Is it possible to be frustrated by circumstances, annoyed by difficulties, concerned about possibilities, and cheerful at the same time? Not only is it possible, to whatever extent the former may be appropriate, to the same extent the latter must be mandatory. We often speak of Christian joy as an attitude based on objective, transcendent, and immutable realities. In other words, Christians rejoice in all circumstances because God’s Word and work is true and unchangeable. Our peace, joy, and hope are grounded in who God is, what Christ has done, and what he has promised to his people. Christian joy is a conviction, decision, and disposition, not an emotion. We can and should rejoice no matter our present circumstances or how we feel at any given point in time. But we must be careful not to divorce this spiritual joy from temporal and personal emotions. The two are distinguishable, but not separable; they are different, but closely related. Christian joy is a decision, expressed in action, and it will transform our emotions.
The Christian’s joy is an attitude that gives priority to what is eternally true over whatever may seem, feel, or even be true at a given moment. My shoulder is sore, but Christ endured the pain of Hell and quenched God’s wrath against my sin forever. Both are true. Which truth will dominate my heart and mind and determine my attitude today? My child fell ill with the same chronic affliction that has been a defining feature of my life for more than 31 years, but Jesus has promised to return and put an end to the curse, to heal every sickness among his people, and to wipe away every tear from our eyes. Both are true. Which truth will I meditate upon each day? I sometimes feel as though my work as a minister accomplishes very little, that hours spent in study, teaching, and pastoral care make almost no difference in the lives of God’s saints, that these labors are no more than beautiful music that people love to listen to but which makes no difference in their lives, but the Lord has urged his servants on to steadfastness, called us to labor for the glory of God and not for earthly fame or fruit, and assured us that no labor in Christ’s Name will ever be in vain. No matter how I may sometimes feel about ministerial labors, I must choose whether to walk by faith or by feelings. Faith is determined by God’s Word, not the ups and downs of my emotional experience. Walking by feelings makes my ever-changing emotional state the arbiter of truth and determiner of reality rather than the revealed Word of God. Who knows what will be true on any given day if my feelings decide it.
I did not inherit a cheerful disposition as a biological birthright, and I can’t say it was modeled particularly well in my formative years. But God has called his saints to joy, not to lives of sorrow, and so even though there must be tribulations and many tears will be shed on the way to Zion, believers have a duty to fight for joy and to deliberately delight in the things of God. When our complaints are set in the context of Scripture and the historical experience of God’s people, most are revealed to be pathetic and rather petty. I do not mean that we should be naively perky and oblivious to the real suffering in our world. It is not spiritual to laugh when we ought instead to weep. “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
We will have tribulation in this life, but we can and should be of good cheer in the midst of it. How is this possible? By remembering and rejoicing in the fact our Savior has overcome the world. This is not naive optimism; it is Christian optimism or cheerful realism. Jesus has come and has overcome sin, death, and sorrow. That changes everything. The world is not getting worse, even if certain segments of human society are or appear to be. The world is not going to Hell in a handbasket, only the ungodly are being sent there. Jesus is keeping the world for his Church and preparing a renovation project like you have never seen. Our bodies may accumulate aches and pains, but this is only the approaching death of a decaying form that will soon be reborn and renewed in immortality. Our hope is not escape but resurrection. We do not surrender the field to the enemy; we wait for the King who comes to claim and clear the ground he has already won.
Do we really think our pains, political chaos, or public degradation are worthy of comparison with what Christ has already begun and will one day conclude? We should be realistic, yes, and not oblivious to the real suffering, sin, and sorrows that characterize our pilgrim life. But we should also be cheerful, even when troubled. Not embittered, not depressed, and certainly not fearful. I may be annoyed by my present circumstances, but by God’s grace I can and should be cheerfully annoyed and able to smile in the darkness because the morning has dawned. --JME
On this week’s Tuesday Q&A I will be discussing a couple of questions on Christology and the Person of Christ, specifically on the eternal generation of the Son referred to in passages like Psalm 2:7, John 1:14 and 18, and implicitly in John 5:26. I dealt with these issues over the last few years in a chapel talk at a local Christian school, as part of a course in Christian doctrine in a homeschool coop, and while preaching through the Gospel of John. Since this is a complex and very important topic, I thought it might be helpful to adapt some of the written materials from those prior sessions into a blog post that could be referenced in conjunction with the recorded Q&A. Some of these ideas are difficult to wrap our minds around, but it is important that we learn to think properly about the Person of Christ and what we confess as a church in the ancient creeds. This is not written for an undergraduate or seminary level discussion but is an attempt to explain the eternal generation of the Son at a basic level understandable to interested church members without formal education in theology.
