Rebecca Writes

We tend to think of Martin Luther as the first reformer and there is a sense in which that is quite right. But there were at least a few men before Luther, men who lived before the historical event we call the Reformation, whose teachings were in line with those of the reformers of the 16th century. One of those pre-reformers was John Wycliffe, the man some call the morning star of the Reformation. 

If Wycliffe was a morning star, then Jan Hus was the other morning star, for he followed right along in Wycliffe’s footsteps. While Hus was studying at the University of Prague, he began to read and translate works of John Wycliffe brought back by students returning to Bohemia from Oxford, and he embraced the teachings found in them. Hus became a priest and the rector of the University of Prague, and he also began preaching at Bethlehem Chapel, a church in Prague that had been built for the specific purpose of supporting preaching in the language of the people.

His Beliefs
What things did Hus teach when he preached? 

There are other things he taught, but those are some of the most important ones.

His Excommunication, Trial, and Execution
As you might imagine, Hus and his followers (and by now, there were many) were not popular with the powers-that-be in the Church. Pope Alexander ordered that all of Wycliffe’s writings be burned and that Hus stop preaching. Hus did not do as he was told, and in 1411, he was excommunicated.

Eventually, after being imprisoned and tried before a church council in Constance, Hus was declared to be a heretic and sentenced to death. In his final declaration, he wrote:

On July 6, 1415, Hus was burned at the stake. The accounts of his death say that he died singing, “Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy on me.”

His Influence
The Hussite movement continued on after Hus’s death, eventually becoming the Moravian church. The Moravian church thrived under the patronage of Count Nicholas Von Zinzendorf, and it was from Zinzendorf that “the vision to take the gospel to the far corners of the globe” came. As a result, the Moravian church became a church known for it’s missionary work, particularly to the wild regions of the Americas. I know from my own experience that you will still find Moravian Churches in more than a few Alaskan villages.

And it wasn’t only among his direct spiritual descendents that Hus’s influence continued. Before he was martyred, Jan Hus supposedly said this:

You, this day, burn a goose, but a hundred years hence a swan will arise, whom you will not be able to roast or boil.

It’s a play on words, since Hus meant goose in the Czech language. I have my doubts about whether this quote is authentic, since the historical sources I consider most trustworthy don’t mention it. Nevertheless, it was just a little more than 100 years later that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses and began the reform that could not be stopped. Luther was quite willing to acknowledge that his teachings were Hus’s teachings.  “We are,” he said, “Hussites without knowing it.”

Hus may have considered himself to be a goose, but I prefer to think of him as the Bohemian morning star that heralded the light of the Reformation.

Oldest daughter left us today. By the third week in November she’ll be in South Africa working in an orphanage. Right now, she’s in Vancouver taking care of some business before she goes, and then she’ll spend a couple of weeks in Europe visiting WWII sites. (I’ve told you she’s  is a military history fanatic, right?)

She is very nervous to be travelling overseas for her first time, and going alone, but I’m sure she’ll be just fine. She was also very sad to be leaving us behind. Prayers for her would be appreciated.

So no post yesterday.  Probably only this post for today, too, since I’m busy working on a post for tomorrow’s Reformation Day Symposium. I’ll try to post this week’s theological term and Westminster Larger Catechism posts later in the week. 

Since we’re supposed to be teaching one another with hymns, I’ve been chosing hymns that teach us something about a particular Christian doctrine. This week’s featured doctrine taught in a hymn is the doctrine of propitiation.

Christ’s death was a propitiatory sacrifice. That means that his death turned the wrath of God that was due to us away from us, so if a hymn is going to teach propitiation, then it should probably mention God’s wrath, right? If you do a search in The Cyber Hymnal for the word wrath, you’ll find that almost all of them speak of God’s wrath only in the context of the final judgment, and the few that speak of God’s wrath in relation to Christ’s work are probably not going to be found in your church hymnal.

However, I can think of two recent hymns that teach about the propitiatory nature of Christ’s work, so I’ve chosen to feature one of those, just to prove that we don’t have to confine ourselves to 200-year-old hymns in order to teach one another in the songs we sing. This song lays propitiation right out for you: Christ became sin for us, bore the wrath due to us as penalty for our sin, and in that way propitiated God’s wrath and we are forgiven.

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought,
Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, Copyright © 2005, Thankyou Music

You’ve got to love a song with so many colons, semi-colons and dashes.

