A Husband’s Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,

Thank you for the joy of marriage and the truth its picture represents.
Thank you for loving the Church – your Bride.

Lord, you have given me the responsibility to be the head of my family.
Help me to realize that my leadership in the home
must take place within the framework of submission to you.
Help me to love my family sacrificially, as you have loved the church.

Thank you for the truths found in your Word.
Help me to find the Scriptures sufficient for guidance and wisdom.

You are the Wonderful Counselor, our Awesome God.
You take our frail and fallen human stories and experiences
and weave them together into a patchwork of praise to your glory.

Help me to submit always to your will and to lead my family in grace and truth.
Amen.

- Trevin Wax

Love that Conquers the World

The love for equals is a human thing – of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.

The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing – the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.

The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing –to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.

And then there is love for the enemy – love for the one who does not love you, but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.

- Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, pg. 105

In the Blogosphere

Nick Moore writes of the nature of church discipline and the right and wrong ways we go about it. A terrific word of challenge, encouragement, and warning to those who wish to reinstate this practice.

Many evangelicals have recently been asking the question: Is our gospel too small? Now, some evangelicals are pushing back. D.A. Carson recently warned against making the gospel too big by downplaying those doctrines “of first importance.” David Fitch writes about how making the gospel too big may actually hinder effective evangelism. Much-needed conversation and dialogue!

Tullian Tchividjian’s upcoming book Unfashionable is terrific. Check out this excerpt on his blog: “When Shock Gives Way to Submission.”

An interesting article on the nature of male friendships in previous centuries. Some of these pictures may surprise you.

Christianity Today compares the Democratic and Republican party platforms plank-by-plank on issues important to evangelicals.

I like Rick Warren more and more these days. He’s leading the charge in providing a civil political conversation for evangelicals. Check out this interview, in which he insists that evangelicals are not moving left on abortion.

Do you want to live longer? Have more kids.

Tony Kummer launches Sunday School Wiki. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

Top Post this Week at Kingdom People: Top 5 Christian Theologians – Who Did I Leave Out?

Coming up next week at Kingdom People… We’ll take a look at a new book about postmodern conversions. I am writing a post about how truth is beautiful and should therefore lead to beautiful presentations of truth. I am wrapping up my series on “Gospel Definitions” from scholars and pastors. If you have come across a definition of “the gospel” that I have never posted on the blog (see the list here), then by all means, send it my way.

Interview with John D’Elia on the Legacy of G.E. Ladd

Yesterday, I reviewed a new book by John A. D’Elia on the legacy of George Eldon Ladd. Today, I am following up that review with a few questions for John about his book on Ladd. John is the senior minister of the American Church in London and is author of A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America.

Trevin Wax: In your book, you claim that George Eldon Ladd attempted to rehabilitate evangelical scholarship in the United States. How did he go about doing this?

John D’Elia: Ladd grew up in an evangelical environment where participation in the broader world of
scholarship had been largely abandoned. After the Scopes Trial in 1925 many evangelicals retreated into their own safe networks of Bible colleges and seminaries, churches and missions organizations, and as a result lost their voice among people who believed differently than they did. Ladd–and others in his era–believed that the call to Christian leadership was a call to engagement rather than separation, and so he set out to rehabilitate the image and content of evangelical scholarship in the broader academy. It should be made clear here that Ladd and his fellow travelers saw this as their contribution to the evangelistic efforts of evangelicalism. It wasn’t a sellout or accommodation, but rather a brave attempt to be a witness for Christ in the secular academy.

The ‘how’ part of this question is important: Ladd earned a Ph.D. under the rigorous guidance of
Harvard’s liberal faculty, and emerged with his conservative theology intact. He then published books
and articles within and beyond the traditional conservative boundaries, and earned a hearing from–if
not the respect of–many non-evangelical readers. He spoke at scholarly conferences and participated in a wide range of academic activities. That’s how he sought to rehabilitate both the image and content of evangelical scholarship in the broader culture.

Trevin Wax: How did Ladd’s thought develop over his lifetime?

John D’Elia: Ladd started out as a committed dispensationalist, but abandoned it gradually over time. That’s really the only dramatic shift in his thought until his death. What’s interesting to me is that he retained a very conservative theological outlook without what he perceived to be the militant excesses of dispensationalism. Ladd argued not against dispensationalism, but rather against the tendency among dispensationalists to reject any biblical interpretation that didn’t match their own.

Trevin Wax: You write about Ladd’s negative reaction to a review of Jesus and the Kingdom by Norman Perrin. Why do you think Ladd reacted so strongly?

John D’Elia: Well, Ladd was a pretty broken guy in many ways. He was mistreated by his dad, who then died in his first days in college. The family was poor and debt-ridden, and he was very tall and gawky. Ladd remembered being ridiculed because of his looks both at school and at home. That he grew into an adult with some emotional wounds is not surprising. What was tragic was the way this brutal review landed in the midst of those wounds and tore them open. Ladd wanted to do something great for the Kingdom, and when it didn’t happen he was wounded deeply.

Trevin Wax: What is the legacy of Ladd’s scholarly work? Does his legacy go beyond his historic premillennialism?

John D’Elia: Ladd’s legacy within evangelical scholarship is hard to overstate. I argue in the book that he carved out a place for evangelicals in what was then the threatening and bewildering world of critical biblical scholarship. By demystifying the methods of critical scholarship, Ladd made them available to evangelicals who wanted to use them in their study of the Scriptures. Historic premillennialism, then, is really an incidental part of Ladd’s story. The real achievement in Ladd’s career can be found in the wide range of biblical scholars who sat at his feet and then went on to make their own mark. Those scholars are as diverse as John Piper and Robert Mounce on the
one side, and Eldon Epp and Charles Carlston on the other.

Trevin Wax: What lessons can seminary students and professors learn from Ladd’s personal failures as well as his achievements?