As we study Christology, it is very important that we think biblically, theologically, and historically. The ancient creeds and historic confessions of the Church are invaluable resources for understanding Scripture and the theology which is derived from it. So many Christians today act almost as if they are the first people ever to read the Bible, but this is far from the case. The Christian faith has been believed, affirmed, studied, and lived for two thousand years, and while man’s work is always fallible and prone to error, we all should recognize that we are standing on the shoulders of giants as we read the Scriptures, and we should be willing to listen and learn from those who have gone before us.
In this article we are discussing one of the phrases describing the Son of God in the Nicene Creed: “begotten of the Father before all worlds.” These words are very important in the history of the Church. They played a very significant role in guarding the true doctrine of Christ and the Trinity from false, heretical doctrines which arose in the 3rd and 4th centuries. This part of the creed refers to the doctrine of theeternal generationof the Son. First, I want to help you understand what the doctrine of eternal generation is. Second, I want to explain why the Church has received it as a true doctrine of Scripture. Third, I want to show you why it is important both for the Church’s faith and for each of our lives.
What is the Doctrine of Eternal Generation?
We have to be very careful when we are talking about the Doctrine of God including the doctrine of the Trinity and doctrines like the one we are considering today. This is because we are finite creatures, and God is the infinite Creator. He has stooped down and revealed himself to us in simple words that we can understand, but none of us can fully comprehend the magnitude of who God is or grasp the depths of the truth concerning him. It is very easy to fall into error by thinking God is like us. He is not. We are made in certain respects like him, but he is not like us in any respect. The similarity and comparison only works in one direction.
Eternal generation has been confessed by the Church since ancient times but is prone to great misunderstanding. This doctrine does not mean the Father gave birth to the Son as a human father does with a human son. There is no time when the Son was not; there never was a point when the Son came into existence. The Prologue to John’s Gospel, among many other texts, settles that issue. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). In the beginning, the Son already was. He did not begin in the beginning. He is without beginning or end (Heb. 1:10; Rev. 22:12-13).
The doctrine of eternal generation is the way in which the early Church clarified the precise relationship of the Father and the Son. Since there is one God who is the “same in substance, equal in power and glory” (WSC 6), we have to wonder what distinguishes the persons of the Godhead. The Trinity is not the Father plus the Son plus the Spirit, because that would mean there were three gods. The Trinity is also not one god who is manifest sometimes as a Father, sometimes as a Son, and sometimes as the Spirit. That would be Modalism—an ancient heresy which has never been more hilariously refuted than by our friends at Lutheran Satire. Eternal generation is the doctrine which helps us distinguish the Father and the Son. They cannot be separated, because there is only one God and both share the divine nature equally, but they are not the same person (hypostasis) because one is eternally begotten and one is not.
Eternal generation means that the Son’s personhood, his existence as God, flows from the divine essence of the Father, not so that there are two essences, but so that they share the same, divine essence. Essence is the “what-ness” of the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are God: equally, eternally, and unchangeably. The early Church believed the Son is in no way inferior to or substantially different from the Father. He is not a lesser, younger, or subordinate god. He is God in all the fullness and power and glory of the Father. And that is what we should believe as well.
Remember, this is not a generation that takes place in time. The Son is eternally generated. He always has been and always will be. It is spiritual, not physical. We may wrestle to understand this category—and a great deal more can and should be said in explaining it—but even if we cannot perfectly or fully understand it, we dare not discard it. It is too important to do that.
Why Do We Believe Eternal Generation is a True and Biblical Doctrine?
Eternal generation is a way of stating in theological terms the relationship of the Father and Son that is described in Scripture. The Bible describes these two persons of the Godhead as the Father and the Son. This language draws a comparison to relationships we know, even though the reality of God’s relationship is categorically different: it is eternal and divine and perfect; ours are not.
The Bible uses the term beget (γεννάω) to describe the Father’s relationship to the Son (Prov. 8:25; cf. 1Cor. 1:30). In John 5:26 Jesus said: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” The early Christians who wrote the Nicene Creed were native Greek speakers and very close to the time of the New Testament writings, so they understood the implications of these biblical descriptions much better than many do today. They understood Jesus is the unique or only-begotten (μονογενής) Son of God because he is eternally begotten by the Father. This is why since ancient times the Church has believed and confessed these truths:
The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And in this Trinity none is afore, nor after another; none is greater, or less than another.
