The Internet Monk Archives

iMonk Classic: We thought he was such a nice boy—and then we found out he didn’t believe in Inerrancy!!

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From February 15, 2005

Dear Sir: What a total disappointment.

I do like your wisdom and passion. However, you have become too smart.

May God have mercy on you regarding your responsibility to adhere to the inerrancy of scripture.

• • •

The discussion on inerrancy at the BHT and here at IM always fills my mailbox with mail that I can’t answer. All I can do is make an attempt to say what I believe is a reasonable approach to Christian scripture. That approach doesn’t do well with those who need perfection in their hands before they can say they have truth in their minds. I am not an inerrantist. It’s costing me friends, and it makes me uncomfortable. Here’s some of my thoughts. I know they will make a lot of you unhappy, but I’m nailing it to the door anyway. We need to articulate what we believe about scripture in a way that comports with the real nature of the Biblical texts, not inerrant, perfect autographs no one will ever have.

When I first wrote about Why I Am Not A Young Earth Creationist, I knew that eventually I would have to write more on scripture itself. So I have, and you can access various posts on the subject here.

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A Hymn for Ordinary Time (5): For Bible Week

By Chaplain Mike

A Hymn for “Bible Week”
Martin Luther was committed to getting God’s Word, the Bible, into the common language of the German people, and thus into their hands, hearts, and lives. And so he translated the Bible, published his Catechisms, and gave God’s people songs to sing. All these elements come together in today’s hymn, which grows out of contemplation on the Lord’s Prayer.

This hymn is usually set to the tune VATER UNSER (click to hear) .

A tune that may be more familiar to which this hymn may be sung is ST. CATHERINE (click to hear), the tune of “Faith of Our Fathers.”

• • •

Our Father, Thou in Heav’n Above
Our Father, Thou in heaven above,
Who biddest us to dwell in love,
As brethren of one family,
To cry in every need to Thee,
Teach us no thoughtless word to say,
But from our inmost heart to pray.

Thy name be hallowed. Help us, Lord,
In purity to keep Thy Word,
That to the glory of thy name
We walk before Thee free from blame.
Let no false doctrine us pervert;
All poor, deluded souls convert.

Thy kingdom come. Thine let it be
In time and in eternity.
Let Thy good Spirit e’er be nigh
Our hearts with graces to supply.
Break Satan’s power, defeat his rage;
Preserve Thy Church from age to age.

Thy gracious will on earth be done
As ’tis in heaven before Thy throne;
Obedience in our weal and woe
And patience in all grief bestow.
Curb flesh and blood and every ill
That sets itself against Thy will.

Give us this day our daily bread
And let us all be clothed and fed.
From war and strife be our Defense,
From famine and from pestilence,
That we may live in godly peace,
Free from all care and avarice.

Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore,
Remove from us their burden sore,
As we their trespasses forgive
Who by offenses us do grieve.
Thus let us dwell in charity
And serve our brother willingly.

Into temptation lead us not.
When evil foes against us plot
And vex our souls on every hand,
Oh, give us strength that we may stand
Firm in the faith, a well-armed host,
Through comfort of the Holy Ghost!

From evil, Lord, deliver us;
The times and days are perilous.
Redeem us from eternal death,
And when we yield our dying breath,
Console us, grant us calm release,
And take our souls to Thee in peace.

Amen, that is, So shall it be.
Confirm our faith and hope in Thee
That we may doubt not, but believe
What here we ask we shall receive.
Thus in Thy name and at Thy word
We say: Amen. Oh, hear us, Lord!

• • •

Note:
For more on Luther and his hymns, read “Luther’s First Hymn” from 10/10/10.

iMonk Classic: A Conversation in God’s Kitchen

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
December 3, 2005

Note from CM: The week to come will be “Bible Week” on Internet Monk. My posts will deal with various issues regarding how Christians relate to the Scriptures. I can’t think of a better way to kick it off than with this classic Michael Spencer article. We will hear from Michael on other occasions throughout the week as well.

• • •

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself…They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”…Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…Luke 24:27, 32, 44-45

Like millions of other Southern Baptists, I can’t remember when I first laid eyes on the Bible. My name was written in the front of Dad’s large print King James Version, and in Mom’s family Bible. I have a time-worn little Gideon New Testament that I must have received in the first or second grade. Somewhere in the family keepsakes is the Bible I remember taking with me to church as a boy, a zippered little KJV with lots of color pictures to look at during the sermon.

At our church, the pastor preached messages from the Bible, with lots of verses, and the Sunday School teachers used it every week in our lessons. We were expected to bring our Bibles to church, to learn Sword drills, to be able to read the King James Version, and to memorize scripture verses. Before we understood anything about the truths of Christianity, we were indoctrinated with the foundation that “The B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me. I take my stand on the Word of God, yes, the B-I-B-L-E.”

