For some reason many people struggle to understand and accept the traditional doctrine of limited atonement. Today I would like to show that people struggle with limited atonement because they have not studied mathematics. Why they fail to accept it is beyond my powers of psychoanalysis (or rather, lack thereof). So let’s instead focus on the mathematical illustration. Continue reading “Of Countable Infinities and Limited Atonement”
What to Do When You’re Learning Nothing from the Sermon
Unlike you, my dear reader, I am not perfect. And in my imperfection, I struggle greatly to have humility. As one excellent example of my lack of humility, I sometimes subconsciously assume that I know everything, which is a gross extrapolation of the fact that I know a lot of things. Having grown up in the church, I tend to be particularly familiar with the Bible and theology. I’ve heard countless sermons over the years. And some passages get preached a lot–the book of Philippians, various passages in Romans, Hebrews 11 and 12, 1 Thessalonians 4, anything in Ephesians, accounts of the crucifixion of Christ, etc. Just as necessity is the mother of invention, so too is abundance the progenitor of complacency, and familiarity the father of contempt. Having heard these passages before, I could probably give a fifteen minute sermon myself on many of these passages with no preparation. I am familiar with the doctrines contained therein. I struggle, therefore, when I hear yet another sermon with theology that I already know and passages I just heard preached last month. I struggle to humbly submit to God’s teaching through the preacher. I’d rather let my mind think about food or politics or gaming or girl(s) or literally anything but the sermon. You, my dear reader, are of course perfect and do not struggle as I do. I do not expect you to sympathize with what follows below, but I do hope you’ll at least be amused by my attempt to address my personal weaknesses. Continue reading “What to Do When You’re Learning Nothing from the Sermon”
Concerning the Fear of Man, Part VI: Jeremiah 17:1-10
You thought I’d forgotten this series didn’t you! But I don’t quit that easily. You can find the rest of the series I am slowly putting together in a delinquent and disorganized manner by clicking on the “Fear of Man Series” tag on this post. One day it may stand complete. Continue reading “Concerning the Fear of Man, Part VI: Jeremiah 17:1-10”
Jonathan Edwards on Antonin Scalia
On Saturday, after almost thirty years of public service on the high court, Justice Antonin Scalia passed away unexpectedly. Shortly thereafter, so called writers at Buzzfeed and various other worldly, secular outlets under the domain of the prince of the power of the air started gleefully dancing on his grave. The response from evangelicals has naturally been quite different. For example, Al Mohler proclaimed “A Giant has Fallen.” For the first time ever, I spent my Valentine’s Day more saddened by the death of a political figure than my own singleness. Continue reading “Jonathan Edwards on Antonin Scalia”
Perverting the Means of Grace
Here is one of the largest issues in the Christian life: How do you handle your personal sin? Or in one particular, how do you react when you fall? Do we attempt to make up for sin by subsequent good actions, for example Bible reading and confessional prayer? While it is quite clear that these actions do follow from a mourning of sin (1 John 1:9 essentially commands the believer to confess sins to God), in my mind I can confuse these actions as somehow atoning for my sin, somehow erasing and balancing out my past actions, somehow zeroing out debt owed to God. It is exactly this trap that the people of Judah fell into during the last years before the Babylonian captivity. Let us consider the historical record. Continue reading “Perverting the Means of Grace”
PSA: How to Read a Hymnal
I attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA (aka John MacArthur’s church). Recently, my church unveiled a new hymnal. I’ve met a great number of people who had never opened a hymnal before coming to Grace. There was one time I was having a conversation with a worship leader and mentioned that I sometimes followed the bass line of the four part harmony. When he said he’d never noticed more than two voices in a hymnal, we realized he’d never noticed that there was music written BELOW the words as well as above them. As a result, I figured I’d put together this guide to help understand hymnals. Continue reading “PSA: How to Read a Hymnal”
Why I Deleted Snapchat for 2016
Snapchat: Why I Decided To Delete It
Calvin Hu
Before you throw out all the reasons why I’m taking this way to seriously or that this doesn’t relate to you, let me tell you: I’m not asking you to delete Snapchat. Whether you intend to keep using it, to use it more, or to use it less, is up to you. But I’m giving you the reasons why I found it detrimental to my life and how it began to feed into my own selfish desires. Continue reading ” Why I Deleted Snapchat for 2016″
Starving Children in Africa Would Love your Brussel Sprouts, Johnny!
As many of you already know, I recently returned from spending three and a half months in Lilongwe, Malawi. Naturally people ask me lots of ill conceived questions. For example, “How was Malawi?” Hot. Malawi was hot. It still is, by the way. Thanks for asking. Oh, you meant how my time in Malawi was? Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Others may ask, “What was the most interesting thing you learned in Malawi?” Which is an interesting question, but it’s hard for anyone to really say, “This, THIS, is what I learned over the past four months that is absolutely important.” So I prefer the rephrase, “What did you learn in Malawi?” But this post isn’t about that question. This post is about the question, “What did you enjoy about going to Malawi?” Continue reading “Starving Children in Africa Would Love your Brussel Sprouts, Johnny!”
Is It a Sin to Skip Daily Bible Reading?
No. But I guess you want me to elaborate.
The idea for this post came in a small group I was co-leading. Trying to explain that idolatry does not require having a physical idol, I constructed a hypothetical situation in which a boy idolized getting into a grad school. When I asked, “Given how competitive it is to apply, what do you think he should do?” Many of them said things like, “Kill the other applicants!” I should have known better. I’ve never been a part of a small group that would not respond that way. Once it was clear that a better answer was, “Study really hard,” I started mentioning things that our boy would omit by idolizing studying. He wouldn’t go to church. He wouldn’t help his parents with household chores when asked. He didn’t have time for his friends, regardless of their needs. All because he was constantly studying. However, with each additional crime I listed, one guy (let’s call him Fitzgerald) in the group was unconvinced our boy was in sin. Instead of wasting time trying to explain why certain things were sinful, I just added other things to the list until I finally stumbled upon, “He doesn’t read his Bible, because he’s too busy studying.” Fitzgerald exclaimed, “Oh! That’s bad!” Which raises an interesting question: is it indeed a sin to skip Bible reading? Continue reading “Is It a Sin to Skip Daily Bible Reading?”
Towards a Biblical View of Cultural Appropriation
Over the past few years, the idea of cultural appropriation has gained unprecedented attention on social media and the blogosphere. I’ve read a lot about perceived crimes of white people taking elements form other cultures in a manner that some consider offensive. These days it’s not too uncommon to read articles like this one at The Atlantic. I could go into a number of reasons the “victimhood culture” described there is diametrically opposed to Christianity, but that would be off topic. The article, however, gave me a sufficiently alarming view of what people consider “cultural appropriation” (in this case use of a foreign language), that I thought the issue may need to be addressed. Continue reading “Towards a Biblical View of Cultural Appropriation”
Citizens & Sons 