February 7th, 2010
Robert Boyle, a Christian maker of modern science, struggled with doubts early in his Christian life.
After Robert Boyle committed his life to God at the age of sixteen, he struggled against thoughts of suicide. The reason? Much of the “science” of the seventeenth century went so contrary to the Word of God that he was torn in his mind. Both could not be true.
In the end he opted for the Word of God but determined to study the sciences to see if he could sort out the truth for himself. The results were peace of mind and new light on the sciences. He exposed the errors of alchemy, moved the world toward a more accurate understanding of chemistry, and became a charter member of the Royal Society. He proved in his own person that true science and reasonable faith are not at odds.
The legacy of his faith was of great value to national culture and to science. As his confidence grew, he shared his thoughts with contemporaries. They made bestsellers of his science object lessons. More importantly (as far as the present age is concerned) it was in refuting certain skeptical propositions of Thomas Hobbes that Boyle promulgated his law of gases which still stands. He created the scientific paper as we know it, which describes the hypothesis, tools, and conditions of an experiment.
Moving from the example of Boyle to that of Christ, it is evident that our Savior committed his ways to the Father. He did so with such fullness that he could say “I and the Father are one” (John 10). As a result his thoughts were recorded by his followers and are established as scripture throughout the entire world. So certain was Christ of the validity of his words and his unity with the Father that he could call everyone to take his yoke upon them and learn from him (Matthew 11:28-30). Now that is the ultimate example of having one’s thoughts established.
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January 31st, 2010
Peter Cartwright, fearless evangelist.
Than he who flatters with the tongue.
Peter Cartwright, a frontier evangelist in 19th-century America, was noted for his boldness. He spoke fearlessly of the things of Christ to high and low. In one notable instance, he warned “Old Hickory,” General Andrew Jackson, future president of the United States, that unless he repented, he would be damned to hell just as surely as the lowliest slave who rejected Christ.
Another preacher apologized for Cartwright’s blunt words. Jackson retorted that Christ’s ministers ought to love everyone and fear no mortal man. He added that he wished he had thousands of officers with the courage of Cartwright.
Jesus, too, did not flatter with the tongue. When Peter tried to tell him he did not have to go to the cross, Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God.” That retort taught Peter—and us—a more memorable lesson than a thousand soft words would have done.
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January 24th, 2010
Inside McCormick's blacksmith shop in Virginia.
There was a time in the United States (and much of the rest of the world) when every able-bodied person was needed to get in the harvest. It made no sense to increase acreage in wheat, because the window for reaping was so narrow and the number of hands required to get the crop in was so great. Had any able-bodied farm-boy slept over-late at harvest, he would have been the butt of scorn. As it was, despite the best efforts of farmers, hogs had to be turned into the fields to fatten when the grain became overripe.
Cyrus McCormick changed that by inventing the first machine with the seven essential parts of a true reaper. He was jeered at first and his efforts considered folly because his reaper did not work well on the uneven, hilly ground of his native Virginia. But he persisted, and the US became the breadbasket of the world.
Jesus placed this whole concept on a spiritual level. There are fields of souls waiting for harvest. He commanded his disciples to reap them now and set the example as God’s only begotten son. Will we not be rebuked in the judgment if we have idled our hours and allowed our neighbors to perish without the word of truth?
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January 17th, 2010
Seal of the University of Paris.
As an older adult returning to school to pick up some skills, I notice that many of the youngsters seem serious about education. But there is a large subgroup attending for other reasons. Some have come to play. Others to find a mate. Still others seek reinforcement for ideas they have already picked up, or the chance to organize others around an ideal. Returning students, as a whole, seem more determined to get their money’s worth.
This generation is no different in that respect than others. I noted the same tendencies when I was in college as a teenager. Perhaps a rich father was footing the bill of the wastrel—or the government. That is why I like the New Living Translation for this verse. “It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning.”
Wasted educational opportunities are not a problem limited to our time. Accounts of roistering, rioting, and recklessness crop up with fair frequency in the histories of great educational institutions. For example, the St. Scholastica Day riot at Oxford in 1355 began with a dispute over beer. It left 63 scholars and half as many townsfolk dead. A Shrove Tuesday strike in Paris in 1229 also began over drink—a tavern bill. Angry students smashed businesses with wooden clubs. In retaliation, city guards cornered and killed a group of students.
We have no record that Christ attended school. However, he had clearly set himself to learn what God the Father desired even while young, as his tough questions to the religious leaders in the temple at twelve years of age showed. At thirty, he became a rabbi (teacher).
His hearers formed a cross-section similar to modern students. Some scoffed. Some listened but went away, forgetting immediately what he said. Others “followed from afar.” A few took his words to heart and became the first Christians, who transformed the world through their master’s power.
