C.S. Lewis
This is one of the reasons I love to read Lewis, he is reflective, thoughtful, and brutally honest in his writing.
I remember the first time I read this poem, I was forced to think of own state of depravity in contrast to the riches of God’s grace shown to me in the Gospel.
In our society, the idea of ‘revelation’ as means of knowing truth is laughed at in most circles. “Ever since the enlightenment, there has been a decided tendency to presuppose the supremacy of a rational-empiricism” as foundational, and we are told to work from there to obtain knowledge.
Let me define some terms. Empiricism is ‘sense perception’, how you and I come to real world encounters. Much of human awareness comes through sense perception. Rationalism is the obtaining of knowledge through rational, logical processes (Mathematics, Deductive Logic).
While rational thought is necessary to ‘think of experience’, rational thought grows out of experience and is a limited and finite expression. This thought process focuses on the finite particulars of this world, or ‘only the things we can know from experience’. Well, what about God? While, I think we can know that God exists by using the processes of rational-empiricism I do not think this goes far enough. I believe that God is a personal God. It seems that way since He has decided to make Himself known to all creation (Rom. 1:19-20). So if He does exist, how can one know Him personally?
As a Christian I believe that knowing God in a personal way is the only means to everlasting life. There is only one way to know God, Jesus put it like this in John 14;
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Therefore it stands that “if God is truly an ultimate, transcendent, supernatural Person, He could hardly be known personally or understood in any redemptive in-depth sense by mere finite empirical, rational, intuitive grounds alone”. This is why God chose to reveal himself to mankind, and revealed himself most fully in the life and work of Christ. This is the ‘personal revelation’ needed to know God most fully. Or should I put it this way, God’s revelation of himself is absolutely necessary to know Him in a personal way.
Think about it, if God were to reveal himself at all to persons, such as you and I, He could have hardly done it in any other fashion than as a person. So God does speak, and speaks to man cognitively in a personal way through revelation on a finite level.
Note: I am currently reading “The Word of the Cross“, by Lewis A. Drummond. Some of the quotes above are taken from this book.
Is the New Testament really reliable? This question seems to return to the secular ‘drawing board’ over and over. As Christians we believe that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, and is a faithful witness of the historical accounts of Jesus Christ. In fact, Christianity is rooted in history, and makes claims that can be historically investigated. While I am not going to deal with the whole scope of issues here in this blog, I do want to point out a couple of relevant facts about the New Testament.
The New Testament’s 5,366 Greek copies make it the best transmitted book in antiquity. Plato’s works survive in 7, of Homer we have 643 copies, Caesar’s Gallic Wars are found in 10, and finally Livy’s Roman History, 35 of 142 books survive in 20 copies (the oldest has the Book of Hebrews written on the back).
Think about it, the New Testament alone has 5,366 documents to compare for accuracy!
While some critical scholars would argue that ‘textual variants’ discount the Bible’s accuracy. It is quite clear that we have enough evidence to make educated and prayerful choices about the original text. Even if we were to make a mistake, no major doctrine would be at risk. In fact, if we were to get all the textual variants wrong, over 95 percent of the text would be without dispute.
What’s the point? The historical accuracy of the Bible is often scrutinized wrongly, against all the historical evidence that points to its accuracy. In comparison to the other books of antiquity, we have much more text to compare from a critical historical standpoint. Therefore we can have more confidence in the historical accuracy of the New Testament (in a literary sense) than we do in knowing that we have all of Plato’s works close to their original form.
The Bible is a faithful witness of the historical accounts of Jesus Christ. But knowing that His words have been accurately handed down is not enough. What’s more important is whether you believe that what he said was true. In fact, Your eternal destiny depends on it.
As Christians we hold that there is one true God. We also confess that He has made Himself known to all of creation, and made Himself known most fully in the life and work of His only son Jesus Christ. This is the essence of the Gospel. The Gospel is more than enough to keep us in astonishment over the loving kindness and mercy of God.
But, I fear that many times, more often than not, the Gospel has become commonplace for many Christians. We all have that tendency, once we become acquainted with something great, no matter what it is (the grand canyon, the beauty of the ocean, the sound of great music, and even the Gospel), it becomes mere commonplace.
