…we call this communism.

Hillary touts shared prosperity.

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mattb

Well, you have to hand it to the Russians this time.  After Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, called gay pride parades satanic acts and placed a ban on them, a group of homosexuals decided to protest the ban and present a petition to lift it. 

The result was not pleasant for the homosexuals.  A group of angry nationalists and “extreme” Russian Orthodox Christians threw eggs at and eventually attacked them.  The police department’s response?  Arrest the homosexuals.

This is a re-post originally posted on my previous blog…I felt inspired to repost it after reading the following quote from Douglas Wilson in his book Federal Husband (pg. 50):

“A godly form of subordination exists in the world God made in the subordination of a wife to her husband.  This is why it is fully appropriate for a godly woman to have earrings (Eze 16:12) or culture permitting, nose rings (Gen 24:30; Eze 16:12; Exo 35:22).  But restraint is placed upon us even here, for Christian women are free women, submitting only to their husbands, so they should not drape themselves in chains.   Their point in jewelry should be to seek to make themselves attractive to their husbands and to do so with all modesty (1Ti 2:8-10).”

Here is my original post, and while I didn’t cover the passage in Eze 16:12, it is quite relevant and even more forceful an argument for nose rings.

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mattb

A Proper Perception of Piercings

Too often, when we approach the goings-on of society, we pass judgment on people and then communicate said judgment in a way that makes it sound as if our judgment is the very Word of God.  A simple example of this is our seeing the plethora of modern translations, then passing judgment that so many new translations cannot be any good, then communicating that judgment in a way that sounds as if the only true Bible ever written was the King James Authorized Version of 1611.

Another example of this, one that deals directly with the topic of this post, is the judgment one passes on piercings.  We see folks who are pierced all over the face and body and pass judgment that such things are wicked and this is proven because just look at the people who have such piercings!  Before we pass our opinions about piercings off as Scripture, we ought to actually consider what the Scriptures say.

Most obvious are two passages that mention rings.  The first is in Genesis and the other in Exodus.  In Genesis 24, Abraham sends his servant to his homeland in order to find a wife for Isaac.  The servant goes bearing gifts (a ring and two bracelets) and gives them to Rebekah.  The giving of those gifts is what brings Rebekah back to Isaac.  The second, in Exodus 35, shows the people of Israel giving gifts in order to support the construction and decorating of the Tabernacle.

Now, to make the point here, the word for ring is nezem and is translated as ring in the ESV, as earring in the KJV, and as nose ring in the NKJV.  It is very likely that nezem includes all of those, not just one or the other.  However, how is it used in the above passages?  The reason that this is important is because many who would pass judgment on and condemn nose rings will have not just one but sometimes many earrings.  So it must be seen that the word can be translated nose ring, and in the Genesis 24 passage should be.

First, nezem is found in the singular in Genesis 24:22, ”…the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets for her arms…”  I don’t know all of the cultural practices of those living in Ur in those days, but it just seems odd to me to give a woman just one earring.

Second, Abraham’s servant placed the nezem on her ‘aph.  The venerable King James translators translated this as he placed the earring on her face.  However, the Hebrew word for face is panim, an ‘aph is a nose (just as the NIV, ESV, and NKJV translators understood)!  So Abraham’s servant placed the ring in her nose.  We cannot limit the understanding to an earring.

Turning to Exodus now, the word is nezem but there is no context to tell as to what body part these rings have been removed from.  However, since nezem can mean either, the NKJV translators most accurately convey the sense in translating it as their “earrings and nose rings”.  This is because the term is probably inclusive of both earrings and nose rings, as stated above, and so the women probably took the rings from both their noses and their ears.

Therefore, to pass judgment on those who are pierced and to communicate it in a way that we sound as if piercings themselves are inherently evil or unscriptural is in itself unscriptural!  Let us judge those people based on their faith and their deeds, not their appearance.

