The Biblical Man: Intro

// January 30th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

What’s Your Story? Sermon. Mark Driscoll. Mars Hill Church. 1 Tim 1:12-20.

Life Inventory Chart. Supplement to Sermon.

Biblical Man Intro Powerpoint.

JSB:SDG

// January 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Grace in the Arts:
AN EVANGELICAL MUSICAL GENIUS:
“J.S.B.: S.D.G.”

 by ARTHUR L. FARSTAD
Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Dallas, TX

I. Prelude

J.S.B.

The initials “J.S.B.” are some of the greatest in all musical history, and certainly in the top two or three in great Christian music. The J is for Johann, German for John. The S is for Sebastian (pronounced ze-BAH-styahn), the name of a Roman soldier who became a martyr by being “darted” to death by his company for being a Christian.¹ The B is for Bach, German for creek or brook.

Were it not for Bach’s ancestor’s loyalty to the Reformation, it is likely that such a scripturally oriented musician would never have lived. Some time before 1597, a baker named Veit Bach left Hungary for his native Germany to protect his Lutheran heritage against the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in his area. He again became a baker, and, more important, the forefather of a host of German musicians by the name of Bach, including the greatest, Johann Sebastian.

S.D.G.

In the Latin Bible at Romans 16:27 and Jude 25 we find the words “Soli Deo Gloria”-”to the only God be glory.” This was to become J.S.B.’s motto. He would sign his works-whether sacred, such as “The St. Matthew Passion,” or “secular,” such as the light-hearted “Coffee Cantata,” with these letters: S.D.G.

Actually, to Bach there was no difference between sacred and secular. All works, he maintained, should be to the glory of God.

Libretto by Luther

It has been well said that Bach is one of the greatest interpreters of Luther. Both came from the same part of Germany. Both loved music. Both loved and fathered large families (Bach: 20 children by two excellent wives-his first wife died). Both loved orthodox Protestant doctrine. Later in life, Bach clung to Lutheran orthodoxy when it was becoming less fashionable. He also had a strong “pietistic” flavor to his Evangelical Lutheranism: he stressed a warm, personal faith in God through his Savior.

Music Rooted in Luther

The types of music approved and practiced by the Lutheran congregations of Bach’s time are deeply rooted in the great Reformer himself. Wohlfarth’s words are worth quoting at some length:

The Protestant cantorship was a creation of Martin Luther and his musical collaborator, Johann Walter, near the beginning of the sixteenth century. Luther loved music: “Youth should always be familiarized with this art, for it makes for fine and capable persons. I give musica the next place after theologia, and the highest honor.” For Luther, music was intrinsic to education: “Whoever has no desire or love for it and is not moved by such lovely wonders must surely be an uncouth clod, who does not deserve to hear beautiful music!” In worship music appeared to him as an indispensable means for proclaiming the divine good tidings. Here he differed significantly from the representatives of the Swiss Reformation, Zwingli and Calvin, who perceived sensual danger in the arts.

For I am not of the opinion that all the arts should be struck down by the gospel and perish, as some spurious spiritualists would gladly see happen. Rather I would see all the arts, but especially music, in the service of Him who created and bestowed them.

Besides simple hymns for congregational singing, of which he himself wrote many, Luther most loved and marveled at the exalted art of polyphony. He fervently encouraged its nurture among the cantors of the larger churches. What especially filled him with astonishment was the so-called Tenorsatz, that is, the art of joining other contrapuntal voices to a given melody. Indeed, such art actually appeared to him as a proof of the divine origin and nature of music:

But where natural music is refined and polished by art, there one first sees and recognizes the great and perfect wisdom of God in his miraculous work of music. The most rare and marvelous musical creation of all occurs when a simple melody or tenor (as the musicians call it) is joined by three or four or five other voices, joyfully playing and skipping around it, decorating and adorning that simple, ordinary melody most wonderfully in various ways, with various sounds, as if in some heavenly roundelay of dance.

Such frankly ecstatic musical enthusiasm as Luther’s upon hearing polyphonic chorale motets had not been uttered since the Confessions of St. Augustine. With what joy would Luther have eavesdropped on the chorale cantatas created from his own melodies by Bach, two hundred years later!²

Bach’s Consecration

Not only did our musician consecrate all his works of a Christian nature “to the only God’s glory” (S.D.G.), but he also believed everything should be ad gloriam Dei³ (to God’s glory).

