Dispensational vs. Covenantal

Hey everybody,
I figure I'll give Tim a break from posting by giving some of my thoughts. It seems that there is a constant debate between dispensationals and covenantalists. The Kibbeys know this especially :-) I've always called myself a dispensational of sorts because I believe that there will be a millenium and that there is still a place for the physical nation of Israel. However, I widely differ from them in that I would never hold to a dispensation of works and of grace (or law and grace, whatever terms are used) and I am a firm five-point Calvinist, whereas many dispensationals are four-pointers. So I am not really a dispensational, I've just called myself something like that because MacArthur is (funny as that may seem). I did some looking into this recently and found a very helpful article on DesiringGod.org. This article gives a synopsis of each of the different main views, namely, dispensationalism, covenant theology, and new covenant theology. For the sake of space, I won't summarize the summaries, but I would encourage all of you to read this and tell me what you think of it and where you might fall. Personally, I fall into a position very similar to Piper's. I agree with dispensationals in that I believe that there will be a millenium. I agree with a large amount of covenant theology, especially with the fact that God has always saved His people through grace and that it continues today just as it did in the OT. I also believe that, as Chrisitians, we are grafted into the nation of Israel (Rom. 11) and are counted as Abraham's offspring. I also agree with new covenant theology's view of the Mosaic law and how it is applied to the new covenant that we have now with Christ. I guess I don't like being labeled by any one view. Also, on many of these issues, especially eschatology, I don't think that the removal from fellowship is necessary, but rather, these views are good to talk about and should encourage all of us to dig into the Scripture to see what God says about them.

Already got a dose of the stereotypical Sunday Morning Chaos

So this past Sunday, first we awoke at 8:50, realizing we weren't going to make it to the 9:30 service as planned. Then everything took longer, so we were barely on track to make the 11:00. And then Reed started crying. Until that point, he hadn't been so much a crier, but 'round 10:15 he let 'er rip, as we were getting him toward his car seat. I'm thinking maybe he knew we were headed for church, and he's really a little devil child who won't have any of it. Then, as we had just picked him up to head out the door, we saw that RJ was in the act of peeing on the floor. So Amy rushed out the door cuz she couldn't take it, and I tried to quickly shove RJ's medicine down his gullet and then cleaned up the piss, making it to the car just in time to get there by 11. Fortunately the service started a bit late anyway, but about 45 minutes into it, Reed had heard the name "Jesus" one too many times or something, and started bawling again. Amy took him out for the last 25 minutes or so, and then we wailed all the way home (or he did anyway). So, yeah, just can't wait to see what next Sunday brings.

Why I am not “in love with” God

I used to know only one praise song with those words, the Matt Redman song containing “Jesus, I am so in love with you,” though there are others I’d classify as “God is my girlfriend” songs. Recently I’ve heard 2 or 3 others with a line like “I’m so/madly in love with” a member of the Trinity. I don’t sing along, because I don’t feel that way, nor do I think I should feel that way. Please help me out with a different point of view, and explain to me how you are/have been “in love with God.”

First let me say that I don’t think it’s bad to love God or to sing about loving God; I used to have problems singing “I love God” songs when I didn’t feel like I loved him, but now I realize that those songs should then become a challenge to me to love and honor him as I ought (this also applies to other songs about the believer’s response to Christ, given a proper Christ-ward focus of the song).

However, being “in love” is different than “loving,” as defined by our language, culture, and common usage. “In love” conjures thoughts of a careless, completely emotional response, not necessarily grounded in anything lasting, synonymous with “infatuation,” a “crush,” or “puppy love.” While being “in love” can be a step towards true love, it can never sustain. Here’s how some dictionaries see it:

WordNet ® 2.0:

in love

adj : marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness; "she was crazy about him"; "gaga over the rock group's new album"; "he was infatuated with her"

The American Heritage® Dictionary:

in love

1. Deeply or passionately enamored: a young couple in love.
2. Highly or immoderately fond: in love with Japanese painting; in love with the sound of her own voice.

