Band-Aids Are Forever

Patrick and I are reading through Genesis, with the intent of memorizing a few key verses along the way. One night this week I taught him the second half of Genesis 9:1 "...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." I also tried to explain that this is one passage that sets forth the "Dominion Mandate"; God's commissioning of mankind to subdue His creation.

The next morning I asked Patrick if he remembered his verse; which he did! Along with the name of the doctrine it teaches... sort of.

"Genesis 9:1 Be fwuitful... and multiply! And replensh... the earth!

...Daddy, that's the Dominoe Bandaid!"

Be Anxious for Nothing

Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

God of our Fathers,

The world around us seems replete with reasons to be anxious. We and our children fail to honor You as we ought, vast portions of the church persist in flippant disregard for Your Word, so-called “rogue nations” feverishly seek to develop nuclear weapons, and our own government seems hell bent on swamping America in her own materialistic decadence and imperialist debauchery.

How can we look at a pregnant teenager and tell her she need not fear? Or how can we toss around terms like “hyperinflation” and “socialized medicine”, and not be filled with consternation?

Yet You tell us to be anxious for nothing; like a patient father explaining to his toddler that there is no need to worry about where his next meal is coming from, You assure us that we have no need to fear or worry. You who wrote the opening chapters of history and who knows the end from the beginning will infallibly bring about Your intended conclusion to the story. Why then should we fear? You have guarded Your servants through flaming furnaces, foreign captivities, shipwrecks, plagues, and lions’ dens. Of what should we be afraid? Over and over You have shown Yourself mighty to strike down Your enemies at the appointed time. Who then can hope to stand against us?

Teach us, Father, to glory in the confidence that You teach us through history and Your Word. As You delight to bring about blessing and success in dramatic fashion, help us to glory in that drama! The taller the giant, the more spectacular his fall; the larger the crowd, the more compelling do we find the loaves and fish; and the fewer the men in our army, the greater share of honor due Your holy name when You grant us the victory!

Teach us not to fret when we perceive a setback in the work of dominion, but rather to lean forward in eager anticipation of seeing how You will work all things together for the good of Your people. And guard our hearts and minds with Your peace, which passes all possible human understanding.

Of Hitler and Darwin

I posted a comment on Bria's blog a few days ago and received a lengthy response from a gentleman named Corey, which you can read here.

Rather than clog Bria's comments with such a lengthy reply, I thought I'd post it here instead.
-------------------------
Corey,

Your comment covered a lot of ground, and I don't think I'll be able to respond directly to all of it... but I would like to address some of the main points.

1. Of course racism and genocide existed before Darwin. In fact, there were even attempts at scientific defense of these practices well before Darwin, as noted by Stephen Jay Gould in his 1977 book Ontogeny and Phylogeny: "Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory."

I never suggested that Darwin was the father of all racism, merely that his theory on origins is inescapably racist. At the very least this is true in the historical sense. Modern Darwinian thinkers have tried to distance themselves from racist philosophy by referring to "ethnicity" rather than race; which I think is a wise move on their part. But this modern adjustment of terminology does not absolve the Darwinian School of atrocities committed against Australian Aborigines and other primitive tribes in the name of science (going so far as to put one Congolese man, Ota Benga, on display in the Bronx Zoo), the eugenics movement (particularly the efforts of Francis Galton and Margaret Sanger), and, I maintain, the attempts at refining a Master Race under Hitler.

Incidentally, your assertion that racism and slavery have seen a decline since Darwin's time is patently untrue. Anti-Slavery groups and analysts around the globe estimate the number of enslaved humans worldwide at anywhere from 20 to 200 million persons; which, even at the low end rivals or exceeds the greatest enslavements of history. The vast majority of these are in Asia and Africa, where much of the bondage and abuse is ethno-centric... ironically, in a geographic area where the ethnic diversity would seem comparatively minor!

2. Notwithstanding your quotations as to the motivation behind Hitler's actions, I would argue that he operated from a profoundly Darwinian ethic. In Mein Kampf he stated, "If reproduction as such is limited and the number of births decreased, then the natural struggle for existence, which only allows the strongest and healthiest to survive, will be replaced by the obvious desire to save at any cost even the weakest and sickest; thereby a progeny is produced, which must become ever more miserable, the longer this mocking of nature and its will persists.... A stronger race will supplant the weaker, since the drive for life in its final form will decimate every ridiculous fetter of the so-called humaneness of individuals, in order to make place for the humaneness of nature, which destroys the weak to make place for the strong." (emphasis mine)

This seems to me the very essence of Darwinian evolution: The weak must make way for the strong. I would also refer you to pages 113-115 here.

