Mary Horning is speaking!
A panel of mothers speaking!
You will be encouraged!
First of all, I’ve found a link for free access to The Journal of Religion, Disability and Health! I don’t know if this is a new development or if I just missed it in the past. As I have written before, having easy access increases the opportunity for us to reason together, even when we disagree.
In the January edition, Dr. John Poirier of Kingswell Theological Seminary presented “Another Look at the ‘Man Born Blind’ in John 9.” Dr. Poirier asserts that a change in punctuation could change the meaning of the verse.
Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to read this argument based solely on the merits of his argument about punctuation. While I believe he has affections for God and his word, and that he wants to provide a helpful way to read the scriptures, he demonstrates a clear bias on how he thinks about God and God’s sovereignty:
The old punctuation presents us with the monstrous thesis that God struck a man with disability from birth just for the sake of allowing Jesus to make a public display of God’s healing power at an obscenely later time in his life. Although we should not suppose that the writer of the Fourth Gospel shares our modern sensibilities, we should, I think, extend the benefit of a doubt when a particular reading makes God out to be so capricious. (Poirier, “Another Look at the ‘Man Born Blind’ in John 9“, Journal of Religion, Disability and Health, January 2010, v. 14, p. 62.)
Monstrous? Obscenely? Capricious? If you are familiar with my story, those are all words I have thought myself about God – before God revealed himself to me and my standing before him without Jesus. These words reflect a man-centered, experiential view of God’s word rather than how God presents himself.
Using the Bible alone, we can reasonably ask why Dr. Poirier would use the words ‘monstrous,’ ‘obscenely,’ and ‘capricious’ so freely in the space of only two sentences.
First, from Paul and Isaiah on God’s sovereignty over his creation:
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Romans 9:20-21
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
Second, on the specific issue of God’s creating human beings, God takes credit for who and how he creates them:
Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Exodus 4:11
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
Third, earlier in the book of John we see God giving Jesus all authority over everything made:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5
So, it becomes difficult to take the rest of Dr. Poirier’s argument seriously when he simply dismisses God’s word based only on how he (and he assumes we) view what is right and just in the world. Why should we even care how one verse is punctuated if the rest of the Bible can be so easily ignored?
Of course disability is hard. Anyone experiencing disability knows that.
But God brings glory to his name all the time through very hard things.
Like the obedient life, death and resurrection of his own son:
From all these prophecies, we know that God foresaw and did not prevent and therefore included in his plan that his Son would be rejected, hated, abandoned, betrayed, denied, condemned, spit upon, flogged, mocked, pierced, and killed. All these were explicitly in God’s mind before they actually happened as things that he planned would happen to Jesus. These things did not just happen. They were foretold in God’s word. God knew they would happen and could have planned to stop them, but didn’t. So they hap- pened according to his sovereign will. His plan.
And all of them were evil. They were sin. It is surpassingly sinful to reject, hate, abandon, betray, deny, condemn, spit upon, flog, mock, pierce, and kill the morally perfect, infinitely worthy, divine Son of God. And yet the Bible is explicit and clear that God himself planned these things. This is explicit not only in all the prophetic texts we have seen, but also in passages that say even more plainly that God ordained that these things come to pass. (Piper, Spectacular Sins, pp. 102-103)
This act of murdering the sinless son of God, the most heinous crime ever committed in all of history, was part of God’s spectacular plan to bring greater glory to his name and fulfill the righteous requirement of the law on behalf of those who do not deserve forgiveness, could never earn it, and would rightly be judged for eternity for every offense made against our perfect, holy and righteous God.
No, God is not monstrous, though some things are hard for us to comprehend. We should be far more amazed that God is so patient with US rather than that he created one man to live with a disability for a few decades.
More later.
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There are too many examples of theologians and pastors misusing the Bible as they talk about God and disability, making God into a small, controllable ‘force’ rather than the awesome creator and sustainer of the universe that he is.
But even the ones who identify God as sovereign and have deep regard for God’s word occasionally get it wrong.
For example, Matthew Henry, in his commentary on John 9, includes this statement about one of the benefits of Jesus healing the man born blind:
The cure of this blind man was a kindness to the public,enabling him to work for his living who before was a charge and burden to the neighbourhood. It is noble, and generous, and Christ-like, to be willing to serve the public, even when we are slighted and disobliged by them, or think ourselves so.
First of all, there is nothing in the account about Jesus doing this for the benefit of the community. The point was ‘that the works of God might be displayed in him’ (John 9:3).
Secondly, the man born blind in this accounting is a man who is articulate, bold and logical. He was a ‘burden’ not because he wasn’t capable of learning and applying a skill; he wasn’t allowed to learn a trade because of his blindness. In this case, the community created its own burden based on how it looked at disability. Matthew Henry got it almost entirely backwards in this statement.
