I already have two other blogs that I don't contribute to very often, so some might be wondering why I am starting a third blog (especially considering that I have not posted anything that I couldn't have just posted on my others). Some might even be wondering why I am blogging at all. So, I'm going to come clean and I'm going to tell you why I blog and why I started a new blog.
For some, the notion of blogging is foreign. It seems like another destructive force of social media that encourages people to be narcissistic, write about their problems like we're all supposed to care, and to share with the world what the world already has enough of: opinions. For some, blogging is a waste of time, both to read and to write. It is as if Americans and people around the world have started to take personal diaries and post them publicly for the world to see. It is another needless drama floating around the "social" world of the internet that further complicates how the world interacts with each other. Others use blogs to voice their opinions as fact, to spread their biases with logical fallacies, and to be encouraged by followers who do not know what they're talking about either.
That's not why I am blogging and that's not why I started this blog.
Augustine of Hippo was a blogger. Around the world, centuries after he left his mark on this earth by publishing his Confessions, people still meddle into his affairs daily. Just recently, Rosaria Butterfield published a confessional title wherein she shares her personal story of redemption and her past struggles with the Christian church. Her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert has already made an impact in the church today, and will likely have an effect on the church for many years to come.
I have a story just like everyone else. You know why so many people throughout the centuries have read Augustine's Confessions? It's not because he and his story are unique, but it's because his story is very similar to everyone else's. He struggled with things that I struggle with too. This theologian that so many reformers heavily relied upon and stood upon his shoulders in order to ignite the Reformation was just a man like you and me, and he had the same sinful tendencies that you and I have. He too searched for answers where there were none to be found, and he found all the answers he hoped for when God answered his mother's prayers, and filled him with the Holy Spirit and united him to Christ by faith.
Before I became a Christian, I was a myspace blogger. I did it for the attention, but I also did it for the therapeutic effect it presented. As a teenager, I could sit down at the computer and write and write and write. I'm not much of a talker, but God made me a writer. Something clicks in my brain when I write, as if my fingers have access to an expressway to my heart, mind, and soul that my mouth does not. I write effortlessly yet I struggle to formulate words in my mouth. As a teenager, writing was my way of expressing myself.
Just before I turned 20, a transformation took place in my life. A divine interior designer made his way into my heart, found the place in shambles, in disrepair, and to my astonishment, he moved in. He demolished the old heart that stood upon the lot, and started from scratch. It felt as if Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition was taking place. The lot that my old heart stood on wasn't that big, but somehow the Holy Spirit managed to build the largest, most extravagant, most precious temple to dwell in, and the renovations never seem to cease. It feels as if the mountain ranges have moved from here to there. It feels as if God has adopted me as His child, has given me a Savior, and has decided to dwell with me, in the temple His Spirit has erected in my heart.
I had no use for bookshelves before. I was going to a community college at the time, and in order to save on gas money, I moved in with my grandma. For the longest time, I made due with the little space I had in my bedroom. I had my computer desk, my dresser, my keyboard, and a chair to dump all of my laundry on. As the Holy Spirit began to renovate my heart, He also renovated the library of my mind. I could not help but desire to know God because I loved Him so much. I knew the Bible, but I never really knew the Bible. I knew a few stories, I knew where most of the books were, I knew that there were four books about Jesus, and I thought that the red letters were a little more important than the rest. I didn't know the whole story of redemption, I didn't know what any of the books were really about, I didn't know that there are 66 books about Jesus, and I came to find out that the whole Bible contains the Word of God and not just the red letters.
I exhausted the funds in my savings account, and bought book after book after book. For my 20th birthday, my parents bought me Calvin's complete commentaries. I had more than I could read, but almost every question I had about the Christian faith, I had access to theological references that would point me to the answer provided in the Scriptures. I decided to read the Bible from cover to cover, because I had always been told what it taught but I never read it all on my own. To this day, I still haven't read the Bible from cover to cover on my own, but I always have had a Helper, revealing the truths contained in it. As I endeavored to read Scripture from cover to cover, I decided to utilize my parents' birthday gift, and read Calvin's commentary on Genesis. I never knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ was so prevalent in Genesis, and I never ceased to be amazed with the prevalence of the Gospel throughout all 66 books.
My blogs began to change. I had an audience on myspace, and I couldn't help but share with them all the things that the Lord was revealing in His Word. Myspace wasn't really about blogging, though, and I had an alternative purpose behind my myspace profile. As time went on, I began to realize that I was unlikely to find my future wife on myspace, that my blogs no longer pleased the masses, and that I would be wise to discontinue my profile. Before I deleted my profile, I copied and pasted every blog I wrote from Oct. 2005 to Feb. 2009, and saved the file, all 487 pages of it. Reading through it years later, I can see a work taking place in my heart that is made evident by my writing. This is volume one of my confessions, and now it is time to begin volume two.
