Echoes in Eternity

How much do I care for these ants? I think I care. I'll stop to watch their wars. I'll buy my children documentaries - insect tributes. I won't crush them when I can help it.

But, if given the chance, would I be willing to become one of them? Would I be willing for them to drag me to the place of execution, taunt me, mock me, ridicule the gift I offered, a gift entirely beyond their comprehension? Would I be willing for the earwig, executed beside me, to add his insults to those of the ants? Would I be willing to die?

Hell no. Never. I have more self-regard than God does. I have less love for the characters beneath me. - N.D. Wilson in Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl

I just finished this book and it is amazing! Not many books are so engaging and so illuminating. Pick it up today if you get a chance! Or... win it.

Doug Wilson elaborates more on his previous discussion of the supposed "exceptionalism" of America.

American exceptionalism is objectionable because it is a false religion, a false faith. It is a smooth and attractive idol, and probably the idol most likely to ensnare conservative evangelicals.
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The problem is that Americanism is seen as a source of ideals, an artesian well of ethics, a fountainhead of standards. This is not just nonsense, it is damned nonsense.
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To object to American exceptionalism (for I am an American objectionalist) is not to maintain that there is nothing unique about Americans or American history. It is to say that there is nothing religiously unique. We are sinners like everybody else, we need God's grace like everybody else, we are thoughtless when prosperous like everybody else, and peevish when not prosperous like everybody else. Take off an American's boots, and you will find ten toes. Son of a gun.

Now one of the unique things that is striking about the wisdom of our founders is that they knew this. The constitutional arranagement they made for us presupposes that we are just like everybody else. The founders did not trust Americans with the kind of power that Obama wants, the kind that Congress wants, the kind that the Supreme Court wants, the kind that the Republicans want, the kind the Democrats want, and the kind that most American voters have hitherto wanted to surrender to the aforementioned. The founders knew that Americans were good, old-fashioned me-firsters, and so they built enough booby traps in the constitutional arrangement to make it look like the beginning of an Indiana Jones movie.
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The founders knew that we were in no way unique, and that really was unique. As long as we kept that Calvinistic humility in place, we were greatly blessed. And there is nothing wrong with acknowledging and rejoicing in that blessing. We need to return to it.

So American gratitude is something else entirely. That is not what I am shooting at when I go after exceptionalism. Acknowledgement of God's great blessing is not just okay, but is rather mandatory.
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So what is this sin of exceptionalism? It is here: "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Dt. 8:17).

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky. - C.S. Lewis

Doug Wilson has a good post today on the idol of American exceptionalism, which many politically-minded Christians routinely fall for. Sure, there is something about our Constitution and rule of law which is exceptional as far as world systems go. But only as far as it points more clearly to the ultimate hope and exceptional government: God's. As I mentioned in the comment section and Pastor Wilson agreed, 1 Corinthians 4:7 is most appropriate here.

There are a number of things that are circulated on the foxnewsright that do to my soul what an Athens full of idols did to the apostle Paul. One of the central ones, as readers of this space well know, is that I think there is enough sadness in the world without Republicans going around talking about American exceptionalism. The most recent sampling of a near cousin to this kind of thing was a comment by Jeb Bush when he said that Obama's policies were "not American." Obama's policies are idiotic, sure, but last time I checked, we weren't having to import any of that. We generate enough in a month or two -- just in my part of the country -- to keep New York lit up for a couple years.
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So however earnest they may be in their opposition to Obamaman, whenever somebody trots out this exceptionalism business, thinking Christians need to fall upon that claim with merry shouts. However sound they may be on how a health care system should work, any given advocate of this bizarre doctrine of exceptionalism seems to me to be, in the immortal words of Wodehouse, "nature's final word on cloth-headed guffins." This exceptionalism talk really needs to expire with a low gurgle.

