If you have the time

Here's a short article about how a church liturgy is defiant of the world. It's the second article on this page, so if you're interested, scroll down until you see "Liturgy and the Counter-Cultural Church" by Peter J. Leithart.

A Comparison of...

There is a confession of faith that most reformed churches suscribe to, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646 (WCF)and there is a confession of faith which many Baptists, including Spurgeon, suscribed to, namely the London Baptist Confession, 1689 (LBC). I have decided to compare these two confessions of faith to see what are the main differences between old Reformers and old Baptists. There will be be no argument here, only a cursory comparison.

Both confessions begin with the Holy Scriptures, and both further divide this section into ten subsections.

In the first section, both agree almost to the point of using the exact sentences. For example, the WCF states that

Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation.

and the LBC states that

Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God so much that man is left without any excuse, they are not sufficient to provide that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary for salvation.

Both state that God wrote down his word so that neither man nor Satan could tamper with it, and because He has ceased revealing his will in the way he used to.

In the second section, they give the same list of inspired books, which are to be "the rule of faith and life" (WCF; LBC), and both confessions devote section three to denying the Apocrypha a place in the canon.

In fact, they say nothing different, and agree that: the Holy Spirit assures us that the scriptures are from God and therefore authoritative (section V); scripture contains, explicitly or by necessary deduction, all things necessary for God's glory and for our faith and life (section VI); not all things are equally plain, but what one must know for salvation is plain for anyone who will take the time to read it (section VII); God has preserved the scriptures through the ages, and the scriptures, though the original languages have the final authority in controversies, should be translated into all languages for people to read(section VIII); if one passage of scripture is difficult, then we should understand it in the light of another, more clear, passage (section IX); and that all controversies of religion are to be solved by reading scripture and being taught through scripture by the Holy Spirit (section X).

Finally, these confessions state that all decrees of councils (that includes these confessions) must be judged by the scriptures (section 10).

Note:

The version of the LBC that I used was edited by Spurgeon. This version, as well as the original and the WCF, can be found at this site

Gwanaksan Mountain

On Saturday we went to Gwanaksan Mountain to go climbing and hiking. It was really fun and warm... really windy though and a very difficult hike. It took us six hours (we stopped for one hour in total for breaks such as lunch... so really five hours). The next day and still today... three days later, I am very sore. I didn't think I would be since I exercise regularly, but they must be different muscles that you use for climbing. Scott was very sore as well.

It was beautiful and very interesting. Scattered throughout the mountain were lookout spots (little hidden caves with windows) from one of the wars, I'm not sure which. We couldn't go into most of them because they were closed off with barbed wire, but some had open doorways so we explored a bit, it was cool.

My favourite quote from the trip is from a Korean man who was hiking behind me. I had just pulled myself up a rock face on a rope and he said "Very good... like Jane". Scott and I both thought that was pretty funny... If I'm Jane, he must be Tarzan.

Well anyway, it was a good time and the pictures are posted in our photo album if you want to see them.

Unity in Diversity, pt. 2

Sometimes we have to cut off our fellowship with a Christian. Sometimes it's over a doctrine, as when John the gospel writer left the bath house because some Gnostic was in there, and sometimes it's over behaviour (cf. 1 Cor 5.1-2). Other times, we don't have to cut off fellowship. If Joe is a vegan, so be it. Let him be a vegan. If Susie dyes her hair, great! I like it, Susie. I've already said that Paul says we can have unity when we have differences, as long as the differences are about things indifferent. Let's call these peripheral issues. When defining what are peripheral issues, we can get clarity by defining the center, and in the New Testament, we get a clear picture of what is central. What is central is that

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles,unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed (1 Cor 15.3-11)

Now, Paul says that these things are of first importance: Christ died for our sins; rose from the dead; and revealed himself to many brethren. In fact, if he hasn't risen from the dead, then we are still in our sins and our faith is vain (vs. 17). Similarly, in the first chapter of Acts, Luke recounts the story of Jesus's death and resurrection, and how he revealed himself to his disciples. This paraphrase is reminiscent of how Old Testament writers paraphrase the essence of older Old Testament stories. Paul also said his task was to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor 1.17), and that through believing that Christ died for our sin's God makes Christ our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (vs. 30). This is the central doctrine and story which we have to believe. Of course, in scripture, many things follow from this, and we will believe those things as well. But this story (that Christ died and rose from the dead and showed himself to his disciples) and the meaning of this story (that he died for our sins) is the source of our unity.

Yeah Baby!

 
Well, this past Saturday Scott and I went to Lotte World... it's a large theme park in Jamsil. We had lots of fun and took lots of pictures, an example of which you can see here. This particular picture was taken just before we watched the 4D movie, in which we got sprayed with water, rumbled, eaten by sharks, attacked by rats etc.. it was weird, but fun. If you would like to see more of these fun filled pictures, just go into our photo album, they're there now.

The monkey around my neck I won by throwing balls and getting them into the targets behind a moving blocker... I won, I know... hard to believe, I was just doing it because I had never tried before, I didn't actually expect to win anything.

The rides were pretty fun, we were both exhausted from screaming by the end of the night though. One ride, "the Gyro", I don't know if I would ever do again... it takes you way, way, way, up in the air (rotating as it does this) and then suddenly drops.. you're in free fall, it was such a short time, but it felt like I would never reach the bottom, and if I did, I'd be squished into a pancake; but we both made it out alive.

The roller-coasters were also fun, we waited in line forever... almost forty minutes, but they were really fast and went upside-down and all around.. pretty scary but all around good fun.

There was a parade of over 100 performers later that night, they were mostly Russians, we took a couple of silent videos with our webcam, I'm trying to figure out how to get them online so everyone can see.

Well, anyhow,

enjoy the photos, we enjoyed our time. 

Unity in Diversity

One of Paul's most liberating teachings is that we are to lay off and mind our own business. We are to accept weaker believers and not pester them with debates and unasked for advice.  Don't tell a parent, for example, how to cut the sugar out of her children's diets unless she has asked you how you did it. Another example: don't make comments to your friends about other girls' makeup, hoping that your comments will find some roundabout way of reaching their ears.

There is an example in the gospels about this. Jesus says that he came both eating and drinking and they called him a glutton and a winebibber, but John the baptist did neither and they said that he had a demon.  Jesus said nothing, however, against John; he didn't quote a passage from Paul and say, "You know, John, you're a weaker brother."  Likewise, Paul says to accept vegans as vegans. Don't try to convert them; lay off, he says.

Now, this applies only to secondary issues, to debatable things. On primary issues we are to be unbending. One should rebuke a believer that says his conscience forbids him to obey the first commandment. But what are the primary issues? The ten commandments should be taken as starters. They are laws which do not pass away, which must always be obeyed.  I'm sure there's more to say, but I can build on this foundation.

Imagine that a father, who is a faithful Christian, decides to have his infants baptized and to teach them that their baptism is legitimate, and next that when the infants grow up, a well-meaning but misguided brother-in-the-faith tries to teach the children that their father is wrong and is in fact disobeying God.  If he succeeds in teaching them this, what will he accomplish? Not the edification of the children, as he hopes.  Most likely, he will teach them one thing: to break the fourth commandment; to dishonour their father.  In this case it might be difficult, but the father, because he has been forgiven, must also forgive this brother, who caused his children to stumble. So, the father should promptly get his hands on a millstone, search out the deepest waters, and he and the brother should go out on a boat to perform the act of mercy.