Sola One: Sola Scriptura

I decided it would be of good use for me to work my way through the five solas of the Reformation. They are too often shoved aside, and as doing the posts on denominations made me think a bit deeper about the issue of church governance, I hope that this too will prove a useful exercise. I do not even hope to create a comprehensive consideration of the five solas, nor will I claim everything I say about them is correct; I am just throwing my thoughts out on the table, and I invite you to do the same in the comments.

The five cries of the Reformation are Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria. The beauty of the five solas is that they express the essence of faith in a way that is simple and easy to remember, while providing a massive depth of implications.

“Every writing inspired by God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction which is in righteousness.”

—2 Timothy 3.16 (WEB)

This is probably the most often recalled of the five cries. Scripture Alone. What do we mean by this? Do we mean that the church ought to cast off everything other than the Bible as garbage? This does not seem to be what the reformers meant. The two giants of the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin, both produced massive amounts of works to complement the Bible. The key here is that everything should find its root in the Bible.

Now some Protestant groups have gone too far with this, in my opinion. We ought not say that we should only do what is permitted in the Bible, but rather that everything we do should not be is discord with the literal word and and spirit of the Bible. That is why I am perfectly fine with worship music and potluck dinners, despite their lack of mention in the Bible. More importantly, that is why I am fine accepting the early ecclesiastic councils' creeds, such as the Nicene Creed; I would argue that everything within them can be justified with the Bible. I also see the usefulness of newer creeds such as the Westminister Confession, and see every reason why the average believer who does not take the time to justify every nuance of the Faith themselves ought to find the creeds authoritative. At the same time, if it is found that the creed does not agree with the Scripture, then the creed should be thrown out immediately. Creeds should exegete the Bible, never ever eisegete.

Now, of course, in some areas of theology we may try to interpolate on a subject (such as the Trinity) which is not explicitly nailed down in the Bible. The important thing is that a reasonable person, given enough time, would come to the same conclusion using Scripture alone. It isn't enough that I can quote verses to support my favorite doctrine for almost anything can be justified in that way, of course. I also emphasize reasonable time here because few people are going to be able to just open a Bible and immediately come up with orthodox theology, but not everyone's purpose is to be a theologian. As such, those of us who do not have enough time to start from scratch can carefully put our trust in “authority,” but should also test the fruit of that authority constantly against Scripture.

Let's take predestination. I've struggled with this, as many of you know, because I find it hard to get predestination to fit with God's love, for if He predestined some to be saved, it logically means he predestined others to be condemned. If I have no choice in the matter of being saved, then why would God not save everyone? This is difficult. The reason I struggled with predestination and did not throw it out in favor of outright Arminianism was that it continued to be the most logical way I could read many passages. It would be nice just to forget about it and find something easier, but instead, this has lead me to my attempts to harmonize predestination with God's love and freewill (see here and answer to question 4, here).

Back to the point — it is okay to move beyond the Bible, because the Bible simply does not cover everything. From contemporary worship music, to church governance or even some of our core beliefs, we will likely find that we must combine the revelation of revealed Scriptures with the ability to reason that God has given us. This is good and proper, so long as we don't let our reason or any theologian's reason take precedence over God's revealed Word, for we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23) and therefore our reason is fallen reason.

In the end, adhering to Sola Scripture means merely that we place the Bible as the ultimate authority above other authorities. It is my duty as someone with a personal relationship with Christ to go directly to His Word whenever possible to insure that my beliefs are based on a good foundation. Just as I should never do something illegal because someone in a higher authority in life (such as a boss) tells me to, I should never accept something theologically wrong just because a higher authority (such as my pastor or a great theologian) says to. Ultimately, just as committing a crime for my boss will bring consequences to me, following heresy because my pastor advised me to would bring consequences to me.

Sunday Brunch: These United States

1) What state were you born in?
The show-me state, Missouri.

2) What state do you currently live in?
Missouri. As Christopher said, “this is going to be a boring brunch.”

3) How many states have you been in? (and yes, driving through counts!)
Eight states, ordered by how frequently I've been there: Missouri (obviously), Illinois (not much more surprising), Arkansas (see a pattern here?), Indiana, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa. I need to travel some, one of these days — I'm in sad shape, I was suppose to travel out of the country a few years back, but that fell through due to a family medical situation, so I've been to eight states and exactly one nation (if you need me to tell you which one, you didn't read this paragraph very closely).

