Greetings!
Peace, mercy, and grace be with you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We hope and pray you are enjoying a great summer! Thanks for your interest and support.
Sunday, June 23, 2024
The Voice 14.25: Arguments Undervaluing Romans 14:1-15:7, 1: General Arguments
We continue our exploration into all things Romans 14:1-15:7 by beginning the consideration of the arguments often advanced which would undervalue the passage and restrict its application.
Some of these have to do with some imprecision in language; some of it has to do with dogmatic apprehensions; unfortunately, a lot of it has to do with more base desires of having things be done “our way” which makes “us” more comfortable.
As always, we need to keep Romans 15:7 front and center lest we miss the plot: we are to receive and welcome one another as God in Christ has received and welcomed us.
The Gospel of John at the West Los Angeles Christian College Christian Club: Lazarus | John 11:1-57
We wrapped up our spring semester with a study in Jesus’ greatest sign in His ministry in John’s Gospel: the resuscitation of Lazarus. Martha set forth some standard and orthodox Second Temple Jewish understanding of the resurrection. Jesus proved to be the resurrection and the life. Jewish authorities responded with multiple layers of irony, assuring the very thing they feared by what they were doing.
Lesson: The Second Book of Samuel | Books of the Bible
Outline | Podcast | Conversation
Samuel has nothing to do with 2 Samuel; his death was chronicled in 1 Samuel. The book is better understood by its Greek name 2 Reigns. The House of Saul had flashed some glimpses of possibility but did not accomplish the desires of God or His people. In 2 Samuel we learn of the reign of David and the great success he enjoyed, satisfying the desires of the people likely beyond what they had imagined. But it went to David’s head, and he suffered all kinds of dynastic chaos when he could have been enjoying the fruit of his success.
For this week’s picture we celebrate someone who just turned twenty-one this week. We are here pictured in her element, visiting the Glasgow Cathedral.
Book Reviews
Christendom finds itself confronted with many challenges in terms of its legacy. One especially heinous aspects of that legacy was the implicit acceptance of, or even outright participation in, the system of chattel slavery developed in the Americas in the early modern period.
This reckoning proves especially necessary among the conservative Protestant/Evangelical camps, especially in regard to many of those whom they deem to be their champions and heroes of the faith.
Sean McGever reckons well with that legacy in Ownership: The Evangelical Legacy of Slavery in Edwards, Wesley, and Whitefield (affiliate link; galley received as part of early review program).
The author well focused on these three people on account of their ongoing influence in Evangelicalism: the Reformed remain entranced with Edwards’ theological expositions, Wesley was often championed for his later antislavery views and lauded as a catalyst for abolition, and Whitefield is recognized as one of the most prolific - and prolifically successful - preachers of all time, and no doubt influenced the practice of preaching before multitudes which has proven pervasive ever since.
The author approaches these issues with appropriate humility, integrity, but also moral fervency. In their own way each character ends up embodying certain trends and tendencies.
John Wesley was born first and lived longest. The author profiles Wesley in terms of what made him influential and prominent and in terms of the issue of slavery. The author takes Wesley down many notches in terms of his anti-slavery advocacy: he well demonstrated how Wesley had firsthand experiences of American chattel slavery many decades before his anti-slavery agitation, and at that time did not seem nearly as morally bothered by it. Wesley thus represents the “person of the age” who accepted chattel slavery as just part of the order of things until he came into contact with those who made forceful arguments against its inhumanity and its practice. The author shows how Wesley was thus influenced by many prominent Quaker antislavery advocates. Yes, Wesley’s tract against slavery in 1774 would prove a lightning rod and would be part of what catalyzed the abolitionist movement, but it came toward the end of Wesley’s life and did not seem to reflect his attitudes much earlier than it. Wesley’s change of heart is commendable; but it took quite a while.