When a Frenchman writes favorably of a German, as André Pirro does of Bach’s religion, we do well to listen closely:

Bach . . . dreamed of consecrating ad gloriam Dei all forms of magnificence, even those born outside the church. A semi-Pietist by his personal fervor, mystic reading matter and feeling for Scripture, Bach was, nevertheless, strongly attached to Lutheran orthodoxy. Furthermore, what savored of Pietism in the religion of his choice came to him far less from its innovators than from his nature which was so profoundly German. His predilections, the emotions of his soul enamored of the Divine, his affectionate and almost fraternal worship of Christ were manifestations of that great current of pious familiarity which has so often flowed through Teutonic Christianity.⁴

II. An Evangelical Musical Genius A Great Family Man

Hollywood would be hard pressed to write an even mildly accurate script of Bach’s life that would please today’s “trash-TV”-oriented audiences. There were no moral or financial scandals, murders, or alcoholic excess in Bach’s immediate family. (Even his large extended family was respectable.)

Bach was a happily married, faithful husband and father. By his first wife, Barbara, he fathered three children. A year and a half after her death he married the 16-year younger Anna Magdalena, who bore him seventeen more! Both wives were not only sweet, “1 Peter 3″ type women, but also talented singers and musicians.

Like Luther and his wife and children, Bach and all his family had musical evenings of great vivacity, talent, and enjoyment. They were not a rich family (20 young mouths to feed!), but they were richly endowed by their parents’ Christian faith, love, hard work, and tremendous musical talents.

A Great Teacher

J. S. B. should please both the traditional schoolers and the home schoolers. Bach practiced both. At the St. Thomas Church School he taught many subjects, excelling in Latin and, of course, music. He taught the boy students to sing as he also had sung in choirs as a boy. At home he taught music to all his own children, boys and girls.

Bach was the first to teach the use of all five fingers on the keyboard, which we now take for granted. He had respect for his pupils’ desires and made his musical lessons and drills interesting. He made compositions of an easier nature for those with competent but less-than-genius abilities, including his second wife. She has the honor of having the famous, still widely-used Anna Magdalena’s Notebook named after her.⁵ 

Regarding his family, Bach said:

They [Bach's children] are all born musicians, and I can assure you that I can already form a concert, both vocal and instrumental, of my own family, particularly as my present wife sings a very clear soprano, and my eldest daughter joins in bravely.⁶ 

It is not surprising that four of the Bach boys went on to become successful professional composers and performers-even rivaling their father at times.

A Great Organist

In his own time Bach was better known as a great organist than as a composer. He still is renowned for his marvelous organ works, which unfortunately we can’t hear him play himself.

Go to any organ recital (except those that are avant garde only) and the chances are excellent there will be a work by Bach on the program. Recitals of Bach’s works only are not a thing of the past either.

A Great Composer

Sad to say, soon after his death, Bach’s compositions fell into disuse. They were thought to be old-fashioned and too complex by many.

Fortunately, in 1829 the German composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy revived the “St. Matthew Passion.” From then on Bach increasingly began to be rightly appreciated for his genius. His “St. Matthew Passion” and “St. John Passion” use the text of Luther’s Bible with soloists singing the parts of Jesus, the Evangelist, Judas, and others. These are interspersed with beautiful choral works which the congregation joins in. For example, the tune of “O Sacred Head Once Wounded”-arranged, not written by Bach-was so appealing to the composer that he used it several times with different words.

Bach’s setting of Mary’s “Magnificat” (Luke 1:46-55) is in Latin, yet it is exciting and truly magnificent.

For the last 27 years of his life Bach wrote cantatas for the regular Sunday and holiday services at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. All are worthy, some are wonderful.

In the “secular” realm (though J.S.B. didn’t believe in such a division-everything was “S.D.G.”!) “The Brandenburg Concertos” and “The Goldberg Variations” are noteworthy.

Strong Protestants may wonder when they see “Ave Maria” and the “Mass in B Minor” in the repertoire. Actually, Bach wrote the melody now labeled “Ave Maria” in honor of the Heavenly Father and a French Roman Catholic composer arranged it for Mary. (Is there a theological lesson here?)

