Those who prefer good intentions to competence always ask, “Is it not true that clever men are more likely to be untrustworthy?” hoping to instill a distrust of higher learning.
How many times do we find ourselves in the position of having to trust someone more intelligent or better informed—shall we say, an expert—than ourselves? We consult doctors, lawyers and accountants for matters requiring specialized knowledge that is beyond the ability of the common person to completely understand—how much more the ancient document recorded in foreign languages that most of us only glance at a few minutes out of each day? Ultimately we must trust in someone of superior knowledge; we have the responsibility of choosing wisely the object of that trust. (God does not require a blind faith; we exercise a faith grounded in reality and truth. There are always clues to guide our choices; faith simply bridges the gap between our experience and our hope.)
Anti-intellectuals often observe that we live in a culture where seminaries are becoming increasingly disrespectful in their approach to the Word and apostate.
Hypocrisy, lies, or false teaching do not change what is and will always be true. The responsibility lies with the student and his mentors to determine the underlying suppositions of his teachers, and to seek out teachers who respect the divine inspiration of the Holy Bible. It goes without saying that not all seminaries are apostate!
Christians are called to be in the world (though not of it) and to be salt and light in whatever environment they find themselves.
A common misconception is that Christian ideals are at odds with academic ambition. Are we not to love the Lord with all our minds? No anti-intellectual culture could have produced a J. S. Bach, a Milton or a Kepler. They made a point of casting their crowns before Christ and dedicating the fruits of their minds to His service. Again, Paul exhorts Timothy to “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” Surely it is God Who grants gifts of the mind, and He expects us to invest our talents wisely.
Does not God show His glory (and therefore work better) through weakness?
The attainment of an advanced degree does not prevent any person from being a “weak vessel.” We make a faulty assumption when we imply otherwise.
2 Corinthians 12:9 "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Notice who is saying this: someone we all too frequently assume was “strong,” a highly educated man and master of theology: the Apostle Paul, who had the ancient-world equivalent of a Ph. D. Why does he call himself weak? Was God not able to use his education in a mighty way? History demonstrates that God used every painfully acquired skill Paul was able to bring—from skilled debate and passionate persuasion in the public square to the humble trade of tentmaking. And yet Paul calls himself weak, and so he was, being human and subject to like passions as we are, but he also knew the undergirding of God’s strength. God, in His infinite wisdom, saw to it that the greatest missionary of the first century was adequately prepared for the work.
The teaching of God’s Word must be held in high esteem and those who essay to teach it must be held highly accountable for their handling. The Word must be understood in its original intent, its absolutely objective meaning; must be handled seriously as a historic document inspired by a Holy God. It is a serious undertaking that requires the best linguistic and research skills developed by human civilization. Any careless, lighthearted approach is an insult to our God and the Christian faith, not to say damaging to Christ’s beloved flock.
Remember Christ’s test of Peter’s love for Him: “If you love Me, feed my sheep.” Sheep were not merely bumbling, clumsy creatures; they were and are the main form of wealth in the Middle East. When Christ calls his people sheep, He implies that they are precious to him in the same way sheep were valuable to their owners. We cannot make the mistake of thinking that any old fodder will do for these sheep. We may be sure that “hirelings” will give account to Christ along with the faithful pastors.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Text of Brahms' Requiem
I. Chorus
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
-Matthew 5
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They go forth and weep, and bear precious seed, and shall come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.
-PSALM 126
II. Chorus
For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls...
-I PETER 1
Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient.
-JAMES 5
III. Baritone Solo & Chorus
Lord, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a few handbreaths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely everyone stands as a mere breath. Surely everyone goes about like a shadow. Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; they heap up, and do not know who will gather them. And now, O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in Thee.
-PSALM 39
IV. Chorus
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.
-PSALM 84
V. Soprano Solo & Chorus
Ye now are sorrowful; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,and no one will take your joy from you.
-JOHN 16
As a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you. Behold with your eyes: but for a little have I known sorrow and labor and found much rest.
