Inform Your 'Faith'

  It goes without saying that Christendom is not without its gifted teachers, insightful theologians (both lay and professional), loquatious scholars so forth and so on. The prominence of certain nationally recognized ministerial figures along with the endless supply of christian literature attest to this reality. To be sure we should recognize and embrace the value of such gifts operating within the bounds of the church. They are necessary vessels and instruments in the hands of God to purvey His thoughts and truths. You will find that even within the parameters of biblical history that God primarily speaks through human agency. (Of course there are occasions where there was direct dialogue between God and man. Although this was more common in the O.T. epoch and during the incarnational ministry of the God-man). Even with Christ it was the fullness of diety revealing divine truths by way of a human agency; vis a vis the incarnation. 

  Worthy of note, however, is what Christ emphatically stated in the Johannine corpus about His mission and purpose germane to His "teaching." In the high priestly prayer He states, "Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You. For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You...I have given them Your word," (see John 17).  Elsewhere He posits, "The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works," (John 14:10). And again, "the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father who sent Me," (John 14:24). Christ is directing the attention of those under His tutalege to the Father. (There are also inter-trnitarian dynamics involved here that will be the subject of another blog at a later time.)  Inasmuch as the authors overarching purpose is to identify Jesus Christ with the Father as being diety/divine Himself (the I am in Him and He is in Me phraseology) it is nevertheless affirmed, economically speaking, that Jesus was associating the words He spoke with the Father. 

  The aforementioned teachers, theologians and scholars within the church are well served to take this to heart and mind as they carry out their ordained duties. The position or role we occupy is not to promote ourselves. We do not exist to serve our namesake but exist to serve His namesake. We should not advocate congregants elevating any minister to a place of "beautification" so to speak, that detracts from Christ's renown. We should always direct the attention to Christ and Christ alone. This was the Pauline attitude when he propounded, "I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle....but by the grace of God I am what I am," (I Cor. 15:10).  Earlier in the same letter he responds to aspersions from the Corinthians by affirming the weaknesses they were using to denigrate his apostolic role in order that their, "faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God," (I Cor. 2:5). His interest was not to receive honor and prestige in order to attract a following of Pauline loyalists but instead to, "know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified," (I Cor.2:2). Paul was not preoccupied with his legacy but with the name and renown of the Lord of Glory.  As he stated, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake," (II Cor. 4:5). The apostle had a healthy view of his role as a proxy of Christ who was one of  "God's fellow workers." Paul writes, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth...For we are God's fellow workers," (II Cor. 3:5-8).  It is an incontrovertible truth that Paul was more concerned with directing his audience to the Lord above all else.  He was surely not an egoist more interested in establishing his popularity, influence or reputation above and beyond that of the Lord's.             

   Admittedly, scripture does affirm that we are not to owe a debt of honor (Rom. 13:7-8a, cf.I Tim.5:17), however, that honor should in no way infringe upon the honor due Christ.

   The western church, at least, seems to have an inordinate obsession with the "figurehead" or "personality" of the church they attend. To be sure folk invariably choose what local church they attend not by the content of the message but by the attraction of the speaker. This is the outcome of promoting teachers instead of the Teacher. This is the effect of the cult of personality as the song lyric puts it. When this happens more often than not congregants identify with the minister as opposed to what they are ministering on.  Folk of this class have more in common with what Paul prognosticates to Timothy, "For the time is coming when people...will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth," (II Tim. 4:3-4). This was a problem that the church at Corinth was teeming with (see I Cor. 1:10-17). When this is true of a local church, that assembly of believers will reflect the moods, attitudes and pecadillos of that minister in particular. They will graviate towards his points of emphasis to the exclusion of others. The outcome is that as the minister goes so goes the church. This does not reflect the pattern of Christ or Paul as referred to above. Such a dynamic is more or less cultically minded than Christ-like minded.

  The minister must always be viewed as a representative or ambassador of Christ who develops  followers of Christ, aptly refered to as Christians, not followers of any man. The true Teacher is Christ. The loyalty of a congregation should not be given to a teacher but be unimpeachably given to the Teacher par excellence. A true teacher will be characterized by directing the congregants to Christ and His pedagogy instead of elevating his image and reputation before the people. To do otherwise is a maleversation. 
  This is in accord with the ministration of the Holy Spirit, the apty called Spirit of Truth who leads all ministers to knowledge of God's truth by way of illumination. "The inspiration of the Almighty giveth men understanding." (Job 32:8)  The Spirit of God imbues His people with the capacity to concatenate biblical truth and the perspicacity to apprehend His thoughts.  As the former Princetonian Charles Hodge postulated, "The Spirit is represented as the source of all intellectual life."
  Christ instructed the disciples, "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you," (John 14:26). Jesus enlarges upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit in John 16 in enunciating, "When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak,...He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you...," (John 16:4-15). Just as Christ directed attention to the Father so the Holy Spirit directs attention to the Son. Ministers then who have the Holy Spirit as their ineffable guide and teacher should ceaselessy aim to do the same.

 Whenever teachers (ministers en toto) occupy their post properly and with biblical dignity they point to the Teacher, Jesus Christ whom they represent for they acutely recognize that, "Theology a Deo docetur, deum docet, ad Deum ducit," (Theology is taught by God, teaches God, leads to God).  These words of Thomas Aquinas need to be re-applied and re-intergrated into the church's ministerial orthopraxy and orthoproxy.  For whenever a minister executes his post uprightly his sole interest is to advance the truths of holy writ, those sine qua none truths that originate in the  mind of God. And if those truths are being espoused then it is no longer a man the church is infixing their attention upon. Instead their attention is indubitably fixiated upon God speaking through the man. The narrative of Job illustrates the sublime truth He, "teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven," (35:11). He is the true Teacher. Who is yours? 

This inaugural entry serves to further elucidate the succinctly stated purpose of this blog as located under the heading. I do this because I originally crafted a purpose statement that consisted of approximately 2500 characters prior to realizing that the maximum number of characters allowed for the purpose statement is 500. So I was forced to cut and carve the original purpose statement against every fiber of my being. I did so with much pain of cognition. And it is not within my intrinsic quality to leave it at that (my wife might describe this as obsessive though). I must achieve what John M. Frame has referred to as cognitive rest.

Moving on. Anselm's (Bishop of Canterbury;1033-1109A.D.) epistemological maxim "credo ut intelligam" was adopted from Augustine's (Bishop of Hippo; 354-430 A.D.) slogan, "I believe in order that I might understand," (crede, ut intelligas). For Anselm, faith precedes sound reasoning in matters divine. This undoubtedly inheres with biblical precedent for, "...no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God," and again, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned," (I Cor. 2:11,14; cf. I Cor. 2:11-13, John 3:2-6, 12, 6:45, 60-65). One cannot and will not truly apprehend divine truth/s without the antecedent work of God viz a viz regeneration. Such truths will fall on deaf ears thus being rendered ineffectual and spiritually void.

In recognizing this Anselm maintains that the christian life, a life indelibly marked by faith, will be feverishly spent in pursuit of God's thoughts considering that the christian's reasoning capacity has been enlivened to grasp divine matters aright. Necessarily then the christian is duty bound to exercise his/her mind to think God's thoughts after Him and to do so holistically. The christian mind must and ought to be given over to the pursuit of God's thoughts and remain intrepid in such a divine endeavor. An insatiable appetite for His thoughts should characterize the mind that has been renewed. Augustine's cerebral posture captures this perspective when he opined, "God and the soul, that is what I desire to know. Nothing more? Nothing whatever." Such an outlook should resonate within the believer's conscious self. In the words of Christ, "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," (Matt. 22:37). This of course has to be cultivated and nurtured.

This is no menial exercise nor are such endeavors reserved for the intelligentsia of the Church alone. [The later scenario was commonplace during the medieval church as the Romanish Papal monarchy reserved the right/s exclusively to interpret and handle biblical nomenclature. The Scriptures were, as you might recall, a matter for the clergy. Subsequently, the laity were far removed from regularly drinking from the well-spring of God's thoughts as revealed in Holy Writ. Of course this precipitated clerical abuse of the layman, manipulation, and the like.] Conversely, every christian mind is to undergo this veritable process of cerebral transformation. Paul enjoined the community of faith to,"be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect," and, "to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned," (Rom. 12:2, 3; see also Eph. 4:23). This sanctifying exercise belongs to the province of the christian community en toto.

