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A La Carte (October 18)

By Tim Challies — 5 months ago

The God of love and peace be with you today.
Just a reminder that my book Pilgrim Prayers released recently. I have been receiving encouraging feedback from those who are using it to help them pray. Please give it a look!
This morning’s Kindle deals are headlined by J. Warner Wallace’s Person of Interest. You’ll also find a book for and about women as well one that deals with life’s “intentional interruptions.”

“You can think about money like having a big family. The blessings are many, but the responsibilities multiply just as fast. For as many new opportunities that money provides, it brings just as many complexities and demands. Where will you give? Where will you invest? How much do you spend and what do you spend on when budgeting becomes theoretical?”

John Piper discusses how Christians should think about personal finances as they prepare for retirement.

Carl Trueman: “Here is the cynicism of the postmodern condition on display. Kindness to others in the form of hospitality becomes yet another power play, another way of putting somebody else beneath us in the hierarchy, of asserting superiority. Nietzsche for the win.”

Faith Chang writes about some of what she is considering as she enters into the middle stretch of her life.

This is a helpful guide to raising or dealing with charges against an elder. “The church must avoid two extremes. The first is easily believing any and every charge raised against an elder. The second extreme is dismissing every charge. It is also very important to remember that while some in the church might be used by the evil one to bring false charges, my experience has shown me that there are even more in the church who are a great blessing to their elders. Such saints are to always be appreciated and never be taken for granted.”

Lynne Rienstra: “Crisis. It’s the gift none of us wants. Because when crisis comes, it broadsides us. It reminds us that in spite of our best efforts, we are ultimately out of control. Crisis exposes us as those who are in deep need and unable to help ourselves. It causes us to cry out to God. But what if at that very point, crisis turned out to be a gift?”

There’s nothing easier than looking at the world around us and feeling despair. Society is in open rebellion against God and it seems like that rebellion must soon lead to some kind of persecution against God’s people.

Sin may seem pleasant to us now, but we must not forget how it will appear when we get past it and turn to look back on it; especially must we keep in mind how it will seem from a dying pillow.
—David Gibson

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How Much Money Do I Need to Retire?

By John Piper — 5 months ago

Audio Transcript

How much money does an American need to retire? That question was in the air this spring after the Wall Street Journal featured a piece by Andrew Biggs titled “You Don’t Need to Be a Millionaire to Retire” (April 18, 2024). In part, he wrote that “according to a new survey from Northwestern Mutual, the average American thinks he’ll need $1.5 million in savings to be financially secure in old age. If that were true, it’d be bad news. As USA Today recently reported, the average U.S. adult has saved only $88,400 for retirement. . . . Among those with [between] $50,000 to $99,999 in savings — a small fraction of what retirees are told they need — 3% found it hard to get by, 11% were just getting by, and 86% were either doing okay or living comfortably.” A big disparity here in the numbers.

Obviously, on this podcast, we don’t get into specific numbers, Pastor John. But you have fielded a lot of questions about retirement, as can be seen in the APJ book on pages 429–439. In building out this theme comes this question from Linda, a podcast listener who is in her late fifties. She wants to know if you have any guiding thoughts on this question.

“Pastor John, hello. Can you share any wisdom for thinking about how much money I should be putting away for retirement? I’m trying to balance being responsible in providing for my future, while walking in faith, and giving generously towards mission, beyond my tithe. I’m a natural saver but also have a tendency towards hoarding money that can be easily provoked when I read that I need to have $1.5 million dollars saved or invested before I can retire. I’ll never reach that level. What would you say to an American in my situation, about seven years from retirement age?”

I think the first thing I would say is that I’m not a trained financial planner, and I am sure there are aspects of finance that I don’t know about and don’t understand, and that, therefore, to give any specific counsel, especially at a distance, would be foolhardy. And I would add how deeply thankful I am that I have trusted advisers around me in my life to help me with these things. I’m not talking just now that I’m an old man and I need some guidance for the last chapter of my life and how to do finances here. I’m talking about all my life.

I remember sitting at the dining-room table with a financial planner — a good friend from our church, but a trained financial planner. I had four small children, and I was asking him to help me think through my financial responsibilities to my wife and children if I die. We did that kind of thinking at every stage of our lives because that need, that financial need, changes with every stage of your life. And you try to think through at every stage, How can I be a good father, a good steward, a good caregiver when I’m gone for my wife and my children if they are bereft of the earning person in this family? So, I certainly would encourage that for others. We all seek help from Bible-saturated, wise people who know the ropes in these things.

