ResponsiveReiding

Digging Deeper in Proverbs 19(b)

June 26th, 2014

Proverbs 19:4 Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.

If you are one who’s relationships are built only around what you get out of it, and you put nothing into it to benefit the others – you will find yourself all alone. If you have few friends, ask yourself – do I contribute anything to others, or do I go to them only to fill up the void in myself? If this is the way it is with you – you are a very lonely person indeed. The others cannot pour enough into your void to fill you up. And after a while, they give up. They are drained, and have nothing to show for it. They flee in self-preservation.

How unlike our Savior this is. The Spirit of Christ is to seek and to save, to serve rather than to be served.

Heavenly Father, fill me up with Christ that I might have something of eternal value to pour out to those around me. Keep me from becoming a selfish drain, but instead, one from out of whose belly can flow rivers of living water. Teach me the holy art of refreshing other in Jesus.

Proverbs 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

It is amazing how we will turn the other cheek with some – but almost never with our spouses. What glory we forfeit when we fail to love like our Heavenly Father loves us.

And doesn’t this beg our looking to how Christ treats His Bride – the Church? He does not spend all His time criticizing, demanding, nit-picking, chiding or berating. Never is He cruel, harsh or vindictive. In love He woos and in glorious, infinite patience counsels and encourages and draws us near even when are most offensive to Him. He is never moody. His love does not run hot and then cold. No, He is never oblivious to our sin, yet He does not fall into pettiness, rashness or sharpness either. He knows our sin. It grieves Him. Grieves Him more for what it does to us than to Himself. And by His Spirit and His Word He equips us and molds and shapes our hearts to draw us after Himself in true righteousness and holiness. Oh what a wonderful Savior and Bridegroom He is to us!

Our Christ is so exceedingly slow to anger when we so often have a hair trigger. And it is His great glory when He overlooks our offenses.

It takes no skill to get into arguments. Any idiot can bicker, fight argue and quarrel. This is the domain of fools. To avoid these or end them once they’ve begun, this takes wisdom, courage, self-control and uprightness. It is sad to see how many who bear the name of Christian are noted almost exclusively for their ability to enter into one conflict after another. How contrary to the Spirit of Christ. They seem to be on endless crusades against others. Oh that we would expend the same energy fighting our own sinfulness. Heavenly Father, make it so in my life.

No, Jesus was and is no coward. He never compromised or backed down from the truth. He spoke openly, plainly and honestly at all times. Yet always in His slow to anger frame, and in His glorious abiding patience.

What a wonder He is.
Digging Deeper in Proverbs 19(a)

June 25th, 2014

Proverbs 19:1–3 ‘Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. 2 Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. 3 When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.’

Taken as a whole, Proverbs 19 functions as an extraordinary exposition of the nature of the Believer’s inward dialog when tempted by sin. Verses 1-8 demonstrate a vigorous back and forth within the heart and mind, while verses 9-29 list the way the righteous man argues back against the temptation of his own sinfulness until he “shouts it down”, for lack of a better term. The remnant of indwelling sin argues for ascendency and to re-establish the rulership the in the Believer it lost when Christ became Lord. And our need to recognize this form of inward argumentation, to grow in our skill in arguing for righteousness and against sin, and the need to arm ourselves with the Word of God richly so as to have a ready supply of counter-arguments to win the day – cannot be overemphasized. The renewing of the Spirit of the mind is central to our growth in grace, and to overthrowing the seemingly endless creativity with which our own souls seek to justify sin.

That said, we do not want to overlook some of the more independent concepts which also emerge from this rich portion of God’s Word.

The thought in verse 1 is simple – but so very often overlooked. In a society in which everything seems geared to encourage us that we can every wish or desire fulfilled some way, and that it is only right that it be so – indeed that it is our ‘right’ to have everything we desire – God’s Word counters with a resounding – NO! That’s not true!

When we believe we ‘deserve” everything we want, we cannot help but soon talk ourselves into every kind of vice, compromise and blatant sin we are capable of imagining. Thus verse 1 challenges the prevailing Western worldview – It is Better to be lacking whatever it is that makes me feel deprived – and do so trusting in the Lord – than to be scheming and manipulating both God and man to bring my desires about. And to be perfectly honest, how much of our prayer life reflects this very undercurrent of manipulating God into giving in to our schemes.

