• An urgent prayer to start off: Johanna Cederholm will be having open-heart surgery tomorrow for a bypass and a valve replacement. She’ll be at Virginia Mason in Seattle for 5 or 6 days, then rehab at Snoqualmie Valley Hospital in Snoqualmie. We love this woman and she means a great deal to us. Let’s pray for the procedure, that the valve specifically would work well, that she would be light in Christ to those she meets in the hospital, and that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, would guard her heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Thank you.
• Among other things, at presbytery we examine ministers regarding life and doctrine before they can become members, this includes men transferring in from other presbyteries. During an exam this past Friday, a transfer-candidate commented that though he doesn’t hold the view of creation known as “ theistic evolution” (the idea that evolution is a means by which God providentially achieved his purposes in creation), he was sympathetic and could see how the view would be helpful in evangelizing those who were scientifically savvy.
• The last thing this denomination needs is to be worse at outreach and evangelism, but there is misguided philosophy implied in the man’s comment — though his intentions were right and good. The mistake is known as utilitarianism: that the moral worth of an action (or doctrine) is determined by the resulting outcome. In other words, rather than making use of an idea because it’s true, we end up thinking an idea is true because it’s useful. The process is backwards. You end up saying, “if it works, it’s good” when in fact we should say, “if it’s true it’s good.” How useful it seems to us is another question entirely.
• Human beings are generally poor judges of the usefulness of God’s actions. When Jesus told the disciples he was going to Jerusalem to die, Peter rebuked him (Mt 16; Mk 8). Even after the crucifixion and the resurrection, the disciples were trying to measure the value of both events by the Roman occupation of Palestine, which they took to be the real problem confronting the Jews (Acts 1). Time didn’t necessarily help things: Paul described “Christ crucified” as a “stumbling block” and “ foolishness” in the eyes of those to whom he was preaching (1 Cor 1:23).
• While none of this justifies the kind of person who is going through life alienating everyone in the name of orthodoxy — after all, Paul said he became all things to all men that he might win some to Christ — we still have to be careful that the word of God genuinely governs what we say and do. Yes, we would like to manage outcomes. But no, we don’t know the future. So, trying to shape the truth to fit outcomes is sketchy at best. What we do know is what God has revealed to us in his word. That is what we speak; that is what we do.