John D’Elia: Obviously Ladd’s story functions as a cautionary tale for those who want to make an impact for the Kingdom in any endeavor. As a working pastor I know that God’s plan isn’t always the same as ours, and that trusting Him means acknowledging that we might not each become the next Billy Graham, or Bill Bright, or even George Ladd. Our identity–and I’m switching gears now to exhortation–is found in being forgiven sinners who are called to serve God and His world. When we forget that we run the risk of opening wounds just as deep as the ones that tormented Ladd.

But as I write that I want to make it clear that despite his brokenness, Ladd represents a truly heroic sort of Christian service that we don’t see much anymore in our world of specialization and polarization. Whatever else he failed at, and I admit that’s a pretty long list, Ladd engaged the culture of his day with faith and courage. He made a difference that continues today for believers who hear God’s call to be witnesses to the Gospel in every corner (and profession) of the earth. Whatever Ladd’s personal failures may have been, he served his Lord and Savior with distinction and passion, and never lost sight of the fact that all of our work plays a part in taking the saving message of Jesus Christ to all the nations of the world.

Ladd’s life is not only a warning. It takes a double-dose of gall for any of us to focus only on Ladd’s failures, without at least a nod to his enormous achievement at a crucial time in church history. So much time and effort was wasted in the postwar era on squabbles and division among Christians. It was men like George Ladd who tried to rise above the static and express the Gospel clearly and faithfully to a world that needed to hear it badly.

Book Review: A Place at the Table

Fifty years ago, evangelicals were mired in endless debates over theories about the Last Days. Dispensational theology dominated the outlook of most evangelical scholarship and (for many) had become a key doctrine that determined whether one was orthodox or not.

Evangelical scholars found themselves largely ignored by the wider world of academia. Many happily ignored the academy in return. The scholarly dimension of evangelical identity was faltering as the movement was plagued by in-house squabbles and debates.

Into this defining era of evangelical controversy came George Eldon Ladd, professor of New Testament at Fuller Seminary from 1950-82 and one of the most important voices in 20th century evangelicalism. Though Ladd may remain unknown to most evangelicals in the pews, he left a legacy that continues to bear fruit within the evangelical academy. His theology also brought to many evangelical churches a new openness to different eschatological interpretations. 

Ladd broke through the sterile debates about whether the kingdom of God was a present, spiritual reality or a future, earthly reality. He popularized a view of the kingdom as having two dimensions: “already/not yet.” Ladd was also one of the first solid evangelical scholars to go outside the fundamentalist camp in order to interact with liberal scholars in the academy, men like Rudolph Bultmann.

John A. D’Elia has recently completed a fascinating biographical look at this evangelical theologian. A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America (Oxford University Press, 2008) details Ladd’s early life, his conversion and his academic preparation. D’Elia describes the difficulty Ladd had in obtaining his own education. He shows how Ladd’s childhood negatively affected his later life, specifically his marriage and family life.

A Place at the Table is much more than a biographical sketch of Ladd’s life. D’Elia cautiously enters into the theological discussion he describes in order to spotlight Ladd’s contributions to evangelical scholarship and his interactions with scholars from outside the evangelical world. Those who read D’Elia’s book will receive an education, not merely regarding the historical aspects of Ladd’s interesting life, but also regarding the theological debates of the time.

Readers like myself may be surpised by the fact that Dispensationalism was viewed as a test of orthodoxy for evangelicals in the 1950’s. Ladd showed great courage in going against the Dispensational tide. His appeal to evangelicals to not blacklist each other over secondary issues is one of his most admirable qualities.

A Place at the Table is an educational look at Ladd’s life and accomplishments - the good, bad, and the ugly. D’Elia does not shy away from describing Ladd’s personal failures. Ladd lived many years with a crumbling marriage, a neglected family, and a heavy drinking problem. Obsessed with his desire to make a splash in the broader acadmic world, Ladd is crushed by another theologian’s negative review of his work. In the last decade of his life, Ladd came to see his attempts at engaging scholarship outside of evangelicalism as a “fool’s dream,” and he entered a period of depression from which he never fully recovered.

And yet, D’Elia’s biography shows rays of hope in Ladd’s later life. As a scholar passionate about the Great Commission, Ladd would often get choked up when talking about the gospel. He deeply mourned the loss of his wife. Amazingly, some of his most difficult years personally were some of his most productive professionally.

A Place at the Table provides valuable lessons for seminary students or other evangelical scholars. Ladd’s example serves to remind us of the importance of cherishing our families. Ladd’s example also serves as a warning against overestimating the opinions of others. And D’Elia’s description of the theological debates of the 1950’s provides some needed perspective regarding the debates that are currently raging in evangelicalism today.

Readers of A Place at the Table may be disappointed to discover that Ladd is not a larger-than-life hero, but a flawed Christian whom God used mightily in spite of his sins and failures. One senses the “already/not yet” nature of the kingdom pulsating through the narrative of Ladd’s life. Had Ladd’s personal life demonstrated a little more of the “already,” perhaps the story would have had a different outcome. After finishing the book, I felt a strange mixture of sadness and hopefulness, and a deep yearning for the “not yet” which Ladd so strongly proclaimed. 

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog 

Gospel Definitions: D.A. Carson

The gospel is integrally tied to the Bible’s story-line. Indeed, it is incomprehensible without understanding that story-line.

God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image-bearers.

Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath.

But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects.

In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel.

- D.A. Carson

Summarizing 1 Corinthians 15

1. The gospel is Christological.
2. The gospel is theological.
3. The gospel is biblical.
4. The gospel is apostolic.
5. The gospel is historical.
6. The gospel is personal.
7. The gospel is universal.
8. The gospel is eschatological.