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January 10th, 2010
John Nelson Darby
Two of the most influential theologians of the 19th-century were probably not men you would have felt comfortable with for any length of time. J.N. Darby and Arthur Pink each felt they had the corner on truth and had no use for anyone who didn’t hold their opinions and methods. It was a sad spectacle to see how each narrowed their circle and narrowed it again until almost no one remained in it. Darby, who had once been a leader in the Plymouth Brethren, formed his own small exclusive group of churches called Darbyites. Pink and his wife moved to an island to live alone, refusing association with any church at all, although issuing an influential teaching newsletter.
You have to realize that the men they were renouncing were of the caliber of George Mueller and D. L. Moody.
Contrast that with their Lord, who took a much broader view. When John told him “Master, we saw a man casting out devils in your name, and he does not follow us: and we forbade him, because he does not follow us.”
But Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him: for there is no man who will do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”
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January 3rd, 2010
Alfred the Great at his studies.
Unlike some historic princes who treated their people as so many creatures to be plundered, tortured, and misused at will, Alfred the Great recognized the importance of people and their diverse abilities.
In a famous comment in his translation of Boethius he wrote, “…no man can show any skill, nor exercise or control any power, without tools and materials. There are of every craft the materials without which man cannot exercise the craft. These, then, are a king’s materials and his tools to reign with: that he have his land well peopled; he must have prayer-men, and soldiers, and workmen. You know that without these tools no king can show his craft.”
Jesus accepted many of the limitations of earthly kings, choosing not to achieve his goals by fiat. Instead, he works through a people, who he himself draws and prepares for his work, and empowers with necessary gifts so that they can carry out his work. Like Alfred, he relies upon people to allow him to demonstrate his “craft.”
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December 27th, 2009
Godless Cardinal Wolsey
Cardinal Wolsey, after a long life of wickedness, which included every kind of self-indulgence, extortion, political maneuvering and worldliness, fell afoul of his master, King Henry VIII. The King summoned him to London to give an accounting.
Knowing that he would most likely be found guilty and executed, the churchman dosed himself so heavily with purges that he died. Before death took him, he said, “Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.”
What a contrast Christ Jesus presents to Wolsey. Because of his faultless and disciplined life, which sacrificed everything for obedience, God did not allow him to see corruption, but raised him from the dead, to reign forever and ever. He had no lament of failure as he went to his death.
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December 16th, 2009
Whoever boasts himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.
The Death of Ananias by Masaccio.
One of the most terrifying stories in the Bible is that of Ananias and Sapphira. This pair sold a field, and held back some of the money, but wanting a reputation as great givers, pretended they had given the whole amount. There was nothing wrong with keeping some back. The sin lay in the pretense. God slew them, saying they had lied to the Holy Spirit. They had given a hypocritical gift, but God saw through it.
A man who lived not far from me gave a false gift of another sort. He gave his church large sums he could not afford, and when he had backed himself into a financial corner, attempted to stage an “accidental” death on his wife and children so he could collect their insurance. The fruits of his hypocrisy ruined himself and destroyed his family.
Christ’s giving, by contrast, was thoroughly genuine and cost him more than we can understand with our present knowledge.
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December 5th, 2009
Karl Marx raged against the rich.
It is common for Marxists to rage against the rich. It is common for the rich to denigrate the poor and commoners as Gasset y Ortega did in The Revolt of the Masses. Either attitude is wrong. Rich and poor are on the same plane before God. He made both categories. Wealthy and impoverished alike are sinners before him. As Scriptures says, “He imprisoned all men under disobedience so that he might have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:32)
Jesus dealt as easily with the wealthy as with the impoverished. He was equally master whether he mingled in the top or the bottom of society. He rebuked the rich as readily as the poor. There was no favoritism with him. In this, as in all things, he lived out the Word of God.
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November 28th, 2009
King Alfred the Great, a stickler for justice.
This proverb tells us how it ought to be, not how it is. Many kings have created injustice from their thrones.
One who genuinely tried to scatter evil was King Alfred the Great. Ruling at a time of war with serious social breakdown, he was determined to restore justice in his land. Consequently he required all his judges to learn to read the law, or to have it read to them. An old document says he hanged forty-four justices in a single year for sentencing men who had been acquitted, for allowing irregular juries, for sending a madman and a minor to death, for punishing a man for an offense committed by his wife, and for usurpation of jurisdiction. He also ejected a number of judges for lesser abuses.
When Christ comes, he will judge his church with faithful justice. There will be no eluding his piercing eyes and complete knowledge not only of our actions but of our motives. He is the ideal king who fulfills this verse perfectly.
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November 22nd, 2009
The Hyatt Regency was renamed as the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.
