Did he ask for Britain?

A few worthy blog-posts out there in Cyberdom.

Matthew Mason writes to his congregation on the Rowan/Sharia thing.

Douglas Wilson calls British Christians to imagine by faith. Best quote: "After the resurrection, the Lord Jesus was given this invitation -- ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. Does any Christian seriously want to say that Jesus was given this invitation and that He didn't ask for Great Britain?"

Gospel Optimism 9: Headlines and Eschatology

Simply put, one of the reasons optimistic eschatology fell from a place of dominance to occupy the sidelines of the evangelical world was that two world wars and the social-moral upheavals of the 20th century seemed to suggest things really could only get worse. But of course, it's bad news for theology to be based on the newspaper headlines rather than thoughtful, careful examination of the scriptures.

The Jollyblogger thinks postmillenialism might be making a comeback, and that this might be linked to brighter headlines in the US. He (not a post-mill) thinks it would be quite a good thing for postmillenialism to come back, but that any comeback shouldn't be based on the news headlines. I (a post-mill) agree with him on both counts.

Also of note, the article he links to includes an intriguing comment;

These days many evangelicals talk like premillennialists but act like postmillennialists. They expect the world to get worse and worse but preach the gospel, lobby politicians, and fight for social justice in order to make it a better place.

Postmillenialism and Suffering 3 (updated)

The Christian life is characterised by the cross. Does this refute postmillenialism - the idea that the gospel will triumph in history?

1. Of course, we must affirm that the Christian life is characterised by the cross. To say anything less is an over-realised eschatology. However, we can say more (and a-mill brothers and sisters would of course want to agree with this) – the Christian life is characterised by the cross because of union with Christ.

2. Union is with the whole of him, and therefore his resurrection as well as his cross.

3. In fact the two (cross and resurrection) cannot be separated. For the cross is the route to glory, the cross is (because of the resurrection) an example of victory through suffering. The Christian life is a life of cross and resurrection.

4. But what shape does this victory/resurrection aspect of the Christian life take in the present (i.e. before its ultimate in bodily resurrection at the 2nd coming)?

a. Patient endurance despite persecution and suffering.
b. Justification.
c. Regeneration.
d. Sanctification (progressive, though not perfect, victory over sin in the life of the believer, increasing moral conformity to Christ, etc.).

Few would disagree with a. through d. However, are there any other manifestations of resurrection-life/victory-through suffering spoken of in the scripture? I would say yes. Consider these verses from 1 Peter - an epistle in some ways majoring on the 'Christian life involves suffering and persecution' theme;

1 Peter 2:11-12. The suffering of the Christian under persecution results in the conversion of the persecutor.

1 Peter 2:15. The good living under fire of the Christian silences the ignorance of the persecutor.

1 Peter 5:10. God establishes and strengthens the church after she has suffered for a little while.

The poignant thing here is how these promises of victory are connected to persecution. Now, we could argue forever about ‘when’ 5:10 happens – is it within history or only at the 2nd coming? But, it is pretty hard to argue that 1 Peter 2:11-12 and 15 are only to be experienced at the 2nd coming. Even if ‘the day of visitation’ is ‘end of time judgment day’ (which I don’t think it is) then what is being predicted in that verse is still undoubtedly conversion – a within-history victory of the gospel over some of the church’s persecutors.

Also, just because Peter seems only to be putting forward 2:11-12 as a possibility doesn’t undermine the point. It’s clearly something that does happen (Saul of Tarsus anyone?) – I assume Peter’s uncertainty to be related to his not knowing the elect status of the specific persecutor’s in mind, rather than his doubting that this is a strategy for gospel growth that God uses! That he even puts it forward as a possibility shows that we have a further category to add to a. to d. with regard to the sort of victory that the Church can experience within history.

e. Gospel-conquest through the cross-living of the Church.

Peter doesn’t see this silencing and converting of former persecutors as being in conflict with the cross-shaped reality of the Christian life. Rather he sees the cross-living of Christians as instrumental in the whole thing.

The point is not that these verses somehow prove postmillenialism (there are many other passages and themes that we could turn to for mounting that argument) but rather that, even before considering 'proof-texts' for postmillenialism it can be demonstrated that e. is a part of the resurrection/victory side of union with Christ experienced by the Church prior to Christ's return. That the Christian life is cross-shaped does not mean the gospel won't win, or that persecution can't be reduced by that victory. Postmillennialism argues that what the apostle Peter is suggesting could happen on a local scale for the believers in Asia Minor, the bible elsewhere predicts will eventually and gradually happen on a massive scale before Jesus Christ returns. Cross-shaped living is instrumental in the victory of the gospel.

Postmillenialism and Suffering 2

There's some helpful distinctions made here for anyone interested.

Postmillenialism and Suffering 1

One of the big big problems some people have with the idea that Jesus will return to a majority-Christian earth at his second coming is that such a situation would presumably require a very significant reduction in persecution. And, after all, doesn't the bible say that Christians should expect persecution?

