking a brief break from the book of the Hayses to write about something else. Many readers know I have long been critical of approaches on hearing the voice of God as a normative practice. I was recently doing some reading of Blackaby and just really thought out the process that the Blackaby family uses and seeing the problems.

Note that this is a criticism of the methodology. It is not a criticism as people of those who practice this. I remain convinced that they think that they are being biblical and that they are helping people strengthen their relationship with God. I am sure we would all agree we want people to make wise decisions.

So here is the way it normally works out under what I will call the Blackaby Method. (BM)

1.  Person has a strong sense, impression, feeling.
2.  That is God speaking to them.
3.  That person acts on that.
4.  Positive result comes at the end.

Okay. #1 is indisputable. No one is denying that a person has a strong sense, impression, or feeling to do something. It can also not be denied that the person is acting on whatever that is. Finally, the cases presented are at least cases of what is perceived to be a good result.

Here’s one of the big problems. The methodology is shown to be true because #1 happens and yet it is implicitly assumed that #2 is true. If a person feels a strong sense to do something and they do it and they get a good result, then that was God acting on them.

The problem is that we can have strong senses (I will be saying this rather than listing all three from now on) on a various number of issues for a various number of means. I remember hearing about someone talking to a Mormon about their claim on the Book of Mormon being true because of a strong sense saying “Do you want your wife to act on those strong senses during that time of the month? That quickly got a no out of them.

Let’s consider another example many of us have. Falling in love. There is actually a name for this feeling called limerence. When we have it happen, all we do is think about the beloved for a time and have a hard time focusing on anything else. C.S. Lewis said it is a good thing that this feeling doesn’t last forever or else we would never get anything done.

Unfortunately, many people enter marriages based on that feeling and then when the feeling fades, they have trouble. When they meet someone else who gives them that feeling anew, they think that this must be the real thing. Unfortunately, this can also become a neverending cycle as the limerence DOES eventually fade.

I often get emails from people who are convinced they have committed the unpardonable sin. What do they base it on? A strong sense. They think that God is judging them and condemning them and that is based on their feelings. I take them back to Scripture and show that the fact that they care about being holy before God shows that God is still at work in their lives. We also then discuss what the unpardonable sin really is. To this day, I have not encountered one person through this who I think has committed that sin, and based on my understanding of it, I don’t think I ever will.

I happen to struggle with anxiety ever since my divorce and take medication to deal with it, but I know when anxiety has struck me strongly in the past, it’s hard to focus on anything else. I have had therapy sessions since coming here when I say “Yeah. I was greatly anxious on Thursday. Now, I can’t even really remember what it was about.”

Has it ever occurred to some of you who hold to BM that perhaps the strong sense you experience is not God, but maybe it’s just your own thinking as well based on your understanding of Scripture? Maybe you are using observation skills and thinking “That person looks like they need someone to talk to” and go over and talk to them. Does this take away from God? Not at all. You are still following biblical wisdom and trying to do what God commands.

Let’s look at BM in another way.

1.  A person has a strong sense that the Book of Mormon is true.
2.  That strong sense is from God.
3. That person acts on that belief and joins the Mormon church.
4. Thus, a good result has occurred.

A Mormon would hold to all of these. A Christian like myself would say that that is not the case. Someone joining the Mormon church is not good but rather a breaking away from Christianity.

So let’s look at #4 that is in common and the idea that a good result occurs. One problem with BM examples is that only positive ones are mentioned. There are probably several cases when people were following BM and they turn out to be wrong and those do not get recorded. To know if a methodology works, you need to look at as many examples as you can of when it was followed, not just the positive ones. If you read a Blackaby book or anyone else teaching this, you will only get the positive results which in turn are shown to demonstrate the BM is true.

It’s interesting the Mormon test to see if the Book of Mormon is true works the exact same way. If you don’t get the positive result, well the problem is you. You weren’t sincere. You weren’t really paying attention. If you do get the result they want, then that proves that the test is true. Either way, the Mormon method cannot be wrong.