-ECCLESIASTICUS 51
VI. Baritone Solo & Chorus
For here have we no continuing place, but we seek one that is to come.
-HEBREWS 13
Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the hour of the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
-I CORINTHIANS 15
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.
-REVELATION 4
VII. Final Chorus
Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord. "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labors, and their deeds follow them."
-REVELATION 14
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Defense of Proper Education for Those Who Minister in the Church, Part III
Those who distrust education love to point out that in the past, God has used people with little or no education.
Without a doubt, God can use anyone, and He delights in surprising the world with unlikely candidates. Please note that even the wicked accomplish God’s purposes, but this does not expunge their accountability to answer for their wickedness. If a man withholds himself from the preparations to qualify him for ministerial service, God CAN use him—but it may not be in the way that the man hoped or that was ideal.
Some of the mightiest figures in the Inspired Record were highly educated men: Moses, raised in the courts of Egypt (and yet God preserved him so that he was not drawn away by temptation), Daniel, who arrived in the Babylonian palaces with advanced knowledge, and received the finest training Babylon could provide, and of course Paul, who studied at the feet of Gamaliel. We must not rush to the conclusion that God cannot or will not use men and women of letters.
Consider the Parable of the Talents: this literally speaks for itself. It is God who gives gifts of the mind, and if we fail to invest and use them for God’s glory, we will face our Lord’s displeasure for wasting precious resources.
Another fallacious argument is that the disciples were uneducated men.
Consider that those who were fishermen spoke, minimally, two languages in order to conduct business. They not only performed manual labor, but they were involved in trade, commerce and negotiation. They knew a thing or two about human nature; they would not have been easily taken in by some passing charlatan.
We may surmise that Matthew, the tax collector, had advanced accounting skills, sufficient for “cooking the books” (Matthew 9:9-12). Luke, of course, we know as “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). These men were hardly unintelligent or ignorant, even though they may have lacked the formal training of the day.
Finally, the disciples spent three years undergoing a “seminary” education by the master Teacher himself, who undertook to prepare His men for their task.
Without a doubt, God can use anyone, and He delights in surprising the world with unlikely candidates. Please note that even the wicked accomplish God’s purposes, but this does not expunge their accountability to answer for their wickedness. If a man withholds himself from the preparations to qualify him for ministerial service, God CAN use him—but it may not be in the way that the man hoped or that was ideal.
Some of the mightiest figures in the Inspired Record were highly educated men: Moses, raised in the courts of Egypt (and yet God preserved him so that he was not drawn away by temptation), Daniel, who arrived in the Babylonian palaces with advanced knowledge, and received the finest training Babylon could provide, and of course Paul, who studied at the feet of Gamaliel. We must not rush to the conclusion that God cannot or will not use men and women of letters.
Consider the Parable of the Talents: this literally speaks for itself. It is God who gives gifts of the mind, and if we fail to invest and use them for God’s glory, we will face our Lord’s displeasure for wasting precious resources.
Another fallacious argument is that the disciples were uneducated men.
Consider that those who were fishermen spoke, minimally, two languages in order to conduct business. They not only performed manual labor, but they were involved in trade, commerce and negotiation. They knew a thing or two about human nature; they would not have been easily taken in by some passing charlatan.
We may surmise that Matthew, the tax collector, had advanced accounting skills, sufficient for “cooking the books” (Matthew 9:9-12). Luke, of course, we know as “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). These men were hardly unintelligent or ignorant, even though they may have lacked the formal training of the day.