But the whole three persons are co-eternal, and co-equal.
So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
Analogies are very dangerous things, and we should not attempt to offer analogies for the Trinity or most aspects of the Doctrine of God. However, in the interests of making this easier to understand, I am going to share an analogy with you from the ancient Church. The great theologian and Church father Augustine wrote a series of sermons on the Gospel of John in which he discussed these truths. Listen to what he says about eternal generation in commenting on John 5:
How, says some one, has eternal begot eternal? As a temporary flame generates a temporary light. The generating flame is coeval [co-equal] with the light which it generates: the generating flame does not precede in time the generated light; but from the moment the flame begins, from that moment the light begins. Show me flame without light, and I show you God the Father without Son. Accordingly, the Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing, implies, that for the Son to see and to be begotten of the Father, is the same thing. His seeing and His substance are not different; nor are His power and substance different. All that He is, He is of the Father; all that He can is of the Father; because what He can and what He is is one thing, and all of the Father.
This is a biblical truth which stretches far beyond the grasp of our limited minds. God’s truth so far exceeds our knowledge that we must say, “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33)
What Difference Does Eternal Generation Really Make?
Does it really matter? It all seems fairly obscure, hard to understand, and impractical. There have been some Christians over the last several years who have thought the doctrine of eternal generation is too difficult, too confusing, and that the Church would be better off without it. Not long ago a very prominent evangelical theologian, Wayne Grudem, whose work has influenced many, said, “Quite honestly, I find it impossible to say whether or not I agree with ‘eternal generation’ until someone explains, in ordinary English, what he means by it (not just what it does not mean).” It is all the more remarkable that this statement was written by the man who wrote what may be the most widely read and used textbook on Systematic Theology among evangelicals today. But let me assure you: we are not better off without the doctrine of eternal generation, nor can we downplay it in this way without risking great harm to the Church! The early Church knew how important this doctrine was and is, and the modern Church needs to know it as well. You are part of that Church, so you need to be diligent to understand why this doctrine really matters. Let me suggest two reasons as we conclude.
First, the doctrine of eternal generation matters because correct theology is important for the existence and health of the Church. If the Church changes its doctrine of God, if we confuse the relationship of the Father and the Son, then it will not be long before the Church ceases to be the Church and becomes something else. The Bible warns us not to believe in “another Jesus” (2Cor. 11:3-4); we should be concerned about not believing in another eternal Son. The eternal Son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us is the same Son who is eternally begotten by the Father. If we remove that doctrine, we will begin to believe all kinds of other untrue things about the Son, and we will no longer believe in the eternal Son who is the Savior.
Second, the doctrine of eternal generation matters because good theology helps us think better about God which helps us to worship him, love him, and trust him more. The less you know about God, the less motivated you will be to serve him. But the more you know about him, the more you will find your heart warmed and filled as you try to imagine the greatness, the glory, and the goodness of the eternal God. The Son is God, in every respect, in no way less than or inferior to the Father. But this Son chose to become a man as well; he took upon himself a real human body and a human nature. He endured temptation and weakness and pain and death, and he did it not because he needed to, but because we needed him to. We could not be saved in any other way. He did it because God loves his Church with a love none of us deserve. That is a marvelous thing. --JME
NOTES:
[1] τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων / de Patre natum ante omnia saecula.
[2] The Athanasian Creed, lines 20-27 http://reformed.org/documents/index.html.
[3] Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 20.8 http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701020.htm.
[4] Wayne Grudem “Another Thirteen Evangelical Theologians Who Affirm the Eternal Submission of the Son to the Father,” Reformation 21 http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2016/06/another-thirteen-evangelical-t.php.
Twice I have had a suspected exposure to COVID, twice I have been tested, twice I have quarantined while awaiting results, and now twice I have been cleared. Early Monday morning the family I visited over the weekend received an all-clear from their COVID test, and a few hours later my own results confirmed the same. Evidently there are still some things that can make a person ill besides the Coronavirus. We are relieved, on multiple fronts. First and foremost, we are thankful the affected family is negative and hope the symptoms experienced over the weekend will not become severe or extend for as long as COVID infections sometimes do. Second, we are relieved my test also was clear. If theirs had been positive and mine had been negative, I would have felt obligated to obtain a second negative test before traveling to Presbytery later this week. But since both of our tests showed no evidence of COVID, I feel comfortable sealing myself into a metal tube and breathing recycled air with a group of strangers while flying to southern California. (I may have COVID by the time I disembark the plane, but at least I won’t bring it on the plane with me.) Third, we are happy my COVID test came back so quickly. My first some months ago took exactly 14 days. This one took less than 30 hours. For all of these blessings and many more, we sincerely thank God.