Scripture is also full of people who do follow the will of God and do NOT have positive results, at least immediately. Yes. We will all have the resurrection and live eternally in glory, but short-term, we can have suffering. Hebrews 11 lists several people who had great faith and then to balance it out, the writer lists several people who underwent great suffering. Following the will of God will not always produce immediate good results for people. Being faithful can lead to great pain and suffering.

Some of you might be wondering that if you aren’t making decisions based on what you feel like God is telling you, what are you basing it on? Simple. Scripture and wisdom that God gives us all. Scripture is the ultimate authority that is infallible, but wisdom also gives us good sense for making wise decisions.

If someone asked me where my call comes from, I point to Matthew 28:18-20. We are to go into all the world making disciples. What more is needed? After that, I point to desire, ability, and opportunity. Do I have a strong desire to do this work? Do I have the ability? Do I have the chance? I have met enough pastors in my time who have a strong “Call to preach”, but are horrible preachers and do not understand Christianity.

Not everyone will go into a ministerial field, and thank God for that! Some people can be really excited and enthusiastic about something like plumbing. You and I might think “Why would someone want to learn how a toilet works?” It might not make much sense to us, but when we have our toilet suddenly start overflowing, we sure will be thankful someone had that passion.

So many goods in your life come because someone had desire, ability, and opportunity. It is the technology you use, the food you eat, the place you live in, etc. It is good some people care about making shoes. it is good some people care about building planes, trains, and automobiles. Many of us are passionate about books, but some people had to be passionate also about how to put a book together, not just writing a book, but making covers and pages and the process behind it.

Also, none of this is to steal a relationship with God from you. God has revealed Himself best in Scripture and the person of Jesus. The idea that God is revealing Himself to you through senses encourages you to look within to find God ultimately, which is not really a good idea. My approach tells you to look without, at general revelation and at special revelation revealed in Christ and Scripture.

Again, none of this is against people who follow this. It is saying that I consider this approach in the end dangerous and will lead people away from Scripture in the long run. The Bible has much to say about wisdom and making wise decisions. We should listen to it.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Andrew Perry on 1 Cor. 8:6 Part 8

Is Jesus God’s Wisdom? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In these replies, I have been contending that Jesus is God’s Wisdom. Today, we’re going to look into that a little bit more.

The most common interpretation of ‘all things’ in 1 Cor 8:6 is that this embraces the Genesis creation and
that the Son is being placed as the one through whom that creation came into being – “through/by
whom are all things”.
But to us there is one God, the Father, out of whom are85 all things, and we to/for him; and
one Lord Jesus Christ, through/by whom are all things, and we through/by him. 1 Cor 8:6
(KJV revised)

Yes. This is the most common interpretation and that’s for good reason. It makes sense of the passage. This is especially clear when you get to chapter 10 still about meat offered to idols and are told that the Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. (1 Cor. 10:25-26)

But Perry says:

J. Murphy-O’Conner discusses cosmological readings of 1 Cor 8:6, showing how they are often based
on extra-Biblical comparisons with parallel texts that have ‘all things’ being of one God but through an
agent such as Wisdom or the Logos. He notes example philosophical texts from the Stoics and Philo, but
several Second Temple religious texts can be adduced for Wisdom having a role in creation. One
argument for a cosmological reading is that all things come from God, and so food comes from God, and
is acceptable. The problem with the argument is that vv. 1-7 is directed to those who already have this
knowledge; it is not directed to those who need persuasion. Another argument is a comparison with 1
Cor 11:12 where Paul states “but all things are of God”. However, it is not certain that Paul is making a
point here about creation; he could be making a contrast with the new creation as with 2 Cor 5:18 (“But
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”). If we exclude creation as the
topic of v. 6, then the parallel between Christ and Wisdom vis-à-vis creative agency is diminished.

Naturally, Perry is not interacting with Second Temple thought, but he says that if Paul is saying this, then it seems that it would be something that they didn’t know. Well, by this standard, let’s point out some other things they didn’t know in the letter.