I remember my first questions about the Bible forming as a youth, sitting in the balcony during church, flipping through the pages and reading whatever I found. What was this strange book with the odd print and self-pronouncing names? I knew from the time I was small that my college-educated half-brother didn’t believe it. We were frequently reminded that lots of people who said they believed it, didn’t really believe it, or else they would be at our church and not theirs. Did that mean people could read the Bible and disagree about what it said?

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Saturday Ramblings 7.23.11

WooHoo! We made it through the whole week without any downtime, thanks to the stalwart work of Joe “the Plumber” Stallard and iMonk Sean. What say you we have a party? Let’s see … we have the Diet Coke with lime. We have the corn chips with a hint of lime. We have a key lime pie. What are we forgetting? Oh yes, a heaping helping of Saturday Ramblings … with lime. Let’s ramble.

We don’t like going down well-trodden roads here at the iMonastery. And politics is one of those roads we typically avoid. Personally, I think most politics makes for a good belly-laugh once in a while. Otherwise it is about as boring as it can get. Yet when a potential presidential candidate calls Jesus his political hero, well, we figure we just have to ramble on over and take a look.

I wouldn’t know a Lady Gaga song if you paid me $100 to name one. But after reading this article by Rodney Clapp, I can say I appreciate her approach. Which begs the question: Would Jesus be a Lady Gaga fan? Or better yet, what artists or songs would be on Jesus’ iPod?

Here’s one for Martha of Ireland. Should priests give law enforcement officials information they hear in confession if it deals with the commitment of a crime? This is a very tricky question, and I’m not sure there is a good answer. But I would have to lean toward … oh, let’s hear what Martha has to say.

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Icarus All We Are

By Chaplain Mike

Day and night you punished me, Lord;
my strength was completely drained,
as moisture is dried up by the summer heat.

• Psalm 32:4 (GNT)

Icarus all we are this July.

This map shows the heat index forecast for today, during which a large part of the U.S. will be above 100°. The heat wave is affecting two-thirds of our country. Yesterday, here in Indy the actual temperature rose into three digits for the first time on this date for about 25 years. Many of you probably think we’re wimps, because you live in places where it is that hot regularly regularly. In Oklahoma, where Jeff lives, they’ve had thirty days this year over 100°.

Yikes, it’s hot.

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Group Seeks Genesis Ban

By Chaplain Mike

A Christian group, concerned about moral breakdown in American society, is pushing for a ban on the book of Genesis.

A spokesperson for “People Involved in Saving, Securing, and Defending the Old-Fashioned Family” (PISSDOFF), said that decent citizens have come together to protest the publication and distribution of Bibles containing Genesis. They say that our culture cannot go on promoting materials like Genesis to our children without devastating consequences.

Jonathan Fussminder, a parent and activist for the group said, “This book [Genesis] is a classic case of the devil’s bait and switch. It opens with an outstanding scientific depiction of how God created the universe, but then you turn the page and you have two people running around naked in a garden! That’s Satan’s way. He draws you in with something that sounds good, and before you know it, you are looking at pornography. ‘They were naked and not ashamed’? That is exactly how the world wants us to feel about immorality! No shame! I wouldn’t want my boys reading a book like this for anything.”

When asked if that passage was the only one to which he and the other members of PISSDOFF objected, Fussminder rolled his eyes and said, “Oh my, no. Genesis is filled with R-rated material at best. You’ve got violent killings, parents having sex with their own children, men giving their wives away to harems to save their own skin, sodomy, lies, deceit, polygamy, child-slavery, seduction, and so many explicit sexual scenes and references that I’m embarrassed to even talk about them.”

When this reporter asked about the fact that some people consider Genesis to be “God’s Word,” Fussminder became animated. “God’s Word? God’s Word? That just shows how far into decadence we’ve fallen. Can you imagine a good and holy God inspiring a book like this? Can you imagine God asking parents to tell these stories to their children? They’d be warped for life!

“No, this most certainly is NOT God’s Word! How it got into the Bible we don’t know, but the fact that it is in there may point to one of the most insidious conspiracies in history. We are pushing hard for publishers to delete Genesis from future Bibles. And we are also going to keep investigating. If Genesis got snuck in there, who knows what might be in some of the other books? As we speak, PISSDOFF has teams of readers combing through the other books in the Bible so that we can root out this kind of immoral and corrupting material.

“Just recently, I heard a rumor that the very next book, Exodus, may contain depictions of infanticide, murder, nightmarish and gory plagues straight from the latest horror movies, idol-worship, immoral partying, and more sexual perversion. Who knew? I certainly never read any of that from the Bible Promise Loaf we had on our kitchen table when I was a kid!”

