Category Archives: Creation

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July 31, 2015

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Book Review, Creation, Sanctification

Can We Love Things Too Much?

Joe Rigney’s book The Things of Earth has been a great joy to read. He takes John Piper’s idea of Christian Hedonism and expands upon it and fills it out. The book produces a deep love for God and his gifts. He shows how we can love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love all the gifts that he gives to us. He does this by encouraging us to put Christ first. But then we are able to cheerfully love all the gifts God has given to us. Our love for God does not diminish, but rather strengthens, our love for things.

He uses the illustration of a cake his wife makes. The more I love my wife the more I will enjoy the cake she has given to me. If my love for my wife is weak, I might eat the cake, but I will not enjoy it as I ought to. It certainly isn’t loving my wife to not eat the cake.

Throughout the book he answers questions such as: What about idolatry? If I embrace God’s gifts will that lead me to be selfish? How can I enjoy God’s gifts when they come from a sinful culture? What about self-denial? Should I give up good gifts and if so why? What about when God takes away gifts, when I suffer involuntarily? His answers to these questions are biblical, practical, and balanced.

He focuses on gratitude and joy. He reminds us that God loves pleasure. He made us good and he made us creatures with eyes to see, noses to smell, hands to touch, ears to hear, and hearts to feel. He wants us to enjoy cake, ice cream, hikes, sunsets, our spouses, fireworks, and basketball. And he wants to enjoy these things guilt free.

So how would he answer the question, Can we love things too much? Here is a portion of a letter he wrote to a friend whose infant son was dying. All italics are his.

You cannot love your son too much. This is because, as you’ve said to me over and over again, he is a gift to you. God has given him to you, as a gift, and you are receiving him as a gift. Your son is a work of God, as expression of God’s glory and grace and love, and one that is customized for you and your family. You can only love him wrongly if you love him in place of God. But if you receive him as a gift from God, in all his wonder and beauty and sweetness and fragility, then you cannot love him too much or prize him too highly, and you should feel no shred of guilt because you love him as you do and long for his health and desperately want to cling to him and know him and spend time with him for as long as you can. 

So I just want to encourage you and your wife to plunge headlong into the gift. Savor every moment with that baby. Touch him, hold him, caress him, let the love that you feel for him surge through you. Let it provoke you to tears and sadness and gut wrenching feeling that you would do absolutely anything to make your son whole. Let your love for your little boy take you beyond pain and sorrow to the indestructible joy of the God who gives good gifts and is not threatened by them. 

Rigney’s answer is no you cannot love things too much. You can only love them wrongly. A drunkard does not love beer too much. He hates beer.  A man addicted to porn does not love sex too much. He he hates it. As our love for God increases our love for the gifts he has given increases as well. We should “plunge headlong into the gifts” God has given to us. In this example, Rigney uses a child. But throughout the book he makes clear that all things are gifts from God, including our cars, houses, food, toys, books, movies, grass, trees, etc. We cannot properly honor God or follow him until we see things as gifts from his hand.

I am sure you have more questions. I would encourage you to get the book. The second half is particularly valuable in helping free up Christians to love God and His gifts, to live free of guilt and full of gratitude for those gifts, and to use those gifts in service of God and neighbor.

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July 29, 2015

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Abortion, Creation, Sanctification

The Weapon of Technology

One of the more fascinating aspects of the Planned Parenthood sting has been the use of technology. Christians for years have been uneasy about technology, especially as it progressed at breakneck speed in the late 20th century. Movies, the Internet, and then social media were of great concern for Christians. Would these things become portals of sin? But now an amazing thing has happened. Christians have begun to harvest the fruit of technology for good.  Abortion is one of the great evils. One of the heads on this snake is Planned Parenthood. God has put at our disposal various technological means to help us cut off the head.