At this point some might be thinking I dodged a bullet, again. Despite my obvious foolishness in visiting ICU rooms and skilled nursing facilities to minister to residents, I have managed to escape multiple times unscathed. God alone knows how many times his secret providence kept me safe from much nearer misses and more serious scrapes. But I assure you I never dodged the bullet. I wouldn’t know how. It’s not like bullets can be faked out by juking and jiving, and I’m much too inflexible to pull off a realtime back-bending stunt like a messiah figure in a sci-fi film. I have never dodged any of the bullets the world, my enemies, and our mutual adversary have fired at me. But by God’s grace, this time as often before, I was spared.
First Kings 22 is a remarkable story which features one of Scripture’s greatest prophets and the death of one of its most villainous villains. King Ahab of Israel proposed to King Jehoshaphat of Judah that they team up to recapture Ramoth Gilead from the Syrians. Ahab realized he was not the most popular fellow in Syria, so he suggested that Jehoshaphat wear his royal robes while Ahab disguised himself as a common soldier. Jehoshaphat--kind-hearted, unsophisticated, not the sharpest arrow in the quiver, southerner that he was--thought this was a splendid idea, so while he put on his fine apparel, with the special red circle on the front and back of his robe, Ahab put on nondescript armor, a helmet, and climbed into a chariot, the ancient equivalent of rolling into battle inside a tank. Sure enough, the Syrian soldiers were particularly interested in identifying Ahab that day. He was the only prize worth finding. When the Syrians saw Jehoshaphat, they assumed it was the king of Israel. They gave chase like a mad sea captain after a white whale, but when they saw it was not Ahab, they lost interest and turned back. About this time a Syrian warrior named Random Archer drew his bow and fired an arrow into the Israelite lines. The arrow flew into Ahab’s chariot, slid between the joints of his armor, and pierced him deeply, inflicting a mortal wound. What an incredible shot! R. Archer must have been one of the most masterful marksmen in the history of the world. But actually, the Bible says he drew the bow “at random.” In other words, he fired blindly. He didn’t aim at anyone in particular. He just released an arrow at the enemy hoping it would hit someone. Sure enough, it did.
Now you may say that was a lucky shot or that R. Archer was a better artilleryman than he thought, but neither luck nor the human operator had anything to do with it. That arrow went where God told it to, and that day, he told it to bury itself in Ahab. Ahab couldn’t dodge it, even if he had seen it coming. It had his name on it, and no evasive maneuver could thwart its deadly purpose. There was not an arrow, spear, or sword that day that could harm King Jehoshaphat, no matter how skillful the warrior who wielded it. And there wasn’t a piece of armor, battlefield vehicle, or bodyguard that could save Ahab from certain death. God had made the appointment, and Ahab would keep it.
God’s servants aren’t always spared injury from the arrows and bullets fired by the enemy. Good King Josiah later died on the field of battle. Almost all of Yahweh’s prophets and apostles had their lives ended violently at the hands of godless men. Serving Christ is no guarantee you will not fall in battle. On the contrary, it guarantees you will be sent there and have arrows and bullets sent with malice in your direction. You cannot dodge them, so don’t bother trying to figure out how. You can usually tell you are nearing your mission target when the antiaircraft fire begins punching holes in your plane. The good news is that until the moment God has appointed, the bullets the enemy fires cannot harm you. They are lousy shots. Like Storm Troopers, they couldn’t hit the broadside of a Star Destroyer.