3. I will join you in your condemnation of religious bigotry and hypocrisy; which I see evidenced both in Hitler and in many of the events surrounding the Crusaders and Conquistadors... though we would probably disagree on many of the particulars. However, I vehemently disagree that creationism is even remotely based upon such bigotry.

My views on the origins of mankind, and indeed all other elements of the created order, are based upon the Inspired account of Genesis, and backed by plenty of good science. This approach is religious, to be sure, but not bigoted until I completely refuse to give any hearing to other views... which, I trust this exchange of comments will preclude.


~Daniel~

Measured Patriotism

1 Timothy 2:1-2 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

God of our Fathers,

In this season of patriotic fervor and celebration, we are rightly mindful of and deeply grateful for the rich heritage left us by our forebears in this land. We thank You for the examples You have set before us in the courage and humility of George Washington, the brilliance and decisiveness of John Adams, and for the farsighted wisdom and discernment of Patrick Henry. Help us to follow them as they followed You, while, of course, bearing in mind that they were, inevitably, imperfect men. Guard us from the temptation to put our heroes, or as is far more common, our nation on an unlawful pedestal. Remind us that while “we” are indeed Your chosen nation; the “we” is New Israel, the Church, and not these United States of America. And yet we pray for our nation, Lord God. We cry out to You to turn America and our leaders away from our wicked ways! Continue to expose the misdeeds of unscrupulous senators and cavorting congressmen for what they are, and visit the unrepentant with Your judgment! Visit our president with the terror of Your holiness, and cause him to turn from his socialistic and totalitarian policies. Teach us, as a nation, to kiss the Son lest He be angry… preferably before His wrath is kindled against us. And renew in us a love of history; Your story, giving us discernment as we seek to profit from the lessons You have taught through the centuries.

We ask that You teach us to understand our times, as the Sons of Issachar, and strengthen our fingers to fight the good fight. We thank You for giving us such powerful weapons as prayer and Your word, and ask that You would help us to wield them with skill, authority, confidence, and devastating effect. Even as Your Son Jesus did when He modeled so poignant a prayer for His disciples, saying…

Pentecost Sunday

God of our Fathers,

On this Pentecost Sunday we thank You most heartily for giving us Your Holy Spirit! Some 2,000 years ago You Yourself walked this earth in human flesh, ate of our food, lived in our homes, willingly died a tortuous death on our behalf, and rose again in triumph over the grave. Then, as if that were not magnanimity enough, You promised that You would be with us even to the end of the world; and a few short weeks later You demonstrated the intensity of Your continued commitment to the race of men by sending Your Spirit down to rest upon the disciples.

How can we even begin to thank You for such an exorbitant gift!? For without the movement of the Spirit there would be no scriptures to teach us Your law! Without the indwelling of the Spirit there would be no conviction of sin, no response of faith, and no salvation! Without the Spirit working in us to will and to do Your good pleasure, we would have no hope of growing into Your likeness! And without the Spirit’s constant intercession on our behalf we would often be at a loss even for words with which to pray to You! So help us more and more to see the work of the Spirit for what it is; to discern His cues from our own self-righteousness and bull-headedness. By that same Spirit, cause us to follow Your example of humility and sacrifice, and to respond to Your blessings with generosity and service all over again.

My Son, The Charmer

Earlier this evening, at near-perfect random, Patrick enumerated to me his understanding of the various classifications amongst our family...

Patrick: "Daddy... you're a guy."

Me: "Yes, my son."

Patrick: "...and Trinity's a girl... and I'm a boy."

Me: (absently) "That's right."

Patrick: "And Mommy's a Princess!"

Teach Them Diligently... to Hammer!

Lots of sundry opportunity to show off my handyman skilz in our new abode... latest being the installation of a wall cabinet for the master bathroom. Patrick was designated "Assistant Hammer Wielder in Chief".



He took to it remarkably quickly: no bent nails, no smashed fingers, and one job well done!

Vermin, Beware!

I am hereby, formally declaring plenary (and unapologetic) genocide against all local tribes of mice, roaches, and wasps.

You have been warned.

