Yellow House News

God, in His mercy, desires all to be saved, but th...

2012-05-22T11:14:16.364-07:00

God, in His mercy, desires all to be saved, but that doesn't mean He wants to force His presence on those who hate Him. Perhaps hell is there as a kindness to those God-haters who can accept no other kindness from God but His absence.

I think you are right, that the wolf/man thing was...

2012-03-30T11:20:07.658-07:00

I think you are right, that the wolf/man thing was to show us that because we have the image of God in us, there is the innermost desire to not be wolf (wolf - allegorically meaning our proneness to sin, to be the opposite of what God commands).

I see a problem with that because the unregenerate man has no such thing, he is all wolf. Out of expedience, or guilt, or selfishness, or the desire to promote himself or others for a purpose other than to exalt God in the doing of it -- the unregenerate man may do things that appear to be a desire for holy things, but they are not.

As an image-bearer of God, the unregenerate man has ineradicable attributes that he shares with God and thereby is able to do such things as think rationally, make decisions, invent, create, produce aesthetically pleasing paintings, music, literature, discern between right and wrong, etc. But because he is totally depraved (all wolf), everyone of those attributes are tainted such that he cannot and will not exercise them to the glory of God.

Matt Mikalatos asked a similar question in a comme...

2012-03-30T11:00:45.359-07:00

Matt Mikalatos asked a similar question in a comment below. See my reply to that comment.

I've classified what is intended to be Christi...

2012-03-29T13:18:58.768-07:00

I've classified what is intended to be Christian fiction as either anemic or robust (http://oerkenleaves.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-2011-csff-blog-tour-day-3.html), depending on how consistent it is to the doctrines of grace. If the doctrines of grace are biblically sound as I believe they are, and if they are at the heart of what it means to be Christian as I also believe they are, then I can only qualify one's writing as Christian if they are in line with those doctrines. Sorry if that sounds too narrow, but the gospel is quite narrow.

That does not mean that there is no value at all in works that are anemically Christian. They can have other characteristics that are good -- the beauty and creativity of the work, for one, which reflects our creativity as (redeemed-and-know-what-it-means) image-bearers of God. They can portray truths about God that, though if examined more closely are actually implausible within a non-reformed theological framework, still confront the reader with that truth.

As to your pointed question about the test case authors, I would say that they are Christian but obviously fall somewhere within the anemic-robust range. By the way, I would place NLDC somewhere midway, (probably closer to the robust side), because of what seems to me is an erroneous, inaccurate view of man's depravity. I have no qualms with your writing, I think it's good, far better than what has come to be the standard in the last decade or so.

You asked for my thoughts on the image of God in t...

2012-03-28T22:32:20.771-07:00

You asked for my thoughts on the image of God in the unregenerate. The doctrine of the image of God in man is a wonderful, encouraging doctrine, and quite frankly, you hit the nail on the head (and in writing that I think is quite good, by the way):

“After that, the music filled the whole heart of the concert hall with a tapestry of beauty like I had never heard before. When the evening was over and the conductor returned continually to the front of the stage to receive still more applause, when our hands were raw and tired from playing a sort of music back to him and his orchestra, when he returned one too many times to the apron of the stage and bowed and smiled his superior smile, we forgave him, too, because what he had accomplished was not only some simultaneous reading of music but rather an organized reminder that we, yes, all of us, are made in the image of God. A man can take what is in his mind and scratch it out on paper, and others can fashion instruments, and still others sacrifice their lives to learn to bring pleasing sounds from these instruments. For two hours we remembered that we human beings can provide the faintest echo of the words ‘Let there be’ spoken many millenia ago.”

Beautiful!

Adam was made in God’s image and as such he behaved in a way that distinguished him from the brute beasts around him. God’s communicable attributes made him different; he was an intelligent, moral, knowledgeable, purposeful, and a free being. When he sinned and fell, the image was affected though not ‘eradicated’ (the appropriate term you used). What parts were affected and to what degree? That has been the subject of much debate, but I think the total depravity of man affects them all. As an example, man’s moral nature is evident through the law of God written on his heart as Paul teaches; but because of his fall, though this law teaches man what is right and wrong, he is powerless to keep it or keep it in a way that intends to glorify to God. By his intelligence he is creative and can produce works of beauty (another communicable attribute), but also create things that cater to our sinful lusts or are designed to abuse and deprive others. For the Christian, the transformation that comes through repentance and faith in Christ includes a transformation of the marred image into the image of Christ. Of all writers on earth, Christian writers ought to be the best, ever striving to be better, reflecting the creativity of God in their writing – not only in the tale but the mechanics of writing itself.

