Back in the day, about 100 years ago or more, liberal Protestant theology was all the rage (or at least gaining in popularity). As a result a group of conservative Protestant clergymen published a truckload of essays that are collectively known as The Fundamentals. From that fertilized egg, the modern fundamentalist movement hatched. (And depending on your point of view, the resulting bird is either a chicken or an eagle.)

Being a center-right guy myself (though not a fundamentalist), I thought it would be fun to start another world-conquering, King James-based movement kick around some ideas of what you all think are the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Here's the way it works, without thinking too much about it, and without looking up your proposed position in Wikipedia, leave a comment detailing your "fundamental" and why you think that point of theology or doctrine is essential to authentic, orthodox Christianity. (You'll get bonus points if you have Scripture to bolster your position. Unless of course your position is something like, Church Tradition Trumps Scripture Every Single Time.) This isn't an attempt to start a flame war, and there won't be any getting up in anyone's face (at least not on my side of things). In short, be nice.

So, I'll start:

My fundamental is baptism. It's essential because a) we're commanded to do it (along with repentance) (Acts 2:38), b) JESUS linked it closely to salvation (Mark 16:16, etc.), c) inasmuch as it is an "appeal to God for a good conscience" it "now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21), d) there is no such thing as a non-baptized Christian in the New Testament.*

That's it. That's my fundamental. It's not what I think to be the primary fundamental of the faith, but I do consider baptism to be essential to an authentically lived Christian life.

Now, what's yours?

*Update -- Except for the thief on the cross.

We posted three videos on a row. What are we, NBC?

As a break in the programming, I'll throw out some quotations from Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology:

The Word of God is the Word that God spoke, speaks, and will speak in the midst of all men. . . . It is the Word of God's work upon men, for men, and with men. His work is not mute; rather, it speaks with a loud voice. (Pg. 18)

That man who refuses to listen and to obey the Word acts not as a free man but as a slave, for there is no freedom except through God's Word. We are speaking of the God of the Gospel, his work and action, and of the Gospel in which his work and action are at the same time his speech. (Pg. 19)

The Spirit is himself God, the same one God who is also the Father and the Son; he acts both as Creator and Reconciler, as the Lord of the covenant. As this very Lord, however, he now dwells, has dwelt, and will dwell in men. He dwells not only among them but also in them by the enlightening power of his action. It is that flowing air and moving atmosphere in which men may live, think, and speak wholly and entirely freed from presuppositions -- for they are men who know the spirit and are known by him, men called by him and obedient to him, his children begotten by his Word. (Pg. 54)

The object of theological work is not some thing but some one. . . . This object is not an "It" but a "He." And He, this One, exists not as an idle and mute being for Himself, but precisely in His work which is also His word. (Pg. 163)

I believe Christians will be talking about John Piper hundreds of years from now in much the same way people currently talk about guys like John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon.

In this short clip Piper expounds on Romans 8:31-39, explaining what "more than conquerors" means.

Sometimes that word is what I'd use to describe God. In reality, it's more likely that the distance is something cerebral, inside of me, something that I can't quite wrap words -- or thoughts -- around. At least not precisely.

Whoever first quipped that God created man in His image and man returned the favor, had a keen (although perhaps brief) insight into the heart of man: a heart that longs, in the most inappropriate ways, to be like God (Gen. 3:5), and a heart that longs, in the most appropriate ways, to be like God (Matt. 5:48).

In the end, I think, such anthropomorphism about the nature of God has little use because He's God ... and we're human. (Of course, the caveat is He's the God who became human!) If His ways are truly higher than ours -- and, indeed, they are -- then even the God-man, JESUS the Christ, whose name means Yahweh is Salvation, should be recognized and praised as God who became man, and not man who became God. Man's never been able to figure out the trick to the latter, and, in the end, history would indicate that such a path leads to a life that offers neither God nor man, because to be truly human, I suppose, would necessitate being in communion with one's Creator -- and that doesn't work too well when you're trying to be Him.

With all that said, I don't understand God, and I never will. I read His book, and it's alive. More alive than I am. More real than I am. Only men moved (possessed?) by the Holy Spirit could write such a book.