Finally, the disciples spent three years undergoing a “seminary” education by the master Teacher himself, who undertook to prepare His men for their task.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
At a Solemn Musick
by John Milton (1608–1674)
BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns joy,
Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ
Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to pierce,
And to our high-rais'd phantasie present,
That undisturbèd Song of pure content,
Ay sung before the saphire-colour'd throne
To him that sits theron
With Saintly shout, and solemn Jubily,
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row
Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow,
And the Cherubick host in thousand quires
Touch their immortal Harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that wear victorious Palms,
Hymns devout and holy Psalms
Singing everlastingly;
That we on Earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise;
As once we did, till disproportion'd sin
Jarr'd against natures chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair musick that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd
In perfect Diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
O may we soon again renew that Song,
And keep in tune with Heav'n, till God ere long
To his celestial consort us unite,
To live with him, and sing in endles morn of light.
BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns joy,
Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ
Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to pierce,
And to our high-rais'd phantasie present,
That undisturbèd Song of pure content,
Ay sung before the saphire-colour'd throne
To him that sits theron
With Saintly shout, and solemn Jubily,
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row
Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow,
And the Cherubick host in thousand quires
Touch their immortal Harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that wear victorious Palms,
Hymns devout and holy Psalms
Singing everlastingly;
That we on Earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise;
As once we did, till disproportion'd sin
Jarr'd against natures chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair musick that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd
In perfect Diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
O may we soon again renew that Song,
And keep in tune with Heav'n, till God ere long
To his celestial consort us unite,
To live with him, and sing in endles morn of light.
Prayer
by George Herbert
Prayer, the Church's banquet, Angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almightie, sinner's towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;
Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
Prayer, the Church's banquet, Angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almightie, sinner's towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;
Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Laudamus Te; Benedicimus Te; Adoramus Te!
I love Sunday. “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into house of our God,” but even more likely would I be the one saying “Let us go.”
My favorite place to be is church, preferably a beautiful church with high, vaulted ceilings and intense stained-glass images, one whose atmosphere is one of reverence and formality. Why? Because I believe those aesthetics represent the character of our God so much better than strictly functional surroundings—a view shared by war-weary king David (II Samuel 7). Certainly a casual glance at nature communicates the idea that beauty was important to God; confirming this notion, God’s instructions for the Temple construction concluded often with the words “for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28).
While the Old Testament protocols are not part of our worship, we see that God does want us to think of Him in connection with “glory and beauty.” He wants us to have some impression of his majesty and worth, and so it hurts me to be inside an ugly church.
Liturgical worship is very special to me. I love its formal structure, its artful text, which, for the most part, is taken straight from the Bible. It’s an especially lovely experience when we sing the Matins service with its ancient canticles, the Venite and the Te Deum.
Of all the fragrant Matins text, the one bit that possesses my mind is this line from the Venite: "O come, let us worship Him!" My body shivers as I turn on the organ mixtures and play this sweeping line of music, which, set off from the rest of the text at the end, communicates the prophet-king’s compelling call for God’s people to worship with him. I’m not just playing the service—I am investing my spirit in the call to worship, for God has called me to Himself. I am irresistibly drawn to worship Him, and I must compel the redeemed to worship with me. In the space of that sanctuary, it’s as though I myself turn eagerly to my fellow believers and beg them to “kneel before the Lord Our Maker.” (How could we not—“for He is a great God; a great king above all gods; in His hand are all the deep places of the earth!”)
Half the thrill comes from knowing that even predating the Incarnation, God’s elect sang those very same words in formal, corporate worship. If it was fitting to sing this in the days before Christ, how much more to sing it now, illumined by the utter fulfillment of God’s promise? My prayers, my worship, mingle with those of other worshippers—no longer separated by time and space, but all in praise before our common Lord. “O come, let us worship Him!” This primitive, urgent cry sums up the only response appropriate to the love of our God . . . Who became our Savior.
My favorite place to be is church, preferably a beautiful church with high, vaulted ceilings and intense stained-glass images, one whose atmosphere is one of reverence and formality. Why? Because I believe those aesthetics represent the character of our God so much better than strictly functional surroundings—a view shared by war-weary king David (II Samuel 7). Certainly a casual glance at nature communicates the idea that beauty was important to God; confirming this notion, God’s instructions for the Temple construction concluded often with the words “for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28).
