Revelation

Posted in Theologically Speaking

If God had not revealed Himself to us, we could not possibly have had any knowledge of Him. Left to ourselves, we would never have discovered God, for such a discovery is beyond our natural abilities. God has taken the initiative and  in His mercy and grace has revealed Himself to us for His glory and our benefit.

General Revelation comes to us in the forces and laws of nature, in the constitution and operation of the human mind, and in the facts of experience and history. The Bible refers to it in such passages as Ps 19:l; Rom 1:19-20, 2:14-15.  Roman Catholics and Protestants agree that what is revealed of God through His beautiful creation is not sufficient, being obscured by the blight of sin as a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve. This general revelation of God as seen in His creation does not now convey any fully reliable knowledge of God and spiritual things, and therefore does not furnish us with a trustworthy foundation on which we can build our home educational tasks or, more importantly, our eternal futures. And it utterly fails to meet the spiritual needs of us sinners, which are found only in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Special Revelation is God’s direct revealing of Himself to us, as is now embodied in the Holy Scriptures. It is needed because our sin has rendered us spiritually blind and mentally and intellectually perverse so that we fail to read aright even the remaining traces of the original revelation.

In giving His special or supernatural revelation God used different means. He revealed His presence in fire and clouds of smoke, in stormy winds, in an audible voice, through His prophets by an internal operation of the Holy Spirit, in dreams and visions, by means of Urim and Thummim, in miracles and most fully and intimately in His Son Jesus Christ.

The term “special revelation” may be used to denote the Bible as a whole as it has the divine guarantee of its truth in the fact that it is infallibly inspired by the Holy Spirit. It may therefore be said that the whole Bible, and the Bible alone, is the special revelation of God Almighty, the infallible rule of faith and practice for all mankind, not just those who believe, although there is not full agreement among Christians today on these issues.

Under the influence of Rationalism it has become quite common to deny the inspiration of the Bible altogether, or to hold that only parts of it are inspired. Some deny the inspiration of the Old Testament, while admitting that of the New. Others affirm that the moral and religious teachings of Scripture are inspired, but that its historical parts contain several chronological, archaeological, and scientific mistakes. Still others will assume that the thoughts were inspired, while the choice of the words was left entirely to the wisdom of the human authors.

The inspiration of the Bible extends to the very words employed. The doctrine of verbal inspiration is fully warranted by Scripture. In many cases we are explicitly told that the Lord told Moses and Joshua exactly what to write, Lev 3 & 4; 6:1, 24; 7:22, 28; Josh 1:l; 4:1; 6:2, and so on. The prophets speak of Jehovah as putting His words into their mouths, Jer 1:9, and as directing them to speak His words to the people,      Ezek 3:4, 10, 11. Paul designates his words as Spirit-taught words, I Cor 2: 13; and both he and Jesus base an argument on a single word, Matt22:43-45; John 10:35; Gal 3:16.

Today we see three common views of the sufficiency of Scripture or the degree to which the Bible may be said to be the perfect and complete revelation of God for all people in all places for all time. One is the idea that the Bible owes much of its authority to the Church or to learned people within the Church who can interpret the revelation of God in the Bible correctly to the common people. Another idea is that believers may have an “inner light”, or a direct revelation from God via the Holy Spirit in their hearts in addition to and/or separate from the Bible. The third view is that the Bible is in itself the authoritative, complete and final revelation of God (until Christ returns); and that it is clear enough to the mind regenerated by the Holy Spirit that he does not need to depend on the interpretation of the church or some “inner light”.

As Christian Home Schoolers we need to think through and understand some of the implications of each of these views regarding the sufficiency of Scripture, for the one in which our children are raised will be the one they live by for most if not all of their lives.

In the first view, they could simply go along with whatever they are told by the church or the person at the top of the church organisation. In the second, people can become careless with ascribing to God things He did not say, but more in line with what they personally were hoping for; like the lady I know who recently said to her third – time – pregnant daughter that God had told her that this one would be a boy. It was another girl, the third. According to Deuteronomy 18:20-22, this lady is by definition a false prophet, and liable to the death penalty. In the third view, people can claim various passages and remain true to them, while ignoring others, treating the Scriptures like a smorgasbord. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceed s from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). And II Timothy 3: 16-17 makes such an unqualified statement of the total sufficiency of Scripture, there seems to be no need to look elsewhere:

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work .“

Let us become clear in our own minds as to what constitutes revelation today, and be careful to accurately inculcate this, our most accurate understanding, to our children.

