The Student Statesmanship Institute

Last week I suggested we equip Christ-loving lawyers, legislators, senators, council members, and mayors to bring biblically-informed minds to work with them on a daily basis, where they can winsomely “connect the dots” with the real-life issues related to their everyday professional lives. Sounds good, but who is equipping people to actually do this?

In the days of Jonathan Edwards, it was standard fare for churches and schools to equip people to “connect the dots” between the biblical worldview and the totality of life. The Puritans had an extensive curriculum to this end, called “Technologia,” which followed young people from the earliest ages up through undergraduate level. The Church has no comparable curriculum today.  

Dr. David Scott, Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Southern Evangelical Seminary, did eight years of doctoral research on Jonathan Edwards. He examined the Technologia and wrote about it in his excellent paper, “A Church Without A View: Jonathan Edwards And Our Current Lifeview Discipleship Crisis.” To read it, click here.

“The Puritan worldview curriculum of technologia was comprehensive and systematic,” writes Dr. Scott. “It taught how all knowledge and human endeavor was a unified God-glorifying circle called ‘encyclopedia’ with Christ at its center as the sum of all things.” This “philosophy-of-all-things” was so critical to the formation of the mind, notes Dr. Scott, that Jonathan Edwards and his classmates at Yale were required to defend it publicly in order to graduate.

One of the greatest challenges we face today, is that our culture has lost its “Christian mind.” This sober reality was addressed by Harry Blamires years ago in The Christian Mind. But thankfully, efforts are being taken to restore the Christian mind, and a "philosophy-of-all-things." Although we have a long way to go, some excellent programs are available to help the People of the Vine to make connections between biblically-informed minds and the “real world” around us, including the world of politics, law, business and media.    

One such program is the Student Statesmanship Institute, in Lansing, Michigan, which is geared for high school students. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a four-minute video must be worth 400,000. With this in mind, I urge you to take a look at a short video clip about the Student Statesmanship Institute. Click here.

Does that video blow anyone's mind besides mine? For more about SSI week-long Summer Programs starting in June, click here.

A Practical Absurdity

If the People of the Vine are going to have an influence in politics and law, I suggest we work harder at encouraging and equipping Christ-loving lawyers, legislators, senators, council members, and mayors to bring biblically-informed minds to work with them on a daily basis, where they can winsomely “connect the dots” with real-life issues related to their everyday professional lives.

I believe the best chance we have of bringing biblically-informed thought and practice into the public square is from the inside out. This is how “salt” functions. It flavors and preserves via permeation.

This is what the integration of faith and work is about. It is the personal outworking of Truth in the business world, the artistic world, the educational world, the entertainment world, and the political-legal world, by those who work in these fields, with no sacred-secular divide, serving the Highest Lord in their professions, and loving the Highest Law. Like Daniel in Babylon. [On this superb model, I recommend Larry Peabody's great book, Job-Shadowing Daniel.]

Can you imagine millions of lawyers, legislators, council members and political executives at all levels bringing biblically-informed minds to work with them on a daily basis, operating with no SSD (Sacred-Secular Divide)?   

It this legal? Of course! As one U.S. Senator said in 2006, it is wrong to ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square. He went on to say that not injecting ‘personal morality’ into public policy debates is a practical absurdity:

 “…secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King—indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history—were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their ‘personal morality’ into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Juedo-Christian tradition.”

Notice the observation about our law being a “codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.” He was a former law professor at the University of Chicago. He knows. 

This Senator went on to become President of the United States. His name is Barack Obama. [For the full speech, click here.]

Democracy Is No Brass Ring In Itself

Today we still have the form of a free nation, but we are losing what is necessary to maintain it. Our civil freedoms can only survive as long as a good number of citizens govern themselves in a morally responsible way, under God. This is possible when the Holy Spirit moves through people like divine sap between Vine and branches. [John 15:5]

While no freedom-consenting government can cause people to be morally responsible, only morally-responsible people can enable government to be freedom-consenting. The more Americans we have who do not practice self-governance under God, the greater risk we have of losing what freedoms we enjoy. Either we will practice government under God internally, by His grace, or the strong arm of Government will control us externally. 

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Robert Winthrop put it this way, in 1852: “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”

At one time, it was reasonable to think America could be a place where enough self-governing people (under God) would sustain the Constitutional Republic. Early Americans valued self-government under God. Because of this, it was believed a government “by the people” might just work.

Democracy is no brass ring in itself. Hitler came to power through democracy. And Mussolini. If the majority is on a certain side, democracy can produce outcomes worse than any potentate with absolute power. We may be in the process of discovering this for ourselves, as more and more Americans operate under the new modus operandi: disregard for the Higher Lord and Higher Law. 

I believe in the separation of the institutional church and state, in terms of function and jurisdictional authority. But this is a far cry from the separation of civil government and the Higher Lord. Actually, He can't be separated from it. He is Lord of all!  

Nor is it possible to separate Church [capital C] from state. That's because the Church [People of the Vine] is inextricably entwined throughout the state, like salt dissolved in soup.

But how's the savor?

[See comments for references.]

Our Constitution Is Wholly Inadequate

In a recent post, I quoted John Adams, our 2^nd President, as saying, “…we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Why would Adams say our Constitution is wholly inadequate to the government of any other than a “moral and religious” people? Because this kind of people know how to govern themselves under God, and people who can govern themselves under God generally practice the kind of internal regulation necessary for a constitutional republic to work: voluntarily adherence to Higher Rule of Law. 

Strong, external control was something the founders were trying to get away from, and what they did not want repeated on the west side of the Pond. But with a “moral and religious” populace, maybe a government “by the people” could work. Maybe individuals practicing internal self-governance under God could bring peace, order, and, as George Washington put it, “political prosperity” to the new nation.

The Protestant Reformation in Europe forged the idea that everyday people were capable of knowing God's thoughts about human behavior via the Bible. The extention of this idea vis-á-vis civil government was only logical. As Calvin Coolidge said, “It was the principle of personal judgment in matters of religion for which the English and Dutch were contending, and which set the common people to reading the Bible. There came to them a new vision of the importance of the individual which brought him into direct contact with the Creator. It was this conception applied to affairs of government that made the people sovereign.”

Daniel Webster, Secretary of State under three presidents during the 19^th Century, summed it up this way: “Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits. Living under the heavenly light of revelation, they hoped to find all the social dispositions, all the duties which men owe to each other and to society, enforced and performed. Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”

But what happens when citizens elevate “self-government” and cast the “under God” part aside?

Enter the 1960s. 

[See comments for references.]

Raised Eyebrows For 300 Years

Early Americans expected the state to not interfere with church governance, and the authority of the church did not extend to civil policy-making. But mixing biblically-informed standards with civil affairs was normative. In fact, such standards were mixed with the public square from the start of the colonies until 1947, when the Supreme Court first suggested otherwise. The idea of not mixing biblically-informed standards with the public square would have been met with raised eyebrows for 300 years.  

As late as 1911, Woodrow Wilson, our 28th President, said:

“We know that there is a standard set for us in the heavens, a standard revealed to us in this book [the Bible] which is the fixed and eternal standard by which we judge ourselves… We do not judge progress by material standards. America is not ahead of other nations of the world because she is rich. Nothing makes America great except her thoughts, except her ideals, except her acceptance of those standards of judgment which are written large upon these pages of revelation… Let no man suppose that progress can be divorced from religion, or that there is any other platform for the ministers of reform than the platform written in the utterances of our Lord and Savior. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.”

Not all Americans at the time of the nation's birth were followers of Christ, and those who claimed to be had their faults. But the early American ethos was bent toward a biblially-informed view of the world, as evidenced by the following statement issued by the House Judiciary Committee of Congress on March 27, 1854: “At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect....In this age there is no substitute for Christianity....That was the religion of the founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”

Expected? Encouraged? Why?

Because, as George Washington put it, “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Did he mean biblically-informed principle?

Seems so, according to the House Judiciary Committee of 1854, and Woodrow Wilson.  

Coolidge Would Differ

George Washington is sometimes called the Father of our Country. In his Farewell Address, he said: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars.”

Subvert these pillars? Sounds like there were detractors in Washington's day, too.

John Adams, our 2nd President, said, “…we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Do you think when these leaders used the words "religion" and "morality," they had anything other than biblically-informed Christianity in mind? 

Consider what Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, had to say about the matter:

"America became the common meeting-place of all those streams of people, great and small, who were undertaking to deliver themselves from all kinds of despotism and servitude, and to establish institutions of self-government and freedom…It was the principle of personal judgment in matters of religion for which the English and Dutch were contending, and which set the common people to reading the Bible. There came to them a new vision of the importance of the individual which brought him into direct contact with the Creator. It was this conception applied to affairs of government that made the people sovereign…The logical result of this was the free man, educated in a free school, exercising a free conscience, maintaining a free government. The basis of it all, historically and logically, is religious belief. 

These are the fundamental principles on which American institutions rest…It was the American colonies that defended and reestablished these everlasting truths. They set them out in resolutions and declarations, supported them on the battlefield, wrote them into their laws, and adopted them in their Constitution."

America is a place where people of all religions and persuasions (including atheism), may freely believe what they so choose, and practice whatever religion or non-religion they wish. But if we think biblically-informed Christianity did not historically provide a foundation for American law and civil institutions, Coolidge would differ.   

Relevant To Both Public And Private Life

Two political scientists from the University of Houston, Donald Lutz and Charles Hyneman, set out to read all the political writings of Americans published between 1760 and 1805. This included all books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and monographs on the subject of civil government written for the general public of that day. 

They wanted to find out which sources most influenced the thinking of leaders during the “founding era,” when the early state and national constitutions were framed. The researchers felt that by identifying who the founders quoted in their writings, they would discover whose ideas most influenced these men.

Starting with 15,000 writings, and narrowing it down to some 2,200 writings dealing specifically with political content, Lutz and Hyneman identified 3,154 quotes or references from other sources. Their findings were published in The American Political Science Review [March, 1984]. What they discovered was, the single source most often quoted by the founders of America was the Bible. In fact, 34 percent of all quotes were from this source.

Can you imagine seeing one-third of all quotes in the political writings of our day coming from Scripture? In a day when we’re told it’s unconstitutional to post the Ten Commandments on public school walls, or to put a nativity scene in front of a post office, it’s amazing to know that the very ones who founded the American republic turned more often to the Bible than to any other source for support of their ideas.

Strange as it may sound today, in the 1830's, when  Alexis de Tochville observed America, it was assumed that although the government of the state should not encroach upon the affairs of the church, or vice-versa, the Bible was relevant to both public and private life. 

Early Americans saw a difference between the separation of church and state, and the separation of Christianity and state. They wanted the former, but not the later. Americans did not want civil authorities to dictate church policy, or church authorities to govern the state. Yet for the healthy functioning of civil government, a biblically-informed populace was an active ingredient.

Did our forebearers always "get it right," in practice? People never do. Nonetheless, they acknowledged a Higher Judge with Higher Law, to whom all men and women are accountable, both farmer and statesman alike.  

More to come.  

What Made This Country Tick

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I focus on the topic of integration of biblical beliefs and work. Work of all kinds. Not just business work, but art work, engineering work, scientific work and house work. One area of work I have not yet focused on is political work.

Don't worry. I'm not going to write about candidates, or make pronouncements about one person's qualifications over another. But I do want to focus on the integration of Christian belief and politics in general, because this is an area of enormous confusion. Some may ask, "Is it even legal?"

In 1831, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to find out what made this country tick. He published his findings in Democracy in America. Below are quotes taken from page 281-291 in the George Dearborn & Co. edition, published in 1838:

"From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved…I do not know whether all the Americans have a sincere faith in their religion; for who can search the human heart? But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation, and to every rank of society.…The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other....Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country....America is still the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest real power over men’s souls; and nothing better demonstrates how useful and natural it is to man, since the country where it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest."

What!?!

Stay tuned. 

For more, click here.

The Door Of No Return

While speaking to a group of Christians about connecting our faith with the world around us, I mentioned the need for believers to take roles in civil government. Afterward, a woman told me her church did not believe Christians should be involved in the political arena.

There are Christians who think politics is "of the world," and we should "let the dead bury the dead." But the Apostle Paul told believers in Rome that civil authorities are "God's ministers"[Romans 13]. This being the case, I'd say working in civil government is a fitting place for a follower of Christ. Not only fitting, but needed.

Last month, while in Senegal, I was reminded of this as I visited Gorée Island, in Dakar, the westernmost city of Africa. There I was reminded of the history-changing work of one civil servant who made connections between the biblical worldview and his work as an MP [Member of Parliament] in 18th century Britain: William Wilberforce.

At one time, Wilberforce thought he should quit his MP job and "go into the ministry." Thankfully, he was dissuaded from this misguided idea by his pastor, John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace. Newton felt Wilberforce could do far more good as a member of the British Parliament than he could as a pastor.

How right Newton was!

Gorée Island is believed to be the final exiting point for millions of Africans sold into slavery between 1536 and 1848. One "House of Slaves" still remains today as a reminder. Built in 1776, it is now the most visited tourist destination in Senegal. Many thousands of African men and women are believed to have walked bound in chains through "The Door of No Return" to waiting ships, for a grueling transatlantic voyage. The "House" has become a place where many African Americans return to connect with their roots.

Wilberforce's tireless battle to abolish slavery in Britain lasted for 46 years. It was not easy. Politics never is. He was fighting a money-maker of enormous proportions. But slavery was finally abolished in Great Britain in 1833. France followed suit in 1848.

Thank God Wilberforce applied his Christian worldview to politics! That's the "other" lesson of Gorée Island we should never forget.

Connecting the Christian worldview with civil government? Believe it or not, this was once common practice in America.

Next week: A French historian tells it straight.

Tools of the slave trade on display at the
"House of Slaves" on Gorée Island, Dakar, Senegal.

I'm standing at "The Door of No Return" through which
thousands of Africans were led onto waiting ships,
like cattle.

I can't read French [Senegal is a former French colony], but I recognized
the name of William Wilberforce in this commentary
near the display of slave trade tools shown above. 

I Would Be A Muslim

Earlier this month I was in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, in West Africa, teaching teachers at Dakar Academy, a remarkable school with a dedicated staff and extraordinary students, living under harsh desert conditions. The school was started fifty years ago to provide Christian education for children of missionaries. Today, other expatriates in Dakar send their children to Dakar Academy also, including the US Ambassador to Senegal.

Dakar reminded me that if Jesus had never been born, I would be a Muslim, most likely. And probably you would be too.

Why do I say this? Because shortly after the death of Mohammad in 632 A.D., Muslim forces spread Islam westward from Saudi Arabia across North and West Africa (which explains why Senegal is about 90% Muslim today), and later set their sights on Europe. I say Muslim "forces," because if the "infidels" did not convert, they could find their heads being detached from their bodies.

The European expansion of Islam was stopped at the gates of Vienna by Jan Sobieski, King of Poland, who answered the call of Pope Innocent XI to save the city and the rest of Central Europe. Sobieski arrived with an army of 40,000 Poles, Germans and Austrians on the evening of September 11, 1683. Many think Osama Bin Laden's choice of September 11 for his attack on the United States was no coincidence. He was sending a message to us and to the West: "We're baaaaAAAAAAAaack!" 

If Islamic forces had not been repelled at the Battle of Vienna, in response to the Pope's call [and funding], my great-great-great-great grandparents in Germany would most likely have been Muslim [had they lived]. If Christ had not been born, not only would Joy To The World have never been written, and Bach would have had a different profession, and Johnny Cash would not have recorded Hurt, I dare say all of Europe, perhaps the entire Western Hemisphere, would be taking Fridays off today, rather than Sundays. Think what this would mean for you, your family and for history.      

While in Dakar, I was also reminded of how one dedicated follower of Christ changed the course of history through a different kind of force: courageous Christian love. I was reminded of the work of William Wilberforce, member of British Parliament, some 200 years ago. What connection did I make with Wilberforce in Dakar?

Next: The Door of No Return.  

I Could Feel Papa Bach Looking Over My Shoulder

While taking music theory classes as an undergraduate student at the University of Washington in the late '60's, I was repeatedly struck by the prominent place given to Johann Sebastian Bach. When it comes to the musical "rules of the road" for composition, such as voicing and chord progression, the way J.S. Bach did it was just plain right. Not because he declared it to be so, but because it just plain was. Through his work, Bach provided the gold standard for musical composition, blazing a trail and setting the course for all Western music to follow. I could feel Papa Bach looking over my shoulder at each exam.

Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier" solidified the major-minor system we take for granted in Western music. He created the "well-tempered scale," which allowed musicians to begin a scale from any note on a keyboard, which was not possible before Bach. His development of the musical form called the "fugue" provided a foundation for all classical music. Some 200 years after Bach, when the French Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel complained that Debussy was stealing his musical ideas, Debussy replied, "Bach has said all there is to say in music. The rest of us only say it in different forms.”

Bach (born the same year as George Fredric Handel, in 1685), is a prime example of what it means to do one's work "wholeheartely unto the Lord," as the Bible puts it in Colossians 3:23. Bach consciously and intentionally wrote all his music to the glory of Jesus Christ, and literally left this message on the musical pages he penned. Historians can't miss it. That's because Bach left letters such as "S.D.G." and "J.J." throughout his manuscripts. S.D.G. was shorthand for Soli Deo Gloria, Latin for "Solely to the glory of God," and J.J. was an abbreviation for Jesu Juban, which means "Help me, Jesus." Bach dedicated many of his compositions "I.N.J.," which means In Nomine Jesu, "In the name of Jesus."

Why did the West produce Bach, and not the East, or Africa, or the Aztecs? It's because Bach viewed his work through the incomparable grid of a biblical worldview, and approached his work as an outworking of that unique belief system. A belief system that saw the world in ways only possible through the Bible, and the life and resurrection of Christ.

Worldview matters.

S.D.G.

J.J.

You Can Thank A Christian Monk

One can tell a lot about a worldview by the kind of music it produces.

The Buddhist worldview, for example, sees life as a cycle of suffering. This suffering is caused by desire. Salvation, for the serious-minded Buddhist, is escape from the cycle of suffering through the extinction of desire, and detachment from this world. A song like Joy To The World is not something you would hear in a Buddhist temple. Life is not something to sing about. There is no God to thank and praise. Creation is not something to celebrate. The closest thing to music developed by Buddhist monks, historically, would be a single-note drone. It helps. [Some Buddhists now incorporate Western-style music into their practice, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon, introduced by Westerners converting to Buddhism.]

If you visit any Muslim mosque, you will not see an organ or piano. No orchestra will be heard. Not even an acoustic guitar. Most devout followers of Mohammad believe music is heram, which means "illegitimate." Some make an exception for certain sacred “songs,” which sound more like non-melodic chants. [Again, many Westernized Muslims are not as strict, but historically, Islam is neither a melody nor harmony-producing worldview.] 

We take melody and harmony for granted. But Western music did not spring from a vacuum. Nor was it a chance happening. It came out of a worldview that saw music as a means of praise for an Almighty God who dresses flowers with colors a King's robe cannot match, and relates to humans in mindful and loving ways. It's a worldview that employs music as a celebration of joy and hope.

Western music came out of Christian worship that birthed new melodies—and harmony. Single-voice melody called “Plainsong” [notably Gregorian Chant] is believed to have originated in the 3^rd century by followers of Christ in worship. In the 9^th century, Plainsong developed two-voice melody, and eventually polyphony [multi-voice music] emerged. From this, in due course, came J.S. Bach and the musical tradition we call “Western music.” [That is, the music of “Western civilization.” Yes, it includes, but is not limited to, the music of Gene Autry and Johnny Cash.]

The next time you download that favorite song from i-Tunes, you can thank a Christian monk. Better yet, thank the living God, and think about what this world would be like if Christ had never been born--or resurrected.

Elvis Presley Could Not Have Recorded You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog

Having just passed through December, you may have seen the Frank Capra film, It's A Wonderful Life. The 1946 classic has become a Christmas tradition, rivaling eggnog and mistletoe. In the story, an "ordinary" man named George Bailey runs an "ordinary" building and loan company in the "ordinary" town of Bedford Falls.

Life goes along in an "ordinary" way until the Bailey Building and Loan Company falls into serious financial straits, through no fault of George. He goes into a state of depression, and tries to take his own life--but fails. In despair, he says, "I wish I'd never been born."

An extraordinary angel grants his wish, and we all find out what Bedford Falls would have been like if George had never been born. We discover that through the choices of an "ordinary" man who repeatedly put others above his own dreams and desires, the culture and history of an entire town was radically affected.

In the latest issue of The Journal, published by Summit Ministries, the lead article highlights a similar, yet far more profound, question: What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? The article references the book by the same title, by Jerry Newcombe and D. James Kennedy.

The answer to that question has all the elements of a great film. Christmas would never be, Handel's Messiah would not have been written, the video I mentioned last week would not have been done by the 5th graders of Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat school, and It's A Wonderful Life itself would never have been filmed, because it was built around a simple Christmas card message that came to Frank Capra's attention. But this only scratches the surface.

What do we take for granted that would not be here apart from the life of Christ? What direction would Western history have gone? What would our world look like? Feel like? Sound like?

As a music major at the University of Washington, I took two years of music theory, along with a lot of music history. What I learned was, if Jesus had never been born, Western music would not have developed the way it did. Without the groundwork laid by Gregorian chanters (Christian monks) and Johann Sebastian Bach, Elvis Presley could not have recorded You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog.

I'll continue next week.

The Video Has Over 1,211,000 Hits

It brought tears to my eyes. A computer project by the 5th grade class of a public school near the Bering Sea, in Southwest Alaska.

My sister-in-law sent me the link: a video rendition of the Hallelujah chorus of Handel's Messiah, done by the Yupiq Eskimo village of Quinhaquak, population 550. The project was done with the help of a creative schoolteacher, along with community members pitching in. As I write this post, the video has over 1,211,000 hits.

Watching this clip, I was struck afresh by the multicultural truth of the Hallelujah chorus, pertaining to all nations and peoples: The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. And He shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah!

His reign shall never cease. And it's omniplicable [a word I just created, meaning "applicable to all"]. No human authority has ever risen above it, nor ever shall. Even the royal authority of King George II, who stood to his feet at a London performance on March 23, 1743, was not above it.

Did I say March? Not December? That's right. Handel's Messiah was originally written as an Easter oratorio, not a Christmas work. Although Part One deals with the birth of Christ, the Hallelujah chorus concludes Part Two of the oratorio, which describes the Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.   

Yes, the Hallelujah chorus was written with Christ's resurrection in mind. King of Kings, ruling forever, and ever. Very much alive today.

What is remarkable about Handel's Messiah is that the entire score, taking nearly three hours to perform, took a mere 24 days to compose. I honestly don't think I could copy the score by hand in 24 days, let alone create it from scratch. Handel is said to have told a servant upon finishing the Hallelujah chorus, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!”

I believe it. I think this may explain my misty eyes. Like Handel, as I watched the video I saw the living Lord, not a dead one. I saw the resurrected Christ, not just an historic figure born in Bethlehem. I saw the Kingdom of our Lord proclaimed afresh, 'mid snow, ice, Eskimos and bush planes.

Hallelujah!

See for yourself: http://youtu.be/LyviyF-N23A.

The Greatest Christmas Gift

[This post first appeared December 25, 2009.]

One of my favorite carols is Joy To The World. The words are by Issac Watts, based on Psalm 98:

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth, with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

Some people say Joy To The World is not about the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. They say it is about His second coming, not His first. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_to_the_World.)

The joy that is sung about, then, is a future joy that will occur when Christ returns, to “make the nations prove the glories of His righteousness,” in that full expression of His Kingdom-yet-to-come.

But for me, the song makes sense as a celebration of the first coming of Christ in Bethlehem.

While I’m looking forward to that full and perfect expression of Christ’s Kingdom-yet-to-come, I’m also celebrating the Kingdom-already-here! Jesus is Lord of all. Today! Not just in the future, but in this present moment (Acts 2:36; 10:36).

No, the Kingdom of God isn't fully recognized yet, or perfectly functional right now. This will happen when Christ comes the second time. But the domain over which Christ is King (that is, His King-domain) presently includes both Heaven and Earth!

This is the greatest Christmas gift: Christ the King has come “to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found.” Right now.

Our Savior came to make His blessings to flow through carpenters, cops and CEOs who are reconciled to God, and reconciling all things to Him, including their work things! That's the idea behind Christ's coming in the first place. See II Cor. 5:17-20 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=II%20Cor.%205:17-20&version=NIV and Col. 1:17-20 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Col.%201:17-20&version=NIV.

So, no more let thorns infest the ground. By God's amazing grace, let's put our work gloves on, go to our workplaces after the Christmas holiday and pull up some bramble bushes--and plant some redwood trees.

Joy to the Earth! the Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy!

Merry Christmas.

Inextricably Joined

My decision to accept Jesus as Lord at the age of eight turned out to be the most pivotal decision of my life. As it turns out, this decision to receive Christ as the Savior of my soul (which at the time was the main purpose for the decision), was the first step of an on-going journey.

It wasn't until years later that I realized this decision did not a disciple make. While there is nothing I could do to earn salvation (it was a gift I accepted), and I was happy to know I would not go to hell when I died, God had much more in mind.

I said last week that the Great Commission of Matthew 28 has "a fundamental connection with this present life." I said this because of the part about "...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

While receiving Him as Savior is the starting point, the subsequent "observation of all things Christ commanded" is supposed to follow. Where is this "observation" supposed to take place? I suppose it is to take place on planet earth. I believe this is why Jesus concluded the Commission with the promise of His presence "until the end of the age," which is a very earthy endeavor.   

The reason our organization, Worldview Matters, focuses on the application of Christian faith in the area of work, is because work fills the majority of our waking hours on this planet. Not just work for pay, but any expenditure of energy, mental or physical, for pay or not, that rightly manages God's stuff (this material world).

This involves driving trucks, building bridges, managing money, creating music, selling real estate—not to mention washing dishes and mowing the lawn. This is what The First ("Cultural") Commission entails−the Commission in Genesis 1, to rule [govern, steward, manage] over the entire realm of God's creation. 

In this context of ruling over creation through our work, the "observation of all Christ commanded" can be fulfilled in truly significant ways. In the context of daily work the very goal of the Great Commission can be effectively accomplished. 

This is why I believe The Great Commission of Matthew 28 and The First Commission of Genesis 1 are inextricably joined.

Colson Was Momentarily Speechless

Last week, Chuck Colson related in his daily BreakPoint about speaking with a group of pastors regarding engagement of culture. "Afterward," Colson said, "the pastors had a lot of questions — but they were also a little confused. One confessed, 'I’d never heard of the Cultural Commission, and will it interfere with fulfilling the Great Commission? Isn't that our job—to win people to Christ?'"

Colson was momentarily speechless: "Of course we're called to fulfill the Great Commission," he replied. "'We're also called to fulfill the Cultural Commission.'"

He went on: "Christians are agents of God's saving grace — bringing others to Christ. But we are also agents of His common grace: We're to sustain and renew His creation, defend the created institutions of family and society, and critique false worldviews."

This exchange with a group of pastors underscores a critical issue deserving more attention among evangelicals. We have bifurcated the First Commission of Genesis 1:26-28 [the "Cultural Commission"] and the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, much to the church's determent, and the detriment of society at large.

This condition could go a long way toward remedy with pastors preaching a robust theology of work from the pulpits. With such leaders teaching it regularly, we could see a change in the thinking of the church at large, with respect to integration of faith and daily work.

But I don't think this will happen until the two Commissions are bonded as one in the minds of church leaders, and the integration of faith and work is viewed as essential to the fulfillment of the Gospel itself.

Actually, there is much overlap between the First Commission of Genesis and the Great Commission of Matthew. The Great Commission is largely a re-statement of the First, with the added necessity of restoring people to a right relationship with the Lord. This relationship was broken at the Fall, not long after the First Commission was given, and this relationship is critical. But both Commissions have a fundamental connection with this present life on planet earth.

I'll pick up from here next week.

I Am Now A Pastor/Barista, And Loving It!

The following is a guest post by Joshua Kelley, lead pastor of The Gathering, in Mount Vernon, WA, and barista at Starbucks. More information about Joshua and his book can be found at www.radicallynormal.com. Contact josh@tgcconline.com.

What does a full-time pastor of 14 years do when he realizes his church is running out of money and has to cut his salary in half?

This pastor (me) got a job at my home-away-from-home: Starbucks. I am now a pastor/barista, and loving it! The job is fun, I get to work with some great people, I like (most of) the customers, and I get to drink a lot of good coffee. After all those years of ministry, preceded by four years of college, it is good to be back in the “real world.”

But every now and again (especially at first), I doubt myself. How spiritual is making $4 lattes? What is the eternal value of blending up an extra-caramel Caramel Frappuccino? As a pastor, I have frequently taught that all work can be ministry and all Christians should be ministers wherever they are, but it’s different now that I am the one with the “regular” job! 

I distinctly remember one of these waves of doubt. I was busy mopping the lobby but mentally working on a book I’ve been writing called The Radically Normal Christian. In my book I’m attempting to correct the Christian tendency to undervalue the things of this life that God wants us to enjoy. Suddenly, I realized this applies directly to my work at Starbucks.

