Prophetic Passion and Resistance Thinking
Nearly two decades ago Os Guinness released a brief but powerful volume entitled Prophetic Untimeliness (Baker, 2003). It is well worth revisiting – or for many of you, being introduced to for the first time. In his Introduction he explains the book’s title: “Prophetic Untimeliness is a term adapted from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche but shaped by the precedent of the Hebrew prophets rather than the German iconoclast. Nietzsche saw that independent thinkers would always be out of step with the conventional wisdom of their generation.”
What follows might sound quite strange to many Christians, but ALL God’s people today ARE called to have a prophetic ministry, and ALL God’s people today ARE called to be engaged in resistance thinking – and action. The only reason this sounds alarming and foreign is because we have moved so far away from New Testament Christianity.
The idea that we should have a prophetic voice and lifestyle, and that we should be actively resisting the ungodly culture all around us is really just basic Christianity 101. But it is a sign of the times that such basics sound radical and even revolutionary to most Christians – at least in the West.
I could cite countless believers from over the past two millennia who have spoken about such matters, but let me refer to just one: an 80-year-old Christian that I just highlighted in an article yesterday: billmuehlenberg.com/2022/06/14/notable-christians-os-guinness/
Nearly two decades ago Os Guinness released a brief but powerful volume entitled Prophetic Untimeliness (Baker, 2003). It is well worth revisiting – or for many of you, being introduced to for the first time. In his Introduction he explains the book’s title:
“Prophetic Untimeliness is a term adapted from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche but shaped by the precedent of the Hebrew prophets rather than the German iconoclast. Nietzsche saw that independent thinkers would always be out of step with the conventional wisdom of their generation.”
As to prophets, he says this: “We might distinguish capital-P ‘Prophets’ from small-p ‘prophets.’ The former are those, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, who have heard a direct, explicit, supernatural word from God and can legitimately say, ‘This is the word of the Lord.’ The latter are those who interpret their life and times from a biblical perspective and therefore ‘read the signs of the times’ with greater or lesser skill, but never presume the authority and infallibility of ‘This is the word of the Lord’.”
He also explains that the notion of “resistance thinking” is adapted from a 1945 essay by C. S. Lewis, “Christian Apologetics”. I dug it out from his God in the Dock, where Lewis said this:
“Science progresses because scientists, instead of running away from such troublesome phenomena or hushing them up, are constantly seeking them out. In the same way, there will be progress in Christian knowledge only as long as we accept the challenge of the difficult or repellent doctrines. A ‘liberal’ Christianity which considers itself free to alter the Faith whenever the Faith looks perplexing or repellent must be completely stagnant. Progress is made only into a resisting material.”
So the Christian is to be a prophetic voice and resist the world and its wayward direction. But Christians resist the world and its wrong paths because we want something better of the world:
“A vital secret of the church’s power and glory in history lies in its calling to be ‘against the world, for the world.’ C. S. Lewis calls this the ‘two-edged character’ of the Christian faith.
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Pride Will Bring Him Low | Proverbs 29:23
Pride is too deeply woven into our DNA, so we look to Christ, the eternally glorious Son of God who took on humanity to slay death by His death. No great humility has ever been shown, and no greater exaltation will ever be known. We now find the greatest honor in submitting ourselves to His Lordship, in laying our lives and selves at His feet to be used as He sees fit.
One’s pride will bring him low,but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
Proverbs 29:23 ESVWe only need to survey the culture around us to find evidence that the first half of this proverb is true. Secularized individuals (I say this instead of secularists simply because many people would certainly not call themselves secularists yet have nonetheless been thoroughly secularized, which is what has happened to liberal Christianity) are certainly those most supportive of celebrating pride as though it were a virtue. This is the same demographic that evidently faces the sharpest battle against despair. These two facts are related by causation not mere correlation.
No amount of affirmation and applause can change reality, both around us and within us. Like Lucifer, our greatest attempts at self-exaltation will always result in being cast down into the pit. Despair is the inevitable end (unless perhaps we can grip delusion tight enough) of worshiping ourselves as the embodiment of perfection and then discovering firsthand how pathetic deities we are. The exalted will certainly be brought low.
Yet the humble, said Jesus, will be exalted. That is, the “lowly in spirit will obtain honor.”
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A Catechism that Makes Disciples
In this brief article, I am pleased to introduce the Genevan Catechism (1542/1545), the culmination of John Calvin’s concern to reach the unlearned audience of Geneva, and propose that the catechetical practice still stands as a useful strategy for training youth in the faith and incorporating them into the liturgical life of the church.
Developing the Genevan Catechism
Calvin spent part of his life (1536-45) implementing an educational method for the unlearned. On three occasions, he tried to develop an effective summary of doctrine for children in his early ministry in Geneva. On November 10, 1536, he and Guillaume Farel presented the Confession to the city magistrates, a text intended for catechesis of children (after Calvin had taken up permanent residence in the city). In 1537, Calvin produced Instruction in Faith, originally written in French, and translated by him into Latin in 1538 as the Catechism or Institution of the Christian Religion of the Church of Geneva. Following the pattern of the Augsburg Confession (1530), Calvin clearly thought that “the best way to instruct children was to set forth in a clear, simple way the central topics of doctrine, according to the order of law, creed, prayer, and sacraments.”
Calvin changed his mind, however, during his exile in Strasbourg (1538-41). Deeply influenced by Martin Bucer, he learned and had the opportunity to develop his own version of his former catechism. Calvin adopted the dialogical form of question and answer in the Catechism of the Church of Geneva, written in French in 1542, following his return from exile. To spread the Genevan teaching and strengthen the ecumenical bonds with other Reformed churches, Calvin also translated his catechism into Latin in 1545.
In a nutshell, Christian education stood at the center of Calvin’s reforming work in Geneva. He believed that God’s truth could prosper only when doctrine was passed on by adequate instruction. Apart from a strategic program for instructing the unlearned, especially children, Calvin contended that there would be no success in reforming the church.
Therefore, he insisted to the city leaders that religious education, strategically condensed in his catechism, had to be implemented in a threefold manner: at catechism services on Sundays, in at-home instruction led by parents throughout the week, and in an adapted form in the new Reformed schools of Geneva. Calvin believed that these three groups of leaders in their respective realms: parents at home, pastors at church, and teachers at the new Reformed schools would raise the next generation of believers in Geneva. Despite the initial resistance by the city, Calvin achieved his objective of being supported by local authorities.
The Liturgical Framework of the Genevan Catechism
Calvin’s catechism is divided into fifty-five sections and contains in its four main parts a total of 373 questions and answers. The close relation between doctrine and worship is a striking feature of Calvin’s theology.
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