-TCB

“Also... I don't see any reason to remove the ...

2012-03-28T22:31:56.919-07:00

“Also... I don't see any reason to remove the language of choice when discussing the gospel or anything else related to our relationship with God, because that language is used in scripture constantly. Jesus doesn't come up to people in the gospels and say, "Repent and believe" more often than he says "follow me." And God and the prophets often tell people to "choose this day who you will serve."

This is a fair criticism of what I said regarding the gospel call as not a call to follow Jesus, but rather a call to repent and believe. I was remiss in not clarifying what I meant by ‘follow Jesus.’ Certainly Christ called many to follow him though he did so in the context of the call to repent, Mark 1:14-17; 2:17, for example. Jesus spoke of repentance more than he did of following him, but I would agree with you that the call to follow was a critical part of his preaching. But the following came as a result of the repentance and not the other way round. And it is that reversal – the call to follow before the call to repentance – that I had in mind. It is regrettably a call that avoids or neglects (for whatever reason) the necessity to first preach the bad news of our wickedness and offense against a Holy God whom we ought to love and obey with all of our hearts. The bad news is that we are God-haters, not God-lovers, that we don’t love his law as the psalmist does, but that we despise it. Because of that we are deservedly under God’s condemnation and displeasure. We need to repent and turn to the only one who can save us from our sin and sinfulness. Only then can we ever begin to take up our cross and follow Jesus. The gospel call is hard-hitting, and the call to follow Jesus today is too soft because it doesn’t get in the face of the sinner and tell him that he is precisely that, a God-hating, hell-deserving sinner who has the promise of God that if he repents, he will save him from his sins.

Now, I know you know this, but what I don’t get is why isn’t that what comes through in your book and in the messages that you give as a speaker.

Continued...

Matt, Thanks for your patience in my response. I’...

2012-03-28T22:31:00.002-07:00

Matt,

Thanks for your patience in my response. I’ll try to be succinctly thorough.

"I never said that the desire to be like God comes from Man or is part of his nature."

This signals to me that the impression I’ve taken away from your book may not be completely accurate. However, before I send any retractions to the press, without this statement, I find it difficult to believe otherwise. Various quotes taken together from your book give me the impression that you believe there is within sinful man something that wants to be different from the sinner that he is, that deep down inside he wants to be like God:

“There is this tiny, flickering light in the deep darkness, which tells me that all is not as it should be. That I could be something more than this, if only I could find the right path, if only I could find the right fuel for that flickering flame to make it more than a whispered candle’s breath.”
...
"None of use desire to remain wolves. All of us desire to remain wolves. It is the nature of the werewolf to be both man and wolf, and for many years I was satisfied – no, pleased – to be both man and wolf." (p 47)

“For those two hours we remembered that we need not be captives to our base selves, because by God’s grace there stirs a deeper desire to be like the one who made us.” (p 223)

In response to Robert’s conclusion that since we are totally depraved and made in God’s image at the same time, God must also be completely depraved, Matt responds:

“I don’t think so. It might mean that we’ve misunderstood what it means to be sinful. Or that we’ve emphasized it so much that we’ve simply lost sight of the fact that in our deepest, most horrific actions, some piece of us is still outside of that, some part of us is made in God’s image, and that’s not something we can ever completely eradicate.” (p 220)

This latter quote for me (in the context of the others) is one of the most alarming. I think it shows that for you 'what it means to be sinful,' is less than the absolute corruption of our natures such that we do not have it within ourselves to respond to the things of God and the call to repent and believe. It seems that for you, being made in the image of God means that there is something within that stirs us to desire to be like the one who made us, and if that is the case, then the Arminian view of prevenient grace is the view that you hold to. You believe that though grace is necessary to awaken us and enlighten us to our need of salvation, it does not guarantee faith and repentance on our part; we must cooperate and respond from a heart not made willing by God but of our own doing. And if that is so, it really comes down to me as to whether or not I believe, not God. God is left wringing his hands, hoping that having done his best, I will respond positively to his work of grace.

If I am missing your point in these quotes, and my conclusions are wrong, by all means tell me, and explain what you did mean by them.

Continued...

Thanks, Thomas. I look forward to it.

2012-03-28T19:25:59.680-07:00

Thanks, Thomas. I look forward to it.

Matt, Thanks for the comment. I'm indisposed ...

2012-03-28T04:28:24.401-07:00

Matt,

Thanks for the comment. I'm indisposed at the moment and can't give it the adequate consideration it deserves. As soon as I can, I'll do that.