I was undervaluing God’s First Commission, which wasn’t “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:18-20), but to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:26-30). In others words, God commissioned you to go and live life, to make your mark, and to fulfill your calling as someone made in his image.

By the very act of working hard to accomplish something, I am fulfilling my calling as a child of God. Now add to that all the opportunities I have to be a light here. The Holy Spirit has initiated and directed conversations with my co-workers. I am learning about the daily struggle of the real world. I am able to bestow dignity and God's love on every person who walks in, from the panhandler, to the gay couple, the businesswoman, and the retiree.  

Perhaps you are struggling with the spiritual value of your "regular" job. Be encouraged! You are serving God and bringing him glory in the manner that he has called the majority of his children to.

Thank You, Lord!

It's time to lighten up a bit.

Below are scenes from our Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends at our home in Bellevue yesterday. We enjoyed such a remarkable time of fun...football...drama (the grandkids put on a skit about Squanto and the first Thanksgiving), and we consumed the most amazing meal you can imagine, prepared by our good friend, Master Chef Hal Decker, and his wife, Otgo.

The house was full to overflowing, with food, laughter and love!

All Kathy and I can say is, "Thank You, Lord!"

Bottom row from the left: grandkids Emily, Aria, Ryland, Gabriel,
Katelyn (holding her gerbil), Victoria. Next row up: Jen, wife of our
nephew Israel (sitting on edge of couch behind her), grandson Austin,
Pablo (husband of our daughter Coral), Coral holding son Christian,
our daughter Selina. Back row: Kathy's brother KC,
Matt (husband of our daughter Selina), granddaughter Kaelah (in front of Matt),
our son Rodney, Kathy, me standing behind Kathy,
our son Nathanael, Sonja (Pablo's mother) sitting on chair.

Our four adult children: Nathanael, Selina, Rodney, Coral

The grandkids.

The grandkids as they really are.

Chef Hal, dishing it out.

Emily, Katelyn and Aria with special guest gerbil.

Could A Culture That Has Swallowed Atheism Ever Spit It Back Out?

Is it possible for the Bible to be taken seriously once again in places where the Great Voice has been silenced? Once the Ten Commandments have been removed from the schoolroom walls, could they ever be put back up again? Could a culture that has swallowed atheism ever spit it back out?

During the decades Ukraine was ruled by the Soviet Union, atheism was the law of the land. The Great Voice was censored by force. But after Ukraine gained independence in 1991, some extraordinary things happened.

Thirteen years after Ukraine gained independence, I was invited by a Ukrainian school Superintendent to teach his administrative staff how to integrate the biblical worldview into the curriculum of their state-run school district. 

What!? Here was a man with responsibility for 16,000 students in a city of 125,000, wanting me to provide training in biblical worldview for the administrators of his 21 schools! When I first received the invitation, I did not believe he understood what he was asking. To make sure he understood, I spent three hours in his downtown office, going over the basic content of the courses I teach on biblical worldview.

To my amazement, I discovered this man was on a mission to restore Christianity to his culture. He had already introduced a very sound curriculum on Christian doctrine to his schools. He told me, "teaching Christianity is more important than academics."

Why? Because he saw Christianity as necessary for restoring Ukraine's moral compass. He was doing what he could to expedite this process, including having administrators of his schools implement a Christian-based "moral education" program, bringing in curriculum on Christian doctrine to restore what had been censored by force for over fifty years.

Yes, this man knew what he was doing, and he was intentional about it. He understood what most Americans have yet to realize regarding what we have willingly censored in the name of pluralism, multiculturalism, and political correctness. He understood the loss of Moral Bearings.

Could other places that have silenced the Great Voice bring it back once again? Sometimes I think America is past the point of no return. But then I remember what I witnessed in western Ukraine, and I'm reminded that with God, nothing is impossible.

I invite you to take a look at what I saw in the city of Uzhgorod, where the Ten Commandments have been re-posted on state school walls: http://youtu.be/iM5OyuiTQVI.

Pass it on.

This photo was taken the day I spent several hours in the office of the Superintendent of the Uzhgorod School District going over the content of the training course in biblical worldview integration I would be providing for the administrators of his twenty-one schools, at his request. From the far left are my interpreter, Anya, the President of my board, John Taylor, myself, the Superintendent, and one of his key associates. It was at this meeting where the Superintendent said teaching Christianity to his students was more important than academics.