What Is Love?

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually.

The 75-point list is pretty fun to read through. I have included a few that I found interesting of funny.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.

7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.

58. Beethoven has always been a dog.

70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.

71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

Certainly, when dealing with culturally relevant classroom illustrations, each of these issues are perhaps very helpful. I must admit, it is somewhat shocking how much different my “mindset” is from the class of 2014. However, there are many far more substantial issues that have not budged, though we ignore them, which have far more profound impact on the educational process.

1. The trinitarian God of the Bible exists.

2. All men are born dead in sin and continue in sin and therefore are guilty before God.

3. Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, was born to Mary, grew up, fulfilled the law, and died for the sins of his people.

4. Man’s only hope, security, and forgiveness are found in Jesus Christ.

5. God pours out his Spirit on believers to be their helper and guide.

6. There is truth.

7. God is sovereign and directs all things–past, present, and future, for his glory.

8. God designed things to function in a certain way, and all things have been grossly affected by the fall.

If we are going to take the stance that such trivial things as Beethoven being first recognized as a dog rather than a great composer affect education, perhaps we would do good to give some thought to the affect our understanding of much more basic things has on education.

However, I must be extremely cautious when thinking about such issues. While I may begin the thought process desiring intelligibility (making sure that I am clearly communicating the gospel to the folks I am working with), it is all too easy for my flesh to get involved and to begin to think about how to make the gospel relevant (downplaying certain aspects of the gospel and emphasizing others in order to make the gospel more immediately accessible to the folks I am working with). The church has struggled, and in my opinion often lost this battle, as she has tried to work through ministering within the business-minded and results-driven culture of America.

Recently, I have had to think through some of these issues again, and the same struggles arose in me. Therefore, the quote that my wife showed me the other day was incredibly convicting and refreshing. Donald Miller writes,

A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America–about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don’t think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing (Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, p111).

So, the question I must repeatedly ask myself is this, “What am I teaching the people to be passionate about–meeting in a bar, being a downtown church, having great music, being reformed, asking hard questions, amassing theological knowledge, etc., etc., etc., or the gospel of Jesus Christ?” Now I know some of these things may be the outflow of a genuine excitement about the gospel, but all of these things can be pursued in place of the gospel. Only the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Nothing else is. I have heard Charles Spurgeon quoted as saying, “If you win them with a carnival, you will have to keep them with a carnival.” The bottom line is this, if someone “believes the gospel” because of a Web site or great music, then I must ask some hard questions because they might have faith in a Web site or song leader. If someone “believes the gospel” because of me, the church, something I do for them, or something the church does for them, then I must ask some hard questions because they might have faith in me or the church. The problem with teaching people to be passionate about something other than Christ is that when that Web site crashes, that song leader moves on, I fail them, or the church changes directions, then so does that person’s hope and security. My prayer is that I will be a pastor and we will be a church who are passionate about one thing, Jesus Christ–crucified and resurrected.

The bur in my saddle is not that Rev. Kingston was so bold that he sat and talked with this lifer, and I am not that bold. The bur in my saddle is that Rev. Kingston loved someone who was hurting in obvious outward ways (not the clean white-bread ways I am used to), and I find this hard to do. The issue I face is that while I don’t necessarily think it would be a sin to hide from Tracy Province if you saw him coming and knew who he was, I can’t say the same for looking past and even at times condemning someone who is broken in ways more obvious than myself. Sure Rev. Kingston didn’t know who he was talking to, but the fact remains that Rev. Kingston’s love for a homeless guy who got dumped in Yellowstone and was trying to hitch hike home was such that the guy said he might like to stay in Rev. Kingston’s town and get a job welding. Sure, say that Province was only looking to take advantage of an apparently easy score if you want, but I can’t undersell the power of the gospel that easily.

My belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ is a full admission that I am just as much a sinner deserving God’s wrath and curse as Tracy Province or anyone else who has walked this earth. My profession of faith in Jesus Christ is not a statement that I am something special, but that Jesus, the Son of God, had to die in order to adequately deal with my sin. The fact that I am called a son of the Most High God is not a badge to be worn with pride, but a marker of the profound mercy I have received from God through Jesus Christ. If I am but a recipient of mercy, how can I deal with anyone in pride? If I am but a beneficiary of the grace of God, how can I deal with anyone any differently? If I am alive only by the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ, how can I be so bent on self-preservation? Too often my penchant for pride and self-preservation stifles my ability to love those who are hurting, so I am grateful for and encouraged by this Wyoming minister and his willingness to serve someone who was apparently down on their luck.

The above video was posted on one of the blogs I like to read. Since Joel Osteen is currently one of the most influential preachers in the world, I wanted to post the video and offer a brief response. The point of the response is not so much that Osteen is a complete charlatan but more that we must not accept everything someone teaches but check it with Scripture as the Bereans were commended for in Acts 17.

Before you read the rest of the post, perhaps take some time on your own to think through what Joel Osteen is teaching and ask, “Does this square with Scripture?”

