Stand to Reason Blog

Happy Birthday! - July 2, 1776

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

John Adams wrote Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776:

"Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony "that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States may rightfully do.

"You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell'd Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of God and Man. A Plan of Confederation will be taken up in a few days. On July 2, 1776 the Association known as United Colonies of America officially became the United States of America....

"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

"You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

Believe & Evidence

It doesn't matter if you believe Jesus' resurrection before you investigate it or after investigation; what matters is the evidence you have for it.  A belief is justified by the evidence for it, not when it was formed.

Theological Poet - "Let Me Count the Ways"

You may know Elizabeth Barrett Brownings most often-quoted phrase, but did you know she was a committed Christian with great theological depth that she integrated into her poetry.  I'm not much of a poetry-lover, but I developed an appreciation for Barrett Browning several years ago when I visited the museum dedicated to her and her husband Robert Browning at Baylor University.  I learned a great deal about her that impressed me. 

Fred Sanders celebrates her with this explanation:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on this day, June 29, in 1861. She was the most famous female poet of the Victorian age, easily outpacing other luminaries like Christina Rossetti and Jean Ingelow (who?). During her lifetime, the rumor was that she only missed the post of poet laureate because that Tennyson fellow was an unstoppable candidate.

Barrett Browning’s greatest hits include the long Aurora Leigh, and the sonnet “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” But she was a relentlessly theological poet throughout her life and in all of her work. Her mind was steeped in Biblical imagery and typology, she read doctrinal treatises for edification....Here is one of her early poems which she called a Hymn.

THE MEDIATOR
As the greatest of all sacrifices was required we may be assured that no other would have sufficed
–BOYD’S Essay on the Atonement

How high Thou art! our songs can own
No music Thou couldst stoop to hear
But still the Son’s expiring groan
Is vocal in the Father’s ear.

How pure Thou art! our hands are dyed
With curses red with murder’s hue
But HE hath stretched His hands to hide
The sins that pierced them from thy view

How strong Thou art! we tremble lest
The thunders of thine arm be moved
But HE is lying on thy breast
And thou must clasp thy best Beloved

How kind Thou art! Thou didst not choose
To joy in Him for ever so;
But that embrace thou wilt not lose
For vengeance, didst for love forego!

High God, and pure, and strong, and kind!
The low, the foul, the feeble, spare!
Thy brightness in His face we find–
Behold our darkness only there.

Faith & Reason

Faith is not what we fall back to when reason isn't available.  It's the conviction of what we have reason to believe.

Civility & False Tolerance

"The right to believe anything is freedom of conscience; but the idea that anything anyone believes is right is just plain nonsense.  Civility means I engage with them persuasively, but civility does not mean a false tolerance where anything goes."

Os Guinness, The Case for Civility

All to Be Saved?

Andrew from Australia asked: "Does God desire literally all to be saved?"

God & Science Don't Mix

An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal prompts a few replies.  Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University, makes a few common mistakes in his title claim.

When I confronted my two Catholic colleagues on the panel with the apparent miracle of the virgin birth and asked how they could reconcile this with basic biology, I was ultimately told that perhaps this biblical claim merely meant to emphasize what an important event the birth was. Neither came to the explicit defense of what is undeniably one of the central tenets of Catholic theology....

So while scientific rationality does not require atheism, it is by no means irrational to use it as the basis for arguing against the existence of God, and thus to conclude that claimed miracles like the virgin birth are incompatible with our scientific understanding of nature.

There's a difference between the laws of nature and the laws of logic.  The former are contingent and we know them by induction; the later are necessary and we know them a priori.  We know by their nature and by our rational instinct that the laws of logic cannot be broken, they have an incumbency that is absolute.  However, the laws of nature are quite different and their consistency in our experience by no means rules out the possible suspension or violation now and then, in other words, a miracle.  Science cannot disprove the virgin birth.  And neither do the laws of logic.  Therefore, we look for other kinds of evidence, and the historical witness is a rational basis.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that these issues are not purely academic. The current crisis in Iran has laid bare the striking inconsistency between a world built on reason and a world built on religious dogma.

This moral equivalence between religiously-motivated terrorism and Christianity has been going on since 9/11 and it's patently ridiculous and intellectually lazy.  It's not religious dogma per se that leads to terrorism, but the content of the dogma believed.  It's intellectually lazy not to examine the particular claims in differing theologies and note their significant differences.  After all, it is religious dogma that has also motivated tremendously beneficial acts throughout history, as well.

Perhaps the most important contribution an honest assessment of the incompatibility between science and religious doctrine can provide is to make it starkly clear that in human affairs -- as well as in the rest of the physical world -- reason is the better guide.

He inadvertently pinpoints the reason the debate he was reluctant to engage in continues by claiming that science has the sole claim on reason over religion.  Religion, the myth goes, is about faith, i.e. blind faith and wishful thinking.  That is false, ignoring millennia of rational engagement in Christianity, and the faith by which Darwinism is embraced despite the lack of evidence.

Stand for Biblical Truth

Some might wonder why the world needs another denomination.  Well, because some Christians feel compelled to stand for Biblical truth without compromising with modern, cultural values.  The American Episcopal church has for years been sliding into relativism initiated by first abandoning the inerrant authority of Scripture.  That is a slipper slope.  If the Bible is not God's authoritative Word for mankind, then it's up for interpretation and change.  After concluding that they could not change the American denomination, faithful Christians have formed a new denomination committed to God's Word.

There is tremendous pressure these days for individual Christians and churches to bend to cultural pressures and practice a notion of tolerance that has abandoned truth for relativism.  That is not the historical or American sense of tolerance or pluralism.  There is tremendous pressure from other Christians who are relativists to value unity over truth.  That is not the ultimate value and it is a false unity if it isn't based on the truth.  These Christians have committed themselves to being faithful to God.

Former Episcopalian leaders from across North America gathered in Bedford, Texas on Monday to launch the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), described as an “alternative” to the U.S. Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion.

The new denomination claims 100,000 members from several varieties of Anglican spirituality described as evangelical, charismatic or catholic. A union of eight groups, it is seeking recognition as part of the Anglican Communion.

The new denomination's constitution emphasizes biblical authority, church discipline and evangelical missionary outreach.

The Episcopal Church has been afflicted by controversies over theological and moral issues, including the authority of Scripture, the ordination of women and the ordination of an openly homosexual man as bishop.

Former Episcopalian Bishop of Pittsburgh Robert Duncan leads the group, which expected 300 delegates including 50 bishops for its meeting.

Bishop Duncan addressed a crowd of leaders in St. Vincent’s Cathedral, telling them that it is a “new day” in which God the Father is “drawing His children together again in a surprising and sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. He is again Re-forming His Church."