As a Pastor, many a person has come through the door of this Church with a great tale of how they had strayed from God, but now they are on fire, and oh, by the way, I’ve lost my job and my wife and pray with me for restoration. All of which is legitimate on the surface. But more often than I care to confess, when the job isn’t restored, the diagnosis not reversed, the spouse remains unreconciled – then it is not long before they are back out the door and serving self like before. The entire matter had been little more than thinking ‘if I just get my religious life in order – God will have to notice and fix everything.’ In other words – sorcery. Trying to manipulate God through vows, commitments and temporary lifestyle changes all tied to getting what they want. It is a sad and tragic reality. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.”

So it is verse 2 builds on that issue and directs us to gain insight into the true nature of our desires. For if we do not identify the true longings within as in fact a need for Christ and NOT the externals – we cannot help but miss the way, and live in dissoloution.

Aimlessly seeking to fill up inward desires we have not even properly identified will lead us into all kinds of wickedness. The lost person does not realize their deepest need is Christ. And often, even the Believer fails to recognize that deep, still unmet desires, must be brought to Him. He, wants to satisfy us fully. We, do not want to be satisfied in Him. We do not see that our desires unmet in Him, are desires for Him that are mis-labled, mis-understood or perverted from their rightful object. Heavenly Father – open our eyes!

Such driving desire, not knowing why God may have withheld what I want, will lead me to mistrust Him: It will kill faith. I will miss His path.

But then – in verse 3, when we see how empty our pursuits have been, amazingly, we blame God. He, who all the while waits to be our satisfaction, who loves us immeasurably and fully, who desires our best, gets blamed because WE did not stop to recognize it was Him we were meant to be satisfied in all the while, and not the externals of this life in this world.

How often it is when we at last find the bankruptcy of following after the misnamed, misidentified longings – we will blame the disaster on God rather than ourselves.

Wicked man that I am – I am ALWAYS looking for someone to blame for my miseries beyond myself.

What a glorious Savior then is Christ – who leads out of this consuming vortex, to seek our all in Him and Him alone. Where there is never a loss of what is true joy, true contentment, true glory. Oh that our souls might recognize and long only for ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’ – and NOT, this world’s riches we vainly think He will bring us apart from Himself. That we might never love any of Christ’s gifts, above the Giver Himself.
Intercession

June 20th, 2014

Mark 2:1–4 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

I never fail to be moved by this account. I am moved by the desperate condition of the paralytic. I am moved by the friends who refused to be stopped by anything in bringing their friend to Jesus. And I am moved by the wonder of Christ’s responses. He is completely uninterested in how they damaged His home in order to get their friend in front of Him. He refuses to only deal with the man’s paralysis, but incudes the eternal issue of his sin. And He is undaunted by the naysayers who balked when He displayed His authority to forgive sins – which only God can do. Everything about the account is worthy of contemplation and rejoicing. It is an astounding display of our Savior’s love, compassion and courage.

Take just a moment to look more closely at the nature of the Paralytic’s friends. For in their actions and attitudes, they give us one of the best expositions of what it means to “intercede” for someone in the Scriptures.

Here we learn an extraordinary lesson: Our faith greatly affects others, when by virtue of it, we bring men to Him – either in the sense of giving them the Gospel, or bringing them to sit under the preaching of the Word, or even in prayer – that they might be touched by Him.

The friends here, invest their time and energy in bringing this man to Jesus’ attention. And what more is prayer? It is our bringing others to the attention of our Lord that He may touch them. But for such faith to have legs, we have to act upon it. They could not gather for coffee and discuss what Jesus could do for him, if only… . They brought him to Jesus. And this is what it means for us to pray for others. To bring them to Jesus.

Sometimes lots of other things seem to hinder that. A pressing crowd of distractions that makes it seem impossible to get there. It’s a lot of work to carry a man any distance. It took imagination and boldness to climb the stairs, dig through the roof and let him down. A species of holy audacity that Jesus not only does not reprimand, but rewards with answering their desire.

Pray beloved. It is not a fruitless exercise. Sometimes there will be many other things d in upon us to keep away from getting close to Him. Sometimes we have to fight the laziness that says it is just too hard. Sometimes we have to press on in holy boldness that simply will not rest until the work is done – until we have taken our friend, our loved one, our need, and placed them right in front of Him where they cannot be ignored.

