More from Walton

In a relatively free and open society, the best forms of tolerance those that are open to and tolerant of people, even when there are strong disagreements with their ideas. … Today, however, tolerance in many Western societies increasingly focuses on ideas, not on people” (Carson in Gagging of God, p. 19, cited by Walton, Genesis, NIVAC, p. 242).

This is a knife that cuts both ways. For some, criticism of an idea is tantamount to criticizing the person who holds the idea. This seems to assume that people are equal with ideas, and that if a person holds an idea, we must treat both person and idea with equal respect. It fails to recognize that some ideas are stupid, or at best silly. The person should be treated with respect, but the idea should be properly criticized, and soundly rejected when it is bad. Those listening in must not mistake criticism of an idea with criticism of a person.

For others, acceptance of a person means acceptance of their ideas. For instance, reaching out in friendship to a person who participates in homosexual behavior is seen as accepting the idea of homosexuality. Again, this is a fail to separate the person from their ideas. We should not hesitate to reach out to those who differ with us, but nor we should be mistaken as agreeing with a bad idea simply because we reach to someone who holds it.

The fact is that we can defend certain beliefs without defaming or castigating those who have come to different conclusions with integrity. Failing to exercise the grace that we should naturally extend to fellow Christians, we have adopted a Reformation zeal concerning issues that come nowhere near the significance of the battles fought by Calvin and Luther, while we comfortably make our beds amidst the cultural landmines that are exploding all around us (p. 245).

This could easily be mistaken as a call for reductionism, or ecumenism. It should be neither. The fact that not all doctrines of Scripture are equally clear or equally core does not mean that they are unimportant, but it increases the possibility that good men can differ with legitimacy and integrity. We should not treat battles over church polity, for instance, with the same zeal that we would a battle over justification. In fact, it is probably overstepping the boundaries to call church polity a legitimate battle in evangelicalism.

Nor is it a call (from me) to tolerate false doctrine and impious living. There is much of both that deserves biblical critique and confrontation, and biblical separation.

The reality is that it can become to easy to focus on the intramural battles of sectarian theology while ignoring the fact that the world is blowing up around us, often while we participate right along with it. This, therefore, is call to discernment. Pick the right battles, and fight with the proper tactics for the opponent at hand.

Irony

In discussing the effects of sin in this world (in somewhat of a strange exegesis of Genesis 3:14-19, NIVAC), John Walton makes the following astute observation:

It is difficult to discern the logic behind the way society thinks about issues like partial birth abortion. When a high school student who has hidden her pregnancy suddenly and prematurely delivers her child, and in a panic of confusion, discards it in a dumpster, criminal charges are pursued, and news programs are filled with compassionate stories of how the baby’s life was saved. Not a mile away in the dumpster of an abortion clinic one can find the fragments of a child the same age torn piece by piece from the womb of an equally confused high school student by the forceps of a certified physician. And the same news reporters who were horrified by the first student’s actions support the claims to the rights of the second student and her doctor to exercise choice.

Only in the darkened and ignorant mind of self-professed wise men can such a dichotomy make any sense. One wonders how such a cognitive dissonance can be maintained by people who fancy themselves intelligent. And we are reminded yet again that sin is irrational. It makes no sense.

For these who support abortion, why would it be problematic for a woman to dispose of her newborn baby in a trash can? Does not she have the choice to do that? Why is it okay to do it in a doctor’s clinic but not in a high school bathroom? What happened in the span of a hand (the difference between a partial birth and a full birth) that changed the substance of the issue?

The smarter man has gotten in technological advances and sociological engineering, the more we have seen just how darkened and ignorant his sinful mind really is. He has exchanged the glory of God for the glory of creatures, considering the comfort and ease of certain humans to be more important than the pleasures of God in his creation, and more important than the comfort and ease of other humans. And so to make some humans happy, we kill others, and call it freedom of choice. And then we become calloused to it.

How eloquent the words of God on this matter truly are.

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

Professing to be wise, they became fools, (Romans 1:22)

More on Michigan/Florida and the BCS

Some voters on why they picked Florida over Michigan, from the Detroit Free Press (if anyone cares):

For three days, college football fans in Michigan have sliced and diced the final Bowl Championship Series rankings. Why didn't the Wolverines get their rematch with Ohio State? Why didn't Lloyd Carr campaign for his Wolverines? Who says Florida is better? What if Jim Tressel had voted? What if Earle Bruce hadn't? What if this bloc switched? What if, what if, what if ...

