Catholicity, Orthodoxy, and Lordship
On this interview at Kuyperian Commentary, we discuss the latest work from American Vision: Against All Opposition: Defending the Christian World View by the late Greg Bahnsen. We talk a bit about the labor of presuppositional apologetics and the renewed interest in defending the faith. Gary was a close friend of Greg’s which makes the discussion more intimate and interesting.
Let’s assume for a moment that there is a genuine debate over confederate statues and their purpose adorning well-traveled spots in American cities. Now, it also seems reasonable that a civil debate emerges where reasonable people reasonably come together to condemn slavery and the practices of slave owners as hideous in the sight of God; come, let us reason together, saith the Lord.
Fair enough. But take a quick look around our repository of reasonableness in our day. Go ahead. I will wait.
…still waiting.
Correct. Reasonableness has run its course. The mobs of infidels cannot think straight about the role of due consideration over historical artifacts because history has nothing to do with it in the first place.
As a starter, removing monuments is nothing new. The Inca Empire and post-Soviet Russian government both took down statutes to convey their prowess. One can be easily persuaded that these despotic institutions had more historical rationality than our present mobs. Consider that these same anti-confederate apologists are also defacing monuments to Abraham Lincoln, American hero celebrated by almost all sides, and in England–that bastion of rationality–mobs are eagerly defacing the laudable Winston Churchill, World War II hero and patron saint of cigars.
But you see, my friends, reasonableness does not make it to the top ten list of check-marks in the “Thou Shalt Take Down Monuments” agenda.
History is not a friend of forgetfulness. It bites back with rage. Destroying icons of our history is “taking a page out of the playbook of mobs across the centuries.” (Lawrence Kuznar). To do so is to act as if we are controllers of history choosing which historical facts we wish to see erased and which ones we wish to preserve; it assumes societal harmony and historical sobriety. Of course, to each his own, which means we shouldn’t be frustrated when our historical heroes get toppled down head first by the guy wearing a Che Guevara t- shirt.
After 9-11, I recall walking through airports with my long hair and brown skin. There were various eyes double and triple looking at the Latino man walking around the masses of people seeking his gate. I made the quick association that they were at least skeptical about my background. The country was attacked in apocalyptic fashion and there were specific groups of people singled out for that hideous crime.
I did not at that point assume there was an intrinsic attempt to de-humanize me or that society at large wanted me to disappear. I understood that society was going through civic shock. It is fairly established that when individuals go through particular traumas, their senses are heightened and their skepticism about peoples increase.
This is objectively true in individuals abused sexually, physically or verbally. Their hearts have been manipulated for such a long time that their response is to look at the world with the eyes of fear. They will need godly and faithful witnesses to walk with them through such pain.
And here is where I wish to add a particular caution to those on my side of the isle who look at this entire unrest and may conclude: “What are they (rioters, protesters) making such a big deal about; look at the numbers, etc.?” But that’s to minimize too much the deeper impact of what is happening. There are particular black men and women who have suffered profound mistreatment throughout their lives and the current scene gives them a heightened awareness of what they have gone through and tangible images of unkindness, racial epithets, and mistreatment emerge. These are not mental inventions, but real occurrences.
I venture to say that most rioters are opportunists (as already proven) using such environments to present civilization a piece of their hearts in the public square. But there are also some near to us who may have endured profound pain through the lips of individuals who prefer to diminish someone’s humanity than to affirm it. I want to give my voice to them and not the so-called revolutionaries who recently emerged from their mother’s basement.
If by structural racism we mean that sin permeates the people it touches holistically, then let adherents of total depravity affirm this. But what many mean by systemic racism is that entire groups of people share this common agenda of minimizing and destroying the well-being of others. This is utterly false and leads to generalizations that endanger our corporate civility.
We should affirm that there are particular individuals for whom hate has found a permanent home. They are structurally damaged and use such damage to hurt others in positions of authority or laity/civilian. They are to be rebuked and judged. But I must also walk uprightly knowing that if I hate my brother whom I see and claim to love God, the love of God is not in me. We must repent speedily of this.