This "mind commitment" is to be an engagement throughout the entirety of the christian life regardless of age, stature or standing in the church. This of course befits a life of meekness and humility.  The eminent Apostle Paul even acknowledged that he had not obtained perfection (see I Cor.13:9-12, Phil.3:12). No person will ever arrive at a place of perfection in this life thereby possessing unadulterated wisdom and an unexpurgated knowledge of divine matters. (Of course there is historical doctrinal formulae that is beyond question and necessarily demands a certain dogmatism; that is not my focus here). To think so or act in such a manner is more or less indicative of what Paul described as being "puffed up."

Ministers (i.e the ordained ilk) especially have to guard against placing themselves in an elitist position whereby they are not subject to the interjections of others appertaining to the divinely inspired scriptures. Especially considering that such nuanced commentary may (or may not; regardless, occasion should be allowed for such discourse) perhaps enrich or augment their understanding of God's thoughts.

Ignatius (a.d. 30-107) the Bishop of Antioch exemplifies the posture of a mature believer, thinker and church statesman when he pens, "To Philo the deacon...who still ministers to me in the word of God," (Ignatius to the Philadelphians). The Bishop was receptive to the commentary of a deacon germane to Scripture. He arguably welcomed and valued such "ministry." The Ignatian correspondences are resplendently replete with expressions of this mature christian thinker and officer who quintessentially espoused Anselm's two maxims (credo ut intelligam, fides quaerens intellectum; noted above and under the blog heading). He valued the biblical ministry and insight of a deacon while himself occupying a place of ministerial primacy. He did not adopt an attitude of cerebral superiority whereby he was occupying an entirely different plane of religious or mental existence.

Whenever a minister is unreceptive to the thoughts of others or exudes a laissez-faire attitude he effectively kisses the Papal ring of infallibility; to be sure he bares the insignia and has invariably seated himself upon a throne of pride. Every christian thinker needs to be willing to hear the voice of an Elihu, "'Therefore, I say, 'listen to me; let me also declare my opinion,'" (Job 32:10; see Job 32:1-22). Much to often do ministers of stature or tenure rise above question in their own eyes and eschew the voices of who they might deem lesser messengers or inferior harbingers of truth. Again they are seated on a throne of pride. What is more they truncate the thoughts of God that are perhaps better grasped by such a person as Elihu. The pursuit of every christian thinker should not be to "justify himself rather than God" in his or her thought life, as Elihu charged Job of doing but to be always inclined to listen and hear the voice of Biblical reason; for Biblical reasoning is Godly reasoning. We should not allow ourselves to be reduced to the intransigence embodied by the hometown of Jesus who rejected His wisdom because He was just a carpenter, the son of Mary (this is ostensibly derogatory for it was customary among Jews to describe a man as the son of the father even after he was deceased) and so forth, (Mark 6:1-6). This is an example of a negative circumstantial ad hominem argument (a logical fallacy). Such measures are taken in order to negate what is being said. They deprived themselves of God's thoughts, His truth by way of absurdity. This ineluctable unreasonableness was also evident when the Pharisees asserted that Jesus cast out demons through the agency of Beelzebul (Matt. 12:22-32). They were content in rejecting the divine reality Christ was palpably manifesting because of their unpenetrable religious mental construct. Whether they were intimidated by Jesus' wisdom, fearful of power loss, so forth and so on are inconsequential matters in juxtaposition to the effect that they were willing to ignore God's truth, God's thoughts and divine reality. In so doing they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and resignated themselves to an anthropocentrism that evinces a dwarfed perception as well as an alienation from the thoughts of God.

Scripture, tradition and experience evince that the quest of a healthy Christian mind is to unabatedly pursue knowing God's thoughts in order to understand them and thus think them in order to practice them. Ignatius' words to the Trallians should be the mental posture of a mature Christian thinker, "I am still but a learner."

Again this blog will be committed to the pursuit of knowing God's thoughts with the aim to understand them while recognizing that the christian's faith and reasoning are under the authority of sacred Scripture. Credo ut Intelligam will be primarily interested in handling subject matter pertaining to the landscape of evangelical theology both historical and contemporary while delving into the philosophical milieu in order to think God's thoughts after Him with understanding.