The word mass as a term for musical composition was retained to some extent in Lutheran circles,⁷ and Bach wrote this work as a courtesy to a ruler of a Catholic subdivision of Germany.⁸

III. Finale

In some liturgies, there is a prayer for the blessing of a happy death. Whether J.S.B. ever prayed such a prayer we don’t know, but the Lord definitely granted His servant the sort of homegoing that fit his life of glorifying the one true God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1749 Bach became seriously ill and finally blind. The Leipzig city council immediately gave another musician an audition “for the future appointment as cantor of St. Thomas, in case capellmeister and cantor Mr. Sebastian Bach should die.”⁹

J.S.B. was not yet quite ready to depart! In his darkened room he dictated to Johann Christoph Altnikol his last thoughts:

The night shines deeper, to penetrate more deeply,
But yet within there glows bright light.
For completing of the greatest work,
One soul for a thousand suffices.¹⁰

As the musical genius felt the imminence of his passing, he dictated line by line-note by note-a last organ chorale. Most appropriately it is called “Before Thy Throne Herewith I Come.”

On July 10, 1750, Bach had a stroke. He died ten days later, “a little after a quarter to nine in the evening, in the sixty-sixth year of his life, he quietly and peacefully, by the merit of his Redeemer, departed this life,” as the wording of his obituary so nicely put it.¹¹

IV. Postlude

J.S.B. has been long in glory. His music, ever glorious, which Mendelssohn revived from 1829 onward, is still being widely played and sung. As I write these words I have my Bach CDs set to play-each with a mixture of “sacred” and “secular.”

An Enemy Testimonial

We can find many glowing tributes to J.S.B. from those who love classical music, especially conservative Christians who actually believe that the words being sung are not only beautiful, but true! When, however, we can find a tribute from someone who has known and rejected Christian truth, the testimonial is all the more powerful.

And so we include a word from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.¹² In 1870 Nietzsche heard Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. This was Bach’s great (Wohlfarth calls it “miraculous”) confessional masterpiece and was performed only once during the composer’s lifetime. He had planned a second performance but the city council refused to support it financially. Nearly a century later, Mendelssohn directed the second performance. The rest is history. When Nietzsche heard it, he paid it this tribute: “One who has completely forgotten Christianity truly hears it here as Gospel.”¹³

Two Friendly Questions

Ray Keck, in his fine article on Bach’s legacy, asks the following two questions, which he feels, “alas, have no answer”:

Did he know, as some critics have suggested, that he was a genius trapped in the service of parochial, foolish men? Did he suspect that he was one of music’s greatest and most lasting lights, that his compositions would forever stand as one of the most noble creative efforts of our kind? Or was he, as some have insisted, a Lutheran of extraordinary spiritual resources, humble before God and sustained by a great faith? He did study theology throughout his life, read theological works for pleasure, and finished his compositions on music paper that contained the watermark “Jesu, juva!” Jesus, help!¹⁴ 

Regarding the first question, one suspects the answer is “yes,” though Bach credited his work at least partly (in good Germanic style) to hard work. And yes, he did indeed suffer at the hands of many unappreciative officials and petty critics.

Regarding the second question, an Evangelical can well answer with a confident “Yes!” After all, what mere religionist would put S.D.G. on all his works? Or have “Jesus, help!” watermarked (not visible) into his composition paper?

Endnotes

^{1 Paintings of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian will be found in most classical art galleries. 2 Hannsdieter Wohlfarth, Johann Sebastian Bach (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985), 89-90.3 Educated Protestants still used a fair amount of Latin long after the Reformation. 4 André Pirro, J. S. Bach. Translated from the French by Mervyn Savill (New York: The Orion Press, 1957), 36. 5 An admonition to Christian husbands: Make a will. Bach died intestate and Anna Magdalena outlived him ten years, dying in abject poverty, even though her husband had made good money, and could have left resources to her. 6 Phillip Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, translated by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller-Maitland, 2 vols. (New York: Dover, 1951), 2:254.7 I have my paternal Norwegian grandmother’s copy of Landstad’s Solmebog, an Evangelical Lutheran service book that includes the term hoi-messe (“high,” that is choral service, of communion). 8 Germany did not become one united country until the late 1800s under Otto von Bismarck.}

The Biblical Man: From Bios to Zoë

// January 15th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

The Greeks had two words for “life”: bios and zoë. Bios represents the biological and individual sense of life, the life that pulsates within any one organism. Zoë, on the other hand, is shared life, life that transcends the individual and allows participation in a broader, higher, and richer life.

