Musical Interlude

Our daughter's first piano recital.

What is Dispensationalism?

I’m probably opening up a can of worms here (or possibly a bottle of Ambien), but I wanted to do a few posts on dispensationalism because it had me so confused for many years.

Dispensationalism is a way of interpreting the Bible. It was invented by a man named John Nelson Darby (right) in the 1830s, and popularized through the explanatory notes in the Scofield Reference Bible. It’s also the framework for the “Left Behind” novels.

According to the dispensational narrative, Christ’s ultimate plan was to start a literal kingdom in Israel. He came to earth the first time to offer such a kingdom to the Jews, but, surprisingly, they rejected Him. He then had to implement Plan B: dying on the cross for sins and establishing His church.

In dispensational theology, this “church age” is seen as a temporary fix—a historical “parenthesis.” The cross was not the focal point of all history, but more of an afterthought. Christ still wants to be the leader of a literal Israeli superpower. The next time He comes back, however, He won’t offer His kingdom politely. He’ll force everyone into submission. Membership will not be optional. (Means of salvation: compulsion).

The dispensationalists teach that the world will only get worse. The church will grow weaker. Satan will raise up a politician called the Antichrist. Christians need only cluck their tongues disapprovingly and disengage from the world, because any second now Christ will evacuate us. He’ll leave His Father’s right hand in heaven, return to earth and secretly resurrect/rapture us (but not Old Testament saints) and take us to heaven.

With Christians gone, Jews will go through a tribulation and become “saints” (their method of salvation is not entirely clear). After 7 years, Christ will again return to earth, bringing all the Christians back. He’ll kill Mr. Antichrist, resurrect all Jewish saints, and judge each nation (not individuals) based on how it treated the Jews. Then He’ll set up His government and reinstate the Old Testament system of animal sacrifices.

Now take note, Christians: you’ll be living on a sin-cursed earth in your glorified, immortal body during this earthly kingdom—right next door to neighbors who have regular bodies and regular lives. This will make for some awkward encounters.

After 1,000 years, there’ll be a military rebellion against King Christ (even though He’s immortal), but God the Father will crush the rebels. Then--1,007 years after Christians were resurrected--all the wicked throughout history will be resurrected and judged. At this point everyone will go to either heaven (this time permanently) or hell.

I’ve read countless books by dispensationalists and attended dispensational churches for 15 years. This is what they teach. Here’s another good summary, in case my explanation wasn’t very clear.

So let’s recap. The church fails. The Great Commission fails. Two separate returns of Christ. Animal sacrifices reinstated. Three separate resurrections. Multiple Judgment Days. Various means of salvation. Christians shuttling back and forth between heaven and earth.

Confused? Me too. But “God is not the author of confusion” (I Cor. 14:33), so there’s gotta be a more Biblical way of explaining His plan than this, right?

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"--Movie Review

Just saw “Expelled” and thought I’d write a review for those who are interested. The movie is narrated by Ben Stein (actor and former White House speech writer), who travels the globe (well, at least America and Europe) to interview various players in the “Intelligent Design vs. Darwinism” debate. It opened yesterday in 1,052 theaters--about a third as many as a major blockbuster might.

I would highly recommend this film and found it to be suited for all ages (my 8 year old went with me and the overall message was not lost on him). It’s quirky; at times funny (as when Stein gets Richard Dawkins to admit he thinks intelligent aliens “seeded” earth with life), at times somber (Stein tours Dachau concentration camp and explores the Darwinian origins of eugenics).

What I found striking was how few Christian “apologists” were featured in the film—which I felt was not necessarily a bad thing. The fortress of evolution needs to be attacked from different angles. In this case, Stein seems to go out of his way to find accomplished Jewish detractors of Darwinism, which preempts the predictable charge that only backwoods Bible-thumpers question evolution. I was relieved that it was Dr. David Berlinski challenging Richard Dawkins on the big screen, rather than Ken Ham. (Not that Ken Ham doesn’t have his value, but this is a film about scientific wars being waged in the upper echelons of the academy).

The Berlin wall serves as the leitmotif of the film. Like the communists in East Berlin, the Darwinists don’t want any new ideas to flow to their side of the wall. You are only considered “correct” if you stand on the one side. And we all know what happened to that wall. Eventually, smart people get tired of being told what to think and they start chiseling away.