Martin Luther takes that to an entirely different level when writing about a boy he observed in Dessau. From the description, this boy had significant disabilities – but Luther identified this boy as a changling, or a being Satan has placed in what otherwise would have been a ‘normal’ child. That is just one of many possible definitions of changeling; regardless, a changeling was considered something other than or less than human. Upon identifying this boy as a changeling, Luther is reported to have written:
So I said to the Prince of Anhalt: “If I were the Prince, I should take the child to the Moldau River whichflows near Dessau and drown him.”
Obviously, if you have read this blog for any time, we take the murder of people with disabilities very seriously. And that is exactly what Luther is advocating.
So why do I (mostly) give Matthew Henry and Martin Luther a ‘pass’ on these statements?
First, the entire body of their work demonstrates a dependency on God, belief in the scriptures as God’s word, and desire for people to know and trust this God as sovereign. Luther, in particular, is problematic on other issues as well. But his essay, On Christian Freedom, is remarkable in what it says about God, freedom, and serving the neighbor. Plus, he may not have actually written that statement above; there is some dispute about it, though it is frequently quoted and attributed to him.
Second, the Bible alone is the inspired word of God. Both men are brilliant, but their writings are not of equal value to scripture.
Third, it says something important to me about how easily culture and experience can become the framework for interpreting a situation, rather than God and his word. Both of these men were soaked in scripture in ways I can only imagine – yet Matthew Henry let that sentence about ‘burden’ slip into his commentary (rather than 1 Corinthians 12:22). And Luther seems to have forgotten Exodus 4:11, Psalm 139, the entire book of Job and John 9, among others, in talking about a changeling (if he wrote it at all).
I makes me wonder, how frequently do I let my culture and experience shape my thoughts and writings, rather than scripture? I expect more frequently than I would guess.
And it is another warning to me that when confronting bad, illogical or evil arguments, the emphasis should be on addressing the argument and not making final judgments about the people making the argument. God alone knows the heart and what he has planned for the future of that person. After all, we are all entirely evil without Jesus calling us out of darkness and the Spirit helping us.
But, if I read something where the writer has no affections for God, finds the Bible unreliable, or advocates something entirely contrary to the Word, that needs to be addressed as well. This standard feels like a very fine line in which I could err in either direction!
I know I will be putting that standard for myself to the test in the coming days, as there is a ‘new’ argument about the interpretation of John 9 that I would like to address.
Posted in Book Commentary, commentary, Scripture | 3 Comments »
If you haven’t already seen this post on Justin Taylor’s blog, One Year Later: An Interview with Matt Chandler, please take a few minutes to do so.
Here is an excerpt:
I’m not sure how men and women without a strong view of God’s sovereignty and authority over all things handle things like this.
There were at least 3 meetings with my doctors early on where I felt like I got punched in the soul. In those moments when I was discombobulated and things felt like they were spinning out of control, my theology and the Spirit were there to remind me that “He is good and He does good”—to remind me that God has a plan for His glory and my joy that He is working. I was reminded that this cancer wasn’t punitive but somehow redemptive (Romans 8).
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Greg threw in a couple of bonuses at the end of his book, Wrestling with an Angel, from two of the greats in church history: Matthew Henry on John 9 and John Newton on suffering (Lucas, pp. 100-108).
Consider in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on John 9:1-3 how Matthew Henry shows the sovereignty of God and the mystery of God in just a few sentences, but always pointed to God’s glory and God’s free ability to do whatever God intends to do:
He was born blind that our Lord Jesus might have the honour of curing him, and might therein prove himself sent of God to be the true light to the world. Thus the fall of man was permitted, and the blindness that followed it, that the works of God might be manifest in opening the eyes of the blind. It was now a great while since this man was born blind, and yet it never appeared till now why he was so. Note, The intentions of Providence commonly do not appear till a great while after the event, perhaps many years after. The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, and you must read a great way before you can apprehend the sense of them.
Most of the time we do not know what God is doing. But we can know, with absolute certainty, that God is doing it for the purpose of making his name great and for the good of those he has called. And in that we can be anchored with hope in future grace:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Posted in Book Commentary, Quotes, Scripture | Leave a Comment »
On this Reformation Day, celebrating Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses, I found this word on marriage and parenting from the great Reformer. Please notice two things in these two paragraphs: the arguments from ‘natural reason’ that Luther is addressing on suffering and pleasure are exactly the ones we hear today; and, he is writing about (and to) fathers!
Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? O you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful, carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.”
What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “0 God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? O how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.”
From Martin Luther. The Estate of Marriage, 1522. (Translated by Walther I. Brandt)
Some of us are called to deal with soiled diapers for a few years – and some for a lifetime. Some are called to care for a child for 18 years – and some for a lifetime. Martin Luther was right in this respect: we men are not worthy. Nor are we smart enough or strong enough or righteous enough to be given this responsibility.
Except for God who gives us strength!