As long as sin in our minds remains simply a nuisance or an inconvenience or an embarrassment, then we will never ever deal with it and we will never make any progress. - Alistair Begg

Doug Wilson comments on the current status of global warm-mongering:

So there's weather and there's climate. When the global warming shillists were back in their prime, they would regale us with anecdote after anecdote about the weather, claiming that this told us something about the climate. The actual climate claims were based on something else, but they sought to persuade the boobs by means of pointing to the weather. Katrina was the result of global warming, etc.

Then something funny happened. The weather shifted in some very odd ways, we started hearing about climate change instead of global warming, and the Al Gore effect became apparent in weather patterns. Everywhere that poor man went, a snow storm followed. Those who lived by the weather anecdote died by the weather anecdote.

They probably could have managed this, because enormous amounts of money were involved, not to mention a power grab of Orwellian proportions. Men like this were not going to slowed down by snow flurries in Georgia.

But then the climate data went blooey. Turns out the books were cooked, rigged, made up, massaged, bought and paid for, and then lost. There went the climate, and the phrase "the science is settled" took on a much more ominous meaning.

And then God, for His mercies endure forever, sent the world the winter of winters. The one enthroned in Heaven laughs; He holds them in derision.

[UPDATE: This video has been questioned regarding its veracity, particularly about whether the people are being beaten because they are Christians. Because of that, the videos aren't currently available.]

Be warned, this video contains graphic violence against Christians. But it is critical to the health of the Western church to see and remember the saints who are perishing for their faith. Guess that rush hour traffic jam today wasn't so bad after all...



Francis Chan's response

(HT: JT)

Doug Wilson has a good post today on where true hope and true political leadership is found.

When I see that a candidate professes a commitment to my big ticket items, and that profession is not transparently hypocritical, this simply means that I feel free to vote for that person, and can do so without troubling my conscience. But it does not mean that I trust that person to fix the problem. Why on earth would I believe that this stalwart candidate, if elected, could turn anything around?
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America needs salvation, and there is only one Savior, the Lord Jesus. Unfortunately for our constitutional mythologies, we cannot arrange for Him to save us without mentioning His name. This is the issue underlying all issues. When we speak of the devil, one little word shall fell him, and I am not in sympathy with those who want to keep trying the same impotent words and phrases we have been using for the last century or two -- democracy! exceptionalism! good sense of the American people! gakk!
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When the cross is lifted up, then the resurrected Christ comes down, in the power of the Spirit. That can save us, nothing else.

Where will this happen? Who is responsible for it? Who has been given that task? Not the governors, not the bankers, not the congressmen, not the lobbyists, not the business execs, not the U.S. Marines. Who then? Well, this is as good a reason as any to pray for your pastor. Jesus Christ has already ordained tens of thousands of men, they are charged with this very task, and they live right here in North America.

The shadows exist in the painting, the dark corners of grief and trial and wickedness all exist so that He might step inside them, so we could see how low He can stoop. In this story, the Author became flesh and wandered the stage... offering His own life. In this story, the Author heaped all that He loathed, all that displeased Him, all the wrongness of the world, onto Himself. Evil exists so that He might be demeaned and insulted, so that the depth of His love and sacrifice could be expressed as much as is possible in the small frame of history. - N.D. Wilson in Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl

[UPDATE: The CBS bracket website is now live. Password is "book". If you have any trouble registering, let me know.]

Any March Madness fans out there? Or people who like to read good books? Well, this should interest you. This year, I'm combining the exciting intrigue of NCAA basketball bracketology with the suspenseful thrill of a book giveaway. Awesome, huh? I bet all four of my readers have just gone into a catatonic state.

I'm doing this for two reasons. One, because March Madness brackets are fun, fun, fun. Two, to promote good books because ideas have consequences. Three (oops, I lied), to see if I really only have those four now-comatose readers.

