Music Mondays

As a new 'old school' worship song that's being overlooked as a classic, I must admit that I haven't always like this song. I can't exactly tell you why, but as someone who is naturally sarcastic it may have to do with the fact that I find it ironic that some worship leaders can play a song called "Forever" for what seems like forever. My opinion changed after I purchased this album that contains the version of the song in the above video. It is probably my favorite worship CD top to bottom and it put the song in a context that led me to re-evaluate my judgement.

Truthfully though, I also find it unusual to get all pumped up about God's eternality. It's something my mind can't really grasp and thus makes it that much harder to relate to. But the awesome thing about God and His Word is, the more you meditate on Him, the more you appreciate all that He is.

Psalm 102 is one special passage that helped me understand this divine attribute in a better way:

²⁵ Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment.
    You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
²⁷     but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Hallelujah!

Replying to a Reply re: Dispensationalism

My friend Dave Lester, whose blog had compelled me to write this, responded on his own blog to my rambling discussion. Not only does he write fairly, but he is able to deftly handle the pertinent issues. Below is my response to his response originally left as a comment on Facebook.

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Dave - excellent post, a much better response than my post warranted.
Let me just say this up front, my Progressive Dispensational views only have like 10% relevance to my end times views...PD is much much larger than defining what will happen in the End of Days. And I'm not sure being PD requires one to be pre-trib, just pre-mill (I think).

We virtually agree on everything regarding Revelation/prophecy - thanks Dr. Sandy! I'd probably be a preterist and a futurist. It related to their day and a day still to come. And the whole point is we must be faithful and trust God's sovereignty.

I do feel like one of the big misconceptions of end times theology is this default to "no one knows the day or hour". I agree that is true - Jesus said it after all - and Paul does say in 1 Thess. 5:3 that it will come like 'a Thief in the Night' (bad movie reference #2). But we also read in THE VERY NEXT VERSE, 1 Thess. 5:4, that this return of Christ WILL NOT SURPRISE those who are faithful and 'not in darkness'. In other words, those who are faithful during those days will see it coming. Not in a specific way where we can set our watches by it, but there will be clear signs that the end is near. I believe this is also the point of 2 Thess. 1 and 2. Thus all of those who lazily say "I don't hold a view, it will all pan out in the end" risk falling short of Scriptures exhortation to be sober-minded and anticipate Christ's return.

A couple minor quibbles with your post:
- I'd quibble just a bit that the 7 yr trib is not in the Bible at all - not in Revelation yes. But this is where we dispensationalists start referencing Daniel and the 70th 'week'. But that's really not important to your point.
- In the end, you just connect some dots differently than I do - saying that if there is a 7 yr trib, than that contradicts Jesus' words that 'no one will know the day or hour'. Other than my above point, I'd add we pre-trib folks mostly believe that relates to the rapture (Jesus referring to the general Day of the Lord arriving, further revelation specifies it as the rapture). So Jesus' statement still stands (again qualified by my above point) that no one will know the day or the hour as it pertains to the rapture.

I guess this could have been a separate blog post after all. Didn't think I needed to, but I may just copy and paste this to make it an official reply to your reply.
- Lee

Music Mondays

Modern worship songs have been rightly criticized for being too simplistic and only repeating the same lines over and over and over ad nauseum. But when utilized properly, those same songs can transform their simplicity into efficiency - directly and succinctly proclaiming God's glory and our devotion. 

This song, "I Give You My Heart" is one of those. Yes, in the wrong hands it can be too drawn-out and repetitive. But if we just let it be what it is - a simple chorus with one verse expressing our complete dedication to the Lord - it can be a beautiful thing.

Sermon Snippets

Hard-wired within our American culture is a fear of excessive surveillance and governmental control. From George Orwell's classic Nineteen Eighty-Four to the blockbuster Hunger Games books and movies, the fear of having to look over our shoulder because 'Big Brother' is watching is a well-used and effective narrative tool. 

For those unfamiliar with the Biblical text, it may be surprising that Scripture repeatedly brings this idea up as it describes God. Sure it may not be the same thing, but imagine you aren't overly familiar with the Bible and your only point of reference for this are the pop cultural examples. Now read these verses with those lenses:

⁷ Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

- Psalm 139


It may be a bit alarming if you haven't grown up in church but did read Orwell's book in middle school and have immersed yourself in the dystopian society book genre.