We often hear of loss and disaster caused by someone getting careless. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge went down because its engineers built the structure on the cheap. Fortunately, no people lost their lives. At Chernobyl, arrogant engineers built a nuclear plant without rudimentary safety features. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected when the reactor melted down. In Bhopul India, thousands died in a chemical disaster which could have been prevented with elementary precautions and prompt action. At the Hyatt Regency, 114 people died and 200 more were injured owing to faulty engineering.
One does not have to be a terrorist to achieve massive destruction and loss of life. Carelessness, corner cutting, drug use, taking the easy way out—all of these will produce the same results as an anarchist’s bomb.
By contrast, Christ cut no corners. At great expense to himself he did the right thing at the right time. He waited until he was of mature age—until his “time had come”—before plunging into his ministry. Before selecting his twelve disciples, he spent the night in prayer. He waited just the right number of days before returning to Judea to raise Lazarus from death. Such examples could be multiplied. One senses that there was not an unnecessary movement nor a wasted moment in his life.
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November 15th, 2009
King George III. Portrait by Allan Ramsay.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
George III, the British king against whom the United States revolted, suffered periodic bouts of insanity, probably owing to porphyria, a disorder in which cells fail to make the hemes that give blood their color. George, however, was a Christian. The following anecdote shows him wiser than many a more “normal” king.
One of his first acts after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His Majesty was led to this from a fulsome adulation which Dr. Thomas Wilson, prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the Chapel-Royal. Instead of thanks, Wilson received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his Majesty observing, “I came to chapel to hear the praises of God, not my own.”
In this George was like Christ Jesus, who lived to bring honor to the Father. The result, according to the Apostle Peter, was that God honored him. “For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” (2 Peter 1:17)
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November 7th, 2009
Anne Askew and some others at the stake.
Anne Askew was an outspoken woman early in the English reformation. Her faith brought her into contact with the women of King Henry VIII’s court, including possibly Katherine Parr. Anne was tortured to reveal her contacts but stubbornly refused to betray her associates. Eventually she was burned alive.
So far as we know, Jesus was not tested in this manner. However, he fulfilled the spirit of this proverb, for when arrested, he said, “Let these men go” so that his disciples went free. Not only so, he stood silent before false accusations, refusing to testify against himself until adjured in the name of God.
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October 18th, 2009
The first to plead his case seems right until his neighbor comes and questions him.
Alfred Wegener gave geology a new paradigm.
When Alfred Wegener first presented evidence for plate tectonics early in the twentieth century, he was derided by the scientific establishment. Standard theory invoked land bridges, long since eroded or sunken, to explain similarities in flora and fauna across oceans.
Wegener continued to amass evidence, but what brought scientific consensus his way was the mapping of sea beds by submarines after World War II and the development of laser techniques which permitted precise measurement of continental drift.
That is how science progresses—by questioning earlier hypotheses and bringing new evidence to bear.
Today an intriguing new hypothesis, known as expansion tectonics, receives derision similar to that which faced Wegener—when it is not simply ignored. Will its questions (and predictions) eventually force yet another modification of geological theory?
Jesus came to an Israel which held a legalist theory of righteousness. His actions and the questions he posed to the religious leaders of his day challenged the reigning consensus. The Pharisees had seemed right until Christ became the neighbor who questioned them. Then the weakness of their presuppositions became painfully apparent.
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October 11th, 2009
Josef Stalin who terrorized and oppressed the Soviet Union.
Before his death, Stalin, who had ruled the Soviet Union with tactics of terror and had dealt ruthlessly even with former comrades and family, became paranoid, terrified that others were plotting to destroy him as he had destroyed so many of them.
He died without hope in this world or the next. After his death, even his memory was execrated by those who had trembled before him in life.
By contrast, Jesus, who harmed no one but rendered service to all, died in the expectation of resurrection, and his hope was fully vindicated. Men and women by the millions adore the memory of him.
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October 4th, 2009
Beau Nash
Beau Nash was the reigning dandy at Bath in 1739. An adventurer and gamester, he paraded his materialism with gaudy displays of pomp and profligacy. When he learned John Wesley was coming in June, he promised to drag him down. Friends pleaded with Wesley not to risk preaching, but Wesley refused; he must share the word of life.
As a consequence of Nash’s boasts, the crowds were larger than usual, and many among them were the fashionable people and visitors of the town. Wesley preached in his normal style, warning people high and low that all were locked under sin and needed a savior.
Nash appeared and tried to disrupt the meeting. He asked by what authority Wesley preached. Wesley easily answered; he had been ordained by the man who was now Archbishop of Canterbury. Nash then twisted the law to claim the assembly was illegal; Wesley replied that the law referred to seditious gatherings. Nash next charged him with frightening the people, to which Wesley demonstrated that Nash was speaking from hearsay. Finally Nash demanded, “I desire to know what this people comes here for.”
An old woman shouted in reply, “You, Mr. Nash, take care of your body; we take care of our souls; and for the food of our souls we come here.” Nash retired defeated.