“Christians lean toward needs, not comfort. We relieve suffering, especially eternal suffering.”

Then, besides my own limitations, we need to be reminded that there are so many variables in people’s lives that no one solution, no one pattern of handling finances applies the same to everybody. There are family variables and geographic variables and cost-of-living variables and housing-option variables in different cities and health variables. Oh my goodness, there are just so many factors that feed into our planning for how to handle what little or more finances we may have. Everyone’s situation is unique.

So, what should I say to Linda, who is in her late fifties and wants to maximize her giving to missions now, and yet knows that it is probably wise to set aside money for the season when she will not be earning like she is now? And even before I answer that question, I can’t help but say in passing that I am aware that thousands of our listeners from less-developed countries around the world can’t even dream of some of the questions we are posing here because the economic and social structures don’t even exist that allow for this kind of financial planning. But I hope that these precious listeners of ours from around the world will hear underneath what I’m about to say some biblical principles that might apply (I hope do apply) in their situation.

Self-Sustaining Principle

Perhaps the most basic principle about supporting ourselves during the last quarter of our lives is that, inasmuch as possible, we should seek by God’s grace to be self-sustaining. Consider these verses from 1 and 2 Thessalonians:

2 Thessalonians 3:7–8: “You yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.” So, that’s what Paul says they should imitate.
2 Thessalonians 3:12: “Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living” — or literally, “to eat their own bread.”
1 Thessalonians 4:10–12: “We urge you . . . to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

So, I draw out from those passages the principle that, insofar as we are able, we should earn our own living, pay our own way. And I think that applies from the day we start earning to the day we die. And since we know that we will not be able to continue in some jobs because of mandatory retirement ages that are imposed upon us, and we will be prevented from earning our own living sometimes because of weakening bodies, therefore, we should plan for how we will obey this principle in the last quarter of our lives — namely, to be financially self-supporting. That’s an essential part of the biblical rationale for all the financial instruments that exist for paying ahead for that season of life.

Caregiving Principle

But it is manifestly obvious that millions of people here and around the world will outlive their ability to be independent. And so, the New Testament has another principle — namely, the caregiving obligations of family and church and then (by implication, I think) the social safety net that the wider community may create. So, here’s 1 Timothy 5:16: “If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.” In other words, they don’t have anybody, they don’t have any family to care for them, and the church is going to step in. “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).

So, where we are no longer able to be self-providing, God has ordained that families and churches step in. And I suspect that the existence of legally mandatory social security in the wider society is owing to deeply rooted Christian influence that says we won’t throw away our old people but find a way to care for them. I think it’s possible to participate in that system. I’m in it, and still believe that the family and the church have special responsibilities. If you feel like that needs more defense, we can do that at another time.

Ministry Principle

Another biblical principle I would stress is that the Bible has no conception of what Americans typically think of as retirement — that is, working for forty or fifty years and then playing for fifteen or twenty years: fishing, golfing, shuffleboard, pickleball, yard work, travel, hobbies, bucket lists, as if heaven was supposed to begin at 65 rather than death.

This principle relates directly to Linda’s concern about money for missions now and how it relates to her post-earning years. And the way it relates is this: If God is gracious in granting basic health, then wise planning for the last quarter of your life would mean that you keep on giving to missions. It’s not like “I do it now or I don’t do it,” but rather, you keep on from your fixed income. You just keep right on giving to missions. It may not be as much, but you do. And it’s a glorious thing to be able to give at least a little bit if your income is small. You don’t stop giving.

And even more important is this: In that season, that last season of your life, you are on a mission. You’re not stopping life and starting heaven. You are on a mission. You don’t just give to missions; you become missions. You don’t think mainly play; you think mainly ministry. As long as you are able, you lean toward meeting needs. That’s what you do. That’s what Christians do. They lean toward needs, not comfort. Heaven is comfort. This world is racked with pain, suffering, calamity, and needs, and that’s what we do. We relieve suffering, especially eternal suffering. You stay zealous for good deeds right to the end. You magnify Jesus by serving. Heaven is coming. It’s not meant to drag forward. We’re not meant to drag it forward out of the future into the present. It’s meant to sustain hope and ministry.