From Keystone Magazine
January 1997 , Vol. III No.1
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

Worship

Posted in Theologically Speaking

(The articles in this category are offered to expand our appreciation and that of our children for our Christian faith. Its history is incredibly rich. Its foundational contributions to the best of our Western culture are immeasurable. Searching out its implications for every area of our lives will occupy every day of our lives. Use these contributions as they are, as springboards to further family study, or as a catalyst for debate through the pages of this Blog.)

Worship

The word itself comes from an old English word meaning “Worth”. We attribute worth to God in worship. We worship Him because He is worthy of this. He, and He alone, deserves all glory and praise. In worship we are seeking to give Him the honour which is His due. “How pleasant and fitting to praise Him!” exclaims Psalm 147:1.

Just as the chief end of man is “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever” so too the worship of God is the highest calling of the church. We can, of course, worship God on our own. Yet there is something special, something unique about the gathering of God’s people for His praise. Many times over the Psalms call God’s people together for the corporate adoration of the Lord. “We can never know the full richness of worship unless we unite in common worship with other members of the body of Christ …God has so created man that there are deeper delights and more intense inspiration in the worshipping congregation than in individual devotion. “1

This is not to deny that the worship services of the church also have some benefit for us as individuals. But the primary goal of worship is not that we might feel a glow, but that God may be given glory.

It is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life that a sharp focus on God enables us to get ourselves in better focus. Concentration on God in worship has the effect of lifting us out of our depression and difficulties. A proper view of God helps us to view ourselves and our problems in a clearer light. Coming to worship enables us to put our lives in perspective.

Another paradox is that we feel better for having felt worse. This is contrary to a current popular emphasis on making people feel good about themselves. Some suggest that in worship we should not discourage people with depressing talk about sin, we not should not burden them with feelings of guilt. Instead we should be making them feel happy.

But true happiness comes from a proper recognition of who we are before an Almighty and Holy God. Real blessedness arises out of a sincere acknowledgment of wrong, a heartfelt confession of sin and the assurance that our forgiving God has “tread our sins underfoot and hurl(ed) all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

The minister is not to be a cheerleader whipping up enthusiasm, nor a psychologist aiming to improve the self esteem of those present. Rather he is a minister of God seeking to lead the congregation into the very presence of the Lord. This in itself has a special effect on us. Martin Luther knew this, for he said, “At home in my own house there is no warmth or vigour in me, but in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through. “

One difficulty we face in corporate worship is the varying expectations people have concerning the style and format of the service, especially in regard to music. Many churches hardly sing an old hymn, and could thereby lose their sense of continuity with the past. And yet in our singing we can draw from the best of the entire history of the church : Psalms, ancient and modern hymns, modern choruses. Such singing gives us an identity with the church of Christ of all ages and places. Unfortunately there is a tendency for the musical “conservatives” to gather in one church while the musically “innovative” meet in another.

Is this a good thing? I doubt it. Wouldn’t it be better if we could consider one another? Let the conservative (and often older) members allow for some change while the modern (and often younger) members be prepared to take things more slowly. If we stayed together we would learn a lot from each other as well as tempering the extremes. “…in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:2-3) .2

When we come together to worship the God who seeks worshippers we come together to worship the triune God, the God of the universe, the God of our salvation and the God who will return to judge the living and the dead. Realising this should determine the very tone and quality of our music and our words.

This casts doubt on the suitability of many popular expressions of “worship”: the sentimental type of subjective evangelical songs with highly questionable theology; the full-blast pipe organ sound with the tremulant shaking the very building; the exuberant guitar-strumming of something akin to a catchy advertising jingle; the jolly repetitive sound of a chorus round. All these do not form part of the mature worship of God; indeed all these forms of music-making are contrary to worship.

I want to also deal with the often heard argument that music cannot be divided into good or bad music; after all, some say, music is only a sequence of notes, (you better check that up in your dictionary), music is neutral, not intrinsically good or bad, and so it does not matter what sort of music we use.

Unfortunately, and sadly, this attitude tends to result in the use of all conceivable musical instruments playing all conceivable sorts of music, from the so-called Christian rock to the murdering of traditional Christian hymns and songs, yea, even the psalms.