Douglas Wilson, from a 2001 ACCS Conference (with whom I am in agreement):

Why I Oppose Miller Lite - Douglas Wilson

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mattb

James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

To visit the fatherless in their affliction…

Perspectives on Foster Care

Foster Care Month

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mattb

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Some say that the knowledge of good and evil (KGE) was something imparted to Adam and Eve when they ate of the fruit.  This KGE simply identified for them what sin is.  Others will disagree.  First, one must wonder what Adam and Eve understood about the positive (go and have dominion, fill the earth) and negative (do not eat of the tree of KGE) commands given to them.  Certainly they must have understood that to do or not do these things would have been sin!  Alas, the Bible should answer our question.

Deuteronomy 1:39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

Did these little ones not know what sin was or were they unable to distinguish the good or evil of their parents’ actions?

2 Samuel 19:35 I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord the king?

Here again, what is Barzillai incapable of?

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

On this passage, the Geneva translators make this note:

Their senses exercised:  All their power by which they understand and judge.

Which is seen in the use of this phrase (KGE) when applied to Solomon:

1 Kings 3:9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

So then, this is not just the simple knowledge of what sin is, but rather the ability and right to discern, to judge between the two.  Man is to grow (exercise the senses) that they may be like God in judging between the two. 

Psalms 82:1-8 A Psalm of Asaph. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. 3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. 6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

James B. Jordan touches on this further:

1. Adam and Eve were created physically mature, but infants in wisdom. That is why the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden to them. This tree bestowed an investiture with rulership and judgeship, and they were not ready for it. When they seized the fruit, they seized the robe of the elder and judge, a heavy robe that crushed them. For more information on this subject, see my essay, “The Dominion Trap,” in Biblical Horizons No. 15. Also consider the following passages: 2 Samuel 14;17, 20; 2 Samuel 19:27; 1 Kings 3:9; Deuteronomy 1:39; 2 Samuel 19:35; which show that the phrase “knowledge of good and evil” means the ability and right to pass judgment.

We fall short when we see KGE as simply the knowledge of what sin is.  When we recognize it as being the ability and right to discern or judge, then we recognize it as something Adam and Eve would have had.  However, it was something they would have had when they realized a need for it (like Adam not getting Eve until he recognized a need for her).  Then they would have asked for it as Solomon did, and would have trained for it as we should (Heb 5:14).  Thus, an understanding of what KGE means ought to motivate us in the labor we perform to advance the Kingdom of God.

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mattb

“…[T]hanksgiving sanctifies–everything that God created is good, and it may all be received with thanksgiving (1Ti 4:4-5).  The one who cannot do this is actually being chastised.  We are to give thanks for all things, so this includes our trials (Eph 5:20).  The blessings and curses that come to us are therefore not a puzzle to be solved, but rather a gift to be received in all humility and thanksgiving.”

(Douglas Wilson, “Reformed” is Not Enough, pg. 160.)

The curse, or in some cases chastisement, is not a puzzle to be solved–What did I do now, what must I fix to get this right?–but rather something to be received in humility and thanksgiving.  Wow, what a necessary reminder!

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mattb

Only one more left, here’s Part 5.

Instead of adding a short observation on Hitchens thus far, I’ll just quote Doug Wilson:

“I have posed this question [What is the warrant for distinguishing between moral and immoral?] to you from every point of the compass and have not yet received anything that approaches the semblance of an answer. On this question I am tempted to quote Wyatt Earp from the film Tombstone—“You gonna do something or just stand there and bleed?”—but I think I’ll pass.”

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mattb

Or lack thereof.

R. Scott Clark has a post regarding what the Federal Vision looks like from across the Tiber, quoting it as if it were accurate is hardly a display of academic honesty.  Take for instance:

“As the critics of the FV have been saying for years, Marshall concludes:

“It is not a surprise then that Federal Visionists believe that justification is best understood as ‘union with Christ’ and not as the imputation of righteousness in a strict merit/demerit transaction. Very biblical and very Catholic.”

May I ask, where have the critics of the FV been saying that FVers are heading straight for Rome because “they (like Rome) reject the idea of a strict merit/demerit transaction?”  Where have the critics of the FV ever conceded that Rome stresses union with Christ over and against the idea of merit/demerit?

Either I am mistaken–please correct me if I am–or this is a case of academic dishonesty.  He has clearly quoted this Catholic observer as someone whose observations FV critics are in agreement with.

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mattb

I too am guilty.

(HT:  George Grant)

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mattb