Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful that my sons are busy at work. When you run your own business, lots of work = good gift from God.

I’m thankful that the carrots seeds have sprouted into little tiny grasslike carrot plants. I’m also thankful for long daylight hours to grow the garden quickly during our short summer.

I’m thankful for eyeglasses. My own pair of glasses—without them I’d be seriously handicapped—and glasses in general.

I’m thankful for the past providences—past mercies—that I’ve been remembering lately. I’m thankful that God can make very difficult circumstances into ultimately good things. I’m thankful that I’ve had God’s help in past trials to give me assurance of his help in future ones.

On Thursdays throughout this year, I plan to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving along with Kim at the Upward Call and others. Why don’t you participate by posting your thanksgiving each week, too? It’ll be an encouragement to you and to others, I promise.

Firing an Unloaded Gun

Here is yet another quote from Greg Bahnsen’s Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith. In Chapter 29: Apologetics in Practice, Bahnsen puts his apologetic approach to use against Bertrand Russell’s famous essay Why I Am Not a Christian.

For all his stature as a philosopher, Russell cannot be said to have been sure of himself and consistent in his views regarding reality or or knowledge. In his early years he adopted the Hegelian idealism taught by F. H. Bradley. Influenced by G. E. Moore, he changed to a Platonic theory of ideas. Challenged by Ludwig Wittgenstein that mathematics consists merely of tautologies, he turned to metaphysical and linguistic atomism. He adopted the extreme realism of Alexious Meinong, only later to turn toward logical constructionism instead. Then following the lead of William James, Russell abandoned mind-matter dualism for the theory of neutral monism. Eventually Russell propounded materialism with fervor, even though his dissatisfaction with his earlier logical atomism left him without an alternative metaphysical account of the object of our empirical experiences. Struggling with philosophical problems not unlike those which stymied David Hume, Russell conceded in his later years that the quest for certainty is a failure.

This brief history of Russell’s philosophical evolution is rehearsed so that the reader may correctly appraise the strength and authority of the intellectual platform from which Russell would presume to criticize the Christian faith. Russell’s brilliance is not in doubt; he was a talented and intelligent man. But to what avail? In criticizing Christians for their views of ultimate reality, of how we know what we know, and of how we should live our lives, did Bertrand Russell have a defensible alternative from which to launch his attacks? Not at all. He could not give an account of reality and knowing which—on the grounds of, and according to the criteria of, his own autonomous reasoning—was cogent, reasonable and sure. He could not say with certainty what was true about reality and knowledge, but nevertheless he was firmly convinced that Christianity was false! Russell was firing an unloaded gun.

Round the Sphere Again: Word

Inscripturated Word and Incarnated Word
Kevin DeYoung says “we should approach the Scriptures with the same reverence we would have in approaching Christ.”

Word of Faith
I’m reading Romans 10 and I’ve been hung up over verses 5-8. Paul quotes from two Old Testament texts (Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30:11-14) and says  that the first is what righteousness based on the law says and the second is what righteousness based on faith says. But when you go back to the OT context, it looks like the two texts are saying more or less the same thing. It’s easy to see that the Leviticus passage is about righteousness based on the law: “the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” But how does the Deuteronomy passage point us to righteousness based on faith?

I have two Romans commentaries and several study Bible, but none of them helped me a whole lot. The most helpful thing was this sermon by John Piper. He says that Paul sees the Deuteronomy passage as pointing to Christ as our righteousness. The key point in the Deuteronomy passage is that the law is doable, but we all know—Paul included—that no one but Christ has ever measured up to the law’s standards. Read the sermon to see Piper’s  four step answer to how Paul sees Deuteronomy 30:11-14 as pointing to Christ as our righteousness the way Romans 10:4 says it does.