I started this blog because there is more to my story. There is something that Augustine of Hippo and I share in common along with millions of professing Christians around the world. There is a part of Augustine's life that he confessed that has encouraged Christians throughout the ages. Augustine struggled with sexual immorality long before the internet, and although Augustine's Confessions remains a Christian classic that will always stand the test of time, I hope that I can start a new chapter of confessions. I don't want or intend to write the next Christian classic anymore than Augustine did. My only hope is that my confessions might encourage other Christian men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters to examine their lives according to the Law and cling all the more to Christ by faith, resting completely in the grace of God revealed and afforded to us in the Gospel.
Our culture needs a wake up call. The church's influence and the manner in which we are being influenced by this culture needs to be put in check. The search for cultural relevancy has left much of the church indistinguishable from the world, and it is affecting every Christian home and family in America. I was born and raised in a culturally relevant church, so I know firsthand what experiences most professing Christians are sharing in today. I went down a path of pornography and sexual perversion that so many other young and old Christians are on and I know firsthand what effect this has on a someone who says they're a Christian and someone who is truly resting in Christ. I went to college as a Christian by name only, and I know the temptations that young people are facing in college both physically and mentally.
Unfortunately, either the church has turned a blind eye to the problems that are running rampant in the pews and from behind the pulpit today or the church is blissfully ignorant. As the church refuses to address these problems or remains ignorant, those suffering and struggling with these problems are left feeling they're all alone.
Am I the only one that is going to church every Sunday and beginning to doubt why I am even going at all? Am I the only Christian man here that thinks that these Christian girls are wearing jeans that are too tight? Am I the only Christian girl that feels uncomfortable about the way my Christian guy friends say "That's what she said..." jokes all the time? Am I the only student in this Christian college that finds it strange how much underage drinking and pre-marital sex takes place on this campus and no one seems to care? Am I the only Christian guy that can't handle going to the pool with my friends because there are too many temptations? Am I the only Christian who is looking at pornography? Are we the only Christians dating who feel like we are crossing boundaries we shouldn't be both physically and emotionally? Are we the only Christian newly-weds who are dealing with the fact that both of us had sex with other people before we got married? Am I the only Christian teenager who has a past in homosexuality and is afraid to go to church where homosexuals are treated as outcasts? Am I the only Christian dad that feels pressured into letting my kids go to a Christian camp where my children will be supervised and taught by people only three years older than them? Am I the only Christian mom that doesn't like the way the other ladies in church gossip all the time? Are we the only Christian parents who are too scared to get involved with our teenage children's lives because we don't want to push them away from the church by getting nosy? Am I the only Christian that doesn't really know what he believes or why he believes it? Am I the only Christian at work who does not feel comfortable with the way our company is advertising a hamburger with half-naked women feeding each other in a commercial? Am I the only Christian guy that feels guilty about the music I listen to, the TV shows I watch, and the movies I go to? Am I the only deacon who thinks that we should spend less money on buying TVs, arcade games, and pool tables for the youth group and give more to the Christian homeless shelter down the street? Am I the only Christian girl who is dating the pastor's son and is feeling pressured to get physical in ways that I think are sinful? Are we the only Christian family that doesn't homeschool their kids because we feel they'll get a better education at a public school? Am I the only Christian guy that knows that my other Christian friends are smoking marijuana and I'm scared to tell someone because they threatened me? Am I the only Christian at work that is struggling to talk to the other people at work that say their Christians but don't act like it at all? Am I the only Christian girl at this party that feels uncomfortable because all my Christian friends are getting drunk? Am I the only pastor that is afraid to preach the Gospel because the leaders in my church think that the Gospel should be saved for evangelism and that they'll find a new pastor if I don't preach something more practical? Am I the only Christian guy that doesn't like the way my Christian friends talk about gay people? Am I the only Christian who has a problem with the way anyone and everyone labels themselves as a Christian in America today but no one believes that Jesus is the Christ anymore? Am I?
The list could go on and on. There are many out there that detest social media and blogging because it is superficial, there is nothing social about it, and no one is ever honest. That is very true about many bloggers and many forms of social media. However, I don't believe Facebook made our culture superficial as much as our superficial culture jumped onboard Facebook without hesitation.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:13-20)
Think about how honest and open you are with the people you attend church with. These people profess to be your brothers and sisters in Christ. These people are members of the same body of Christ with you. They are the branches opposite and adjacent to you on the Vine. They ask you how your week went. It went well. You skip the part where your car broke down, you don't have the money to fix it, you found out your daughter's friend was caught sexting and now you're worried about what your daughter might have been doing when she spent the night at her house last week, you got in a fight with your wife about money again, and you haven't been praying or reading the Bible for weeks. Your pastor walks up to you and asks how he can pray for you. You sum it all up: Just pray that we'll get along better and that God will provide us with a new vehicle.