You can trust God to guide the enemy fire, to lead you safely through the fusillade, and not to allow any harm to come to you, even in death, except what he will use for his glory and your good. This is the confidence we have before him. The enemy’s fury and fire never was what endangered us. It was God’s wrath we justly faced and should have rightly feared. But Jesus took that barrage on himself. He quenched the fury of God’s wrath against our sin, and there is no longer any judgment for those who trust in him as Savior and Lord. So don’t worry about dodging bullets. They obey the direction of a higher power. God’s saints don’t dodge bullets; the enemy’s bullets dodge the saints of God. --JME
Here I am at home on the Lord’s Day, again, not because I am sick, not because a member of my family has proven to be, but because of a potential exposure to COVID and caution while awaiting test results. This is the second time this has happened this year. I hope it is the last. But it may not be. The truth is any one of us could be exposed to COVID or any number of other dangerous pathogens on almost any day of the week. I interact with countless people from Monday to Saturday, some in close proximity, and not all of them masked. I could easily contract COVID or the flu or pink eye or head lice from any number of sources or the bipedal petri dishes known as children. But Saturday afternoon a pastoral house call placed me in proximity to someone who thought they had a simple head cold. We stayed more than 6 feet apart the entire time. I didn’t even give them a fist bump of fellowship or that weird chicken wing thing all of the older folks at church want me to do. When my host spiked a fever not long after my departure and a trip to Urgent Care warned that the symptoms sounded a lot like COVID, I was informed and the elders had to make a decision on a Saturday evening about my participation on the Lord’s Day, which is how I came to worship at home with my family this morning wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts. (You’ll be glad to know it was a Christian t-shirt with the text of John 1:1 printed on the front in Greek.)
I confess that I am more than a little fatigued and frustrated with our continuing COVID-craziness. I don’t doubt the virus is real and constitutes a real threat to the health and wellbeing of a certain percentage of the population. I have friends and family members who have been ill with it. I have presided at a funeral which resulted from it. But panic-stirring by the media, dubious reporting of cases numbers and deaths, and opportunistic overreach by government authorities in the midst of the “pandemic” make it hard to accept the ongoing level of popular fear concerning sickness. As hard as it may be to believe, some people still get sick from illnesses other than COVID. Some people cough because they have allergies. And most people who contract COVID--the overwhelming majority, in fact--will have very mild symptoms, if any, and recover fully and relatively quickly. God appointed the day of our birth and the hour and exact means of our death long before any of us came into this world (Ps. 139:16). He may have commissioned COVID to kill some of us, but it is certain the virus cannot change in any respect his original plan.
There are terrible dangers at present, but infection by COVID is among the least of them. There is the danger of anxiety and fear, constant worry about our health and lives, as if this will preserve us from harm or help us in any way. Your blood pressure may be in greater danger from worrying about COVID than your lungs are from the virus itself. There is the danger of fear causing us to withdraw from each other, making us reluctant to love, connect, and support when and where our brethren and neighbors need us to. It is not surprising that domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicides have all spiked since the COVID crisis, lockdowns, and social distancing began. There is also the danger of callous carelessness, of arrogance masquerading as faith which prompts us to behave foolishly and so cause harm to those most vulnerable around us. I interact every week with a number of elderly persons, some in their 80s and 90s, and at least one who is 102. Of course it is possible God decreed long ago that I would be the germ carrier to transmit fatal disease to one of these persons, but I would rather assume he appointed me the careful, thoughtful pastor to love, pray with, and encourage them as a herald of Christ rather than a harbinger of death. I have a social responsibility to my neighbor, and even if the risks are small, I don’t randomly fire guns into the air since what goes up must eventually come down, and who knows on whose head it may land.
Last night when we made the decision that I would stay home today, I was not happy. It was not forced upon me. I made the decision, with the ruling elders’ counsel and blessing. But I was not happy about it then, and I am not happy about it now. (Just ask my wife. I’ve been in a bad mood ever since. On second thought, don’t ask her. Just go on believing I am never grumpy.) I could rationalize being in the assembly. I could stay ten feet away from everyone. The chance of my infection is small. We don’t even know the person I met with has the virus. Maybe we’re all worrying about nothing! But if I did contract the virus, and if someone else at the church became ill, even if not as a result of contact with me, it would be reasonable to ask why I didn’t simply stay home. So I did, and even if I am not happy about it, I don’t doubt it was the right thing to do in this case.
Now let’s take that rationale one step further back. Why didn’t I simply stay home yesterday rather than making a house call when someone had a cold? The family made it clear they would be willing to talk on the phone or over Zoom. It’s not as though I had to be there to shake hands or hug as we prayed; we didn’t have any physical contact. We could have stayed miles apart and simply touched our computer screens in a gesture of e-fellowship. I visit and pray with people by phone and video every week, and I’m sure I will continue to do so. But God called me to be a pastor, and shepherds can’t protect, feed, and lead their flock by digital interface from the safety of headquarters. A shepherd sleeps in the field with his sheep. He faces the same weather, the same predators, and the same rough terrain that the flock must endure. I suppose I could create a policy not to make house calls if anyone is sick, even if they think it is only a cold. But that will make it difficult to answer calls from the hospital to come and minister to strangers. They never seem to go to the hospital when they are well, and they rarely call an unknown pastor to come and pray for them until they are dying.