So your work won’t be ending with Genesis? Fussminder was asked.

“No way!” he replied. “We’re PISSDOFF, and we are not going to take it anymore! We are here to protect the children of America from these sick and perverted influences, and we won’t stop until we’ve cleaned it all up, from Genesis to Revelation.”

My Summer Reading List

I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I don’t just read theological tomes or works of literary fiction. As a matter of fact just yesterday I made two purchases which might impress you: Mad Magazine’s spoof of all eight Harry Potter films, and a Louis L’Amour western. Yessir, that is some heavy-duty reading.

I love books. I have worked in the book world for a long time. My Grandma Dunn taught me to love to read. (She read a book a day until she died at 95. Her books were her friends.) Sports magazines and Alfred Hitchcock short stories were what I cut my teeth on. My first job (other than cutting lawns) was as a clerk at a Zondervan Family Bookstore in Kettering, Ohio. There I found the world of C.S. Lewis and Fritz Ridenour and Andrew Murray and Oswald Chambers.

Reading is still a huge part of my life, though it seems I just don’t have the time I used to have to read all I want to read. I have a stack of books I’d like to get through this summer, but as it is mid-July, I am thinking my “summer reading list” may also become my fall and winter reading lists. In any case, I wanted to share with you some books I look forward to reading or, in the case of one, re-reading. These are not all new books. One came out this week, and another is more than 100 years old. You may find one or two in my list that interests you. I just encourage you to read.

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“A Meeting” (Wendell Berry)

A Meeting

In a dream I meet
my dead friend. He has,
I know, gone long and far,
and yet he is the same
for the dead are changeless.
They grow no older.
It is I who have changed,
grown strange to what I was.
Yet I, the changed one,
ask: “How you been?”
He grins and looks at me.
“I been eating peaches
off some mighty fine trees.”

Wendell Berry
from A Part (North Point Press, 1980)

Ask Chaplain Mike: The Grieving Process

By Chaplain Mike

Today’s Question
In your experience with hospice care, what is your approach to grief of those surviving the loss of a loved one? Do you think Christians tend to sugar-coat, suppress, neglect, or even ridicule the grieving process? After all, the loved one is in heaven/a better place; why should anyone be sad? Do Christians and even pastors underestimate how long the grieving process takes?

Thanks for this good question. During this time of year I take my turn leading a grief support group for those who have lost loved ones in hospice care and in our community, so the topic is fresh on my mind.

The Bible describes Jesus as a “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” Unfortunately, in our North American culture, we go out of our way to distance ourselves from death and the pain of loss. Christians and non-Christians alike have forged a death-denying society. As a result, we are not realistic about the aftermath of losing a loved one any more than we are prepared to face the experience of dying itself.

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Around the Web with Friends

By Chaplain Mike

It is time to give some of our friends that we list in our Links and on our Blogroll some love. Many people are doing excellent writing and dealing with important subjects. I want to recommend a few today. Links are denoted by any red text.

The Christian Monist
You will appreciate and may even recognize some familiar scenarios in JMJ’s group of posts, “The Subtle Art of Spiritual Abuse,” a series of vignettes about power plays in a Midwestern evangelical congregation and the people they affect. Look for them in the June and July 2011 archives.

Reclaiming the Mission
David Fitch appeals to Christian denominations to “STOP FUNDING TRADITIONAL CHURCH PLANTS and instead fund missionaries to inhabit contexts all across the new mission fields of N America.” His model? “Instead of funding one entrepreneurial pastor, preacher and organizer to go in and organize a center for Christian goods and services, let us fund three or four leader/ or leader couples to go in as a team to an under-churched context.” Fitch suggests that this team settle in, get jobs, get to know their neighbors, and devote a certain amount of time outside their work obligations to planting seeds of the Gospel and beginning to gather new believers together. This for at least an initial ten-year commitment. Sounds almost Pauline. Let’s go!

Kingdom People
Trevin Wax writes about making the transition from attractional youth ministry to missional youth ministry. I think he’s on to something here. I especially like what he says about the relationship of the youth to the church as a whole and about teaching young people now to fulfill their vocations in the community.

John H. Armstrong
Among a number of fascinating posts, John writes about the refreshingly humble and gracious faith of Texas Rangers’ baseball star Josh Hamilton in the aftermath a fan’s untimely death in Rangers Ballpark.

Patheos
Over at Patheos’s evangelical portal, you can read Ben Witherington’s review of the final Harry Potter film and Francis Beckwith’s glowing recommendation of the new book, How to Go From Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps, by Notre Dame sociologist, Christian Smith. Also, Karen Spears Zacharias lists and comments on her “Summer Reads,” and Michael F. Bird summarizes five gains that are “keepers” from the so-called New Perspective in NT studies.