-TCB

I'd like to understand, Thomas, why Reformed t...

2012-03-27T22:27:46.722-07:00

I'd like to understand, Thomas, why Reformed theology is the watershed here. Can someone have incorrect/different doctrine and still write Christian fiction?

So, just a few test cases:

Flannery O'Connor
Doestoevsky
John Bunyan

Are their works Christian or not?

Hey Thomas-- I don't want to get in a big deb...

2012-03-27T21:48:47.126-07:00

Hey Thomas--

I don't want to get in a big debate or anything, and if part of your point is that I'm not a five point Calvinist, then your point is, indeed, correct.

Prevenient grace is an orthodox Christian position, and while it is in (potential) conflict with (certain branches of) Calvinism, it's certainly within the realm of reasonable understanding of the Scripture. The Bible is clear that people only come to him when they are drawn. I have no quibble with that. Whether he draws only a few or many or all is less clear. I never said that the desire to be like God comes from Man or is part of his nature.

Also... I don't see any reason to remove the language of choice when discussing the gospel or anything else related to our relationship with God, because that language is used in scripture constantly. Jesus doesn't come up to people in the gospels and say, "Repent and believe" more often than he says "follow me." And God and the prophets often tell people to "choose this day who you will serve."

I know you believe in human free will, also, but that we would define it differently. I believe in human depravity, predestination and the gospel, just as you do.

I appreciate your thoughts. I wonder if you could tell me a little more about your idea of what the image of God is and how that functions in non-regenerate people. I'd be interested to hear your point of view on that.

So how do you feel about the conclusion that we al...

2012-03-27T20:11:00.935-07:00

So how do you feel about the conclusion that we all (even Hitler) have a spark of God in us, being made in God's image? I thought that's what the wolf/man thing was more about.

Nissa, If the doctrines of Grace are a correct an...

2012-03-27T19:10:52.824-07:00

Nissa,

If the doctrines of Grace are a correct and therefore biblical understanding of God's revelation to us, then what do you think my answer is? What else can it be?

However, in spite of one's theology, there can be aspects of one's novel that do shine through and the truth is seen. But it is my opinion that the further one strays from the doctrines of grace, the greater the likelihood that one will contort not only the gospel in particular, but the whole spectrum of sound, biblical theology.

Let me add that any writer who is a bona fide Christian - whether Anglican, Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Dispensational, Lutheran, et. al. - ought to put every ounce of his God-given talent in producing the best work of literature possible, regardless of any Christian content or not. The labor of writing and producing a work of literary art reflects the image of God in us and becomes a tribute to the beauty of God and thereby brings glory to God - which, hopefully, for each of us is the root reason why we write in the first place.

-TCB

Rebecca, I quoted those lines from Luther precise...

2012-03-27T18:52:47.038-07:00

Rebecca,

I quoted those lines from Luther precisely for the reasons you say, to show that this wolf is not a Christian and that spiritual things are foolish to him because they cannot be understood by him. He is dead in trespasses and sins.

Again, the intent of the quote was to prove unequivocally that Luther was not even a backslidden Christian who was desirous of repentance. I quoted it to show that it is incompatible with the notion that somewhere in this spiritually dead, unable-to- comprehend-the-'foolish'-things-of-God wolf, there lies a desire to be both man and wolf. To want to be both man and wolf is a contradiction - the wolf only wants to be a wolf and Matt's wolf is not like that at all.

"None of us desire to remain wolves. All of us desire to remain wolves."

For the unbeliever that simply is not true. We are all born wolves and delight in our wolfness; we by nature don't want to be anything but a wolf. Only until God's Spirit enlightens us to our wolfish condition does any of us even begin to realize what a horrible creature we are.

I agree that the wolf must be killed and that comes as we submint to Christ. But who wants to submit to Christ? What man or woman ever born into this world ever submitted to Christ of their own doing? The call to submission to Christ is not the gospel call. The gospel call is to repent and believe which comes out of a Spirit-wrought devastating humbling before God - the sinner before the Almighty - broken in heart because of his sin, offering absolutely nothing to God and trusting only in God to save him from his sin. Not until then will there be any willingness to submit and follow.

-TCB

Thomas, I'd quibble with your understanding of...

2012-03-27T10:32:50.973-07:00

Thomas, I'd quibble with your understanding of Matt's werewolf. He isn't suggesting that Luther was somehow OK part of the time. Rather, I saw his condition precisely like all of ours--made in God's image, but marred. We can't become "human" until the wolf (or robot or zombie or mummy or whatever) is killed and that only comes as we submit to Christ.