If we assume every sniffle is COVID, we will live constantly in an unhealthy (and sinful) state of fear. If we disregard credible symptoms when they appear, then we endanger our neighbor in an irresponsible (and sinful) way. Both I and the family I visited were trying to navigate competing concerns yesterday. They were not irresponsible to ask their pastor to come, and I remain unconvinced I was irresponsible to go. Our society conditions us to assign blame whenever something unfortunate or inconvenient happens, but this is foolish and unprofitable. We should rather take reasonable precautions, trust each outcome is governed by the sovereign providence of God, and live with reverent (not reckless) abandon.
We will know in a day or two whether there was really any danger to my attending worship today. If there was not, some will second guess my decision to stay home. Some are probably already second guessing the choices that put me potentially in harm’s way. I sympathize with your frustration. I always second guess everything. But that is no more commendable or useful than the person who has no rearview mirror and never re-examines his choices or learns anything from his mistakes. You cannot drive safely forward if you only ever look in the mirror behind you, and if you never look in the mirror behind you, you are the kind of driver who will run over debris, dogs, and other drivers to the detriment of your own journey and those around you. Listen, look, learn, but continue to live. The life God calls us to is an adventure. Meditating on fear and frustration will only be an impediment to living that adventure with joyful faith.--JME
Someone has been vandalizing Trump-Pence road signs in Apache Junction. The first time they spray painted “Tax Cheat” across the placard, communicating more about the artist’s understanding of economics than anything about the candidates being advertised. The sign was replaced, and a few days later it was spray painted again, this time with one word: “Clown.” I’m not sure if the artist was signing his work like a painter or expressing his support for performers which many people think are creepy. Before that sign could be replaced, another one a mile up the road was similarly vandalized. After those were exchanged, the first one was vandalized again for a third time, this time with an expression that was simultaneously too crude to print in a church newsletter and too obscure to be clear in its meaning. I’m still not sure what relationship was being drawn between a national fast food chain and prostitution. Clearly our local artist is too erudite for me. I’ll simply have to be content to live in the presence of creative genius and greatness.
Yesterday I saw cell phone video of two women in masks screaming in the faces of people who were holding Trump-Pence signs. Actually, they weren’t screaming. They were barking… like dogs. It was odd. I’m not sure if anyone in the crowd sought medical attention for them. It certainly seems like a call to the mental health authorities would be the neighborly thing to do.
You may think these are simply examples of bad or disordered behavior, but in fact they are what folks in the 21st century call political discourse and strategy. You may find them unpersuasive, but I have decided I am convinced. Not convinced to support their preferred candidate who they did not identify. Not convinced not to support the candidate whose roads signs and supporters have been the targets of their attention. No, I have become convinced that there are no political solutions to spiritual problems, and that’s most certainly what we have here: a spiritual problem. It might also be described as a lack of virtue, a dearth of propriety, or beastly behavior better suited to savages than to civilization. But sin makes you stupid, and while I can think of several other words that might describe our current climate, I can’t think of one more fitting.
I plan to vote on November 3rd, and I am sure many of you do as well. But every supplication you make to the God of heaven between now and then and after is immeasurably more powerful and important than any of our votes will be. We do not trust in princes, whether pious or profane. We do not hope in parties, whether virtuously or viciously aligned. We do not rest in electoral outcomes, which usually seem to be a choice between those that will destroy the nation by poisoning and those that will destroy it by a bullet to the brain. Our hope is in the Lord, even though a peaceful and righteous result may be impossible to imagine. Jesus is still Lord of all lords and King of all kings, no matter who sits in the White House, or controls the Senate, or makes judgments on the Supreme Court. That court isn’t supreme after all. Their decisions to justify violence against the unborn, sanction sodomy, and uphold a host of other intrusions upon God-given rights and offenses against God’s moral law is nothing but spray paint on a sign. Decrees of men which contravene the decree of God are nothing more than mad barking. It may seem ferocious, but don’t be alarmed. Eternity will prove its foolishness and vanity. The Lord reigns. Let the Church rejoice. --JME
For the last several years I have been a monthly chapel speaker at a local Christian school and have served as a judge for their senior thesis projects. I had the privilege of addressing the 2019 graduating class and managed to record the audio of that speech on my phone. I saved the recording but had not done anything with it since, but recently I decided to reformat it in order to post it to my personal YouTube page. The manuscript of my remarks are copied below. Even though it is not a piece of biblical exposition, it is an exhortation to love God with the mind by living an intellectual life. I hope some of you may find it useful and encouraging. --JME
Redeemer Christian School: 2019 Graduation Address
An Invitation to the Intellectual Life
Introduction
It is my privilege to congratulate Redeemer Christian School’s graduating class of 2019. This is a special occasion, not only for you but also for your families, your teachers, your mentors, and those who have loved, supported, encouraged, helped, and prayed for you throughout your childhood and adolescence. You have worked hard to achieve this success, but you have not worked alone. Tonight should not only be a moment to celebrate and praise you; it should also be a moment for each of you to praise and thank those who helped you get here and, above all, to praise and celebrate God for enabling the accomplishment that we gather to acknowledge and confer.
