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Our One Solid Relationship

By Kyle E. Sims — 4 months ago

Written by Kyle E. Sims |
Saturday, October 26, 2024
The primary relationship must be with the Lord. It must be in Jesus who has a steadfast love for you. Jesus who by the gospel proved His love for you. Jesus watches over you and keeps you. Jesus loves you perfectly. It is from a relationship with Jesus that you then can love others in their imperfections and sin.

Gospel ministry focuses on relationships. In ministry, we proclaim the truth of Christ’s gospel that restores our vertical relationship with God and transforms how we live with others in the church and the world. You must have more than a head knowledge of the gospel. The gospel should transform your life from the inside out. The gospel causes you to love God and love man.
The Lord is faithful in upholding His end of our relationship. He has a steadfast love for His People. He is always working for their good. He never slumbers and His eye never blinks in His watching over them. We may stray away due to sin and weakness, but He always brings us back. The Lord is good and can be trusted not to fail us.
We expect people in the world to fail us. They are slaves to sin and self-focused. However, one of the greatest pains we experience is when Christians fail us. This can happen at many levels. Unthinking remarks that are sharp and cut, being left out of the group or having an exchange with someone having a bad day. We face these things every day even with Christians. Most of the time we can let these roll off in love. Yet there are other times when those in the church hurt us deeply.
Many know the pain of pouring into fellow believers in our church, only to have them leave over something petty. What you thought to be a strong relationship was broken in an instant. These actions sting us. When leaders fail it is even worse. Here are the men who are called to lead the church. Yet they choose their sin over the gospel and they abandon the church and their vows.
There is a great dilemma in loving as a Christian. You are called to love the church and to love others as yourself.
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Adam the Man

By T.M. Suffield — 4 months ago

Written by T. M. Suffield |
Saturday, October 26, 2024
For Adam to be our head he must be our ‘father.’ If he isn’t the father of all he cannot be the head of all. That’s the logic of it, that’s why genealogies matter so much in scripture: we’re bonded to one another. Federal heads are always related by lineage. It’s not divine fiat, it works on ordered rules. God comes to reshape these familial ties by making the Father our father and Christ our brother.

I was chatting with a friend about Genesis 1 and whether the earth is young or old the other day. I don’t find it a particularly interesting question, not because there isn’t an answer (there must be) and not because it’s not important (the truth is always important) but because there are so many more interesting things to say about that chapter of Scripture.
I’ve touched on some of them before, but we could include: creation ‘from the head’, the patterns of seven, the baptism of the land, the third day trees, the constraining of chaos, the ‘dragons’ on the fifth day, the sixth day trees, the ten times God speaks, creation through division, and more besides.
Even most of those are fun details we’re supposed to notice and meditate on in light of the rest of the scriptures, the narrative itself is worthy of much reflection on its own terms. God is the creator. God spoke creation. He didn’t slay a dragon and make creation from her corpse (this is a Babylonian creation myth), he spoke it into being. Creation is ordered. It’s spoken from nothing. It took a ‘week.’ He rested when he was done. It would take us a long time to reach questions that might relate to modern scientific ideas of the age of the earth.
I briefly outlined my own position with my friend, which I don’t hold that strongly, while expressing respect for those with convictions different to mine. I mostly expressed that I don’t find it that interesting a question and pointed to many of the more fun things in the text that I’ve alluded to above. There was one point I wanted to stress as important though, concerning Adam.

It is biblically and theologically necessary for Christians to believe in Adam as first, a historical person who second, fathered the entire human race.
Mike Reeves
I agree. Adam was a real man, now dead (and I assume in the presence of Jesus). More than that though, he was also the first human, and the father of all mankind. I think each of these convictions is important.
What does the Bible say.
This is, in part, a matter of trusting the Bible. We should read according to genre, of course. We should read carefully to see that the text says what we think it says. My argument is that the Bible always assumes Adam was a historical man, and the first man.
We start where we always should, with Jesus. Jesus taught that the first man and woman were made by God and were married. In his discussion of divorce in Matthew 19 he turns to Genesis 1 as clearly answering their question.
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In Honor of Fall

By Jacob Crouch — 4 months ago

God’s perfect order in the universe is a reminder that God is able to uphold His word. He made days and nights and seasons to happen in perfect routine throughout all of human history as a blazing reminder that He can, and will, faithfully bring His word to pass.

The air cools, the leaves fall, and the heat of the Mississippi summer begins to fade. Fall is here. My son, trying to explain his experience of the season’s arrival, said, “I feel like my whole chest is full. Like everything is happy. Like… pumpkin patch.” I get it! It’s hard to explain the joy that fills the heart when the hard summer leaves and the gentle weather of Fall shows up. I love the Fall.
I love the holiday season. Thanksgiving and the anticipation of Christmas. I love the smell of fire in the neighborhood and the yards covered in leaves. I love the piles of leaves too, with kids buried underneath. I love cool walks and long sleeves. My heart is even lifted up in meditation and praise more easily when Fall comes around. I love the look of the trees. There’s always a moment that my mind recognizes that something is different. The leaves have been slowly falling, but one day I see it. It’s wonderful.
And God made it. He made the seasons. He did it, “in the beginning.” “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.
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God’s Sovereign Purposes

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

We will bow because of His greatness but also kneel because of His goodness. We will be stunned by how He has used His power perfectly for the good of all. We will worship His mercy, grace, and kindness and be forever captured by the absolute perfection of His love. We will see and rejoice in His glorious sovereignty.

The word “sovereign” means “one supreme in power; ultimate authority.” When we say that God is sovereign, we are stating the truth that no one is above Him and that He rules over everything. But there is something vital we must understand about God’s sovereignty.
God is God and does what He pleases, but God is good and always does what is right.
To misunderstand either side of this equation is harmful. If you do not believe He is God, you will treat Him lightly and not honor, serve, and properly fear Him. You will not acknowledge His lordship nor bend to His rule.
But if you do not believe He is perfect in goodness, you will think ill of Him and not love and respect Him. Every step of His sovereignty is driven by His goodness. God knows what He is about and is always righteous and good.
The Little Sovereign Faces the Sovereign God
Pharoah, in Moses’ day, was the ruler of the known world. He sat on his throne, thinking there was no one greater. He had the most prominent kingdom and the greatest army on the face of the earth.
All the Pharaohs in succession believed they were gods. Four thousand years later, there are still physical reminders of their dynasty. But a shepherd, directed by the Ultimate Sovereign, came out of the desert to humble him and accomplish Divine purposes. God spoke to Moses with this prophecy.
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” (Exodus 7:3-5)
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The Love Your Neighbor Principle

By Bruce A. Little — 4 months ago

Written by Bruce A. Little |
Saturday, October 26, 2024
A good neighbor is not required to give aid where injury results from one’s breaking the laws of God or man. Second, a good neighbor is one who comes to the aid of another on the grounds of humanity and not some other grounds such as race or sex. Furthermore, any application of the “love your neighbor” principle should be predicated on God’s view of right or wrong and not some political or culturally motivated notion.

As Christians grapple with a response to cultural issues not directly addressed in Scripture, many have turned to applying the “love your neighbor” principle to justify their position. This seems, at least on first look, to be a reasonable approach, however it entails accepting the world’s standard of right and wrong which is suspect from the beginning. For example, during Covid the application of this principle was often used as justification for taking “the jab”. The reasoning was that if I did not, then I would be endangering my neighbor. That would be unloving, or so went the argument, but it was based on misinformation. Another example would be the social re-ordering practice of DEI. Christians climbed on the Social-Justice-Warrior bus in the name of loving their neighbor. What was not considered in both cases was the legitimacy of the claims of harm to my neighbor. This is not suggesting that there were no cases where certain groups had not been given fair opportunity, but that is a totally different issue. The concern here is whether loving my neighbor serves as the fundamental principle for Christian action in these cases, and if not what guidelines should be applied to identify my being a good neighbor. It will help to look at the text where Jesus addresses the love your neighbor principle. Luke 10:25-28 records the words of Jesus in response to a lawyer’s question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
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Weekend A La Carte (October 26)

By Tim Challies — 4 months ago

My gratitude goes to Ligonier Ministries for sponsoring the blog this week. They are offering a free download of the ebook The Legacy of Luther, edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen Nichols. I appreciate each and every one of the ministries or businesses who sponsor this site!

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of interesting titles. Also, some of the ones I linked to yesterday were a little slow in dropping their price, but they should be good now.

If you’re the kind of person who likes to build a complete series, Westminster Books wants to help you get started with a new set of John Owen’s works.

“Matthew 25:31-46 is a beautiful statement of Jesus’s concern for the weak and the vulnerable. It’s also a challenging exhortation for Christians to model the same concern. But what exactly does Jesus mean by ‘the least of these’?” Kevin DeYoung answers in this brief article.

It is a fascinating reality that many people are coming to Christ through the influence of Jordan Peterson even though he is not a Christian. This article considers where he is on his spiritual journey. “Peterson feels the pain of those who he so clearly wants to help. I feel his pain. He reminds me so much of Pilgrim in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress—with his burden still on his back. Until he stops reading the bible through his Jungian spectacles, he won’t be able to be ‘unburdened’. He needs to come to the Cross.”

The Gettys have released another new song, this one titled “Christus Victor (Amen).”

Kamal Weerakoon provides a biographical account to explain how, despite the many charges, Christianity is not colonial.

This may be good to read on a Saturday if you’re considering skipping out on church tomorrow. “When Christians go to church, we do not merely gather in a local setting. In these earthly assemblies, we are lifted by God’s Spirit to His heavenly presence.”

There is lots to think about here. “A strange theology has overtaken American Christianity, a force that has largely remained oblique and unpopular for the first 1900 years of the faith and yet that has become popularized and spread in the emergence of Fundamentalist Evangelicalism’s ascendency. This strange belief has become the default view among American Evangelicals and effectively denies the role of the sacraments in the healthy life of the church.”

“God’s blessings are upon those who come to him with broken hearts—with deep sorrow over their sin and sinfulness. People who come to God in this way will naturally relate to him with a quiet spirit—with what we know as meekness.

An evangelicalism with no boundaries will inevitably result in an evangelicalism with no orthodoxy.
—Matthew Barrett

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Free Stuff Fridays (Ligonier Ministries)

By Tim Challies — 4 months ago

This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, who also sponsored the blog this week.

Are you saved? This is the ultimate question, but it won’t make much sense unless we’ve also asked ourselves what we need to be saved from. In a word, the answer is God. Ligonier Ministries is offering the ebook edition of The Great Rescue as a free download for Challies readers. Adapted from R.C. Sproul’s classic book Saved from What?, this ebook is an enriching introduction to the Bible’s message of salvation and could be ideal for evangelism or discipleship. Ten Free Friday winners will receive the paperback edition.

Learn more about The Great Rescue here.

One entry per household. Open to residents of U.S. and Canada only. Giveaway ends 11/8/24. Winners will be notified by email.

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Escape from Doubting Castle: Counsel for Christians in Despair

By Greg Morse — 4 months ago

Life within the prison of despair is a misery hard to explain. The darkness makes dumb, leaving groans too deep for words. Isolation becomes both a constant friend and a chief affliction. The other birds of the world chirp along merrily. Perhaps you used to sing among their branches, but now you wonder, What do these creatures know of the deep caverns of the world? How can they understand? They feed upon worms; you live with worms, if living it can still be named.

John Bunyan described such a state as mere breathing. When Bunyan personified despair in The Pilgrim’s Progress, he depicted it as a giant who battered his prisoners mercilessly. After the first round of beatings, Giant Despair visits his captives (Christian and Hopeful) and finds them “still alive, though barely alive at that. They could do little but breathe, because of their great hunger and thirst and due to the wounds they received when he beat them” (The Pilgrim’s Progress, 198). Inhale, exhale . . . inhale, exhale — and even this with pain.

And what is worse, some of those locked in the dark tower know they have themselves to blame. Christian had advised they take an easier meadow-path that paralleled the narrow and hard way. They got lost, caught in a storm, and then they were discovered trespassing on Giant Despair’s property. The pilgrims’ imprisonment was not due so much to tragedy as trespass; theirs was not simply grief but guilt. God seems distant; the two believers grow silent: “They also had little to say, for they knew they were at fault” (196). They’re caught in Doubting Castle. Their hearts condemned them; conscience grabbed a branch to club them; why wouldn’t God leave them there?

Have you ever been imprisoned here? Are you there now?

Escaping Doubting Castle

Whether you wandered from the way into a great sin or whether some calamity stole you from your peace, a voice may come to you and suggest the unthinkable. Giant Despair brings the sinister temptation:

So when morning came, he went to them in an unfriendly manner, as before. Knowing they were still very sore with the stripes that he had given them the day before, he told them that since they were never likely to leave that place, their only way out would be immediately to make an end of themselves — either with knife, noose, or poison. “For why,” said he, “should you choose to live, seeing it is accompanied with so much bitterness?” (197)

A lion hunts among the wounded. He loves the stray, the despairing, the disgraced. This temptation never made you pause before, perhaps — when life was happy, hope was bright, God was near. But now, the lights are out. Now, the wages of sin overwhelm you. Now, with Christian, you find yourself considering the counsel. If you wonder the same, I pray God gives you strong aid through Bunyan’s five lessons concerning Christian and Hopeful’s escape from Doubting Castle.

1. Expose the Temptation

If you struggle with suicidal thoughts, a first step is to expose them. Christian says to Hopeful,

Brother, what shall we do? The life that we now live is miserable. For my part, I do not know whether it is best to live like this or to die without further notice. My soul desires strangling rather than life, and the grave is more desirable for me than this dungeon. Shall we listen to the counsel of this giant? (198)

I have had conversations with Christians who confessed they were tempted to harm themselves. Isn’t this one of the best first steps out of such despair? Satan brings a lethal combination of temptation along with lies about his temptation. In this case, he tells those he tempts that they must be false Christians for even being tempted. He holds out the poisoned apple and smirks to see your hand twitch. Do true Christians really long to die? Can they actually be tempted toward suicide? Our soul’s enemy is not just “the father of lies,” but “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).

No matter who you are, you are not the first to be “so utterly burdened beyond [your] strength that [you] despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8). You are not the first to wonder, “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?” (Job 3:20–22). Nor would you be the only one ever to pray for death, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).

Bunyan’s first help for us is this: Expose the temptation. Follow Christian and go to a Hopeful, a trusted and mature believer or a faithful shepherd, and tell him how your Despair now counsels you.

2. Fear God’s Judgment

The second help comes with Hopeful’s response.

Indeed, our present condition is dreadful, and death would be far more welcome to me than to abide forever in this way. Even so, let us consider that the Lord of the country to which we are going has said, “You shall not murder.” If we are not to take the life of another man, then much more are we forbidden to take the giant’s counsel to kill ourselves. (198)

Beloved, to choose to destroy the life God has given you is not just a great tragedy but a heinous sin. With the euphemisms given for suicide today, we must not overlook that “God’s law, self-interest, and future judgment — all cry out against . . . the man who flees as a fugitive from life, and presents himself unbidden at the bar of God” (Commentary on John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, 94).

Bunyan goes on in the original to teach that suicide is “to kill body and soul at once,” arguing his position from 1 John 3:15: “You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” While I do not believe that every person who commits suicide goes to hell, I do not doubt it in many cases. I believe some who have traveled this deplorable path will be in heaven, but dear brother or sister, never test the Lord in this matter. The high-handedness of this sin, the destruction it leaves behind, the precarious end before a sure judgment ought to make us tremble and restrain the hand of self-harm.

“Oh, the liberation of promises believed! How they send us forth beyond the prison walls to better days.”

O despairing soul, this is not the voice of your Father in heaven, “for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). This darkness playing upon your mind is not the wisdom from above — first pure, then peaceable, full of good fruit (James 3:17). No, demonic wisdom tempts you to such a dark act, and these spirits would lead you off the cliff if you would let them, as they did when they entered the herd of pigs. Life — abundant life — is what your Savior came to bring you. Do not commit an offense so great as self-murder against your Lord.

3. Remember Past Rescues

Prosperity preachers will not tell you this, because prosperity preachers do not preach the whole counsel of God, but Bunyan shows in his allegory how life can go from bad to worse, even for Christians. Giant Despair returns, incensed to find the pilgrims still alive, and vows to make them regret the day of their birth. At this, Christian faints in terror. After he regains consciousness, he again confesses his inclination to take Despair’s counsel. To which Hopeful, that brother born for the day of adversity, reminds him, “My brother, do you not remember how valiant you have been before now?” (200). Hopeful reminds him of all he has overcome and how many times he has played the man, God helping him. This remembrance is not so much about him but about his God with him, a recollection similar to the psalmist’s: “You have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy” (Psalm 63:7).

We face down our Giants of today and tomorrow as David did his: by remembering the God of past deliverances and every-morning mercies. “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37). The Lord that delivered in the past will deliver now. He lives above and beyond our lightless castles, ready to raid our cells with grace and help in time of need, just as he has done before.

4. Grasp Great Promises

What finally breaks Christian and Hopeful free from Doubting Castle? Not vague ideas or renewed resolves or wishing upon a distant star, but believing upon living promises.

What a fool am I to lie in a stinking dungeon when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my pocket, called Promise, that I am sure will open any lock in Doubting Castle. (202)

Despair forgets the “precious and very great promises” of God and their Yes and Amen in Christ (2 Peter 1:4; 2 Corinthians 1:20). Forlorn, we feel the blows of sorrow, attend to the gashes of guilt, but fail to search the pocket where the promise lies waiting. What a fool we have been to remain in a stinking dungeon when Christ would have us walk at liberty. Recall keys that have worked mightily on many a door in Despair’s penitentiary.

Guilt’s door:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. (Micah 7:18)

Despondency’s door:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:37)

They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

This is the promise that he made to us — eternal life. (1 John 2:25)

Temptation’s door:

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

Oh, the liberation of promises believed! How they send us forth beyond the prison walls to better days — often before our situations even change. Robert Maguire captures the beauty of promise: “Promise sees the dawn from the midnight, anticipates the sunrise from the sunset, recognizes in the leafless trees and cheerless snows of winter the harbinger and earnest of the fruits and flowers and seasonable enjoyments of the summer-tide” (Commentary, 96).

O wintered soul, by faith in your great and compassionate God, who has not spared his beloved Son for you, send your heart ahead into coming spring by believing what he says is soon to come.

5. Crawl to Sunday

A final help Bunyan offers us comes by noticing the chronology.

Here, then, they lay from Wednesday morning till Saturday night, without one bit of bread, or drop of drink, or light or any to ask how they did. So they were in a dire situation, far from friends and acquaintances. (196)

Is it coincidental that Bunyan identifies the time frame as Wednesday morning till Saturday night? It is not. Sunday is the day of jubilee for the oppressed, the day to be reminded together of God’s certain promises with his redeemed people. “Is it not true that [Sun]day, by its holy rest and hallowed ministrations of the Word and prayer, breaks many a fetter, frees many a slave, dissolves the doubts of the week past, and delivers many a soul from the bondage of Despair?” (Commentary, 96). Can you not add your own testimony?

Giant Despair holds no authority in God’s house. The Lord of love lives here, the Lord of compassion, the Lord of life — the Lord in whose presence there is fullness of joy. He is the one who condemned sin in the flesh, crushed the skull of the dragon, and has sat down at his Father’s side — who is coming again for us. The Light of the world shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome him yet.

Despairing saint, Sunday is coming. Make it to his people, his shepherds, his ordinances. Crawl, if you must. Sunday, dear brother or sister, is the day of resurrection, the day of life — the Lord’s Day. A day to anticipate the arrival of the last promise he made to us: “Surely I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20).

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Hymn: “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee” by St. Bernard of Clairvaux

By TFL — 4 months ago

Jesus, the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills my breast; But sweeter far Thy face to see And in Thy presence rest.

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Is Evangelicalism Really Protestant?

By Aaron M. Renn — 4 months ago

Written by Aaron M. Renn |
Friday, October 25, 2024
Evangelicalism’s culture is not even contiguous with that of mainline Protestantism, much less classical Protestantism. It is very populist and dominated by charismatic pitchman type pastors. It tends to emphasize a therapeutic gospel over a strict ethic. In fact, any type of moral or behavioral code followed too seriously is likely to draw a caution for being legalistic. It’s very aligned with American consumer culture, and American culture generally. And of course it is anti-intellectual, something well-documented in such work as Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.