To be literate, living in the 21st century, and to have a leather-bound Bible at one's fingertips is really a bit overwhelming. It's like playing with a Lion: it might lick you, it might make you feel safe, but it's never going to be your pet, because the reality is, it could devour you. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29).

The conclusion, then, is that God, while full of grace and truth (John 1:14), is often a source of destruction (and I say that in the most positive way). In the end, I've found He burns and devours everything that's not of Him -- it's the painful part of being conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).

It hurts. Like hell.

(I posted this on my solo blog a couple of days ago.)

My lovely wife told me that she had a dream last night and that she thought that it "meant something." I'm a pretty weak dream interpreter, so, sadly, I didn't really have any profound insight for her.

I do think, though, that God frequently speaks to people through dreams. For the past few years I've had "God dreams" on a semi-frequent basis. I can't quite put my finger on what makes a dream so obviously from Yahweh, as opposed to just a random Ronald-McDonald-walking-through-the-street type dream, but I do know that some dreams I have simply resonate with me, and I feel like I know that God is trying to tell me something.

A good friend of mine seems to be gifted in interpretation of dreams, so after a big dream I often call or email him to get his thoughts. Most of the time I think his interpretations are pretty much right on, but other times I've dismissed his thoughts in favor of something else I think God is trying to tell me. It's not an exact science.

What do you all think? Has God ever spoken to you all through dreams?

Once again I have the privilege this year of photographing my church's annual missions conference, World Mandate.

World Mandate, which is happening this coming weekend, convenes at the Ferrel Center in Waco every year. So if you're in the area, feel free to drop by. You might even meet your future spouse there (I met my wife at World Mandate in 1995 :-).

Continuing the tradition ...

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the blogosphere.

I'm pretty sure this is a sign of the parousia.

There's a famous (to U2 fans at least) line in U2's masterpiece, "One":

We get to carry each other
Carry each other

Bono & Co. feel frustrated when people hear the song and assume the lyrics are saying "We got to carry each other," rather than get, which, obviously, adds quite a difference to the meaning of the overall phrase.

Thinklings Junior Member and long-time commenter, Andrew Roberts, has a well-done review in The Baylor Lariat of a new book that encompasses so much more than Get vs. Got, though I'm sure the book touches on that subject as well. Check it out.

On his solo blog, Jared wrote a poignant post on the nature of duplicity. It's aptly titled, "Who You Are When No One's Looking Is Who You Are."

Here's a taste:

This week retired NFL quarterback Steve McNair, one of my family's favorite athletes, was found shot to death from an apparent murder-suicide with his twenty year-old drug addict girlfriend, whom he was cheating on his wife of 12 years with. Most everyone was shocked, including people like my wife who thought he was sweet and nice, especially after she ran into him at a local eatery once and he gave her a hug and spent a minute chatting with her.

His friends and teammates have been saying things like, "This wasn't Steve." They're talking about the "real" Steve, the Steve who did charity work and gave the fabled 110% on the football field, as if this Steve, the Steve who maintained an adulterous, drug-addled relationship, was not real, or at least, not really him, but just a mistake he made, as if adultery is something you trip into or catch like a cold.

But the Steve McNair we didn't see was the real Steve McNair. The one he showed us was not. Or at least, it wasn't the fullness of him.

And who I am in the moments when I know I don't have to perform for anybody, the who I am in my heart and mind, what I'm thinking and feeling and wanting to do and what I'm doing when I don't think anybody will find out -- that is me. The real me.

We are not good people who make mistakes, none of us. We are sinners, always. We are sinners who need to repent.
So long as we think of the grossest parts of ourselves as "not really us," we will fail to respond to and wonder in the gospel. Because if the real us is already okay, we need no rescue.

He's right. If you're a pr()n surfing husband, an adulterer, a thief, a liar, or a millionaire ex-quarterback with a double life, the real you is the person you are when no one is looking. The question to ask yourself is, what do you default to when no one is looking?

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Some relatively new friends of ours invited us over to their home for dinner Saturday night. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it. What was surprising to me, though, was that I think that was the first time in about a year and a half that we had been invited over to anyone's home.