Ultrasounds
We should assume that technology over time will bear out the truth of God’s Word.  God’s Word says babies from the moment of conception are humans. We do not need technology to tell us this. But we can use technology to back up what the Scriptures say. Ultrasounds have been one of those advances in technology that has slowly eroded the abortion narrative. One group takes a mobile ultrasound unit around and parks it in front of abortion clinics. This article from 2013 says that 56% of women who have decided to have an abortion don’t when they see the ultrasound. 87% of those who were considering abortion don’t have one when they see the ultrasound.  How many babies have been saved by ultrasounds? Planned Parenthood does not want mothers see their babies on the screen. “Nothing to see here,” they say.  I wonder why?

Movies & Youtube
Christians have for years been using a visual medium to fight against abortion. In 1984 a 28 minute video called The Silent Scream was produced, which depicted an abortion and caused many to take up the pro-life cause. Francis Schaeffer, around that same time, produced a book and film with Dr. C. Everett Koop about abortion called Whatever Happened to the Human Race? Over time documentaries and films, such as October Baby, have been made that depict either the horrors of abortion or the glories of life. Youtube has been a boon. Of course, there is a ton of trash on there. But you can also watch videos from Abby Johnson former Planned Parenthood worker expose the lies of the “pro-choice” crowd.  You can also find speeches from pro-life and pro-choice politicians and leaders, testimonials from abortion survivors and unplanned children that were not aborted, etc. We should not be afraid of this. The truth is powerful. These things are not a substitute for God’s Word, but they can buttress the truth in God’s Word.

Spy Equipment
When I was young my dad had one of those huge cell phones like this:


Cameras used to be the same way, big and bulky. They took hours to set  and hours for the film to develop.  Advances in technology however have brought us to a place where hours and hours of video can be recorded by a hidden camera and published in seconds. Anti-abortion activists can use technology that Bond or Bourne would use. This is a good thing because murderers like to hide. Doctors who chop up babies do not want to be filmed. They like the dark.  The fact that mini-cameras were used to tape doctors who promote the killing of babies and sell their body parts should bring us satisfaction. Imagine what the French Resistance could have done with button cameras? What about the laws? If the man who made the videos goes to prison, it will be worth it. He has already saved the lives of many, many babies.

Social Media & Blogging
But there is no technological phenomenon quite like social media. Even if the videos from the Center for Medical Progress had been uploaded to Youtube without social media the impact would have been much smaller. Planned Parenthood is trending for all the wrong reasons. It is fascinating to watch things turn around so quickly. Several weeks ago the Christian world was reeling from the decision by the Supreme Court to force states to allow same-sex marriage. Facebook was covered with rainbows. Now Facebook and Twitter have become a war zone over abortion with the pro-life side, for now, having the upper hand. We should use all these things to save the unborn. Social media allows us to plan rallies in a few days or even a few hours. I can follow a good friend of mine who marches in front of an abortion clinic every week and pray for him. I can connect with anti-abortion folks all over the world.  I can read blogs from top Christian thinkers on these topics. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and any other means should be used to destroy Planned Parenthood and the abortion complex. Keep the pressure on. Pursue them until they at least lose their funding, though the goal would be they go out of business. Al Mohler in his book Conviction to Lead argues that if you are not leading on social media you are not leading. Christian leaders should be grateful for these tools God has given to us. And we should use them.

There were many reasons the Reformation happened. But one of the key factors was the advent of the printing press and the ability for books to printed easier and cheaper. Luther used writing to spread his thoughts throughout the world. Calvin did the same thing. The technology available to us as Christians is enormous. What would Augustine have done with a laptop and Twitter? What would Spurgeon have done if he could rally people through Facebook? Would John Wesley have written a blog chronicling his travels as he preached? Who knows? But we have a wealth of technological gifts at our disposal. Are we using them to advance the Kingdom and tear down strongholds or are we sitting around watching the tools rust?