4) If you had your choice regardless of cost, which of the 50 states would you choose to live in?
I love Missouri, and while I haven't traveled extensively, based on the factors I can come up with either based on experience or what I know about places, I don't have a big desire to move anywhere else in the States. I wouldn't mind heading to Southern Missouri, though; the Ozarks are just beautiful. Springfield might be an ideal town for me, not to big but not too small either.

I wouldn't object to living on the western border of Illinois either, but I wouldn't want to live in the middle part of the state — it is too flat. Alton is a nice town, though, for instance. Arkansas would also do pretty nicely.

Now, about states/districts I'd like to see: Most of New England, New York, D.C., California, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, etc. I'd also like to poke my head above the border and visit some Canadian provinces (nothing particular — I'd probably lean to the east, but if I was up in Washington again, I might try to take a day and go up that way).

5) Which of the 50 states would you rather die than live in?
I have a very bad taste concerning Indiana. It is a fine state and has some pretty areas, but as a whole I'd be loathe to live there. But I don't think there is any state I'd rather die than live in. I love the countryside I saw in Pacific Northwest, but I couldn't stand the rain of a state like Washington, despite the beauty of places like Olympic National Forest/Park. I'd also be rather unhappy in states like Arizona and New Mexico where it gets so hot. Missouri summers are hot enough, thankyouverymuch.

As a whole, I'd probably avoid the Southeast too. I'm not a grits kind of guy, so I doubt I'd fit in there.

In Memoriam: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

That phrase is a Roman proverb that is included in the ceremony of initiating a new pontiff in the Roman Catholic Church. Thus passes away the glory of the world. This seems like a good statement to meditate on when entering that high office, or really any position of importance; it helps to keep one humble.

Pope John Paul II certainly saw all the glory of his position fade as he suffered over the past few years from ailments. All the pomp and honor of one of the best known and most respected positions in the world does little to help with the cruel, slow onslaught of time on us. The pope died this afternoon at the age of 84. It is sad to hear of the loss of a man who did so much for the Catholic church with such grace and humility. Had I sat down with him to discuss theology, we likely would have differed in many nuances and even on few larger issues, but boiled down to the essentials, I believe every indication was that we were both on the same side. We most certainly agreed on the essential belief that is the heart of the Gospel: “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Obviously, this is why the glory of the world is unimportant. Soli Deo Gloria. God's glory does not pass away, and so there is every reason to expect that His servant Karol Wojtyla is now enjoying the presence of true glory rather than the kind that simply passes away.

I know this news made me depressed, so I'm sure it is especially hard for all of my friends within the Catholic church. My prayers are with you and the church's leaders as the difficult process of transition to the next pontiff begins.

New asisaid Features

I've added some new stuff tonight. Now, you can use any of the smilies supported by WordPress on my blog (I shamelessly borrowed the graphics and related material out of WordPress so that SAFARI could do this ). I borrowed JavaScript code from Alex King's wp_grins so that you can simply click the smilies of your choice below the comment box.

You'll also notice a new “others said here” section on the side (to be distinguished from the old “others said” section that is now known as “others said elsewhere”). The two links there will take you to a “forum view” that shows the blog posts that have the most comments and the most recently commented blog posts. The latter differs from typical “recent comments” sections on blogs in that it does not list every new comment individually, but instead shows the posts that have been commented on, rather like the way phpBB shows topics that have new replies. This insures that one busy post won't hide activity on less busy posts; this is not usually a problem, but keep in mind I'm designing SAFARI to work on bigger things than asisaid. The inspiration of using a forum view for this comes from Kevin's blog from long ago that was based on phpBB — I always liked that concept.

Give the new features a whirl and let me know what you think.

I've Got Questions, Do You Have Answers

From the better late than never dept.

A few weeks ago, I took part in the questions meme with some excellent questions from Christopher. I was suppose to ask questions of five more people as part of the meme. Three of you asked for questions (that means two more can still sign up!), but I'm ashamed to say I never got the questions written. After intense study with a focus group over a period of three weeks an hour or two of thinking, I present the requested questions. Post/trackback below when your questions are up.