The author well demonstrates how slavery was just part of Jonathan Edwards’ world. His parents owned a couple of slaves; he would own a couple of slaves; he would give his slaves as part of his inheritance to his children. He did not find it morally objectionable. The application of what Edwards would preach would not make an impact on Edwards himself, but it would on his son who would become an antislavery agitator. One cannot extricate Edwards from the legacy of white supremacy and slavery. The author did well at showing how one can still appreciate his contributions to theology while confessing and lamenting how he had no moral scruple about owning human beings. His son’s departure from his position belies any attempt to excuse Edwards as a “man of his time.”
George Whitefield’s example is perhaps the most distressing. The author well demonstrated how Whitefield found slavery morally problematic until he needed money and support in order to realize his great dream of establishing an orphanage in the colony of Georgia. It is hard to reconcile how Whitefield could have justified such evil in his attempt at doing something which, at least in theory, was laudable and honorable, supporting orphans by means of the unpaid labor of many Black people.
One thing I appreciated about the author throughout was his attempts at emphasizing the humanity of the slaves owned by Edwards and Whitefield and his ability to maintain moral horror at their behaviors. Far too often their affirmation of chattel slavery is admitted and passed over with almost clinical disembodiment and distance, trying to “sanitize” what ought to be deeply distressing and troubling. The author will not allow you to justify, rationalize, or look away.
I’m sure many will deride the author and his work as “woke,” but it is anything but. Many will attempt to deflect by suggesting the author would want to eliminate or “cancel” these men of the faith, but such would prove fallacious: the author desires to do anything but. The author wants Evangelicals to honor the legacy of what these men said and did. But you cannot celebrate them for their virtues and attempt to diminish or suppress their vices in commending, neglecting, and/or profiting from chattel slavery and prove honest with them and their legacy. Ownership goes a long way for White Evangelicalism to properly grapple with the dark side of their heroes.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. And we’re not fine.
So what can we do?
In Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart, (affiliate link; galley received as part of early review program), Brian McLaren considers our present predicament and how we might deal with it.
He began by describing the possible ways climate change and civilization plays out. Some of the models involve a lot of suffering but most of us would find them not entirely intolerable. Some of the models involve the complete collapse of everything we hold dear, and ourselves.
For many this is all overhyped and excessive. It won’t be that bad, they think. It can’t be that bad. This kind of bargaining is commong, as the author well knows, and has experienced himself. None of us want to think it could be that bad. No one can really imagine the end of everything he or she knows.
But that hasn’t ever been able to stop it when things do get that bad, and everything a person knows is gone. Ask the Israelites of the Exile. Ask the western world of the fifth and sixth centuries.
But the book is about life after doom. How to live in light of all these matters? The author addresses the way things are and how they have come about. He points out how we got here because of our colonialist/dominionist heritage of exploitation. He wants us to call in the poets. He wants us to heed indigenous wisdom - although his definition of “indigenous,” which probably does not originate with him, is pretty expansive. He would like to appeal beyond the religious, but the author’s heritage in Christianity and that perspective informs everything. He wants to prepare you for the end of everything; how well one might feel prepared by the end is another story.
But he does not want it to be all about doom and despair. He wants to encourage hope in doing what can be done. The author does well to remind us how this will not be the end of the world: it would seem the earth has been as hot as it is now before, and much more. The earth will persevere until the Lord comes; it might just not be as amenable or comfortable for us. So whatever we can do can at least marginally improve our conditions and perhaps also for the future. We live at arguably one of the greatest times to be alive; our goal should not be to enjoy everything to the hurt and harm of all who come afterward, but to find ways to conserve and preserve our environment.
It is harder today to deny the changes to our climate than it was a decade ago; no doubt it will continually prove harder to deny them, despite all the work of those who profit by the status quo to try to do so. We do well to consider how we can live within our means as human beings on a finite planet without depleting all the finite resources. We cannot know exactly what will be; but, as in all things, we do best when we are prepared for the worst while doing what we can to make it for the best.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.
Ethan