Never forget, that when we believe enough to bring men before Him, He is willing enough to respond.

What a glorious Savior!
The Gospel – again.

June 18th, 2014

Mark 1:4–8 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

When John the Baptizer appears on the scene, he is a confusing and rapidly polarizing figure. In his appearance and manner, John is acting out like a man who is responding to extreme conditions. He is challenging the prevailing status quo. Most especially he challenged the way the Pharisees ignored the fact that if Israel was occupied by a foreign power it is for only one reason – because of its national sin. The Old Testament had made this abundantly and indisputably clear. God had promised His people that if they remained faithful they would also remain free. And that if they became unfaithful to Him, then invasion and subjugation by foreign powers would be the result. This same principle carries out in the human condition as well. When we fail to be faithful to God, we also find ourselves bound by sin and unbelief of all kinds. But we cannot tease that out in more detail here.

What we need to see here is how John is showing that they are in extreme circumstances spiritually, although they do not perceive it. Sin is the problem. The current condition is dire. But they are acting as if all is well, they just need a political adjustment.

This then makes it all the more important that the Gospel take its proper place. And among one of the more interesting ways of pressing Gospel truth home to John’s hearers, is how he speaks of the coming Christ in verses 7-8. Once again, the “message” is no message, apart from the person. Look at his key phrases here.

a. “After me come HE WHO”: Once again, the gospel is about a person – Jesus Christ.

And what about Him, the one who is to come?

b. He is “mightier than I”: The gospel is about One who surpasses prophets. In John’s case, as Jesus would explain – “What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ (Matthew 11:9–10) Jesus is mightier than the forerunner of the Messiah Himself.

Not only is this one mightier, but

c. “The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie”: The gospel is about one who worthy of supreme honor. The highest and holiest honor.

And what does His might and honor consist in?

d. “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”: The gospel is about one who will bring the Holy Spirit to us in a wholly unprecedented way – He will baptize us with Him, and make us new creatures. He will make us vessel prepared to be indwelt by God in cleansing us from our sin, and then give the Spirit to us.

Beloved, do not let anyone sell you a Gospel that is less than this about Jesus. Do not forget the wonder of the Gospel you have believed, and what has been done for you and by Whom it has been done. This is THE Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Gospel

June 17th, 2014

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark’s “Gospel opens with this stark and oh so important statement. In it, Mark defines just what the Gospel is, and by implication, what it is not.

The Gospel, is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Apart from the person and work of Jesus – there is no gospel.

The Gospel is not some disconnected bit of information – the gospel is wrapped up in this one, unique, man/God who put on human flesh, lived in perfect holiness, died for our sins at Calvary, rose again and is coming again. No one else could do it, and without these realities, there is no gospel at all. The “message” is about Him. Without Him, there is no message.

Recently I was at the funeral of a saint, but sadly, while much was made of “God” in the abstract as sort of a non-descript deity, of God’s purposes and works, of His supernatural power and how people are to have hope and promise for their lives – there was no cross. No Jesus coming in human flesh. No call to repentance from sin and the world and to faith in Him. Much was made of the one who had passed. But very little was made of the Christ who the saint served.

What of Him?

This is the truly great and necessary question. Without which a right answer to -leaves countless individuals religious, but lost.

In a very real way, this remains the ministry of the Church as it was with John the Baptizer when Jesus is about to appear on the scene. In all of our preaching and teaching, we are PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD – announcing His return. And in it, we constantly call people to faith and repentance. To know that in His return, He will not come this time with “reference to sin” or to help with it, but only to judge it. His propitiation has already been offered. If it is not received by faith now in this time – it will be too late when He appears.

The Gospel must begin with an announcement. All must prepare themselves, because the Lord is to visit us. How then shall we be ready? How then, shall we live? We ever preach, and ever live in the light of His second coming now, even as they did in the light of His incarnation.

And all of this leads us back to that first verse – the Gospel is about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Nothing else is the “Gospel”. Nothing less is the “Gospel”. For no person or thing other than Him can save us from the coming just wrath of God.
D. A. Carson’s – Showing The Spirit – A Recommendation

May 21st, 2014

The topic of spiritual gifts is complex, controversial and important in every age of the Church. So when a volume is written from a trusted and proven theologian with no ax to grind, but armed with the willingness to search the Scriptures and take their teaching wherever that may lead – I listen. And I think you should too. Such is D. A. Carson’s “Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14.”