I've placed the fuller details of this competition here (which you'll also find on a tab above), but I'll give you a quick rundown of how it will work. I'm giving away a minimum of four books, but that could increase significantly depending on the number of bracket entries. The reason? Each entry (a max of three per person) costs $5 and the accumulated proceeds will go towards more books as well as gift certificates for the winning paid entry. Also, the entry with the closest guess to the total score of the championship game (regardless of the entry's overall success) wins an Amazon.com gift certificate. Now, isn't that a lot more interesting and fun than the ol' dry random number-generated book giveaway? I'd do it all out of my own pocket, but I'm afraid I would end up with 60 entries and $300 worth of books to buy. As Latrell Sprewell once said, "I've got a family to feed."

The bracket website doesn't go "live" for probably another couple of weeks (the NCAA announces the brackets on March 14th). After the 14th, you'll have until sometime prior to the first games on Thursday, March 18th, to make your picks (the "play-in" game doesn't count in this bracket). Until then, feel free to advertise this to friends who could benefit from some good books. If I get a substantial amount of entrants, it could be quite the windfall in books and/or gift certificates for one lucky person. For those who don't follow college basketball, I'll leave you with this encouragement to participate anyway: bracketology is all luck. Picking according to "sweetest uniform" might even work.

What I couldn't see was how the life and death of Someone Else (whoever he was) 2000 years ago could help us here and now - except in so far as his example helped us. And the example business, though true and important, is not Christianity: right in the center of Christianity, in the Gospels and St. Paul, you keep on getting something quite different and very mysterious expressed in those phrases I have so often ridiculed ("propitiation" - "sacrifice" - "the blood of the Lamb") - expressions which I could only interpret in senses that seemed to me either silly or shocking. - C.S. Lewis

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto on the "melt-down" of global warmism:

This column was scoffing at global warming back when global warming was still cool. But even we have been surprised at the extent of the past three months' "meltdown" of global warmism, to use the metaphor that everyone seems to have settled on.

As we've written on various occasions, we didn't know enough about the substance of the underlying science to make a judgment about it. But we know enough about science itself to recognize that the popular rendition of global warmism--dogmatic, doctrinaire and scornful of skepticism--is not the least bit scientific. The revelations in the Climategate emails show that these attitudes were common among actual scientists, not just the popularizers of their work.

Still, we would not have gone so far as to say that global warming was just a hoax. Surely there was some actual science to back it, even if there was a lot less certainty than was claimed.

Now, though, we're wondering if this was too charitable a view. London's Sunday Times reports that scientists are "casting doubt" on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's "claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution," a claim the IPCC describes as "unequivocal"...

Meanwhile, the BBC carries an extraordinary interview with Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and the central Climategate figure. In the interview, Jones admits that the periods 1860-80 and 1910-40 saw global warming on a similar scale to the 1975-98 period, that there has been no significant warming since 1995, and that the so-called Medieval Warm Period calls into question whether the currently observed warming is unprecedented.

And then there's this exchange:

When scientists say "the debate on climate change is over," what exactly do they mean--and what don't they mean?

It would be supposition on my behalf to know whether all scientists who say the debate is over are saying that for the same reason. I don't believe the vast majority of climate scientists think this. This is not my view. There is still much that needs to be undertaken to reduce uncertainties, not just for the future, but for the instrumental (and especially the palaeoclimatic) past as well.

So "the vast majority of climate scientists" don't think the debate is over? Someone had better tell the IPCC, Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and most of our colleagues in the media, who have long been insisting otherwise--and indeed, who continue to do so.
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Even Phil Jones acknowledges climate science is rife with uncertainty, but global warmism's popularizers refuse to brook any doubt or acknowledge that the "consensus" they have touted is a sham.

And they used to call us deniers.

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of Christ without a cross. - H. Richard Niebuhr defines theological liberalism

As some of you likely already know, Brian McLaren, the leader of the Emergent Church movement (at least, what's left of it), released his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, this week. Formerly, McLaren has made a living from asking questions without giving any real answers. All that changed with this book. As Tim Challies put it, McLaren "appears to love Jesus but hate God... In this book we finally see where McLaren's journey has taken him; it has taken him into outright, rank, unapologetic apostasy. He hates God. Period."

