Persons of Interest
I was fortunate in my early twenties to spend some time with Francis Schaeffer at L’Abri. Those days made me realize that my faith required serious consideration and deliberate contemplation.
At Oxford, I was privileged to have John Lucas as a tutor. His genius infected my thinking and made me wish for even greater insight.
But I never met Abraham Joshua Heschel – and I deeply regret missing conversation with this man of God. I look forward to a time when we can converse without hurry over the insights he has helped me appreciate.
“For the opposite of human is not the animal. The opposite of human is the demonic.”
Yes, human becoming may be action on the continuum between animal and human, and the scene in the Garden may be an appeal to the false seduction that animal instinct is a legitimate alternative to human choice, but the end is never what is promised. The end is not the care-less life of God-given instinct. The end is demonic, the active participation in a life that is opposed to God’s will. The continuum may look like animal to human, but no animal demonstrates the deliberate malice and cunning cruelty of the human become demonic.
Heschel warns us that we live in an age where the real issue is the collapse of a doctrine of man. We are caught between “high standards of living, vulgar standards of thinking, too feeble to stop the process of the spiritual liquidation of man.”
“This is an age in which even our common sense is tainted with commercialism and expediency. To recover sensitivity to the divine, we must develop in uncommon sense, rebel against seemingly relevant, against conventional validity; to unthink many thoughts, to abandon many habits, to sacrifice many pretensions.”
“We must recall the questions which religious doctrines are trying to answer,” questions that most of us have forgotten in our quest to have certainty fixed to dogma.
“Knowing must be preceded by listening to the call.” But what do we hear? Do we hear the question, “What does God demand of me?” Or are we seduced by a theology that spouts grace as if it were the gusher of an over-enthusiastic lover?
“God is not a concept produced by deliberation. God is an outcry wrung from heart and mind; God is never an explanation, it is always a challenge. It can only be uttered in astonishment.”
“Religious existence is a pilgrimage rather than an arrival. Its teaching – a challenge rather than an intellectual establishment, and encyclopedia of ready-made answers.”
“Perhaps the grave error in theology is the claim to finality, to absolute truth, as if all of God’s wisdom were revealed to us completely and once and for all, as if God had nothing more to say.”
“Detachment of doctrine from devotion, detachment of reason from reverence, of scrutiny from the send of the ineffable reduces God as a challenge to a logical hypothesis, theoretically important but not overwhelmingly urgent . . . It is a fatal mistake to think that believing in God is gained with ease or sustained without strain . . . Faith is steadfastness in spite of failure. It is defiance and persistence in the face of frustration.”[1]
This is a man I long to meet.
[1] all citations from A. Heschel, “What We Might Do Together,” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity.
These days, I usually find it difficult to read TW as I would like. Sorry, Skip, but I’m sure you would understand, Father’s Word is a huge priority!! However, this AM I needed to look into Hebrews 12:6 a bit more and looked up the words “discipline” and “punishment” in the Blue Letter Bible. After doing so, I was drawn to open up my email and saw this wonderful encouragement and, certainly, the challenge to go beyond the veil of statistical “popular” teaching that most people will frame as the “to-do” list in order to please God. The “to-do” list comes from Him as He etches His Perfect Law into our hearts and minds and as He lovingly disciplines us along the way…the way of holiness by faith. I am thankful for having been prompted to hear this admonishment this morning. God bless all.
Can I go too? 😉
Thank you for sharing this! I needed to hear this today. God is working on my heart in a certain area and it is painful, but I am determined to continue to go His way and strive to grow as He leads. What this world has to offer is nothing compared to what God has for those who walk the harder path, willing to climb the steeper cliffs instead of strolling through the valley. God is love, yes, but He is also a consuming. I am in pain today on His path, but I will not relent to back off from His standards. I too would love to meet this man. Thank you again for this encouragement.
“Mark These Men” was the title of one of J. Sidlow Baxter’s books. “G-d always speaks to a human heart through a human heart” is a quote I picked up from S.D. Gordon. Abraham Joshua Heschel may be one of these men (though I’ve never him) who G-d speaks through.
I would like to consider this particular phrase which “caught my eye.”
“Detachment of doctrine from devotion, detachment of reason from reverence”
and I would like to offer this:- not “detachment” but “attachment”. A “joining or coming together”. (Once again- seems to be my mantra as of late),- “not either/or, but both!” Doctrine AND devotion. Reason AND reverance. Considered together this would also provide the “balance” we so desperately need in our lives.
And as to “absolute truth”- yes, there is such a thing. Absolutely and positively. (from John 17.17) “Sanctify them through Thy truth: thy word is truth.” Absolute, unchanging, forever, life giving, life-sustaining,- “truth.”
“But the word of the Lord endures for ever.” (1 Peter 1.25)
Hey Skip,
The “contact me” area of your website doesn’t give me a choice to contact you or your webtech. You might want him to look into that unless you mean to do that.
This is a bit off subject but your reference to AJH, who is my favorite Jewish thinker, is incentive to follow up with you on another subject you responded to a few months ago.
I wrote to you several months ago about the Evangelical Lutheran Church and their approval of allowing homosexual to be pastors. You sent me an article you wrote about homosexuality and I thank you very much for your insight and guidance.