Some would say that social media has allowed us to share too much of our lives, but I think it has done the exact opposite. Now we share what we want to share, what we feel we'll be accepted for, and we keep the rest hidden from each other, especially our fellow Christians. We can't bear the idea that the people that we go to church with might know that we are very sinful people, that we are struggling every week with temptation, and that we need a Savior to redeem us and forgive us from the grasp of sin.
At the end of James' epistle, he reveals the fellowship of believers and how the church ought to function. If someone is sick, they should call the elders so that they can lay their hands upon them and pray for their recuperation. The sickness James speaks of is not limited to illness, for he writes, "the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." There is a sickness that causes all diseases and death: sin. It should not surprise us, then, that James then entreats the body of believers to confess their sins with one another and to pray for one another that they may be healed.
Augustine confessed his sins to the whole world and to the whole church and his confession of sin still resonates and encourages others wrestling with similar sins today. Rosaria Butterfield confessed her sins and also confessed her views of the church and her confession has been met with thanksgiving and repentance by many who have read her story. I know that I would hesitate to stand before my congregation and confess the sins that I know I have committed in my past, but God has given me the gift and talent of writing. I, therefore, start this new blog to confess all the ways in which I am a sinner, devoid of any good thing in and of myself, and how I am being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit and by the love of the Father. I am a sinner, and I have nothing to hide.
I close by admitting that one of my favorite songs is not a Psalm but a hymn: Amazing Grace. Every time I hear the song or think about the lyrics, I cannot help but get a little teary eyed. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. It is so very sweet to hear stories of grace, and what a detriment it is when Christians are too scared to confess sins in order to rejoice in the grace of God. That saved a wretch like me. Believe it or not, you're not fooling anyone. I know that without Christ Jesus, you are a most wretched person. I know that you are not perfect, that you sin, that you struggle with temptation, and that you are human. If all you preach is the Law, then the world around you will love to rub your face in your unrighteousness and sin. However, if all you preach is grace and the Gospel, then every confession of sin is a testimony of the grace of God poured out upon wretched men and women through the death and resurrection of Christ our Lord. We do ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ a disfavor every time we withhold our confessions. The problems in the church continue to grow because Christians who are struggling with certain sins are keeping their mouths shut. We always find it remarkable throughout Scripture when great leaders like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, and many more sin. We are not surprised that they sinned, but that it was recorded in the Word of God. Christianity isn't for perfect men who have no need of a physician, but it is for fallen men who are sinful and need to be reconciled to God.
I am a sinner, and I'm not going to try to hide that. But I am going to share with you in the blogs to come how God saved this wretched man, forgave his sins, bore the punishment and wrath for them Himself, bore this man's created flesh and his deserved death upon a cross, was raised from the dead, ascended to the right-hand of the Father, and sent His Spirit to the ends of the earth that this man might know Him and that He would dwell with-in him.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
To Super Bowl or not to Super Bowl? Why is that even a question?
As a member of a Reformed Presbyterian church, you might expect me to look down upon all the "nominal", "lukewarm", "Sabbath-breaking" Christians this Sunday who are looking forward more to the big game, the commercials, the schmorgesborg of junk food, and the festivities surrounding the "Super" Bowl than worshiping God and honoring the Lord's Day. To be honest, RPs have been given a bad rap for making you all feel guilty about watching football on the Lord's Day, and everyone tries to make it sound like were judgmental. To be honest, I do not think that anyone that watches the Super Bowl this Sunday is a nominal Christian, that their faith is necessarily lukewarm, but I will not hesitate to say that they are breaking the Lord's Day and not keeping it holy. With that said, I can easily confess that I have not once kept a Lord's Day holy, that I too am a Sabbath breaker, and that I am guilty of many heinous sins, to include breaking the 4th Commandment every day of the week.
(Wait a minute...how can you break the 4th Commandment every day of the week?...That's another topic for another time...)
Now that the label game has been played and I have successfully deconstructed your scapegoat that my argument does not apply to you because I am just an RP who believes he's better, holier, and more righteous than thou, let's play in the demilitarized zone. This isn't about denominations, this isn't about confessions of faith or catechisms, but it is merely a matter of what the Scriptures teach. This isn't a finger-pointing, this isn't a competition to see who's more faithful, and it's not meant to glorify one person and demean another. With all of that said, you're still uncomfortable with this subject. You started reading this because you were intrigued, but now that you see the direction it is heading you are hesitant to continue reading. I implore you, read on.
