It is for Freedom that Christ has Set You Free

I made a pledge when I began this blog to remain steadfastly apartisan, meaning I would endeavour, to the best of my ability, to favor neither Democrats nor Republicans in my post. I chose my wording carefully, because I did not see a way to remain wholly apolitical. These days, both matters of faith and higher education are highly politicized, and to avoid them when they naturally arise would be irresponsible. Christ was very political in His ministry, but He skewered all parties in His delivery of the truth of the Gospel. I will confess readily that I do not in any way have Christ’s perfect objectivity in the matter, so I know my true perspectives peek out from time to time.

I offer this explanation because from time to time David Theroux of the Independent Institute asks me to cover work of the institute here. If I feel it meets the above criteria, I say yes and do it. If not, then I don’t. Over Spring Break he emailed me about a short video by I.I. Research Fellow Anthony Gregory.

Alvin Plantinga, the Christian Philosopher You NEED to Read

C. S. Lewis is probably the most famous Christian “armchair” philosophers. It is (past) time for both the Christian and non-Christian worlds to learn of and from one of the most eminent professional Christian philosophers, Dr. Alvin Plantinga.

Plantinga over the decades has developed some of the most philosophically rigorous defenses of theism and devastating critiques of naturalism. Chances are you have heard or even used some of his arguments in your apologetics discussions without even knowing it.

David J. Theroux of The Independent Institute (where Plantinga is on one of the Boards of Advisors) has written a wonderful introductory piece honoring Plantinga’s reception of the University of Pittsbrgh’s Nicholas Rescher Prize for Contributions to Systematic Philosophy.

I strongly urge you to read it. In addition to honoring Plantinga, it outlines his major contributions, and offers many good links to books, articles and videos of Plantinga’s work. If you have any interest or concern about the worldview struggles in our culture and want to better understand how to respond to naturalistic attacks on your faith, personally and in the culture, this is required reading.

SDG

The Other Man

The plane glided smoothly over the wood boards, birthing perfect curls of shavings. It would be a table fit for a king’s palace, but was crafted for the Levite who led the local synagogue. Sturdy and large enough for feasts and councils, with some adornment of abstract design along the legs and edges, consistent with the prohibition against graven images in Law, yet elegantly simple, it’s artisanry understated.

Twenty-seven year old hands, muscular, with remarkable dexterity, gripped the plane with the confidence of a skilled tradesman. They had gripped tools for nearly all of their days, and formally for fourteen years, since the hands’ owner’s apprenticeship that began after he celebrated his bar mitzvah. At twenty-one he began to cultivate his own style and clients, while still in the family shop.

If all went well, another few months would see him established sufficiently to wed his fiancée. He wondered as he whistled over his work a tune from the synagogue service, where did the fourteen year training period for crafts and trades come from? Did it originate with Father Jacob, who labored fourteen years for his two brides, a week of years for each? If so, why did one these days have to work fourteen years to just get the one wife? Not that he wanted more than one! No, no! He’d observed that one was plenty for most men. He just wished it could be seven for the one, and then get on with life.

The ‘Mundaneness’ of the Divine

I strongly suspect that one reason folks either don’t submit their lives to Christ or fall away is because it is boring.

Yeah, that’s a provocative statement. Hang with me for a minute, though. After every spiritual ‘high,’ daily life has a nasty way of rearing its, well, daily head. It’s routine, it’s boring, it’s mundane, it’s a distraction from the glory of the resurrection. It’s trials, it’s pain, it’s frustrations, it’s carnal, it’s ordinary.

When we read about the abundant life, we expect flowers blooming in our footsteps, angels singing as we pass, the feeling of Christ’s closeness uplifting us and constraining us from our natural selves, and in that freedom from falling to temptation, we will draw people to the Gospel like a lodestone.

Hah.

An All-Consuming Parable

There was a society that was extraordinarily gifted in making things. Most people created what they needed themselves. Some of them developed the ability to make certain things much better than others could make the same items. Over time, they not only could make them better, but also could make them faster and cheaper, even at scale.

While this was quite the accomplishment, the problem was that these producers began to have their warehouses filled with their goods. Creative members of this group found ways to tell large number of people about their wares, and how if folks would buy their products instead of making the items themselves, they would save time and have better products.

All of these ideas caught on. The people began to specialize in what they produced best, and sold them to each other in order to buy others’ products. Life got easier.

As people grew to enjoy consuming each others’ products, a dynamic equilibrium was approached between production and consumption. However, as people learned to consume ready-made items, they became interested in newer and more types of products, which increased demand for new producers. So growth occurred instead of reaching equilibrium. This was good.