Now, I know these principles are very general, but I think if Linda and all of us were to think in these ways about the last quarter of our lives, God in his mercy would give us all the guidance we need about the details of financial planning.

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Holiness & Politics?

By Mark Tooley — 5 months ago

Benjamin Rush notes that Christianity should support government “only from the love of justice and peace.” And he warns against clergy “settling the political affairs of the world.” This advice seems wise. Clergy are called to a particular vocation, to preach the Gospel, to disciple believers, to administer their churches. They are not generally invested with particular political wisdom and authority over their flocks. They are equal citizens and have every civil right to speak, of course. But wisdom and a proper regard for their office should generally restrain them on political topics, lest their flocks conflate the Gospel with political opinions.

Historian of American religion Thomas Kidd of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary recently shared a quote from Benjamin Rush to Thomas Jefferson:
I agree with you in your wishes to keep religion and government independent of each Other. Were it possible for St. Paul to rise from his grave at the present juncture, he would say to the Clergy who are now so active in settling the political Affairs of the World. “Cease from your political labors, your kingdom is not of this World. Read my Epistles. In no part of them will you perceive me aiming to depose a pagan Emperor, or to place a Christian upon a throne. Christianity disdains to receive Support from human Governments. From this, it derives its preeminence over all the religions that ever have, or ever Shall exist in the World. Human Governments may receive Support from Christianity but it must be only from the love of justice, and peace which it is calculated to produce in the minds of men. By promoting these, and all the Other Christian Virtues by your precepts, and example, you will much sooner overthrow errors of all kind, and establish our pure and holy religion in the World, than by aiming to produce by your preaching, or pamphlets any change in the political state of mankind.”
Rush and Jefferson were corresponding within the context of government established religion, which of course had been the norm in Europe, and really throughout the world, since nearly the beginning of civilization, whether Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or paganism. Jefferson and James Madison successfully worked to end the established Church of England in Virginia, which was supported by tax dollars, and under which dissenters were sometimes persecuted, even imprisoned. The vision of non-established religion eventually prevailed throughout the United States, to the benefit of vibrant Christianity.
Methodists and Baptists at the time Rush wrote this letter, and who supported non-establishment, were surging during the Second Great Awakening, as they evangelized the frontier. Non establishment never meant that religious people or religious institutions should withhold their views from public life. Unlike in post-revolutionary France, the American republic deemed religion in civil society to be a cornerstone of healthy democracy.
Rush notes that Christianity should support government “only from the love of justice and peace.” And he warns against clergy “settling the political affairs of the world.” This advice seems wise. Clergy are called to a particular vocation, to preach the Gospel, to disciple believers, to administer their churches.
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Adoniram Judson and Deconstructing One’s Faith

By Vance Christie — 5 months ago

True biblical Christianity provides the clearest understanding, the strongest support, and the greatest assurance to get through this life and to prepare for eternity. We put ourselves at peril in this temporal earthly life and in the eternal life to come if we ignore the Bible’s Christian truths.

