Category: Theological Thoughts

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The Danger of Theology

Dear friend,

You inquired about the nature of theological study. You asked whether your interest in theology meant that you should pursue work in the church or academy or whether you should strive to be an intelligent layman in the kirk.

I started my journey over 20 years ago and have loved every single aspect of it. Theological and pastoral pursuits are my bread and butter and chicken wings. But I wish to begin, first and foremost, by offering some cautions. I don’t want to write to you about the virtues of studying theology or even your future, except to say the “study of God”–“theos logia”–is electrifying, mysterious, and dangerous. Here I wish only to alert you first 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. If we grasp fully the intricacies of the ontological Trinity, we will be able to grasp theology in summa. 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. Be cautious to attend to those matters of piety first. A proud man in the Church is a dangerous man for the church.

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. Theology, especially pastoral theology, is deeply intimate.

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. Be cautious that your theological studies don’t minimize pain or trivialize real concerns. Know your Bible, but know your people as well.

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 the truth in love and connect theology to human experience. That is my first real caution as you continue your studies and consider your future. Many cheers and clarity in your pursuits.

Sincerely,

Pastor Brito

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Abraham Kuyper for Dummies

Have you ever wanted a quick and dirty guide to the old, dead, white guy by the name of Abraham Kuyper? The demand was overwhelming, and I obliged the need of the masses. In this episode, I discuss the five principles that guide a Kuyperian viewpoint, namely,

a) Trinitarianism

b) Great Commission

c) Incarnational Lenses

d) Doxological

e) Church as Didactic

Please leave a comment and spread the wealth.

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The Great Comedy of Advent

Genesis 3 gave us a deep tragedy but hidden in the trees of the tragedy was a promise of a great comedy. God promised that through the seed of a woman a child would come who would undo the evil of the curse. The prophets foretold that a son was given and through a series of remarkable events, a little babe so few days old is come to rifle Satan’s fold.

But the hilarity of the whole thing stems from the expectation of political leaders. When Jesus enters the world, these demonic figures believed that murder could keep the great tragedy going. But their schemes were short-lived.

The promise of Messiah Jesus was a promise of a massive script change in God’s story. While the demonic forces believed that Advent was the expectation of greater and greater tragedy, God’s story caught them and the world by surprise by making the whole thing a comedy of epic proportions.

The expectation of God’s Son is an expectation of comedic relief to the nations. We prepare our hearts for worship with hearty laughter and joy knowing that we live in a history of great comedy where the angels and archangels and all God’s people on earth laugh at the agenda of evil for we know that Christ was promised, but he has come, and he will come again.

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10 Opinions on Today’s News

1) Reading the news about the new Omicron album almost makes you feel as if you are living in the good ol’ days of March 2020 when government officials treated us like naive children and did the Fauci dance for mere entertainment value. But we won’t be fooled again. Aaron Ginn has been a lucid voice since the first day (https://twitter.com/aginnt). A lazy child garners sympathy by lying about an illness; the government garners sympathy by lying.

2) The Dobbs case has the potential of opening up the conservative agenda that progressives have tried to strangle since 1973. Conservatives have failed miserably to obtain their goal, with a few minor victories here and there. The Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks can unravel the murderous record in this country and provide the Court an opportunity to consider the most consequential abortion litigation in nearly a half-century. Christians need to pray for clarity and wisdom that this evil would be overturned. Then, we can strategize on how to move forward in caring for the millions of babies who will be born into this world once this heinous ritual is outlawed. Should this proceed, I foresee the Church as a protagonist in the new fostering and adoption reformation.

3) CNN proves regularly that it is the paradigm of media sewage. They have been at the forefront of massive disinformation campaigns. Cuomo’s recent scandal is only a sample of the filthy lucre of technological and sociological mafia-like strategies prevalent.

4) Christians should learn all verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

5) Sweden will end the year 2021 with below-average mortality. No lockdown and no masks and open schools. And my lovely state of Florida continues with the lowest Covid transmission rate in the country. Follow the science, people!

6) David French has completely lost his way in his latest Op-Ed. His criticism of boldness, toughness, and masculinity in favor of a middle-of-the-road conservatism is only a sophisticated way of saying that cultural wars are not worth fighting. Trumpism continues to be French’s biggest nightmare.

7) I have great friends in the PCA, but they will need to deal speedily with the ever-increasing influence of the REVOICE movement. Their new agenda to begin chapters and online groups will only create more dissension within the denomination. PCA pastors need to work in every conceivable way to distance themselves from this distortion of biblical sexual ethics.

8 ) The Project of Deconstruction was first used by David Gushee and supported by several evangelical figures. The attempt is to take apart evangelicalism and reconsider our priorities. The idea is to undo the “Christian worldview” and the “whiteness” of Western thought and learn to re-consider Jesus “after evangelicalism.” Supporters like Jemar Tisby and even conservative theologians like Michael Bird are asking the Church to begin the conversation. These are usually keywords that translate to “undo the Western tradition.”