The obvious thing to say upfront is that Christians will always suffer until the second coming (in their struggle against sin, in their coping with a dying and decaying body, in their having to set aside their own interests to serve and honour others etc.). But should all Christians at all times in history expect to experience suffering of the persecution variety? Here are my initial problems with such a view;

A. It hasn’t been true for all Christians throughout every period of history.

B. It isn’t true for all Christians throughout the world now.

C. A and B haven't always been because of unfaithfulness/compromise/laziness. Sometimes it has just been because of significant levels of gospel progress. (I wonder if one of the reasons white western middle class Christians might feel uncomfortable about postmill'ism is because we carry a lot of guilt about not being persecuted and fear, perhaps correctly, that this might be because we aren't being that faithful)

D. Once we’ve allowed for A-C, and if we think that the bible does predict a time when the gospel will have made such significant progress across the whole world that it can be said to have ‘conquered’, or the kingdom can be said to be the largest of all the kingdoms in the world, then it follows that persecution would be strikingly rare in some parts of the world at that time.

Or, put it another way. I imagine that after his conversion, there was a significant reduction in the persecution of Christians who (so to speak) lived on the same street as Saul of Tarsus. All postmillenialism is doing is saying that what God did to Saul of Tarsus' neighbourhood he is progressively doing (not necessarily in a linear fashion) throughout the world across history.

Sometime soon I'll blog some more about this, perhaps especially about the nature of the cross-shaped Christian life and how this is in no way incompatible with an optimistic eschatology.

Gospel Optimism 8: The Covenant with Abraham

We read Genesis 22:15-24 in chapel today. Here's the first few verses (emphasis mine)

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

And I thought of 1 Corinthians 15:22-25 (again, emphasis mine)

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Christ, the offspring of Abraham, will possess the gate of his enemies - he will subdue them all, such that when he returns it will be to a conquered earth (with all the nations of the earth blessed under his rule) with only death left to deal with. This 'last enemy' is then swallowed up in victory.

Gospel Optimism 7: Kuyper and Creation

Gospel optimism is about the gospel being deep and wide. We should expect the gospel to penetrate and conquer with geographical breadth (to the ends of the earth) but also with personal and social depth. After all, the gospel says (among other things) that Jesus is Lord, the judge and saviour, the rightful king of our world, the one in whom humanity and in fact all of creation is reconciled and transformed.

A while ago I posted on this. Then yesterday I found a quote by Abraham Kuyper.

It is not that there are two worlds, a bad one and a good one, which are fitted into each other... it is one and the same world which once exhibited all the glory of Paradise, which was afterwards smitten with the curse, and which, since the Fall, is upheld by common grace; which has now been redeemed and saved by Christ, in its center, and which shall pass through the horror of the judgment into the state of glory.

Kuyper goes on to explain the 'cash value' for Christian living of viewing the new creation as a renewal of the present earth rather than an entirely new thing.

For this very reason the Calvinist cannot shut himself up in his church and abandon the world to its fate. He feels, rather, his high calling to push the development of this world to an even higher stage, and to do this in constant accordance with God’s ordinance, for the sake of God, upholding, in the midst of so much painful corruption, everything that is honourable, lovely, and of good report among men.

Thus gospel optimism means that none of our labours done in Christ's name (not just our evangelism) are in vain because of Jesus Christ.

Gospel Optimism 6: Vision of the UK from an American Pastor

Gospel optimism, precisely because it is gospel optimism (as opposed to e.g. humanistic optimism), doesn't mean burying your head in the sand and pretending things are better than they are. Rather, it means having a realistic hope for the long-term future based on faith in the promises and purposes of God revealed in the bible and the power of God in the gospel. It is entirely compatible with facing up to the (in many ways) dire situation Christians find themselves in much of western europe.

That sort of faith in the gospel's breadth and power (and eventual victory) can be found here (thanks to David Field) alongside critical engagement with the present state of affairs here in the UK.

Other posts on Gospel Optimism

Gospel Optimism 5: Syncretism and Sectarianism

I am currently enjoying reading Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle - a book about trying to engage with culture without losing the (gospel) plot. Driscoll's big passion for the world and for the Lord Jesus is on every page. Moreover, his chapter on the twin pitfalls of syncretism (when the Church becomes too much like the world) and sectarianism (when the Church hides away from the world) reveals strong convictions about the scope of the gospel's power.

The problem with both syncretism and sectarianism is that they deny the clear teaching of the Scriptures that the power of God unleashed through the gospel of Jesus Christ can transform anyone. Sectarians do not live by the necessary faith in the gospel and therefore believe that evil hearts and sinful actions and worldly social structures are more powerful than God, unable to be redeemed, and therefore are a waste of our energies because they are destined to be meat on God's grill anyway, so why bother? Likewise, syncretists do not live by the necessary faith in the gospel and therefore believe that the hearts of people aren't that bad, their actions aren't that sinful, and since people are doing the best they can, we can't expect any sort of radical transformation, and so we should simply bless them with a sentimental love.

What he says at the end of the chapter is pure gospel optimism rooted in a reformed model of culture.