Augustine on Eschatology

Been awhile since I've posted any thoughts from The City of God: this partly due to some other reading (and other time investments), and partly to a long segue by Augustine to explore the history of the two cities from Old Testament prophecy down even to the end of the world. Many of his historical observations are a bit mystical for my taste, but some of his thoughts on eschatology highlight the historical ignorance of dispensational premillennialsm. And while Augustine doesn't invest a lot of time defining his own eschatology, he does spend much of book 18 criticizing those who think they can predict the timing of the last days based on persecutions or any other metric. We might think modern teachers of biblical prophecy clever and original when they line up their numerology just so, proclaiming that the end of the world is at hand; but Augustine's lack of patience for the doomsayers and numerologists of his day shows that there's really nothing new under the sun:

I do not think persecutions were prophetically signified by what was done in Egypt, however nicely and ingeniously those who think so may have compared the two in detail, not by the prophetic Spirit, but by the conjecture of the human mind, which sometimes hits the truth, and sometimes is deceived.

We've all heard it said that the ongoing wars and rumors of wars across the globe are the harbinger of failing world powers and ultimately the end of the world... but keep in mind that Augustine was writing just after the fall of Rome. Civilization as they knew it was crumbling before their very eyes!

It is customary to ask, When shall that [the end of the final persecution] be? But this is quite unreasonable. For had it been profitable for us to know this, by whom could it better have been told than by God Himself, the Master, when the disciples questioned Him?

And just as some in our day claim to have figured out God's timeline, Augustine had to deal with the same presumptuous "scholarship" in his day.

Yet some have said that four hundred, some five hundred, others a thousand years, may be completed from the ascension of the Lord up to His final coming. But to point out how each of them supports his own opinion would take too long, and is not necessary; for indeed they use human conjectures, and bring forward nothing certain from the authority of the canonical Scriptures. But on this subject He puts aside the figures of the calculators, and orders silence, who says, "It is not for you to know the times, which the Father hath put in His own power."

Why try to use math, newsreel, or clever prophetic conjecture to make the scriptures say something they don't actually say; particularly when God has already told us that it's not for us to know?

You Gave Even the Sacrifice

"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:14-16

God of our Fathers,

We stand still and marvel at Your mighty hand of provision and the wonder of all Your ways! Who else could have orchestrated a way for the second person of the Trinity to be found in fashion as a man, and be tempted in all points that we are? Who could have ordained that He should then become both our great High Priest, and the spotless lamb sacrificed for our sins? Who but You could have made us kings and priests with Your eternal Son, allowing us to come boldly before Your throne as a royal priesthood rather than mere mortals clad in the rags of our own righteousness? What wisdom of man could have concocted a scheme that would allow a Holy God to remove those rags and clothe us instead in the righteousness of His eternal Son? Only You can cause mercy and truth to commune together, and righteousness and peace to kiss. Only You hold the heart of every king and president in the palm of Your hand, and only You can turn them at Your good pleasure. You alone hear the prayers of Your people, and answer without fail. And only You can take our stammering praise and turn it into an acceptable sacrifice!

As assuredly as You made the wicked for the day of judgment, for Your own glory; so You have also made the very sacrifices that we offer back to You... for Your own glory. Guard us from the temptation to think that we, on our own, have anything worthy to present to You; and remind us constantly that we can't even bring You a sacrifice of praise without the tongues You have created, the thoughts You have implanted, the scriptures You have inspired, the hearts You have made new, and the identity You have provided us through Your eternal Son, Jesus Christ.

The Acuity Lounge

I'm out on my back porch enjoying one of these right now... probably my favorite Nicaraguan cigar, which happens to be cultivated from Cuban seed. I know I owe y'all another post or two on the theology of tobacco, but right now I really just want to tell you how amazing this cigar is! It has the aroma of a newly planted field; moist earth and the undefinable odor of satisfaction in a day well spent. The draw is easy and smooth, with rich smoke plumes and a lingering taste of freshly cut hardwood and cocoa powder. And at $4 to $6 a stick (depending on size) it's quite a bargain! I usually enjoy a little dark chocolate and/or Scotch with my cigars, and today is no exception. I'm sipping a glass of Glenmorangie - Burgundy finish, which serves to highlight the woody notes of the cigar.

As with most upper echelon culinary endeavors, I find that cigar smoking and whisky drinking stimulate brain activity.

Stop laughing!