1 Cor. 11:23-26:

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Cor. 15:3-7:

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles

So by Perry’s argument then, this material that Paul says he passed on to them, they would not have known about. Why present something they already knew?

Or maybe, just maybe, Paul is using what they already know to make a point….

We can certainly say if we exclude creation, then the Wisdom argument is diminished, but what difference does new creation make to Paul’s argument? Paul is talking about how to interact in this creation, not the new one. Does Perry think there will be meat for sale from pagan markets in the new creation?

The competing interpretation is soteriological. Within 1 Corinthians, Paul uses ‘all things’ to embrace
different concepts. First, he says that the spiritual man judges all things (1 Cor 2:10-16). Such a person is
the recipient of the Spirit from God who works ‘all things in all’ (1 Cor 12:6; Eph 1:23) – all these things
are distributed throughout the body in terms of the spiritual gifts (‘spiritual things’, 1 Cor 12:1ff). All
things are for the believers so that the abundance of grace might be spread to all (Rom 8:28, 31-32; 2 Cor
4:14-15). This is why all things are ‘new’ in the new creation (2 Cor 5:17-18). Secondly, and politically, the
day will come when God will put all things under the feet of Christ, and after fulfilling his work, Christ
will deliver all things to the Father (1 Cor 15:27-28; Eph 1:10-11). Of these two uses of ‘all things’, 1 Cor
8:6 would fall into the first category of ‘spiritual things’ because Paul is talking about knowledge in 1
Corinthians 8.88 Christians judge, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

But this faces the same problem. Paul throughout the section is talking about this creation. Why think the context has switched so spiritual matters when the question is about meat in the marketplace?

The underlying point here is that ‘all things’ is a common enough way to talk generally. Elsewhere, Paul
will refer to thrones, rulers, lordships and authorities as ‘all things’ (Col 1:16); he will comment that he has
suffered the loss of all things (Phil 3:8); and in his Mars Hill speech, Paul declares that God gives all
things to all. The ‘all things’ of 1 Cor 8:6 are the gifts of the Spirit which are ‘of’ the Father but ‘through’
Jesus Christ (e.g. Eph 2:18; Tit 3:5-6).

Perry has thrown this out without a reason why I should accept it. At this point, Hitchens’s Razor applies. That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Perry has given me no reason to take his claim seriously and I see plenty to the contrary.

There is a further point of contrast with the cosmological reading. Paul states that believers are
‘through/by’ Jesus Christ – this is a reference to the new creation of men and women in Christ (Rom 6:11,
23; 2 Cor 5:17; Col 1:20; Gal 3:14; 6:15), who in turn receive the spiritual gifts. Paul’s point is based in the
present and not the past of the Genesis creation.

And when did those present things come about? Oh yes. In the Genesis creation. Paul is pointing to the beginning and the order God established. How else could He have done this?

Thus I conclude this paper thoroughly unpersuaded, at least of Perry’s point. If anything, I am more persuaded that the more traditional reading is the correct one.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

 

Andrew Perry on 1 Cor. 8:6 Part 7

Are those verses really about Jesus? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In this section, Perry asks if some passages are really about Jesus. Let’s go through them.

The use of Joel 2:32 in Rom 10:13.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, ‘Lord Jesus’, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved…For there is no difference between the Jew
and the Greek: for the same lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Whosoever shall call
upon the name kyrios shall be saved. Rom 10:9-13 (KJV revised)
On the basis of the mention of the Lord Jesus in v. 9, it is assumed that ‘same lord over all’ and ‘call upon
the name kyrios’ equally refer to Jesus. Hence, Capes avers, “Since ku,rioj refers to Jesus in 10:9, he
probably had Jesus in mind here also.”

And this seems quite accurate to me, but what does Perry say?

