Author: Uri Brito

Posted on

True Truth

Francis Schaeffer’s line “true truth” was coined as a result of the pluralistic culture of his day which has in many ways engulfed our present society. Schaeffer was referring to a truth that is objective and not relativized by one’s preferences. The Gospel is true truth. The Church’s peculiarity stems from her unique perspective on objective claims.

There are times when a church can speak a truth, but speak it so subtly and unwillingly that the congregation embraces a certain level of skepticism. As Leslie Newbigin observed,

“As long as the church is content to offer its beliefs modestly as simply one of the many brands available in the ideological supermarket, no offense is taken. But the affirmation that the truth revealed in the gospel ought to govern public life is offensive.”

There is a kind of preaching that is so subtle, that rumor has it, a camel accidentally found its way through the eye of a needle right before the pastor concluded his point. Parishioners said it was a sight to behold. Another rumor was that the arguments were filled with so many nuances that they died on the way home.

In our day, debating the truth claims of Scriptures is paved with great intentions. But the end result is a Gospel that ceases to offer that potent claim, but is now a powerless declaration that Jesus can be Lord, but He may not be necessarily interested in the job description.

Schaeffer was right. Simple truth has its genesis in the One who claims to be the way, truth, and life. This three-fold declaration is not up for debate. Pluralism, religious pluralism, is an impossibility for you can only serve one master.

Posted on

Labor Day Meditation

Labor Day has been a federal holiday in this country since 1894, but long ago Solomon already opined on the importance of work: “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied (Prov. 13:4).”

The Christian looks at Labor Day through the lens of the Apostle Paul’s view of work when he concluded his great tome on the resurrection in I Corinthians 15:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Paul believed that the fruit of the resurrection bears fruit in our labors. We labor in resurrection style, not as those without hope. We labor because our work has continuing worth long after we are done.

Lester Dekoster defines work as that “which gives meaning to life because it is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others.” In our labors we bring extended satisfaction to others and ourselves. If we did not work, we could never give back what rightly belongs to God in tithes and offerings. If we did not work we could never support the vast missionary enterprise throughout the world. If we did not labor we could never enjoy the fruits of our labors in hospitality and charity.

Our work is a form of eternal stewardship. We labor on earth because it is a glimpse of how we will labor for all eternity. We labor on earth because we are stewards of the earth and we will labor in heaven because all of creation will be ours. We will never stop working! On this Labor Day, consider the meaning of your work. What you do is not in vain in this world or in the world to come.

Posted on

Does God do Good When We Suffer? Pastoral Letters, #129

Dear friend,
You asked a deeply abiding question for the Christian. Namely, what does it mean for God to do good if we suffer? In other words, how does suffering and good fit in the same sentence? The Apostle Paul says that “all things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28)” So where is the “good” when there is suffering plus suffering multiplied by suffering, but never divided or subtracted by suffering? How do you see God’s goodness in a perpetual cycle of pain and distress?

One of the fundamental issues when discussing the “good” is to define the “good” according to the Scriptures. If we believe “good” has to do with everything going well for us, when the kids are finally in bed and Hulu+ is on, and the paycheck keeps coming regularly, and everyone is relatively healthy all the time…if that’s what we mean by God’s “good,” we are going to be very disappointed as Christians. There is something far greater happening when God does good to those who suffer. It’s not merely a relief from pain or angst through a few casual forms of entertainment.

When I was growing up, there was this Christian tract going around called the “Four Spiritual Laws.” One of the themes of the tract was that God has a wonderful plan for your life if you become a Christian. Even back then, I remember thinking, “what do they mean by wonderful?” After all, I knew many great Christians who suffered and I don’t think they’d say that their suffering was wonderful.