My wife Brandi loves to be hospitable. She loves to cook, make the house ready for guests, roll out the proverbial red carpet, et cetera. Due to her inclination toward hospitality we've had people over to our home at least 30 times over the past year. And her bent toward hospitality makes the contrast all the more apparent to me. Are people just not hospitable anymore?

I think for a variety of reasons our family may unintentionally intimidate people into not inviting us over (for example, we have three kids and two of them have special diets). I can understand people's apprehension with specialized diets, but by now we're used to taking the kids' food with us wherever we go, so it's no big deal to us. That's all conjecture anyway. I really have no idea what the deal is, and maybe it's a variety of issues.

What I'm really wondering is whether in our busy, cloistered, independent, self-sufficient, private lifestyles, Americans -- and especially American Christians -- have lost site of what it means to be hospitable?

What's your experience with this sort of thing?

I've been so tied up lately I didn't have a chance to post my thoughts on David Copperfield's roadshow that my wife and I attended on Tuesday evening. In a word: awesome!

Probably the best illusion he did was "The Fan." In that illusion he walked into a moving fan, disappeared for a second or two, and then majestically reappeared on the floor in the middle of the audience. The trick was not unlike "The Transported Man" as showcased in The Prestige. Unbelievable.

He also did plenty of other cool things like making a car appear out of thin air, making an audience member's neck tie dance around and sing, and reading people's minds by guessing what numbers are in their heads. Oh, he also had a pretty cool duck that kept walking around the stage. At one point he magically transported the duck from a box to a bucket -- that was pretty cool.

He did "vanish" 13 members of the audience, but that illusion wasn't nearly as cool as some of his other illusions.

The show was definitely worth the time and money!

The master of modern magicians, David Copperfield, is bringing his road show, "An Intimate Evening Of Grand Illusion," to Waco, Texas tonight. Supposedly he's going to do things like make 13 members of the audience vanish and then reappear. Oh, pick me! Pick me! Pick me!

As an amateur conjurer, I can't express how giddy I am to see Copperfield tonight. I'm counting the seconds ...

In order to honor Billboy, I'm posting this so that we can knock all Bono discussion off the top of the Thinklings list.

Billboy, this is for you!

PALIN 2012!

I read a literary blog recently where the topic of conversation was whether or not one was truly called (presumably by God) to be a writer, or whether or not the supposed calling was simply a delusion of grandeur.

The conversation got me thinking about what exactly is the nature of a calling, and why we never hear anything about people being "called" to be garbage collectors, ditch diggers, or used car salesmen.

As everyone around here knows, a job is something that eats up a lot of your time, and if you work a typical 8 to 5 type job then the very best hours of your day are consumed by your profession. Surely, as believers, God has a calling for the average worker, whether that worker is the President of the free world or an immigrant working for peanuts. God has a calling, even if that calling is to merely live a peaceful and quiet life (1 Timothy 2:2).

Make no mistake, God uses people with incredible gifts to glorify His name, but He also uses people with gifts that are perhaps not recognized by the world at large: maids, waitresses, street sweepers, manual laborers, stay-at-home parents.

I remember hearing a missionary say that he was painting a house one day, praying to God and asking Him what mission field He wanted him to labor in next. "I'll go anywhere, and do anything for You," he told God. He said he felt like God responded: "Would you paint houses for me for the rest of your life?"

JESUS was a carpenter, but you never hear anyone claiming they are "called to be a carpenter." Maybe that should change.

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
-- Colossians 3:23 & 24

That was the online headline over at USA Today last night. Before heading off to bed, I emailed the publication and told them that there is no such thing as a four-dot ellipses. Some editor dude emailed me back, promising to take a look. By the time I woke up in the morning they had changed it to a three-dot ellipses.



*Update* Ancient Mariner told me I should have said "ellipsis" instead of "ellipses." I believe he's right.

I'll start out by saying that dressing up your kids like Sponge Bob, Spiderman, or a princess isn't a sin on October 31 or any other day of the year. I'll also add that walking door-to-door and asking for candy isn't a sin. If you're a believer, and you feel that you can celebrate October 31 in that way, then by all means knock yourself out and have fun.