We hear a lot these days about professing Christian young people deconstructing their faith. The experiences of Adoniram Judson in turning away from, then coming to the Christian faith speak with relevance to those who are questioning their faith today.
Judson eventually became America’s first foreign missionary, serving for nearly forty years in Burma (modern Myanmar). However, as a young college student he rejected Christianity for a time. Here’s the dramatic true story of how God graciously led him through his unbelief to genuine faith in Christ.
Adoniram’s father was a conservative Christian minister who served a series of three Congregational churches in Massachusetts. Adoniram was an extremely intelligent boy who by age ten gained proficiency in both Greek and Latin. Barely one week after his sixteenth birthday in August 1804, Adoniram entered Rhode Island College in Providence (soon thereafter renamed Brown University).
Adoniram’s scholarship and outward conduct were highly commendable. But he had not yet been spiritually regenerated (born again) and manifested little interest in spiritual matters. In addition, he soon fell under the influence of one Jacob Eames of Belfast, Maine, an upper classman at Brown.
Eames was intelligent, talented, witty, and amiable, but a confirmed Deist. Deism was a popular, rationalistic belief system in that era. It taught that a Supreme Being had originally created the universe, but after that was totally uninvolved with the universe or humankind. Owing to similar tastes and sympathies, Adoniram and Jacob quickly became fast friends, and before long Judson joined Eames in his disbelief of Christianity.
After graduating from Brown, Adoniram taught school for eleven months in Plymouth, where his family was then living. But he wanted to see more of the world and to make much more of his life. He also felt shackled and like a hypocrite living in his parents’ home and attending their church, never having revealed to them the change of religious beliefs he had come to have while in college.
Consequently, on his twentieth birthday, he abruptly left his teaching position and announced his intention to travel for a time. When his father pressed him for an explanation of that sudden change of course, Adoniram was forced to divulge his newly held beliefs.
His father responded with accusations of irresponsibility and ingratitude as well as warnings against rushing to his own destruction. His mother responded with tears and pleading. After enduring a week of domestic anguish, Adoniram mounted a horse and rode westward out of town.
Making his way to New York City, he joined a small traveling theatrical troupe. “We lived a reckless, vagabond life,” Adoniram later confessed, “finding lodgings where we could, and bilking the landlord where we found opportunity – running up a score, and then decamping without paying the reckoning.” He soon grew tired and disillusioned with such a lifestyle and left it without notice one night.
Continuing his journey on horseback, he stopped at a country inn where the proprietor, while showing him to his room, stated apologetically: “I have been obliged to place you next door to a young man who is exceedingly ill, probably in a dying state. I hope that will occasion you no uneasiness.”
Adoniram assured him it would not, but it proved to be a very restless night. What really disturbed him was the landlord’s statement that the young stranger was in a dying state. “Is he prepared?” Adoniram kept wondering. “Is he a strong Christian, calmly anticipating glorious immortality, or an unbeliever shuddering on the brink of a dark, unknown eternity?” Entirely against his will, Adoniram could not help but imagine himself on that deathbed facing eternity.
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How Jesus Satisfies Our Desire for Authentic Beauty

By Carly Buchwald — 5 months ago

The resurrection points to the importance of our bodies. Gnosticism claims the body is bad, but Scripture says our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (6:19). We glorify God by taking care of our bodies, but we can go too far if we seek to glorify them now rather than waiting for God to do this in eternity. One day, we’ll receive glorified bodies and be presented without spot or wrinkle (15:5–53; Eph. 5:27). But even better than this, we’ll gaze on our beautiful Savior.

The beauty industry is rapidly changing and growing, and Gen Zers and millennials are leading the way. According to Revieve, a beauty and wellness platform, “Gen Z is changing the face of beauty.” In their eyes, beauty is defined by “freedom of individuality, authenticity, and diversity.” It’s about being yourself but also about being your best self.
Gen Zers seek brands that support their values and complement their identity, so they look to the wellspring of all wisdom—YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
This fount provides a never-ending supply of make-up tutorials, beauty hacks, and product reviews. According to a 2023 survey, millennials spend an average of $2,670 per year on beauty products, followed by Gen Zers at $2,048; and 64–67 percent say it’s because of social media’s influence.
As a millennial, I’m aware of this influence, yet I still willingly give in. When I don’t like what I see in the mirror, a voice whispers, “We can change that.” An article here. A TikTok tutorial there. Another order on Amazon. But in the end, I’m left feeling empty. And the pattern repeats.
Our longing for “authentic” beauty drives us to a cacophony of voices that promise solutions but lead to dissatisfaction. Trends change. Fads fade. Anything “authentic” is just another counterfeit.
Then where are we to look?
Look to Christ’s Beauty
What we find in God’s Word turns our culture’s definition of beauty upside down through the life and death of God’s Son. We were designed to treasure beauty; we just look for it in the wrong places. Here are four reasons we’re to look to Jesus, not social media, to satisfy our desire for authentic beauty.
1. Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory.
When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God told him no one could see his face and live (Ex. 33:20). But he’d be willing to show Moses his back. As he passed by Moses, God spoke these words:
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation. (34:6–7)
When Moses came down from the mountain, his face was shining. To see God’s glory, to gaze on his beauty, is to know his character and be in his presence. This is why David says his one request is to gaze on the beauty of the Lord (Ps. 27:4). He knows God as the merciful and majestic King over all creation and desires to behold him by worshiping him in the temple.
Some caught glimpses of his glory, but no one had ever seen God (John 1:18)—until Jesus came.
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Natural Disasters—Chance or God?