While the Old Testament protocols are not part of our worship, we see that God does want us to think of Him in connection with “glory and beauty.” He wants us to have some impression of his majesty and worth, and so it hurts me to be inside an ugly church.
Liturgical worship is very special to me. I love its formal structure, its artful text, which, for the most part, is taken straight from the Bible. It’s an especially lovely experience when we sing the Matins service with its ancient canticles, the Venite and the Te Deum.
Of all the fragrant Matins text, the one bit that possesses my mind is this line from the Venite: "O come, let us worship Him!" My body shivers as I turn on the organ mixtures and play this sweeping line of music, which, set off from the rest of the text at the end, communicates the prophet-king’s compelling call for God’s people to worship with him. I’m not just playing the service—I am investing my spirit in the call to worship, for God has called me to Himself. I am irresistibly drawn to worship Him, and I must compel the redeemed to worship with me. In the space of that sanctuary, it’s as though I myself turn eagerly to my fellow believers and beg them to “kneel before the Lord Our Maker.” (How could we not—“for He is a great God; a great king above all gods; in His hand are all the deep places of the earth!”)
Half the thrill comes from knowing that even predating the Incarnation, God’s elect sang those very same words in formal, corporate worship. If it was fitting to sing this in the days before Christ, how much more to sing it now, illumined by the utter fulfillment of God’s promise? My prayers, my worship, mingle with those of other worshippers—no longer separated by time and space, but all in praise before our common Lord. “O come, let us worship Him!” This primitive, urgent cry sums up the only response appropriate to the love of our God . . . Who became our Savior.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Adventante Deo
By John Addington Symonds (1840–1893)
LIFT up your heads, gates of my heart, unfold
Your portals to salute the King of kings!
Behold Him come, borne on cherubic wings
Engrained with crimson eyes and grail of gold!
Before His path the thunder-clouds withhold
Their stormy pinions, and the desert sings:
He from His lips divine and forehead flings
Sunlight of peace unfathomed, bliss untold.
O soul, faint soul, disquieted how long!
Lift up thine eyes, for lo, thy Lord is near,
Lord of all loveliness and strength and song,
The Lord who brings heart-sadness better cheer,
Scattering those midnight dreams that dote on wrong,
urging with heaven’s pure rays love’s atmosphere!
LIFT up your heads, gates of my heart, unfold
Your portals to salute the King of kings!
Behold Him come, borne on cherubic wings
Engrained with crimson eyes and grail of gold!
Before His path the thunder-clouds withhold
Their stormy pinions, and the desert sings:
He from His lips divine and forehead flings
Sunlight of peace unfathomed, bliss untold.
O soul, faint soul, disquieted how long!
Lift up thine eyes, for lo, thy Lord is near,
Lord of all loveliness and strength and song,
The Lord who brings heart-sadness better cheer,
Scattering those midnight dreams that dote on wrong,
urging with heaven’s pure rays love’s atmosphere!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Worship vs. Service, Part II by Dr. Paul Hunsicker
Once again, Dr. Paul Hunsicker pastors Christ Lutheran Church in Abbotsford, Wisconsin, and strange to say, he does exactly what a pastor should be doing in this age of apostasy—he rebukes false doctrine. It is with joy that I reprint this article for all of you.
Words of Faith # 51, For August 4, 2004
In what is presented as worship today, there is a great deal of idolatry in the form of man worship and self worship. Why do many people assemble in some places? Because of the entertainment factor and because of the self-satisfaction that is found in certain “worship” activities.
Listening to a variety of music which is played on Christian radio and then used within some worship contexts, we notice a disturbing number of times the word “I” is used. When “I” takes the place of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the vocabulary of songs, the song must be carefully analyzed and a determination made as to who is at the center of the song.
Having written that statement, I would encourage you to go to the Psalms for seeing and understanding the proper use of the word “I” within worship. The Psalms are filled with the word “I” being used to show the writer’s relationship to the God Who has provided a particular writer with some form of blessing or salvation. The Psalms demonstrate the proper use of the word “I” within the hymnody of the church.