We need to be reminded here that music is not only a tune or melody — i.e. a sequence of notes — it also has harmony and rhythm. That is why I want to make a plea for church music to be music of excellence; excellence in tune, in harmony and in execution (not a haphazard, mediocre combination of all three), music of joy and seriousness, cheerful solemnity, stateliness and majesty to convey worshipful texts.

The church has always been on pilgrimage. At this point in our journey we have available to us 20 centuries of praise and prayer. We can and should select the best out of this treasure trove. Of course the church has been selecting the best throughout the ages and we would be silly — yes, it would be at our peril — to ignore that treasure.

Talking about that treasure trove, there is much to learn from the fascinating story of the music of worship: the original Songs of Praise, i.e. the Hebrew “Sefer Tehillim” or Psalmoi (the Book of Psalms); the Jewish synagogue chant (based on the temple songs of the Levites); the development of the early church music; the hymns written by the very early church fathers; the development of Gregorian and other chants; the stunningly beautiful cathedral choral anthems of Byrd, Wesley, Lassus, Bruckner; fascinating also to read about the different directions taken at the Reformation by Luther, Calvin and Zwingli; to learn of the various early psalm translations in the languages of the people; and to study the history of the Genevan Psalter. This Psalter is one of the best books of psalm settings, composed (albeit to the French text) by Christian composers at the behest of Calvin, yet now sadly neglected.

In his book “O Come Let Us Worship” Robert Rayburn says: “The hymnbook is not only the repository of the devotion of the saints of the ages, but it also provides materials, gathered from the church universal, for the offering up of the sacrifice of praises and thanksgiving. It is a prayer book as well as a song book. It also provides a popular commentary on the creeds of Christendom. A good hymnbook gives a more balanced view of the Christian faith than do many theological volumes … We are faithful to the highest motivations for corporate worship when we are careful to sing those great expressions of praise and devotion which have stood the test of time in the worship of multitudes of believers.”3

For worship is not only that which takes place on Sunday morning, but throughout the week as we live in the presence of God, for the glory of God. Every believer is a priest called to serve and worship God in all he does. To live the Christian life in obedience to God IS worship. When the Apostle Paul urges us to offer our bodies as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”, he informs us that this is “spiritual worship”.

On the first day of the week the people of God gather to give God what is due to Him. In the rest of the week we scatter into the world as members of Christ’s church. We must go to the worship service so that we are then ready to go from it renewed in faith, hope and love, committed to worshipping God in all we do.4

Notes:

1. Robert Rayburn, “0 Come Let Us Worship”, p.29-30.

2. John Haverland, ‘Reflections on Worship”, from Faith in Focus, Nov. 1994, pp. 3-4.

3. Art Snoek, “Music in Worship”, from Faith in Focus, Nov. 1994, pp. 7-9.

4. John Haverland, p.4.

From Keystone Magazine
November 1996 , Vol. II No. 6
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

What about home schooling solo mums or those with unbelieving or unsupportive spouses?

Posted in Tough Questions

This is a really tough area. A mother who is on her own or who is basically left on her own in this home schooling task has an extra big challenge and one that may need to be handled with an extra big measure of sensitivity.

The solo mum teaching her children at home during the day is in some respects just the same as other mums: she has to do the job on her own for most of the time. But then there isn’t the spouse to come home and, for a while at least, lift the burden of the care of the children off her shoulders. Older children can actually begin to do this for mum fairly early on, and part of their home education is to mind the baby/ toddler while mum instructs the other child/ren. But there are other aspects of support (spiritual, moral, emotional, physical, intellectual) which God seems to have purposed should be borne together with a spouse. To bear these alone is really tough, and should serve to drive us to lean more heavily on the Lord and other Christian friends.

Support groups play an invaluable role here. A regular meeting where the mums have the opportunity to mainly talk while the children “socialise” (play) together and require minimum supervision constitutes a first-class support group. There is no need for any official support group committee to come together and sanction, plan, schedule and announce such a meeting beforehand: one person ringing around her friends inviting them to come over from lpm to2pm Friday afternoon will get the ball rolling. “Let’s do this again next week, and what do you say we talk about ‘Reading’?” provides a great excuse for many similar times together as you work your way through the curriculum topics. Word will spread by itself, and it can eventually become an “official” function of the local support group.