Kevin of Christian Hedonist:
1. Two million dollars is given to you, earmarked for allowing you to flee to some country outside North America. Where would you go and why?
2. If you were able to rewind and change one thing that you did in the past, what would it be?
3. Who is your favorite church figure from the last one thousand years? Why?
4. If you could design a job position for yourself without regard as to whether that type of position really exists, what would it be?
5. Explain your position on systematic theology.

David of DavidCentral:
1. How long did it take for you to teach yourself to play an instrument?
2. If you were able to rewind and change one thing that you did in the past, what would it be?
3. If you could move anywhere in the U.S. that was at least 100 miles from your present location, where would you go?
4. Imagine that you could only use a computer for one more hour. What would you do during that time?
5. Who is the best musician/artist in the last twenty years?

Kendell of Sparkle:
1. What is the one thing you would like to accomplish by this time next year?
2. If you were able to rewind and change one thing that you did in the past, what would it be?
3. You are on a desert island with a coconut, a nail, an empty glass bottle with a cork, a cup of Coca-Cola and two matches. What do you do?
4. How do you like your coffee?
5. What book has had the most profound impact on your life?

It's Been Fun (Not Really)

After much consideration, I've decided that blogging is taking way too much of my time. I could be doing far more constructive things with my time than sitting here on a soapbox every few hours and uttering some incoherent statement on something that most of the world doesn't care about. Does that sound bitter? Well, it is. When I started blogging, I never hoped to become like InstaPundit or Andrew Sullivan, but I admit that I was hoping to at least get enough traffic to support Google AdWords on here. Instead, I've just wasted hours for nothing… absolutely nothing.

Farewell. It's been fun (not really). Hopefully the rest of you will wake up and see that you could be doing far more useful things too — like organizing your socks or picking lint off your sofa.

Update (2005.01.02 01:15 CST): Since this post will remain forever in the asisaid archive, I would note to anyone wondering to take a very close look at the date of the post if it doesn't make sense.

Shaw Nature Reserve

I've never been inside the Shaw Nature Reserve at Gray Summit before. With classes out for Spring break and no pressing deadlines on jobs for work, I took the day off and went there with my mother today. Obviously there isn't a lot of flowers blooming yet, but beautiful clumps of daffodils dotted the hills with all of their golden majesty. Spring beauty, a wild flower native to Missouri, was also sprouting up. All of this was set against one of the clearest, bluest skies in a long time. The sky is always noticeably clearer somewhere between Gray Summit and Sullivan, as you get out of the smog of the St. Louis region, but today was exceptionally beautiful. It was a nice day, and with my cell phone left back in St. Peters, no one could reach me. How delightful.

Apparently, a large area of bluebells should be in bloom by next week along a hiking trail down to the Meramec River and they apparently have lots of water lillies in the wet lands area to see during the summer, so it made sense to upgrade from a one day pass to a seasons pass. Hopefully I can schedule some time to see more of the spring flowers as they start to bloom. I gave my camera its first good workout of the year today, and Spring has barely sprung.

In other news, a head supervisor at Charter called this morning. I had been given his number yesterday and left a message for him prior to canceling Charter Digital Cable last night. When I informed him of the cancelation he asked if I would consider giving them one more chance to correct the problem. I said they could come tomorrow if they had a spot open, and he informed me they would clear a spot and even offered to give me a more specific time period rather than the standard four to five hour window that utility companies like so much.

I'm dubious that they can fix it, but when a company offers to bend over backwards in the attempt to fix something, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Defense of the Academic Study

I've been promising my defense of the Academic or Critical Study of Religion for some time now. The good news is that I wrote the post I had been planning on this. The bad news is that I realized that I really needed (or at least wanted) to write more on the subject. Before I knew it, my one piece turned into the second part of a series and I am now working on part one. I may need to write several more parts too. There is just so much to say, and like the model defense of another subject which I reference at the beginning of part one, this looks destined to grow into a long “ink wasting” project (well, byte wasting in my case).

The question is whether I should write all of the parts before posting any of it or if I should go ahead and post what I already have done. Ah, decisions, decisions!

Update on Discontentment

Charter has another hour to come up with a reasonable solution for me. I'm irritated enough that I might call up SBC and see if they will work out a deal for me (they resell Dish, and I already have a Cingular phone, so I might be able to get everything through them). Then I could yank the Charter telephone service and internet as well. As a whole, Charter has been very good to me in the past, but selling a DVR that will not work right until May without warning me is not only dishonest, but also idiotic, since I don't see anyone agreeing to keep it. Also sending two completely useless subcontractors to install the system was very annoying.

