Learn Philosophy Online, Challenge to Gratitude, The middle-class-white-teenager -who-thinks-he’s-black in Piper

a)

This is an awesome website for some good resources. Something I really appreciate is the 24-minute sessions on the history of western philosophy taken from a very informed, evangelical viewpoint (taught by RC Sproul). They haven’t offered the whole dvd collection for free, but there’s quite a few videos there. In the media player, click on video and go down to Augustine for the first one. Sproul speaks intelligently, accurately, and in an accessible manner.

b)

I’ve started reading Future Grace by Dr. John Piper online (unfortunately, only the first three chapters are available for free :(). Piper makes a huge claim. Anyone able to prove him wrong? Please let me know if you or someone else can. Here’s the claim:

‘How many places in the Bible can you think of where gratitude or thankfulness is explicitly made the motive of moral behavior?... If you ask Christians today, “What is the biblical motive for Christian obedience?” great numbers would say, “Gratitude to God.” And yet this way of thinking seems almost totally lacking in the Bible. The Bible rarely, if ever, explicitly makes gratitude the impulse of moral behavior, or ingratitude the explanation of immorality.’ – p33-34

‘You will read the Old Testament in vain for texts that make gratitude the explicit motive or power for obedience.’ – p34-35

Piper says, to paraphrase and simplify it a lot, that we should obey God because we trust His promises for our future. NOT because we are grateful for what He did in the past. Piper seems to say that gratitude is never given as a motivation for obedience. Is this true?

If you’re interested in what Piper says, you can read along with me.

c)

While I’m on the topic of Piper, here’s something I saw quite a while ago, and forgot to post.

Stretchy Pants, Gagging of God, Why the University Library is Great

a)

Well, two years ago I learned that a movie was coming out that I thought I needed to see. Why? Because, it appeared to be created specifically for me. Consider the following facts:

- Nacho Libre stars Jack Black
- Nacho Libre is directed by the dude from Napolean Dynamite
- Nacho Libre is about Lucha Libre, ie. Mexican wrestling.

Yet is has taken two years for me to watch it. It was worth it however, as Nacho Libre is the greatest Jack Black movie about wrestling ever.

Yes, and it is the only one. But I can only hope it will be the first of many. One of the greatest things about the movie is its wardrobe. Consider the following three articles of clothing and how they lend themselves to brilliant Jack Black bits:

Friar Robe – Ignatio (Black) is a Friar and wears a robe. The looseness of this robe allows Nacho to catch on fire when he is lighting candles during a prayer session. This also reveals his stretchy pants (revealing his secret identity, the Luchador Nacho).

Stretchy pants – Ignatio, a very poor Friar, must wear stretchy pants to enter the wrestling match. Where will he acquire the stretchy pants? He steals them from a fat Mexican orphan. Comedic genius…

Expensive pants – Ignatio, having begun a successful wrestling career, now sports some expensive and tight pants. He wears them to hit on Sister Encarnación, who asks him “Ignatio, where is your robe?” This sets up Jack Black to stretch and flex his awesome buttocks. Probably the best butt scene in movie history.

Thus ends my discussion about Nacho Libre.

b)

Been reading The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism by DA Carson. Real good, and very intellectually stimulating. Here's an excerpt:

“Miss Christian goes off to the local state university, full of zeal and the knowledge of a few fundamental truths. (If she has that she is ahead of many of our church raised young people.) There she will not find lecturers who will devote much time to overturning her truths. Rather, she will find many lecturers convincing her that the meaning in her religion, as in all religion, is merely communal bias, and therefore relative, subjective. No religion can make valid claims of a transcendent nature. Truth, whatever it is, does not reside in an object or idea or statement or affirmation about reality, historical or otherwise, that can be known by finite human beings; rather it consists of fallible, faulty opinions held by finite knowers who themselves look at things that certain way only because they belong to a certain section of society.

Miss Christian is told, a trifle condescendingly, that if her religion helps her, she should be grateful, but that no intelligent person this side of Derrida, Foucalt, and Fish, could possibly believer that her beliefs have a transcendent claim on everybody everywhere. Thus without denying her faith, Miss Christian discovers that its vitality has been sapped. It has been relativized, trivialized, and marginalized. Without ever having had a single one of its major tenets overturned by historical or other argument, the whole edifice of Christian truth has been detached from the objective status it once held. Miss Christian drifts off, and it may take years before she thinks seriously about Jesus again—if she ever does.” (slightly reformatted by Adam)

Really interesting, especially as you think about campus ministry.

c)

I still like to go to the University library to chill even though I've graduated. Why?:

i. I get a discount on coffee. $1.30 for a tall, bold, Starbucks coffee. So good...

ii. Free internet access on their computers.

iii. There are nice chairs by the newspaper section.

iv. It is more relaxing and conducive to doing work/meditation than home.

Movies and "Lordship Salvation"

a)
Some of you are pretty tired of the Sex and the City discussion, so maybe you were a little worried by the title of this blogpost. Don’t worry, that’s not what today’s post is about.

First, although I’m not sure if its wise to post too many personal details on the internet, my sister’s working part-time at a video store. It’s a real small place on Viewmount called Squirrel Video. However, the place comes up as Dead Squirrel Video on call display and google. I assume the owner has an interesting sense of humour. Other evidence of this is that the place has 20 copies of 27 Dresses and a prominent Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) section. Smootchie-bootchie.

Anyways, point is, it’s real small and unless it sells crack, it probably needs more customers. So feel free to go rent Men in Black 2, get a milkshake, and buy some popcorn. You are contributing to my sister’s continual employment. It’s at the corner of Chesterton and Viewmount next to the Quickie (just West of Bethel Pentecostal).

While on the topic of movies, you can now see almost all of Siskel and Ebert and Roeper’s film reviews streaming online at their website. I don’t actually watch a lot of movies, but I love hearing people talk about them. So interesting. Did you know that Ebert gave thumbs up to Garfield? And he gave a bigger thumbs up to Garfield 2: Tale of Two Kities. Good times…

BTW, you can rent both movies at Squirrel Video

b)
A big issue I think God’s given me insight into this year has been Sanctification. Before this year, I realized a few things:

- God demands that someone die to self when they become a Christian (Mark 8:34-35 and tonnes of other verses)
- When God comes into someone, they will necessarily change so that their lives will be proof of their salvation. (James 2:18 and tonnes of other verses)
- Saving faith is accompanied by true repentance (Luke 3:3 and tonnes of other verses)

But it has only been this year that I’ve understood how those things work together.

When God brings conviction and changes someone’s heart, they will have supernatural repentance that necessarily results in “Lordship”. Therefore, real repentance leads to real Lordship which leads to real change in action. So, the question of “Lordship Salvation” is really a question about whether people show genuine repentance.

I am now seeing that in evangelism, we need to see that people show genuine repentance. That means asking “Is this person actually sounding like they hate their sin, and want to turn from it to a Loving Saviour?” I’m afraid I’ve done a lot of evangelism without asking myself that question.

To hear people who have spent years talking about this stuff, listen to Paul Washer and, as Peddy affectionately calls him, Mac (after the first question).