The various families within the support group can also at times be relied upon to babysit a solo mum’s children so that she can become involved in things outside her home, and maintain that wider perspective on life which makes coping with her own situation so much easier. And of course she will at times be available to babysit those families’ children, a reciprocal deal which doesn’t always have to involve the scarce commodity called “cash”.

Another issue that may be of concern to some solo mums is the total lack for whatever reason of a Godly male role model for her children within their own extended family. My own dad died when I was 13, and some of the men friends of our family would take me out, just the two of us, on a substitute father/son activity. The gesture was great, but those occasions were always so strained and contrived and uncomfortable. This has been, historically, an area where the men in the church recognised the need and would take the natural opportunities to interact with the children during church activities and socials and those other occasions when families interact or visit one another. It is possibly felt by solo mums that they aren’t included in interfamily socialising as much since there is no husband around to match the husbands of other families. My widowed mum felt this very strongly when it came to socialising with just one other family, but as soon as the social activity grew to three or more families, that feeling disappeared. Couples who know solo mums could try to be aware of this and take it into their consideration when planning their own social calendars. The solo mum might want to mention this concern to some close friends, but she can’t really push it more than that. If the men around who know the situation are aware of the solo mum’s concerns for her children don’t respond to the knowledge and challenge of the situation itself, prodding them more than once or twice at most certainly will not have the desired effect. Sorry, but that just seems to be the way men are wired up.

The issue of unsupportive or unbelieving spouses can actually be more stressful. Much of what was written about support groups above is applicable here. If the husband is actually anti-home schooling, and refuses to discuss it, try for a Christian school, if there is a decent one nearby. If not, for the sake of the marriage bond and family harmony the children better do as dad wants: go to school. Take comfort in the knowledge that a strong, loving, harmonious, supporting and vitally-involved-with-their-children set of parents will still have by far the major influence in the child/ren’s character and social and moral development, even though they attend school. Take advantage of dad’s natural love and concern for his child/ren and work as a team to do plenty of extra-curricular activities with them. This doesn’t have to be a big formalised thing … a simple family picnic with plenty of parent/child interaction helps to build those foundational values and attitudes that YOUR family holds dear into your child/ren in a permanent fashion. Again, it is simply taking advantage of the incredible parent/child bond that God has wired into us all and consciously using it to maximum advantage.

The dad who isn’t actively against home schooling, but isn’t really for it either but just seems to leave it up to mum should really exercise more leadership and (as we say in our house) “don’t just ignore the elephant in the room”. Dads tend to be involved in their work and one other thing (not necessarily to do with home and family), and leave all else up to mum. Men like to be good at what they do, and hate making mistakes. Consequently they tend to stay out of areas they aren’t familiar with or are not convinced about. Mums virtually ALWAYS end up with a whole list of skills required for running a household, while the dads only have one or two. After a while dads become aware of this and can start to feel a bit insecure about it, which could lead to even more reluctance to do anything new or different.

Well, we men simply have to break out of that kind of inhibiting, strangling, mind-set and force ourselves to get involved. It doesn’t mean we have to run everything, but at least to think it through and be supportive of whatever we let the family be involved in. The Lord God Almighty is going to call us to account for how we have managed our families: just bringing home the bacon simply won’t pass muster.

This certainly is not the final word on the subject. Please write in, anonymously if you like, with other ideas, tips or experiences or more specific questions. Lord willing, our combined wisdom will help to edify us all.

From Keystone Magazine
November 1996 , Vol. II No. 6
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

The Whole Bible Governs and Applies to Every Area of Life

Posted in In line with Scripture

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

–II Timothy 3:16-17

To start with, I looked up that first word, “all” in the original Greek. Do you know what it means? It means, “All”! God inspired every word of Scripture, including the 2/3 known as the Old Testament. The term “Old” there doesn’t mean obsolete or out of date. Could we use those terms in describing God or His Word? No way! I’ve heard some say that unless God’s Word is re-confirmed in the New Testament, it is no longer binding. I’ve heard others say that unless the New Testament specifically overrules a portion of the Old Testament, then it still stands! That second option sounds a lot more like what you would expect to find in the word of the Almighty, Omniscient, Eternal God. … Why should He repeat Himself? (See also Matt 4:4).