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis remarks that mere bios is always tending to run down and decay. It needs incessant subsidies from nature in the form of air, water, and food, in order to continue. As bios and nothing more, man can never achieve his destiny. Zoë, he goes on to explain, is an enriching spiritual life which is in God from all eternity. Man needs zoë in order to become truly himself. Man is not simply man; he is a composite of bios and zoë.

Bios has, to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoë: but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man. A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoë would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man.

The transition, then, from bios to zoë (individual life to personal, spiritualized life; selfishness to love of neighbor; orphanhood to sonship) is also the transition from a Culture of Death to a Culture of Life, from Worldliness to Godliness.

“And that is precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumour going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.” Mere Christianity

Five Solas: Soli Deo Gloria (Glorifying God)

// January 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Five Solas Capstone (.ppt – click to download)

Soli Deo Gloria! For the Glory of God Alone

The Reformation reclaimed the Scriptural teaching of the sovereignty of God over every aspect of the believer’s life. All of life is to be lived to the glory of God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” This great and all consuming purpose was emphasized by those in the 16th and 17th Centuries who sought to reform the church according to the Word of God. In contrast to the monastic division of life into sacred versus secular perpetuated by Roman Church, the reformers saw all of life to be lived under the Lordship of Christ. Every activity of the Christian is to be sanctified unto the glory of God.

As the Scripture says,
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God; Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. (1CO 10:31; 1PE 4:11; REV 1:6; 2PE 3:1; EPH 3:21; REV 7:12; ROM 11:36)

We come to this last of the five Solas because truly the other four are summed into the fifth. It is the Scriptures alone that are our only ultimate and infallible source of authority. This is so because God in His mercy and faithfulness has seen fit to preserve the Scriptures down through the centuries. The proper roles of Church tradition or the teachings of the officers within the church are the same; all in submission to the ultimate authority of the Scriptures. God is therefore glorified alone.

It is the incarnate second person of the Trinity to which the Prophets and Scriptures point. It is the ministry of Jesus Christ sent by the Father to accomplish His purposes in His covenant of Redemption. There is no other Mediator nor Redeemer other than the one provided by the Father Himself to fulfill the righteous requirements of His law. God is therefore glorified alone.

It is only by His inestimable grace that we may stand before Him. Through the good pleasure of His mercy, He graciously imputed to us the righteousness of His son and imputed to His Son our sin where it was judged upon the cross. God is therefore glorified alone.

The grace of God has its affect upon us by faith alone. We do not merit the grace (otherwise grace would not be grace) nor is this grace infused in us in order to make us righteous in ourselves. Instead, the grace of God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us and we believe this by faith alone. We have no other basis upon which to rely than the accomplishments of Christ, the imputation of the work to us and the faith given to us so that we may believe Him and these things. God is therefore glorified alone.

Historical Background

There were many battles during the Reformation where this principle was the central issue. The Reformers took on the Catholic church with regard to her glorification of idols and images. They also opposed the glorification of the office of the Pope and the other church officers. Another dispute was the glorification of Mary who was elevated to be above Christ in many ways and parallel to Him in the rest. Soli Deo Gloria was the overarching principle of the Reformation and related to every battle of protest by the Reformers.

Defining Glory

Over the centuries and especially in our days of modernity, we are very accustomed to the word glory but if you were to ask a number of Christians to define glory you would get probably three times as many definitions. We must remember that when we consider the glory of God, we use both a noun term and a verb term. The noun glory is similar to honor but is the outward manifestation of all of the attributes of God. As His goodness or power or righteousness, or whatever attribute it may be, is displayed in the universe, God’s glory is revealed. All of His attributes shine forth His glory or honor. They declare His uniqueness in all ways. Although we were made by Him in His image, we are infinitely not Him.

The second part of glory is the verb to glorify. This is the declaration of high praise, honor or worship to God. It is an acknowledgement of who God is and who we are. All that God does manifests His honor to the universe.

A Biblical Defense of Soli Deo Gloria

• Psalm 148:13;
• Romans 16:27;
• 1 Timothy 1:16;
• Jude 25;
• Revelation 15:4

The Scriptures declare that God is a jealous God and requires that nothing else be worshipped in His place. Whether we substitute the church or ourselves, any substitution of the ascribing of greatness and declaring glory is idolatry.

Sinners Glorifying God?

