Spring is here

I drove down to Littleton Adventist Hospital this morning to meet our congregation's newest member and (so far as I know) my next baptizand, and thus spent about an hour driving around and enjoying the Front Range's first perfect day this spring. Thanks to my father's record collection, that means my fancy turns once again to poisoning pigeons in the park.

The Moral Economy of Guilt

But how, in a society that retains its Judeo-Christian moral reflexes but has abandoned the corresponding metaphysics, can a credible means of discharging the weight of sin be found?

The question comes late in "The Moral Economy of Guilt" in the May 2011 issue of First Things, but drives Wilfred M. McClay's explanation of the present ascendance of the cult of victimhood in our culture today. More basically, McClay provides an accessible and powerful cultural rationale for seeking expiation of sins in the Cross of Christ.

An unreflective call for reflection

As a doctrinal respondent for the OPC website, I was surprised to see an answer to a question on worship music (not something I wrote, by the way) called out in Ordained Servant as an example of unpresbyterian thinking. From Stephen J. Tracey's review of T. David Gordon's Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns:

All too often our answers to "missional" music questions fall short. An example of this appears on the OPC website series of questions and answers. The only question relating to church music includes the following sentences:

Choirs were used in the Old Testament worship of God and are therefore not forbidden, so choral responses reverently executed today are not forbidden. Similarly, special music is referred to and is therefore not forbidden.

^{The argument that something is not forbidden is not the Presbyterian understanding of the regulative principle of worship. Something needs to be commanded. This lack of carefully nuanced answers contributes to the frustration that swirls around this debate....}

The Rev. Tracey is incorrect: the formulation "what is not commanded is forbidden" is not, in fact, the presbyterian understanding of the regulative principle of worship, as it cannot be found in the Westminster Standards. Moreover, in context, the doctrinal respondent has cited Scriptural example of the use of choirs; therefore, "not forbidden" is a negative formula for "commanded by way of example."

Am I picking at a nit? Firstly, my blog is called "The Presbyterian Curmudgeon:" this is what I do. Secondly, Mr. Tracey is accusing the doctrinal respondent of not thinking clearly; the least he could do is demonstrate good manners by carefully reflecting on whether that criticism is in fact warranted. Thirdly, debates over liturgical practice are not helped by falling back on unreflective formulae.

While the recently introduced Directory for Public Worship is a vast improvement over previous versions, the debate surrounding it in the OPC's presbyteries and General Assemblies showed observers that the average OPC minister could have done with a great deal more study and reflection on liturgical matters. That still seems the case, sadly.

The singer vs. the song

As I convert my old audiocassettes to mp3s, I'm in the Gs. Hence, today I listened to Vince Gill's 1992 album I Still Believe in You, which includes one of the all-time great anti-cheatin' songs, "Under These Conditions." In it, two people in difficult marriages, though strongly attracted to one another, decide not to have an affair because of their existing commitments and obligations to their children. Later, of course, Vince Gill divorced his wife and subsequently married Amy Grant, the Christian recording artist who had divorced her first husband. Both Gill and Grant have children from their first marriages.

As is too often the case with country music, sometimes the song is better than the singer.

Christ and Him Crucified

This Good Friday, Peter Leithart shows the fullness of the Cross by running through every Biblical symbolic interpretation of the Cross I can think of, and a great number more, over at the First Things website.

Slave, not Lord

2Cor. 4:5 Οὐ γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς κηρύσσομεν ἀλλὰ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν κύριον, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ δούλους ὑμῶν διὰ Ἰησοῦν.
2Cor. 4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

In the Word Biblical Commentary, Ralph Martin points out the neat contrast between kurios (lord) and doulos (slave): Paul proclaims himself not as kurios but doulos.

Reprobation & assurance of salvation

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 strike me as a good proof text for the doctrine of reprobation. Reprobation is the necessary reverse of election: if God has chosen some for everlasting life in Christ, he has not chosen others. These have been blinded and cannot understand the Gospel, no matter how clearly it is proclaimed to them.

At the same time, those who question their own salvation ought to take some comfort from these verses. Many have spiritually shipwrecked themselves on the rocky fact that only God knows his secret counsels, and thus only God knows who he has elected. Nonetheless, anyone can know whether he has understood the Gospel of the glory of Christ. If he has, he is not one of the perishing unbelievers; his sight is not veiled because he is not reprobate but elect.

Getting the late unpleasantness right

As annoying, mawkish, and just plain weird as the weeping Abraham Lincoln cover of last week's Time magazine was, the actual cover story, "Why We're Still Fighting the Civil War," was actually illuminating and helpful. It tracks the history of interpretation of the War of the Rebellion, shows the origins of the war over slavery in the territories (particularly Kansas), demonstrates the origins of Confederacy apologetics, presents the current-day scholarly consensus (giving due to the contributions of John Hope Franklin and other mid-20th century African American historians), and properly presents the justifiers of secessionism who claim anything other than slavery caused the Civil War as the fringe group they are. Members of said fringe will not be persuaded, of course, but as the text of the Declaration of Independence hasn't gotten through to them yet, that's hardly a criticism.

All in all, an unusually good showing for Time. And then they published this week's cover story...

RTS affirms my choice for WTSCA

I didn't come to the Gospel Coalition 2011 exhibitors hall looking to feel better about where I chose not to attend seminary 16 years ago, but Reformed Theological Seminary has provided me with one.

Also, as so many will be happy to testify, if there's anything at which I'm inherently talented, it's repelling.

SBTS concedes to WTS in regional playoffs

Mrs. Curmudgeon and I are in Chicago with Canadian Pastor and Canadian Pastor's Wife for the Gospel Coalition 2011 conference, as my annual sabbatical. It's already worth the trip: the kind fellows at the Accordance exhibition booth helped me figure out how to set up my search text displays.

Al Mohler, president of The (I didn't know the definite article was capitalized until reading the conference booklet) Southern Baptist Theological Seminary gave the opening lecture or sermon, presenting the argument for a redemptive historical reading of the Old Testament from John 5:31ff. In one breath, he gave credit, in order, to Geerhardus Vos, Richard Gaffin, and Edmund Clowney. It was like being at a Westminster Theological Seminary (in California, of course) alumni rally.

One might be tempted to ask why a man who could only quote presbyterians in making his hermeneutical arguments would still refuse to baptize babies, but one wouldn't want to sound like a curmudgeon.

Top Ten Signs Your Pastor Has Caught You Napping During His Sermon

From the Sacred Sandwich.

The hazards of gentrification

A few years ago, this stretch of Sand Creek ran beneath the runway of the old Stapleton airport, and only the most dedicated juvenile delinquent would bother spraypainting the name of his band of troublemakers along the concrete support walls. Now that Stapleton has become a richly diverse community of people who make six figures or more a year (motto: "We're not a gated community, we just have a private highway exit"), the runway bridges are gone and a new breed of juvenile delinquent explains they must wear black on the outside because black is how they feel on the inside.