As students at Redeemer Christian School, you have been given the opportunity to learn math, science, history, language, and literature through the lens of a biblical worldview. You have not merely been given facts to recite on an exam. You have been taught ideas, the significance of which extend far beyond your education here. Indeed, many of these ideas will be with you and will continue to inform your thinking, values, and decisions for the rest of your life. You have been taught how to think, how to think critically and carefully about the world in which you live and the ideas you encounter. You have been taught how to read, not merely letters and phonemes, not in English or Latin, but how to read extensively and intensively, thoughtfully and interactively. You may realize this is an advantage to you. Some of you may have other experiences by which to compare your education here. But you cannot really know, not yet, how significant a gift you have been given. You have been given a foundation for an intellectual life, and as you complete high school and prepare to embark on the next phase of your journey, I want to encourage you, no matter what plans you have or where you may go, to pursue the intellectual life.
Defining the Intellectual Life
The intellectual life is not merely for those pursuing academic careers. It is not about formal education, advanced degrees, or being recognized by society or your peers as a scholar. The life of the mind is not limited by the kind of work you do, where you live, how much money you make, or how naturally intelligent you are. The intellectual life is not about what you do in life in terms of your job or career; it is about how you live your life as a rational, intelligent, Image-bearer of God.
You can work in a fast food restaurant, drive a garbage truck, or spend forty years in a job you hate and yet live an intellectual life. You may never attend college or decide to drop-out. You may choose to be a stay-at-home mom, or circumstances beyond your control may preclude the choices you wanted to make. You have completed high school, so you already have a head-start over me. A childhood illness caused me to fall behind in my fifth grade year. A lack of discipline caused me never to catch up. I did not complete my high school education but eventually decided to take my GED instead. But that has not stopped me from living an intellectual life.
The life of the mind is about living when most people are simply existing. It means paying attention to the world around you, thinking when most people are simply reacting to what goes on. The intellectual life is about engaging important ideas: thinking deliberately, carefully, critically. It is about reading good books, learning and growing every day, seeking to develop yourself not merely in an activity but as a person, growing in virtue as well as in skill, becoming competent not only in specific tasks but in wisdom which informs every decision. A person committed to the intellectual life is curious; he or she reads, questions, studies, contemplates, learns, and practices continually. She may be a polymath pursuing competence in many disciplines, or she may find one area of interest and devote her life to it. But whether it is math or music, languages or literature, science or a particular skill, the activity is only the vehicle for the perpetual pursuit of excellence.
The Intellectual Life as a Human Purpose
The life of the mind is only possible because human beings are made in the Image of God. This divine likeness includes the gifts of rationality, an immortal soul, and the capacity to know God and to partake of divine righteousness and holiness. We may share many biological traits with our neighbors in the animal kingdom, but we do not share their being. Homo sapiens, wise man, is distinguished from all other terrestrial life forms by a capacity for language, learning, creativity, and personal development that so far exceeds any other creature as to place man in a category alone.
Sadly, many human beings disregard this great gift, our capacity to learn, know, and grow. They do not value knowledge, wisdom, and virtue but likes, retweets, comfort, and a new Iphone. They faces are stuck in their phones, so how can they gaze at the glory displayed in the sky? They exist from one moment to the next, rising from bed no earlier than they have to in order to make it to work or school, leaving as soon as possible in order to have more free time for themselves, and then wasting that free time with various forms of mind-numbing media that are entertaining but slow cognitive function, reduce attention-span, and gradually turn homo sapiens into homo stultus.
Many young people are drawn to radical ideas. They are eager to rage against the machine, even if they do not really know what the machine does, why it is there, or how it operates. But this is living at the level of an animal, and an unintelligent one at that. A dog may tear apart the couch cushions and chew the table leg because he is agitated or bored. Humans ought to know better. I urge you to defy this culture, resist assimilation, and do the most radical thing possible: think. Spend your life reading and thinking, and you may become useful to others. At the very least you will ensure that you remain and become more human. As Socrates said in answer to his critics who eventually silenced him: “the greatest good of man is daily to converse about virtue,… [and] the life which is unexamined is not worth living” (Plato, Apology, 37-38).