One Warning
Technology can help and we should use it. But it is not at the center of the battle. The center is raising our children in the Lord, loving our wives, worshiping, baptism, preaching, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, loving our neighbors, and evangelizing our communities. With all good things there is a temptation to allow them to consume us. I love Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and other avenues of growth and outreach on the Internet. But none of these compare to the value of hearing God’s Word, spending time in prayer, or reading to my children at the end of the day. As long as the center holds, we can use technology in way that honors God, loves our neighbor, and defeats His enemies. But if the center disintegrates then all the Facebooking, Twittering, and blogging will be end up being a curse instead of a blessing.

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October 30, 2014

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Creation, Evolution, Genesis

No Adam, No Sin, No Guilt, No Redemption, No Christ

Here are some quotes from J.P. Versteeg’s book Adam in the New Testament. If you would like to read my review of the book, click on the Goodreads link on the right. 

In this first quote the author is addressing the argument that Paul thought Adam was historical, but now we know he was not.  He shows that despite claims to the contrary this idea unravels Christ’s work as a historical event. 

“Therefore, if in the case of Adam the intention of Paul in his own time is divorced from its significance for us today, that must also have consequences with respect to Christ. For the redemptive-historical correlation between Adam and Christ entails that if what Paul says about Adam no longer holds for us [i.e. that Adam was a historical figure standing at the beginning of the human race], it is impossible to see why what he says about Christ in the same context must still hold for us. What is the sense of an antitype, if there is no type? What is the sense of fulfillment, if there is nothing to fulfill? The redemptive-historical correlation that Paul sees between Adam and Christ means that no longer honoring Paul’s intention when he speaks about Adam must entail no longer honoring Paul’s intention when he speaks about Christ…To no longer honor Paul’s intention when he speaks about Adam entails that the framework in which Paul places Christ and his work, collapses. 

And again, here he is quoting another author:

And suppose that Paul… did indeed believe in the historicity of the first Adam but that is this is no longer relevant for us…, because we are only interested in the function of Adam as a ‘teaching model’ why should we…not take the same view regarding the last Adam?

Versteeg brings up an interesting point regarding the guilt of man if we deny a historical Adam. Christians have held that sin entered the world because our representative head, Adam, chose to eat of the fruit in the garden. In Adam, we all sinned. There has been debate about how this works itself out, but the basic structure is essential to Christian orthodoxy. What happens when there is no historical Adam (and Eve) to sin? Here is what Versteeg says:

If Adam only lets us see what is characteristic of everyone because Adam is man in general so that the sin of Adam is also the sin of man in general, and if on the the other hand Adam may no longer be regarded as the one man through whom sin has come into the world, it is apparent that in a certain sense sin belongs to man as such. Sin thus has become a given “next to” creation…In Romans 5 Paul intends to say how how sin has invaded the good creation of God. The concept “teaching model” cannot do justice to [Romans 5]. If Adam were only a teaching model, he would only be an illustration of man in whom sin is inherent. The concept “teaching model” eliminates the “one after the other” of creation and fall, and leaves only room for the “next to each other” of creation and sin. In essence, then, one may no longer speak of the guilt of sin…Where evil thus becomes a “practically unavoidable” matter, sin loses its character of guilt. (All emphasis and punctuation is Versteeg’s).

I had not thought of the historicity of Adam from this angle before. Normally I think of Adam in reference to Christ and salvation, not man and sin. But of course, these cannot be separated. If we mess with Adam, we mess with Christ, sin, redemption, man, and as Richard Gaffin argues in his foreword, the resurrection, in the process. Where does sin and guilt come from if there was no Adam? Has it always been? Is sin inherent in man? Did God create man sinful? How can man be guilty if sin has always been? If sin has not always been, when did it enter? Who/what brought it in? 

I am convinced that a denial of a historical Adam leads naturally and logically to heresy.    As Versteeg says, 

To be occupied with the question of how Scripture speaks about Adam is thus anything but an insignificant problem of detail. As the first historical man and head of humanity, Adam is not mentioned merely in passing in the New Testament. The redemptive historical correlation between Adam and Christ determines the framework in which-particularly for Paul- the redemptive work of Christ has its place. That work of redemption can no longer be confessed according to the meaning of Scripture, if it is divorced form the framework in which it stands there.

