St. Patrick & the Power of Forgiveness

"I, Patrick, a sinner..."

Thus begins The Confession of St. Patrick; a story that illustrates the cosmic power of forgiveness.

Patrick wasn't Irish. He was a Welsh-Briton, who, as a "young man, almost a beardless boy ... was taken captive" by Irish raiders and sold into slavery on the harsh, barbaric Irish isle. He was only 16. This took place somewhere in the middle of the 5th century, as the Roman empire suffered its rapid decline and the so-called Dark Ages began.

For 6 years he worked against his will in Ireland before making his escape.

Through many tribulations, he made his way back home, and then did the unthinkable. He returned to Ireland! Why?

The Profit of the Prophet

Since I follow Tim Challies on Twitter sometimes I drift into the things he is reading. Last week I was somewhat intrigued to see that one of his A La Carte topics was on the "5 Dangers of Fallible Prophecy" (posted on TheCripplegate.com). I took the bait.


I was heartened to discover that, as a budding continuationist, I am in pretty good company: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (who, from this point, I will refer to as "the doctor"), Wayne Grudem, John Piper and DA Carson (just to name a few). 


Some of you may have read the postings from my Scriptural exploration of this topic last summer. These mostly stemmed from a growing awareness on my part to the space this topic is given in Scripture, not from exposure to Christian writings or debates.


Anyhow, I made a little stink in the comment section of this committed cessationist cohort of bloggers. So much so that one of their contributors created an entirely new post to answer my objections. (If you read through the comments of the first post and compare them with the second, you'll see he is ostensibly continuing our conversation--something I invited him to do in the comment's section.)


In supporting a continuationist view on this post, I must confess that I felt a little like a voice in the wilderness! The cessionationist perspective on gifts like prophecy is that they ceased after the foundation of the church. This steps from their interpretations of Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.


The argument is that the church was "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets" and that now these roles/gifts are not needed. They argue that when Paul wrote the following words, he was describing the establishment of the church (not the second coming of Jesus):

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." (1 Cor. 13:8-10)

In truth--though we don't agree--they argue from a plausible perspective. However, I do think that their cessationist lens precludes them from doing a more thorough inquiry into the topic.


Here's what I mean.

The Only Postmodern Apologetic

How are Christian apologetics like a Rube Goldberg machine? Everyone is just waiting to see if it "works". 


We live in a Postmodern age; rife with relativism and the rejection of claims of absolute truth. There's a big back story stemming from the Enlightenment and a backlash against Modernism. But suffice it to say that Postmodernism is characterized by deep skepticism toward absolute authority and truth--even based in solid reasoning. Claims to such authority or objectivity are seen through the lens of power struggle. 


We see this in our current political climate, where each side marshals out their "facts and figures". Most people know that these have been hand-picked to support their perspective, and to secure power. We see this in the Scientific community as more and more researchers are exposed for falsifying their research in order to gain grant money or prestige. 


People are jaded for a reason. It leads to pandemic skepticism and cynicism. This is our culture!


Many (most?) apologetic camps are loath to accept this. They still attack the problem as though brute reason and argumentation can win the day. (The exception may be the Presuppositional Camp.) In the end, they find themselves licking their wounds and bemoaning the fact that relativism has rendered their arsenal harmless. Rather than accept the reality of the current culture they end up pining for a bygone era--or wishing the Postmodernism could just go away so that we could get on with proving Christianity!


Broad brush strokes. I know! But a lot of us have been there.


Just the other day I was decompressing after a Bible discussion where relativism reared its ugly head. Now I'm not saying that such classical apologetics are of no use. People do need to know that their faith has sound philosophical, historical and scientific foundations. Nevertheless, we need to ask, "Is what we're doing 'working.'?"


The irony is that I think Jesus likes Postmodernism; maybe even relativism. 


Here's what I mean.