While we were in Antigua recently Laura and I were talking to one of our tour guides and I made a comment along the lines of “your beaches are breathtaking”. He paused and agreed, but then he continued and said there are many natives who take it for granted, in fact, he had friends that had not visited their beaches in over 10 years.
Its good to remind ourselves of God’s grace. It’s also good to let others remind us. The video below does this.
The narrator is R.C. Sproul, David Crowder and Shane & Shane sing “To the Only God” in the background.
I recently submitted an article to COLLIDE MAGAZINE, and it is going to appear in the July/August issue. This issue should hit mailboxes on or around July 15. Below is a snapshot of the cover, so be on the lookout for it! I am very excited about this article! I have always loved to write, I see this as just another ministry opportunity.
The article is titled “Theosthetics: A Theology of Beauty” (It’s on the bottom right hand corner).
On Sunday June 22, our church took a great step of faith in voting to move forward with starting a second campus in Davie County. The motion, brought from our deacons passed with over a 99% approval in the congregation wide vote! This vote comes in the wake of countless hours of prayer, seeking the will of God, and planning.
One of our pastors, Will Toburen wrote that his “prayer is that we will look back at this defining moment years from now and rejoice over the countless lives that have been changed because of the willingness of our church to take a step of faith in order that the Gospel might go forward. It is such a great privilege serving at a church where the people long to honor God and are passionate about the bringing the “Good News” to the world.”
I am personally excited about what God is going to do as Calvary seeks to be obedient in fulfilling the Great Commission. Calvary has been blessed with staff and members who are willing to dedicate their time, energy, and resources in cooperation to spread the Gospel. When you look at the strategic placement of Calvary West it becomes quite apparent that there is tremendous potential for reaching Davie County with the Gospel. Looking at population and demographics alone one sees that over a ten year period this area has grown 25%, Davie county is also projected to have close to 50,000 living in this area by the year 2020.
For more information on the history of this decision you can click here and find the resources that have been passed out church wide over the past year. At any rate, join us in rejoicing and prayer as we move forward in being good stewards of the Gospel.
On June 11th my pastor Al Gilbert delivered the convention message at the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis. In his exposition of 1 Corinthians 4, Al said that we have been given the stewardship of this incredible mystery (the Gospel), but we have also been given a mission to proclaim the gospel to all nations.
The challenge to the convention was clear. When one looks at the way the SBC supports missions (national and international) through the cooperative program, you cannot help but question the current allocation process, and the efficiency of that process in fulfilling the great commission.
The intended ideal is a 50/50 split of funds between the state conventions (for local ministry), and the national convention (for foreign missions and other ministries). It has been noted in a recent book that the average amount of funding that actually reaches the national level is under 40%.
Al asked a good question in his sermon, Soon we’ll be passing the baton to the next generation, adding that some aren’t sure they want it. We cannot continue to do business as usual. Al then added, Can we really defend our bureaucracy to the next generation?
As Dr. Daniel Akin put it, “Al Gilbert’s charge in the Convention sermon to our denominational entities and our churches was a clarion call we all need to heed. A bloated denominational bureaucracy on the national, state and associational levels is choking us, and it must receive attention. The stewardship of our financial resources and how we account for and count those resources needs to be rethought.”
I would be willing to assume that many faithful members who give to SBC churches assume that (much of) their money is reaching the local and foreign mission fields. But is this truly the case?
The term blog was introduced in the late 1990’s, when the Internet was just on the rise. A somewhat ‘recent’ study by the Pew & Internet Project found that the number of blogs and blog readers has continued to climb. This becomes more apparent when you consider how wireless Internet continues to become more easily accessible.
Why am I blogging? Well, I was thinking about it…I write all the time. Must of us do, we spend all day sending and reading emails, researching information, keeping up with the news, and so on. Why not have a place to archive all this information? Why not have a place to record thoughts and resources? Basically, this blog has two purposes, 1. a virtual storage unit for thoughts and helpful information, and 2. A venue for me to become more disciplined in writing and expression.
It really is interesting to consider how most of us use our valuable time. I hope this blog adds to promoting thoughtful reflection on the world around us.
Matt Capps 