Seriously, despite their reputation for dulling the senses, I find myself tuned and sharpened in an effort to fully appreciate the many different elements of each sip and puff. Is that a hint of honeysuckle in the Scotch? Did that whiff of smoke remind me of a grassy field after a hard rain? I find my vocabulary stretched to the limit in an effort to capture my enjoyment in words!

Certainly one must exercise moderation, lest overindulgence should breed silliness, headaches, or intoxication. But savored appropriately, I find these gifts of God serve to facilitate my enjoyment of Him and His creation. Rushdoony and Van Til become easier reading, the truth of Scripture leaps from the page, and my creativity soars as I ponder sub-points for my next Men's Meeting lesson.

That's why I call my back porch "The Acuity Lounge".

The Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever!

March 15, 2009

God of our Fathers,

You are the same yesterday, today, and forever; the only true constant in the universe. You are the God who brought Your people safely out of Israel, making a mockery of Egypt and her false gods in the process. You are the God Who stayed the sun while Joshua thrashed the Amorites, and the God who gave David victory over Goliath. It was You who spoke to Elijah, not in the mighty wind or the earthquake, but in a still small voice that both convicted and encouraged him. And it was You who allowed Israel and Judah to be carried into captivity when they forgot all Your mighty acts. Yet Your perfect justice in no way denigrates Your perfect mercy, because You are the God who forgives and provides escape – as You did through Daniel and Zerubbabel and Nehemiah; and ultimately through Your Son Jesus, the penultimate way of escape. You sent Him to redeem us, and He fully accomplished that task. You sat Him down at Your right hand while His and our enemies are subdued, and You are inexorably accomplishing that task as well. Deliver us from the temptation to think of You as just “the one in the stories” or “the one who used to do miracles”. For You are the one who sets up kings and tears them down, the God who holds the world in the palm of His hand, and Who alone does wonderous things: yesterday, today, and forever!!

...We give thanks in all things, Father. Even when those “things” don’t turn out the way we would have chosen. But when that happens remind us that You are the God who rains bread, parts rivers, calms storms, confounds princes, and raises the very dead! Help us to spurn mere cognitive assent for true confidence in Your perfect will, even now as we lift our hearts and voices in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, saying…

The Power of the Son

January 18, 2009

God of our Fathers, strong to save, we thank You for Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, and the freedom that we have in Him to approach Your throne with boldness and confidence. We thank You for giving Him all power in heaven and on earth, and for giving us daily reminders of His eternal authority over creation. Help us to see these reminders for what they are, and prompt us to give You thanks for all of them. So often we are at a loss to explain the wisdom that you conceal in what seems foolishness to us, but help us to praise, thank, and trust You even in those times… indeed especially in those times!

With that in mind, we pray for Barack Obama, that You would cause him to fear You and govern according to Your precepts as he takes office this week. We dare to ask that You would cause him to repent of his sins, worship You in spirit and in truth, and guide this nation with Your wisdom.

Grant, Almighty God, since we so pass through this world that our attention is easily diverted, and our judgment darkened… that we may raise our eyes upwards, and consider just how much power You have conferred upon Your only begotten Son. Grant, also, that He may rule and govern us by the light of His Spirit, protect us by His faithfulness and guardianship, and compel the whole world to promote our salvation; thus may we rest calmly under his protection, and fight with that boldness and patience which He both commands and commends, until at length we enjoy the fruit of the victory which You have infallibly promised, and which You will provide for us in Your heavenly kingdom.

Unanticipated (Divine) Fingerprints

"Likewise the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27

God of our Fathers,

We are in continual awe of Your marvelous creativity and provision!

You ordained the rise and recession of the tides, and decreed that they should be governed by the moon's gravity. You designed plant life to rely on an annoying black and yellow bug with a stinger for pollination, and for good measure gave that same bug the ability to make honey! Only You would have thought to hide such amazing potential in fermented grape juice, and only You would have chosen this as the metaphor by which we remember Your Son's death. -- All these things You have done according to Your perfect, eternal plan, and all for Your own glory.

And yet despite all these amazing demonstrations of Your control over the universe, we still balk at giving thanks in all things! We persist in worrying over trifling matters like the latest shenanigans of the Supreme Court and whether our 401(k) numbers appear in black or red, forgetting that You are the Alpha and Omega Who has ordained the end from the very beginning. When we find ourselves surrounded by hand-wringers and brow-furrowers, help us to trust You more and more! When we are tempted to worry or doubt, remind us that You are infallibly working all things together for our good, and teach us to spot Your fingerprints as they appear in what seem the most unlikely places... elections and recessions included.