My concern at this stage is not with masses of people for whom I can do little. My concern, which I believe should be ours, is to consider individuals who truly have suffered and endured particular shame and uplift their spirits and encourage them to good works of peace in the city. Our universal attempts to sympathize with the universe through somber black Instagram boxes are largely in vain, but our attempts to sympathize with those near to us bear good and tangible fruit. We overlook the real sufferers when we generalize pain; we suspend our skepticism when we seek to understand the real pain of our neighbor.
Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 1: “The Holy Spirit warmed the waters with a kind of vital warmth, even bringing them to a boil through intense head in order to make them fertile. The action of a hen is similar. It sits on its eggs, making them fertile through the warmth of incubation. Here then, the Holy Spirit foreshadows the sacrament of holy baptism, prefiguring its arrival, so that the waters made fertile by the hovering of the same divine Spirit gave birth to the children of God.” (HT: Peter Leithart)
There is a fundamental principle for understanding a war, and that is to ask, “who” is proposing what and how? I wish to focus only on the conveyor of the message on this post. The “who” is to receive attention before the “what” and “how.” We can be easily deceived into accepting ideologies on the basis of emotional connection to particular causes. We are, after all, humans. But it is essential, nay, necessary, nay, crucial and essential and necessary put together, that we grasp what the underlying agenda of the “who” is. Of course, I am not suggesting we outright reject all ideas coming from the unbelieving mind. It is also true that anytime a celebrated “who” of our culture proposes only two options to solve gigantic matters, we ought to be looking for third.
Abraham Kuyper proposed a solution based on the Gospels called “common grace” which offers a dose of reality to unbelievers on a sunny day and occasionally on a rainy one. Sometimes unbelievers get electrified with common grace from their daily dispensary. I will be that guy in the corner cheering him on when his compatriots turn against him.
But we are poor interpreters of culture when we assume that some sexy Instagram star with 5 trillion followers who daily exposes her body to the virtual vultures is not trying to use her platform to propagate an agenda of dishonesty and disrepute. I am no longer amused by God-haters in Hollywood or in the woods of social media. As far as I can tell, they are all lost looking for meaning in nihilism and trying to find hope where hope is never to be found.
Again, there is truth to be found in all places, but it is fairly clear that even if a little ounce of truth is found in these simpatico characters from my favorite TV shows, by the time I get done with my analysis there will be little meat left in that ideological bone.
In more ways than one, we are imbibers of cultural norms. “We don’t want to be in the world,” we declare; but the first great cause propagated by our beloved “artista” seems good when it first meets the eye. So, we pour our wholehearted congratulations and kudos into their bucket, thus legitimizing their claim and clause. But, it’s the “who” that matters. The guy who says he loves life can also be the same guy who says you can kill a baby right to the point before he enters the world. The “who” matters, and we better be very confident that before we engage the “what” and “how” we consider from whence comes the “who.”
G.K. Chesterton once noted that true soldiers fight not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. If there is one thing that characterizes the hearts of evil men is opportunism: man who fights for nothing noble and who seeks only selfish ambition. There are human beings of every tribe who share this distinct fallen feature. If we allow the vices of the world to form us, we quickly find ourselves seeking opportunities to set a snare for others (Prov. 26:27). Human beings look for a pretext in alleged contexts to act out their dangerous human fantasies. We assume ourselves too clever to be caught in our own schemes, but as Solomon says, we eventually find ourselves crushed under the weight of our self-deception.
The riots are not the result of an angry mob of diverse tribes seeking justice for a fallen friend who represents their woes. We can assert that destroying property, setting ablaze the few belongings of the homeless, beating defenseless women, attacking the very communities these individuals claim to cherish, is definitively not about race or injustice! What we are witnessing is a generation trained to have, prepared to take, and eager to steal: the objective violation of the 5th-10th commandments. The death of an innocent man is not the context, the barbarism of the human heart is.