There are many ways that the Scriptures tell us to glorify God:

• All of the nations will glorify Him; Psalm 86:9-10.
• We are to glorify Him through belief as did Abraham; Romans 4:19-22.
• We are to glorify God with our bodies through sexual purity whether single or married; 1 Corinthians 6:20.
• We are to clothe ourselves with good works so that when the ungodly bring false accusations against us, God will be glorified; 1 Peter 2:12.
• Because God has predestined us to salvation by grace through faith in Christ, God is glorified; Ephesians 1:11-12.
• God declares His glorious wisdom by means of the Church; Ephesians 3:8-13

One of the central issues however, during the Reformation was the improper exultation of the officers in the Church. Even beginning during the third century, there began to develop the mindset that the highest form of worship toward God could only be offered by those in full time ministry. The service of God was the only “calling” and all other vocations were mundane and inferior. This is not to say that they believed work to be unimportant; rather they all believed that ordinary working was necessary, but demeaning

By the time of the Reformation, the Reformers saw this principle fully blossomed in the self aggrandizing worship of the saints and officers in the church. The purest form of worship, the highest of all callings, or the vocation which alone glorifies God was deemed by the church to be those offices which performed the “work of God”.

The Protestant Work Ethic

At the heart of this debate were the words “calling” and “talent”. The Reformers began to use the term calling to be any vocation for which God had equipped someone to perform. They believed that whatever work God had given us to do, if done faithfully would be equally glorifying of Him as other faithful work. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul teaches that whatever it is that we do whether mundane or extraordinary, all should be done by faith to the glory of God. They also used the term talent to be that given by God for the purpose of accomplishing work.

The Reformers made no distinction between the spiritual or temporal; sacred or secular. They believed that God had created us to be workers or producers and that whether you were in the pulpit, orchard, or kitchen all that we do when done by faith would bring glory to God. Isaiah 60:21.

Non-Christians have actually complained that in Christianity God is allowed to seek His own glory, but man is not. This attitude reflects the Biblical definition of sin, man seeking to make himself a god. Sinful man selfishly seeks his own glory for his own sake, but God does not. The Triune God seeks His own glory because that is only right and proper. The Father seeks the glory of the Son because the Son is worthy to be honored and praised. The Son seeks the glory of the Father because it would be perverse not to acknowledge the glory of the Father. The Father, Son, and Spirit eternally seek one another’s glory and rejoice in one another because of who they are. It could not be otherwise.

Apart from the fact that man is indebted to God for life, breath and all good things, it is only right for a man to glorify God, just as it is only proper that a man should be moved at the sight of the stars on a clear night, or the sight of beautiful mountains, the ocean or any other spectacular manifestation of God’s glory in the creation. A man who is unmoved when confronted by the beauty of the created world is not merely dull, he is perverse. But God is infinitely more glorious than His creation. He deserves our adoration and praise even apart from the good things He does for us.

Glorify Him

“What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” We were created and redeemed to glorify Him. As a sinner man seeks to steal the glory that belongs to God and take it for himself: “For all have sinned, and are coming short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Paul is speaking of the fact that we do not fulfill our created purpose. We were made to glorify Him, but we fall short of that. We do not glorify Him by our thoughts, words, or actions as we should. Psalm 10:4 says that, “In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”

As redeemed sinners we are restored to the original purpose of man. We can now seek His glory and enjoy Him. Though we remain sinners in this life, redemption means that we can truly live for Him. To glorify God should be the passion of our lives. It is our highest calling. For all eternity we will enjoy Him. We will rejoice in His power and greatness, singing His praise. We will be forever amazed by new revelations of the beauty of God. And each new revelation of the wonder of His glory will bring us to a greater appreciation that this great and wonderful God loved us and sent His Son to redeem us from our sins. Blessed be God!

Five Solas: Soli Deo Gloria (Christian Hedonism)

// January 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Glorifying God

(1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1)

Pastor Mark Driscoll

(Click here to download the sermon audio)

Also:

The Happiness of God: Foundation for Christian Hedonism – John Piper (click to download)

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. “ C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Christian Hedonism:

The most selfless act a being of perfect love can commit is to create other beings to enjoy him.

the singular purpose for which we were created is to glorify god, to make his name great, to honor him.  knowing the truth of the gospel, the finished work of jesus christ on the cross, out of joyous and thankful hearts we respond with glorious worship and discipleship, and we find that this is the secret to happiness:

Our Joy = God’s Glory

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” – John Piper