Creation

Error message

Tim Keller's legacy...

I am one of those women who have worked under Tim Keller’s leadership at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. [Tim] hired me to envision and develop an entire ministry to equip and mobilize men and women in Redeemer’s congregation to work with gospel-centered vision and integrity out in the world. We partnered in the establishment of the Center for Faith & Work, which may have done as much as any church in decades to honor Abraham Kuyper’s vision of humble, respectful engagement in a world of many faith perspectives.

- Katherine Leary Alsdorf, "Tim Keller hired women in leadership: Katherine Leary Alsdorf responds to the Princeton Kuyper Prize controversy" in A Journey Through NYC Religions.

Far above all other blog posts I've done through the years, the things I've written criticizing Tim Keller have cost me the most in terms of being viewed as an outlier among Reformed Evangelicals. "Who on earth would want to criticize Tim Keller," people ask; "he's the best we have!"

Maybe he's the best of my generation, but sorry to say, that's not saying much. Based upon the past generations of leaders I've known personally, as well as my reading of fathers in the faith who preceded us across the centuries, it's my judgement those of us leading the church today are moral, theological, and spiritual midgets. Children. Infants.

A little less than a century ago, J. Gresham Machen observed that America...


Gov. Jerry Brown declares faith in the universal flood...

The Sacramento Bee just ran this headline:

Jerry Brown compares fighting climate change to building Noah’s Ark

Happily, Brown wasn't lampooning Noah, lumping "climate change deniers" in with him. Rather, he said:

It’s very hard to deal with something down the road. You know, when Noah wanted to build his Ark, most of the people laughed at him: "Why are you building this damn Ark?" Well, lucky he did, because that saved all the species and Noah and his family. [Brown added] We’ve got to build our Ark, too, by stopping climate change, by stopping dangerous pollutants and doing it as soon as possible.

Climate change Calamity Jane or climate change Denier, you gotta love the governor of California declaring that Noah's Ark "saved all the species and Noah and his family."


Loving animals rather than our neighbor...

Here's the first sentence of the article running at the top of the Google News page just now:

The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo in order to save a child who fell in its enclosure has sparked nationwide outrage.

Worship of the creation rather than the Creator is on constant display in our world. No wonder men are lying with men, rather than women, and our women are lying with one another. Refusing to give thanks to God, He has given us over to utter degradation. And sadly, most Christians will read the above sentence from CBS News and feel neither revulsion nor fear of God. Similarly, when our cats scratch visitors' legs with their claws and our dogs bite visitor's legs with their teeth, we parade our shame by cooing over them. We make it clear to all that we love our pet—not our neighbor—as we love ourselves.

It sickens me how many Christians are nicer to their animals than they are to...


This is the house, this is the greenhouse...

Visiting Joe and Sandy Armstrong.

This is the house.
This is the greenhouse.
Open the door, and
See all the...


Scientific journals and Divine attribution...

Open access scientific journal PLOS ONE made a big boo-boo. They published a paper that attributed the design of the human hand to the "Creator." Hell hath no fury to equal biologists finding the word 'Creator'. After receiving complaints, PLOS ONE's editors responded:

A number of readers have concerns about sentences in the article that make references to a ‘Creator’. The PLOS ONE editors apologize that this language was not addressed internally or by the Academic Editor during the evaluation of the manuscript. We are looking into the concerns raised about the article with priority and will take steps to correct the published record.

It's plagiarism when a scientist fails to attribute the design of the object of his study to God, but now we know why he never does so. Among Scientism's priesthood, giving proper attribution to God is the most serious heresy and will not pass unpunished. Someone should take them to court for their...


The First Great Commission...

The first things of Scripture will be the first things of godliness until the last things bring us Home. What are those first things?

Read the Bible's record of the beginning. In Genesis God lays out His command for the species He names "adam" (translated "man" in most English Bibles). He commands adam to be...


Calvin College's dirty marketing campaign...