- D.A. Carson, from “What is the Gospel?” – Gospel Coalition Address

Busyness versus Simplicity

In the United States, our lives are fast and busy. Big is better. Time is money.

In Romania, the mindset is very different, especially in the villages. The pace is slow and relaxed.

At first, this lack of intensity bothered me. I wanted to get things done fast, to get to my destination quickly, to finish all that I had on my agenda.

But soon, I was taken in by the relaxed, ambling lifestyle of the Romanian countryside. I found myself preferring to walk somewhere, even if it took more time than catching a cab. A walk was an opportunity to talk with friends and enjoy the company of others. The slowness of the world became something to enjoy, not something to speed up.

We are over-entertained in America. People plan their time together around vacations, sight-seeing, special events, concerts, movies, and TV shows. None of these activities are inherently bad, of course.

But isn’t it true that these activities can sometimes take away from the simplicity and joy of just spending time with people? Do you ever stop to think: Why do we have to always be on the run? Why not devote several hours to friends at home, even if you’re not playing a game, watching TV, or heading out to eat?

Often, when the village teenagers would come to visit me in the city, we would take long walks through the streets, talking and laughing and enjoying friendship. We could’ve taken a tram or a taxi so as to get where we wanted quickly. But what would’ve been the purpose? There was no TV to watch, no program to catch, nothing that had to be done in the next five minutes. So why not walk? Why not enjoy the fresh Spring air? Why not talk on the way there?

I fear that we have become dependent upon entertainment and constant activity. This dependence (now made even more possible by technology) enslaves us to doing whatever seems fun for the moment. Meanwhile, we miss out on relationships that will last for a lifetime.

Not long after I moved to Romania, I began noticing that many of my Romanian friendships seemed so much deeper than my American friendships. Why? The Romanian friendships were built on quality time, good conversation and honesty, whereas many of my American friendships were built on activities, hopping from one fun thing to the next, with very little time for quality conversation.

There is an upside to keeping people at an arm’s length. When relationships are simple, you don’t have to take risks. If a deep friendship turns sour, you might experience some hurt. For me, the risk is worth it. There is nothing better than experiencing the fruitful friendships that God has created his people for.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Something to Say

“I have something to say to you.”
- Jesus speaking to Simon (Luke 7:40)

Get ready. When you open your home up to Jesus, like Simon the Pharisee did in Luke 7, you are inviting the challenge and conviction that comes from Jesus’ teachings.

Allow me to warn you. When Jesus is present in your home, there are moments in which you will understand clearly that he is speaking to you personally, saying, “Listen up, I’ve got something to say to you!”

All of us slip into temptation. We give way to that little white lie. We allow our minds to fill with lust. We curse someone else in our heart. We cast judgment on another person.

In those moments, Jesus, who knows our thoughts just like he knew those of Simon, says sternly, “I have something to say to you.”

How we react in that moment reveals the level at which we are devoted to Jesus.

Some of us avoid Jesus’ presence by refusing to make time to sit down, open up his Word and discover what he says. 

Some of us actually avoid Jesus by throwing ourselves into ministry - filling our time doing the tangible and visible aspects of churchwork. Better to be ”busy for the kingdom” than to sit down and through his Word discover what he has to say about our inner thoughts and “unnoticed” sins.

Some of us respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit by arguing our case. We are not open to Jesus’ words because we are too busy trying to justify ourselves, all the while aware that we are in the wrong and once again, he is in the right.

When Jesus whispers, “I have something to say to you,” our response should be like that of Simon’s: “Say it, Teacher.” It’s also the way Samuel responded: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

We won’t always like what Jesus has to say to us, as he constantly challenges us to adopt a new way of thinking and moves us toward greater maturity – growth that makes us uncomfortable.

But if we are truly disciples, we cannot dismiss his Word, and neither can we refuse to obey it.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Help Me Live in Light of Your Victory

God, my Father,
Thank you for beginning in me
this process of being conformed into the image of your Son.
Thank you for delivering me from the power of sin,
crucifying my flesh and its desires.
Thank you for making possible my living unto you -
a life of faith in your Son, who gave himself for me.

Lord, it is disheartening at times to know that,
though I have been crucified with you,
I still battle temptations to sin.
I often live as if your victory on the cross were imaginary, 
and instead of bask in your victory, I wallow in my defeat.

Help me to take courage when facing spiritual battles,
knowing that you have the power to put to death my fleshly desires.
Continue to stomp out my pride,
my self-centered nature, my wandering will,
and my stubbornness.
I want to become less and less,
in order that you may increase.

May you fill me with your Holy Spirit,
so that I will die daily to myself,
in order that you may live ever more fully within me and through me,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

- Trevin Wax

Top 5 Christian Theologians: Who Did I Leave Out?

This week, I devoted one post each day to the Top 5 Most Important Theologians in Christian history. Here are the five I considered to have been most influential:

Athanasius of Alexandria

Augustine of Hippo

Thomas Aquinas

John Calvin

Karl Barth

What follows is a list of honorable mentions: theologians who impacted Christian theology in important ways, but who (usually for a few good reasons) do not make the Top 5 List.

Irenaeus – for his apologetic defense of historic Christianity in the face of Gnosticism. He also popularized the recapitulation theory of the atonement

Anselm of Canterbury – founder of scholasticism. Formulated the ontological argument for God’s existence.

Martin Luther - for his instrumental role in the Reformation. He was definitely a theologian in his own right, although I see him more as a revolutionary than a theologian. Calvin is the one who took the Reformation insights and systematized them and therefore becomes more influential as a theologian.

Friedrich Schleiermacher & Adolf von Harnack - Schleiermacher made the subjective experience of the believer (specifically the feeling of total dependency) the center of theology and thus became the “Father of Liberalism.” Together with the later work of Adolph von Harnack, these two packed quite a punch. The reverberations continue to echo throughout Christian theology.

John Wesley - an important leader of a renewal movement within Anglicanism which eventually became Methodism and the Holiness churches. While probably deserving a place in the Top Ten or Fifteen, I don’t believe Wesley’s theological contributions earn him a Top 5 ranking.

Jonathan Edwards – If I were making a list of the Top 5 Most Important American Theologians, then Edwards would probably be #1. A fine preacher and interpreter of Puritan theology, Edwards’ legacy cast a long shadow over American evangelicalism.

C.S. Lewis – I don’t consider him to be primarily a theologian. He was a terrific apologist, and he ably articulated the essentials of the Christian faith. But one can hardly speak of a “Lewisian” school of theology that has grown up because of his contributions.

Who else do you think of? Did I get these right or wrong?

Top 5 Christian Theologians: Karl Barth

KARL BARTH

Dates Lived:  1886-1968

Most important works:

• The Epistle to the Romans (1922)
• Church Dogmatics (1968)

Biggest Contributions:

• Sought to recover the doctrine of the Trinity, which had been practically abandoned by radical liberalism
• Believed the Bible was a witness to the Word of God (Jesus)
• Viewed doctrine of election and predestination as centered upon Christ
• Stressed the paradoxical nature of divine truth

Favorite Quotes

“God is not an abstract category by which even the Christian understanding of the word can be measured, but he who is called God is the one God, the single God, the sole God.”

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”

“Belief cannot argue with unbelief, it can only preach to it.”

“The best theology would need no advocates: it would prove itself.”

“No one can be saved – in virtue of what he can do. Everyone can be saved – in virtue of what God can do.”

“Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way.

Once a young student asked Barth if he could sum up what was most important about his life’s work and theology in just a few words. Barth just thought for a moment and then smiled,

“Yes, in the words of a song my mother used to sing me, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”

“If I have done anything in this life of mine, I have done it as a relative of hte donkey that went its way carrying an important burden. The disciples had said to its owner: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ And so it seems to have pleased God to have used me at this time… I was permitted to be the donkey that carried this better theology for part of the way, or tried to carry it as best I could.”

In the Blogosphere

Scot McKnight on the future of theology: Christopher Wright and N.T. Wright

Michael Kelley on discipleship: Believe, Become, Behave. And in that order.

Will you pray for your professors?

Z lets us know what contemporary hymns he uses when leading worship.

Michael Spencer interviews Southeastern Seminary professor Nathan Finn on the issue of church membership.

Collin Hansen reflects on the Saddleback Civil Forum with John McCain and Barack Obama.

Justin Taylor offers some insight into bettering your writing skills and creating a good book proposal.

Top Post this week at Kingdom People: Saddleback Forum Video & Transcript: Barack Obama and John McCain with Rick Warren

Top 5 Christian Theologians: John Calvin

JOHN CALVIN

Dates Lived:  1509-1564

Most important work:

• Institutes of the Christian Religion (1560)

Biggest Contributions:

• Emphasized the penal substitutionary view of the atonement
• Overarching commitment to the Augustinian notion of the sovereignty of God in salvation
• Taught that Scripture must interpret Scripture
• Used the concept of the Covenant as the organizing principle for Christian theology

Favorite Quotes

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

God cannot be comprehended by us, except as far as he accomodates himself to our standard.

It was Christ’s task to swallow up death. Who but Life could do this? It was his task to conquer sin. Who but very Righteousness could do this? It was his task to rout the powers of the world and air. Who but a power higher than the world and air could do this? Therefore, our most merciful God, when he willed that we be redeemed, made himself our Redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son.

Every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols.

It is better that I should leave untouched what I cannot explain.

Keep hold of both of these points: our prayers are anticipated by God in his freedom, yet, what we ask we gain by prayer.

When the gospel is preached in the name of God, it is as if God himself spoke in person.

God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us – as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray.

True religion and worship of God arise out of faith, so that no one duly serves God save him who has been educated in his school.

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.

Book Review: Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse

If you read as much theology as I do, then you probably feel the need from time to time to take a break. I came across Jason Boyett’s Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse: The Official Field Manual for the End of the World (Relevant books, 2005) in a bargain bin at a local Christian bookstore. I took it home that afternoon and read it from cover to cover. The book definitely delivers what it promises: an entertaining, lighthearted look at the best and worse of Christian speculation of the End Times.

The book opens with a glossary of the most relevant apocalyptic terms. I first thought that beginning a book with a glossary would be boring. But that’s because I was underestimating Boyett’s corny/clever sense of humor.

For example, under the heading for Abaddon, Boyett gives a brief definition of the chief fallen Angel from revelation, and then he makes sure we don’t confuse Abaddon with “the German death metal band of the same name, renowned for their combination of classical music with melodic black metal and philosophical lyrics. Also horrifying, but in a completely different way.” Using the term in a sentence, he writes: ”Don’t select that mangy dog from the pound. It might be Abaddon.”

The Pocket Guide features a chronicle of End-Times scares and prophets from 2000 B.C. until today. If you think the Last Days madness phenomenon has only appeared recently, you should look into Boyett’s book. The number of Last Days prophets that have appeared throughout Christian history will surprise you. Even a cursory glance over the list of weird prophets and prophecies provides important perspective on today’s doomsayers.

The funniest section of Boyett’s book lays out a list of “potential anti-christs” and how each manages to (loosely) match up to the list of characteristics found in Scripture. Boyett includes Nero, Hitler, Saddam – but also Reagan, Kennedy, Gorbachev, and Bill Gates! From reading the chapter, it seems that Boyett went to the internet to find the looniest choices for Antichrist in the world and then showed how the conspiracy theorists will make anything fit their view.

(How does Ronald Reagan go hand-in-hand with the number 666? “Ronald Wilson Reagan: three names, six letters each. There’s your 666. Plus, when the president and Nancy retired, they lived in a Bel Air mansion given to them by wealthy friends. Its address? 666 St. Cloud Road. Nancy had the number changed to 668.” How’s that for proof?)

Boyett quickly summarizes the different interpretations of Revelation, specifically regarding the Millennium and the Rapture. But the reader should not expect an accurate academic summary of these views. Boyett rushes through the material, providing comic relief along the way and more than a few historical anecdotes. He doesn’t take himself seriously enough to worry about a few minor errors in his descriptions, and neither do I.

Boyett’s Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse is a lot of fun. It would make a good bathroom book for any student of theology!

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

 

Related Articles:
I Love Revelation, but Eschatology Scares Me
Book Review: The Apocalypse Code
Book Review: Surprised by Hope

 

Top 5 Christian Theologians: Thomas Aquinas

THOMAS AQUINAS

Dates Lived:  1225-1274

Most important works:

• Summa Theologica (1274)
• Summa Contra Gentiles (1264)

Biggest Contributions:

• Believed that a combination of Faith and Reason led to true knowledge of God
• Sought rational proofs for the existence of God
• Greatly influenced the Catholic notions of mortal and venial sins
• Popularized the rising view of the Lord’s Supper known as “transubstantiation”
• Apologist for Christianity in a time in which Islam was increasing rapidly

Favorite Quotes

“All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.”

“The sole way to overcome an adversary of divine truth is from the authority of Scripture.”

“Reason contains certain likenesses of what belongs to faith, and certain preambles to it, as nature is a preamble to grace.”

“In God there is pure truth, with which no falsity or deception can be mingled.”

“If the only way open to us for the knowledge of God were solely that of reason, the human race would remain in the blackest shadows of ignorance.”

“Knowledge must be through faith.”

“All the good that is in a man is due to God.”

Book Review: Simple Spirituality

American life today is increasingly cluttered. We live in a fast-paced society that claims the answer to our insatiable appetites is in the unfettered pursuit of more stuff. Unfortunately, the church has often become complicit in this lie, offering us tips to better our lives rather than grace that transforms our vision of reality.

No wonder that many are now issuing a call for simplicity – a spirituality that shuns the materialistic impulses of our culture and finds true satisfaction in the way of Jesus.

Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World (IVP, 2008) is written by Chris Heuertz, international director of Word Made Flesh, an organization that reaches out to the most vulnerable of the world’s poor. In Simple Spirituality, Chris shares the insights he has gained while working with the poor and encourages the church to capture his vision of ministering to the less fortunate.

Shane Claiborne writes in the foreword:

“This is a book about a spirituality that leads us all to life – about how the poor need the rich and the rich need the poor, and how all of us are in need of God.” (11)

In his call for a simple spirituality, Chris centers his book on five principles:

• Humility
• Community
• Simplicity
• Submission
• Brokenness

Throughout his narrative, he speaks about how he has found Christ in the faces of the poor:

“As we look upon the faces of our friends who are poor, as we see the children, friends begging on the streets, and those in need, we are being confronted by Christ. He is placing before us an opportunity to love and serve him through the needs of the impoverished. He is offering an invitation to his community.” (70)

There is much in this book that I relate too. I know what it is like to see people digging through your trash. Having ministered among the poorest of the Romanian Gypsies, I can identify with Chris’ desire to wake the American church out of its slumber of complacency. Some of my most joyous times in Christian ministry have been with the poorest of the poor.

And yet, I differ from Chris in that I do not claim to have found Christ in the “poor” in some generic sense. I have seen the face of Christ in the Christian poor people that I have encountered – impoverished Christians who give out of their poverty to help other poor people.

For Chris, poverty=Christlikeness. I agree that we in the West can and should learn from the poor, but we should make a distinction here. As Christians, we see Jesus in our brothers and sisters – not merely in any poor person.

I appreciated the emphasis that Simple Spirituality places on the nature of unmerited grace. The poverty that Chris has witnessed has deepened his appreciation for grace - both receiving and showing it. But Chris never bases grace in the cross. Grace as unmerited favor is held in high esteem, and yet personal salvation and evangelism goes unmentioned.

The best chapter in Simple Spirituality is the one that calls us to simplicity. Christians would do well to read and implement Chris’ insights in this chapter. As more and more people bow down to the idols of success, entertainment, and money, a return to simplicity in an effort to follow the way of Jesus is timely. I relate to Chris’ difficulty in wrestling with the disparity of excess versus extreme poverty or the question of how to treat beggars.

Chris’ chapter on power is the weakest. He does well to show the radical nature of power being focused through service, yet he fails to take biblical authority into account. At one point, he skips over a few biblical texts on submission and merely asserts a strong egalitarianism.

While the illustrations are memorable and much of Chris’ advice helpful, Simple Spirituality is severely hampered by poor theology that leaves little room for the nature of true salvation. However, Chris is right to seek to wake us up to the realities of the world we live in. He writes:

“We want to let God in, but usually on our terms. We want to make room for Christ to reign on the thrones of our hearts, but only a clean Christ, who doesn’t make a mess of our lives.”

Absolutely. That’s why Simple Spirituality, despite its many flaws, still serves as a good reminder that the way of Jesus is narrow, messy, and difficult – but its rewards are incalculable.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog 

Top 5 Christian Theologians: Augustine

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Dates Lived:  354-430

Most important works:

• Confessions (398)
• On the Trinity (416)
• On Christian Doctrine (426)
• The City of God (426)

Biggest Contributions:

• Articulated the doctrine of original sin and God’s grace through divine predestination over against Pelagius’ emphasis on free will and innate human goodness
• Proposed a distinction between the “church visible” and the “church invisible”
• Popularized the amillennial view of the End Times, which has become the most dominant throughout church history
• Wrote about the relationship between church and state; he was the first to advocate the idea of a “just war”
• Developed a sacramental theology that would form the foundation of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church

Favorite Quotes

“You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” (Confessions I, i, 1)  

“Give what You command, and command what You will.” (Confessions X, xxix, 40)

“Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.” – (Sermons 191.1)

“Excess is the enemy of God.”

“If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”

“To sing once is to pray twice.”

“Love God, and do whatever you please.” Sermon on 1 John 7, 8

“Works not rooted in God are splendid sins.”

Related Posts:
A Look at Augustine’s Confessions
Augustine: The Early Years
Augustine’s Fruitless Pursuit
Augustine’s Conversion
Augustine: Let Me Know You

Gospel Definitions: Pope Benedict XVI

“The term has recently been translated as ‘good news.’ That sounds attractive, but it falls far short of the order of magnitude of what is actually meant by the word evangelion. This term figures in the vocabulary of the Roman emperors, who understood themselves as lords, saviors, and redeemers of the world…. The idea was that what comes from the emperor is a saving message, that it is not just a piece of news, but a changing of the world for the better.

“When the Evangelists adopt this word, and it thereby becomes the generic name for their writings, what they mean to tell us is this: What the emperors, who pretend to be gods, illegitimately claim, really occurs here – a message endowed with plenary authority, a message that is not just talk but reality…. the Gospel is not just informative speech, but performative speech – not just the imparting of information, but action, efficacious power that enters into the world to save and transform. Mark speaks of the ‘Gospel of God,’ the point being that it is not the emperors who can save the world, but God. And it is here that God’s word, which is at once word and deed, appears; it is here that what the emperors merely assert, but cannot actually perform, truly takes place. For here it is the real Lord of the world – the Living God – who goes into action.

“The core of the Gospel is this: The Kingdom of God is at hand.“

- Pope Benedict XVI, from Jesus of Nazareth, pgs. 46-47.

Top 5 Christian Theologians: Athanasius

ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA

Dates Lived:  298-373

Most important works:

• On the Incarnation (317)
• The Nicene Creed (325)

Biggest Contributions:

• Untiring advocate for Trinitarian theology against Arianism. In fact, much of the way we think about the Trinity goes back to his efforts.
• A biography of Anthony the Great that inspired the monastic movement
• First to identify the 27 books currently in our New Testament
• Main author of the Nicene Creed, unarguably the most important creed in Christian history.

Favorite Quotes

“The Jesus whom I know as my Redeemer cannot be less than God.”

“The Son of God became man so that men might become sons of God.”

“You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.”

“[We believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come again to judge the living and the dead…” - from the 325 version of The Nicene Creed 

 

Saddleback Forum Video & Transcript: Obama / McCain with Rick Warren

For those of you who missed the Leadership and Compassion Forum, hosted by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church on Saturday, August 16… here are the videos from the evening, featuring both John McCain and Barack Obama answering questions from Pastor Rick Warren. (You can access the full transcript here and a nice side-by-side comparison of the candidates’ answers here.)

BARACK OBAMA WITH RICK WARREN AT SADDLEBACK CIVIL FORUM

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

JOHN MCCAIN WITH RICK WARREN AT SADDLEBACK CIVIL FORUM

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Related Posts:
McCain / Obama Debate Video & Transcript
Funniest Campaign Moments of Election 2008
Yes We Can? What Our Campaign Slogans Tell Us About America
Clinton Lashes Out at Pro-Lifers
Why We Are Pro-Life
Social Security Crisis’ Dark Side: Abortion
Letter to Bill O’Reilly Regarding the Desecration of the Sacrament
Death of a Dictator

Jesus Makes Morning and Evening Rejoice

“Jesus Christ
who makes morning and evening rejoice,
shed in my soul your light, and love, and life,
so that I may be as pure and radiant
as alpine heights at dawn, and noon, and evening.”

- F.B. Meyer

No Such Thing as “The Culture”

“Finding our place in the world as culture makers requires us to pay attention to culture’s many dimensions. We will make something of the world in a particular ethnic tradition, in particular spheres, at particular scales. There is no such thing as ‘the Culture,’ and any attempt to talk about ‘the Culture,’ especially in terms of ‘transforming the Culture,’ is misled and misleading. Real culture making, not to mention cultural transformation, begins with a decision about which cultural world – or better, worlds – we will attempt to make something of.

“Some people choose a set of cultural ripples that was not originally their own. When they do so in pursuit of economic or political opportunities, we’ve traditionally called them ‘immigrants’; when they do so in pursuit of evangelistic or religious opportunities, we’ve called them ‘missionaries.’ But as wheels within wheels overlap more and more in a mobile world, most of us have some choice about which cultures we will call our own. We are almost all immigrants now, and more of us than we may realize are missionaries too.”

- Andy Crouch, from Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling, pgs. 48-49.

Who Are the Most Important Christian Theologians?

Who are the most important, most influential theologians in Christian history?  If you had to narrow down your list to five, who would you choose?

After having discussed this question with several seminary students, professors and theologians, I have chosen the five theologians who I believe have left the most lasting influence on Christian theology and practice.

Beginning on Monday of next week, we’ll look at one theologian a day. I’ll provide a brief biographical sketch, some major contributions to Christian theology, and then some of my favorite quotes.

But until Monday, let’s open up the lines of discussion. Which five would you pick? And why?

In the Blogosphere

Robbie Sagers reflects on his recent visit to the Church Basement Road Show “revival” meeting with Emerging Church leaders.

Michael Spencer is dead-on. Some of our enthusiasm for “engaging Hollywood” is just a mask to cover up how much we love to be entertained.

Check out this preview for Mark Driscoll’s new book, Death by Love.

Is there Ageism in the Southern Baptist Convention?

This church in Tennessee is hosting a conference centered on renewing traditional churches.

Top Post this Week at Kingdom People: Steven Curtis Chapman on Larry King Live (Video)

Coming up next week: Look for a list of the top five most important Christian theologians; I’ll also be reviewing a new book advocating simplicity in spirituality.

Interview with Red Mountain Church

A couple of years ago, I was browsing the LifeWay bookstore at Southern Seminary and came across an odd-looking red CD called The Gadsby Project by a group called Red Mountain Church. I listened to a couple of tracks and was intrigued by the forgotten hymns that were included on the project. I bought the CD and went home to listen some more. The next day, I went back to the bookstore and bought all their CDs.

You might be unfamiliar with Red Mountain Church. The group is based in Birmingham, Alabama. They take old hymn texts and put them to new music. They have five CDs available (and one on the way) – all of which are worthy of attention.

I recently recorded a podcast interview with three of the main musicians/singers for Red Mountain Church: Brian Murphy, Clint Wells, and Ashley Spurling (the main vocalist… listen to a couple of her songs and you’ll realize why). The interview also includes snippets of some of their songs.

Some of the questions I ask:

• Why the Gadsby hymnbook?
• How do you come up with the new melodies for the old hymns?
• What’s the writing process like?
• What project is coming up next?

Download the interview here: (Right-click, and then choose “Save Target As…” to your computer).

Visit their website to hear more clips.

Check out some of their lighter stuff on YouTube.

Book Review: Who Gets to Narrate the World?

One of the last books from Robert Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals (IVP, 2008) may become one of his best-remembered. Though the book is brief (137 pages), it is a substantive work that addresses the fundamental spiritual issue of our day: Whose worldview will triumph? Or as Webber puts it: Who gets to narrate the world?

Written during Webber’s battle with cancer shortly before his death, Who Gets to Narrate the World exhibits a personal urgency that stands out among his other books. The ideas flow freely and quickly here, with Webber pleading for renewal of Western Christianity in the face of the challenges of our day.

Webber sees both an external challenge (Radical Islam) and an internal challenge (Christian accommodation to culture) facing the church. He believes we should respond to these two challenges by embracing the fullness of God’s meta-narrative. Webber passionately pleads for the restoration of God’s narrative – a restoration that will bring change to our churches, reinvigorate our worship, and refortify the pillars of Western civilization.

Who Gets to Narrate the World describes the rise of early Christianity in the context of pagan Rome, and how a biblical worldview formed the foundations of Western civilization. Webber then seeks to explain how the Christian story was lost through its accommodation to culture. Today, secular relativism and pluralism cannot uphold our postmodern, post-Christian, neo-pagan world. The foundations of Western civilization are crumbling under the threat of radical Islam. Webber’s urgent tone is buoyed by the strong hope that God story can revive the West and reinvigorate the life of the Church.

Webber’s book at times resembles the later thought of Francis Schaeffer (though Webber replaces “worldview” terminology with “narrative”). He argues that reason and science in the modern world have become the enemy of God’s narrative through the separation of the secular from the sacred. Turning to the historic understanding of the incarnation, Webber seeks to show that life cannot be separated into sacred/secular distinctions. He rightly claims that the Christian Story (worldview) stands against the other stories. It is “the Holy Spirit versus jihad” (88).

Also Schaefferian is Webber’s solidly pro-life stance (92), his approval of exclusive Christian truth claims, and his belief that the Western culture has moved into a cycle of decay. Webber makes the case for democracy as the most superior form of government devised by humanity. He even applauds Democratic efforts to restrain Radical Islam.

But Webber rightly refuses to equate democracy with the Christian story and forcefully argues against the dangers of civil religion. He compares September 11, 2001 to the Fall of Rome in A.D. 410, and writes:

“In a world that has no story, new contenders are emerging to narrate the world their way” (99).

In the past, Webber has been dismissive of the penal substitutionary understanding of the atonement in favor of the Christus Victor model. But in Who Gets to Narrate the World, Webber seems to have softened his stance towards penal substitution, allowing the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death to peek through in many places. He affirms that Christ gave himself as a propitiation for our sins and that he came to be damned for us all. “In Jesus, God comes in human skin to reverse the human condition and reconcile humanity to the Father” (32).

Webber’s description of God’s narrative emerging in a pagan Roman world is very insightful. Roman culture was one of moral decadence, philosophical relativism, and religious pluralism. By pointing back to the Christian faith in the Roman cultural setting, Weber finds the tools necessary to sustain Christianity in today’s world. The similarities between ancient Rome and contemporary Western society are striking.

Yet for all of its brilliant insights, Who Gets to Narrate the World does have a few problems. Webber tends to create false dichotomies. In an overreaction against rationalistic apologetics, he turns to “narrative truth” instead of propositional truth. And yet, he seems to miss the very propositional nature of the creeds he himself quotes and affirms (27-28). 

Webber’s reduction of his vision into false distinctions undermines some of what is good in this book. At times, he seems to endorse a type of fideism. In his rush to throw out rationalistic apologetics, he does not properly take into account the complexities of the early church, especially the work of the early fathers to prove the Christan Story by using the philosophical tools of the time.

The idea that the comprehensive story of God stands on its own and does not need external support is helpful in one sense (we do not need science in order to believe) and harmful in another (after all, if Christianity is true, it is true in every sphere). Webber overlooks the fact that we should be able to find testimony to the Christian truth claims from both inside and outside God’s narrative.

At times Webber overestimates the importance of the church’s liturgy. He never fully proves his point that an emphasis on proper liturgy will help us hold onto a proper understanding of God’s narrative. He writes of the ancient church:

“The church building, the liturgy itself, with all of its attending signs and symbols and especially the words of the Eucharistic prayer, clearly portrayed who gets to narrate the world” (68).

Does proper worship necessarily guard against losing God’s narrative? The empty cathedrals of Europe seem to indicate otherwise. And how important is the Eucharistic prayer really?

In other places, Webber resorts to soundbites that are never fully explained. For example, he says that “God invites us to enter his narrative by faith and live out his vision of the world” (116). What does it mean to enter into God’s narrative? How does one do so? How does this description relate to the Kingdom? To conversion? Left in soundbite form, Webber’s terminology is undefined and rather vague.

But the overall thesis of Who Gets to Narrate the World is fundamentally sound. The Christian message is a single, universal narrative of everything. It is interesting to me that in the final weeks of his life, Webber sounded less and less like the Emerging Church advocate he had become in recent years and more and more like an apologist in the school Francis Schaeffer. It is often said that foreseeing one’s own death can be clarifying. Surely this is the case with Who Gets to Narrate the World.

Webber’s final work marks the end of an illustrious career, but more importantly, it issues a passionate call to the affirmation of the Christian Story in the face of its challengers.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Related Articles:
Book Review: Ancient-Future Faith
In Honor of Robert Webber: An Interview
15 Must-Read Books on Worship

Bedtime Prayers with our Children

Do you ever feel you are failing to teach your children to pray?

The days are hurried. The more kids you have, the more difficult it is to gather everyone together for family prayer. When your child does start to pray, it’s the same prayer every night. You wonder how much he or she is praying from the heart and how much of their prayer is merely a formality. You yourself are exhausted from your efforts. Sometimes, it just seems like taking a few minutes every night to pray is too much.

Let me encourage you. Young children soak in everything we say to them. Don’t be frustrated if they’re not reciting the catechism by the age of 4. Don’t be frustrated if they seem to be disinterested when you pray. Don’t be frustrated by their lack of attention span.

Pray anyway.

Our son has learned the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and other Psalms merely through repeating certain prayers each night. No, we have not tested his memory or promised him certain rewards for praying fervently. Mere repetition does it all.

Quote Psalm 23 to your children every night for two weeks and you’ll be amazed at how quickly they can say it with you… word for word. Rather than seeing repetition as something that stifles prayer, we’ve discovered in our home that repetition is the best way to pray with a young child.

If this is any help at all, I’m including our usual nightly prayers that we say over our children:

Our Nightly Prayers

We gather as a family in our son’s room, turn the lights down, and kneel by his bedside (most of the time). By the way, I recommend you have these prayers memorized before you start teaching them. It will be more effective than reading them from a book. Furthermore, it will spur you on to greater efforts in memorizing.

1. Apostles’ Creed (with motions) – We quote the updated one (click here), and we use hand motions as well. Our son loves the story of Christ, especially “on the third day, he ROSE AGAIN!!!” (insert brief moment of bed-jumping here.)
2. May the Lord Almighty grant us and those we love a peaceful night and a perfect end.
3. Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:8)
4. Confession: Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you, through our own fault, in thought, word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. For the sake of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us all our offenses, and grant that we may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your name, Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)
5. Gloria: Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever, Amen.
6. Bible Memorization: Choose a psalm or a Bible passage you want your kids to know by heart. Quote it here for a few weeks.
7. The Lord’s Prayer: We use the ESV.
8. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth. Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 17:8, 31:5)
9. Personal, spontaneous prayers: Each member of the family prays for a minute or two whatever is on our hearts.

It may seem like such a prayer program would take a long time. It doesn’t. Usually, we’re finished praying within 5-10 minutes. But the impact on our family has been great. When I was away from home last month, my son asked my wife to call me, put me on speakerphone and let me lead the family in prayers long-distance before he went to bed.

What kinds of prayer practices have you found effective with your children?

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Following Christ

“Follow Me.”
- Jesus speaking to Matthew (Luke 5:27)

One of the greatest realizations a person can come to in the early stages of Christian faith is that Christ’s command to follow him means we should follow him and him alone. His call is one of unconditional surrender and total allegiance to his Name.

Yet, even in the name of Christ, we are often, even unknowingly, influenced to follow another master:

• Religion may have us follow forms of tradition that we have grown comfortable with.
• Churches may have us follow charismatic pastors and preachers and the teachers whose words and concepts tickle our ears.
• Popular culture will court us to follow singers, glitzy stars, and the writers who entertain us.
• Evangelicalism might want us to buy into the latest fad in the Christian subculture.

Yet, Jesus didn’t say, “Follow them”; he said quite clearly, “Follow me.” The true disciple puts his loyalty, not with a group or another human or a new idea, however good those things may be, but only with his master who has called him by name.

The truth is, the moment we follow someone other than Christ is the moment we set ourselves up for huge disappointment. People fail. They sin no matter how holy we might think them to be. The greatest Christian leaders have everyday struggles and sins that the public never sees. The Christian fad today may be in the dustbin of history tomorrow.

Only Christ remains the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Only Christ is the perfect Lamb of God – the single Person worthy of all our devotion. Once we put all of our hope and faith in him, we can truly fulfill His command as disciples.

When the disappointment brought about by other Christians comes (and it will come), the disciple who has truly heard his Master’s call, “Follow ME,” will be able to see through the tears of disappointment to his loving Savior that remains unblemished through it all.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog 

Help Us Do Right

Grant to us, Lord, we pray,
the spirit to think and do always
those things that are right,
that we, who cannot exist without you,
may by you be enabled to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

- The Book of Common Prayer

The Community of the Cross

“The world, for all its beauty, is hostile to the truth. Witness without compromise leads to worldly hostility.

“The cross is not a sign of the church’s quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the church’s revolutionary participation in the victory of Christ over those powers.

“The cross is not a symbol for general human suffering and oppression. Rather, the cross is a sign of what happens when one takes God’s account of reality more seriously than Caesar’s. The cross stands as God’s (and our) eternal no to the powers of death, as well as God’s eternal yes to humanity, God’s remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices.

“The overriding political task of the church is to be the community of the cross.”

- Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, page 47.