After reading your article referencing Abraham Joshua Heschel (my favorite), I thought I would follow up to let you know what I’ve learned about the “movement” within the ELCA and the influences adopted to obfuscate the word of God. It’s pretty frightening to see what the leadership did in order to make this major change in theology.
At the annual synod assembly they passed four resolutions. In the first resolution they explained away differences in Scriptural interpretation by resolving that all Lutherans are called to “respect and protect other believers with whom they disagree”. Basically what they are saying is every interpretation of Scripture is right and therefore there is no wrong interpretation. The three resolutions following state the intent to allow homosexuals to be leaders within the church.
Throughout the resolutions the synod kept using the words, “find a way” to make this happen. So in essence, even if you disagree they will still carry out their own desire and will to place homosexuals in leadership positions.
They used terms such as “bound consciousness” and “structured flexibility” to qualify and justify their decision making process. They also called all believers to use these two processes in order to implement, understand, and follow the new doctrine (and to get along).
These two terms gave me a lot of discomfort and upon further study I found out why. Both these terms are from philosophical techniques to transform the mind to attain a higher level of spiritual understanding unleashing the highest form of human potential. Once man has found the “universal truth” by seeking authority within himself he can excuse anything because he has become the authority. It is an age-old philosophy repackaged as the New Age movement, Secular Humanism, Universalism and Environmentalism all of which have roots in the Occult. No wonder they could justify undermining and even denying the authority of Scripture.
I presented my findings to the Pastor, the President of our church council and to several individuals within my church. The reactions to my report varied from “it’s nothing that will affect our church” to indifference, to verbal attacks. Our church has decided to not talk about the issue which they feel is divisive and therefore they are blindly accepting the new doctrine.
My family and I have left our church and are looking for another place to worship. Everything about this move by the ELCA gives me the creeps. But the most eerie thing is people don’t seem to care. It’s as if they are asleep and can’t see what is happening. They can’t even see what this will turn into. Right now everyone is called to be united even though we disagree. What are we united under? Certainly not the word of God because we have decided it’s not the double-edge sword God tells us it is. And when will the leadership decide that this “false unity” is not enough and completely abandon the word of God to seek what their itching ears want to hear? Will people see it then? I’m not so sure.
I believe the most important thing we can do at this point is 1) Get out of these churches that are following strange doctrine, 2) Pray for those who stay to have eyes to see what is happening and 3) Preach the truth of God’s word.
I thank you and the community for constantly seeking to know in a deeper and deeper way the word of God. You all are truly a light in the darkness. I always tell my adult Bible class, don’t be afraid of struggling with God’s word. And it really is about the process not the end result. That is what God sees. How we struggle, how we yearn to know Him more and more because He is never-ending, always loving, and desires more than anything to have an intimate relationship with each one of us. Oh, if they would only understand that.
Thanks Skip for all you do. It helps me deal with the insanity whirling around me.
I will be teaching a seminar in August called “Money, Sex and Power: A Critical Examination of the Current Culture”. Maybe you should attend.
Skip, I would love to attend. I think however I am helping my daughter settle into her first year at Baylor University the week you are holding the seminar. Would you record it as a pod cast or a DVD? I would buy one if you did.
Thanks for the insightful update on this growing accommodation to the cultural imperatives. What a difference it is to realize that we are called “out” of the culture. We are not relevant, not tolerant, not welcoming to what is contrary to God’s instructions for life. But we are open to all who wish to embrace His way. No past is excluded. No sin inexcusable. We are all broken together, leaning on each other in order to follow His path. It is so sad, tragic, to see the witness defiled.
Amen Skip! Yep, I have no problem worshipping next to a sinner because I am one too. This movement is taking repentance out of the picture and replacing it with cheap grace just so WE can feel good. It’s the pot telling the potter how to fashion the pot. It’s bringing strange fire into the presence of God as did Nadab and Abihu. It’s Korah’s rebellion. It’s the corruption of the priesthood as in the days before the Maccabees and during Yeshua’s time.
So I can only conclude that we are in the “short” days where the elect are being deceived. We need to be prepared to defend the word of God within our congregations, or as Moses says before the ground opened up and swallowed Korah and those who stood with him, “Get away from them, or you will be swept away in all THEIR sin.”
Jan.. you are an “amazement” to me and I praise G-d for people like you! Our Abba’s fullest and richest blessing to you and your family as you “seek out” a place of like-minded followers of the Way. -Just as an aside- my wife and I had to “abandon” our church of over thirty years and this was (I guarantee you) no easy task. “Reach down my gullet and pull me inside out” just about accurately describes my feelings during this period. “But G-d is (always) faithful”- are His words you can “hang on to!” He won’t, He won’t- He will not (ever) “let you down!” We serve a living Savior!
Thank you Carl. Amen. Amen. Yes it is a difficult thing to leave people you love but I think the most difficult part of this entire experience was having to read and research the documents published by the ELCA justifying their stand. For months I felt sick to my stomach as they perverted the word of God. It was definitely an experience I hope I am not called to do again. But I am willing because my LORD, my Strength, my Shield was ever so faithful to hold me up and get me through. In regards to His faithfulness I can positively say it was the best experience of my life.
Skip, OT but when you were at Oxford did you ever cross paths with RT Kendall?