Here are a couple previous posts dealing with propitiation:

• Purposes of Christ’s Death, Romans 3: 24-25
  
• Propitiation: What Does it Mean…?

Any guesses about the other recent hymn that teaches propitiation?

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Precious Lord at joythruChrist
• For All the Saints at Magic Statistics
• How Good It Is to Thank the Lord at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 43, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• Out of the Deep I Call at Hiraeth
• Break Thou the Bread of Life at Seasoning of the Heart
• Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven at Thoughts from the Teahouse
• I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art at Whatever Things…
• Grace Greater Than Our Sin at Fish and Cans
• Update: My Jesus I Love Thee at Writing and Living
  

The first Jim Logan painting I saw was in the waiting room of the medical clinic when my oldest two were preschoolers. The painting was on the wall behind several chairs, 3 feet wide or so, and the waiting room was small, so there was no ignoring it.

That painting is not one of Logan’s that can be found on the internet, so I’ll have to describe it as I remember it and, since it’s a twenty-year-old memory, I guarantee I’ll get details wrong. What I won’t get wrong is the impression the painting gave. There are young children in a run down kitchen, the older making toast for the younger ones. On the kitchen table and around the kitchen are several empty bottles. It’s a picture of a young child caring for even younger children because the adults who ought to be caring for them couldn’t.

It was a powerful painting, but I wouldn’t have wanted it on my living room wall.

I can’t show you that painting, but I’ll show some others of Jim Logan’s work. His paintings, he says, “are snapshots of life in an Aboriginal community,” including, I suppose, Whitehorse’s Kwanlin Dun Village where he was once an Anglican lay missionary, and they “explore feelings of wanting to belong, about feeling abandoned, about living in poverty and of hope for something undefined.” I’d say they show us something, first of all, about the reality of the human condition since the fall, but you’d have to be blind not to see the image of God in there, too.

 

 

 

From The Great Exchange, by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington: 

The cross is not a mere first step toward spiritual development; is is the all-encompassing foundation for Christian growth. ..[I]t first provides complete forgivenss of past, present, and future sins, and then it becomes a means of the deliverance by which we are freed from bondage to sin….

 
By tying the transformation of the believer to the cross, Paul makes his point aboundantly clear: everything we need for life and eternity is provided by virture of Christ’s great atonement. Furthermore, in everything God is for us; he is for us in Christ wisdom instead of ignorance, justification instead of condemnation, sanctification instead of sinfulnees, and redemption instead of slavery. “[God] is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and santification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). In view of this, it is no wonder Paul is adamant and unwavering regarding the centrality of the cross of Christ. The fulfillment of every hope we have is blood bought by the atoning work of Christ on the Cross. And the work of Christ on the cross must remain our only hope.

Expect a review of this book to be posted here soon. 

I’m betting you’ve already read about it, but I’ll post the info here just in case you missed it. Tim Challies has put out notice that he will host another Reformation Day Symposium this year. From Tim:

…once again I’m asking you to consider blogging about the Reformation to celebrate Reformation Day. As I did last year, I’ll link to all of the posts from this site. And as I did last year, I’ll award prizes to the “best” entries (as judged by myself and likely a couple of other judges, and based on whatever subjective criteria we come up with).

You may want to reflect on a person, an event, or a particular point of theology. The topic is wide open, so long as it somehow ties in to Reformation Day. And remember, you do not need to be Reformed to appreciate the Reformation and all it stood for. If you do not have a blog of your own, but would still like to participate, why not ask another blogger if you can “guest” on his site that day.

And there be prizes! You’ll find more details here.

Immediately after the resurrection shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and men;[1] the day and hour whereof no man knows, that all may watch and pray, and be ever ready for the coming of the Lord.[2]

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• From The Belgic Confession, Articles 4 and 5:
  

We believe that the Holy Scriptures consist of two parts, namely, the Old and the New Testament, which are canonical, against which nothing can be alleged. These books are listed in the church of God as follows.

The books of the Old Testament: the five books of Moses, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther; Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The books of the New Testament: the four gospels, namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles; the thirteen letters of the apostle Paul, namely, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon; the letter to the Hebrews; the seven other letters, namely, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude; and the Revelation to the apostle John.