Not all men who deny the historical Adam become heretics, but given their framework they should. Like human sexuality, the historicity of Adam is a truth worth fighting for.  To capitulate here is to begin unraveling the basics of Christian orthodoxy and most importantly to strip away the glory of Christ’s work in redeeming fallen man. 

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May 5, 2014

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Creation, Evolution, Pentateuch

No Quarter Given

Recently I went through Genesis 3-50, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and looked at all the uses of the Hebrew word “yom,” which means “day.” You can see those passages in the above links. My goal was to evaluate the flexibility of the word. Can the word “yom”  mean a long period of time? The motive for my research was the oft-cited idea that “yom” can mean long periods of time, therefore in Genesis 1 “day” can mean billions of years.  I have heard this cited by many good Christians whom I respect. However, I questioned whether the data backed up their claims. So I decided to look into myself. Here are some basic findings from the study.

First, “day” is used several hundred times in the Pentateuch. In the ESV the word “day” is used 345 times in the Pentateuch. This does not include the places where “yom” is translated “today,” which would push the count over 400. We are not dealing with a small sample size.

Second, there are no examples in the Pentateuch where day with the numeral (first, second, etc.) means anything other than a literal, 24 hour day or a part of a literal, 24 hour day. There are no exceptions to this that I could find.

Third, day almost always means a specific 24 hour day in the past, present, or future. It can refer to the day God made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:18), when a father tells his son about the Exodus out of Egypt (Exodus 13:8), when Israel gathered to have the law given (Deuteronomy 18:16) or when the Lord struck down the first born in Egypt (Numbers 3:13).

Fourth, there are occasions where “day” could mean a time longer than 24 hours. However, these are limited to only a handful, by my count less than ten.  In these few situations, day usually means a period of judgment most notably in Deuteronomy 31:17-18 and 32:35. It is possible to interpret these as future 24 hour days. But even if one sees “day” as not a literal 24 hours, it does not mean hundreds or even thousands of years.

In the five books of Moses “day” usually means a literal, 24 hour day. There is nothing in these books to give us any reason to change the normal meaning of “day” in Genesis 1-2. I will admit this study is narrow in its focus. But the most common reasons cited for putting billions of years into Genesis 1 is that “day” is flexible. A close study of the word in the first five books of the Bible however gives no quarter to this idea.

In the future I am going to look at the following:

Other places in the Old Testament where creation is mentioned to see if those places indicate that God took a long period of time to create the world.

Other uses of the word “day” in the Old Testament to see how frequent a non-24 hour usage of “day” actually is.

Is the idea of non-human death before Adam’s sin plausible based on the Biblical data?

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May 3, 2014

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Creation, Deuteronomy, Evolution

Day in Deuteronomy

This is the continuation of a study on the word “day” in the Pentateuch. For introductory remarks please refer to the initial post on Genesis.

I have divided these up into four (there is an extra one for Deuteronomy) categories: All the uses of day with a number, all the uses of “this day,” all the uses of day which in context mean a typical day, and any uses of day which could mean a long period of time.  

One additional note on Deuteronomy. The ESV translates the word “yom” as “today” 58 times in Deuteronomy. So you can add to this list 58 other places in Deuteronomy where the word “yom” means a typical, 24 hour day.  Where the ESV has “today” the KJV often has “this day” or “that day” or just “day.”
Uses of Day with the Number (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)
(Deu 1:3)  In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them,
(Deu 5:14)  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
(Deu 16:3)  You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
(Deu 16:4)  No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning.
(Deu 16:8)  For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.
Use of “This Day” in Deuteronomy
I have decided to create a category I did not have for the other books of Moses. The frequent use of this phrase stuck out to me as I studied.  “This day” in Deuteronomy can refer to different days, but it always refers to a specific point in time, not to a long period of time.
(Deu 2:22)  as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day.
(Deu 2:25)  This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
(Deu 2:30)  But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.
(Deu 3:14)  Jair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages after his own name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.)
(Deu 4:20)  But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
(Deu 4:38)  driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day,
(Deu 5:24)  And you said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live.
(Deu 6:24)  And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.
(Deu 8:18)  You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

(Deu 10:8)  At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.
(Deu 10:15)  Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
(Deu 11:4)  and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day,
(Deu 26:16)  “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
(Deu 29:4)  But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
(Deu 29:28)  and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.‘
(Deu 34:6)  and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.
Uses of Day Which Are in Context, Typical 24 Hour Days
Just a reminder that Sabbath Day is defined in Exodus as the Saturday at the end of a seven 24 hour day week. There is no reason to interpret it any differently in Deuteronomy. 

(Deu 1:33)  who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.
(Deu 4:10)  how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’
(Deu 4:15)  “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
(Deu 5:12)  “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
(Deu 5:15)  You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
(Deu 9:7)  Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
(Deu 9:10)  And the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
(Deu 9:24)  You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. [The “I” here is Moses, not God.]
(Deu 10:4)  And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.
(Deu 18:16)  just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’
(Deu 21:16)  then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn,
(Deu 21:23)  his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
(Deu 24:15)  You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.
(Deu 27:2)  And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster.
(Deu 27:9)  Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the LORD your God.
(Deu 27:11)  That day Moses charged the people, saying,
(Deu 28:32)  Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless.
(Deu 28:66)  Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.
(Deu 31:22)  So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.
(Deu 32:48)  That very day the LORD spoke to Moses,
Uses of Day That Could Mean a Long Period of Time
(Deu 4:32)  “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.
Of course, how you translate the word “day” here depends a lot on what you think of the creation account.  It could very easily refer to the sixth day of creation when God made Adam. 
(Deu 31:17)  Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’
(Deu 31:18)  And I will surely hide my face in that daybecause of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
This is referring to a future time when Israel rebels against the Lord and the Lord brings his wrath against them for their sins. (Deuteronomy 31:16-21) Therefore this could mean a period of time in the future when Israel is judged by God. But it could also mean a specific day when God pours out his wrath on Israel. Looking at II Kings 25 where this prophecy was fulfilled, one finds numerous specific days mentioned (II Kings 25:1, 3, 8, 27). Any of those days would literally fulfill this prophecy. It could mean a period of several years while Israel was judged, but does not have to. If it does mean many years, that “day” is limited to a few decades at most.
(Deu 32:35)  Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’
Of all the verses, this one is the most difficult to interpret. What “day” is Moses talking about? It is similar to the previous verses in that Moses is talking about judgment coming upon Israel for her sins. However, a plain reading of the text is that this is referring to some future time when God will judge -Israel. Like 31:17-18 it could refer to a period of time, but that time period would not be long. 
(Deu 33:12)  Of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety. The High God surrounds him all day long, and dwells between his shoulders.”
This use of the word “day” is governed by the “all” prior to it.  A paraphrase could be translated “surrounds him all the time.” The idea is one of protection for the tribe of Benjamin. So here “day” does mean a longer period of time, but the reason we know this is the words that surround “day,” the context.

So unlike the first four books of  Moses, Deuteronomy has a couple of more difficult passages, but in the end there is nothing in those passages that indicate “day” could mean a long period of time. 

The research shows the following:
Every time the word day is used in Deuteronomy with a number it means a 24 hour day.
When it is not used with the number it usually  points to a specific day in the past, present, or future. 
There are a couple of spots where Deuteronomy uses “day” to mean a time period longer than 24 hours. However, we know these mean longer periods of time by the context. In these instances “day” does not mean millions or even hundreds of years. It means at most a a few decades.