Thankfully, God reveals this aspect of himself as a truth to be cherished not feared. A healthy respect is necessary for sure, but God's omniscience (aka, he is all-knowing) is a comforting reality when all seems lost. Proverbs 15 includes several verses which highlight this reality and encourage us with it. 


15:8-9 and 15:11 are just two of the six passages we'll look at on Sunday as we learn that we have nowhere to go and nowhere to hide when God is concerned. And that can be a good thing. A really good thing.

Music Mondays

This week's Music Monday will begin a series. The inspiration for this came from two separate conversations I overheard in two different contexts that both made the same observation. 

The essence of those conversations was that the wave of popularity of contemporary worship over the past 10-15 years has created an unexpected problem. So many artists and groups are producing so much quality popular worship music that all continuity has been lost. Sure, the traditional approach of the 19th and 20th centuries gave us hymnals with 500 songs in them, but by and large there were classics that 'rose to the top' - favorites Christians loved no matter their church or denomination. These observations, one by a long-time minister, the other by a relatively young contemporary-inclined pastor recognized that each new hit replaces the old ones, so that we have nothing but brand new songs to sing. 

That's not a terrible fact - Scripture even encourages us to do so. Scripture's command is meant for us to create our own expressions of faith and praise, not merely relying on our forefather's faith and traditions. But when all we do is sing newer and newer selections, how can we learn any and truly give ourselves to worshiping through them? How can we truly make these new songs our own heartfelt expressions if we are mentally scrambling each Sunday to learn the words and keep up with the unfamiliar tune?

I believe eventually this wave will crest and the best of the best will become our generation's traditional hymnbook. Until then, I'd like to use this series to remind ourselves of some of the great contemporary songs we may have forgotten about. Some weeks I'll highlight one song, others two or more. 

For this initial post, I'm including two songs that I instantly fell in love with while I was a counselor at a summer camp during college. For two summers in a row, I spent one week at this camp in the thumb of Michigan. Each time it was led by a youth group worship band that was on the cutting edge of the newest worship music out there. I heard these two songs there in back-to-back years and still consider the live versions I heard by those kids at that camp to be better than the professional versions I would later hear on the radio. My memory may be biased, but these are two great worship songs.

Come, Now is the Time to Worship

What a great call to praise and worship our Lord! To be honest, the theologian in my wonders if it could be interpreted as promoting universalism (one day every knee will bow, still the greatest treasure remains..."Greatest"? Couldn't they have used "only" or something like that?) But I quickly get over that because that is essentially the point of the song - calling people to recognize God's greatness. Musically, it's best performed by building to a crescendo - starting slow and gaining momentum as the lyrics transform from a request into a plea.

Breathe (The Air I Breathe)

 

Speaking of songs that are best utilized by building to a crescendo...this song perfectly exemplifies just that. This specific version is as close to the Summer Camp version that I can find. I remember first hearing the lyrics and being blown away by their simplicity and profundity (is that a word-profoundness?). We are totally lost without daily communing with Christ. We need to be absolutely desperate for the Lord's presence. The first song is a great one to use to begin a time of praise and worship. This one is an ideal fit at the conclusion of such a set. 

They are bookends and great forgotten works of the contemporary music world.

In Defense of Dispensationalism

Earlier this week I read a couple of blog commentaries regarding the theology behind the current box-office flop Left Behind. [Ed. note - the author of first blog was a college and seminary classmate of mine who I consider a friend, though one I don't interact with much because we live in opposite parts of the country]

Both criticized the movie and the dispensational view the movie and it's source material best-selling books were based on.

Though I'm not planning on watching the movie, I have read several of the original books and did watch the original film starring Kirk Cameron - so I'm quite familiar with what we're dealing with. And if we're forming a line to make fun of the movie and book series, I will happily be first in line to offer my criticisms. But that does not mean I'm swearing off dispensationalism as well.

Let me explain my position with a (hopefully) brief response to those critiques and defend a progressive version of dispensationalism. 

