The Pub Welcomes Brother Quotidian

Greetings from St. Athanasius Anglican Church in Waxahachie, Texas. Don't worry. Texans more than 100 miles away can't pronounce it either. Waxahachie, I mean. And, the locals can’t pronounce Athanasius. For the phonetically curious, they sound like this: WALKS-uh-HATCH-ee and ATH-uh-NAY-shus.

By Drewdog's gracious invitation, I will contribute here from time to time. Before I do and to set what I say in some context, I thought I’d offer a self-introduction.

I’m pretty much an ecclesiastical mongrel. I came to faith in a Southern Baptist church revival as a boy. I really woke up spiritually in college after returning from Nam (I'm also a jarhead).

I took a Th.M. from Dallas Seminary majoring in Hebrew. Afterwards I pastored Bible-church ministries for the next decade. My last pastorate in that run was the International Chapel of Vienna, in Vienna, Austria. Now that was hardship duty for sure.

I departed vocational pastoral ministry to care for aged parents, and took the opportunity to test the spiritual waters in a communion that was sacramental in its spirituality and liturgical in its worship. Our local ECUSA parish was the first place that fit the bill (as it was acceptably orthodox as well; it might not have been so somewhere else, of course). And, after 15 years in that parish, our family departed when the House of Bishops consented to consecrating an active homosexual as Bishop of New Hampshire.

By this time, I was a confirmed Prayer Book Christian, and the options locally were nil. So, I started knocking on doors, seeking some continuing jurisdiction that would take me on as a candidate for holy orders and for planting a new parish here in town. The United Anglican Church was the first to say "yes". I was ordained to the diaconate in November 2004, and to the Anglican priesthood in September of 2005.

The photo shows me prostrate during my ordination to the priesthood. The man in gold is my bishop. The fellow across the way is the UAC archdeacon, the fellow in the white surplice is an old friend who served as chaplain to the Bishop during the service. He doesn’t have something growing out of his head. That’s the Bishop’s staff leaning on the far wall of the sanctuary. The red band around my middle is my deacon’s stole. During two portions of the service, while prayers are made for me by the Bishop and the congregation, I lay on the floor in that position, about 10 minutes one time, about 15 minutes a second time. Yes, it was uncomfortable – my shoulder hurt more than anything! – but, at the same time, I was so grateful our chapel is carpeted. It might have been linoleum. Or marble.

In the interests of full disclosure, “Brother Quotidian” is the name under which my Blogger account was created. If you want to know more, drop me a line.

Looking forward to batting ideas around,

Brother Quotidian

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Against Panmillenialism

I think it's high time we talked a little about eschatology here at the pub, therefore I refer you to what I think is a pithy primer on postmillenialism. Read it here if you wish, and then chip in your $.02.

My favorite quote from this post (in case you're too lazy to click on the link and read a lengthy post) is the following:

"The problem with panmillenialsim, premillenialism, and amillenialism is that they miss the thrust of God's program from the beginning. From the beginning, God's program was to 'heavenize' earth through His image bearers. Man's task was to take the 'raw material' of the world and press down God's heavenly pattern upon it according to His Word. When man fell from this purpose through sin, God restored them to that purpose through the resurrection of the second Adam. "

-The Boneman

Let's remember to be charitable, and to attack ideas and not people.

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is history bunk?

My very intelligent self and my truly very intelligent wife were just talking about something that i would like all of you fundamentalist evangelicals out there to answer for me. here goes: what do you make of the church history that surrounds and bolsters your faith if you would not readliy consider Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Coptic Christians... Christians? i've read evangelical literature that excludes these different branches of the church in their count of "Christians" in certain nations. what of the early Church fathers? are they not considered Christians due to the fact that the Protestant Reformation simply hadn't happened yet?

(there, i posted!)

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Random Thoughts

These are some random thoughts in response to some questions from a class I am taking.

