Lightweight

A couple of samples from yesterday's tournament. Full album can be found here.

God knew I would write this

Talking to a philosopher friend of mine during an Oak Hall bible week a few days ago, he balked at the idea of hard determinism, thereby implicitly refuting the absolute sovereignty of God (as Spurgeon puts it, if determinism says “what happens, must happen;” God’s sovereignty says, “what God wills, must happen”) .

Having read a lot of John Piper recently, I feel the need to defend the doctrine of God’s sovereignty!

First of all, we need to understand that God (at least the God of the Bible) and chance are mutually exclusive: if chance exists, then God does not; likewise, if God exists, then chance does not.

Piper makes an excellent case for God’s total sovereignty in his book Desiring God (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!). One point he makes is this: God’s sovereignty is the foundation for God’s happiness; or, in the words of Psalm 115:

... Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

Just imagine if God didn’t have complete, sovereign control over His creation: He’d be frustrated, unsatisfied and anything but happy!

And since my friend is reading Church history, it seems appropriate to direct him to chapter seven of Piper’s Life as a Vapor (again, highly recommended), which discusses Augustine’s famous plea,

“Lord, command what you will, and give what you command!”

And ends with the beautiful prayer:

Lord, I pray that you would fill us with

hope and joy and expectation

that You have the power to put Your hand on us,

and grant us the will to do what You command.

You have made it plain:

We are responsible to do what You tell us to do.

But we know that in ourselves we

do not have the will to do it.

And so we cry with Augustine,

“Lord, command what You will,

and give what You command.”

Leave us not to ourselves. Have mercy.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

My prayer is that my brother too may come to rejoice in the absolute sovereignty of our Lord and Saviour: our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases!

Dan John on Supplements

Free PDF on the O lifts yields some nuggets:

If it works immediately, it is illegal.
If it works quickly, it is banned.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Gotta get that creatine, brah

Two Perspectives on Thought

A great session on Wednesday going through Church history with Peter Mead gave rise to this discussion on Phil

Thus philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness, until the coming of the Lord. And now it assists towards true religion as a kind of prepatory training for those who arrive at faith by way of demonstration. For "Thy foot shall not stumble" if thou attribute to Providence all good, whether it belongs to the Greeks or to us. For God is the source of all good things; of some primarily, as of the old and new Testaments; of others by consequence, as of philosophy. But it may be, indeed, that philosophy was given to the Greeks immediately and primarily, until the Lord should call the Greeks. For philosophy was a "schoolmaster" to bring the Greek mind to Christ, as the Law brought the Hebrews. Thus philosophy was a preparation, paving the way towards perfection in Christ. - Clement of Alexandria (ca.200), Stromateis, I., v28

Sounds great; affirming the good that's in philosophy; recognising that all good is from God, and all good points to Christ. So what does Tertullian have to say on the matter?

It is this philosophy which is the subject-matter of this world's wisdom, that rash interpreter of the divine nature and order. In fact, heresies are themselves prompted by philosophy. It is the source of "aeons," and I know not what infinite "forms" and the "trinity of man" in the system of Valentinus. he was a Platonist. it is the source of Marcion's "better God," "better," because of his tranquility. Marcion came from the Stoics. Again, when it is said that the soul perishes, that flesh is taken over from the universal teaching of the philosophers; the equation of matter with God is the doctrine of Zeno; and when any assertion is made about a God of fire, then Heraclitus comes in. Heretics and philosophers handle the same subject-matter; both treat the same topics - Whence came evil? And why? Whence came man? And how? And a question lately posed by Valentinus - whence came God? Answer: "From enthymesis and ectroma"! Wretched Aristotle! Who taught them dialectic, that art of building up and demolishing, so protean in statement, so far-fetched in conjecture, so unyielding in controversy, so productive of disputes; self-stultifying, since it is ever handling questions but never settling anything... What is there in common between Athens and Jerusalem? What between the Academy and the Church? What between heretics and Christians? ... Away with all projects for a "Stoic," a "Platonic" or a "dialectic" Christianity! After Jesus Christ we desire no subtle theories, no acute enquiries after the gospel..." Tertullian (ca.160-240), De praescriptione haereticorum (ca.200), vii.

Woah! Talk about didactic opposites; still, you can see where the T-bone is coming from. Anyone else reminded of Paul's verdict on man's wisdom in first Corinthians 1?

...Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

And so there's a tension - on the one hand, most philosophy contains some reality (most lies contain some dilute measure of truth in order to make them palatable), and yet, man's wisdom cannot get him to God.

I must say that I'm far more inclined to align with Clement, and use philosophy as a signpost pointing to the Truth.