We receive all these books, and these only, as holy and canonical, for the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our faith. We believe without any doubt all things contained in them, not so much because the church receives and approves them as such, but especially because the Holy Spirit witnesses in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they contain the evidence thereof in themselves; for, even the blind are able to perceive that the things foretold in them are being fulfilled.

•  From In Understanding Be Men by T. C. Hammond:

We need to remember that the books were canonical (by reason of their own intrinsic nature or in virtue of the authority of the writers) before they were collected into a Canon as we know it. The production of a list of ‘official’ writings does not make those writings any more ‘official’ than they were originally. Similarly, it is necessary to keep distinctly in mind that whereas ‘inspiration’ relates to the divine control of the writers, the Canon relates to the number of such writers which were admitted to be ‘inspired’. One writer has aptly remarked, ‘The Bible is not an authorized collection of books, but a collection of authorized books.’

• From J. I. Packer in Truth and Power:
  

Learn more

1. The Canon of Scripture from Blue Letter Bible
   
2. The Old Testament Canon, The New Testament Canon (mp3) by Wayne Grudem
   
3. A collection of articles from Bible Research
   

Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This W0rld by J. Mark Bertrand

I grew up in a Christian household that analyzed everything. We analyzed ideas in conversations at the dinner table, during chats in the car on the way to town, and in visits with friends in the living room. During these discussions, a belief would be held up to the light, so to speak, and turned over, examined, to see where (or if) it fit into our system, as if it were a puzzle piece that may or may not fit into a half-done jigsaw puzzle. If the discussions in the living room carried on after I was sent upstairs to bed, I’d listen in from the top of the stairs, following the reasoning as well as I could.

So although we never used the term worldview, since it was not commonly used in Christian circles then, I grew up with a basic concept of worldview thinking. When the Christian worldview bandwagon came along and I read a little about it, my first thought was  “ho-hum.” I’d been examining other people’s worldviews and finding them wanting for years, and I wasn’t afraid to ask the sort of questions that showed the incoherence of their systems. Yet, while the exercise was helpful in firming up my own faith, I couldn’t point to one person who had come over to my worldview, even when answering my questions tied them up in knots as they tried to make a coherent system out of their incoherent one. And as I understood it from my surface level reading on the concept of worldview, the whole point was to show how my faith made more sense than their ideology in order to bring them over to my side. Well, it hadn’t proved to be  a sure-fire weapon for me!

This leads me to one of the reasons I like Mark Bertrand’s Rethinking Worldview: he takes the concept of worldview thinking beyond the area of apologetics (where I believe it is helpful, but less so than some have made it out to be), into other areas of our lives as Christians. His conviction is that

any treatment of the intellectual dimensions of worldview that doesn’t lead into a discussion of how to profitably live and speak in this world is incomplete.

In order to be valuable to us, worldview thinking “must help make us better believers and doers of the truth.”

This book, then, examines worldview thinking in order to take us into areas every Christian should want to go. We are lead as we read to consider a few things we may not have examined previously in the light of a biblical worldview, like sanctification and suffering and even our reading.

Toward the end of the book there is a section that looks at worldview thinking as it relates to Christian imagination and the art that flows from it.

We were made to worship God with the whole of our being, and part of that being is creative and imaginative.

But how do we worship God with our imagination? It’s clear that as an artist himself, this is an area Mark Bertrand has thought through carefully. This section will be of special interest to you if you enjoy creative work, either as an artist or as someone who values the creative work of others.

Style-wise, Rethinking Worldview is much like a chat over the dinner table. Mark Bertrand makes good use of his storytelling ability in raising his questions and making his points, so you shouldn’t be bored or struggle to understand as you are reading. If you are new to the idea of worldview thinking and you’re a little scared that it will all be too difficult for you to understand, this book is a good place to start. Or maybe you’re more like me: You think you’ve heard it all before and you’re a little jaded. I’d be willing to bet that you, too, will find a few things here to make you rethink what you thought you knew.

The Amazon.com page for Rethinking Worldview says it has not yet been released, although I’ve been told its release date was October 12. However, you can still preorder the book there. At Good News and Crossway, it is available to ship within 2-3 business days.

J. Mark Bertrand blogs in several places. There’s his regular blog, jmarkbertrand.com; his book blog, Rethinking Worldview; his blog about writing and publishing, Write About Now; and his blog on Bibles, Bible Design and Binding.