The lines you quoted from Luther are exactly what a non-Christian would think--the exact opposite of the truth. Quoting him at that point in no way supports your view of wrong doctrine because that's the view of one who sees these doctrines--sees Christ, actually--as a stumbling block.

I don't do "TULIP," but I do believe what Scripture says--which certainly includes the teaching that we all have the nature of Adam, a "futile way of life inherited from [our] forefathers" (1 Peter 1:18). I found Night of the Living Dead Christian to be consistent with what Scripture says about our sin nature.

Becky

So by your definition, no fiction by a Catholic au...

2012-03-27T07:19:14.736-07:00

So by your definition, no fiction by a Catholic author--- or other Christian author from a non-Reformed background--- can qualify as Christian?

That would mean that even the Chronicles of Narnia wouldn't qualify as C. S. Lewis was an Anglican with Catholic tendencies rather than being in one of the Reformed churches.

Thomas, I share your concern that people often mis...

2012-03-26T21:47:00.817-07:00

Thomas, I share your concern that people often miss the serious point in episodes of Spongebob Squarepants. :)

I am VERY curious to hear why you think the werewolf in the story doesn't represent someone who is dead and an enemy of God. And also curious to hear your thoughts on the theology in the book. Looking forward to it!

I think humor can be an incredibly effective tool-...

2012-03-26T19:20:16.022-07:00

I think humor can be an incredibly effective tool--I can't speak for this book so much, but I read quite a few reviews of "My Imaginary Jesus" from people who thought it was hilarious (the humor wasn't my cup of tea). Even at least one agnostic/ex-Christian kept reading because he found it so hilarious. Humor can let you get into places where you otherwise wouldn't be able to reach.

But humor can have trouble reaching a broad audience. If the reader doesn't find the story funny then it doubly detracts. Like that person who's always telling jokes that he or she thinks are funny, but aren't.

Believe me, I know the problem. I'm often that person telling the not-funny jokes!

Alex is also my favorite character. I think he mig...

2012-02-23T06:10:48.213-08:00

Alex is also my favorite character. I think he might be the driving force in the next volume. I hope we go back to Elfland. I agree that Lawhead made the right choice to compare and contrast the two stories about Daniel and Freya. The narratives of "earlier" and "now" complement and inform each other.

Great post, Thomas. While I liked the segment in E...

2012-02-22T12:43:05.012-08:00

Great post, Thomas. While I liked the segment in Elfland the best, it also was perhaps the most disturbing because of what happened. I'm glad you highlighted this conversation. I think it might be central to what will transpire in the next installments.

Becky

Thanks for reading! Yes, the scene is almost incid...

2012-02-21T17:41:05.813-08:00

Thanks for reading! Yes, the scene is almost incidental to the story, yet accentuates the principle not to lightly consider the import of each character, event, or circumstance, no matter how innocuous it may appear.

Interesting post. I had forgotten about that scen...

2012-02-21T14:39:20.475-08:00

Interesting post. I had forgotten about that scene with Freya until you mentioned it.

"This places a great responsibility on the Christian writer to ensure that the story-world he creates (reflecting his Creator’s image in doing so) does not by negligence promote a non-Christian, pagan perspective of reality."

What a great observation! Writing fantasy is both a great privilege and a responsibility.

Yes, Daniel in Elfland was delightful, and perhaps...

2012-02-20T23:58:43.139-08:00

Yes, Daniel in Elfland was delightful, and perhaps reminiscent of a more mature level of The Chronicles of Narnia. It also lends weight, I think, to the contention that the story might have done just as well if Mr. Lawhead had developed that world predominantly. Imagine what other tantalizing episodes there may have been!

Interesting to read your reaction to the book, Tom...

2012-02-20T17:55:19.115-08:00

Interesting to read your reaction to the book, Tom. I think I liked Daniel in Elfland the best. Someone else thought it was a little slow there, and maybe that's true, but it reminded me a lot of C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet at that point.

I hadn't thought about different writing styles for the different parts. I'll have to take a closer look at that.

Becky

You succinctly put into words what I felt about Th...

2011-10-29T13:23:00.599-07:00

You succinctly put into words what I felt about The Bone House. Really good book, but where is it going with God? I thought it was a 3 book series (my error), so when I wrote this post, I wrote it from the perspective that we were 2/3 through the series.

There was a quote from The Skin Map that has me cautious about this series and where it might be going (http://morganlbusse.com/2010/11/03/csff-blog-tour-the-skin-map-day-3/). Then again, the way Stephen twists and turns with this story, I don't think I'll have my answer until book 5 :)