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I hope the title caught your attention and I hope that this brief post challenges the clean Victorianesque way in which many of us read Scripture and our clean Victorian lives and our clean Victorian churches. Have you ever heard a sermon giving more than a cursory explanation of what an eunuch is? I have not. I have heard the clean version of how eunuchs played a critical role in the government of many nations at that time; how they guarded concubines in the harems and protected the emperors of Rome. At later times they became important figures in the history of music as castrati were renowned for their vocal prowess. What I haven’t heard is a lengthy exposition of how such procedures, which were performed in the early stages of life, had profound physical, physiological, and psychological effects upon an individual due to hormone depravation.
Lest we let our American obsession with power and celebrity affect the way we read this text another reminder is necessary. Yes, the text does indeed note that he was the treasurer for an Ethiopian queen; however, he did not come to this position due to his wisdom or financial savvy. No, rather he has been genetically engineered, in a most primitive way, so that he can perform certain tasks within the government and as such he and those like him were expendable. Yes, he has authority and he has influence but he has been engineered for this role.
With such basic expositions of this text have we truly recognized its significance? Is this merely a cheap incantation to be read before the congregation at baptismal ceremonies? In Isaiah 56 we find that both the salvation of the eunuch and foreigner promised. Later in acts we read the story of Cornelius and see the Spirit is poured out upon this gentile and his household. I mean no disservice to the story of Cornelius but is it not equally profound that God would choose to save this transgender man? Even more amazing is that Irenaeus noted that this Ethiopian eunuch became a missionary among his people, which does much to explain the church history there dating back to the first century.
How do you think this text should challenge our understanding of mission and how are we to go about this mission? How would you respond if God called one of these children to Himself? How would you respond if after having irreversible surgery and hormone therapy God chooses to send one of these individuals out as a missionary? Would your church send the Ethiopian eunuch out as a missionary? Would your church call him as pastor? Aside from the likes of men like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, whose answers are not answers at all, no one seems to be addressing these issues. I am not asking a question with regards to lifestyle here, Scripture both answers that clearly and demonstrates the power of the gospel to change lives. In the age of designer babies (see here) and transgender children (see here) we must wrestle with the fact that while lifestyle change through the gospel is possible undoing physical, physiological, and psychological change rooted in genetic manipulation is a different process entirely.
John Piper answers the question “What is the Recession For?” (Read it — Download it — Watch it)
Books
- The Darkness and the Glory: His Cup and the Glory From Gethsemane to the Ascension by Greg Harris is now on sale at Amazon (Also available at GBI and Logos). If you still don’t have The Cup and the Glory: Lessons on Suffering and the Glory of God be sure to pick it up as well.
Culture
- Here is an interesting little map which looks a adoption as a global phenomenon.
Economics
- This chart speaks for itself.
- Reuters details the current employment situation, as this November American employers cut the most jobs since 1974, here.
SBC Life
- Last month Voddie Baucham posted a The SBC and Calvinism: A Personal Perspective it is well worth the read.
The John 3:16 Conference
- Phil Johnson has responded to David Allen’s misuse of his “Primer on hyper-Calvinism” at the John 3:16 Conference in his recent post “You May Be a Hyper-Calvinist If….”
This was posted prior to the election; however, what John Piper has to say remains an important message that we all need to hear. I would also recommend reading Thabiti Anyabwile’s reflections on Piper’s video here.
As America, and much of the world, awaits the outcome of the election here are two articles that I hope prove to be helpful as you reflect on this election and elections to come. These articles represent a balance that I think is lost in most pulpits around election season when many pastors preach the gospel of this kingdom and abandon the gospel of the Kingdom. I am glad that Piper, Driscoll, and many like them have kept the focus on the true gospel and provided us with a biblical perspective of politics.
Mark Driscoll – In God We Do Not Trust
John Piper – Let Christians Vote As Though They Were Not Voting
Everything Sexual
- The Atlantic has published an article that is as hard to read as it is necessary to read. A Boy’s Life details the lives of several transgender children as well as various methods of treatment, surgery, and hormone therapy and the debate surrounding it all.
This was a very hard read especially when you consider that these are children. I do not know any children who are going through this nor can I imagine a place in culture where a four year old desires to change his/her gender. Regardless of what I can, or cannot imagine, there are places where this is occurring and such occurrences will be the ever increasing norm.
My question is what does the gospel have to say to this? If you are a parent how would you respond to your child? If you are a pastor how does this change the church’s mission or how does the church’s unchanging mission address these issues?