Hundreds of thousands of professing Christians will either skip a worship service this Sunday or dart out the door the second it is over in order to nuke their Velveeta with spicy salsa, slice their summer sausage, pop open their bags of Doritos, power on the boob tube, plop down on the couch, and taunt their church friends watching the game with them that are rooting for the opposite side. They'll laugh at the commercials, their share a few brews, they'll jump up and down in elation when their team scores or intercepts the ball, they'll turn the half-time show off because good Christian folk shouldn't watch Beyoncé flaunt her stuff on national television on Sunday, and they'll share a good cry when their team loses. In the meantime, the pulpit sits empty or if it is filled then the pews are lacking the congregation.
This is a confession, and the satire probably resonates with many because I have been there and done that. Frankly, every Super Bowl Sunday leaves me tempted to catch a sneak peek at the score. One little peek, that's all. I have to be in the know. Surely, I cannot return to work on Monday and not know about the highlights of the game and share all the inside jokes with others about the funniest parts of the commercials. Or can I?
Some Christians in the church still believe that the Sabbath rest is a creation ordinance that is still binding and applicable to mankind today, many others believe that Jesus' death instituted an everlasting Sabbath rest that believers partake in spiritually, and that the command to keep a physical, 24 hour day holy to the Lord was abrogated/fulfilled when Jesus rose from the dead. Most Christians watching the "Super" Bowl fall into the latter category, but there are many others who fall into the former category as well.
Apart from the Sabbatarian argument, what is wrong with watching the Super Bowl on Sunday? The RP church is not ordained by God to be the watchdog/finger-pointing denomination in the catholic church. Although there will be many judgmental and nose-in-the-air comments made throughout the social media world by many RPs on Super Bowl Sunday, one has to ask themselves, I know I don't like their approach, but what is my attitude towards God and worshiping Him this Sunday that is different from every other Sunday?
I'm going to replace Super Bowl Sunday with Martha Stewart Sunday, and hopefully I'll start to get a point across. Rather than a nationally praised and worshiped sporting event that replaces devotion and worship to God on Sunday, let us suppose that America makes a really big deal about Martha Stewart Sunday. One Sunday out of the year, Martha Stewart Living televises the slam dunk episode of the year concerning cooking, interior design, and all-things domestic that airs for three and a half hours. Knowing that Americans and people around the world will tune into this special episode of Martha Stewart Living, companies spend obnoxious amounts of money for a chance to air a hilarious commercial that will be the talk of the nation for two whole weeks. Families all around the country gather together into parties and share recipes and food that they learned to make on previous shows in annoying anticipation of how this episode of MSL will best the others. Church services are cancelled or are marginally attended because more people would rather stay home and watch MSL with the rest of the country than worship God and fellowship with the saints.
That's ridiculous! There is no way on earth that Martha Stewart would become that big of a deal. You can't compare Martha Stewart, the domestic diva, to Super Bowl Sunday!
Maybe you're right. By all means, tell me the difference. What is qualitatively different between a show of Martha Stewart Living and the Super Bowl? Well, you can just record Martha Stewart and watch it later because it doesn't lose it's wow factor when recorded. Nobody is going to go to work the next day and say, "Dude, did you see the way she basted that roast! Man, that action was divine!" Martha Stewart and the Super Bowl are apples and carrots.
It's just a show. It might be one of the most impressive, overly hyped, highly anticipated televised events of the year, but deep, deep down, it is nothing more than American sports' greatest display of pomp and circumstance. What happens if you miss it? For some, it would sadly be the end of the world. Others would rather get a root canal than even think about missing the biggest game of the year. It would kill me to miss this game, but I can live without worshipping God on His holy day.
Say what?! This is where we need to slam on the brakes.
The question is plain and simple, and take it at its face value. Don't try to marginalize it or justify the answer you know to be completely untrue. What comes first, worshipping God or watching the Super Bowl? You have a pastor ready to lead a worship service and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ behind door "A" and you have a Super Bowl party jam packed with friends, beer, and junk food behind door "B." You can worship God any given Sunday, but the Super Bowl is a once-a-year event! If I choose door "A" then I am just going to hear the same Gospel I already know and have heard a million times before. I probably should share the Gospel I hear with the guys at work, but they'd laugh at me if I told them that I went to church instead of watching the Super Bowl. If I choose door "B" then I'll be in the know, I'll really enjoy myself, I'll be able to fellowship with my buds, and fellowship is a good thing. Unfortunately, most Christians don't even think about the choice set before them this hard. Their minds are already made up. Tell me, what is so Christian about choosing door "B" and I will tell you what is so un-Christian about choosing door "B."
