5pointers

In this installment of the “two or more part series” (please hold the laughter) of reactions to A.B. Caneday’s “Veiled Glory…” (a chapter contribution to “Beyond the Bounds”), I’d like to say a few words about types and truth.

The thought that has been in the back of my mind for the past few weeks focuses on the manifestation of spiritual truth in physical reality by God. Caneday talks about God making man in his own image, and that image being the means by which we can understand something about God. God specifically applied certain characteristics to us that are his own. Thought, emotion, passion, being, appreciation for beauty, creative impulses, etc. Whereas we are not like God in his perfection, there is some image of him that he made us in (or in us).

Thinking about image, I considered the subject of spiritual truth present directly and analogously in natural things. For instance, Jesus in parables appeals to all manner of natural phenomena that most of us can relate to. Was he just really really clever in finding these analogies?

No. I think since Jesus created and sustains all things, he intentionally designed the universe to reflect those truths. So instead of plants having some chiefly pragmatic reason for growing the way they do, they grow primarily to illustrate spiritual growth.

Or as another example, when Jesus is explaining spiritual birth to Nicodemus (in John 3), he says that the “…wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”(ESV) Did Jesus produce that illustration “on the spot” if you will? I think while he could have, the analogy is inherent in God’s creation of wind such that it will illustrate how he made spiritual birth to function.

I was able to put this concept in words for myself for the first time after reading Canaday. It is an exciting moment to understand something new that is and feels quite old.

Next time, Lord willing, I’ll discuss some examples that highlight the import of this concept and perhaps explore some more examples.

Yesterday I read Justin Taylor’s post on abortion here.

I also recently listened to John Piper’s sermon “Love Your Unborn Neighbor”, that you can find here, or read it here.

This is obviously about more than abortion, murder, and greed. How can I live oblivious to a holocaust? How can I pass by as the levite and priest passed by the wounded stranger? Why do I not love my unborn neighbors?

I need Christ. They need Christ.

(Hat-Tip: Justin Taylor)

“Hear my prayer, O Lord, let not my soul faint under thy correction: nor let me faint in confessing unto thee thine own mercies, by which thou hast drawn me out of all mine own most wicked courses: that thyself mightest from hence forward grow sweet unto me, beyond all those allurements which heretofore I followed; and that I might most entirely love thee, and lay hold upon thy hand with all the powers of my heart, that thou mightest finally draw me out of all danger of temptation.”

(Taken from W.Watts’ 1631 translation of St. Augustine’s Confessions)

A brief compendium of quotes from church leaders on cessationism from Faith and Practice:

Cessationism’s Noble Lineage, by Nathan Busenitz

This is indeed a startling consensus, and quite a noble lineage. I am very thankful at this point that the internet (and blogosphere) exists and so much information is available so rapidly. As I am investigating what the Bible says on the subject of spiritual gifts, and reading what many of my heros have written concerning it, I am daily challenged.

(HT: Eric Nielsen)