A Blogger’s Credo

A really good question was asked of me recently: “Why do you write?”  What’s the point? Why spend hours piecing together thoughts and arguments? What am I trying to prove?

These are good questions for every blogger to ask of him/her self. Is blogging the 21st century way of yelling in the Roman forum? Trying to vie for attention?  Everyone seems to have a thing to say. Some little gem that he thinks he needs to share with the world. And you know what?  That’s fine.  God works in peoples’ lives and hearts and minds, and it’s a wonderful thing to share with the world.

But many times blogging becomes a way of showing off the gem for our own aggrandizement, even if the supposed prize happens to actually be a chunk of fools gold. I suppose it’s a tendency I have as well, and I need to watch myself.

So I’m outlining a sort of blogger’s credo (though not technically a credo, which means “I believe”).  Specifically for those of us who write about the Bible and theology.  And for people who don’t have blogs but take part in forum discussions, I think this is equally valid.

1. I will write first to glorify God.  If this is lacking, then what is the point?  Theology is the study of God, His revelation, and work of Providence.  If we study this for any reason other than to glorify the name of Him who reveals Himself, then we are deceiving ourselves and wasting our time at best.
2. I will write to edify the brethren.  If I am writing for any other reason then it’s just a self-indulgent exercise.  This should also make me think twice about what I post.  If I write something that is completely correct in an academic sense but has no purpose for edification and building up of the Church, I should not post it.
3. I will not write dogmatically about something I have not personally studied at length.  The dogmatically thing is to allow for asking questions on a blog.  Posts to the effect of, “I’ve been studying such and such passage, and it got me thinking . . .”  I think are okay, as long as they really are what they appear to be.
4. I will write with a spirit of humility.  So I’ve studied a passage enough to sort of know the issues.  But I’m building on the work of the great men who went before me.  Little of what I have to say is original, and if it is totally original, then that is probably because it is wrong.  We bloggers must be open to correction and criticism.
5. I will discuss in a spirit of charity and Christian love.  Excepting the first point, I think this is the most important.  Of course, it’s tied to glorifying God, for if the people of God begin to get at each other’s throats over minor interpretive scruples, then what testimony is that to the world?  No one is going to be impressed with our theological boxing matches.  Let it not be said that the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of us.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Any one who passes by here and reads this can hold me to it.  And I think I’m going to take a little break from blogging for a little while.  At least from theology.  I need a little breather.

1 Corinthians 13:1-2
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

The Lord’s Prayer: A Puritan’s Doorway to Traditional Liturgy (Part 1)

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

On Earth as it is in Heaven. What exactly does that mean? Of course it has an eschatological dimension. We look forward to the day when all of the earth will be subdued to Christ and His rule of law will be complete and absolute. This same dimension finds expression in the Eucharist, because our communion declares the Lord’s death, looking forward to the day when He will return in glory. At the Lord’s table we look forward to the blessed marriage supper of the Lamb.

However, like the Eucharist, these words are relevant to the Church for the here and now. If we are to continually pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” should we not seek to see God’s will done in the present? As the Church disciples nations, as it teaches families and individuals how to relate to one another as Christians ought, it is becoming God’s instrument for the fulfillment of this prayer in the world, one step at a time.

“On Earth as it is in Heaven.”

If this is an end toward which we have a part in working, that phrase sort of demands that we ask a question, doesn’t it? If we seek to see God’s will done here as it is in heaven, then what are we looking for?  In other words, just how is it done in heaven? Instead of writing the petition off as some vague wishful hope for a future reality, perhaps we should look at the passages of Scripture that give us lucid pictures of how things are done Heaven and . . . well, do that on Earth!

When we petition God to give us our daily bread (probable direct reference to the Eucharist aside), we do not expect God to simply drop bread out of the sky. We must work for that bread, trusting God to ultimately provide. In the same way, when we petition that God’s will might be done here as it is in Heaven, this does not mean that we ought to sit passively by just waiting for it to happen. Especially when we are given such clear visions of how it is to be done.

I suggest that the clearest view we have of the heavenly workings is in the Book of Revelation. It reveals things to us about Heaven that are only hinted at or shown in glimpses throughout the rest of the Bible, though there are many other passages that we can and should draw from to form a clear picture of what is done in heaven and how it relates to Christians in the New Covenant. And the context of Revelation is the Lord’s Day. John receives the vision as he is “in spirit.”

From that point on, the great theme throughout the book—what we see first and foremost happening in Heaven—is worship. Surely this has direct application for how our worship on Earth ought to look. When we read of the hosts of heaven—the angels, the saints, the martyrs, the elders—praising God, glorifying Christ, eating a feast, etc., we need to take note of those things. Just as importantly, we ought to take note of how they do those things. If the worship of Heaven looks like that . . . how does that inform our worship on Earth, if we pray as Christ taught us to pray: “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”?

I was planning to do this all in one post, but I think it would best be spread over several, point by point. So let this serve as my introduction. Through the next several posts in this series (or however many it takes) I want to show that if we remain faithful to our Reformed heritage of Sola Scriptura, we will find that the Biblical text not only doesn’t forbid traditional liturgies of the Church, but also properly leads us into a rich form of liturgical worship, which has been grasped and developed by the Church throughout the last 2,000 years.

And lest we get stuck in man’s tradition, we must understand that as the Spirit guides the Church to maturity, our worship should move from glory to greater glory, and our liturgy must be progressively purified, refined like gold, and brought closer and closer to that which we will be doing for eternity in the presence of Christ. This maturation has been taking place throughout the last 2,000 years, and we should expect to see it continue. God’s Spirit is not done with the Church.

Why “Eucharist”?

I can understand why some may be a bit wary of using the word Eucharist to refer to what has been called the “Lord’s Table,” the “Communion,” or the “Lord’s Supper.” After all, isn’t Eucharist a Roman Catholic term? Don’t we want to distance ourselves from doctrines like transubstantiation, the veneration of the host, and a great many other abuses of the Roman Church in history?

Well, yes, we should distance ourselves from those things. But we should not throw out what is really a Biblical name for the memorial meal that Christ gave to the Church. “Eucharist” simply means “Thanksgiving” in Greek. It is used to refer to the Lord’s Supper because at the last supper before his passion, Jesus took bread and broke it, “εὐχαριστήσας” — “having given thanks.”

In this way, Eucharist became the Church’s word to refer to the Supper, and more specifically to the Prayer of Thanksgiving itself. It is a good word, and more importantly a Biblical word. As we should strive not only for Sola Scriptura, but also Tota Scriptura, and since it is a good and Biblical tradition of the Church under the guidance of the Spirit in history, I think Reformed Christians can be peaceful about referring to Jesus’ memorial meal as the Eucharist.

There are two good reasons for calling the meal Eucharist: By calling it thus, we claim and acknowledge our historic roots in the ancient Church, and we show ourselves to be in solidarity with the saints of the last 2,000 years. And, we get to reclaim the Biblical meaning of the word, giving us an inroad to address historical abuses and misconceptions while assuring other orthodox Christians that we are, indeed, talking about the same thing.

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