Dr. Kevin DeYoung says it best:

“Looking for blind spots is one thing. Acting as if we are blind is another. We don’t have to let sociological fads and ill-defined ‘isms’ set the agenda when we have the necessary theological categories already.”

9) Pastoral theology is the way to move forward in dealing with particular trends in the Church. Pastors need to establish seeds of skepticism toward overreach, but also establish seeds of trust in Word and Sacrament and Life among the parish.

10) Don’t forget to order our new commentary on Jonah: https://athanasiuspress.org/…/jonah-through-new-eyes…

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Advent Communion Meditation: The Great Comedy

Genesis 3 gave us a deep tragedy but hidden in the trees of the tragedy was a promise of a great comedy. God promised that through the seed of a woman a child would come who would undo the evil of the curse. The prophets foretold that a son was given and through a series of remarkable events, a little babe so few days old is come to rifle Satan’s fold.

But the hilarity of the whole thing stems from the expectation of political leaders. When Jesus enters the world, these demonic figures believed that murder could keep the great tragedy going. But their schemes were short-lived. The promise of Messiah Jesus was a promise of a massive script change in God’s story. While the demonic forces believed that Advent was the expectation of greater and greater tragedy, God’s story caught them and the world by surprise by making the whole thing a comedy of epic proportions.

The expectation of God’s Son is an expectation of comedic relief to the nations. We come to the Table with hearty laughter and joy knowing that we live in a history of great comedy where the angels and archangels and all God’s people on earth laugh at the agenda of evil for we know that Christ was promised, but he has come, and he will come again.

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When Brandon Goes to the Church

And speaking of John Hagee, I fell into a ring of a fire yesterday by implying that the “Let’s Go Brandon” chanting mood came from the Sunday morning ethos. I was wrong, and while some fine people have told me that such occasions are not outside the ordinary on a Sunday morning experience and that Cornerstone in Texas is not pro-Regulative Principle (Puritan angels are not shocked!), the argument I made from Nadab and Abihu did not apply to that incident. Now, whether such things happen regularly and whether such chants could come from the pulpit of one of America’s most apocalyptic-chart-saturated-Dispensational-pastor, I have no doubt. The few times I have tuned in to watch a clip or some matter surrounding Hagee, it has always been in the context of some political narrative tied directly to pro-Israeli policies. And further, I am also not surprised that Q-Anon advocates chose that building to do their Kennedy-ghost thingy and other shenanigans.

None of this is to imply that I am in total disagreement with their efforts. I suspect I share some common assumptions about reality with some of the speakers, but I have a high sense that we would be drinking whiskey at different tables at the bar. Not all conservatism is created equal.

That aside, I now wish to address something that stirred within me during this endeavor. I made an observation to a friend yesterday that what these types are trying to do has a ring of truth to it. They are fighting against an obvious force of evil in the White House. But what I wish to assert is that where these enthusiasts are wrong is in chanting a secularized imprecation instead of a sacred imprecation. This is very crucial. Gary North once said that you can’t fight something with nothing, well, these guys are fighting something–genuine–but with nothing but a slogan gained at a Nascar race. “Let’s Go Brandon” is their attempt to fight Bidenism to the core, but they end up heaping havoc upon themselves. Secularized forms of imprecation can only get you so far. Sure it can stir people to join forces. Sure it can motivate social media platforms and bring money into the treasure box of GOP candidates, but it has no eternal value.

After all, the implication of Romans 1 is that there is consequential insanity that comes from allowing our fleshly desires to frame our reality. Insane times call for sane measures, and sane measures only come from a revelation that defines sanity as that which proceeds from the mouth of God. Biden and Kamala hath a distaste for Christendom. I think we can all follow that logic.

My proposal is that Christians can actually erupt in chants in church on Sundays. But our chants are composed of angels and Davidic figures who know how to fight something with something good. We don’t need “Let’s Go Brandon” to motivate our forces, we need a Christianized imprecation:

May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him.

May you blow them away like smoke— as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.

The problem with many Christians is not that they don’t have a song to sing, it’s that they tend to choose the wrong one for the party. They prefer the weak options at the table to fille the dragon, but sometimes the dragon gets stronger instead. Chanting stuff at a rally is not sinful, especially since it communicates disdain for evil, but chanting true words on Sundays is more desirable and ultimately more effective in the pages of redemptive history.

Imprecation saves the world from tyrants. It keeps perspective and it allows us to say exactly how God feels about evildoers in our age. Sacred words for a sacred people will take us much farther in line in our pursuit of a just society. Everything else is only a dent in the kingdom of darkness.