What "Old Covenant"?

A couple trips out of town and some other reading have slowed me down in The City of God, but I'm still trying to work through at least a few pages every couple of days.

Book 16 finds Augustine showcasing some scientific ignorance (such as "...The fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us..."), but this doesn't bother me too much because more or less every generation has spoken presumptuously of things they didn't fully understand. The exploits of Columbus and Magellan, the existence of giant squid, space travel, the advent of antibiotics, and the Copernican revolution have all failed to teach us any humility in the realm of science; the idiocy of evolution and global warming bear ongoing testament to this sad fact. So while Augustine certainly had a lot to learn about the world in which we live, he's certainly not alone here.

Of more interest to me are his thoughts on circumcision and the relationship between the Old and New Covenant. This partly because the terminology of "Old" and "New" as manifested in "Covenant of works" and "Covenant of grace" has, for many years, struck me as imprecise and problematic. Obviously, wiser men than I have employed these terms for years, so I'll attempt to be cautious in my criticism. But weren't the pre-Christ saints saved by grace just as we in the Church age are? We would think it heretical to suggest otherwise! Secondly, righteous works don't compete or contrast with grace at all, they showcase it (see Romans 4, 11:5-6, and James 2:18). Why then would we set up works and grace as mutually exclusive in our covenantal terminology? Of course works can be elevated to a position of primacy over faith, which is a problem... but would also disqualify them from being righteous works. All of Church history from Genesis to the present is grace upon grace, and calling the pre-Christ portion of this chronology a "Covenant of works" serves only to muddy the waters.

So how about distinguishing between the two time periods by calling them "Old Covenant" and "New Covenant" respectively? Well, I find that less problematic than "Works" vs. "Grace", as Augustine seems to agree in this quote about the birth of Isaac:

"Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations in Isaac, that is, in the son of the promise, by which grace is signified, and not nature; for the son is promised from an old man and a barren old woman. For although God effects even the natural course of procreation, yet where the agency of God is manifest, through the decay or failure of nature, grace is more plainly discerned. And because this was to be brought about, not by generation, but by regeneration, circumcision was enjoined now, when a son was promised of Sarah. And by ordering all, not only sons, but also home-born and purchased servants to be circumcised, he testifies that this grace pertains to all. For what else does circumcision signify than a nature renewed on the putting off of the old? And what else does the eighth day mean than Christ, who rose again when the week was completed, that is, after the Sabbath? The very names of the parents are changed: all things proclaim newness, and the new covenant is shadowed forth in the old. For what does the term old covenant imply but the concealing of the new? And what does the term new covenant imply but the revealing of the old?"

I would take Augustine's closing observation one step further to say that the two covenants are, in fact, one. In Genesis 17:7 God established his everlasting covenant, singular, with Abraham (see also Judges 2:1, 2 Samuel 23:5, and Psalm 105:10 for other references to a single, everlasting covenant). Referencing "Old Covenant" and "New Covenant" isn't a problem in my mind, as long as we recognize this as a distinction of chronology rather than one of identity -- as if the two were completely distinct and separate compacts. This is how the terms are employed in scripture too, distinguishing between the different administrations of the same covenant. The "New" Covenant builds and expands upon the "Old" in much the same way that a knowledgeable man can build upon the talents of his youth. Or we can think of it as the unveiling of a sculpture: the whole masterpiece is the "Covenant of Grace", but the curtain is only part of the way up in the "Old" covenant, and perhaps half or two thirds of the way up in the "New". The complete unveiling will have to wait for our final glorification (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Finally, on a separate but closely related note, I had never heard "the 8th day" element of circumcision linked to Christ's resurrection in this fashion. I'm very interested to pursue this line of thinking as it relates to paedobaptism, but this will have to wait for another post.

The Eternal Unchangeable

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:3-4

God of our Fathers,

You are the eternal Unchangeable, the point of reference from which all rational thought is derived. Without Your continual sustenance atoms would break down, the solar system would implode, the changing tides would wash away entire coastlines, and we would indeed be of all men most miserable. But having made this world, You did not give it up to destruction after Adam’s sin. You promised instead to send a Redeemer to crush the head of the serpent and restore Your people to a position of covenant familiarity. Then, as You always do, You made good on your promise; adopting us as sons and setting us on the path of righteousness.

