Archive for the ‘Christianity & Culture’ Category
Sinners Unaware
To expand my thoughts at the end of yesterday's post about the slow-moving nature of worldviews, I thought I'd post a piece I wrote a few years ago after reading a chapter called "Trusting the Theology of a Slave Owner" in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards. It's a sobering reminder of our limitations as human beings in applying revealed truth to our practices:
Even as Edwards argued against the slave trade, saying it was wrong because we're all of the same human race, made by the same Maker in His image, and we ought not steal human beings and tear them away from their families, nor should we profit from others who do so—even as he argued this, Edwards continued to own slaves.
It's a scary thought that a man who knew God's word far better than I do and who spent far more time in prayer, study, and meditation than I do was blinded enough by his own sin and culture not to see a sin that is now glaringly obvious to us—that a man of such incisive and precise thinking could not see that he condemned himself with his own arguments against the slave trade.
His son, who was able to follow the logic of Edwards's arguments and the implications of his theology to the end, argued eloquently against slavery, not just the trade. But it took those of that next generation to finally work their way completely out of the blinders of cultural complacency.
It's difficult to see clearly and then fight against a sin you're already participating in. How much more so if your culture condones it! Our sin blinds us and distorts our perception (a frightening reality that ought to make us more careful about giving into temptation). Edwards had slaves, so he was not able to see the wrongness of it, and while he was ahead of his time morally in many ways, including in his arguments against the slave trade, his treatment of his slaves, and his inclusion of slaves as members of his church, we can see now how far he was from God's standard of perfect righteousness.
If this doesn't point out the need of all of us for a savior, I don't know what does! We are all desperately in the “sinner” category (a category which includes everyone but God) in ways of which we haven't even a clue. Edwards fought so hard for holiness in himself and mastery over his sin, and people around him would have considered him a very good man. Some who misunderstood the gospel probably thought he was good enough to get to heaven based on his works. But they could not even see the sin of slavery.
In the same way, as best as we try to conquer our own sin, there will be sins in our lives that we will never even recognize. This is a humbling thought to which we are forced to respond like Paul:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!... Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…. For what the Law could not do [i.e., make us righteous], weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Tomorrow I'll get back to the "Christianity As Science-Starter" series.
Christianity As Science-Starter: Kepler
In Nancy Pearcey’s excellent book, Saving Leonardo, she explains why Greek thought didn't create modern science:
[T]he ancient Greeks are often given credit for the origin of modern science. But that is a mistake. The Greeks locked up mathematical truths in a kind of Platonic heaven of ideal forms—a realm of mental blueprints or templates for all the objects in the material world. The problem was that these blueprints did not match their objects except in a rough and approximate way. Why not? Because the Greeks regarded matter as eternal, not created. Therefore matter had its own inherent, independent properties, which did not necessarily line up with the blueprints in the ideal realm.
It was their view of the nature of the universe that held them back from scientific discovery, and it was Kepler's Christian view of the creation of the universe that drove him on towards science:
[H]ow did Johann Kepler discover that the planetary orbits are ellipses? Ever since antiquity, people had thought the planets moved in circular orbits. The idea went back to Aristotle. He had reasoned that the heavens are “perfect,” and the circle is the “perfect” shape, ergo the heavenly bodies must move in circles. (This was an example of the Greeks’ deductive approach to science.) How did Kepler succeed in breaking through a settled belief in circular orbits that had held sway for two thousand years?
It began when he had difficulty plotting the orbit of Mars. The most accurate circle he could construct based on observations was slightly wobbly. Had Kepler retained the Greek mentality, he would have shrugged off such a minor aberration. His thinking would have been that objects correspond to geometrical ideals, after all, only approximately. But Kepler was a devout Lutheran. He was convinced that if God wanted a line to form a circle, it would be exactly a circle. And if it was not exactly a circle, it must be exactly something else. It would not be merely an arbitrary departure from the ideal. This theological conviction sustained Kepler through six years of intellectual struggle and thousands of pages of scientific calculations before he finally hit upon the idea of ellipses.
Kepler later spoke gratefully of the minor mismatch in Mars’ orbit as a “gift from God” because it spurred his greatest scientific breakthrough. The chief aim of science, he said, is “to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics.”
One aspect of this I find interesting is the fact that it took so very long for the ideas of Christianity to overcome previously held cultural ideas left over from the Greeks. As was the case in the moral realm (as I discussed yesterday), the Christian worldview in reference to the physical realm was slowly working its way through Western culture. No culture turns quickly, and God has a very long-term view of progress, working within the human limitations that make it difficult for a massive group of people to change an entrenched, accepted paradigm.
I think we underestimate the power culture has over our view of the world, and this often causes unfair scorn of those in the past who couldn't see the applications of truths that we easily see today. This underestimation also leads to accusations against God for not completely remaking human culture when He gave the Israelites the Law. But the truth is, human society can be dangerously fractured by radical, abrupt, imposed change, and God wisely chose to work through the centuries in as stable a way as possible. It's amazing to think how far we must still have to go.
Over the next few days, I'll continue this "Christianity As Science-Starter" series with Galileo and Newton.
Why Does December 25 Have Pro-life Implications?
By the third century, it appears that some Christians had started celebrating Christ’s birth, as well as his death, on March 25th, because in a book called On Computing the Date of Easter, the author makes a case against this day as Christ’s birthday. Read the rest of this entry »
Unexpected Passage: Lynch mobs, assassins and Roman justice
Unexpected Passage: Lynch mobs, assassins and Roman justice
Today’s reading: Acts 26 - Article taken from www.biblegateway.com
Acts 26:22 ”But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.”
The last few chapters of Acts show Paul at his most fearless. He confronts a lynch mob with such boldness that Roman soldiers have to drag him into their barracks for his own protection. The next day he takes on the Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, causing such a ruckus that the Roman commander fears they will tear Paul in pieces. Then 40 religious fanatics take a vow to kill him.
In the midst of all this turmoil, Paul gets a comforting vision from the Lord, who says, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). That is all the encouragement Paul needs.
The Prisoner Speaks
After being smuggled out of town under heavy guard and the cover of darkness, Paul arrives at last in the palace of the Roman governor. His troubles are far from over. After hearing Paul’s defense, Felix sends him to prison for two years as a political favor to the religious authorities. Even that does not quiet the furor. The moment a new governor, Festus, arrives, Jewish leaders hatch yet another death plot against Paul.
Acts records 18 speeches, the last three of which were delivered to a very select audience. Roman officials, intrigued by the most talked-about prisoner in their corner of the empire, bring Paul to perform, like a trained bear. This chapter records Paul’s riveting performance before the most distinguished judge, King Herod Agrippa.
The result? Paul finally realizes his dream of visiting Rome-not via a missionary journey, but in a Roman ship as a prisoner of the empire.
Life Question
Have you ever faced opposition because of your faith? What can you learn from Paul’s response?
Foundations: Five Marks of the Christian Worldview
As part of the Foundations of the Christian Mind Series, T M Stafford of RU Institute, presents that foundational building blocks of the Christian Worldvview in this short presentation and tries to give some context to the kinds of issues that each represents in the thinking and believing life of the Christian. Let us know what you think!