Honor the Lord by Exposing Error

When followers of a worldview are presented with logical contradictions that expose the system as actually being disgraceful toward what it is trying to exalt, they often try to deflect and claim no culpability because the discipline's elements are being perpetrated by the worldview's teachers.  Arnobius points out that there is little likelihood that a thinking person inventing something that brings disdain on the worldview being communicated.  And even if that was true, the followers' guilt remains because nothing has been done to repel or denounce what is insulting.  Just the opposite, the teaching is being repeated broadly as true, and those outsiders denouncing the faults are being slandered for being correct.

"But all these things," they say, "are the fictions of poets, and games arranged for pleasure."

It is certainly not credible that men by no means thoughtless, who sought to trace out the character of the remotest antiquity, either did not insert in their poems the fables which survived in the minds of men and common conversation; or that they would have assumed to themselves so great license as to foolishly feign what was almost sheer madness, and might give them reason to be afraid of the gods, and bring them into danger with men.

But let us grant that the poets are, as you say, the inventors and authors of tales so disgraceful.  You are not, however, even thus free from the guilt of dishonoring the gods, who either are remiss in punishing such offenses, or have not, by passing laws, and by severity of punishments, opposed such indiscretion; and it has not been established by you that no man should henceforth say that which was very near to disgrace or was unworthy of the glory of the gods.  For whoever allows the wrongdoer to sin, strengthens his audacity; and it is more insulting to brand and mark anyone with false accusations, than to bring forward and upbraid their real offenses.  For to be called what you are, and what you feel yourself to be, is less offensive, because your resentment has less bite, being weakened by the testimony of silent reviewing; but that wounds very keenly which brands the innocent, and defames a man’s honorable name and reputation.

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book IV, cap. 32

Sadly, the church, both local and universal, has sometimes taken the same stance regarding those trying to correct improprieties and what defames Christ from within.  Historical and present times afford multiple examples of practices, teachings, and movements put forward in the name of Christ which were contrary to divine revelation.  Those sounding alarms were exiled, castigated, reviled, and in the past even tortured or killed so the promoters of error should not face the facts of their ways.

When a new movement or teaching arises, it is incumbent on the local church to ascertain the facts, not the motivation, behind it.  Promoters are by nature sincere and passionate in what they are promoting.  Discerning church bodies, especially the leaders, must wrestle with the issue or issues presented and compare with Scripture.  Reaction by a promoter may be negative, vociferous, and possibly vicious, but the agenda of men is not our standard of conduct or practice.  We answer to the Lord of all—holding his name high and defending his honor to the utmost.

True Worship Is More than Sacrifices

1 Samuel 15:22-23

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

John 4:23-24
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Arnobius provides to the pagan worshipers a reminder of what true worship entails—obedience rather than sacrifice.  Christians, those purchased by the precious, shed blood of Jesus Christ, have no less obligation.  Let us fear lest we also become complacent and be like the Jews to whom was said:

“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord.  But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’  You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God.  What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?'"  Malachi 3:13-14

For it is not he who is anxiously thinking of religious rites, and slays spotless victims, who gives piles of incense to be burned with fire, not he must be thought to worship the deities, or alone discharge the duties of religion.  True worship and belief worthy of gods are in the heart; nor does it at all avail to bring blood and gore, if you believe about them things which are not only far remote from and unlike their nature, but even to some extent stain and disgrace both their dignity and virtue.

We wish, then, to question you, and invite you to answer a short question: Whether you think it a greater offense to sacrifice to them no victims, because you think that so great a being neither wishes nor desires these; or, with foul beliefs, to hold opinions about them so degrading, that they might rouse anyone’s spirit to a mad desire for revenge?  If the relative importance of the matters be weighed, you will find no judge so prejudiced as not to believe it a greater crime to defame by manifest insults anyone’s reputation, than to treat it with silent neglect.  For this, perhaps, may be held and believed from deference to reason; but the other course manifests an impious spirit, and a blindness despaired of in fiction.  If in your ceremonies and rites neglected sacrifices and expiatory offerings may be demanded, guilt is said to have been contracted; or if by a momentary forgetfulness anyone has erred either in speaking or in pouring wine,…you all cry out immediately that something has been done contrary to the sacredness of the ceremonies;…and yet do you dare to deny that the gods are always being wronged by you in sins so grievous, while you confess yourselves that, in less matters, they are angry, often to your ruin?

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book IV, cap. 30-31

Catfight!

What happens when you enter a room designed and built for a prima donna?  You are expected to focus your attention on her alone.  Now what if there were several such women present at one time?

Arnobius paints a scenario using the five known goddesses named Minerva as an unsuspecting worshiper enters.

Grab some popcorn, and enjoy the show.

For suppose that it had occurred to us, moved either by suitable influence or violent fear of you, to worship Minerva, for example, with the rights you deem sacred, and the usual ceremony: if, when we prepare sacrifices, and approach to make the offerings appointed for her on the flaming altars, all the Minervas shall fly thither, and striving for the right to that name, each demand that the offerings prepared be given to herself; what drawn-out animal shall we place among them, or to whom shall we direct the duties of pious service?