Anyone who has read the accounts of Christ knows that, like Nash, the Pharisees did all in their power to impede Him from speaking of true righteousness. There was violence in their speech, and ultimately violence in their deeds.
These examples remind me of something Paul Johnson wrote in Enemies of Society. He said that those who will do violence to the language [i.e.: twist facts and meanings to make a point] will do violence to people if they get the power. It has been the way of Satanic opposition from the beginning, for as Christ reminded us, Satan is a liar and a murderer, and his followers act like him.
We must make every effort to be honest with our facts, use words properly, and tell the whole story, not just the parts that support our position.
Posted in righteous, tongue, truth and lies, wicked | 1 Comment »
September 27th, 2009
The Good Shepherd rescuing a lost sheep.
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let not them depart from your eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: then they will be life to your soul, and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely on your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid: instead, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.
As we uncover the secrets of the universe, and probe the workings of the human mind and body, we find an amazing richness of design. Whether on the grandest physical scale—the universe itself, or clusters of galaxies—or in the intricate workings of the smallest living cell, we find a wisdom which is almost incomprehensible.
We owe all of this to Christ. He is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), and by him and for him all things were made (Colossians 1:15). The Christians who founded modern science believed this, and thought that they were but thinking Christ’s thoughts after him in their researches and experiments.
The promises of this passage of Proverbs are fulfilled in Christ.
• Length of days — Christ promises eternal life to whoever believes in him (John 5:24).
• Honor — We are told that when Christ comes in his glory he will be ashamed of whoever is ashamed of him now (Luke 9:26).
• Riches — Christ became poor so that we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
• Pleasantness — Christ’s yoke is easy, his burden is light (Matthew 11:30).
• Grace — grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).
Solomon instructs us to keep wisdom. Jesus instructs us to keep his words, and likens the man who does so to one who plants his foundation on rock (Matthew 7:24-25).
Are we afraid? Jesus is our consolation. He is the shepherd who protects our sheepcote with his very life (John 10).
No passage in Proverbs foreshadows Christ more than this.
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September 20th, 2009
The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter.
The Inklings were an informal group at Oxford University who gathered to talk, eat, share their work, and critique one another’s output. Several of them, such as Owen Barfield and Charles Williams, produced works of high value.
Among Christians, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis remain the best known. Tolkien credited Lewis with encouraging him to finish The Lord of the Rings; and without the influence of Tolkien, C. S. Lewis would probably never have become a Christian or written the Christian works which brought him such prominence. Iron had certainly sharpened iron.
Those who followed Jesus were also sharpened. Thus we are told in Acts 4:13ff that the Pharisees saw that Peter and John were uneducated men and marveled at their boldness. “And they realized they had been with Jesus.” This is a sharpening any of us can experience if we allow Christ’s Spirit to work in us.
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September 13th, 2009
William Bradford, from a statue at Plymouth.
In his history of Plimoth Plantation, William Bradford tells about some English separatists [Christians wanting to separate from the Church of England] who attempted to escape persecution in England by going over to the Netherlands. A large company of them planned to sail from Lincolnshire, and hired a ship, making an agreement with its master to be ready on a certain day at an appointed place. After a long wait, with unexpected expense, because he did not show up when he was supposed to, they finally saw his ship appear. He took them aboard in the night. But when he got them and their goods on his boat, he betrayed them, having plotted earlier with officials to do so. The officers sent men to seize the poor refugees, forced them into open boats, and ransacked them, searching even their shirts for money, and pawing the women without regard to modesty. They then brought them ashore to jail them, and made them a spectacle to the crowds, which came flocking from all sides to see them.
I cannot find an instance in which Jesus placed confidence in any man during his time of trouble. On the contrary, we are told he did not trust himself to the people because he knew what was in their hearts.
Had he placed confidence in his disciples, he would have been sorely disappointed, because one betrayed him to the authorities, the rest fled from him when he was arrested, and his chief follower, Peter, denied even knowing him.
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September 7th, 2009
DNA design from the U.S. government's genome project.
Gerald L. Schroeder, in The Hidden Face of God, discusses the wisdom scientists are finding as they dig into the hidden workings of biology (and other sciences). For example, a few strands of DNA, invisible to the eye, carry sufficient information that a complete human being, with all its different cells and capabilities, can form from their blueprint. Or consider our thinking process and the working of nerves which carry information to the brain, a system which is exquisitely simple on one level but extraordinarily complex on another, and certainly indicative of brilliant design to anyone without a closed mind.
I find intriguing Schroeder’s continual references to the wisdom of nature which reminds him of Old Testament wisdom references, including Proverbs 3:19—”With wisdom God founded the world.”
Paul teaches us that Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) and that it was through him and for him all things were created, visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16ff).
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