He Probably Didn’t Mean It Like That [Living in an Obama Nation]

December 21, 2008 — joerigney

The other day I came across this interview that Obama did back in 2004 regarding his religious beliefs. There are a lot of interesting things in it, but there was one point where I actually laughed out loud.

FALSANI:
Do you pray often?

OBAMA:
Uh, yeah, I guess I do.

It’s not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. I think throughout the day, I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why am I doing it.

I know, I know. He probably didn’t mean it like that… Probably.

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Category Intros: Sexualotry

December 21, 2008 — joerigney

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Romans 1. What I love about it is not merely the part about the gospel being the power of God unto salvation (as wonderful and precious as that is). The part of Romans 1 that really intrigues me and, in a strange way, warms my heart is the description of the wrath of God on human unrighteousness in verses 18-32.

The reason is simple: this section of Scripture is one of the most profound analyses of the human condition ever penned. Paul knew what he was talking about. And in this passage one of the main things he is talking about is the interweaving of spirituality and sexuality, specifically idolatry and sexual immorality. Or, as I will call it: sexualotry.

The connections between our sexuality and our worship are many and manifold. And our culture is obsessed with rebelliously exploring them. Which means that they like to do the moves without discerning the meaning.

So posts in this category will try to unpack the peculiar relationships between the bedroom and the altar, between sex and worship. Our idolatrous age has once again elevated Eros, the son of Ares (god of war) and Aphrodite (goddess of “love”), to a place of prominence, perhaps even preeminence. Which means that one of the tasks of the Church Militant is to cast down this particular idol.

But we won’t be able to do our iconoclastic duty until we can see clearly what’s going on. And since judgment begins at the household of God, this will often mean doing our laundry before offering to wash the world’s sheets. As Jesus said, unseasoned salt is only good for covering the asphalt.

So as we ruminate on the sexualotry of our dog-in-heat culture, let’s not forget that application starts from the inside-out.

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Typing About Types of Typology [Potent Quotables]

December 21, 2008 — joerigney

In communicating divine truth to human understanding, God employs types. As Edwards declared in his “Types” notebook, “Types are a certain sort of language, as it were, in which God is wont to speak to us.” While this divine speaking is paradigmatically put forth in Scripture, it is not exclusively confined there. Like a grammar teacher who writes out the conjugations of only a few paradigm verbs, God “han’t expressly explained all the types of Scriptures, but has done so much as is sufficient to teach us the language.” As God’s pupils, believers are to acquire an ear for this divine language in the rest of Scripture, but also in other arenas in which God’s voice is still sounding. For Edwards, “very much of the wisdom of God in the creation appears in his so ordering things natural, that they livelily represent things divine and spiritual…” “’Tis very fit and becoming of God, who is infinitely wise, so to order things that there should be a voice of his in his works instructing those that behold them, and pointing forth and showing divine mysteries and things more immediately appertaining to himself and his spiritual kingdom.”
–Amy Plantinga-Pauw, The Supreme Harmony of All (pp. 39-40)

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Who Is That Masked Man? [Potent Quotables]

December 21, 2008 — joerigney

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.
–C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

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Category Intros: Potent Quotables

December 18, 2008 — joerigney

From time to time, I will post quotations that catch my fancy. Good quotations have a way of bringing things into focus, of casting things into a new light, of opening up new possibilities of understanding. Over time, I may diversify the categories, but for now, I will place them all in this one. I’ll begin with a favorite from Jonathan Edwards:

I expect by very ridicule and contempt to be called a man of a very fruitful brain and copious fancy, but they are welcome to it. I am not ashamed to own that I believe that the whole universe, heaven and earth, air and seas, and the divine constitution and history of the holy Scriptures, be full of images of divine things, as full as a language is of words; and that the multitudes of those things that I have mentioned are but a very small part of what is really intended to be signified and typified by these things.
–Jonathan Edwards, Works vol. 11 (p. 152)

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Category Intros: Interpreting the Times

December 18, 2008 — joerigney

I know what you’re thinking.

“He’s one of those fundamentalists who counts the letters in the names of the Iraqi prime minister and compares it to the number of verses in Ezekiel 38 in order to determine how soon the rapture will occur.”

“Hey, it’s the guy who forwarded me that email about the new bar-code scanners that the Anti-Christ will force us to use in order to buy food.”

Sadly, I’m not one of those types (though this blog would be much more entertaining if I were).

But the fact that some Christians are reading the book of history upside-down doesn’t excuse us from refusing to pick it up in the first place.

In the book of Luke, chapter 12, Jesus issues a firm rebuke to the crowds who followed him.

54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

We put our hands out the window and we can tell that it’s raining. We know how a low-pressure system works. (Well, I don’t, but the guy on Channel 3 does and he explains it to me). Jesus seems to be arguing, “If you know how to do the one, you should know how to do the other.” And first-century Jews didn’t.

Note carefully the problem. Jesus is not rebuking them for trying to interpret the present time. He was not rebuking them for trying to read what God was doing in history. He was rebuking them for reading poorly.

So then, one of the goals of this blog is to try to avoid Jesus’ rebuke. I’d like to explore what it means to “interpret the present time.” So posts in this category will be attempts to develop a “hermeneutic” of history and as well as attempts to actually read what God is doing in it. Lord willing, there won’t be too many facile, foolish readings a-going on. (But no promises.)

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Category Intros: Living in an Obama Nation

December 15, 2008 — joerigney

Let me begin with the obligatory qualifications. I don’t think that Obama is the AntiChrist. Nor do I think he is the Messiah.

I don’t think that his election is the fulfillment of some esoteric biblical prophecy. Or even a non-esoteric one.

But I do think that his election bodes ill for these United States. It’s not that he’s caused some great calamity or that he is the bringer of Apocalyptic Doom (though he has the potential to do some damage). Rather, his election is symptomatic of certain political, cultural, and religious trends.

Again, he is not The Problem. Nor is he The Solution. He’s simply The Symptom.

Plus his name provides a great foil for this category. So I’m using it.

Essentially I want to explore the downgrade of Western civilization, America in particular. Since this country (following clumsily in Europe’s footsteps) has begun to take rides in one-way hand-baskets, I think it behooves Christians to offer commentary on the goings on. Consider it prophetic analysis (though I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet).

Again, I don’t want to diminish the potentially positive effects Obama’s election may have, especially as a role model among certain communities. In my mind, those are somewhat beside the point. The point (and indeed it is my whole reason for starting this blog) is that his election means something. God is speaking to us, and since the rest of the culture is too busy listening to their iPods to hearken to the Voice, it falls to Christians to help people differentiate between the right hand and the left hand. But before we can do that, we have to learn to tell the difference ourselves.

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