In Timothy Keller's book Counterfeit Gods, Keller writes:
When most people think of "idols" they have in mind literal statues--or the next pop star anointed by Simon Cowell. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places of the world, internal idol worship, with the heart, is universal. In Ezekiel 14:3, God says about elders of Israel, "These men have set up their idols in their hearts." Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, "Idols? What idols? I don't see any idols." God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, (sporting events), even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them. (Emphasis original)
If your good friend was in a car accident on Super Bowl Sunday, would you visit him in the hospital? Would you need to make sure his hospital room has a TV first? If your estranged father called at the end of the 4th quarter when the game was tied and asked you to forgive him for a past full of sins against you and your mother, and he asks that you share with him the things of the Lord and pray with him, would you tell him that you would call him back in thirty minutes? If God asked you to turn off the TV and go to church, worship Him, fellowship with the saints, and keep His day holy, would you? (What if He commands you?) Or is that too much to ask? I can give you one day a week most of the time, God, but this is the Super Bowl we're talking about! Don't you understand what this game means to Americans? I promise, I'll be all the more attentive next Sunday, but please, let me turn my back on you this Sunday so I can worship my counterfeit god that will bring me significance, security, safety, and fulfillment. Ah, but it won't. Watch the Super Bowl and you'll still be left feeling insignificant, insecure, unsafe, and unfulfilled. You would rather abandon Him who provides all these things abundantly and turn to that which will only further aggravate your situation.
"The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you" (Keller).
It truly makes no difference to the 49ers, the Ravens, the NFL, San Francisco, Baltimore, Beyoncé, or any one else involved if you watch or not. They assume you will, but they could care less if you don't. They won't know if your missing the big game or not. You think that it will be a big deal if you show up to work the next day and you tell the guys that you didn't watch the game. They really don't care. Trust me, I know.
However, God will notice your absence. God will miss your voice during the singing. God will miss your prayers at the prayer meeting. God will miss your heartstrings during the preaching of the Word. God will know that the temple of your heart was more obsessed with football than with everlasting life in Him. You can try to fool yourself into believing that it is not a big deal and rest completely upon the grace of God to forgive you for spending His day watching TV with the rest of the world rather than worshipping Him. After all, no one can keep the Lord's Day perfectly. I just didn't try as hard today, and I'm just relying upon His grace more than usual today. But that's what I am supposed to do anyways, right? Rest in His grace for salvation?
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2)
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
But I believe Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath with the ceremonial laws. I appreciate your warning not to make the Super Bowl an idol of my heart and all, but God doesn't care when I worship Him as long as I worship Him. It makes no difference to Him if I worship Him on Sunday or Wednesday. You RPs make such a big deal of this because you make Sunday into something that it's not. Jesus Christ is our eternal rest, and the days of the week do not matter as long as we are resting in Christ. Stop trying to judge me for sins when you are misinterpreting what the Bible teaches about Sundays and the 4th Commandment. You live your Christian life and let me live mine!
This may be your thought, it might not be. But I will address it nonetheless. Wilhelmus Brakel's The Christian's Reasonable Service, Vol. 3 has an entire section called "The Observance of the Sabbath to Continue After the Abrogation of the Ceremonial Laws" wherein Brakel seeks to demonstrate from Mat. 24:20 that Jesus Himself demonstrates that His death does not abrogate the observance of the Sabbath rest and the holy day of the Lord. Jesus told His disciples, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath." Read the chapter, read the context for yourself. Jesus is speaking to His disciples about the end of the age (v. 3). Brakel explains that this chapter refers not only to the destruction of Jerusalem but also the end of the world. Even if someone argues that Jesus is only referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, Brakel observes that, "Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Christian church had long separated itself from the Jewish church, and the ceremonies had become as dead to them." Therefore, even before the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, the Christian church's observance of the Sabbath was different from the ceremonial observance of the Jewish Sabbath. You're stuck, then, because Jesus is obviously talking about the observance of the Christian Sabbath that survives the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath.
Why would Jesus tell His disciples that they should hope that their flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath if the Sabbath day observance has been abrogated? (Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a day that doesn't even exist.) If the Sabbath rest is now eternally fulfilled in Christ and men are only meant to enjoy a spiritual rest in Him, then wouldn't Jesus be telling His disciples to pray for the unavoidable? The widely held view of the fulfillment of the 4th Commandment in Christ's death makes Jesus' words here harsh, provoking, and un-loving. "Pray that your flight may not be on a Sabbath, but because my death will establish an eternal, spiritual rest in me, your prayers will be in vain." It does not make any sense.
