I was blessed today by a conversation between myself and a new friend of mine. He asked what my thoughts were on homosexuality, and so I explained what my convictions were - those of the Bible - but I also took the time to explain that the Bible does not exalt that particular sin above any other sin; for instance, my own self-righteousness. And after explaining that God does indeed deem homosexuality as rebellion against Himself, my friend asked me this: "But what if a gay person has felt gay ever since they can remember, and what if they can't help it?" I thought for a moment, and then answered thusly: "I have also been self-righteous since I can remember, and without Jesus, I can also not help being self-righteous." After this, we both had to agree to continue the conversation later due to the circumstances.

But I have not stopped thinking about his question since. "What if they can't help it?" And, after thinking for a while, I have to say that this question addresses the human problem. We are sinful, and we can not help it. We are born with original sin...we don't learn it. As we grow, our internal fallen nature finds new and various ways to live out that sin, and like my friend said, we can't help it. We are fiends when it comes to sin. We have it inside us and we seek to act it out. And it is this very bondage which God frees us from by the slaying of his own Son to pay our debt. We are completely helpless apart from Jesus.

Now, I think some may disagree and say, "That's wrong. We can indeed help it, we just don't do it." But I think this gives glory to mankind. It is unbiblical for me to point at someone who is not born again and say, "You are a sinner, and you are so because you just won't use the power inside yourself to stop yourself from doing it." This nullifies the cross, it negates the power of Jesus, and it glorifies man. Rather, Christians should talk like this: "You are a sinner. And you are a sinner just like I am a sinner. Apart from Jesus, you and I will only continue to sin because we can not help it. And on judgment day, without Jesus and his righteousness, you and I will both pay for our sins by spending eternity in hell." Humanity is a fallen race. We are rebels who defy God and seek our own glory, and without Jesus we can't help but keep doing the same.

"The Christian Church in America suffers from about 350 years of dominance and prosperity."

- John Piper
Senior Pastor - Bethlehem Baptist Church
Minneapolis, Minnesota

You would think I would have more time to think and write quality posts on here more often considering school is over for me; however, I'm finding out that it is not so. But for good reasons...because hanging out with real people, talking and planning the wedding with Bethan, and reading are all much, much more satisfying than keeping up with this thing. Nonetheless, I feel like posting something.

Being human, I realize the bent we all have to sin. In fact, outside of God's work in us, we try very hard to sin. Apart from being born-again, humans are geared to love sin and desire it. And while knowing this, I still am dumbfounded at passages like Isaiah 53:6 - "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all." So, as humans go about their merry way, loving sin...God redeems a sinful people to himself and calls them his own. And not only this, but he does it by way of killing his own Son Jesus. And this tells me something: God's love for his glory is greater than our love for sin. God's desire to show his worth among humans abounds to the extent that he will crush his own Son in order to pay for the sins of many, that they might see his glory and worship him forever. Therefore, I am glad that when my flesh crawls for sin, I know that God will counteract it with His own greater desire for his glory to be seen.

"Churches that are less diverse than the community in which they exist, misrepresent God."

- Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church

David Wells': No Place for Truth (Chapter 1)

It has finally happened. Zach, Jon, and myself finally got our act together and discussed chapter 1 of David Wells' book, and I have already learned much from the book itself, as well as from my two brothers who care enough to talk about what they're learning with me. When I do these posts on Wells' books, I think I will just hammer out two or three of the most significant points I felt coming out of the book. In this particular post, I'll go over the introduction and Chapter 1...

The introduction made two things apparent to me: A) Wells is a phenomenal writer and B) his inspiration and purpose for writing this book. Being (A) needs no explanation, we'll stick to talking about (B). During one of Wells' theology classes at Gordon-Conwell seminary, he mentions a particular instance that spurred him on to the writing of this book. At the beginning of the first class of one semester, he took extra care in giving an accurate introduction to what would be covered in his course. He went on to explain to his students about the importance of theology in knowing Jesus. After the class, a student came up to him and thanked him so much for making it clear to him why theology was important. The student said that before the class he felt as though "he could not justify spending money on a class that was so irrelevant to ministry." Taken aback, Wells' thanked the student and his mind began to percolate, sifting through the words of this misinformed student. He was dumbfounded at how unimportant theology (the study of God) had become in the church. And in this, he found his inspiration to dig, pray, research, pray, and study the culture in order to find out what has happened in the church.

In order to do this, Wells (in chapter 1) begins a semi-sociological study of a town in Massachusetts called Wenham. He gives a history of the town, its foundation, its values, and then moves in to discussing culture changes and, consequently, changes in Wenham. This is the foundation for the rest of the book as he will continue to reveal culture changes and use Wenham as an illustration or example. In this chapter, these were the most interesting and stinging items I learned:

-The overstimulation (or..."overwhelmization") of humans in our current culture. Through telegrams, telephones, internet, televisions, faster transportation, satellites, and other technological breakthroughs, our culture has transcended time, location, and permanence. Humans are expected to be familiar with too many worlds and situations, are commanded to be in too many places within a short amount of time, and are basically controlled by technology. In other words, we have "created a monster" of sorts which has resulted in our becoming less human and more robotic.

-I find it better to quote Wells on this one: "What is most remarkable about modern people is that they are not in scale with the world they inhabit informationally and psychologically. They are dwarfed. And they have been emptied of their metaphysical substance; more precisely, it has been sucked out of them. There is nothing to give height or depth or perspective to anything they experience. They know more, but they are not necessarily wiser. They believe less, but they are not more substantial. They are attuned to experience and to appearances, not to thought and character. And that is what it has meant to move from the kind of life represented by early Wenham to what we today encounter in the modern world."

There was much more packed into this chapter, but those are good overarching thoughts for the entire piece that we read. I think Wells has had some amazing insight so far into a culture which changes so quickly and is so fickle concerning truth, and I'm sure there will be more dots connected as I read on to form a picture of what it is that is happening around us. (Small note - I think the reading of this book needs to be accompanied by actual participation in the world around us to see these phenomena happening.)