• While the discussions of the origin of a pre-tribulation rapture are accurate andvalid, both commentators failed to identify the reasons behind Darby's conclusions and why dispensationalism took hold. This view developed because of the shift towards a more-literal biblical hermeneutic. To make a very-long-and-complicated-story short, by the 1700's, the Lutheran and Catholic faiths were the predominant religions of Europe. These 'faiths' were as much political parties concerned with holding and consolidating power as religions. To a lesser extent this was true of the Reformed churches as well. Once the printing press took hold and the common people had easy access to education and Scripture, the predominant allegorical approaches to interpreting and teaching the Bible were countered by Anabaptists who sought to teach and apply the Bible using a more literal and historical hermeneutic. Admittedly, this eventually worked itself out to the point where LaHaye and Jenkins authored a story that featured locusts with armor and scorpion tails (Rev.9). Yes classical dispensationalism has its flaws. One of the major flaws being the tendency to ignore genre and prophetic/apocalyptic language - using what one scholar called a 'flat-earth hermeneutic'. But that error is not any worse than the allegorical interpretation that will cheapen a book like the Song of Songs to make it a picture of Christ and the Church. [Anyone who's read and studied that book realizes it is too graphic to be an analogy or spiritual metaphor] Instead, I appreciate what Progressive Dispensationalism has done to find middle ground. It recognizes the major interpretive factors that come into play with different genres as it applies its literal/historical/grammatical interpretation. I don't believe there will be actual armor-plated locusts with scorpions tails, but I do believe the tribulation judgments will be horrible.
• Dispensationalism also defined the historical periods of time that many other perspectives still adopt. While the founding fathers of this movement seemed to go overboard with how they treated each age and in how they separated Israel and the Church, they deserve credit for the framework that has been plagiarized by everyone from Brian McLaren to Answers in Genesis. Progressive Dispensational scholars like Darrell Bock have provided sound support for tracing the Christo-centric nature of God's sovereign control of history. And as these studies have continued over the past century, the progressive camp has been able to reconcile the previously disregarded NT passages that equated Israel and the Church (though it probably doesn't totally satisfy our Reformed brothers). 
• Though you wouldn't know it from those blogs, there is significant Scriptural support for a pre-trib, pre-millennial return of Christ. Those posts had concerns about length, no doubt, but as I review ALL the pieces of the puzzle Scripture gives us - Daniel, Jesus' statements in the Gospels, Paul's letters, Revelation - I've come to the conclusion that the pre-trib, pre-mill view fits the best with all of the relevant passages. The Gospel Coalition blog seemed to emphasize the Gospels (Matthew) the most. My friend Dave remarked that it was his study of Revelation that led him to change his mind. There must be fair attention given to all of the pieces, though that is tough work. That said, I'm going to be preaching through Revelation using newer sources that take an unusual approach - so I could end up with different conclusions in 6 months. Stay tuned.

Two other minor points:

• The Gospel Coalition blog kept using the term 'secret rapture'. I've never heard that term before in my life. No one I've ever heard of or read - not even the most literal of classical dispensationalists - has ever taken the stance that the rapture will be secret. I have no idea why that term was used, other than to paint the view with additional absurdity.
• To all those who default to "Pan-millenialism", as in, "Jesus is coming back at some point and it will all 'pan-out' " - I say - stop being so lazy! It is intellectual cowardice to pass on doing in-depth Bible study on a subject that comes up so often in Scripture. What do you do when you start reading/studying 1 Thessalonians 4? Do you just skip whole books of the Bible in your teaching? To refuse to take a position is 'weak-sauce' to use a non-theological term.  Yes, it is confusing. Yes, it is complicated. Yes, many godly people take different positions. But you don't have to find perfect clarity. And it is worth knowing why you favor one position over another. Be informed, not ignorant. And of course - apply the clear Scriptural end-times mandate to be faithful to God and worship Christ as He deserves.

Let me end by sharing how thankful I am to serve in a non-dispensational denomination which is gracious enough to allow differing points of view to be held on these non-essential issues. Healthy discussion and debate are good things and I hope this post has been respectful and clear that we don't have to throw the baby (dispensationalism) out with the bath-water (the Left Behind movie).

Music Mondays

This song is taking the American Church by storm. If it's possible to make such a statement based on anecdotal evidence. It's a song that did not initially strike me as a worship song in the sense of one we'd sing in church. But the more exposure I had to it, I began to see its appeal.

That said, it's a difficult song to honestly sing. This blog does a phenomenal job of explaining why we should think twice before we sing it. We should be just as self-aware in all of our worship as this blog is with this particular song.  There is a danger of being overcritical, but it is worth the risk, rather than go on numbly and ignorantly declaring things in worship we really don't believe.

Why feature the song at all then? Well, this acoustic version strikes the right tone to me. It's humble, understated, and more prayer than performance. And given it's lyrical content, that is the right approach in my opinion.