We have quickly turned from the theme of “loving our neighbor” during COVID-19 to “destroying our neighbor” in a matter of seconds. Those rioting claimed to love their neighbors last week, but what they were doing was simply building up stamina to hate them as soon as the doors of opportunity were opened.
We are not experiencing the breakdown of human laws, we are witnessing the logic of disobeying the eternal law of God. We prefer a generic god who demands nothing, a private religion which changes nothing, and an education pre-shaped to satisfy our wants. We are now seeing the fruits of our indifference. The godless wish to take the kingdom by force, and the kingdom suffers violence. If we are looking for logical ways to explain this, we won’t find it, unless we are willing to understand that out of the heart the mouth and body speak.
Dear graduates,
I give you three exhortations as you enter into a new phase of life. The Apostle gives you a simple graduation outline in Hebrews 12.
First, you are called to be fearless. You are not a part of a creation that thrives on fear. Hebrews says that the Old Creation was so filled with fear that even Moses trembled. [At Sinai, there were] the sounds of musical instruments, darkness, a tempest, and the voice of God himself, terrifying to the listeners. But you have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control. So, graduates: be fearless. Be fearless of narratives that hate God. Be fearless of them because the framers of these narratives had to sit on God’s lap before they could argue against His necessity.
Be fearless of this world. This world is God’s, and it is filled with his glory. Be fearless of the world by avoiding worldliness, youthful lusts, and ungodliness. Be fearless, and do not tremble at the latest philosophies –for they will all pass away– and you will be left standing at the end of the day. Though you may be physically and emotionally scarred by the assaults of the ungodly, your name will be added to those who have quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight. Be fearless of all things, but fear God –fear him with a holy passion, because in the fear of Him is the wisdom to be fearless in this world.
Secondly, you are called to holy submission. Hebrews says that you are not to refuse him who is speaking. Jesus is the architect of your faith. He is the one who speaks your orders. He is the captain of the Christian army, the host of this grandiose gathering, which includes innumerable angels, the elect in heaven, and even God himself.
From the fearful nature of the Old Creation where darkness reigned, you are now members of a New Creation where the brightness of Jesus permeates everything. The First Creation was shaken and it crumbled. The New Creation, under Jesus Christ, cannot be shaken. She has been ordered to act in utter submission to Her Lord.
So, too, you must always submit. And in this submission you are called to die. The more you submit, the more you die that death. The less you submit, the greater the misery of life. Submission to your calling as a Christ-follower is the antithesis of worldly education. True education, godly education—which you have received—and which you will continue to follow from now on, is training for death. Bonhoeffer said that “Jesus Christ and his call are necessarily our death as well as our life.” Your calling is to be a part of this innumerable mass of martyrs, angels, forefathers, and all those who have gone before us, to enter in and to accept with honor the call to die to your longings and passions, and to submit to the One who makes all our longings and passions worthwhile. In the words of Rosenstock-Huessy: “The martyr does not obtain the victory personally, but his group, his successors, win in the long run.” So, live for future victory.
Finally, Hebrews tells us to live in perpetual worship. And this is crucial. Even if you do not get the first two points, do not forget this last exhortation. Hebrews 12 concludes with these words:
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
What kind of legacy will you leave this world when you are long gone? What kind of legacy will you leave your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, your wife, your husband, your friends, your neighbors? Your intellectual genius will long be forgotten. Your rhetorical abilities to prove X over Y will be forgotten. If you are united to Christ, then at the end of your life, only one question will truly matter: “Have I lived each part of my life in perpetual worship?” How will you answer this question? How will you leave a legacy that is substantive, meaningful, tangible, and spiritual for your offspring? You can carry your intellect with you until death. You can carry your wealth with you until death. But if these things are divorced from a life of perpetual worship at work, at home, in playing, in reading, in intellectualizing, in philosophizing, and most importantly, in the context of the Church, I say this with all seriousness: “Your life will be a waste.”
Let us offer to God acceptable worship, because He is the consuming fire, the consuming Pentecost. And only in Him do we move, and breathe, and have our being.