I confess at the outset my love and admiration for Dr. Carson. Over the years, not only me but countless preachers, pastors and scholars have benefited from his bountiful gifts. Cambridge trained and pastorally experienced, Don Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he has served on the faculty since 1978. He one of the founders and the current President of the Gospel Coalition, and has authored or edited more than 50 books. He is a globally recognized scholar in New Testament Greek.

Having read almost everything of his I could get my hands on over the years, my estimation of him grew and grew until I had the opportunity to have him here to speak at one of our conferences and at the church. Then my estimation exploded exponentially. For here was no ivory tower egg-head, but a man of staggering gifts who was also (and perhaps more predominately) deeply in love with his Savior and His Savior’s Church. A man with a passion for local assemblies and their leadership, and profoundly committed to the cause of Christ in every area he can touch. He blessed not only me, but all those present in those days immeasurably. I will never forget that weekend.

How then, this volume – published in 1987 and dealing with such a critical subject escaped my notice until now I haven’t a clue. But I thank my dear friend and Pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Hornell NY – Nathan Ruble – for bringing it to my attention.

Showing the Spirit is an absolute must read for anyone interested in doing the heavy lifting behind understanding the Bible’s teaching on this subject with depth and clarity. Agree with him or disagree, you will not be left thinking any crucial part of the text has been treated superficially or carelessly. This is high octane reading for such a slight tome.

Roughly speaking, all of Evangelicalism is divided into two camps on the issue of spiritual gifts such as tongues, prophecy, a word of knowledge etc.: Cessationist (all of the sign or miracle or sensational gifts have ceased – hence cessation), and Non-Cessationists (any or all of the sign or miracle or sensational gifts may and still do operate today). Now there are clearly more variants in the second group – but for the purposes of this brief recommendation (not really an in-depth review) we need only note the two major branches. And given the recent Strange Fire Conference hosted by John MacArthur and his book bearing the same name – controversy over this topic has not just flared up again, it has blown up. Dr. MacArthur (another one of my heroes) is squarely and decidedly in the Cessationist camp. Dr. Carson squarely and decidedly is not. And this makes for interesting reading, reflection and discussion on both fronts. In fact, reading both MacArthur’s and Carson’s books back to back as I did is something recommend.

With his characteristic thoroughness in exegeting the text; his almost distracting (but invaluable) interaction with other scholarship on the key passages; his even-handedness in treating both sides fairly (regarding both their positives and negatives) and his courage in refusing to flinch from conclusions that would no doubt marginalize (if not demonize) him in the eyes of some very weighty peers – Dr. Carson won’t let the reader escape from the full on implications of his study any more than he seeks to dodge them himself. Like it or lump it, he argues (convincingly in my opinion) that there is no exegetical reason for saying the gifts have ceased in our day, and that there are many proofs to the contrary. At the same time, he refuses to let the Non-Cessationist camp run away with their views as though they need not submit to the very plain, apostolically authoritative rules and guidelines which are to govern the exercise of these gifts in the local Church. There is no place for mayhem and folderol. No loose canons. Nothing out of order. The bottom line is clear: no one gets to play at or with God’s Spirit given gifts. They are meant to serve the assembly in love, and anything less or other is out of bounds. Period.

I found myself needing to re-examine my own understanding in several critical places and as a result modifying it too. That is seldom comfortable. But if we want to follow Christ, ever coming to a clearer understanding of what His Word teaches on any topic is imperative. And change brought about by better understanding God’s Word, is always growth, no matter how uncomfortable.

No, this book is NOT easy reading. You will have to work at it, and wrestle with the text in ways you maybe never have before. That’s great! But do do it. Don’t shrink back into preconceived notions regardless of which side of the debate you find yourself. Let God’s Word speak. And tremble.
Annual Mother’s Day Poem for 2014

May 11th, 2014

A Mother’s Day Lament

With Apologies to Edgar Allen Poe and the Raven

Mother’s Day 2014

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious mem’ry of my home

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my brain’s back dome

‘Tis some dreaming thing’, I muttered, tapping at my brain’s back dome

Just buttered crackers, all alone.