The Intellectual Life as a Spiritual Discipline
The intellectual life is not just for people who enjoy books and thinking more than doing. The intellectual life is for followers of Jesus, all of whom, to a greater or lesser extent, are called to exercise their intellect in praise, meditation, and devotion to God.
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” (Matt. 22:35-37 NKJV)
How do we love God with the mind? We love him by engaging our minds in contemplating and adoring God, directing and sanctifying our thoughts to his glory and service. J. P. Moreland notes that “developing a Christian mind is part of the very essence of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.” This intellectual duty sets the Christian faith apart from all other religions.
“What is perhaps unique about Christianity is that it is a revelation that unabashedly also addresses itself to intellect. It recognizes that everyone, philosopher or not, needs to be properly directed to the highest things, to that to which we are ordered in the very structure of our being.” (James Schall, The Life of the Mind, 87)
We must learn to think Christianly to love God with the mind. As Harry Blamires explains:
“To think secularly is to think within a frame of reference bounded by the limits of our life on earth: it is to keep one’s calculations rooted in this-worldly criteria. To think christianly is to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man’s eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God.” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind, 44)
Mental engagement in the contemplation of God, study of literature and languages, engagement in music, art, and even seemingly mundane skills become an opportunity to perceive more fully and engage more reverently in life coram Deo, before the face of God.
“Study is itself a divine office, an indirect divine office; it seeks out and honors the traces of the Creator, or His images, according as it investigates nature or humanity.”
We must not neglect the spiritual aspect and orientation of the intellectual life, for as Sertillanges goes on to warn:
“Study carried to such a point that we give up prayer and recollection, that we cease to read Holy Scripture, and the words of the saints and of great souls--study carried to the point of forgetting ourselves entirely, and of concentrating on the objects of study so that we neglect the Divine Dweller within us, is an abuse and a fool’s game. To suppose that it will further our progress and enrich our production is to say that the stream will flow better if its spring is dried up.” (Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life, 29)
The Intellectual Life as a Lifelong Practice
Finally, the intellectual life must be seen as a lifelong practice, not a temporary project. Practice is the proper word here, because that is exactly what the pursuit involves: practice, not perfection, continual refinement by repetition, not completion of tasks for the sake of achievement. The intellectual life is a way of life, a discipline that can accompany you all of your days. If you view graduation as completing your education--or an undergraduate or graduate or terminal degree as a termination point of your intellectual journey--then you are not engaged in the life of the mind, only in an academic project. The life of the mind is not something we do at a particular point in time or for a particular end; it is the way one lives his/her life: reading, thinking, learning, and growing. As one of my favorite authors on this topic expresses it:
“Life is, to be sure, more than reading, but it is still not complete without our being ready to lose ourselves in a book that delights us.” (Schall, Life of the Mind, 110)
What is it the intellectual life pursues if not a diploma or a specific knowledge base or skill set? It is not pleasure that animates one’s reading and thinking and study; it is a passion for truth. As Schall notes, “The life of the mind is ultimately concerned with truth” (Life of the Mind, 144).
“The opposite of thinking is not ‘not to think at all.’ The opposite of thinking rightly is thinking wrongly. While it is true that we praise the being who has the natural capacity to think, what is important about thinking is not the faculty or process of thinking, but what is concluded, what is thought about, the truth that is affirmed.” (Schall, Life of the Mind, 144)
It is not enough to read good books, study new languages, play more music, and write significant thoughts. One must be driven to discover truth and willing to make the necessary distinctions between right and wrong, better and best in order to identify truth, beauty, and goodness.
Conclusion
Let me leave you with two bits of poetry that I think will be familiar to you. I hope they are already precious to you, and if not, I hope they will become so as you cross the threshold of this house and go on your journey. Both are from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. I hope you will consider them in the context of my remarks tonight, and if Tolkien would not object to my appropriation of his material, take them as analogies for the intellectual life.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
(Gandalf describing Strider to Frodo in a letter)
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
(“A Walking Song,” sung by Bilbo and Frodo at different times)
Do not chase what glitters. Seek for what is ancient and strong. Dig deep to discover the roots of man’s knowledge, culture, and virtues. And follow the road, with eager feet, and enjoy the journey.
