Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Fifth Cup

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Jay F Guin

The Lord’s Supper was instituted as part of a Passover meal. The Passover, of course, celebrates God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

By the time of Jesus, the meal was celebrated with four cups of wine, each reflecting a promise of God made to Moses and Israel at the beginning of their delverance —

(Exo 6:5-8)  “Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'”

RVL finds that at least three of the cups were recorded in the Gospels’ account of the Last Supper. Continue reading →

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The Fork in the Road: Moral vs. Positive Law: Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Jay F Guin

Quite a while ago, I wrote some posts that were a pretend debate between two friends over lunch regarding instrumental music. The friends are IM and AC. Here’s an excerpt —

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IM: In the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, he speaks of the promise of “living water,” and then she seems to change the subject. She asks Jesus whether the Samaritans are right to worship on Mt. Gerizim although the Jews worship on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.

(John 4:21-24) Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

It seems we can’t get very far discussing Christian worship until we understand what it means to worship “in spirit and in truth.” Continue reading →

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Perseverance: Old News

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Jay F Guin

Tim Archer just put up a post with several resources for and against the doctrine of perseverance of the saints.

I was waiting to get a table at a local restaurant earlier this evening, checking out Google Reader on my iPhone, and quite naturally took a look at Tim’s post. And lo and behold, he put up a series of links from me! I’d completely forgotten that I’d written these. (Age is catching up. Now what was I talking about? Oh, yeah …)

Election: The Problem with Perseverance of the Saints, Part 1
 Election: The Problem with Perseverance of the Saints, Part 2
 Election: The Problem with Perseverance of the Saints, Part 3
 Election: Further Conclusions Continue reading →

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Why Unicorns Are Extinct

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Jay F Guin

Thanks to ReverendFun.

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Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: On the Prodigal Son and Thinking the Eastern Way, Part 2

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Jay F Guin

Now, there’s a much more subtle point that Jesus makes, that the teachers of the law would likely have picked up. In the Psalms, nearly every metaphor used for God is about his power, his strength, and his holiness. But three metaphors are used of God’s gentleness —

(Psa 23:1-3)  A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

(Psa 131)  A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

(Psa 103:13-14)  As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

David compares God to a shepherd, a mother, and to a father to show his gentleness and compassion. Continue reading →

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Instrumental Music: An Email re “Upgrading a Worship Service Without Buying a Guitar”

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Jay F Guin

angelharp1.jpgOne of the most popular posts on this blog is “Upgrading a Worship Service Without Buying a Guitar.” I received the following email earlier today about that post, and I thought I might reply to it here, so that others with similar concerns could see both sides of the issue.

Let me add this: if you are unhappy with something I’ve written, I’d really prefer that you post it as a public comment. I know that good people generally prefer to make their criticisms privately — and I appreciate that spirit — but this is a discussion blog. If no one disagrees with me publicly, well, it just doesn’t work.

And I’ve been at this for a while. I can take it. In fact, I’ve developed kind of a taste for it — because disagreement is a chance to either learn or teach or both. It’s all good.

I get emails — Continue reading →

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The Fork in the Road: Moral vs. Positive Law: It’s Not a Positive Law Unless It’s a Law

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Jay F Guin

Words to live by: It’s a not a positive law unless it’s a law.

I won’t live long enough to refute every claimed positive law among the Churches of Christ. I could spend the next few weeks just making a list! And most wouldn’t be found in scripture anywhere. Rather, we find “commands” in silences — which is, of course, definitionally impossible. Only commands are commands. (Stop me if this is too complicated.)

And so, let’s take some of the more prominent examples of alleged positive commands and see if a closer look at them will help us to understand God just a little better.

Now, at some point after the Civil War, the Churches of Christ adopted the Landmark Baptist teaching that the boundaries of the church are set by certain “marks of the church.” These marks are not the things that separate the world from those in Christ. No, by a strange coincidence they are all things that separate Churches of Christ from other denominations. This line of reasoning takes us very far afield from the New Testament, causing us to ignore the majority of the text in favor of a favored few “proof” texts. Continue reading →

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The Fork in the Road: The Four Streams

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Jay F Guin

In an earlier post, I quoted some excerpts from a recent article in the Tennessean newspaper about the rise of the progressive Churches of Christ. The article quoted one source as saying the progressive Churches are creating a “a fourth stream of the Restoration movement, distinct from Churches of Christ and other groups.”

Gregory Alan Tidwell commented,

This talk of a “Fourth Stream” is exactly the point I was addressing in the “You Know It Is A Different Religion When…’ series in the Gospel Advocate which you enjoyed so much.

I always find it interesting that when conservatives observe that some congregations and institutions no longer believe what they use to believe and that these changes constitute a division, the conservatives are derided as being hateful and mean spirited. Continue reading →

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Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: On the Prodigal Son and Thinking the Eastern Way, Part 1

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Jay F Guin

The Western mode of thought comes from the ancient Greeks. We think abstractly. We like to take what we learn apart, see how it’s made, and extract the underlying principles.

RVL’s students in high school have to dissect a frog in their biology classes. When they cut a frog apart and look inside, they learn many truths about the frog. They learn how his heart works, how his lungs work, and so on. They never learn who his girlfriend is. You can only learn who the frog’s mate is by observing him in the wild. You can’t take him out of the pond and learn how he lives.

The Western approach to a frog is to dissect it. The Eastern approach is to learn the frog’s story. Both approaches gain truths. But you can’t truly understand much of what’s written in the Bible unless you study it in its native environment before you take it apart. After all, many of the scriptures were written by Easterners for Easterners.

Consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Continue reading →

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Parenting: Parental Guidance Required Video from the University Church of Christ

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Jay F Guin

Our preacher, Shon Smith, wrapped up an excellent series on parenting Sunday. His sermons may be downloaded. He introduced the final sermon with this video —

Notes on inside jokes:

* The skinny guy in the office is Shon.

* The bald guy on the couch is a deacon.

* The entrance to the primary classroom area is decorated with a 7′ polar bear, left over from a VBS program several years ago. He dresses seasonably, but prefers houndstooth hats.

* The kids in the last shot are the children of the two narrators. At least I think they are. They’re moving pretty fast.

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