Here's what I'd like you to remember from this chapter: reformission is not about abstention; it is about redemption. We must throw ourselves into the culture so that all that God made good is taken back and used in a way that glorifies him. Our goal is not to avoid drinking, singing, working, playing, eating, love-making, and the like. Instead, our goal must be to redeem those things through the power of the gospel so that they are used rightly according to Scripture, bringing God glory and his people a satisfied joy.

[Previous posts on Gospel Optimism HERE]

Gospel Optimism 4: Against Defeatism

The reason gospel optimism is neither wishful folly nor empty-headed positive-thinking is because of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seen as it's ascension day today, have a look at David Field's thoughts on ascension and evangelical defeatism in public life HERE.

Gospel Optimism 3

The following are taken from Spurgeon’s sermon on Luke 1:46 (“My soul doth magnify the Lord.”). Spurgeon is arguing that part of magnifying God is “to think great things” of him.

- The first two quotes are about gospel optimism at the individual level:

“Never say, “It is of no use inducing such a man to attend the means of grace. He is a blaspheming wretch. All that he would do if he heard a sermon would be to make sport of it for next week”…Such unbelieving talk is making little of God. Is it not so? Is it not dishonouring God to think that His gospel cannot reach the most depraved hearts?”

“Believe great things of God. I can honestly say this – that since God saved me I never doubted His power to save anybody.”

- Then Spurgeon turns his eye to the global picture, and to eschatological optimism:

“Believe great things of Him. Believe that China can be made into a province of the celestial Kingdom. Believe that India will cast her riches as Jesus’ feet. Believe that the round world will yet be a pearl on Christ’s finger-ring. Do not go in for the dispiriting, despairing, unmanly, un-Christly ideas of those who say “The world is not to be converted. It is a poor wreck that will go to pieces, and we are to fish off here and there one from the water-logged hulk.” Brethren, never believe that we are to stand by and see the eternal defeat of God.”

- and, in a rhetorical flourish that is typical of the great preacher there's even stronger stuff:

“It shall never be said that God could not save the world by the preaching of the gospel, and by the work of the Holy Spirit and therefore must needs bring in the advent of the Lord to do it. I believe in the coming of the Lord, but , blessed be his name, I believe also that the battle which he has begun in the Spirit He will fight out in the old style, and finish with a victory in the very manner in which He opened the conflict. It pleases Him by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe , and it will please him to continue to do so till the whole round earth shall ring with the hallelujahs of praise to the grace of God…”

I find all that both challenging and enchanting.

All from Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Keynote of a choice Sonnet,” pp.610-615 in The Treasury of the New Testament Volume 1, (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1962), 614.

Gospel Optimism 2

Having to write a report about time in the US with Redeemer Presbyterian and co. has reminded me of many examples of gospel optimism in practice.

One in particular sticks in the mind. Charlie Drew planted Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in the upper west side of Manhattan some 7 years ago. After some God-given growth for many years and spurred on by the gospel imperative, the church began to think itself of planting another church somewhere.

But Drew told us how there had been a recent plateau in numerical growth. Many would be tempted in such a situation to consolidate and bide time until growth returns before taking the risk of 'hiving off' significant givers and ministry leaders and making a financial commitment to a church plant. By contrast, Drew was inclined to see this plateau as an indication that it is time to plant. For Drew, not only does the gospel demand it in the long term, but in the short term church planting is perhaps the necessary strategy to overcome the growth plateau. What would be counter-intuitive to many was intuitive to Drew.

Gospel optimism means leading for growth not for maintenance.

(Oh, and for those who might be excited about such things, Drew described himself as a Presbyterian sacramentalist and said he had a very high view of the importance of the Lord's Supper, all in a non-Roman way I imagine)

Gospel Optimism

One of the things our brethren across the pond are rather better at than we are is big and optimistic thinking, dreaming and planning.

For example, you're New York and some terrorists fly a plane or two into a couple of your biggest baddest buildings. What do you do? You reply by saying 'tell you what, we'll build one building covering the surface area of the two and taller than the previous two, and we'll make it pretty impossible for people to fly planes into it. oh yeah, and we'll call it something like Freedom Tower.' Ok, so us Brits choke slightly on the implied jingoism and raise our eyebrows at the imperialistic arrogance that might stand behind that sort of thing. But 10/10 for sheer in-your-face positive thinking.

That sort of optimistic big-thinking can be found in the American church too. And when it's combined with Reformed theology and Gospel confidence, I can't help but see it as a good thing, and something we could do with spades more of here in the UK, where we've managed to find theological glosses for our in-built cynicism and sanctified our smallness.

E.g., Redeemer Presbyterian Church think big. They're optimistic about the depth and breadth of the gospel's power to change their city. They're working and praying towards the cultural renewal, conversion and transformation of New York. That's all. Oh, and while they're at it they want to help others in the US and some 50 other major cities around the world do that sort of thing too.

Now, whilst the 1,000+ caveats, questions, qualifications and worries about big visions flood your mind (many of which might be necessary and godly, many of which Redeemer and co. would go along with), remember that God's ambition for the world and for the glory of his Son is a lot bigger than Tim Keller's. Daniel 7:13-14, 2 Cor 10:4-6, Mark 4:20