...

The Free Press tried to reach the Florida backers, specifically to find the voters who flipped. And now, in their own words, some who said they did ...

_________________

And with that, I will try to return to thinking about things that actually matter.

Why the BCS Got It Right ... This Year

2006 Big Ten Standings (from ESPN)
TEAM	CONF	OVERALL
Ohio State	8-0	12-0
Wisconsin	7-1	11-1
Michigan	7-1	11-1
Penn State	5-3	8-4
Purdue	5-3	8-5
Minnesota	3-5	6-6
Indiana	3-5	5-7
Iowa	2-6	6-6
Northwestern	2-6	4-8
Michigan State	1-7	4-8
Illinois	1-7	2-10

In college football, you cannot be the best team in the country if you are not the best team in your conference.

To add fuel to the fire, Florida won one more game, and won when it counted (on Saturday). Michigan did not (three Saturdays ago in Columbus).

The players have no one to blame but themselves. They lost. If Michigan had taken care of their business then, there would be no dispute. But in college football, there are no do-overs when you lose the last game of the season. You go to the Rose Bowl. To blame this on the BCS, or the coaches, or Jim Tressel for not voting, or anything else is cheap whining. The players had a chance to win and decided not to. They did not have what it took on that day to win. So take the blame and own your loss. And go play in the Rose Bowl against USC, and hope to win. If you lose that one, all the complaining you are doing now will seem even less well-founded.

And if there was ever a game that Michigan should have won, it was against OSU this year. They had the added "win one for the Gipper ... or the Bo" as it was. But they did not get it done, and that's the end of it.

But if you like Michigan, consider the upside: At least 2006 will not be the first year you lost to OSU twice in one year.

What Happened in the Garden? Part 1

The temptation in the Garden of Eden was a unique circumstance, but hardly a unique tactic. In fact, temptation works on us (and succeeds) today just as it did then. Consider this brief look at Satan’s tactic.

Satan turned freedom into a restriction. God said, “You may freely eat of all but one.” Satan said, “Did God really say, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Temptation often begins by focusing on the restrictions of godly living rather than on the freedom of godly living. He ultimately gave the first pronouncement that God’s revelation is subject to human consideration. Today, this is as common as the air we breathe. One of man’s most common sins is to subject the revelation of God to his own mind, in the demonstration of his belief in human autonomy: that man possesses the ability to render judgment on God’s revelation.

Having planted a question about God's word, Satan overtly attacked God. At its heart, every temptation is ultimately an attack on God and God’s way of living. Satan’s attack on God in the garden took two common tactics. In fact, every temptation can probably be categorized under one or both of these tactics.

1. Satan denied the truth of God. Where God said, “You shall surely die,” Satan said, “you shall not die.” It was for Eve (and Adam standing silently by) an issue of truthfulness. They had a choice to make about who was telling them the truth.

Every temptation ultimately brings a choice about whether or not God is telling us the truth about sin and its consequences. When we believe God, we say “No” to temptation. When we say “Yes” to temptation, it is an indication that we really do not believe God. It might be a lack of belief about the seriousness of the particular sin (or whether it is even sin). It might be a lack of belief about the consequences of sin. We have chosen to believe that God is not telling us the truth. We have, in effect, called God a liar.

2. Satan questioned the goodness of God. He told Eve, “God just does not want you to be like him.” He was accusing God of withholding from Eve (and Adam standing silently by) something that they needed to have their lives fulfilled. Satan was in effect telling Eve that God was trying to protect His turf, and prevent anyone else from being like God.

Every temptation ultimately illustrates our belief in the goodness of God. If we believe that God has given us everything we need to be everything he wants us to be, then we will say “No.” If we say “Yes,” it is because we believe that God has not given us something that it is our right to have, or something that we need to make our lives fulfilled.

We are long removed from the Garden, but sin still works the same. It deceives us into believing that God is lying, and that God is not good.

So guard yourself. Be wise in the face of temptation. Foresee the evil and avoid it. And believe God more than you believe yourself.