The Bible uses the word “good” a lot; 610 times to be precise. At the beginning of Genesis, God creates and at the end of each day, he says it is good. At the end of the creation week, God says that it is very good; there is an accentuation of the good. At the end of Genesis, Joseph looks at his brothers and says, that you intended to harm me, but God intended it to do good (Gen. 50:20). There is a contrast taking place, and it helps define the “good” for the readers. When the Bible talks about the “good” in creation, it’s not saying that creation will not suffer, for surely after Genesis 3 it groans (Rom. 8). When God does good to creation, He’s establishing creation to follow after his design for them. What good is it for creation to groan but not long for God?

In the classic example of Joseph–who suffered immensely—the same process is repeated. Yes, Joseph suffered and was falsely accused, but for him, the suffering led him to turn his face towards God—the greatest Good. Joseph’s suffering was the means to experience God’s goodness. Similarly, did the Father not give of his goodness to the Son amidst the Son’s suffering? Yes, He did.

But for you, here’s where the rubber meets the good: When God does Good he re-orients you in your life-journey.But doesn’t God want good for his children? Yes, but you need to understand that for God to do good means that He orients you to his ways, his order, his will, his desires, his word, his body, and his instruction. When we suffer, however much we suffer, the best good God can do for us is to orient our eyes towards Him and his people. What good does it do to recover from an illness and be driven away from God? None whatsoever. In that case, your suffering has been in vain.

Now, does God heal? Yes. Is that good? Yes. But if we suffer, the greatest good is to direct us deeper into God’s purposes, order and ways. Day one of creation is good because the sun, moon and stars serve God’s purpose and design. If creation groans—and it does—but it does not serve God’s purposes, that’s not good, that’s a curse for creation. Joseph’s suffering is good because it leads him to serve God in a more significant capacity. Similarly, God does good by re-arranging your loves through your pain and suffering. God wastes no broken bone or cancer or job loss.

Therefore, God does good amid our suffering by turning our affections, desires, and habits towards him. Anything else is not good. You may need to begin by changing entirely your definition of what is good, otherwise you will be perpetually doubtful of God’s goodness.

Sincerely, Pastor Brito
#Letter129

Posted on

A Theology of Hymns: “Now Shall My Inward Joys Arise”, part 1

Now shall my inward joys arise, And burst into a song; Almighty love inspires my heart, And pleasure tunes my tongue.

God on his thirsty Zion hill Some mercy-drops has thrown, And solemn oaths have bound his love To show’r salvation down.

Why do we then indulge our fears, Suspicions, and complaints? Is he a God, and shall his grace Grow weary of his saints?

Can a kind woman e’er forget The infant of her womb, And ‘mongst a thousand tender thoughts Her suckling have no room?

“Yet,” saith the Lord, “should nature change, And mothers monsters prove, Sion still dwells upon the heart Of everlasting love.”

“Deep on the palms of both my hands I have engrav’d her name; My hands shall raise her ruin’d walls, And build her broken frame.”

Guitar chords: D F#m Bm A7 D G A7 Bm F#m G A7 G F#m A7 D

Posted on

Leftism and Cow Farts

Let’s be extremely honest with our assessment that the Left is comfortable with some destruction and some rioting as long as it serves their purpose of disquieting society. George Floyd was the unfortunate Girardian scape-goat. His death was used to propel an agenda and to shift focus to the “societal decay” under a Trump presidency. It’s true that you may have heard one or two politicians out there saying that riots are bad, but when Leftists want to articulate something they come together as a band harmonizing like Lennon and McCartney. In this case, they were happily harmonizing to the sound of silence.There was a time when people kept these radical opinions to themselves, but now you have Op-Ed pieces on NPR extolling the philosophical case for why small businesses are part of a nefarious capitalist propaganda. Sorry, Mom and Pops!

As I mentioned before, Trump could be articulating a much more pristine vision of the conservation of ideas, but you can’t untrump his rhetoric to your favorite Milton Friedman impersonation. He is indubitably Trump when he is on Twitter and when he isn’t (which is not often). However, what we see without a shadow of a doubt is a Democratic Party waking up to the fact that regular human beings are not big fans of destruction, especially their own local businesses wherein they poured their heart and soul and sweat. Who would have thunk it!?