Compare the Psalms with much of today’s Christian music and you will find a marked contrast. “I” in today’s “Christian” music points God to the person, the person’s work, the person’s activity, the person’s faith. This is a form of idolatry, the worship of man. When man holds up his/her accomplishments or attitudes or faith to God, expecting God to respond to what the human being has done, the realm of Christianity has been abandoned. This is the problem with most of the popular “Christian” lyrics today.
The music of the day is certainly upbeat and pleasant and even inspiring in a secular fashion. The problem is people simply enjoy the music, get caught up in singing a catchy tune, and do not pay attention to the idolatrous words which accompany the melody. They love singing something which pleases the ear while ignoring the damage done to the concept of faith in Jesus as the only Saviour from sin. The worshipper imagines that because they “feel good” about the tunes, what they did was pleasing and acceptable to God. Human, fallible, sin-infected emotions are usually wrong.
What constitutes Christian worship? When the entire activity, vocabulary, movement, motion, and whatever else goes on is all directed away from man and to God, and when those same activities, vocabulary, movements, motions, and whatever else opens man up to receive blessings from God, you have Christian worship.
Look carefully and analyze what you hear and read and sing. Reject everything which gives man any credit for anything to do with salvation and forgiveness. Hold on to everything which gives God all the glory and all the credit for a cross-established forgiveness and salvation. In that way you will always have the confidence of knowing that you are worshipping Him and not yourself.
The Christian should always want to say, “Soli Deo Gloria” (to God alone the glory).
Words of Faith # 51, For August 4, 2004
In what is presented as worship today, there is a great deal of idolatry in the form of man worship and self worship. Why do many people assemble in some places? Because of the entertainment factor and because of the self-satisfaction that is found in certain “worship” activities.
Listening to a variety of music which is played on Christian radio and then used within some worship contexts, we notice a disturbing number of times the word “I” is used. When “I” takes the place of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the vocabulary of songs, the song must be carefully analyzed and a determination made as to who is at the center of the song.
Having written that statement, I would encourage you to go to the Psalms for seeing and understanding the proper use of the word “I” within worship. The Psalms are filled with the word “I” being used to show the writer’s relationship to the God Who has provided a particular writer with some form of blessing or salvation. The Psalms demonstrate the proper use of the word “I” within the hymnody of the church.
Compare the Psalms with much of today’s Christian music and you will find a marked contrast. “I” in today’s “Christian” music points God to the person, the person’s work, the person’s activity, the person’s faith. This is a form of idolatry, the worship of man. When man holds up his/her accomplishments or attitudes or faith to God, expecting God to respond to what the human being has done, the realm of Christianity has been abandoned. This is the problem with most of the popular “Christian” lyrics today.
The music of the day is certainly upbeat and pleasant and even inspiring in a secular fashion. The problem is people simply enjoy the music, get caught up in singing a catchy tune, and do not pay attention to the idolatrous words which accompany the melody. They love singing something which pleases the ear while ignoring the damage done to the concept of faith in Jesus as the only Saviour from sin. The worshipper imagines that because they “feel good” about the tunes, what they did was pleasing and acceptable to God. Human, fallible, sin-infected emotions are usually wrong.
What constitutes Christian worship? When the entire activity, vocabulary, movement, motion, and whatever else goes on is all directed away from man and to God, and when those same activities, vocabulary, movements, motions, and whatever else opens man up to receive blessings from God, you have Christian worship.
Look carefully and analyze what you hear and read and sing. Reject everything which gives man any credit for anything to do with salvation and forgiveness. Hold on to everything which gives God all the glory and all the credit for a cross-established forgiveness and salvation. In that way you will always have the confidence of knowing that you are worshipping Him and not yourself.
The Christian should always want to say, “Soli Deo Gloria” (to God alone the glory).