For the first one of whom we spoke will perhaps say: “The name Minerva is mine, mine the divine majesty, who bore Apollo and Diana, and by the fruit of my womb enriched heaven with deities, and multiplied the number of the gods.”

“Nay, Minerva,” the fifth will say, “are you speaking, who, being a wife, and so often a mother, have lost the sanctity of spotless purity?  Do you not see that in all temples the images of Minervas are those of virgins, and that all artists refrain from giving to them the figures of matrons?  Cease, therefore, to appropriate to yourself a name not rightfully yours.  For that I am Minerva, begotten of father Pallas, the whole band of poets bear witness, who call me Pallas, the surname being derived from my father.”

The second will cry on hearing this: “What say you?  Do you, then, bear the name of Minerva, an impudent parricide, and one defiled by the pollution of lewd lust, who, decking yourself with rouge and a harlot’s arts, roused upon yourself even your father’s passions, full of maddening desires?  Go further, then, seek for yourself another name; for this belongs to me, whom the Nile, greatest of rivers, begot from among his flowing waters, and brought to a maiden’s estate from the condensing of moisture.  But if you inquire into the credibility of the matter, I too will bring as witnesses the Egyptians, in whose language I am called Neith, as Plato’s Timaeus attests.”

What, then, do we suppose will be the result?  Will she indeed cease to say that she is Minerva, who is named Coryphasia, either to mark her mother, or because she sprung forth from the top of Jove’s head, bearing a shield, and girt with the terror of arms?  Or are we to suppose that she who is third will quietly surrender the name? and not argue and resist the assumption of the first two with such words as these: “Do you thus dare to assume the honor of my name, O Sais, sprung from the mud and eddies of a stream, and formed in miry places?  Or do you [turning to the fourth Minerva] usurp another's rank, who falsely say that you were born a goddess from the head of Jupiter, and persuade very silly men that you are reason?  Does he conceive and bring forth children from his head?  That the arms you bear might be forged and formed, was there even in the hollow of his head a smith’s workshop?  Were there anvils, hammers, furnaces, bellows, coals, and pincers?  Or if, as you maintain, it is true that you are reason, cease to claim for yourself the name which is mine; for reason, of which you speak, is not a certain form of deity, but the understanding of difficult questions.”

If, then, as we have said, five Minervas should meet us when we approach to sacrifice, and contending as to whose this name is, each demand that either clouds of incense be offered to her, or sacrificial wines poured out from golden cups; by what arbiter, by what judge, shall we dispose of so great a dispute?  Or what examiner will there be, what umpire of so great boldness as to attempt, with such personages, either to give a just decision, or to declare their causes not founded on right?  Will he not rather go home, and, keeping himself apart from such matters, think it safer to have nothing to do with them, lest he should either make enemies of the rest, by giving to one what belongs to all, or be charged with folly for yielding [as you do] to all what should be the property of one?

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book IV, cap. 16

Cheap Building Materials

1 Corinthians 3:11-13

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

Over time, the pagans against whom Arnobius writes have moved from the foundations of their religious system by inventing new gods with the same names as preëxisting gods.  As well, their theologians are teaching this whole system.  Christ's church fell into the same type of trap.  Not content to build on the foundation and cornerstone of Jesus Christ with the gold, silver, and precious stones as did the apostles, adaptations have been made, even now abandoning the biblical names for the Triune God with other, more "culturally-relevant" monikers as the Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Church of Christ have done recently.

Arnobius points out the obvious results of such decisions—difficulty and confusion without any visible mooring.

But if it is true and certain, and is told in earnest as a well-known matter, either they are not all gods, inasmuch as there cannot be several under the same name, as we have been taught; or if there is one of them, he will not be known and recognized, because he is obscured by the confusion of very similar names.  And thus it results from your own action, however unwilling you may be that it should be so, that religion is brought into difficulty and confusion, and has no fixed end to which it can turn itself, without being made the sport of equivocal illusions.

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book IV, cap. 15

I Am the Lord, Who Does All These Things

Isaiah 45:5-7
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
        besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
        that people may know, from the rising of the sun
        and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the Lord, who does all these things.

After chiding the pagans for their many gods, Arnobius asks how they can be sure there is not one God who is over all these things making them seem to be under the influence of many deities.  And since they do not trust Christians, let them ask the other nations who have finally come to some conception of a supreme god.  Then they might finally understand.

Or, if you refuse to believe this on account of its novelty, how can you know whether there is not some one being, who comes in place of all whom you invoke, and substituting himself in all parts of the world, shows to you the appearance of many gods and powers?

"Who is that one?" someone will ask.