The polls are shifting rapidly:
Post-GOP convention poll from Emerson has Trump winning 19% of blacks (no GOP candidate has gotten more than 15% since 1960) and 37% of Hispanics (which would tie Reagan in 1984 as the second-highest for GOP candidate). HT: Steve Deace

It is true that Republicans have a tendency to shift with some wind, but Democrats shift when cows fart, which incidentally affects climate change (that’s the rumor, according to Al Gore). This all means that we are about to hear some fairly decent defenses of private property coming from disciples of Barack Obama. In fact, just a few hours ago I read a prominent Democrat talk about how disgraceful it is to destroy the lives of hard-working black businessmen. For the record, we have been stressing this before Adam Smith was born. In fact, we like to think that we–conserver of values–really like that anything private stay intact unless an owner decides to renovate.

What we are seeing now is a party willing to defend whatever it takes to get Trump out of office. They are willing to bring Hillary out of the grave, they are willing to put Billie Eilish’s green hair on display, and they are willing to even defend private property. We have 63 days to consider these matters; a little over two months to contemplate some important trajectories in our country. The Church can thrive under any regime, but she does not have to willingly capitulate to the indoctrination of progressive shifties looking to cow farts for ideological direction.

Posted on

Jude Translation, Verse 8 with Notes: Angels and Dreamers

Ὁμοίως μέντοι καὶ οὗτοι ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι σάρκα μὲν μιαίνουσιν κυριότητα δὲ ἀθετοῦσιν δόξας δὲ βλασφημοῦσιν (Jude 1:8)

Translation: In the same manner, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

Notes: In the same manner, Jude equates the unnatural desires of Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 7 to the Zealots in verse 8. In his mind, the Jewish Zealots perform a similar function in seeking to recruit Judean Christians to their rebellious cause. In particular, these are dreamers (ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι). They promote false ideas through fantasies of grandeur. They view themselves too highly and can’t accept why followers of Jesus won’t simply take their route to freedom from Roman oppression.

They take for themselves these visions of grandeur (Bauckham, 56). They feed themselves with their dreams of superiority and greatness and glory. They are, after all, in the body of Moses, and they despise anyone who says they are in the body of Christ, because for these zealots, Jesus is an impious leader who does not want the good of the Jewish people. If he did, he would have come bearing a sword ready to destroy Roman oppression like all the famous Maccabean figures and Jewish revolutionaries.

It seems that with each line Jude writes we see a progressively worsening description of the zealots; a self-absorbed people who are religiously impure (Bateman, 196). James had said that true religion is in helping the poor, but the Zealots believe true religion is pressuring the poor, seducing the poor and widow to violate their Christian oath. Beyond that, they defile the flesh which is to say they pervert the purpose of the flesh which is to give itself for Christ; here, they embrace a law unto themselves; they embrace their own dreams for what the kingdom should look like and therefore they blaspheme every authority figure in the Church. “Your pastor is not leading well; if he were, he would be preaching political sermons every Sunday about Roman oppression!”

Contrary to the NAS, there is no textual indication that they are blaspheming “angelic majesties.” This would only harmonize as an interpretive phrase (not a literal one) if one already assumed that Jude has angelic beings in mind, which I argue is not the most consistent interpretation. I develop this though further in my Theopolis essay on the Nephilim.

These Zealots seem to fit the general description of the line of Cain in Genesis 6 in their rejection of authority structures. They engage in immoral sin which ultimately becomes the sin of Adam taking the seduction of the Serpent over the promises of Yahweh.

I affirm that the “glorious ones” are the saints in the Church who are connected covenantally to Jesus Christ who keeps them (vss. 1-2) and who adopts them into his own glorious body by grace through faith. Jesus is the doxology of the Church and in union with him, we are now his doxological ambassadors.