The key difference between “in love” and “loving” is what I attempt to capture with the label of “God is my girlfriend”. “In love” is connected with dating, or the early phase of a relationship before any real commitment. That is different than “we as the church are blessed to be the Bride of Christ.” Are we individually dating God, or are we corporately Christ’s Bride, learning to love him by knowing him and serving each other? In my own marriage, I have learned love in the trenches, meadows and mountains. The being “in love” that I started with would not have gotten us far.

“God is my girlfriend” songs sing like pop “love” ballads from many recent decades. If we’re on that road, I’d suggest another song, that when turned toward Christ is reminiscent of “Whoever would lose his life for me will save it” (Lk. 9:24), and the man who found a treasure, “hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matt. 13:44):

I'd gladly lose me to find you

I'd gladly give up all I had

To find you I'd suffer anything and be glad


I'd pay any price just to get you

I'd work all my life and I will

To win you I'd stand naked, stoned and stabbed

I'd call that a bargain

The best I ever had

The best I ever had

-The Who, 1971

An accounting of the mundanities of life.

After all, we started this blog to keep each other posted on our lives, right?

Yesterday we bought a Pack and Play for the forthcoming baby (yes, unfortunately still only imminent, not realized). It’s basically a mobile play pen with lots of bells and whistles. The idea is that you can just tear it down, carry it off, and set it back up somewhere else in a jiffy. However, because of all the bells and whistles (changing table, bassinet, “indoor canopy”, diaper organizer, vibrator) the thing is rather heavy and setting it up from scratch took about a half hour. I’m sure it will be easier to re disassemble and assemble, but it still seems like it’d be easier if we could just hook it up with a trailer hitch behind the car whenever we want to take it somewhere. Ah, the lengths we go to to make our lives easier!

I also planted corn yesterday. Hopefully, in a few months we’ll have corn coming out our ears (groan….). Although I have this continual “awful gardener” complex, that has me convinced that for whatever reason, only half my garden will grow again (last year, because I didn’t realize it wasn’t getting watered during July; this year, perhaps because the manure I added was too fresh?). At least I know we’ll have plenty of apples and cherries…..

Renaissance

We checked out the Utah Renaissance Festival. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lame.

Another blog to check

Hi everyone,
Tim posts four in a row, then I post three in a row. Sorry if I am getting a little tiresome, but I thought that I should take Tim's torch and carry it for a little way ;)

I just joined a blog called "Our Simple Minds." The members so far are Ryan, Pete, Jeremy, and myself. The purpose of the blog is just to post our thoughts about God and His glory and get some feedback from those who happen to read it. If any of you are interested, the address is oursimpleminds.blogspot.com.

By the way, Tim and I are on the Christ Community softball team. We play on Friday nights. We had our first game almost a week ago and we won pretty convincingly (not due to my less-than superb skills). If any are interested in coming and watching us play just give Tim or myself a call. Our next game is tomorrow, May 5th, at 8:30.

My own blog

Not to compete with this blog, but I started a blog of my own where I can just kind of talk about God and the things in my life. However, I still plan on posting and commenting on this blog (maybe even more now that I'll be visiting my own blog more often). Anyway, if any of you are interested, the title of it is "a flawed expression of God's glory" and its address is flawedexpressionofgodsglory.blogspot.com. If you do visit, please feel free to comment although I'm sure some of the postings for this blog and that one will be very similar.

Also, I just heard some awesome news. Andy Fritz passed his boards!!! Praise God. Keep his job opportunities and his family in your prayers.

To God be the glory

Jonah 2:8

Hey everybody,
I think that somebody other than Tim or Amy should post, so I'll answer the call.

I've been studying the minor prophets lately and I really liked Jonah 2:8. I liked it so much that I had to write a couple of pages about it. I know that it might be kind of long, but I would like to share it with you.

Those who pay regard to vain idols
Forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Jonah 2:8 (ESV)

There are some fundamental questions that we must ask about this passage. What does it mean to pay regard to vain idols? What does it mean to forsake the hope of steadfast love? And what is God’s steadfast love? For this last question, I am going to assume that the steadfast love that is mentioned in this verse is God’s because that is the only love that is steadfast and that love is only ascribed to God.