Several Christian leaders have offered reviews and thoughts about the book, but I found Kevin DeYoung's the most penetrating of all. You can read it all here. DeYoung's closing words summarize McLaren's heterodoxy perfectly.

The message of McLarenism is pretty simple: God is love and wants everyone to be kind and inclusive and care for the poor and the environment. This is what Jesus was like, and we should be like Jesus. This is, of course, not wrong in so far as it goes. The Liberal/McLaren emphasis on the kingdom is right, their concern for the “other” is right, much of their ethics is right. But McLarenism, like liberalism, cannot be right. It has its emphases all out of proportion, its right statements thrown out of whack by all that is missing. In McLarenism there is no original sin, no wrath, no hell, no creation-fall-redemption, no definite future, no second coming that I can see, no clear statement on the deity of Christ, no mention of vicarious substitution or God’s holiness or divine sovereignty, no ethical demands except as they relate to being kind to others, no God-offendedness, no doctrine of justification, no unchanging apostolic deposit of truth, no absolute submission to the word of God, nary a mention of faith and worship, no doctrine of regeneration, no evangelistic impulse to save the lost, and nothing about God’s passion for his glory. This is surely a lot to leave out.

McLaren’s Christianity is not new and certainly not improved. I don’t believe you can even call it Christianity. It is liberalism dressed up for the 21st century. We can only hope this wave of liberalism fades as dramatically as did the last.

The New York Times has a sad article about mainline (read: theologically liberal) churches in the American Northwest that have turned to environmentalism as a last ditch attempt to stave off the impending closure of their doors. It makes sense that they would turn to another religion to postpone the end; they abandoned Christianity long ago, but they've finally found a new god to worship: Gaia. This sentence says it all:

“I’ve never been good at door-to-door evangelism,” said Deb Conklin, the pastor {emphasis mine} at Liberty Park United Methodist Church in Spokane, Wash., where an aging and shrinking congregation of about 20 people worships on Sundays. “But this has been so fun. Everybody wants to talk to you. It’s exciting. It’s ministry.”

Thank God that only through Christ can a church remain alive. These churches will die, and good riddance.

We're still six weeks from Easter, but it's never too early to start preparing for it. Plus, it's healthy and important to always keep Golgotha and Jesus' sacrifice in view during the whole year.

With that in mind, here are 25 great essays centered around Christ's final days. Many of these were first given as sermons.

1 & 2. True Contemplation of the Cross (Martin Luther) and He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem (John Piper)

3. An Innocent Man Crushed by God, by Alistair Begg

4. The Cup, by C. J. Mahaney

5. Gethsemane, by R. Kent Hughes

6. Betrayed, Denied, Deserted, by J. Ligon Duncan III

7. Then Did They Spit in His Face, by Charles Spurgeon

8. The Silence of the Lamb, by Adrian Rogers

9. The Sufferings of Christ, by J. C. Ryle

10. Father, Forgive Them, by John MacArthur

11. With Loud Cries and Tears, by John Owen

12. That He Might Destroy the Works of the Devil, Martyn Lloyd-Jones

13. I Am Thirsty, by Joseph “Skip” Ryan

14. God-Forsaken, by Philip Graham Ryken

15. Cursed, by R. C. Sproul

16. Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit, by James Montgomery Boice

17. Blood and Water, by John Calvin

18. He Descended into Hell and Ascended into Heaven, by J. I. Packer

19. A Sweet-Smelling Savor to God, by Jonathan Edwards

20. The Most Important Word in the Universe, by Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

21. Resurrection Preview, by Francis Schaeffer

22. Peace Be unto You, by Saint Augustine

23. Knowing the Power of His Resurrection, by Tim Keller

24. Sharing His Sufferings, by Joni Eareckson Tada

25. Crucified with Christ, by Stephen F. Olford

(HT: JT)