We may perhaps, being instructed by truthful authors, be able to say; but, lest you should be unwilling to believe us, let my opponent ask the Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Chaldeans, Armenians, and all the others who have seen and become acquainted with these things in the esoteric arts.  Then, indeed, you will learn who is the One God, or who the very many under Him are, who pretend to be gods, and make sport of men’s ignorance.

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book IV, cap. 13

Worshiping Virtue: The Idol of Political Correctness

People sense that virtue is a divine attribute either as a result of inherent knowledge from the imago dei, or by reasoning that since evil is prevalent in mankind, divinity must be somehow transcendentally other.  In either case, God can be said to have placed eternity in man's heart though he is unable to understand it all (Eccl 3:11).  At some point in Roman society and history the decision was made to deify virtues themselves turning attention from the creator to the created.  This allowed men to promote and magnify themselves if they attained to these virtues as a goal in itself without purpose for society as a whole.

In much the same way, American domestic policy has turned in a similar direction.  Understanding, tolerance, equality, justice, etc. are worthwhile traits for any person or group, but they have been elevated to a status that may be considered divine.  Laws are enacted, corporate policies are reworked.  Specific values are set up as laudable goals but deemed by those in authority to be idols worthy of worship.  If the knee is not bowed, the consequences will be suffered.  As was true centuries ago, we as a nation are now bowing to idols that reflect our humanity.  What godless men hope to attain, though in reality never shall, they deify and worship, ignoring the Lord of all who bestowed on man the very gifts and attributes being idolized.

Arnobius saw the folly in this whole line of reasoning amongst the Romans and asked why they are worshiping human virtues as gods?  They have nothing in themselves—no divine power of their own.  In fact, the opposites are demonstrated daily through human actions.

And that being the case, how can these things be deified, either then or now?

We would ask you, especially you Romans, lords and princes of the world, whether you think that Piety, Concord, Safety, Honor, Virtue, Happiness, and other such names, to which we see you see altars built and splendid temples, have divine power, and live in in the regions of heaven?  Or, as is usual, have you classed them with the deities merely for form’s sake, because we desire and wish these blessings to fall to our lot?  For if, while you think them empty names without any substance, you yet deify them with divine honors, you will have to consider whether that is a childish frolic, or tends to bring your deities into contempt, when you make equal, and add to their number vain and feigned names.  But if you have loaded them with temples and couches, holding with more assurance that these, too, are deities, we pray you to teach us in our ignorance, by what course, in what way, Victory, Peace, Equity, and the others mentioned among the gods, can be understood to be gods, to belong to the assembly of the immortals?

For we—but, perhaps, you would rob and deprive us of common-sense—feel and perceive that none of these has divine power, or possesses a form of its own kind; but that, on the contrary, they are the manliness of manhood: the safety of the safe, the honor of the respected, the victory of the conqueror, the harmony of the allied, the piety of the pious, the recollection of the observant, the good fortune, indeed, of him who lives happily and without exciting any ill-feeling.

Now it is easy to perceive that, in speaking thus, we speak most reasonably when we observe the contrary qualities opposed to them, misfortune, discord, forgetfulness, injustice, impiety, baseness of spirit, and unfortunate weakness of body.  For as these things happen accidentally, and depend on human acts and chance moods, so their contraries, named after more agreeable qualities, must be found in others; and from these, originating in this wise, have arisen those invented names.

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book IV, cap. 1-2

An Argument against Modalism

The Romans had a propensity to affix different deities to an object, so that, as pertaining to the moon mentioned below three separate persons—Diana, Ceres, Luna—are invoked for the one object.   Arnobius argues: that being the case, then two of the persons are completely unnecessary thus ruining the argument the pagan is attempting to make.

In the same manner, this logic can be addressed to adherents of modalism: that God is one but shows himself in any of three personalities as the situation requires.  One can argue against it that if there is only one person in the Godhead, then the manifestations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are man-made constructs devoid of any meaning.

Some of your learned men—men, too, who do not chatter merely because their humor leads them—maintain that Diana, Ceres, Luna, are but one deity in triple union and that there are not three distinct persons, as there are three different names; that in all these Luna is invoked, and that the others are a series of surnames added to her name.  But if this is sure, if this is certain, and the facts of the case show it to be so, again is Ceres but an empty name, and Diana: and thus the discussion is brought to this issue, that you lead and advise us to believe that she whom you maintain to be the discoverer of the earth’s fruits has no existence, and Apollo is robbed of his sister, whom once the horned hunter¹ gazed upon as she washed her limbs from impurity in a pool, and paid the penalty of his curiosity.

Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book III, cap. 34

¹ Actaeon.

Happy Labor Day

Or as Gene Veith might restate it: Happy Vocation Day.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
What gain has the worker from his toil?  I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

The Latest from Church Growth Solutions

My hat goes off to Paul McCain at Concordia Publishing who posted this on his blog.

I always knew there was less expensive solution to increased numbers.  Who says you need a bigger building?

Jonathan Edwards Journal

The initial issue of Jonathan Edward Journal is available here with articles in PDF format.  I have opinion on this yet—maybe down the road.