The film starts by cataloging several high-profile cases where critics of Darwinism have been “expelled” from the academy for their heresy. We then meet several proponents of intelligent design—William Demski, Stephen Meyer, Berlinski, Jonathan Wells, Gerald Schroeder--as well as some of the leading defenders of Darwinism, including Dawkins and Michael Ruse. Stein is on a quest to get one of the Darwinists to explain the origin of life, which makes for some amusing exchanges. Toward the end, Stein explores the implications of Darwinism, including racial cleansing, euthanasia and abortion. The film ends on a high note, interspersing images of the Berlin Wall coming down with various speeches about intellectual freedom, while The Killers sing their inspiring “All These Things That I’ve Done.”

While not explicitly a “Christian” film, this is an important documentary that will help open up the doors of academia to creation-minded scientists, if only by inspiring a younger generation of questioning minds. So take the kids, take the youth group, take the grandparents. The only objectionable content is one derogatory use of the word “hell,” a couple scientists openly denying the existence of God, and, well (if you’re a neo-fundamentalist), The Killers music.

Expelled--The Movie

This should be a great movie. Ben Stein pulling back the curtain on Darwinists. Check out the trailer. It opens this weekend. Thirty years ago it would've been impossible to get such a movie made and shown in theaters. So help spread the word about it.

"Train up a child in the way he should go"

“If they are founded in truth, it would seem that every reflecting father and mother must feel, that, after a provision for the comforts of life, education, in its true and full sense—the developing and perfecting the various physical, moral and intellectual faculties of their children—is the first and strongest duty; and that to sacrifice this, or any part of this, for the purpose of acquiring wealth, or station, or honor, or any other worldly interest, whether designed for parent or child, is but a surrender to an inferior good and a lesser obligation, of the greatest benefit and the highest rank. The Great Lawgiver has nowhere said to parents, bestow wealth, honor or power on your children, but he has said to them, by the very constitution of human nature, educate your children wisely, if you would train them up to fulfill their duty and their destiny…”

Sow Well and Reap Well, or Fireside Education
S. G. Goodrich, 1846
(An early American homeschooling guide)

Postmillennial Baptists

You might be a homeschooler if…you think the man on the left is Michael Pearl. It’s not. Nor is it anyone affiliated with ZZ Top. It’s B. H. Carroll, a giant of the faith and founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. He was a postmillennial Baptist. So were the great missionaries William Carey and Adoniram Judson. So were many outstanding Baptist scholars and preachers like J. M. Pendleton, A. H. Strong, Calvin Goodspeed and J. A. Broadus.

So are we.

There’s been a noticeable resurgence in the postmillennial viewpoint in the last few years. It’s even cropping up again in some Baptist churches, most of which have been floundering in the fog of dispensationalism for over a century (more on that in another post perhaps).

What is postmillennialism? It’s the belief that Christ will come back only one more time, at the end of the world, to resurrect the dead and judge all people. (Sounds radically simple, huh? Plus it’s actually in the Bible). It’s the belief that prior to that “last day,” the church is supposed to fulfill the Great Commission. It’s the belief that Christ—not Satan—has dominion on earth, that He reigns now from heaven, and that He expects his kingdom to grow one soul at a time.

We certainly don’t consider it a matter of fellowship if someone isn’t a postmillennialist. But if you’ve ever been confused or bothered by dispensational teachings (the “Left Behind” narrative), or can’t seem to find what they’re saying in Scripture, we hope you take a look at postmillennialism. It’s kind of a relief to shed the pessimism and fear instilled by dispensationalism and return to a more optimistic and Biblical view of God’s plan.

Trivia: these hymns are postmillennial--“Joy to the World,” “Lead On O King Eternal,” “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Hail to the Brightness,” probably countless others. Oh, and most of Handel’s “Messiah.” If anyone can think of any others, leave them in the comments.

In all seriousness...

Before anyone thinks about getting me this T-shirt for Christmas, I'd rather have this one.

Verse of the month

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”

2 Corinthians 10: 4, 5

Amusement Park Churches

We’ve been looking for a new church, but we keep running into “amusement park” churches.