Now, pleasure me for a second and take Jesus' words in light of the understanding that the Sabbath commandment was not abrogated in Christ's death, but that Christ's resurrection established the observance of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day. Brakel asks the question: Why then did they have to pray that fleeing upon the Sabbath be prevented? He answers:
"Since God had appointed this day for refreshment and the enjoyment of an extraordinarily joyous rest, they would then have to miss this, and lose the opportunity to praise God with the congregation and to both edify and be edified. Thus, fleeing on the Sabbath would be double misery for the soul--just as fleeing in the winter would be a double misery for the body."
Matthew Henry writes:
"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isaiah 58:13-14)
(Wait a minute...how can you break the 4th Commandment every day of the week?...That's another topic for another time...)
Now that the label game has been played and I have successfully deconstructed your scapegoat that my argument does not apply to you because I am just an RP who believes he's better, holier, and more righteous than thou, let's play in the demilitarized zone. This isn't about denominations, this isn't about confessions of faith or catechisms, but it is merely a matter of what the Scriptures teach. This isn't a finger-pointing, this isn't a competition to see who's more faithful, and it's not meant to glorify one person and demean another. With all of that said, you're still uncomfortable with this subject. You started reading this because you were intrigued, but now that you see the direction it is heading you are hesitant to continue reading. I implore you, read on.
Hundreds of thousands of professing Christians will either skip a worship service this Sunday or dart out the door the second it is over in order to nuke their Velveeta with spicy salsa, slice their summer sausage, pop open their bags of Doritos, power on the boob tube, plop down on the couch, and taunt their church friends watching the game with them that are rooting for the opposite side. They'll laugh at the commercials, their share a few brews, they'll jump up and down in elation when their team scores or intercepts the ball, they'll turn the half-time show off because good Christian folk shouldn't watch Beyoncé flaunt her stuff on national television on Sunday, and they'll share a good cry when their team loses. In the meantime, the pulpit sits empty or if it is filled then the pews are lacking the congregation.
This is a confession, and the satire probably resonates with many because I have been there and done that. Frankly, every Super Bowl Sunday leaves me tempted to catch a sneak peek at the score. One little peek, that's all. I have to be in the know. Surely, I cannot return to work on Monday and not know about the highlights of the game and share all the inside jokes with others about the funniest parts of the commercials. Or can I?
Some Christians in the church still believe that the Sabbath rest is a creation ordinance that is still binding and applicable to mankind today, many others believe that Jesus' death instituted an everlasting Sabbath rest that believers partake in spiritually, and that the command to keep a physical, 24 hour day holy to the Lord was abrogated/fulfilled when Jesus rose from the dead. Most Christians watching the "Super" Bowl fall into the latter category, but there are many others who fall into the former category as well.
Apart from the Sabbatarian argument, what is wrong with watching the Super Bowl on Sunday? The RP church is not ordained by God to be the watchdog/finger-pointing denomination in the catholic church. Although there will be many judgmental and nose-in-the-air comments made throughout the social media world by many RPs on Super Bowl Sunday, one has to ask themselves, I know I don't like their approach, but what is my attitude towards God and worshiping Him this Sunday that is different from every other Sunday?
I'm going to replace Super Bowl Sunday with Martha Stewart Sunday, and hopefully I'll start to get a point across. Rather than a nationally praised and worshiped sporting event that replaces devotion and worship to God on Sunday, let us suppose that America makes a really big deal about Martha Stewart Sunday. One Sunday out of the year, Martha Stewart Living televises the slam dunk episode of the year concerning cooking, interior design, and all-things domestic that airs for three and a half hours. Knowing that Americans and people around the world will tune into this special episode of Martha Stewart Living, companies spend obnoxious amounts of money for a chance to air a hilarious commercial that will be the talk of the nation for two whole weeks. Families all around the country gather together into parties and share recipes and food that they learned to make on previous shows in annoying anticipation of how this episode of MSL will best the others. Church services are cancelled or are marginally attended because more people would rather stay home and watch MSL with the rest of the country than worship God and fellowship with the saints.
That's ridiculous! There is no way on earth that Martha Stewart would become that big of a deal. You can't compare Martha Stewart, the domestic diva, to Super Bowl Sunday!
Maybe you're right. By all means, tell me the difference. What is qualitatively different between a show of Martha Stewart Living and the Super Bowl? Well, you can just record Martha Stewart and watch it later because it doesn't lose it's wow factor when recorded. Nobody is going to go to work the next day and say, "Dude, did you see the way she basted that roast! Man, that action was divine!" Martha Stewart and the Super Bowl are apples and carrots.
It's just a show. It might be one of the most impressive, overly hyped, highly anticipated televised events of the year, but deep, deep down, it is nothing more than American sports' greatest display of pomp and circumstance. What happens if you miss it? For some, it would sadly be the end of the world. Others would rather get a root canal than even think about missing the biggest game of the year. It would kill me to miss this game, but I can live without worshipping God on His holy day.