- In a similar vein Al Mohler has done a series of posts on the gay marriage debate that are worth reading. I appreciate that he points out that while many would argue that it homosexuality is normative that if one views this issue from a global perspective that “same-sex marriage is, by any measure, the exception rather than the rule.” I am not particularly interested in the politics of this debate; however, I do wonder if the only response that followers of Christ have to such a situation is the “opt out.” Your child will be exposed to sex, they will be exposed to it at an early age, and they will be exposed to a wider variety of accepted modes of sexual expression than at any point in US history. As parents desiring to run a gospel-centered home how do you address these issues when they are being raised at such a young age? As pastors how do you equip parents to address such pressing issues?
So, What’s Really at Stake in the Gay Marriage Debate? Part One
So, What’s Really at Stake in the Gay Marriage Debate? Part Two
Politics
- Der Spiegel interviews Noam Chomsky here.
- Thabiti Anyabwile has a series of posts, which I hope he continues, over at Pure Church that deserves your reading. Like most election years by this time of the cycle I am tired of the muckraking and incessant campaign ads. However, I appreciate that Thabiti points out much that we have tragically missed during this election and he is a well respected evangelical who is finding it difficult to vote.
The Presidential Election That Almost Was… Or Why It’s Difficult for Me to Vote, 1
The Presidential Election That Almost Was… Or Why It’s Difficult for Me to Vote, 2
The Presidential Election That Almost Was… Or Why It’s Difficult for Me to Vote, 3
Culture
- In “The Burden of Perverse Assumptions” Tim Challies examines the profound affect that the sexual revolution has had and will continue to have on nonsexual same-sex relationships as he reflects on Al Mohler’s recent book Desire and Deceit: The Real Cost of the New Sexual Tolerance.
Missiology
- Early last month Dr. David Sills, of SBTS, posted a fantastic article, entitled “The Brain Drain,” in which he looks at contemporary evangelicalism and how our desire to prepare missionaries has taught missions well but failed to model it and is in some sense counterproductive. From the article:
It is amazing to me that the most eloquent Bible expositors and scholars who exegete so beautifully the missionary journeys of Paul have often never been on one themselves. . . . They model a ministry that talks about the nations but does not walk among the nations.
The brightest and best aspire to follow and emulate these godly teachers, preachers, Bible scholars, and theologians who unfortunately do not model missions as a worthy life investment. As much as young people want it to, missions does not seem to fit into any responsible, biblical expression of ministry because none of the leaders or inner circle members is missions focused in anything but talk. After a time of confused struggling, young people pack away their passion for missions as misguided zeal.
I would love for you to read this article and then share your thoughts.
Theology
- In “What is a Baptist? Nine Marks that Separate Baptists from Presbyterians,” a recent article by Dr. Steve Lemke published in New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s The Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, Steve Lemke argues for “four streams of Calvinism in contemporary SBC life.” There are indeed times when this article is helpful and I appreciate his comparison between the BF&M, The Westminster Confession, and The T4G Statement; however, I think there is much that is not helpful. I, and I am sure you, would expect to see individuals demonstrate a lack of scholarship in a blog entry that took all of five minutes to write or to find unreliable information on Wikipedia but to see a theological journal published by an accredited institution containing such misinformation is a shame and calls into question the scholarship of all parties involved. The Dr. Lemke’s article can be read here and a three-part response by Timmy Brister can be found below.
- Todd Burus has recently posted Calvinism in the SBC- An Open Letter to Johnny Hunt and Jerry Vines in response to the John 3:16 Conference among other things, see here and here for an example. If you are a Baptist or a Calvinist then I would highly recommend Todd’s posts he tackles the problem issues and does so in a charitable tone.
Last night I had the opportunity to watch a television show about the author Wendell Berry. The following quote, from Thoughts in the Presence of Fear, struck me as particularly insightful.
“The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It’s proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or “accessing” what we now call “information” – which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.”
News
· The Death of Paper – Are printed magazines, newspapers, and books nearing their demise? Check out this article and make the call.
Politics
· The List: McCain’s 10 Worst Ideas – Foreign Policy is doing a two part series on the ten worst policy proposals for the two presidential hopefuls.
· The List: Obama’s 10 Worst Ideas – Foreign Policy is doing a two part series on the ten worst policy proposals for the two presidential hopefuls.