When you go to Disney World or Busch Gardens they have “something for all ages!” The toddlers can go in a room with rubber walls. The younger kids can ride the tea cup ride or watch the puppet show. The teens can ride the roller coasters. The parents can hang out at the tiki bar. At the end of the day, when everyone has gotten their fill of amusement, they all meet up again at Parking Lot B.

A lot of churches have the same formula. Sunday school for all ages, of course. But after that, the kids go to “children’s church,” Godzkidz, AWANA, Patch the Pirate club—anything but “real church.”

When we talked to other adults at some of these churches, we learned that most of them were attending for the extra programs—not the preaching. And that’s how these kind of churches grow: by offering more and more peripheral programs ala Six Flags or Disneyland and watering down the actual preaching of the Word. But at the end of the day, they’re a mile wide and an inch deep. Not only do the children miss out on the preaching of the Word, but the parents are deprived of any substantive discipleship and doctrine.

One church we went to became overrun with traveling drama teams, puppet shows, professional “evangelists” swooping through town, national youth organizations, “special musical performances,” endless field trips, dessert socials…everything but doctrine. It became an amusement park. We kept looking for the verse where Christ said, “I will build my children's church,” but we never found it. We kept going there hungry for meat, but walking away with cotton candy.

Maybe we shouldn’t complain. One of the bigger Baptist churches we visited had a “happy hands club” (for all you Napoleon Dynamite fans) perform during the Sunday service. Girls with white gloves who did some kind of spasmodic gesticulation to what sounded like N’Sync music. I failed to get “the message” of it, but it earned a lot of applause.

One of the Episcopal churches in our town has—I kid you not—a yearly “Blessing of the Clowns” service, where they lay hands on and pray for actual clowns and (I guess) wish them a good year of clowning around. I literally laugh out loud every year when I read that in the paper.

If you have any anecdotes about “amusement park churches,” let us know. We could use the laugh.

We’re thankful the family-integrated church movement is taking hold in some parts of the country. We’re thankful for the churches that do allow families to worship together and for the churches that don’t dumb down their messages or substitute entertainment for the Word of God. Hopefully we can find one here.

Welcome to the waters

The title of this blog is a metaphor for the ever-expanding kingdom of God. The passage in Ezekiel 47 from which it is taken describes a small stream flowing from the house of God toward the desert. The stream becomes gradually deeper--first to the ankles, then to the knees, then to the waist--until eventually it is deep enough to swim in. Everywhere it flows new vegetation sprouts up and the desert becomes a garden.

Jesus used the same idea of gradual fulfillment when He preached "the gospel of the kingdom." "Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?" He asked. "It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it" (Mark 4: 30-32).

Elsewhere we read that the kingdom is a small stone that broke apart the ancient empires and will grow into a great mountain that fills the whole earth (Daniel 2). Or that the kingdom is like yeast that eventually permeates the whole loaf of bread (Matthew 13). Isaiah tells us that one day "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (11: 9).

These are not speculations or wishes. They are promises from God. The kingdom will gradually grow. The kingdom will be preeminent on earth. The whole world will be blessed by the kingdom.

We realize this is a different perspective than many well-meaning, Bible-believing churches are teaching today. But we hope we can do our part to encourage others to study the promises of Scripture, renew their optimism, and help advance the kingdom.

So what is the kingdom? Is it, as many teach, a literal earthly dicatorship? No. "My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus said (John 18: 36). "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17: 20, 21). The kingdom is spiritual.

Is it something in the distant future, or is it already here? "The time is fulfilled," Jesus announced, "and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1: 15). "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God," He explained, "then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matt. 12: 28). The kingdom is now.

Who is in the kingdom, and what are they supposed to do? "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized" (Acts 8: 12). "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16: 18, 19). "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" (Matt. 24: 14). "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28: 19). The kingdom is the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan. Its citizens are the redeemed.

The kingdom is growing today. There are more citizens of the kingdom now than there were a hundred years ago, and more a hundred years ago than there were 1,000 years ago. It will continue to grow--with or without us. Sadly, many churches are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the world to deteriorate: waiting--like many of the Jews in Christ's day--for a physical kingdom; waiting for "the church" to fizzle out and fade away. They miss the promises. They miss the point. The desert sands don't bury God's house. The waters flowing from the house of God flood the desert and transform it.

If Christ said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," and, "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28: 18, 20), then Christians should boldly advance the kingdom in their lives, in their families, in their communities, and throughout the entire world.