Driving up to the Home Depot in Benton Harbor the other day, I passed a billboard. At 70 MPH, I had just enough time to read the come-on, take a look at the picture, and note the brand.

The come-on was "You were made to renew." The pic filling the center of the billboard was of three or four college-age men and women standing in a tight circle engaged in some sort of religious ritual. One of them was kneeling while the others peered into his devotional life sending affirming and supportive vibes cascading down upon him. The object of their devotion wasn't clear, but my quick glance left me with the impression that the man kneeling was holding dirt. I'm assuming the point of the billboard was to communicate to people driving northward on I-94 that man's chief end is to renew creation, starting with dirt.

The whole thing was an ad for Calvin College, so I'm guessing Calvin's mission statement has something in it about renewing creation. Or dirt.

If you go over to their website, you'll find this under "Calvin's Identity"...


Boston philosopher laments end of China's one-child policy...

CORRECTION: One reader points out that Bowdoin is not in Boston. He's right and I should have written the headline "Boston's philosopher..." The prof's frame of reference is Boston although she doesn't live in Boston. I haven't altered the title because links would break.

A friend who's a journalist points out that Boston's archdiocese was once the most powerful archdiocese in North America, so it's particularly significant this piece ran in the Boston Globe. The foundations of Roman Catholicism continue to crumble.

Soon after matriculating at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I took a job cleaning the walls of a Roman Catholic church near Park Street and the Common. There are good jobs and bad ones. This was bad, but not because of the pay or fellow workers. it was the work itself. Every interior surface of that Roman Catholic church was black with the soot of votive (vow) candles the pious had purchased and burned to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a saint, or sometimes God Himself. Decades of soot. Decades of intentions.

This was the Roman Catholicism that read the Globe back thirty-five years ago, but the Roman Catholic church is changing and the Globe is pedalling hard to keep up. Yesterday they ran an opinion piece written by a prof of philosophy at Bowdoin College and the piece's content takes your breath away. Titled "Here's Why China's One-Child Policy Was a Good Thing," Bowdoin's philosopher told Boston she believes freedom of religion should not extend to freedom to have children. The prof likens the denial of freedom to reproduce to the denial of freedom to yell "Fire!" in a movie theater, telling us that "uncontrolled fertility is likely to have worse consequences than the false cry of 'fire!'"

Why?

Because of...


President Obama is a very religious man...

If you're a president who has used your authority to defy God by promoting sodomy and the slaughter of the unborn, you have to manufacture another religion. Having rejected the Creator, you turn to worship the creation, calling your followers to protect Cecil the Lion and offer sacrifices to Scientism's Clean Air. Repudiating God's ten big laws, you cover your tracks by manufacturing an infinite number of petty laws. You don't want to get a reputation as lawless. You don't want to go down in history as a Nero.

This is the explanation of President Obama's video released last night by the White House announcing new rules concerning Scientism's climate change...


Brian Prentiss has not actually been hidden in a closet...

Under the post, "Intown's Brian Prentiss comes out of the closet...," one reader asked, "How long before the PCA ends up in the same slough of despond, and heaven knows what else, that has claimed most of the PCUSA?"

Since the PCA is a largely southern denomination, her failures will always lag behind other denominations, and her wealth will give it a better face than most. But she'll have to stop giving northern liberal churches/pastors a pass despite knowing disciplining them won't get good press. At this time the PCA's failures aren't even in the same ballpark as the PC(USA). At this time.

The troubling thing is that the PCA is following the same path the PC(USA) and her predecessor denominations followed in trusting famous men of wealth and influence rather than following little boys named "David" with just a slingshot who are determined to slay the giant using "only" the means of grace: discipline, from the least formal private discussion and exhortation all the way to heresy trials.

In this context of Intown, Pastor Prentiss has been giving signs of heterodoxy for years and I'm guessing nothing has been done by anyone on any faithful personal level. That's the norm within PCA presbyteries. We don't want to deal with men individually through private remonstrance and exhortation and rebuke, and that for a whole host of reasons including...


Black pastors humble enough to fight...