Just to be clear, Charter offered me an amazing deal, so keeping the DISH does not benefit me financially. As I noted in the comments, I'd get all of the public service channels, a bunch of extended basic channels that only show up in DISH's top package, the digital HDTV broadcasts and all of the movie channels I don't need for the same price as the DISH America's Top 120 package. This is a really good deal, if it worked right, and makes Charter almost $40 cheaper per month than DISH if I actually wanted all of those features enough to buy them (I don't want them that bad, but I'll take them if I can get them for “free”). In May, like I said, Charter will begin “Simultrans” (“All Digital”) which will move digital cable customers to a 100% digital signal like the satellite customers have. Moreover, unlike satellite, cablecos will be offering CableCards, which means in a year or two, you will be able to buy a TiVo on your own and it will be able to tune digital cable — that's a lot nicer than been locked into the provider's set-top box.

Despite all of this, DISH Network has been very good at customer service over the past year and a half. They've also been fairly reasonable in price and their 100 hour DVR works very nicely — it may not have as nice of interface as the GNU/Linux-based Moxi box offered by Charter, but having 100 hours of storage is a treat. I've recorded hours of political events from C-SPAN, thanks to the huge capacity of the DVR. What I think I will do is try to talk DISH into giving me one of their new dual tuner DVR's (i.e. where you can record something while tuning in something else) and call it quits with Charter for now.

Sure, I won't get the local weather on the Weather Channel, I won't have the public service stations I wanted, I won't have all the movie channels I don't need, and won't have some other channels… but given that it is extremely unusual for me to watch an hour of TV on an average day (I average about a half hour or less unless their is something newsworthy enough to warrant watching CNN), it just isn't worth the hassle. The new Charter All Digital service will again make cable TV superior to satellites in so many ways, but keeping a sub-par system for month and a half interim isn't worth it.

The Winter of Our Discontent

It may be spring now, but you sure couldn't tell it using the new Moxi DVR box that Charter Communications installed today in the process of bringing me into their digital cable fold. It was not snowing outside, but it the Moxi was producing plenty of the white stuff on the TV. After dealing futilely with the installer/subcontractor (why do dish and cable companies always use idiotic subcontractors?), I called support, complained about the installer and proceeded in noting that the cable with or without the Moxi was snowy. They re-dispatched the installer, who called and said he could not make it back today but suggested we circumvent the Moxi box, which I promptly noted would not fix the problem (and for that matter, why pay for a DVR and then circumvent it — that's silly). The installer also noted that everything would have to be digital in time for the HDTV switchover in a year or two — so I'd only have to wait until then for everything to look fine. Yes, that sounds like a good solution!

So, I called Charter again and after finally reaching the point where I started to become a raving lunatic and threatened to throw their equipment out on the porch, they agreed to escalate the issue and get a real tech out today rather than making me wait around again. The tech came and said that they needed a line tech to come and boost the main cable box's amplifier. The line techs came later this evening and did just that, which fixes pure analog signals, but everything still looks horrible through the Moxi. As it turns out, these techs admitted that there is a known hardware problem, apparently with all Moxi boxes, that causes snow on all channels below 99 (i.e. almost everything interesting). There are two possible solutions: they will replace the boxes in the future and/or they will be going all digital on or before May 15, moving all of the channels to places above 99.

I have one final card to play, because I'm not inclined to keep a sub-par system for two months when Dish looks just fine: the one line tech gave me the name of one of the higher ups at Charter, who will, at the least discontinue the service for me. I'm hoping they might be willing to just waive the monthly fee until the problem is fixed in May, but I'm guessing that won't happen and if they won't do that, I shall just renew Dish for another month and forget about going to cable.

At any rate, I'm irritated that Charter did not disclose this problem prior to ordering the service (complete with a 1 year contract — although I have signed nothing and am suppose to have 30-days to opt out). Apparently, the sales people are suppose to disclose the issue, but did not. Lying will get you into someplace, but when it is so blatant, it doesn't last. Who in their right mind would keep a box that corrupts and deforms TV more than anything else? Dish may just prove to be the Richmond to Charter's Richard III.