An allusion or echo of Joel 2:32 exists in, “with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord” (1 Cor 1:2). This places Jesus into the position of the saviour that Yahweh occupies in the
‘calling’ of Joel 2:32. It could be used to support the claim of Capes about Rom 10:13 but, equally, we
should observe that the name ‘Yhwh’ is not referenced in 1 Cor 1:2. Since salvation is a matter of God working through Jesus, the appeal for salvation can be described directly in terms of Joel 2:32 and
Yahweh or in allusive terms referring to Christ.

An allusion? It’s an outright quote. Paul doesn’t speak of Jesus as a representative. He speaks of Him as the Lord. The name YHWH is not referenced in 1 Cor. 1:2? What of it? We have Romans 10:9 right there and right next to it 10:13. Wouldn’t that be a better go-to?

The expression ‘lord of all’ evokes God’s rule over the nations (Jew and Greek). In 1 Chron 29:11-12,
Yahweh is ‘head above all’ (LXX has, differently, ‘lord of all’) and ‘riches’ are also said to come from him
in this text. These two points of contact suggest that Paul is quoting from this prayer, but it is also
common enough to address Yahweh in these terms (e.g. 2 Chron 20:6).
This in turn suggests that the use of Joel 2:32 is also a reference to Yahweh – ‘calling upon the name of
the Lord’. This is a specific refrain74 in the Jewish Scriptures for invoking God to act as a saviour, see the
table below for examples.

Yet if we turned to Romans 9:5, we get that Jesus is God over all. The problem Perry has ultimately is “Well, if we take this and read it this way and look at it this way, it could possibly refer to this.” Maybe, but why should I pick that over the traditional interpretation that countless exegetes have said instead?

Another example of commentators mistaking identity is the quotation of Jer 9:23-24 in 1 Cor 1:31,
That, according as it is written, ‘He that glorieth, let him glory in kyrios’. 1 Cor 1:31 (KJV); cf. 2 Cor
10:17
Thus saith Yhwh, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his
might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he
understandeth and knoweth me, that I am Yhwh which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight’, saith Yhwh Jer 9:23-24 (KJV revised)
The principal actor in Paul’s treatise in 1 Cor 1:19-31 is God: God destroys (v. 19); he brings to nothing
(v. 19); he has made (v. 20); he saves (v. 21); he chooses (vv. 27-28); and he makes (v. 30). Christ is the
‘object’ in the discourse – the ‘Wisdom of God’. It follows that v. 31 is a simple use of kyrios for ‘Yhwh’
and that the believer is to boast in God’s acts. Accordingly, Capes is simply wrong to conclude, “As indicated by his description of Christ’s work in 1:30, Paul quoted this Yahweh text (ku,riojin LXX,hwhy
in the Hebrew text) and applied it to Christ.”On the contrary, in v. 30 Christ is God’s work! The
boasting is related to the acts of God.

Yet again, what is the problem here? If we say Jesus is the Wisdom of God, then this fits with it. You can either glory in the Father at the work of Jesus or glory in Jesus that He is the one through whom the Father acts and either one works with a Trinitarian mindset.

So getting back to 1 Cor. 8:6, Perry says:

1 Corinthians 8:6 distinguishes God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ with its prepositional
statements. If we compare these to 1 Cor 10:26, they disambiguate Paul’s quotation: the earth is ‘of the
Lord’ (tou/ kuri,ou) and it is God the Father ‘from whom’ or ‘out of whom’ are all things (evx ou–).

And again, reading this from a Wisdom approach, what is the problem? This is exactly what I would expect.

While Perry goes in, I really don’t see anything interacting with this Wisdom approach.

We shall continue next time.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Disvaluing The Elderly

Do we really care about them anymore? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I was reading a Carl Trueman essay yesterday about a dangerous gift for his wife. In this case, it was some anti-aging material. As he writes about it, which he did wind up buying anyway, he does say our culture seems to want to live in a denial of our age. Youth is glorified. The elderly are cast aside.

If you read the book of Job, you will find Eliphaz at one point making an interesting statement. He tells Job that men with grey hair are on his side and that they are older than Job’s father.” If it was said today, it would be seen as an extremely weak point. What do they know?

