Things I Think…
1. One of the primary reasons the church is in serious decline is because the church has failed to understand it’s unique identity as a people in exile within another national structure.
If one only wants to learn to be a better conservative or a better progressive, there are more enjoyable places to do so…
2. A significant part of the biblical witness is on how a Christian is to live as an exile in a “foreign” land…our problem is that we think we rightfully own the place, when this too is Babylon…
3. We (I) need to listen more and react less…all our splintered tribes believe that they are defending ideas high and holy…we must learn to affirm that impulse while disagreeing where necessary…
4. The future of Western theology is going to be found in researching and expounding on exile…
5. I spent some time this weekend working with ChatGPT...an artificial intelligence powered interface…and we have yet another monstrous bit of technology that has expanded our capability for good and evil…and because I do believe in both the imago dei and total depravity, I know the possibilities for both are endless…
6. Our technology has advanced faster than our ethics…and it makes me glad I’m old….
7. I asked ChatGPT to contrast 2 Cor 12:9 with political ambition….
“2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
“In the context of political power, this verse suggests that true strength and power come from relying on God’s grace and allowing Christ’s power to work through us, rather than seeking power and strength for ourselves. It suggests that we should be humble and recognize that our own power and abilities are limited, and that it is only through Christ that we can truly make a positive impact.”
Amazing…I should have asked it to write this article…
8. There is not a single solution to what ails us that won’t require more humility than we each possess at the moment…and I fear what might humble us…
9. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are simply templates to test if we are experiencing what we were created to be…the less we are manifesting any one of them is a sign that something is broken…like a spiritual check engine light…
10. What books do you plan on reading this year? How will you make the time to do so?
Being outcasts in exile is totally antithetical to the conservative Christian movement, if there is a movement. I read articles on the Christian Post and Charismanews and it seems like they are more and more wanting political power and I call ICHABOD over them both. Very few articles on humility, putting other first, servanthood, living in exile, etc. What is worse is that WE DON’T LEARN from the follies of the past. Charismanews is still running articles on getting Trump back in power.
The definition of insanity…
Dan,
It’s not simply insanity, it’s a gross distortion of the biblical witness…
First book on the docket: Praying like Monks, Living like Fools by Tyler Staton
PH,
Review it for us when you’re done…I’m going to spend the next couple of months with Wendell Berry’s latest…
#1 – Most of what passes for conservativism in politics and the church almost makes ashamed of being a conservative.
#6 – Same here
# 7 – That’s amazing!
#8 – I haven’t looked much into books, but one I think I need to revisit is Disciplines of a Godly Man.
makes ME ashamed*
After I finish with Exodus, I’ll be studying through Leviticus. (Lord willing)
#4! I’ve worked with refugees for years (and continue to do so), and many of them would never have left their home countries if they hadn’t needed to. And yet, they chuck everything and go off on a perilous journey with no guarantee they can stay in their intended destination. As Christians, I think we need to adopt the same mindset-ditch the world and follow Christ and His kingdom.
On another note, I am hoping that the attempted coup in Brazil might cause us to stop and think about our own 1/6 experience.
“As Christians, I think we need to adopt the same mindset-ditch the world and follow Christ and His kingdom.’
I’ll say the amen…
#1 True the church has failed to discern church and state in this hour but I don’t see the case that it is causal in decline.
We simply have had an unregenerate church. It cannot withstand the whoredom of modernity and the emptiness of post-modernity.
The archetypes of Revelation are proving our successes to have been cosmetic.
Dread,
I think it is causal…to what degree may be disputed.
There are many unregenerate in the visible church…but more regenerate that are poorly taught and discipled.
The youth in particular long for identity and causes and we have denied them the greatest of both…and they have left us.
Would it be fair to say that we lack God fearing honest pastor/teachers? ? ?
I’m reading Samuel Adams: Revolutionary
Em,
We lost a lot of good pastors because the idolaters in the pews prefer political partisanship and pep rallies.
Dan from Georgia wrote:
“Charismanews is still running articles on getting Trump back in power.”
I am completely perplexed.
What do they see in that man?
How did a man like that (Trump) become their champion?
Mic hael @ 7:10
I think you are, sadly, correct!
since I’ve quoted from him previously … John Neville FIggis said something back in 1911:
… Every attempt to raise the code of the nation to that of the Church leads, if unsuccessful, to an attempt to lower the code of the Church to that of the world, because it proceeds from a notion that at bottom the two are identical. Thus if the lax party gets the upper hand it will compel the Church to conform to its standards, an attempt which is being made on all hands just now. The two societies are distinct—distinct in origin, in aim, and (if you have toleration) in personnel. The smaller is never likely, as things are, to control the larger. If she attempt to do so she will be beaten, and in the process be like to lose her own freedom. The Puritans attempted to raise the nation to their own notions of a high morality. The consequence was seen after the Restoration. It is the essence of the Church to be different from the world, and her mission to proclaim that difference. Whenever men try to sanctify the world by raising it to the level of the Church, they commonly succeed only in lowering the life of the Church to accommodate it to the practice of the world. The two centuries which began with Pope Boniface VIII ended with Alexander VI.
Churches in the Modern State, pages 133-134
Not that I have no appreciation for some of the Puritans (I like Richard Sibbes) but, point noted.
I’m plotting marathons of John Neville Figgis and Emil Brunner this year. Public transit commutes in Puget Sound provide plenty of time! If I’m going to be on buses I can at least get some reading in.
Want to see if I can also carve out time to read Chiara Bertoglio’s gigantic book Reforming Music: Music and the Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century.
“Amazing…I should have asked it to write this article…”
Michael, How do we know it didn’t?
You don’t…and therein lies an issue for all manner of fields…
#6
After reading this, I tried chatGPT and posed a question about gender fluidity…the answer was something from the left side of the issue.
That says a lot to me about the future of AI