Graduates: Be fearless of what may come. Engage it using all the ammunition you have received. Be submissive to Jesus Christ. Honor him with your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And finally, worship well, so that the One who is a consuming fire may grant you the status of “Good and Faithful Servant.” Congratulations on your accomplishment. Live well to the glory of God.
Sincerely,
Pastor Brito
God’s Pentecostal fire brings with it jubilant praise. The timid church becomes as tongues of fire which melts the hearts of unbelievers. Peter Leithart notes beautifully:
For Paul, the Spirit doesn’t make us placid and mild, quiet and retiring. When we’re filled with the Spirit, we cannot not speak, and our speech breaks out in boisterous psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Being filled with the Spirit means being filled with music, in our mouths and in our hearts. A marriage filled with the Spirit is full of noise, harmonious and melodious noise, joyful noise. C.S. Lewis wrote that a Christian society would be a joyful society, rollicking, lighthearted, exuberant. Paul agreed.
It’s important to affirm that the Church in America is not suffering persecution, narrowly defined. When they persecuted the prophets, the end of that pursuit was death. We are not candidates for that noble calling. Our brothers in China and Iraq (as examples) are suffering persecution every Sunday. They see their lives in constant peril and risk an inherent part of their humanity. As Christians, they grow up with opposition. They know that to be a Christian is intrinsically dangerous. Yet, they press on in hopes that one day the Gospel will open doors and that their message will go farther and farther.
What the American Church fails to grasp–at times–is that opposition presents opportunities to witness. We are not suffering persecution (though we may hyperbolize at times), what most of our churches are suffering is self-pity; a victimized mentality that convinces us that we are being persecuted.
On the other hand, those churches shouting the claims of King Jesus understand that self-pity happens precisely when we fail to be living witnesses to Christ in our culture. Opposition of any form does not mean we have less time, but more time to witness and speak of the ascended Lord. The Church is to redeem the time because the days of self-pity are evil.
When Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, launched a police raid on a black church a couple of days ago, whom she claimed was defying her shutdown orders, you can be sure that that congregation was not sitting around in self-pity. The pastor stated rightly the goal of the mayor: “The mayor wants to educate everyone into compliance – which means intimidate.” Precisely. What many politicians want to do is not persecute in its narrow sense, but to make us so docile that closing our doors is treated as an act of love where we are subtly catechized into compliance.
I do not believe we are persecuted. I believe we are too easily seduced into self-pity. We are victims of our victimization. If, however, we intend to use these days as opportunities to proclaim Messiah Jesus boldly, then our first task is to acknowledge we are ambassadors of Christ who gives us the Spirit of courage.
Dear friend,
You inquired about the nature of theological study. I have lived in that world personally and academically for over 20 years. I don’t want to write to you about the virtues of studying theology, except to say it is electrifying and mysterious. Here I wish only to alert you to the danger of studying theology.
One of the great dangers is to assume that theology can be neat and tidy. If we simply have all our categories in order we can right the world’s wrongs. Even though theology comes down from heaven, we shouldn’t assume we have developed an appetite for heavenly things. In fact, I have witnessed too many theological students whose appetite for heavenly things is so small that I hope to never see their faces in the pulpit or leading a study.
Sometimes we treat theology like an engineer treats numbers. Studying theology becomes like reading an encyclopedia of facts. But we must be aware that in every endeavor of reading and studying and writing, we bring presuppositions, experiences, frustrations, and much more to the task. Therefore, we shouldn’t expect that straightforward propositions apply to all situations nor that they should be mechanically applied.
Sometimes, “trust in God” works for the weary, but at other times it can be understood as simplistic and unsympathetic. “All things work together for good” can make a great bumper sticker but de-contextualized, it can seem cheap and even offensive.
Theology can be difficult to apply. It requires wisdom. In fact, it requires humility to speak into someone’s life. The more we think through it, the more we live together, make mistakes together, the more we learn to speak truth in love and connect theology to human experience. That is my first real caution as you continue your studies. Many cheers and clarity in your pursuits.
Sincerely,
Pastor Brito