Working at a seminary, there are many students here that are twenty years or more younger than I am. Something I notice about many of them is that they are not aware of events that took place before their time. I still remember working at the Wal-Mart in Tennessee and having to explain to one of the younger people there who the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was.

Okay. There aren’t many major consequences from not knowing pop culture references, but too many times our young people don’t even really know about history before our time. Events like Challenger and 9-11 were the defining moments for my generation, but I knew about past events such as the assassination of Kennedy that also defined a generation.

Part of this goes with the denial of death that I wrote about yesterday. Youth is seen as the glorious time. We even think our youth at even extremely young ages can truly say that they know that they are the wrong gender. A teenage girl is supposed to decide that she can’t handle a baby in her womb when she has a hard enough time deciding what to wear in the morning.

And what do we do with our elderly? Well, we put them in nursing homes and other places and in many cases, they struggle with loneliness. My parents, being elderly now, tell me of many friends they have where their own children don’t even bother interacting with them anymore. The elderly are a goldmine of wisdom and great experiences of the past if we will but listen to them.

I don’t claim to be the best at this either. Could it be we don’t like to be around the elderly many times because it reminds us that one day, we will be them? Sure, grandpa might not understand how to work an iPhone and your great aunt Susie might post a personal post to you on your Facebook wall instead of sending it through a private message, but could it be that maybe one day, you will be the one not understanding the new technology someday?

Contrast this with the ancient societies. When we read about Jesus in the Gospels, many people often ask why so little was said about His childhood. These are people who have never read any other ancient biographies. Hardly anything was said about childhood. No one cared. It was the elderly that were the most respected.

Now I am not at all suggesting childhood doesn’t matter. It is important to recognize that youth is a gift from God just as much as old age is. It should be treasured. However, old age should be honored as well. The extremes of denying childhood any validity and treating old age like a disease to avoid are both wrong.

By the way to those of you out there who are elderly, here’s something I want to share as an idea. Start an online blog. What will you write about? Yourself. Write about you and your life and leave it for your future descendants who you will never see. You can also record online videos on YouTube. One of your children will likely be glad to show you how to do it. Leave a video diary for them. Talk about even the most mundane things going on in your day. What music are you listening to? What movies are you watching? If you play games, and some elderly people do play video games, what games are they? What did you do when you were their age?

By the way, if you have your children and grandchildren help you with this, that will be time you spend with them as well and they can hear about it from you. It’s a win-win. Give it a try.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Should Christians Play Diablo?

Is this the devil’s game? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

A really good friend of mine shared with me yesterday about someone complaining about KFC because they are teaming up with Diablo for a promotion. Now some of you who know about Diablo being put out by Activision might wonder why I’m commenting on this seeing as I came out against Activision in yesterday’s post. I still stand by that, but for the sake of argument, let’s suppose that this game was made by a different company. I want to just look at the game as a game.

I went to the KFC page and saw several people talking about how demonic this game was. Evidence they gave of that? It just was. One lady who I replied to messaged me and decided to show me this picture as clear evidence that the game is demonic.

Sorry. That doesn’t cut it for me. Depicting an evil being as something that looks evil is actually being accurate. If you look at descriptions of the devil in something like, say, Dante’s Inferno, it’s nothing pretty.

If we were to take the book of Revelation and turn it into a full movie along the lines of Left Behind, a series I definitely don’t agree with, the devil would come out looking pretty awful. Can you imagine what the Beast would look like if he was pictured literalistically?

I was also told to look at the horns on this creature. The horns! Well that clinches it!

Except when you look at Revelation 5, you see horns on the Lamb. That lamb is Jesus, so if horns on something make it evil, then I guess you have a problem with Jesus. If anything, I think the devil would be upset as being depicted as a villain in a video game that an adventurer can defeat. (I understand the story is about defeating the mother-in-law of the devil, something I don’t think really flatters the devil.)