· On Faith – The panelists at The Washington Post and Newsweek’s forum, On Faith, have recently been asked: “Women are not allowed to become clergy in many conservative religious groups. Is it hypocritical to think that a woman can lead a nation and not a congregation?” As you can imagine this question has generated a varied number of responses and heated debate in the forums. You can read the responses from all the panelists here; however, I would recommend the following panelists’ responses, and not necessarily because I agree with them:
Albert Mohler Jr. – President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Brian D. McLaren – Leader in the Emergent Church movement and author of A Generous Orthodoxy
Richard Mouw – President, Fuller Theological Seminary
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite – Professor, Chicago Theological Seminary
Deepak Chopra – Founder and president of the Alliance for a New Humanity
Theology
· Lost/Found in Translation? – Ed Stetzer has posted a helpful article concerning the language a church chooses to use and how this shapes missional thinking.
· Insufficient Responses- A Thought on Nehemiah 1.4 – You need to read this post.
· Is Divine Election Unfair? – John MacArthur gives a brief explanation of why this doctrine of grace is truly gracious.
· Six Study Essentials – Mark Driscoll gives six simple yet very helpful essentials to Bible study.
The SBC
· Pry the Baton Out of Their (C)old, Dead Hands- An Opinion on Age Trends in the SBC – Todd Burus has posted on age trends in the SBC there has not been a lot of discussion on this post and I know Todd, as well as myself, would love to hear your thoughts.
· Convocation marks start of “year of living dangerously,” Mohler tells students – Dr. Albert Mohler’s fall convocation address at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary challenges students to live dangerously (click here for MP3). From the address:
“I want us to be an institution that scares people,” he said. “We are gathered here at this place, with so many of us — it appears — who are committed to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; this is a dangerous place. The forces of evil and darkness and the enemies of the Gospel have more than met their match. Not because of who we are, but because of who Christ is. Not because we have any tactical skill, but because we follow a Lord who is going to vindicate His Gospel.”
Blogroll
Todd Burus has been blogging since late 2007 but I want to bring his blog, “For the time that is past suffices…”, to your attention. Todd has one of the keenest minds that I know from mathematics to politics to theology Todd is profoundly intelligent and his blog comes highly recommended.
Justin Sok recently left the blogsphere and shut down his blog Marvelous Light. This was a devastating blow from the man who inspired me to blog. Luckily none of us will have to do without his thoughts for much longer as this weekend he rejoined us with the aptly titled In Medias Res. Like Todd Justin has a keen mind and provides solid insight on just about any subject. Other than Al Mohler Justin is the widest read individual I know and I love engaging him in discussion. I am excited to see where Justin takes this new blog and I hope you are as well. For those of you who were as sad to see ML go as much as I am let me know and I will e-mail you a .feed-ms file that contains all of Justin’s posts.
Books
Re:Lit, of Crossway, has several new books out and coming out in the near future that you would do well to check out. See the links below.
· Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (click here for Amazon)
· Practical Theology for Women: How Knowing God Makes a Difference in Our Daily Lives
· Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods
Tim Challies offers a brief review of Serve God Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action by J. Matthew Sleeth, MD in his cleverly titled post “Serve God, Save the Planet.”
World News
“How Putin Wins” by Foreign Policy is a brief yet insightful post on the war in Georgia.
The Olympics
Michael Phelps is making Olympic history. There are countless articles on the web about this so I will just refer you to this article over at CNN. But seriously if you have not been watching the Olympics you are missing out, both in terms of history and hilarity.
John Mark Reynolds, Associate Professor of Philosophy, at Biola University, looks at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and reflects on the worldview imagery displayed there. I appreciate his post, “The Religious Olympics Opening,” as it reminds us to focus on being philosophically and culturally discerning. At the same time I think he has either underestimated China’s cultural pride or overestimated the historical pride and intelligence of most American’s. Why did China’s opening ceremony make “much of what contemporary Americans do in our public ceremonies look decadent and without cultural confidence?” Simple, most Americans are ahistorical slobs to whom decadence sells. For me a particular irony is this: throughout the news coverage of this Olympics China’s human rights record has been a constant topic of discussion and yet despite this record China’s citizens have displayed a tremendous amount of nationalistic pride. On the other hand if the US were to end poverty, bring peace to the world, and ensure democratic process to all large numbers of American’s would still hate their country and find no sense of pride in anything remotely American. So why would the US never produce an opening ceremony as pervaded with imagery from US history as the ceremony in Beijing? Because not only are most Americans ahistorical but a lot of them are aAmerican as well.
Theology
In Ed Stetzer’s post “Saturday if for (Baptist) Friends” he looks at the ever aging SBC and notes both how the convention will not survive if this young generation of pastors/missionaries/etcetera is lost and then asks how this generation can be reengaged.
Timmy Brister has a great post up about word-driven church planting movements entitled “Word-Driven Movemental Christianity.” Give this a read and then give Tim some feedback, I think you will really enjoy his post.
Momentum