By Daniel Rowlands — 5 months ago

Natural disasters and the destruction they produce—especially to human life and to property—bring to mind our desire to explain both cause and effect. Normally, there are two choices: chance or God. Even as we find scientific cause and effect, the ultimate cause is often thought of as chance—these events just happen.
On the other hand, the destructive nature of natural disasters such as hurricanes and fires fueled by fast-moving winds has led some within and without the church to rightly attribute the cause to God but then to specifically assert that God’s motive is his wrath for some perceived human failing. What should we make of this? Chance or God? And what is the reason or motive behind these destructive storms, floods, and fires?
Power, Terror, Destruction
First of all, this is not a discussion in the abstract. The power, terror, physical destruction, and psychological fear these events bring upon us are real—they can be seen, they can be felt, and they change us. Unless one has “ridden out” the terror of howling wind, rain, thunder, lightning, and fire, or lost a family member or friend, suffered injury or loss of property—along with the memories that are embedded in our homes—it is very difficult to imagine what these catastrophic events are like. Hurricanes, floods, and burning are terrifying and destructive. Our hearts reach out to everyone, friend and foe alike, who falls into their path.
Are these natural disasters the products of chance, fate, or the wrath of God? To what do we attribute them?
Considering Psalm 29
Psalm 29 describes a storm building over the Mediterranean Sea while moving from west to east with rain, thunder, and lightning:

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;the God of glory thunders,the Lord, over many waters. (Ps. 29:3)

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. (Ps. 29:7)

The thunder and lightning are described as the voice of the Lord. The lightning of his thunderous voice comes forth like flames of fire. The power of the storm is seen and heard, and it is so powerful that it breaks trees in Lebanon. Surely such a storm strikes fear in those who experience it. Boarding up homes and businesses, evacuation orders, the painfully slow escape on a jam-packed freeway—these are all actions born from a healthy fear and respect for the power of the storm.
Yet the Psalmist has more to say—

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Be Radical: Don’t Let Politics Hijack the Pulpit— Christ is King

By Bryan Schneider — 5 months ago

There’s only one cornerstone of the church that the world is constantly trying to pull us away from—Jesus. I’m begging you not to forget your identity in Christ during this political season. Do the radical thing. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith.

Man, has that junk mail button been getting hit a lot lately. Why? Political email, political email, political email.
I’m not here to say politics aren’t important. I’m not here to convince you that culture, philosophy, or politics don’t matter to the people of God. This isn’t some wimpy attempt to get you to forget God’s commands, close your eyes to the evil around you, or stick your head in the sand.
But there is a massive pull in our hyper-polarized society to make the church’s identity all about politics.
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R.C. Sproul vs The Westminster Divines on the Christian Sabbath

By Ronald William Di Giacomo — 5 months ago

Are we to infer that God commands us not to work on the Sabbath in order that we might enjoy 21st century entertainment on the Lord’s Day? Are all non-work lawful pleasures that are suitable for Saturdays somehow appropriate for Sunday? Did God command rest for one day in seven so that 21st century moms and dads would be free on Sundays to take their children to their soccer games? It should be apparent, the Divines did not base their view of Sabbath recreation solely on Isaiah 58:13-14.

