Douglas Bond on Poetry in Modern Reformation Magazine

Douglas Bond has an excellent article in the March/April 2010 issue of Modern Reformation magazine on the significance of poetry titled, "The Devil Hates Goose Quills: And Why It Matters to the Church." Unfortunately, it is not available online, so I will share a few of the quotes I appreciated most from the article.

Martin Luther, who said, "The Devil hates goose quills," insisted that in a reformation, "we need poets."

Martin Luther cared deeply about poetry, in the most vital way. But do most Christians today? Most accept the decline of poetry without a wimper, with barely a wafture of good riddance.

The devil likely applauds Christians who shrug indifferently as genuine poetry twitches into the abyss. Yet the Bible contains the finest poetry of the ancient world.

The devil abhors poets like [Martin] Luther and [Isaac] Watts, who used their goose quills to adorn the loveliness of Jesus.

"The highest form of poetry is the hymn," wrote [John Greenleaf] Whittier....

The devil hates goose quills, including ones wielded by able poets who train their pens to the highest use - crafting psalm-like hymns that lift the heart, mind, and imagination from our puny selves and enthrall us with Christ alone.

To read (and hear) some of Douglas Bond's hymns, click here.

Are You More Like Augustine or Jerome?

Here is an excerpt from Kim Riddlebarger's insightful article on what American Christians can learn from the different responses of Augustine and Jerome to the fall of Rome:

The reactions of Jerome and Augustine to the Fall of Rome reveal two distinct views of the relationship between things earthly and things heavenly. Augustine's response is particularly helpful in this regard. His response should remind American Christians that the progress of God's kingdom does not in any sense depend upon the wealth, technology, or military power of the United States. Like the Fall of Rome, a fall of the United States would be a horrible event. Much as it did for the citizens of Rome, our illustrious national history and our apparent military invincibility actually sets up American Christians to unwittingly confuse things earthly and things heavenly. If the first step down the slippery slope toward confusing the City of Man with the City of God is to equate the worldly successes of the American Republic with the blessing of God, then the second step comes easily - to equate the political, military, moral, and economic health of our nation in some sense with the kingdom of God. There are many who would weep at the fall of America, not only because of the nature of such a tragedy, but because they have confused the success of their nation with the progress of the kingdom of God. In this, they follow Jerome - the fall of America must mean defeat for the kingdom of God. Not true.

--Kim Riddlebarger, "Jerome, Augustine, and the Fall of Rome: An Object Lesson for American Christians," Modern Reformation (Nov/Dec 2009)

Our "Cocoonish" Condition

Here is an excerpt from Jason Stellman's recent article in Modern Reformation, which is an excellent reminder of our pilgrim status in this world:

Yes, the cosmos may groan, Paul argues, but "we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit" ache with an even greater frustration than both the non-believing human and sub-human created order. Or at least we should. The irony, however, is that the unbelieving world often displays, through its art and other media, an even greater frustration with earth than many believers exhibit. We of all people should recognize our provisional "cocoonish" condition; and yet the more we talk about redeeming culture and reclaiming America for Christ, the more one gets the impression that if we were actually given wings and bidden to fly, we would be disappointed to leave our cocoon behind untransformed. What does that say about where our true devotion lies?

As hesitant as we may be to admit it, when we compare contemporary evangelicalism's fixation with earth with contemporary paganism's frustration with it, the conclusion seems inescapable that - sometimes at least - the latter does a much better job of imaging the God they deny than the former does of imaging the One they confess.

--Jason Stellman, "The Destiny of the Species," Modern Reformation (Nov/Dec 2009). Stellman is also the author of Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and the Not Yet

Calvin on Christ as the Focal Point of the Whole Bible

Calvin believed that all of Scripture pointed to Christ - and, specifically, to Christ's death and resurrection for sinners: "Whenever we take the sacred books [of Scripture] into our hands, the blood of Christ ought to occur to our minds, as if the whole of its sacred instruction were written therewith" (Four Last Books of Moses III:320). In his Commentary on Corinthians, he wrote, "All the wisdom of believers is comprehended in the cross of Christ" (1:74). Further interpreting Paul, he adds, "There is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated, as is the gibbet on which Christ has subdued death and the devil" (Commentary on Philippians-Colossians, 191).

-- Taken from Michael Horton's article, "Is Calvin Still Relevant after 500 Years?", in the June/July 2009 issue of Modern Reformation

The Limits of the Law and the Alien Righteousness of the Gospel

This brief story by Eric Landry, executive editor of Modern Reformation, is an excellent example of how the Law can never save, in and of itself. Read it here.