The reason my family and I choose to not celebrate Halloween is simply because we believe, at least for us, it's not the best choice. As I've said before, I don't see how the celebration of fear, death, and horror would be anything that the average Christian would want to be involved with. (I know there are a lot of people out there who don't celebrate the holiday in that way, and that's great.)

One thing that's curious to me is that it seems that every time I read a defense of Christians celebrating Halloween, the author seems to be working off of a checklist:

- Did I set up a straw man by claiming that Christians who don't celebrate Halloween think it's sinful to dress up like a princess? CHECK!

- Did I set up another straw man by claiming that Christians who don't celebrate Halloween think eating candy on October 31 is a sin? CHECK!

- Did I mention how Halloween is fun and, therefore, by implication, innocuous? CHECK!

- Did I make sure to at least imply that Christians who don't celebrate Halloween can take my Halloween from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands? CHECK!

- Did I mention the word “fundamentalism” at least one time? CHECK!

The list goes on.

The sad thing is, I think pro-Halloween Christians react to a lack of grace and humility on the part of the anti-Halloween Christians, but I think often times those reactions turn into vicious cycles of hollow points and hollower counterpoints.

If you and your family like to dress up on Halloween and go door-to-door, or participate in a party, or whatever, then by all means do so, and I can only hope that you don't feel judged by people like me who choose not to celebrate the day in that way.

On the other hand, If you have faith to dress up like a vampire and watch horror movies all night, then go for it, but don't bother trying to convince me that doing so is the best way (or even an acceptable way) to glorify God on October 31, even if it's loads of “fun.”

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life itself. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us ...
-- 2 Corinthians 1:8-10

I shared Paul's astounding words to the Corinthians with someone this morning, and oh how they resonate with me.

I'm always comforted to know that the biblical writers were as human as I am. Peter cut off a guy's ear, denied JESUS three times, and still walked with God to the point of death. According to Christian history he was hung on a cross upside down because he did not believe he was worthy to die in the same manner as the Lord. Paul (who wrote the letters to the Corinthians) considered himself the chief of sinners, and flat out admitted his sinful struggles in Romans 7:19: "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice." At the end of it all, Paul said, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6 & 7).

I once heard John Piper exclaim -- "How I hate the prosperity gospel!" I hate it too, because it takes our eyes off of the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3), and it makes us think that the Christian life is the fast track to wealth, as if fiscal liquidity is the panacea for life.

The Gospel of Grace (Acts 20:24) is the true prosperity gospel, because it upends our "you get what you pay for" paradigm, and ushers us into the presence of the Son of God -- JESUS, who is the Christ. It takes sinners like me, and, despite my unbelief (Mark 9:24), gives me the riches of His glory and the pleasure of His presence, even when I despair of life itself.

Solus Christus.

[Also posted on my personal blog.]

The more you know the less you feel
Some pray for others steal
Blessings not just for the ones who kneel ... luckily
-- U2, "City of Blinding Lights"

Grace has been something that has fascinated me for probably the past two years or more. Beyond the unfathomable grace of the love of God in JESUS His Son, the most striking form of grace to me is what theologians call "common grace."

The reason that sort of grace is "common" is because it's common to all of humanity; it's common to the whole world. God restrains sin so we can live relatively normal lives; He gives us a beautiful universe to behold; He gives us talents to share; He gives us meaningless, but enjoyable, entertainment; He gives us deep, stirring books; soul-soothing music; and friends and family to enjoy life with.

And in this day, some 500 years or so after Gutenberg, He gives us Holy Scripture, cheap and accessible to millions of people. Before, oh, three years ago, I never really thought about the fact that for the first 1500 years or so of Christianity's existence, an accessible copy of the Bible was nonexistent to the average layman. It's no coincidence that the Reformation and the advent of mechanical printing (another common grace, I think) went nearly hand-in-hand.

The next time you breath the free air, read the Bible, or listen to Pachelbel's Canon, think about God and His common grace, because even His common grace is truly uncommon.

She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
-- U2, "Grace"