So, here’s the deal. There is nothing in Scripture that says God’s motivation for the Old Testament dietary laws are based on the healthy benefits of such laws. Rather, the point was to provide an object lesson for being set apart – for holiness. There is plenty in Scripture that speaks to the fact that laws such as the cleanliness code had a temporary function that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus takes a radically different approach to the dietary laws than does Mr. Osteen in Mark 7.14-23. Peter, the Apostle, tried to take Joel’s approach to interpreting these same passages and was rebuked by God for it as recorded in Acts 10.9-16. The problem is not that Mr. Osteen is wrong about the health benefits of pork but that he is wrong in how he interprets Scripture. To say we must or should refrain from eating pork is, oddly enough, to deny Scripture; because, such moralistic teaching misses the (perhaps) subtle point of the teaching in Leviticus 11 and the blatantly obvious teaching in Mark and Acts. Further, if I can, as Mr. Osteen seems to teach, please God by not eating pork, then I don’t need a Savior to die in my place (see Galatians 3.15-29). When we draw a strong line of demarcation between the Old and New Testaments so that the Old Testament is not about a gracious redemption through the promised Messiah and the New Testament is not the same story as the Old Testament but something fundamentally different, then we miss the point of the Bible, of the law, of the gospel, and of Jesus’ death on the cross.

True Grit, Charles Portis

How Being Saved Frees Us to Share the Gospel – A handful of great insights that Justin Taylor pulled from Tim Keller.

Are There Dangers in Being ‘Spiritual but not Religious?’ – A great article highlighting the self-centered-exaltation involved in the spiritual but not religious position. Regarding the title question – the headlining photo answers it pretty clearly.

Often times, among armchair theologians, discussions on the decrees of God quickly turn to the specific order of the decrees. We like to do this because we get to use big words like infralapsarianism, supralapsarianism, and amyraldism. However, the Westminster Divines, those men who had a hand in writing the Westminster Standards, displayed far more wisdom and restraint in dealing with this grand subject. They simply sought to define what they were talking about. Five points can be developed from the Divines answer to WSC #7.

First, the decrees of God are his eternal purpose. Each of the last three words could be emphasized to bring out various issues. The decrees of God are HIS eternal purpose. The decrees of God are not my purpose, or yours, He is the one at work. The decrees of God are his ETERNAL purpose. As much as we understand that God is eternal, so his decrees are eternal. The decrees of God are his eternal PURPOSE. The decrees of God are neither his eternal slip-up nor his eternal reaction.

Second, the decrees of God are according to his will. In other words, God was not strong-armed into decreeing something. When we couple this with the first statement we are able to take comfort in all things knowing that while we may be surprised, God is not surprised or taken aback by our present situation. Rather, it is his purpose and according to his will.

Third, the decrees of God are for his glory. God is single-minded in his pursuit of his own glory, and he should be. After all, if there were something or someone other than God more worthy of being glorified then God would not be ultimate.

Fourth, the decrees of God are prior to the things decreed. God foreordained. Just to be clear, that means that God ordained it (whatever it is) before it actually was. This seems obvious, but alas, there are numerous theological attempts to hijack the plain meaning of foreordination. The argument generally goes like this. God is outside of time, so he looked down and saw what was going to happen then went back and foreordained it. The problem with this idea, beyond it being a man-centered attempt to put a leash on God so we can walk him around like a puppy dog in order to impress our more religiously sensitive friends is as follows. If God saw what was going to happen without his ordaining it to happen first then it doesn’t really matter what he decrees because it is only a reaction to our actions. In other words, if this is the case, God is a patsy unworthy of being glorified.

Fifth, the decrees of God encompass everything that is. God foreordained “whatsoever comes to pass.” Let that soak in. When this last phrase is considered along with the rest of the Divines answer to question #7 we being to understand why the Psalmist wrote Psalm 46 in which we are encouraged to “Be still, and know that I am God.” His God is absolutely in control. Here is the deal. Whatever situation you are currently in, God foreordained that situation for his glory according to his will as part of his eternal purpose. In other words, God has it under control. Go ahead, pick a situation, this applies. We can rejoice in hard circumstances and be humble in wonderful circumstances precisely because “The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.”

Now some will cry foul at this doctrine saying, “That’s not biblical! That goes against the free will of man! That offends every rational, autonomous sensibility in man! You only believe that because you are a Calvinist!” We will work backwards through these objections.

“You only believe that because you are a Calvinist!” Perhaps, but if I answer the first objection then it very well may be the case that I am a Calvinist because I, along with Calvin, believe the Bible.

“That offends every rational, autonomous sensibility in man!” Which is exactly why so many people left Jesus when he taught the same thing as recorded in John 6.

“That goes against the free will of man!” You are partially correct. This goes against your understanding of the free will of man. However, if I answer the first objection this is your problem not mine.

“That’s not biblical!” – Well…

Gen. 1:1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Deut. 30:1“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

Job 38:1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2”Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell me, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its measurements—surely you know!Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Psa. 33:10The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

Is. 14:24The LORD of hosts has sworn:
“As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,
25that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.”
26This is the purpose that is purposed
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?

Is. 45:5I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.

John 6:35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” 41So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught  at Capernaum. 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

Acts 2:22“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.  24God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Rom. 9:6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath  prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called  ‘sons of the living God.’”
27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”

Rom. 11:33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Eph. 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Eph. 1:11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.