Rolling over for more shuteye, dreamt of Mississippi mud-pie

Images of fun and antics hidden from my Mother back at home

While I tossed and turned in sleeping, miscellany hi-jinks creeping

More and more came bubbling seeping, seeping in a frothy foam

Too much pizza before bed, to myself I sleepily said giving me this midnight groan

I’m to blame, its mine to own

All was normal – then recalling, one memory that’s so appalling,

Sweat and trembling seized me fully, body, soul and mind it owned

Fearless in my youthful antics, or exploits – its all semantics

There I trembled truly frantic, frantic like a half-crazed gnome

Words my Mother used to say, to bring an end to fun and play and draw my deepest aching groan

Just wait until your Dad gets home

How I’d start and spit and sputter, what a wretched thing to mutter

There’s no recourse a stripling has, when this at last by Mothers’ grim intone

Naught but dreadful waiting terror, for each and every youthful error

Nothing could be more unfair, “unfair!” I sobbed between each wrenching groan

But no reprieve could be extorted regardless cherub face contorted – the sentence was alas all set in stone

Just wait until your Dad gets home!

No secret weapon forged by science has stopped more acts of young defiance

No means of squelching fun has ever matched the force of this alone

The rue of young creative flair, grand plans and schemes laid flat and bare

Devastated keen ideas, ideas when old we’d not condone

But at the moment seized our brains and swept our minds like monsoon rains that held the germ of fancied joys – overthrown

Just wait until your Dad gets home

And now we know the secret means by which our Moms have often saved the world

When long unused we dream and hope the words have from their hearts and minds full flown

And then there comes that dreadful day, when oblivious in devious play

Unleashed and slung in power, power by the world unknown

With Sinaitic declarative awe those lips that kiss our booboos say the words that make us writhe and groan

Just wait until your Dad get home!

And so the story has gone on, re-acted and performed in every human age

Methinks each girl who witnessed it, embosoms it in secret till they’re grown

Till comes the day their progeny, caught in an impish playful spree

They catch in mid-stream in mischievy, mischievy like igniting some cologne

And rise at last to seize the phrase with exasperated hands on hips imperiously intone –

Just wait until your Dad gets home!
NOAH, the movie. A Review.

April 26th, 2014

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic movies and books. The Mad Max series, The Book of Eli, The Omega Man, Twelve Monkeys, Waterworld – you name it. From pitiful entries like Zardoz to classics like the 1933 release of “Deluge” – whatever the reason hidden deep in my dark and twisted psyche, that genre has always intrigued me and still does. It’s been that way since I was a kid. But I never considered the Genesis account of Noah and flood as being in that category. Apparently, writer and movie director Darren Aronofsky does, as his much publicized cinematic spectacle “NOAH” makes abundantly clear. Upon reflection, I can see why.

Most reviewers I’ve read (pro or con) already make much of Aronofsky’s use of this platform for his unapologetic environmentalism. So be it. In his imaginative narrated preface beginning the film, he makes it clear that by the time we encounter Noah, humankind has so over-industrialized the earth that it is little more than a global strip-mining pit. Noah and his little family are eco-isolationists eking out a bare existence with so little plant life that Noah rebukes his young son for plucking even one flower merely for its beauty. Reprimanding the lad he exhorts that we can only take just what we can use – no more. Sermon ended. This makes the movie an odd post-human apocalypse / followed by a God-judgment apocalypse, post-apocalypse movie. OK, that hurts my head. But I must move on.

Two quick side notes:

1. No thinking Christian objects to our needing to be good stewards of planet earth as committed into humankind’s care. Though discussions rightfully range on what that ought to look at. I’ll leave the rest of that discussion for another time.

2. To be honest, the re-pairing of Russell Crowe as Noah with Jennifer Connelly as his wife made me keep wondering if we were going to find out that all of this was just a figment of John Nash’s “beautiful mind”. Alas, that would have made a more entertaining movie. But at least Crowe didn’t sing this time.

Back to more important stuff.

Despite both Aronofsky’s and Crowe’s public claims of fidelity to the Biblical text, other than a flood, a big boat and characters by the same names, the movie bears little in common with the Bible’s narrative. This is as one would expect from one who is a non-Believer in the “Christian” sense. Wikipedia notes: He said of his spiritual beliefs in 2014, “I think I definitely believe. My biggest expression of what I believe is in The Fountain“.”