Make a logical link between the Biblical Definition of a what a Godly Person really is (as taught in Lecture #5)

The professor made a good point about what a Godly person is not. A person who follows God’s rules is not necessarily a Godly person. Pharisees followed God’s rules, but this certainly didn’t make them Godly. However, a Godly person will follow God’s rules. Obeying God’s commands is necessary but not sufficient to make one Godly. Sometimes, I think, we base our “Godliness” on the same principles that the Pharisees based their Godliness. Anyone can be a Pharisee. Not everyone can be Godly. There is a deeper question involved. It’s not “what does this person do or fail to do?” but “what is this person?” Being Godly penetrates deeper than mere outward acts to the very essence of our soul. One must be Godly. Godliness is an ontological status not an ethical one. Paul says in Ephesians 4:1 to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called…” Notice that the Christian is called, and then they are to walk in a manner that reflects that calling. Indeed, one who is called will walk in a manner worthy of that calling, but one who walks in a worthy manner is not necessarily called. Being Godly is not about what you do; it is about who you are. A Godly person is one who has been called out by God and who, as the professor pointed out, therefore willingly submits to God’s ways.

one point of content that you found intriguing, interesting, thoughtful, novel in Lecture #6

The point that I found most engaging was the professor’s interpretation of Ephesians 4:17-19 and his 6-step digression. It’s interesting to me that spiritual sickness begins with the “vanity (futility) of your minds.” I was reminded from this that ideas have consequences. Bad actions stem from bad thoughts. A philosopher that I read fairly often, Peter Kreeft, once said: If you sow a thought you will reap an act. If you sow an act you will reap a habit. If you sow a habit you will reap a character. If you sow a character you will reap a destiny. I don’t think we put enough emphasis on the power of the subtlety of ideas. Ideas do indeed have consequences. It follows, therefore, that bad ideas have bad consequences. If you sow a bad thought you will reap a bad act. If you sow a bad act your will reap a bad habit. If you sow a bad habit you will reap a bad character. If you sow a bad character you will reap a bad destiny.

one point of content that you found intriguing, interesting, thoughtful, novel in Lecture #7

The professor made a good point in regards to the story of the prodigal son. Because of his unbelief the prodigal son was denigrated and forced to eat pig food. Unbelief can have stinging consequences, as the professor pointed out. Interestingly, these consequences are not necessarily something that the unbeliever considers in his choice to not believe. When talking with an unbeliever I always like to bring up Pascal’s Wager. Blaise Pascal understood that a failure to believe in God would have damning consequences. Therefore, he argued that it is better to believe than to not believe. Although I don’t think that fear of the consequence is a sufficient condition to believe in God; nevertheless, I do think that it does add credence to a cumulative case that belief in God is more reasonable than non-belief. Just like my fear of my fathers belt was not a sufficient condition for me to obey him; nevertheless, it did add credence to the cumulative case that obeying my father was more reasonable than not obeying my father.

explain how it will/should change your future attitude toward your own need to develop spiritually

Everyone goes through trying times in their lives. The reason is simple; there is real sin in the world. The 3 R’s that the professor gave from Revelation 2:5 are a good formula to help us through these times. Remember “from where you have fallen,” Repent and Repeat “the deeds that you did at first.”

What are your thoughts?

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I'll Bet You're Sinning

I just took a friend of mine to the airport. He is one of those important businessmen who have to travel to exotic locations and stay in swanky hotels. His destination this time is Rhode Island (exotic?) and his swanky hotel this time turns out to be a casino.

On the drive to the airport, the subject of gambling came up, and my friend asked me if I had heard any good biblical arguments against gambling. We're not talking about gambling in excess, or as an obsession of any sort, just recreational gambling. I told him that I had only heard the typical fundamentalist arguments (which, by the way, go double for drinking and smoking).

"If you gamble a little, but you have a friend with a gambling problem who finds out about it, you might cause him to stumble." To which I always like to reply "What if you have sex with your wife, and your wife gets pregnant, and you have a friend who has a problem with sex and lust, and he finds out that you've been having sex (because your wife's tummy is growing), and you cause your friend to stumble?"

Or I've heard, "It's just a waste of money in any amount. All things are permissible, but not all things are profitable. It's poor stewardship." Okay, well so is ice cream, starbucks, and baseball games.

The other one I could think of was "If you gamble, you are supporting evil people who are trying to ruin poor peoples' lives by sucking them dry." But I think my reply to that would be "I suppose you're right. So when are you planning to stop using credit cards, watching television and movies, shopping at Target, or buying anything from anyone who has mass-marketed their product?"

So since my buddy asked me the question, and I couldn't answer it, I pose it to you: Are there any good biblical arguments against gambling?

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