Help us more and more to trust in You, and do good! After all, when You have given us so much, how could we dare to follow the example of the ungrateful servant by refusing to pass Your gifts on to those around us? Help us to do good! First to the household of faith, and then to the world at large; spreading the fame of Your greatness throughout the globe, and making disciples of every creature. This is the desire of our heart.

And as we bring our requests before You, keep us mindful of Your faithfulness: for You are the God who keeps covenant to a thousand generations, and Who works all things together for the good of those whom You have called.

Not Forgotten

We've just returned from a most enjoyable visit with my wife's family in California, and I look forward to resuming regular posting... including further commentary on the unfinished tobacco and baptism threads.

I should mention, however, that while away I delved into Peter Leithart's book, The Baptized Body (http://tinyurl.com/3g9mbs), which is causing me to rethink my position on baptism a bit... Though lest my Baptist readers get too excited, this "rethinking" is more a matter of terminology than anything else (in fact "refine" might be a better word than "rethink"). But of course words (terms) are the building blocks of ideas, which invariably have consequences. So while the baptism thread will probably have to wait until I've finished the book and digested some of the arguments a bit better, rest assured that it has not been entirely forgotten.

The Beauty of, um... Beauty!

A few more thoughts on Book 15 before I move on...

While brilliant and essentially orthodox, Augustine was also a man of his times; times that included a tremendous theological preoccupation with monastic self-denial, and general distaste for the physical world over against the spiritual. However, I suspect Augustine was inwardly uncomfortable operating within this context because he can't help acknowledging the praiseworthiness of beauty:

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God..."

Even though he immediately feels compelled to qualify, almost apologize for his appreciation of something in the material created order:

"...beauty, which is indeed God's handiwork, but only a temporal, carnal, and lower kind of good..."

But for all that, he still can't help the fact that he does appreciate it!

"It is this which some one has briefly said in these verses in praise of the Creator: 'These are Thine, they are good, because Thou art good who didst create them. There is in them nothing of ours, unless the sin we commit when we forget the order of things, and instead of Thee love that which Thou hast made.'"

Most of his caveats have their place; we should only love creation insofar as it reflects the glory of its Creator. Taking that appreciation too far, to the point of loving creation on its own merit, is nothing short of idolatry. But we must also recognize that there are ditches on both sides of the path. If idolatry is on the right, then ingratitude is just as surely on the left. And while balance is key, that doesn't make it unreasonable to know which ditch is in more need of exhortation. After all, a drowning man doesn't need a lecture on the necessity of staying well hydrated!

Augustine goes beyond erring on the conservative side here. He is wrong to say that beauty is carnal, or even a "lower form of good". On the contrary, beauty is not exclusive to the created ("carnal") order, but is one of God's eternal attributes (Zec. 9:17)! Furthermore, in Augustine's time (as is often true in the church today) the ingratitude on the left was the ditch more commonly encountered than the idolatry on the right. But in reality we have no reason to look down on God's material creation as somehow inferior to the “spiritual things” (whatever that means) because He made both! Some things He made for utility and some for beauty, but all for His glory. Each piece of His creation can be viewed as a mirror designed to reflect His glory back to Him.

Don't be afraid to revel in the afterglow!

Inherently Selfish

From Book 15:

"...this is the characteristic of the earthly city, that it worships God or gods who may aid it in reigning victoriously and peacefully on earth not through love of doing good, but through lust of rule. The good use the world that they may enjoy God: the wicked on the contrary, that they may enjoy the world would fain use God."

Where the Tobacco Meets the Road

The poem by Ralph Erskine that I posted is fantastic, but beyond all the terrific allegorical interpretations and clever insights he provides... I really just enjoy a good cigar! I've tried smoking a pipe on a few different occasions, and though enjoyable, I don't think it will ever have quite the same appeal to me as a well-crafted cigar. To state my primary reason simply, heat moves upward; which means that in drawing air over the embers of a pipe, you have to puff pretty proactively to keep all the heat from escaping and your pipe from going out. With a cigar on the other hand, the ash plug that forms after a few minutes serves to insulate the embers at the end of the cigar, and allows you to smoke at a much more leisurely pace; even to the point of setting it down for a few minutes between puffs without having to re-light. But while this "low maintenance" factor draws me toward cigars, I also find I simply like the flavor of cigar smoke better than that of the pipes I've sampled.