To get at what it is that Aronofsky “believes”, I watched The Fountain before writing this review. “The Fountain” is an earlier Aronofsky production (written and directed by him) where a medical researcher struggling frantically to find a cure for his beloved wife’s fatal tumor, ultimately loses her to the disease but comes to realize she goes on living as part of the universe, even as he one day will and so no one really dies, they just transform. Hence Aronofsky’s version of “believing.” He believes in something bigger than life as we know it, and that it is all connected.

That said, I should in all fairness mention that I appreciated number of things in Noah.

I want to say that Aronofsky has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about the themes of sin, original sin, God’s judgment and redemption. True, he does not conceive of them in the Biblically defined categories so that the necessity of the incarnation and the Cross emerge and produce any truly salvific view – but I always appreciate people who interact with these realities in a thoughtful way. So many today tend to bury their heads in the sand and not wrestle with these ideas at all. His conclusions are not Biblically informed, but his questions are Biblically generated – and that is good.

I appreciated the attempt to get the Ark right in proportion and visually. It was probably the most “realistic” Ark I’ve seen. That was fun.

Most of all I appreciated the attempt to imagine the emotional and intellectual upheavals that must have attended Noah in some ways as he contemplated the magnitude and the reality of all that was comprehended under the idea of a global – humanity-destroying cataclysm. He certainly would not have been stoical and indifferent. Even though Aronofsky paints a dark and brooding Noah, he at least does not re-create him as the detached, Pollyanna super-saint of much Sunday School curricula. For Aronofsky, he is a Noah who acknowledges his own sinfulness (albeit sadly without understanding grace at all) and that he deserves judgment too. So he is spared in the flood not because he is good, but because he is a useful and obedient tool. In fact in the film, he assumes his own judgment in death (and that of his family – Japheth will be the last “man”) after he saves all the animals from destruction – so God can start creation over without us pesky humans. Comparatively, for many Sunday Schoolers, Noah is spared because he is relatively good compared to his violent and sinful neighbors. Both of these Noahs are inventions and devoid of seeing that Noah was spared because “he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Was he better (humanly speaking) than some of his peers? No doubt. Was he an obedient and useful servant? Yep. But are these one-dimensional portraits sufficient? No on both counts.

Who Noah isn’t in any way, shape or form in this film is “a herald of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5) for 120 years. Anything but. He is a grim, fatalistic man who agrees with God’s need to judge the world, and has no hope for himself or anyone else, no desire to see any saved, and proclaims nothing to his neighbors since he wants nothing to do with them anyway. He has self-righteously isolated himself from all others but his family to try and keep them un-contaminated from the rest of the sinners. Though one wonders why the isolation if he truly believes he is as much to be judged as they.

Aronofsky displays his view of salvation in spiritual terms, in the case of the fallen angels, which he equates with the Nephilim. Some Evangelical thinkers do the same, so that in and of itself I’m not commenting on (tho one really has to explain how the Nephilim reappear in Numbers 13 if in fact they were either embodied fallen angels or the offspring of the fallen angels co-habiting with human women and were supposed to have all died in the flood designed to wipe them out. I’ll leave that for other theologs to argue about.)

These fallen angels in Aronofsky’s account fell due to misguided nobility. They simply wanted to protect Adam from falling in the Garden, and since their intervention (no matter how well intended) was outside their purview, God sentenced them to be encased in rock. Hence they are sort of giant rock beings with a chip on their collective shoulder (no pun intended) against helping humans any more. A soft-hearted one however convinces the rest to help Noah build the Ark. When they defend Noah and the Ark from an attack led by Tubalcain (who in fact sneaks on later only to be killed by Ham in a fight with Noah) they are overrun by the masses and killed. One cries out “Creator, forgive me!” and is loosed from his rock prison by death, ostensibly returning to Heaven (remember Aronofsky’s theology from The Fountain?) Whereas the Bible clearly states that there is no redemption for the fallen angels and that: “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment” (See 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6).