R.C. Sproul cites three so-called “controversies” in church history surrounding the Christian Sabbath. Is the Sabbath obligatory for the New Testament Church? If it is, should the Sabbath continue to be the seventh day of the week, the first day of the week, or is the day of the week up for grabs. Thirdly, Sproul raises a difference of opinion within the church regarding Sabbath recreation and acts of mercy. So, Sproul cites two defeated views, then fastens his wagon to a third. I’ll address them one-by-one.
Obligatory nature of the Sabbath
“Augustine, for example, believed that nine of the Ten Commandments (the so-called “moral law” of the Old Testament) were still intact and imposed obligations upon the Christian church… Augustine was persuaded that the Old Testament Sabbath law had been abrogated. Others have argued that because the Sabbath was instituted originally not in the Mosaic economy but in creation, it maintains its status of moral law as long as the creation is intact.”
There’s no doubt, Augustine was the theological giant of his day. However, Augustine lived 1600 years ago and anyone holding to his theology today could not be ordained in a Reformed Presbyterian church. That speaks to how far God has brought his church.
Many giants have stood on Augustine’s shoulders. Yet today’s Reformed church, with its elevated line to truth on the horizon, repudiates several of Augustine’s theological positions such as paedocommunion, the classification of non-elect regenerate persons, the abrogation of the Sabbath principle and more.
Of course, there are always theological “controversies” in the church but controversy does not lend credence to a defeated view held by an otherwise notable theologian of his day. That Augustine reduced the Ten Commandants to nine merely corroborates the Reformed understanding of the progressive doctrinal illumination of the church. We should expect that doctrine has been refined from Augustine’s day, through the time of the Protestant Reformation, to this very day within the Reformed tradition. Accordingly, any reference to Augustine that gives credence to a non-confessional Sabbath view gives equal credence to paedocommunion and losing one’s salvation, which resurfaced without warm ecclesiastical welcome in the fleeting phase of Federal Vision.
Saturday, Sunday or any day?
“The second major controversy is the question about the day of the week on which the Sabbath is to be observed. Some insist that… since the Old Testament Israelites celebrated the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, which would be Saturday, we should follow that pattern.”
Sproul gives no details of who was embroiled in the controversy, so it’s hard to comment. As for today it’s safe to say that the Millerite movement that culminated in the Seventh-day Adventist sect and the teachings of its former prophetess, Ellen White, have no seat at the Reformed table. Nor do Saturday Sabbath cults like those that embrace Armstrongism and House of Yahwey heresies, or views held within the Hebrews Roots movement.
But back to basics. What is the relevance of citing the defeated side of a settled “controversy” by an appeal to a particular theologian? Would we lend credence to slavery because an otherwise notable statesman owned slaves? That a particular theologian (past or present) disagrees with the church might be interesting but it is neither surprising nor seemingly relevant.
Indeed, if it is one’s intention to lend credence to doctrines that lost the debate by citing notable theologians who were on the wrong side of the church, then how far might we take this approach? Should we revisit the credibility of the “transubstantiation of the mass” because Thomas Aquinas was sound on other doctrine? Where is Sproul hoping to lead us? Controversial debate might create doubt in the minds of the less theologically grounded, but can it lend credence to either side of an issue, especially to the losing side in a progressively illuminated church?
“John Calvin argued that it would be legitimate to have the Sabbath day on any day if all of the churches would agree, because the principle in view was the regular assembling of the saints for corporate worship and for the observation of rest.”
Well, Calvin didn’t have the benefit of the Westminster Divines as it relates to their mature thought on the Regulative Principle of Worship, Christian Liberty of Conscience and Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, which through theological synthesis overturns the view that the church may determine which day in seven can be constituted as the Lord’s Day. The Divines with good reason rejected Articles XX and XXXIV of the church of England. Again, what’s the point of the history lesson?
How does historical controversy lend credence to, or cast doubt upon, settled error and in this particular case on the church’s alleged right to dictate religious rites and holy days?
Recreation and Acts of Mercy
“Within the Reformed tradition, the most significant controversy that has appeared through the ages is the question of how the Sabbath is to be observed. There are two major positions within the Reformed tradition on this question. To make matters simple, we will refer to them as the Continental view of the Sabbath and the Puritan view of the Sabbath.”
Tagging with an impressive label a non-confessional view might give people a subjective sense of theological backing but it cannot provide objective confessional or ecclesiastical backing. Moreover, as church historian and professor R. Scott Clark has argued, this rejected view, commonly referred to as “the Continental view” of the Sabbath, is thought by some to entail spurious revisionism. Or as Dr. Clark would have it:

“There was no consciousness in the classical period of a distinctly “British” or ‘Continental’ view of anything. There was simply an international Reformed theology, piety, and practice.”

See also the Synod of Dort on sabbath observance:
“This same day is thus consecrated for divine worship, so that in it one might rest from all servile works (with these excepted, which are works of charity and pressing necessity) and from those recreations which impede the worship of God.”
Back to Sproul:
“The Puritan view argues against the acceptability of recreation on the Sabbath day. The text most often cited to support this view is Isaiah 58:13-14…The crux of the matter in this passage is the prophetic critique of people doing their own pleasure on the Sabbath day. The assumption that many make with respect to this text is that doing one’s own pleasure must refer to recreation. If this is the case, the prophet Isaiah was adding new dimensions to the Old Testament law with respect to Sabbath-keeping.”
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Anxiety: What is Our Hope?