But before I start rhapsodizing at length on my latest cigar, let's pause a few minutes to consider some of the reasons that conservative eyebrows often reach new heights when discussing this topic.

The objections can be roughly divided in to one of three categories, in this order of importance:
1. Sin Issues
2. Conscience Issues
3. Taste/Preference Issues

For now let's confine our discussion to the burning question, "Is it a sin to use tobacco?" But since tobacco use is nowhere explicitly forbidden in scripture, the question is not at all a simple one, and should therefore be more nuanced: "What element(s), if any, of using tobacco make its use sinful?" The three most common answers given to this question are the addictive nature of the nicotine, the negative health impact, and what I like to call the "guilt by association" argument (i.e., jailbirds and movie villains smoke, and we shouldn't imitate them); but this last one also wanders into "Conscience Issues", which I'll address in another post.

For those who argue against tobacco products because of the risk of addiction, the finger is really (and correctly) pointed at the addiction rather than the tobacco itself. Scripture speaks to the danger of addiction in a variety of ways, including the warning of Matthew 6:24 which states that, "No man can serve two masters..." Addiction is among the basest forms of slavery, being servitude to something rather than even to someone. It violates the first and second commandments by allowing some thing to dominate our habits and desires in a way that should be reserved to God alone, and is therefore rightly viewed as a form of idolatry. But "addiction" and the "risk of addiction" are two vastly different things. Depending on how tightly we define "addiction", dozens or even hundreds of otherwise lawful items from coffee or painkillers to food and shopping come with a gradated risk! Does this mean that we should swear off chocolate (which contains caffeine, so yes, it includes a risk of chemical addiction) and Advil because of the "inherent risk of addiction"? Hardly. It does, however, mean that we need to exercise discretion and temperance in every area of life, bringing each thought and action into subjection to Christ (1 Cor. 10:31 and 2 Cor. 10:5).

But what about the health risks? Isn't our body the temple of the Holy Ghost?

For starters, the risks of lung cancer (and addiction, for that matter) so often attributed to smoking in general are almost completely exclusive to cigarette smoking. Because while cigars and pipes have a long heritage of being savored in a slow, deliberate manner for the enjoyment of their flavor, cigarettes were designed to deliver a quick nicotine fix. This was achieved by reducing the diameter of the traditional cigar down to about that of a pencil, and inserting a filter near the "mouth end" of the cigarette. These two features dilute the overall effect of the smoke sufficiently to allow the smoker to inhale the smoke into his lungs. Conversely with a pipe or cigar, the smoke is typically only drawn into the mouth and blown out -- without ever entering the lungs. Furthermore the bulk of the health risk associated with smoking is effected not by the tobacco or even the nicotine, but the tar (yuck...) produced by the burning paper and other additives peculiar to cigarettes! Of course with a pipe or cigar no paper is present, only dried tobacco leaves. So even though the cigar/pipe imparts more nicotine per puff, the cigar smoker who doesn't inhale is actually absorbing far less nicotine (let alone tar) than the cigarette smoker who is inhaling.

This distinction between the mechanics and physiological impact of cigarettes in particular as opposed to other forms of tobacco use should clear the air on virtually all the questions of addiction and health impact as they pertain to the occasional cigar smoker like myself. Ignoring it would be like blurring the difference between a fellow who enjoys a cup or two of coffee a day and one who needs regular doses of caffeine just to keep him functioning. And for the purposes of this discussion I would like to distance myself from cigarette smoking in particular, though I'm inclined to think that even this form of tobacco use (in moderation) could be defended as lawful for Christians.

One final comment on the health impact of tobacco: Its potential benefits remain woefully underexplored! Even the scant amount of study done on the positive end of the spectrum has shown that moderate tobacco use dramatically reduces risk for several types of heart disease and mental disorder. The fact that these benefits are referred to as "Smoker's Paradoxes" only serves to further illustrate our societal bias against tobacco in general. After all, despite the obvious negative impacts of overindulging on chocolate, nobody calls it a "Chocoholic's Paradox" when researchers discover another hidden benefit of cocoa consumption!

Rather than allowing our standards to be governed by the prevailing winds of cultural opinion or the latest prohibitionist crusade, we should search the scriptures and draw our own conclusions from its teachings (Acts 17:10-11).

Stay tuned for future posts on the "Conscience" and "Taste/Preference" objections.

Comments and questions are most welcome!