Reading James Davison Hunter’s Democracy and Solidarity rekindled a feeling that I’ve had many times before in reading books like this. Every time I read a book that describes the religious history of America that talks about the nature of Protestantism in the country, it strikes me that the Protestantism of the American past is alien to today’s evangelicalism. They are different enough to raise the question as to whether or not American evangelicalism is actually Protestant in important ways.
Hunter writes in his book:
For most Americans—whether deist or Calvinist, rationalist and intellectual or revivalist and popular, high church establishmentarian or sectarian—there was a God more or less active in the universe and in human affairs. Indeed, this God was, for most, Christian and, even more, Protestant. Though hegemonic and certainly oppressive to those who dissented, this belief nevertheless provided a language and an ontology that framed understandings of both public and private life. And yet this was also a culture, following Weber and so many others, that was inner-worldly in its orientation and ascetic in its general ethical disposition, an ethic that shunned extravagance, opulence, and self-indulgence and prized hard work, discipline, and utility. In ethics it was individualistic, to be sure, but informed by biblical and republican traditions that tempered individual interest and moved it toward the public interest and common goods. [emphasis added]
It’s certainly hard to argue that contemporary American culture generally, or evangelicalism in particular, are ascetic and oriented towards a traditional disciplined WASP ethic. Undoubtedly, they are if not opulent, consumerist in orientation. I’d be lying if I said I were any different.
You see this change in ethical outlook on life in basically any book on the topic. It’s a move away from the old Calvinist outlook and behaviors and towards modern American post-bourgeois consumerism.
In his famous The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber describes how Calvinism’s concept of calling and election – which he distinguishes from that of Lutheranism – led to furious activity to attempt to objectively demonstrate that one was among the elect.
The religious believer can make himself sure of his state of grace either in that he feels himself to be the vessel of the Holy Spirit or the tool of the divine will. In the former case his religious life tends to mysticism and emotionalism, in the latter to ascetic action; Luther stood close to the former type, Calvinism belonged definitely to the latter. The Calvinist also wanted to be saved sola fide. But since Calvin viewed all pure feelings and emotions, no matter how exalted they might seem to be, with suspicion, faith had to be proved by its objective results in order to provide a firm foundation for the certitudo salutis….Thus, however useless good works might be as a means of attaining salvation, for even the elect remain beings of the flesh, and everything they do falls infinitely short of divine standards, nevertheless, they are indispensable as a sign of election. They are the technical means, not of purchasing salvation, but of getting rid of the fear of damnation.
He describes how this manifested itself in various ways, such as in the Puritan ethics of Richard Baxter:
Waste of time is thus the first and in principle the deadliest of sins. The span of human life is infinitely short and precious to make sure of one’s own election. Loss of time through sociability, idle talk, luxury, even more sleep than is necessary for health, six to at most eight hours, is worthy of absolute moral condemnation. It does not yet hold, with [Benjamin] Franklin, that time is money, but the proposition is true in a certain spiritual sense. It is infinitely valuable because every hour lost is lost to labour for the glory of God. Thus inactive contemplation is also valueless, or even directly reprehensible if it is at the expense of one’s daily work. For it is less pleasing to God than the active performance of His will in a calling. Besides, Sunday is provided for that, and, according to Baxter, it is always those who are not diligent in their callings who have no time for God when the occasion demands it.
The mention of Benjamin Franklin shows that this was one form in which these values were transmitted to American culture. Again, far from contemporary America, which puts a high premium on leisure and consumption over asceticism and production.
Weber’s book is actually short and readable, so is very much worth picking up.
We see the same in French writer Emmanuel Todd’s provocative book The Defeat of the West, which I wrote about earlier this year. Todd sees Protestantism as the foundation of the modern West, and describes it similarly to Weber:
Let us conclude our review of the main characteristics of Protestantism. It is an ethic of work: we are not on earth to have fun, but to work and save. Here we are at the antipodes of the consumer society. Protestantism has also long been synonymous with sexual puritanism.
He sees the collapse of Protestantism as the core factor in the decline of the West, one which lies underneath many of today’s social pathologies.
The original religious matrix was slowly built between the end of the Roman Empire and the central Middle Ages, and then ultimately thickened by the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
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