By Austin Kettle — 5 months ago

Our God will carry us, nurse us, and bind up our wounds, even as we feel the loss, and he will get us to where he has promised. Now is not the whole story. But he is with us now, taking care of what he knows we need. This is the kind of gospel that can meet our anxiety when we are widowed, when Parkinson’s comes, in redundancy, divorce, and heart attacks. Do not, Christian, do not be anxious. Not because there is nothing to fear, but because we have a Father, and day by day he will provide.

It is hard to talk about anxiety in a helpful way. At best, I have a shallow, half-understanding of anxiety. I am not a psychologist, and I no longer have the absolute confidence of a person who has only known one story of anxiety up close. A flat, simple story of anxiety is easy to talk about. Sad thing is, the story of anxiety gets more complex with every real person you engage with.
Discussion around anxiety is everywhere. In his recent book, The Anxious Generation, New York University professor Jonathan Haidt offers an interpretation of the overwhelming reports of massive anxiety among teenagers and young people by focusing on the destructive impact of smartphones and social media on childhood.
Lauren Oyler, a young novelist, offers a perspective from within the anxious generation. She wrote an essay in the New Yorker in March 2024 about her own experience of anxiety and uncertainty about the kind of help she might or might not need. It’s a good read if you want to hear someone’s experience of trying to talk about her own anxiety in the context of a cultural deluge. And she points out that we are not the first people to experience a huge uptick in reports of anxiety as we see the world changing around us:
The concept of Americanitis, popularized by William James at the end of the nineteenth century, described “the high-strung, nervous, active temperament of the American people,” according to an 1898 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The causes — advances in technology and accompanying pressures of capitalism — were much the same as they are today.[1]
Please do not think I am minimizing anxiety. I am grateful that it is way less stigmatized than even a decade ago and that good therapy and effective medications are far more widely available. Good people are doing good work to help people in real suffering.
But, or even better said, and whenever we’re faced with something that seems out of control in our current moment, we do well to look beyond our moment.
Jesus knows the anxiety of change. He taught people whose political worlds were defined by hostile occupation, economic volatility, and colonial pragmatism. Their daily lives were lives without refrigeration, without preservatives, without Ziploc© bags. Each day, the question of where food was coming from was as live a question as whether the authorities would crack down on them. In the face of all these unknowns, how could they be anything but anxious?
Matthew 6:24-34 does not provide us with a silver bullet to the whole problem of anxiety. Jesus is not offering a simplistic “stop it!” to people whose brains and bodies play host to generalized anxiety or traumatic responses.
Instead, this passage must be read in context, and when we do, we will see that Jesus is focused on a key tension:
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matt. 6:24-34, ESV)
Step back with me. The thesis that sets up this key tension is this: faced with anxiety about the future, we will be devoted to the one thing that truly gives us hope, and we will consider other sources of hope inconsequential. Jesus goes so far as to say that we will even come to despise them.
And here is the tension: What will that source of hope be? Ultimately, Jesus teaches, in the face of uncertainty, we will either devote ourselves to our own capacity to meet trouble, here represented by money, or we will devote ourselves to the conviction that God cares for us. We will either devote ourselves to our own capacity to meet trouble, primarily through money, but possibly also hustle, worry, politics, and more — power in our own hands — or we will devote ourselves to the conviction that God, our Father, cares for us. Power cradling us in his own hands.
It will almost never feel this black and white, but in those moments of interior crisis we will preach to ourselves one of two gospels: I am alone, or I am a child.

I am alone. If I anticipate and mitigate every crisis that tomorrow might bring, I may be able to take care of myself. I may be able to please the gods. I may be able to future-proof myself.
I am a child. I have a loving heavenly Father who has saved my life and will add to that all I need for each day.

It feels so binary, yet these are the two options everything else boils down to. Mitigating crises might not look like building our bank balance; it might look like surrounding ourselves with capable people who owe us favors or building our positive karma. These options go beyond action and back to identity. And fundamentally, they go back beyond our own identity to the identity of God himself. Does he exist? Does he care? Can he help?
So those are our two choices: Am I alone, or am I loved? Jesus asks us which narrative we will believe. But they are choices offered with a huge bias: come towards love. Jesus beckons us towards God’s love using three reminders.
First, we are to choose our heavenly Father over money.
We cannot begin to understand this text and this teaching without understanding the context. There are two instances of the word ‘therefore’ in this passage, and the first is almost at the beginning, in verse 25. This first ‘therefore’ is emphatic. In fact, it is not the usual word for ‘therefore’: it is more like ‘hey!’ Because of all this, therefore…
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Responding to Hurricane Helene – Part 2

By Geoff Gleason — 5 months ago

Be reminded that the Lord is good, and the Lord is sovereign. Because He rules and reigns, the Christian says with Job: “The Lord gives and takes away…” Because the world is subject to God’s providence, the Christian’s grumbling should be changed to Job’s good confession: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” That does not mean that hardships are not hard anymore. It does not mean that loss does not bring about tears. But it does mean that whether facing easy or hard circumstances, Christians are to give thanks to God, praise His name, tell of His salvation, and rejoice for His steadfast love endures forever.