Notice what God’s Word is profitable for: keeping us on the trail of Righteousness (doctrine), slapping our wrists when we stray from the trail (reproof), showing us how to get back on the trail (correction), and training us to stay put! So keep your nose in that Book!

Now, apart from the obvious meaning of the phrase “complete, thoroughly equipped” I decided to look up that word “every” in the original Greek. Do you know what it means? It means “every”. Is performing brain surgery a good work? Sure is. Is building a bridge a good work? You bet. How about breeding a better quality wool onto the backs of sheep? Of course. Do you think even the tasks of collecting the garbage and sweeping the streets would fall into the category of “every good work”? Undeniably they would. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31)

While the Bible does not give us all the facts with which we may perform brain surgery to the glory of God, it does give us the TRUTH about all facts so that we are thereby enabled to perform brain surgery to the glory of God. As the Lord Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Not free to do your own thing. But free from the deceitfulness of sin, “lest anyone should cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) Once set free from this kind of thing you are now ABLE to do all to the glory of God.

As an example of this principle, journalists and authors who are not committed to serving the God of truth and grace will begin to serve themselves by using their writing skills to produce whatever will sell or promote their position or denigrate their opposition. The medical researcher not committed to serving the God of health and healing will begin to use his skills to generate endless income and notoriety from innumerable experiments, outlandish projects, and sensational (though almost always provisional) results. Or he may just go the route of becoming part of the abortion industry and simply murder for money. The manufacturer who is not committed to the God of excellence and stewardship will use cheaper materials and even build in faults and obsolescence to ensure repeat business for himself.

So really, Christians should not be asking how it is that the Scriptures can have a vital bearing on every educational discipline and every occupational qualification; rather, Christians should be asking how they themselves could possibly do ALL to the glory of God WlTHOUT a thoroughly Scriptural perspective on every area of human endeavour. The fact that most Christians perceive a spiritual realm in which Jesus is Lord, as well as a secular realm of work, economics, politics, etc., shows that these Christians do not believe that Jesus is Lord of all, but only of part. Apart from the fact that you may not smoke, drink, gamble or cuss, if your politics, your economics, your concepts of social welfare, education and medicine are the same as the non-Christian down the street, then either your faith is irrelevant to this life on earth, or else you have been trained in such a way that you believe that you are a Christian when in fact you think and act like a pagan.

Let me illustrate. As Christians we say we abhor cursing, swearing, blasphemy, immorality, the denigration of virtues and the glorification of sinfulness. And yet what do we spend a big wad of money on to purchase and then to keep licensed every year? A TV set. This box is so placed in our homes that the maximum number of people may view it at once in comfort. It does not operate itself, but we must ourselves actively switch it on. We often leave it on so that we may hear it while we are out of the room. And what proceeds out of this box? Blasphemy of the worst sort, nudity and immorality. We would never let our children, or even uninvited guests, speak or act or (un)dress the way we blithely allow TV characters to do in the middle of our livingrooms. And yet we actually PAY to have this trash beamed straight into our homes, we actively and willfully switch it on so that we may see and hear these abominations, and nobody is standing over us forcing us to do it! And yet we say we hate blasphemy, immorality, etc. Even non-Christians recognise this for what it is: hypocrisy .

If our theology regarding our involvement in life’s institutions of politics, economics, education, medicine, social welfare, etc. amounts to singing a rapturous rendition of the old Animals’ hit, “We Gotta Get Outta This Place”, then we have a theology of escapism and not victory. It means that we do not believe the Lord Jesus when He says that faith in Him overcomes the world, that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. (I John 5:4-5 & 4:4) We have all heard people say you should not polish the brass on a sinking ship. But what if the ship is not sinking? If I have not trained up my children to be totally committed soldiers of the cross because I do not believe they will need those skills since the end is so close, and the Lord does not return for another 100 or so years, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will not bless me but rather curse me because I left them unprepared. And what will the Lord say about this dereliction of duty when I meet Him face to face? When Christ said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me,” (Matthew 28:18), He meant it. Jesus Christ IS the King of Kings and Lord of Lords . This includes being the Omniscient Master of wisdom and understanding in the areas of industrial relations, law, politics, health, social welfare, art, cinema, journalism and also, yes, the education and training of our children.

From Keystone Magazine
November 1996 , Vol. II No. 6
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz