Embracing History

What it takes to stay out of the trash bin

“Christianity is a historical religion. It is a religion that is not based primarily on an idea or philosophy. Most of the religions of the world can exist apart from their founder. You do not have to have a historical Buddha to have Buddhism. All you have to have are Buddhist teachings. So also with many other religions. This is not the case with Christianity. If you take away the history–if you reduce it, as some have tried to do, to a religion of mere ethics or ideas–Christianity evaporates. This is because Christianity is indissolubly linked to the life and accomplishments of Christianity’s founder. Jesus taught about God, but he did not merely teach. He showed what God was like. Then, in order to achieve our salvation, he died for us, taking our place to bear the wrath of God. Without that historical basis, Christianity would pass, as have many other religions, into the trash bin of history.” J.M. Boice in his commentary on The Book of Acts

History means that that Jesus lived in that area of the Mediterranean, said such and such—and lived, died, was buried and then rose from the dead on the third day. It was THAT Jesus—the Matthew-Mark-Luke-John-and-Acts One.

“…[We] need…a sure and certain knowledge of Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes through faith in him. We need to know what Jesus accomplished. We need to know the perfection of his virgin birth, the obedience of his sinless life, the wisdom of his profound teaching, and the power of his divine miracles. We need to know these things because they prove that he is the Son of God. And we need to know what Jesus did to save us from the wrath of God. We need to know that he suffered and died on the cross for our sins. We need to know that he was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all who trust in him. And we need to know that he was ascended to heaven, where he rules over all things for the glory of God. We need to know these things because sometimes we have our doubts…If we are sometimes tempted to have our doubts, this does not mean that we are not Christians. It simply means that we are sinners who struggle to live by faith…Assurance does not come by looking within or by having some special experience. The only way we become sure of our salvation is by looking to Jesus…Luke…wrote…researched things carefully and wrote them down logically and accurately, giving us the real history of Jesus.” Phil Ryken, Commentary on Luke (Reformed Expository Commentary), Volume 1, pp. 14-15.

G. Mark Sumpter

Classroom Teachers Who Home-carnate the Truth

Are we making gains in what Adams addresses? Are we getting the Home back into the School Classroom?

“…But today, there is no close affinity between the home and the school. We must, therefore, learn how to close the gap (1) through the development of new communication opportunities and methods, (2) in discipline, (3) in teaching and (4) even in the sort of personnel who are selected to function as teachers. Essentially, we must answer in the most practical terms, ‘How can we get the home back into the school and the school back into the home?’”

Adams goes on: “Among the many considerations that will have to be faced is the selection of teaching staff on a widely different basis than most of the present teaching qualifications require. Teachers must be appointed not simply because they are competent in a particular subject area, but because, in addition to that, and in addition to their competence in theology, they show promise as parent-teachers. If the familial father/son discipling method, rather than the Greek, head-packing academic model of teaching be accepted as the biblical method (which it is), then we must also consider the ability of the teacher to exemplify (or model) that which he teaches, along with his academic credits. It is, moreover, crucial for him to incarnate the truth he teaches in life as a parent would for his child. He will be, for the first time, genuinely en loco parentis.”

Back to the Black Board, p. 72, by Jay E. Adams, his emphasis, (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1982).

Adams goes on to speak of ways to reduce or eliminate the professionalization of teachers, and as well, the institutionalization of the traditional day-school classroom setting. He aims at getting rid of: homework, report cards, parent-alone parent-teacher consultations, and other forms of professional and institutional expressions. He also, positively, stresses that parents must: support the authority of the classroom teacher, make plans to step into the class and assist in the teaching and learning process, and take on an active role of listening to students read, and to help with writing, as examples. Adams dreams too—“ The world is the classroom for teaching by discipleship. Students will be in contact with adults and with many sectors of life in the process, not merely with their peers in cloistered halls.” I am committed to his dream.


We can imprint the classroom with a home-like climate even more: teachers telling stories relative to academic content and illustrating points with slices of everyday life, taking students outside for lectures and lessons, making use of communication forms with purposeful informality through dialogue, rhyme, rhythmic lines of feedback, chants, poems and quips, presenting comparisons and offering contrasts using common place matters, setting up interaction about a day’s lesson with a DVD clip or news article and other visuals, and starting a written or oral dialogue—and expecting students to finish them employing pertinent facts and applicatory features.

Community in the classrooms—the involvement of a variety of adults, with a mixture of age and life-experience—needs our attention as well.

Helping the class to be home-like takes work, but it is the method of education that reflects Deuteronomy 6.


Do our classrooms show a commitment to putting in place such teachers? Do you know teachers who teach to incarnate truth, who home-carnate truth?


G. Mark Sumpter

Acting in Gratefulness that God Opened the Flood Gates

Israel, God’s Darling Son at the First

“In communicating his Word them, he joined them to himself, that he might be called and esteemed their God. In the meantime, ‘he allowed all other nations to walk’ in vanity (Acts 14:16), as if they had nothing whatsoever to do with him. Nor did he give them the sole remedy for their deadly disease—the preaching of his Word. Israel was then the Lord’s darling son; the others were strangers. Israel was recognized and received into confidence and safekeeping; the others were left to their own darkness. Israel was hallowed by God; the others were profaned. Israel was honored with God’s presence; the others were excluded from all approach to him. ‘But when the fullness of time came,’ (Gal. 4:4) which was appointed for the restoration of all things, he was revealed as the reconciler of God and men; ‘the wall’ that for so long had confined God’s mercy within the boundaries of Israel ‘was broken down’ (Eph. 2:14).”

From Calvin’s Institutes, p. 460

Israel—so privileged—needed to follow her Lord in her life in the world. She was to be His witness to the varied nations of the Mediterranean theater and beyond. Instead her privileged hallowing became perverted hardening. She was to be a servant—Isaiah 49, 50, 52-53. She listened with physical ears, but the testimonies of the Lord were not heard with the mixture of faith. She grew dull, wickedly dull of hearing.

So, in God’s activity of raising up His new Israel, His own Son, to be the faithful servant and witness unto the nations, He accomplishes the reality that privileged Israel was in fact to be and do. Christ’s own heeding His Father’s words meant His decreasing—to be a servant (Philippians 2), so that others would increase. Jesus did that—amen!

Moreover, in light of Calvin’s quote above, I am not at all certain that I see the significance of the broken wall (Eph. 2:14). For example, with Acts 2-3 (the outpouring of the Spirit), Acts 8 (Philip with an Ethiopian), Acts 10 (Cornelius, a Greek), and Acts 11, 13 (Antioch—a beachhead for Gentile expansion), do I see the barrier-conquering work of God’s ways? Really see it? God tramples down the prejudices of men—skin color, food and dress practices, economic situations, intellectual capacities, and familial habits which encompass ways, traditions and special days. This is the work of the fruit of His gospel for His church. He broke the wall; in what ways of self-trust, self-comfort and pride do I seek to keep up the walls? Am I genuinely grateful?

G. Mark Sumpter

Calvin on the Rocks

McNeill Edition of the Institutes, p. 255 A Calvin Crack-Up

MAN HAS NOW BEEN DEPRIVED OF FREEDOM AND CHOICE...

“The Perils of this topic: point of view established, I

1. We have now seen that the dominion of sin, from the time it held the first man bound to itself, not only ranges among all mankind, but also completely occupies individual souls. It remains for us to investigate more closely whether we have been deprived of all freedom since we have been reduced to this servitude; and, if any particle of it still survives, how far its power extends. But in order that the truth of this question may be more readily apparent to us, I shall presently set a goal to which the whole argument should be directed. The best way to avoid error will be to consider the perils that threaten man on both sides. (1) When man is denied all uprightness, he immediately takes occasion for complacency from that fact; and, because he is said to have no ability to pursue righteousness on his own, he holds all such pursuit to be of no consequence, as if it did not pertain to him at all. (2) Nothing, however slight, can be credited to man without depriving God of his honor, and without man himself falling into ruin through brazen confidence. Augustine points out both these precipices.”

Sumpter: Do you get what J.C. is saying? Two points of a dilemma. 1) You tell man he is broken, crushed, rebellious and tied up in knots, dead in sin—an altogether true biblical maxim. Man, then, says, “what gives…why try for God then?...it’s all doubt, so let’s sack out… I’m done, wake me up when it’s over….” To reverse paraphrase Robert Schuller, old Crystal Cathedral Bobby, of the 80s, “Since man is all scars, then, forget the stars.” That’s dilemma side one. Now, 2. If you tell men about seeking God; if you grab a kettle and metal spoon and start clanging into the tomb and Lazarus rolls over and hits the snooze button to get up and listen for the VOICE, then----you give man some brownie points. He’ll say, “Look, the water is not that bad after all… and….. “Look Mom, no hands…” or “Whadda mean depravity…I can hear the voice of God blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back….” J. C. says, give man an eyelash of self-generated strength and he’ll take the industrial strength biceps of Ray Lewis of the Ravens for good-credit, heaven-bound righteousness …. “…nothing can be credited to man without depriving God of his honor.”

So how does Calvin fix the problem?

“Here, then, is the course that we must follow it we are to avoid crashing upon these rocks: when man has been taught that no good thing remains in his power, and that he is hedged about on all sides by most miserable necessity, in spite of this he should be instructed to aspire to a good of which he is empty, to a freedom of which he has been deprived.”

Preach man’s utter depravity, and that his will is bound. Preach that he aspire to which he is empty, to a freedom he doesn’t have.

So, YES—preach depravity and duty. Men must be told, you are D.O.A., and they must be told, “Come forth!” and “Get up, the Master is calling for you.”

I crack-up—it’s no dilemma with Calvin. Aspire to a good of which you are empty, O Man. You have nothing, so there and ninner, ninner; come to Christ!

G. Mark Sumpter

Mercy Motivations--Kingdom and Church, II

New Creation Mercy

Where God exerts his rule through his Word and Spirit, the effects of sin are healed. Thus the kingdom is like a great banquet (Matthew 22:2) and is a state of total fulfillment of blessedness (Matthew 5:3, 10). This healing is always partial, because the kingdom is not fully come, yet this healing is substantial, because the kingdom is already present.


Edmund Clowney writes that kingdom evangelism must have a holistic focus:

“The renewal of Christ’s salvation ultimately includes a renewed universe… there is no part of our existence that is untouched by His blessing. Christ’s miracles were miracles of the kingdom, performed as signs of what the kingdom means…His blessing was pronounced upon the poor, the afflicted, the burdened and heavy-laden who came to Him and believed in Him…The miraculous signs that attested Jesus’ deity and authenticated the witness of those who transmitted the gospel to the church is not continued, for their purpose was fulfilled. But the pattern of the kingdom that was revealed through those signs must continue in the church…Kingdom evangelism is therefore holistic as it transmits by word and deed the promise of Christ for body and soul as well as demand of Christ for body and soul.” [from a chapter, “Kingdom Evangelism,” by Clowney, found in the book The Pastor-Evangelist (edited by Roger Greenway, 1987]

More from the book by Timothy J. Keller, Ministries of Mercy.


A man’s hands were wrapped to protect himself—he looked like a boxer with gauze and tape around his knuckles—and he was on a bed lying hemmed in, much like a large tent, with a mesh of nylon netting. He only moaned as I spoke with him. I read Psalm 23 to him this past Thursday—and he brightened up. I reflected with him on the Lord’s shepherding mercies. I spoke. He moaned. I prayed. He moaned. He didn’t/he couldn’t make eye contact with me. But his countenance told me that he was listening. I ministered with him for about 20-25 minutes. God’s providences are always gift-wrapped. Holistic gifts, encircling both body and soul, encompassing word and deed, are the ones that present the incarnation to us. God spoke out Himself; God enfleshed Himself. Word and deed, holistic stuff...a new creation already on the way.  


G. Mark Sumpter

Mercy Motivations--Kingdom and Church

Game-Changing Mercy

The kingdom of God is power, God’s ruling power present to heal all the curse of sin. It moves the people of God to meet psychological, social physical needs, bringing God’s kingly blessing as far as the curse if found.

“If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28).

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted” (Luke 12:32-33).


Francis Schaeffer has shown us that, because the kingdom is present partially, but not fully, we must expect substantial healing, but not total healing in all areas of life.


Quoted from Timothy J. Keller, Ministries of Mercy , p. 53

Substantial healing; ministries of mercy, even tiny steps, are weighty, influential, noticeable, and game-changers. THAT is doing the works of repentance, seen, for instance, from the preaching of John the Baptist.

G. Mark Sumpter

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport…

Ice Hockey shows up in the strangest of... 

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The annual cleaning of one of Christianity’s holiest churches deteriorated into a brawl between rival clergy Wednesday, as dozens of monks feuding over sacred space at the Church of the Nativity battled one another with brooms until police intervened.

Wednesday’s fight erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy, with both sides accusing the other of encroaching on parts of the church to which they lay claim.

Denver Post wire services

G. Mark Sumpter

Launching T-Shirts at Halftime

Formality in worship

PCA Pastor Jeff Meyers, while writing about the propriety and significance of calling-garb for the pastor, comments on formality in worship. He persuasively wows the reader; he reminds me of the T-Shirt Cannon guys at halftime. Good, fun stuff.

“Since for Americans there is often an in-built negative reaction to any mention of formality in worship, let us turn briefly to Hebrews 12 and Revelation 4-5. Hebrews 12:22-24 describes a New Covenant (contrasted with the Old Covenant worship of vss. 18-21) corporate, Lord’s Day worship service. When the church gathers on the Lord Day she enters into heaven (by faith) to worship God with all of the angelic host and departed saints. It is as if the roof of the church building is torn off when the pastor calls the people to worship. Notice that the worshipers are all organized around the throne of God. The worship service does not merely provide an opportunity for private devotional experiences. The church is a ‘city’ and a ‘joyous assembly’ or ‘festal array’ (v. 22). The word translated ‘festal assembly’ denotes an assembly of people gathered for a celebration or festival. Later, when we are privileged with the Apostle John in the book of Revelation to peek into heaven, how is the worship conducted? What kind of worship is modeled for us in heaven? There are all kinds of liturgical lessons to be learned here. I only wish to highlight one aspect: the heavenly service is liturgical and formal. According to Revelation 4-5, heavenly worship is a formal, coordinated activity. There are cooperative, formal responses by groups of worshipers. Everybody responds together with the same words. There are no individual displays of spirituality. Angels, elders, and creatures respond antiphonally with responses that must have been learned! They have been trained. There is a pre-arranged form to the worship. They have rehearsed this event, and they are dressed accordingly (Rev. 4:4). In other words, heavenly, Spirit-guided worship is liturgical and formal (1 Cor. 14:26-33).”

G. Mark Sumpter

Scoring Points for Traditional Hymnody

What’s great at Christmastime can be great 48 other Sundays

At the Christmas season, traditional hymnody—it’s words and musical genre—scores big. For about 30 calendar days, traditional, even some really old, hymnody rebounds in worship-life and society. People show that they actually like the old stuff.

Maybe this is one way to be more strategic in recruiting worshipers from within the contemporary side of the evangelical and reformed. It’s time to do a little CARPE DIEM. Here are some good vibes at Advent, musically speaking.

Generations Hold Hands: elementary age kids, very young children, 14 year olds, 25 year olds— goateed and lip piercings to-boot—stand next to 69 year olds, those still sporting wire frame bifocals, and they’ll work their way through five lines of #221 Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. If you look close, they’re holding a hymn book too. They appear dialed in with gratitude. Carols bring about the pleasant wrapped-up gift of the church being the church—young, old, wide, narrow, rich, and poor. Knuckles and high fives.