Say what?! This is where we need to slam on the brakes.
The question is plain and simple, and take it at its face value. Don't try to marginalize it or justify the answer you know to be completely untrue. What comes first, worshipping God or watching the Super Bowl? You have a pastor ready to lead a worship service and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ behind door "A" and you have a Super Bowl party jam packed with friends, beer, and junk food behind door "B." You can worship God any given Sunday, but the Super Bowl is a once-a-year event! If I choose door "A" then I am just going to hear the same Gospel I already know and have heard a million times before. I probably should share the Gospel I hear with the guys at work, but they'd laugh at me if I told them that I went to church instead of watching the Super Bowl. If I choose door "B" then I'll be in the know, I'll really enjoy myself, I'll be able to fellowship with my buds, and fellowship is a good thing. Unfortunately, most Christians don't even think about the choice set before them this hard. Their minds are already made up. Tell me, what is so Christian about choosing door "B" and I will tell you what is so un-Christian about choosing door "B."
In Timothy Keller's book Counterfeit Gods, Keller writes:
When most people think of "idols" they have in mind literal statues--or the next pop star anointed by Simon Cowell. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places of the world, internal idol worship, with the heart, is universal. In Ezekiel 14:3, God says about elders of Israel, "These men have set up their idols in their hearts." Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, "Idols? What idols? I don't see any idols." God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, (sporting events), even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them. (Emphasis original)
If your good friend was in a car accident on Super Bowl Sunday, would you visit him in the hospital? Would you need to make sure his hospital room has a TV first? If your estranged father called at the end of the 4th quarter when the game was tied and asked you to forgive him for a past full of sins against you and your mother, and he asks that you share with him the things of the Lord and pray with him, would you tell him that you would call him back in thirty minutes? If God asked you to turn off the TV and go to church, worship Him, fellowship with the saints, and keep His day holy, would you? (What if He commands you?) Or is that too much to ask? I can give you one day a week most of the time, God, but this is the Super Bowl we're talking about! Don't you understand what this game means to Americans? I promise, I'll be all the more attentive next Sunday, but please, let me turn my back on you this Sunday so I can worship my counterfeit god that will bring me significance, security, safety, and fulfillment. Ah, but it won't. Watch the Super Bowl and you'll still be left feeling insignificant, insecure, unsafe, and unfulfilled. You would rather abandon Him who provides all these things abundantly and turn to that which will only further aggravate your situation.
"The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you" (Keller).
It truly makes no difference to the 49ers, the Ravens, the NFL, San Francisco, Baltimore, Beyoncé, or any one else involved if you watch or not. They assume you will, but they could care less if you don't. They won't know if your missing the big game or not. You think that it will be a big deal if you show up to work the next day and you tell the guys that you didn't watch the game. They really don't care. Trust me, I know.
However, God will notice your absence. God will miss your voice during the singing. God will miss your prayers at the prayer meeting. God will miss your heartstrings during the preaching of the Word. God will know that the temple of your heart was more obsessed with football than with everlasting life in Him. You can try to fool yourself into believing that it is not a big deal and rest completely upon the grace of God to forgive you for spending His day watching TV with the rest of the world rather than worshipping Him. After all, no one can keep the Lord's Day perfectly. I just didn't try as hard today, and I'm just relying upon His grace more than usual today. But that's what I am supposed to do anyways, right? Rest in His grace for salvation?
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2)
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
But I believe Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath with the ceremonial laws. I appreciate your warning not to make the Super Bowl an idol of my heart and all, but God doesn't care when I worship Him as long as I worship Him. It makes no difference to Him if I worship Him on Sunday or Wednesday. You RPs make such a big deal of this because you make Sunday into something that it's not. Jesus Christ is our eternal rest, and the days of the week do not matter as long as we are resting in Christ. Stop trying to judge me for sins when you are misinterpreting what the Bible teaches about Sundays and the 4th Commandment. You live your Christian life and let me live mine!
This may be your thought, it might not be. But I will address it nonetheless. Wilhelmus Brakel's The Christian's Reasonable Service, Vol. 3 has an entire section called "The Observance of the Sabbath to Continue After the Abrogation of the Ceremonial Laws" wherein Brakel seeks to demonstrate from Mat. 24:20 that Jesus Himself demonstrates that His death does not abrogate the observance of the Sabbath rest and the holy day of the Lord. Jesus told His disciples, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath." Read the chapter, read the context for yourself. Jesus is speaking to His disciples about the end of the age (v. 3). Brakel explains that this chapter refers not only to the destruction of Jerusalem but also the end of the world. Even if someone argues that Jesus is only referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, Brakel observes that, "Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Christian church had long separated itself from the Jewish church, and the ceremonies had become as dead to them." Therefore, even before the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, the Christian church's observance of the Sabbath was different from the ceremonial observance of the Jewish Sabbath. You're stuck, then, because Jesus is obviously talking about the observance of the Christian Sabbath that survives the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath.