Noah’s “salvation” is left for after the flood. Unable to kill his twin granddaughters on the Ark (see the movie, I won’t explain it here – it’s just all fabrication) Noah turns to drink to drown his sense of having failed God by letting more humans live. Since he was sure God’s plan was to end the human race after Noah’s last son died. More humans complicates the issue. However, he is told by his wife he really did do well, because in the end, he chose love. O.K. Salvation is choosing love. Got it.

So what do we say to all of this? Just two things really.

1. As is typical, don’t go to movies – even supposedly “faith-based” movies to get Biblical or theological truth. Go to the Bible for truth. If you want to know about God, you have to go to where He has revealed Himself – in the Bible, and most explicitly in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Believe me, the real God is far more spectacular than any God ANY film-maker can conjure up. To list all of the factual errors in the film would require more space than this review and then some. There’s no sense in pursuing it. Read your Bible. It’s better. Not only true, but truly more entertaining. The facts are more intriguing than Aronofsky’s fiction.

2. View films which purport to communicate Biblical accounts with a healthy dose of skepticism that let you enjoy the movie as entertainment, and nothing more. Don’t let the images overly inform you.

That said, I really didn’t enjoy Noah, and really wanted to. Like I said, that genre tickles me somewhere. But this one is just so dark and filled with so many poor and confusing concepts of God and how He deals with mankind that it became too off-putting for me.

If you see it, just see it for what it is – an imaginative, FICTIONAL re-telling of the Flood, with nothing of truth about it other than the reality of the cataclysm itself, and a bunch of people with the same names as those who were really there.
Off to Texas for 2 weeks to find my inner Pig

April 5th, 2014

See you again around the 16th.
Digging Deeper in Proverbs 17(e)

April 1st, 2014

Proverbs 17:9 Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

Heavenly Father, guard my lips in this matter. Make me compassionate over the sins and failings of others, rather than indulging my flesh in repeating their errors to others. Let me love them better. Let me learn to cover their sin. Let me obtain your heart – you, who keeps our confessions in the deepest of confidences, and though you witness my sins a thousand times a day, do not run off to tell others, but cover it in love. Make me more like Jesus.

Proverbs 17:10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

1. This is a good test for us to find out whether or not we are men of “understanding” – i.e. not fools. Do rebukes hit us hard? Or do we ignore them? We are fools if they do not take their toll on us. This does not mean we crumble under every criticism. It DOES mean we listen to criticism and weigh it. If there is something of truth in it, we had better listen and learn. If it is a false accusation, we can toss it aside. But wise men are not impervious.

2. It is good for leadership to be careful not to be excessive in rebuking those who otherwise show themselves to be “understanding.” The danger here is that we can wound the tender heart and mind needlessly. Some who are very sound and good can be dealt severe and scarring blows when our criticisms make them wither and shrink back. Bear in mind how these things often pierce others very deeply.

3. How difficult it is to make any worthwhile impact on a true fool. He does not respond even to a hundred blows. In comparison, how easy it is to impact those who are men of understanding. Do not waste your time with fools. Those who will not listen, will not even if accosted by the truth in drastic measure. “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Titus 3:10

Proverbs 17:12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

Remember, the fool is the one who has said in his heart “there is no God.” The one who thinks and lives like this, is the most dangerous man in the world. Let history testify to the wicked debacles of religious men gone mad and perverting Christ to seek earthly riches. It is a grotesque picture. But let history also testify to the unspeakable savagery of “fools” in their “folly. Nothing compares to the bloodshed of the godless. The Mao Tse-tungs, Stalins, etc. exterminated multiplied millions. The view of man as without true value in a godless mindset is frightful indeed. Rather to meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs. At least there is no conscious disdain for human life in general, and no extension of rage beyond the immediate perceived danger of her young.

Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Sorrows, trials, woes and difficulties come to all in life. None are exempt. The foolish, fix upon their woes, setting their eyes upon their cares and constantly mulling over their disappointments. Rehearsing their griefs and never letting go of their heartaches. And soon enough there is nothing but dryness to the core. The wise suffer the same, but set their hearts and minds on the good hand of their God. Seeing His wise providence in all, they trust their sometimes dark and painful course to the hand of their loving Master. So their joy, refreshed at the fountain of Calvary’s cross is like medicine to the whole man. Giving strength to endure, patience to wait, and hope for the expected end of their faith.

What a glorious Savior we serve!