Sweat on the Brow is No Biggie: At Christmas we don’t mind having to work at our singing. In our worship age, when we’re told about KISS—Keep It Simple Songwriter, at Advent we’re not afraid of fancy notes, awkward beats, and funny syllables. “The shepherds at those tidings re-joice-ED much in mind…” How odd. I wonder if Chris Tomlin uses re-joice-ED in contemporary expression? At Christmas, that doesn’t scare us, and that’s good. I still struggle with the line in O Come All Ye Faithful, the one, “very God, begotten, not created.” I have to work at this line every time we come to it. The timing with the syllables freaks me. But our willingness to work at freaky beats and syllables is good. We see that people don’t mind going over and over a tune to get it right. Maybe once Christmastime is over we can make use of our willingness to be patient and work on singing skills. If people are showing that they’re not afraid of elbow grease, let’s go for it. Whistle while you work—on more difficult traditional worship music.

Use the Principle of Reinforcement: If you go to the malls and over to the hospital, and turn on the radio, and attend the Christmas programs...and—even open a Hallmark Card, you’ll get reinforcement of traditional hymnody-like carols. The principle of reinforcement should cue us. Pastor, Worship Leader: do you want a shot at seeing your people grow in their singing? Discipleship centers on familiarity, recognition and re-play. Once again—here’s hope for traditional worship music. Finding ways for traditional hymns to be piped into ears and hearts is key. If God’s people hear it enough, they’ll grow to love it. Christmas proves this.

If only it was Christmastime every Sunday.

G. Mark Sumpter

Horton's Do Hard Things as Part of the Rebelution

Michael Horton Showing the Way in Youth Ministry

“The year I was twelve things began to change in my life—not all at once, but gradually. I had been involved in family devotions and Bible reading, but suddenly the Bible sprang to life for me. The book of Romans began to shatter many of my earlier notions about reality. Every time I read from Romans I found myself searching for a deeper understanding of God’s purpose and grace.

After playing baseball each afternoon, I would come home, and pick up Romans, and go through it again and again. What I found in Romans had me mesmerized, and I began to share my discoveries with anyone who would listen.

My parents were owners of a nursing home, so I had a ready-made congregation. I began conducting weekly services that lasted, with brief interruptions, for six years (up to my senior year in high school). People who were not even residents attended the services to hear about God’s effective grace.”

From Horton’s Mission Accomplished, pp. 13-14

Young people are the church of today, not merely the church of tomorrow.

G. Mark Sumpter

Getting the Gospel Right and Then Some

When the Church Goes Her Specious Way

From the late Vaclav Havel (written in 1978): “Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe. . . ”

This quote, relayed by OPC Pastor Roger Wagner just after Havel’s recent death, stirs. Below, I do not discount the importance of a Christian’s understanding of Havel’s societal and political assessments—his fine assessments and comments I will add, but I pitch a point or two with respect to ideology as a specious way of relating to the church. The church, too, sports herself all things political. The traditionally reformed, confessional church must be aware of how she can situate herself in the grip of the deception per Havel's commentary.

Let’s do some work.

First, church history shows us that ideology is spelled g-n-o-s-t-i-c-i-s-m.

Preservation

The Security of the Believer

The door of Christian assurance and perseverance turns on the hinge of preservation. Preservation rises up out of a text like John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.”

Can you get anymore industrial strength of seat-belt security than the powerful and preserving work of the hands of the Son and the Father? Sit and spin, Christian. God holds fast His children where they will never perish. Never. In the 1970s Deep Purple sung of a threat:

Frank Zappa and the Mothers

Were at the best place around

    But some stupid with a flare gun

 Burned the place to the ground

But, uh-uh—the threat of a raging fire will the never happen to the “gambling house” of the Christian. No raging fire around the Lake Geneva of the life of the one who rests in God’s promises. Texts like John 10, conveyed by Calvin and Calvin’s Calvinism, teach security and comfort. No burning, no perishing of the Christian. Preservation.

The Christian’s perseverance turns on the hinge of preservation.

G. Mark Sumpter