Luther, Calvin, and Cranmer didn't choose the battle or the hill it was fought on. The Roman Catholic hierarchy made both choices. They sent Tetzel out from Rome to raise money for their Sistine Chapel by selling indulgences. Martin Luther merely saw their choice and favored them with a reply. He went out to the battlefield on which their Goliath was strutting and he cut off Goliath's head. Luther defended Scripture's doctrine of justification by faith alone by opposing Tetzel's indulgences and he fought because he was a man of peace. The battle was the work needed to restore the Church's unity, purity, and peace.

Men of God today aren't choosing the battle or the battlefield any more than Luther did...


Blackpoll warbler migrates 1,700 miles without landing...

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. ​ - Psalms 19:1

Look at this little songbird weighing 0.423288 ounces. Its migration takes it across the Atlantic Ocean. It eats enough to bulk up its body fat double what is normal just before takeoff, then flies 1,700 miles without landing. Half its mates die during the arduous migration.

It's called the Blackpoll Warbler and what fool says there is no God? If the scientists announce this stupendous truth, what's the big deal about Adam and Eve?

Tags: 

Is it climate-denying, or just a puzzler...

A study by an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts has just been released showing significant increase in the thickness of Antarctica's ice sheet each year for three years running. And since Woods Hole's scientific credentials are unimpeachable, instead of the author of the study being called a "climate-denier," NBC labels his results "puzzling." Here's their headline...


Tom Wright, Darryl Hart, Tim Keller, and Peter Leithart...

At a classical music concert, all the applause is self-congratulatory. - David Jeremy Bayly

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that three men have been standouts in the volume of Baylyblog posts warning against them: Tom (N. T.) Wright, Darryl Hart, and Tim Keller. Each of these men has shown himself adept at drawing away disciples after him who will join in his rebellion against crucial parts of Biblical faith. Tom Wright denies God’s Creation Order, Darryl Hart denies the Church’s calling to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all creation, and Tim Keller denies the Biblical doctrines of sexuality, Creation, and Hell.

The most striking thing about these men is their abuse of language...


Leithart's future-end of Protestantism V: What happened to the flood?

Paragraph One, "The Future-End of Protestantism":

Protestants often act as if the Reformation were the end of history, the moment when the Church reached its final condition. For these sorts of Protestants, the future of Protestantism can only be more of the same. This cannot be. God is the living Creator, still at work in his world, and that means that the Protestantism of the future will be something new, and, given the pattern of God's creativity, something better.

Keeping in mind what I pointed out in an earlier piece, that Dr. Leithart originally titled this project "The End of Protestantism," it's clear Dr. Leithart has his work cut out for him in proposing Protestantism's "end" as a positive move. Paragraph one sets up Leithart's metanarrative. He prods readers to stop "acting" foolishly. We are to put aside our sectarian tribalism and hop on board his Train called Hopeful headed into a "better" future because an always-better future is "God's pattern of creativity."

In his second paragraph, Leithart moves on to build a sort of Biblical foundation for his metanarrative:

Paragraph Two, "The Future-End of Protestantism":

In the beginning, God created the world in six days, and each day improved on the previous one. He spoke light, separated light and darkness, and said it was good. Come the next day, and first-day good was not good enough, so he separated the waters below from the waters above and inserted a firmament between. After he tore the waters and called earth to fruitfulness, he said that was good too. Another evening and morning, and again good was not good enough, so he spent the fourth day hanging lights in the firmament, the fifth calling swarming things to swarm in the sea and birds to hover on the face of the sky, the sixth filling the earth with animals and creating man male and female in his image. Each day was good, but each was followed by darkness and dawn that made good better. When he finished, Yahweh God pronounced it very good and rested in what he had made.

Nice, that turn of phrase "tore the waters." Leithart enters the days of creation and the state of perfection to show God violent in his intense commitment to improvement: God tears things. Certainly, then, we may expect He'll tear things after the Fall, also. It's just His way: He tears things to improve things...