Naturally, satanism was also thrown about. Real satanism doesn’t have anything to do with satan. Satan is more seen as a symbol as being a rebel against society. It’s essentially humanism. If you go with the whole self-esteem movement, you’re a lot closer to satanism that way.

Now keep in mind in saying this I’m not saying everyone should play this. If you still don’t think it would be right for you to play, that’s fine. What I am concerned about is the jumping into panic mode immediately. I am much more concerned about the philosophy at Activision than I am about this game. When I say I wouldn’t play this game, it’s not because it’s Diablo, but because it comes from Activision. Now I might not play on other grounds such as I just don’t normally care for games that are M rated.

However, that’s another point. Someone else did tell me that this game is M rated because of all the blood and gore. Okay. That’s why it’s left to mature adults to make their own call, but if we went that route, go look at the Parents guide for Schindler’s List in IMDB. Much of the material is severe. There is full graphic nudity and there is extreme blood and gore.

Yet everyone should see that movie at least once.

Christians. If you go with simplistic arguments, you will come across these kinds of problems. The world will also look at it and tell you you are being hypocrites, and they will be right. If you don’t want to play something because it depicts a demon like this, but you have no problem with Lord of the Rings with the balrog, then the issue is not the being in it. If the presence of such a creature is the problem, it doesn’t get a free pass because, hey, a Christian made it.

Not only that, but we are fighting the battles in the wrong spot. The real threat to watch out for in a movie or anything like that is the worldview that is presented. There are a lot of cute cartoons and movies that parents will let their children watch that have a horrible worldview to them. Star Wars will give you a very pantheistic worldview. Star Trek is humanism. Am I saying to avoid those? No. However, we must be discerning in all that we watch, read, play, etc.

Learn to discern. That’s the bottom line. Don’t fall into panic. Go for what seems like an obvious threat to you and you’ll miss the real underlying ones.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge Part 2: Decision Making and the Will of God

What do I think of Garry Friesen’s contribution to this book? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

As I said at the start, Friesen is the one I know of who’s opinion on this topic I am most inclined to go with. Friesen did what his dissertation work was on, decision making and the will of God. He used to hold to the more traditional specific-view will and found it just didn’t work. He then went back to the Bible and found that the traditional view just really wasn’t there. While some Christians were pleased with this work, including myself, many were scornful of Friesen and at least one Christian speaker declared him a heretic.

Friesen’s view is the wisdom view. In his view, all moral commands of God that apply to us today are to be obeyed without question. However, there are times that we don’t have a moral command and there are two or more options that can be chosen from and none of them violate a moral command of God. Which one do you go with? Friesen has the incredible idea of actually looking at the options and weighing the pros and cons and making a wise decision.

What strikes me is that this view is at all controversial. In any other position in life, we go with the wisdom model. However, when it comes to being a Christian, somehow it’s a more holy model to think that you’re supposed to hear the voice of God just like everyone in the Bible supposedly did, although we only talk about the exceptional people.

Friesen in looking at the text notices, especially in Acts, that this happens many times. There’s even a passage where there is an open door, and yet Paul chooses to not go through it. The first missionary journey was indeed called out by God, but when it comes to the second, Paul and Barnabas just decide to revisit the towns and before that they get into an argument and end up choosing separate partners.

Having said that, there are some mild criticisms I have of the chapter.

First off, Friesen says the prophets had no doubt that God had spoken to them. I would like to have seen this fleshed out a bit. Gideon seems to be doubtful of God in Judges and Abraham is called by God and yet lies about his identity. John the Baptist saw miracles around Jesus and while in prison asks if He was the one to come still.

Second, while Friesen does go to Acts, I wonder what he would say about Acts 1 where lots were used to determine the replacement of Judas. Also, I would think it would be great to go to Acts 15, the first church council where you would think a word from God would be determinative, but none is given, except one possibility. The text does it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. I would have liked some interpretation from him on this passage.