Why would Jesus tell His disciples that they should hope that their flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath if the Sabbath day observance has been abrogated? (Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a day that doesn't even exist.) If the Sabbath rest is now eternally fulfilled in Christ and men are only meant to enjoy a spiritual rest in Him, then wouldn't Jesus be telling His disciples to pray for the unavoidable? The widely held view of the fulfillment of the 4th Commandment in Christ's death makes Jesus' words here harsh, provoking, and un-loving. "Pray that your flight may not be on a Sabbath, but because my death will establish an eternal, spiritual rest in me, your prayers will be in vain." It does not make any sense.
Now, pleasure me for a second and take Jesus' words in light of the understanding that the Sabbath commandment was not abrogated in Christ's death, but that Christ's resurrection established the observance of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day. Brakel asks the question: Why then did they have to pray that fleeing upon the Sabbath be prevented? He answers:
"Since God had appointed this day for refreshment and the enjoyment of an extraordinarily joyous rest, they would then have to miss this, and lose the opportunity to praise God with the congregation and to both edify and be edified. Thus, fleeing on the Sabbath would be double misery for the soul--just as fleeing in the winter would be a double misery for the body."
Matthew Henry writes:
Secondly, That it might not be on the sabbath day; not on the Jewish sabbath, because travelling then would give offence to them who were angry with the disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the day; not on the Christian sabbath, because being forced to travel on the day would be a grief to themselves.
This intimates Christ's design, that a weekly sabbath should be observed in his church after the preaching of the gospel to all the world. We read not of any of the ordinances of the Jewish church, which were purely ceremonial, that Christ ever expressed any care about, because they were all to vanish; but for the sabbath he often showed a concern. It intimates likewise that the sabbath is ordinarily to be observed as a day of rest from travel and worldly labour; but that, according to his own explication of the fourth commandment, works of necessity were lawful on the sabbath day, as this of fleeing from an enemy to save our lives: had it not been lawful, he would have said, "Whatever becomes of you, do not flee on the sabbath day, but abide by it, though you die by it." For we must not commit the least sin, to escape the greatest trouble. But it intimates, likewise, that it is very uneasy and uncomfortable to a good man, to be taken off by any work of necessity from the solemn service and worship of God on the sabbath day.
We should pray that we may have quiet undisturbed sabbaths, and may have no other work than sabbath work to do on sabbath days; that we may attend upon the Lord without distraction. It was desirable, that, if they must flee, they might have the benefit and comfort of one sabbath more to help to bear their charges. To flee in the winter is uncomfortable to the body; but to flee on the sabbath day is so to the soul, and the more so when it remembers former sabbaths, as Ps. 42:4.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray that the end of the world would not come on the Sabbath because then they would spend the day of solemn service and worship of God fleeing from their enemies. If there was ever a reason to forfeit a Sabbath, it would be to save our families' lives from destruction. Jesus taught His disciples to pray that their flight would not have to take place on a Sunday, so that they might not have to be as spiritually miserable as a warm body fleeing in the frigid air of winter.
Take what you will from this confession. It was long, it was biased, and it was hard to read through. If you made it this far, even though you wanted to stop reading long ago, then at least take the time to search your heart, contemplate you reasons for watching the Super Bowl rather than sharing in the blessings of the Lord's Day, and pray that God would convict you of unknown sin that you might obey him rather than continuing to sin unknowingly (Ps. 19:12-13).
I too wrestled with this debate, I too was hesitant to make a big deal out of missing worship services for the Super Bowl one Sunday a year, but I cannot say that I have any regrets whatsoever in the conclusion I reached. It may be hard for you to imagine a world without the Super Bowl, but as time goes by, it becomes less divine and more and more like a silly game that you can record if you really must watch it.
To Super Bowl or not to Super Bowl? Hopefully, that isn't even a difficult question to ask anymore.
Please leave a comment. Read Isaiah 58:13-14, and explain how these verses can be interpreted if the Christian Sabbath is only a spiritual rest in Jesus and not also a 24-hour day to be kept holy. Does this promise only apply to the Jewish observance of the Sabbath or is this passage applicable to Christians today? It seems to say that if you honor the Sabbath then you are not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure. Does this mean that we should not find any pleasure in observing the Sabbath or does this mean that our pleasures should be found in the holy day rather than in our ways?
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