Leithart's future/end of Protestantism IV: do the words of Genesis matter...

This is the fourth installment of our examination of Dr. Peter Leithart's call for the end of Protestantism. 

Paragraph One; "The Future-End of Protestantism":

Protestants often act as if the Reformation were the end of history, the moment when the Church reached its final condition. For these sorts of Protestants, the future of Protestantism can only be more of the same. This cannot be. God is the living Creator, still at work in his world, and that means that the Protestantism of the future will be something new, and, given the pattern of God's creativity, something better. (Leithart's emphasis)

Here in paragraph one, Dr. Leithart sets up his narrative, prodding readers to stop "acting" foolishly; to put aside their sectarian tribalism and hop on board his train headed into a future guaranteed to be "better" than the past because this is "God's pattern of creativity." With his second and following paragraphs, then, Leithart sets out to build a Biblical foundation for his hermeneutic of better.

Paragraph Two; "The Future-End of Protestantism":

In the beginning, God created the world in six days, and each day improved on the previous one. He spoke light, separated light and darkness, and said it was good. Come the next day, and first-day good was not good enough, so he separated the waters below from the waters above and inserted a firmament between. After he tore the waters and called earth to fruitfulness, he said that was good too. Another evening and morning, and again good was not good enough, so he spent the fourth day hanging lights in the firmament, the fifth calling swarming things to swarm in the sea and birds to hover on the face of the sky, the sixth filling the earth with animals and creating man male and female in his image. Each day was good, but each was followed by darkness and dawn that made good better. When he finished, Yahweh God pronounced it very good and rested in what he had made.

As we said in an earlier post, we can see how someone given to deep insights might want to assume that each of the six days of creation left the created whole better than it was the day before. And yet, for the sake of taking the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture seriously, it must be pointed out that God's response to the conclusion of each day's work was not "God saw that it was better" but "God saw that it was good."

Most of my life has been spent in academic contexts and more than once I've been told that the worst department in the modern college or university is the English Department. When I ask why, those with lots of experience in and with English departments tell me that the study of English literature is...


Sunday Assemblies...

How very sad to read of church for the non-religious held recently in our Monroe County Public Library. Called "Sunday Assemblies," here's a description of their liturgy:

The group sang secular pop songs instead of hymns, there was a poetry reading, and in place of a traditional church sermon, two anthropology professors from Indiana University gave a short lesson on the evidence for evolution.

Around sixty souls showed up for worship. I wonder how many of them I've spoken to without testifying to them of sin, righteousness, judgment, and hope in Jesus Christ.


Academic freedom at Ball State University: the case of Eric Hedin...

Ball State University is a state school in Muncie, a small town just north of Indianapolis. According to Indiana Public Media, Ball State administrators recently cancelled an honors physics and astronomy course taught by tenure-track prof Eric Hedin because Hedin's course syllabus included the concept of "Intelligent Design."

Ball State president Jo Ann Gora justified the cancellation to her faculty and staff:

Teaching intelligent design as a scientific theory is not a matter of academic freedom – it is an issue of academic integrity.

Right.

Ms. Gora should be rebuked by her peers at the next...


Adam first, then Eve...

For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man... (1Corinthians 11:8)

God had a purpose in creating Adam first and His purpose is not complicated.

Creating Eve second established order between the sexes. Man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man. Man is to be responsible and woman is to help man. 

Sadly, we're so contaminated by our culture of rebellion that we turn into weasels...


Scholars and the Fall...

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.  - 1Corinthians 2:12-16

Regularly, I warn academics that reason is not the one faculty of man that has escaped the Fall. To err is human, and institutions of learning both lower and higher are equally subject to this fruit of Adam's sin.

Reason and logic have been corrupted by the Fall. So, although we can say that all truth is God's truth, we must keep in mind that all man believes to be true is not. True.

The Fall's determinative impact on man's intellectual work is quite obvious to readers of Paul Johnson's Intellectuals. Again and again, Johnson demonstrates the connection between famous intellectuals' private sins...