Third, while Friesen points to prayer, I would like to know how he thinks prayer is supposed to work for us here. How does God interact? Does He clear the head of the believer to make a wise decision? Can God indeed recall to mind a Scripture or something similar? Overall, how does God interact with our lives?

Finally, as a respondent says, what about the Holy Spirit? Friesen says little about Him in this chapter if anything. What roles does the Spirit play in our lives?

It has been several years since I read his main book on this topic so it could be there, but I would like something to go on in this chapter still. I agree with Friesen on the Wisdom view. I just want to see it fleshed out some more.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Dating With Discernment

What do I think of Sam Andreades’s book published by Cruciform Press? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

How many pastor/scholars do you know that write books on dating that are practical and have deep theology? Odds are, that number is zero. Change that number to one now. Sam Andreades has written such a book that is practical and yet founded on great theology.

So how does one date wisely? You might be surprised, but the first chapter is on how to break up with someone. What? That’s like writing a book on how to be good at a sport and then a chapter on how to lose or how to win at video games with discussing all the ways to lose a life. Does it really make sense to have a book on dating start with a chapter on how to break up?

Andreades asks this question at the beginning and yes, yes it does. He says you need to be willing to go for the best in this area and that can mean ending relationships that are not good. You do not need to be in a relationship to be in a relationship. If you can learn to say no to a bad one, you are upholding your view on how much you are worth.

This section already got me considering about the rest of the book. Yes. I am worth a good woman in my life who does want to be loved and treasured. Yes. Whoever she is, she is worthy of a man who will love and treasure her. This gets into the other way this book works.

Andreades regularly writes to both persons in the relationship. He tells women how they can best please a man and tells men how they can best please a woman. He points out our differences based on gender, his main specialty area, and shows how these are the design of God.

This also includes saving sex for marriage. Andreades refers to this as guarding the gold. By saying no to sex until marriage, you are saying you are worth a lifetime commitment. Words and a ring are really good, but without the covenant, they are just, well, words and a ring. It is when you make a promise before God and man and any other spiritual beings watching, that you are in the covenant and then, have at it.

To this end, Andreades says that men will often show interest in a girl thinking “I’d like to have sex with her.” Refreshingly, Andreades does not condemn this thinking as he knows that sex is God’s idea, but he also tells men that sex is about more than sex. What happens physically is meant to mirror deep spiritual and emotional connections. If you view sex as purely physical, you are missing out. This is also one great reason why it is contained in marriage. Andreades does not condemn the drive in us men, but instead encourages us to use that drive to go further.

All of this is also rooted in good Trinitarian theology. Andreades regularly points to the interactions in the Trinity and then tells us that this is how we are to relate to one another. Why would you discuss the Trinity in a book on dating? Because dating is all about establishing relationships and the Trinity is all about how God is relational and all relationships are founded on that relationality.

Andreades encourages men to be leaders and sacrificers. The man should be the one to ask someone out and be willing to put his heart on the line. The man should be willing to protect his wife and help her feel secure from all the threats, be that external or internal.

A good wife is one who is willing to submit to her husband’s leadership even when she disagrees, excepting that he does not call her to do anything wrong. If he makes the wrong decision, it’s still his decision and the wife can still esteem him without constant “I told you so’s.” A man deeply wants to be respected by the woman in his life.

Also, meet the family as soon as possible. No, it doesn’t mean you’re walking down the aisle. It just means the family knows you. I know in my marriage, this happened quickly as seeing as she lived in Atlanta and I in Charlotte then, I had to drive over and meet her parents before I could take her out. (And her parents and I are on good terms to this day.)

This book is written for people dating or hoping to date, but I think it would be good for married couples. They could look at this and ask “Are we doing this for each other?” This is also a book that uses good theology and all of us could use that. I contend many of the personal struggles we can have in life are rooted in having poor theology in some area, and all of us do.

If you are dating, get this book and read it. If you are wanting to date, get this book and read it. If you know a couple who are dating, get each of them this book and have them read it.

Pretty much, just get this book and read it.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)