Last installment the stage was set for a broader consideration of how the Christian should respond to God’s providence using Job 2:9-10. In the midst of tremendous loss, Job maintains his spiritual integrity, event worshiping God who he saw as taking things away from him. This topic is important especially for those who have just suffered the effects of hurricane Helene. And yet it is applicable to all because we are all subject to God’s providence.
The Providence of God
Westminster Shorter Catechism defines God’s providence in this way: “What are God’s works of providence? God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”[1] In the book of Job the reader is challenged to understand how God governs His creatures and their actions, and how to properly respond to that reality. Since God governs all His creatures and all their actions, that means good times and disaster come from Him. God does not remove Himself from this world after He makes it as the Deists would teach, but continually governs it. He cares for the creation, superintending all His creatures and all their actions.
What Job teaches the Christian is that he should respond with the same level of contentment in both kinds of circumstances. And that is challenging. In some sense easy times make us complacent and hard times make us grumble, but from Job’s lips the Christian is reminded that we should receive both by remembering that it is God’s providence, His governance of his days that has brought these circumstances into being.
God’s Good Providences
In the book of Job the tension is not that he has received too many blessings from the Lord. It is rather the opposite. Job has experienced a shattering of his life and his tragedy is real. Even for those who have experienced this most recent hurricane, it is still predominantly true that those in the United States can sing with the psalmist: “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”[2]The vast majority of westerners live under God’s good providences, which are experienced in different ways.
His provision. The Lord provides for His people in a variety of ways. He does so materially by giving food, clothing, housing, and other possessions. He does so emotionally by blessing Christians with friends, family, and most often a spouse with whom to share life. He does so through the technological advancements of our time with vastly improved medical technology, and other inventions that provide ease and comfort in life. There are many others that could be listed here. Most of the time people hardly give these any thought, and even assume that these are their right. And yet because all men participated in the sin of Adam and add to that guilt daily by sinful thoughts, words, and deeds, it is in the provisions that God gives that He demonstrated His kindness.
His protection. In God’s governance of His creation there is security because in it God protects His people. In Job, the only reason the devil has access to him is that God gives him permission. Often in prayer meetings, Christians will pray for a “hedge of protection” around someone. That phrase is derived from the devil’s conversation with God. When the devil responds to God’s praise of Job’s faithfulness he says, “Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?”[3] The Christian lives with the knowledge that nothing happens to him apart from the permission of his loving Heavenly Father.
Most often, the Lord directs these protections through secondary means. Parents are used to protect their children both physically and spiritually. The elders of the church exercise their office for the protection of faith and practice among God’s people. Governing authorities protect their citizens from evil and promote what is good. These institutions do not exist apart from God’s appointment, but are instances of His tremendous kindness in his good providences.
His pardon. The greatest aspect of God’s work of providence is the way He redeems people from the guilt of sin. All people are by nature guilty before God because of their sin. And yet some are declared righteous and pardoned from the guilt of their sin. It is God’s providence that any turn. None would be reconciled to God on their own. The condition of man is dire. He is “dead in sin and trespass”[4] and even Christians are naturally “children of wrath like the rest of mankind.”[5] There is no possible way to escape the significance of this natural condition. God’s merciful pardoning of sin is His ultimate demonstration of kindness.
It is good to remember and express these acts of kindness which God in His good providence has given to His people. That is especially true while living in the shadow of hurricane Helene. In hard times, people are tempted to think only of the tragedy. But Christians must remember the goodness and kindness of God which is experienced (and perhaps taken for granted) from day to day. Certainly it is easier to praise God when His providence provides for and protects you. It is easy to praise Him for His work of salvation. But there is much to be learned in the book of Job in giving thanks in all circumstances.
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