Posted on

Fiery, but Mostly Peaceful Protest: The Modern-Day Maxim

The prophet Jeremiah warned Jerusalem of judgment. Some attempted to offer temporary relief from judgment by dressing the wounds of the people half-heartedly. They constructed their own stage and offered God a production of B-rated actors and said, “You see, look how Oscar worthy we are!” And God, who happened to write the whole script for the movie entitled, “History of Civilization: A Memoir” wasn’t impressed with their attempts.

In their minds, they couldn’t take judgment seriously and acted as protagonists of their fate. Again, Yahweh was not very impressed…at all! They even went so far as to make a declaration that there was peace all around, but there was no peace (Jer. 6:14). Their self-deception was not timid; in fact, the prophet said they didn’t even know how to blush (Jer. 6:15).

What does it take a for a society to abandon every sense of shame? What does it take a culture to act as if they can only place temporary bandages when if the infection doesn’t desist, the leg will be amputated? What makes an ideology believe there is peace when really what they want is distance from God and ethical chaos to reign supreme?

I have been pondering this question recently and a maxim descended to me from heaven, as if in a dream–a really bad dream. I exaggerate; in actuality, it showed up in a CNN by-line covering the protests of some ignorant anarchists. It was right there! It said: “Fiery but mostly peaceful protest!” It was that eureka moment novelists have at three in the morning, except mine didn’t spring out of anything reliable, it was just CNN. I realized at that moment that even the most obtuse can forget their real narrative and enter that strange world of reality.

It was almost a repeat of Jeremiah’s day when they said, “Peace, peace, but there is no peace!” In any real world scenario the concept of fire and peace does not harmonize unless you see it as refining something. In this case, these social scoundrels were burning their own neighborhoods and CNN couldn’t help but live in this contradictory worldview. You can’t hide from reality, because reality bites you back and you end up feeling this burning sensation.

Any human being in their most unproductive day understands that you don’t burn your house to protest high taxes. But sanity, logic and those classical virtues are so far for these humans that they believe they have a right to live in a fantasy world while protesting what they believe to be objective injustices in society. I honestly have no way of reading into their next maxim. From the direction they’re heading, they might even go so far as to claim that a man can be a woman. But I don’t want to be too much of a pessimist!

Posted on

What does it mean to fear God?

I receive at least a few questions daily from readers of my blog and my Facebook posts. The latest one I received came from an atheist who could not understand why Christians talk about fearing God. After all, the concept of fearing God seems dreadful. I took the time to reply with an important distinction:

I will try to give a brief reply, and then as time allows can follow-up in the future.

The Bible talks about this concept of fear over 350 times, which means it is a really crucial part of God’s revelation. Often in the English language, when the word fear is used, it speaks of fright or danger. If I fear something, I am undoubtedly afraid of that thing or that person. But the Bible is a lot more complex than that.

The best direction to make this explanation clear is to think of it in two ways:

The first is servile fear. Imagine being enslaved in a torture chamber, and you are continually living as if your tormentor is coming back to torture you; you are living in daily anxiety for what is going to happen to you next. This is not the fear the Bible speaks of when it says that we are to fear God and keep his commandments.

The second is filial fear. The word fear has to do with reverence or showing respect. The word filial has to do with sonship. It’s where we get the concept of family. Imagine you live in a home with a very loving set of parents. When you know you are loved, your deepest desire is to please those who love you so dearly; your actions will always weigh towards honoring them with all your heart, soul, and strength. The fear of a child towards a loving parent is not the fear of someone living in prison, but the fear of someone who would hate to disappoint those who love them. In short, to fear is to revere and show great respect.

So, for a Christian to fear God is to know you are loved beyond anything you could ever imagine; that you are more worthy than any precious jewel and that no matter what others may think of you, God loves you infinitely more than you could ask or think. We fear God because we would hate to disappoint a God who gave his only Son to save us. We only truly fear

I trust this is helpful.