In order to understand what it means to pay regard to vain idols I think that it is useful to look at verse nine. Jonah juxtaposes verses eight and nine. In verse eight he talks about paying regard to vain idols. In verse nine he talks about sacrificing to God with the voice of thanksgiving. So paying regard to vain idols is the same action as sacrificing to God. Therefore, paying regard to vain idols is the same as worshiping them. We worship what we sacrifice to. Those who pay regard to vain idols are worshiping those idols.

What does this lead to? This leads to their forsaking their hope of steadfast love. Before I talk about the word forsake I think that we should ask the question about why they had hope in the first place. Was salvation offered to them and they didn’t take it? No, I don’t believe this to be the case. In the context of the book of Jonah, he hadn’t gotten to Ninevah yet and hadn’t offered the word of salvation to the people there. Rather, I think that the answer to this question lies in his heritage. Jonah obviously was a Jew, and as a Jew, he was a member of the chosen race and the hope of steadfast love was offered through the Jewish line. This then makes the idolatry even more amazing. The idolatry was committed by those that had the privileges of God and had seen His works and yet they followed after vain idols. How much more should we take heed of this. While I do not believe that the people who are referred to in this passage are saved, we certainly have the same flesh and are just as prone to idolatry and “doing what we hate” (Rom. 7). And because we are as capable as these people were we need to take heed as to what the result of that idolatry was and is. It is the forsaking of God’s steadfast love. The term forsake is the same term that is translated as abandon in Psalm 16:10 where David praises God because He does not abandon his soul to Sheol. In that verse abandonment is the utter and absolute removal of David from the presence of God. That is what is being referred to here. It is the utter abandonment of the love of God. It is a complete 180 from God’s love to the love of an idol which is directly opposed to God. If we are delighting in the worship of something other than an idol, then we are abandoning the love of God. And why is this so devastating?

What is so important about God’s steadfast love? Psalm 6:4-5 says “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of you steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” I want to just focus on this verse for a little bit. Here, David is crying out for deliverance, but not for his sake, it is for God’s sake. Now did David not think that salvation was important for his own sake? Of course he did, as we will see in a little bit. But the ultimate goal of his salvation was for the sake of God’s steadfast love, because if David were to die and descend to Sheol then He wouldn’t be able to praise God. So there is a connection, then, between our salvation and God’s glory. We are saved in order that we might offer God praise and remember him. That is the goal of our salvation. David was very concerned about this. He longed for and cried out for his salvation in order that he might offer God praise because God must be glorified. This is very much the same as Piper’s frequent comment that “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.” These verses are telling us that it is God’s steadfast love that allows us to praise God and thus be satisfied in Him, thereby glorifying God.

David says the same thing in Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God makes known to us the path of life, and in that life there is fullness of joy and pleasures for all eternity. We are saved to be satisfied in God which is what glorifies Him because it comes through His steadfast love. This thought is also echoed in II Thess. 1:10 where it declares that our salvation finds its purpose in glorifying God and marveling at Him. Both of these verses (Psalm 16:11 and II Thess. 1:10) come after the description of hell. Hell is the abandonment by God where there is no praise of God or remembrance of Him. This is torment to the utmost degree. God is the most beautiful and glorious thing to ever be and to be denied that after you come to know this is torture.

So how does this apply to Jonah 2:8? When we commit idolatry and pay regard to or worship false idols we reject God’s steadfast love. We forsake and abandon that which brings us to the Most Glorious. By forsaking God’s steadfast love we forsake the means of getting us to God’s house (Ps. 5:7), which is where we can gaze upon God’s beauty and learn about Him (Ps. 27:4). It is in this sanctuary that we can offer up sacrifices with thanksgiving and shouts of joy (Jonah 2:9, Ps. 27:6). How important then does this make Jonah 2:8 to our everyday lives. Every time we commit idolatry we are turning our backs to that which saves, that which brings us joy, that which satisfies our souls. We lose fellowship with our Beloved. For anyone who is married, imagine losing fellowship with your spouse. Imagine committing adultery. This is what our idolatry is. Forsake all idols. May we be a generation that seeks God’s face, and that has clean hands and clean hearts and has not lifted our souls to another (Ps. 24). Enter the sanctuary of God, through His steadfast love, and offer up yourselves as living sacrifices with shouts of joy and with all thanksgiving, for in that will God be most glorified in us and we will be most satisfied with Him.