Aesthetic Bliss
Last week the Master Singers of Milwaukee gave their second concert of the season, titled “The Seven Joys of Christmas.” This is the first time I have been part of a truly high-level performing group. We sang first in St. John’s Military Academy Chapel in Delafield, which was charged with thrilling acoustic capabilities. We opened the concert with a Mendelssohn motet, “Frohlocket, ihr Voelker, auf Erden,” written for choir in eight parts and well-suited to showcase our sound. What pure joy, to stand in the very midst of that great, gorgeous wall of sound, to be present at the birth of such beauty. I could feel my own high soprano blending perfectly with the fine tenor voices beside me; it was as if we had caught the updraft of the musical line; we soared and swung in that great height, carrying the audience with us.
I knew in that moment what a rare privilege it was to be a skilled artist, an apostle of the performing arts. I did not have to sit looking on; I stood there creating the sound that brought people joy. For this cause I was born.
We continued with traditional carols, mostly in English, but also in French, German, Russian and Haitian. We sang both well known and obscure compositions, including a medieval English carol, This is the Truth Sent from Above. I was glad above all else that the celebration of Christmas has so firmly entrenched itself in Western culture that we must needs sing the ancient truths of sin and redemption—without eliciting protest. Those old carols, both primitive and polished, presented God’s ineluctable truth in a glorious and lucid manner.
It amazes me that all that painstaking rehearsal culminates in an experience like this. Sometimes it seems as if the reality of music transcends the Fall of Adam. This reward exceeds all expectations; it is one of the greatest joys this world can offer.
I knew in that moment what a rare privilege it was to be a skilled artist, an apostle of the performing arts. I did not have to sit looking on; I stood there creating the sound that brought people joy. For this cause I was born.
We continued with traditional carols, mostly in English, but also in French, German, Russian and Haitian. We sang both well known and obscure compositions, including a medieval English carol, This is the Truth Sent from Above. I was glad above all else that the celebration of Christmas has so firmly entrenched itself in Western culture that we must needs sing the ancient truths of sin and redemption—without eliciting protest. Those old carols, both primitive and polished, presented God’s ineluctable truth in a glorious and lucid manner.
It amazes me that all that painstaking rehearsal culminates in an experience like this. Sometimes it seems as if the reality of music transcends the Fall of Adam. This reward exceeds all expectations; it is one of the greatest joys this world can offer.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Women in Church (or Anywhere Else, for That Matter)
It appalls me when men who claim to be Christians think nothing of making crude comments about a woman’s body and weight. Remarks such as these make it so obvious that a man’s eyes are going in the wrong direction. Have they forgotten Jesus’ teachings concerning lust? These remarks also reveal a basic attitude of disrespect toward women, not to mention a double standard of unreasonable expectations. Why do overweight men who indulge themselves somehow expect a woman to be uniformly beautiful and flawlessly thin, and why should the outward appearance be so important? I believe the men of our modern culture, even in Christian circles, hold a philosophy that values women only for the pleasure they give to men.
Scripture teaches that baptized believers are all equal in Christ, for “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Galations 3:27).” Christian men are told to “dwell with [their wives] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered” (I Peter 3:7). Women are “weaker” in the sense that Dresden china is “weaker” than thick pottery. Most world religions make second-class citizens of women (especially Islam), but not Christianity. The founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, treated women with great respect; all who purport to follow Him must do likewise.
Christianity should permeate the culture with this attitude of respect, rather than adopting the culture of disrespect.
Scripture teaches that baptized believers are all equal in Christ, for “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Galations 3:27).” Christian men are told to “dwell with [their wives] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered” (I Peter 3:7). Women are “weaker” in the sense that Dresden china is “weaker” than thick pottery. Most world religions make second-class citizens of women (especially Islam), but not Christianity. The founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, treated women with great respect; all who purport to follow Him must do likewise.
Christianity should permeate the culture with this attitude of respect, rather than adopting the culture of disrespect.
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