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27
O, what a happy reality of life in Jesus! Happy Reformation Day!
Posted in commentary, Special Events | 1 Comment »
Here in the United States there’s an election happening next week.
During these times I’m very grateful God wrote to us about his sovereignty over leaders:
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1
Voting is one of those confounding things in my life. The stakes, on the one hand, are very high as decisions our elected officials make have an impact on issues of direct consequence to those of us dealing with disability – healthcare, access to education, and parental rights just to name a few.
And there are the issues of literal life and death importance: abortion, infanticide, ‘mercy killing’ and ‘death with dignity.’
On the other hand, in light of eternity, every leader today will someday – soon – just be a footnote in a history book and every decision will have been changed, added to or discarded.
So, I would encourage you to pray, research and vote – and then trust God over all of it! If God gives us Wednesday morning, no matter how our candidates fared on Tuesday, he will still be sovereign over everything.
Tim Tomlinson, President of Bethlehem College and Seminary, writes a weekly prayer email and always includes a meditation, reflection or devotion. I found his thoughts this week on the election helpful (you can subscribe to the BCS prayer email here):
Next week the biennial election is upon us. As is usually the case, there is much at stake in this election at all levels of government. As I drive by the hordes of yard signs and billboards, I’m struck by several impulses. First, aside from the higher profile candidates and offices, I don’t really know much about many of the names I’ll see on the ballot on Tuesday–judges, mayors, city council members, county commissioners, etc. Second, I must fight the tendency to despair about the outcome of the election. Third, does it make any difference at all in the long run what I do? Fourth, should a Christian even be concerned about such things?
The first impulse is real, and a challenge to overcome. Even in the Internet era, finding the kind of information which might be helpful (candidates’ stand on key issues–especially local level candidates) is still difficult, as many political candidates have learned the fine art of being vague on controversial issues. However, interest group sites (National Right to Life, etc.) can often be helpful.
The second impulse is harder to overcome because its cause is my momentary lack of faith in the sovereign God of the universe. I need to remind myself regularly that Jesus Christ is the one who holds all authority in his hands.
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).
The third impulse is like the second, only more subtle. The answer, of course, is that it does make a difference what I do. The outcome of any given election may not be the one I hoped and voted for, but my participation may affect an election–especially at the local level.
The fourth impulse is clearer, but Christians are divided over this nonetheless. We know that the outcome of an election isn’t going to alter God’s plan for the culmination of history; that isn’t our business–it’s his alone. Instead, we are called to be faithful members, citizens, and participants in this temporary home we call life on earth. This is part of what it means to be in the world, but not of the world. We know the ultimate outcome of all things is in the Lord’s hands. In the meantime, we must be faithful witnesses–even through our voting in elections–to the glory, worth, beauty, and righteousness of Christ Jesus.
May we all put our faith in the sovereign God of the universe, and be at peace in this world.
Amen, Tim. Thanks for the good word.
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If you are anywhere near the Twin Cities in mid-November (and are a mom), please plan on attending a special event at Grace Church Eden Prairie.
Bethlehem’s own Mary Horning will be speaking on “Healing Through the Journey” and then participating in a special panel discussion with other mothers.
If a Horning (Mary, Bob or Krista) is speaking, I recommend it!
Special Mom’s Retreat
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Keynote speaker: Mary Horning, co-author of Just the Way I Am: God’s Good Design in Disability
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (lunch included)
Cost: $5.00 To register or for further information, contact Sue Hume at shume@q.com or 952-470-6181.
The registration deadline is November 5.
I know Mary would appreciate our prayers as she prepares for this event.
The Barnabas Disability Ministry at Grace Church is one of the best around. Every one of their volunteers I’ve met (most of whom have a family member with a disability) loves Jesus, loves the families involved in their program, and want to proclaim the goodness of God. I’m grateful for their friendship to Bethlehem, and for their making possible this opportunity for Mary to share her story of God’s sovereign goodness in her life through much difficulty and suffering.
Posted in News, Special Events | 1 Comment »
Tim Challies and David Murray conducted a great interview with Greg Lucas, author of Wrestling with an Angel, yesterday. It was the fastest 24 minutes of my day!
There is an incredible story he shares at about the 17:50 point of the interview – if you only have a three minutes, start there and be blown away by God’s mercy.
But, if you can, listen to the whole thing and be encouraged at how God has brought and worked through suffering to increase Greg’s love for and trust in him!
Posted in Book Commentary, News | Leave a Comment »
All conference audio and video for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability are now available at Desiring God!
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Should length of time impact how we think about God’s sovereignty over disability?
November 4, 2010 by John Knight
When we talk about disability on this blog, we generally mean the kind of disabling conditions that last a lifetime.
In his article on John 9, Dr. Poirier suggests that time is one reason why we should not think God intentionally created the man born blind:
The old punctuation presents us with the monstrous thesis that God struck a man with disability from birth just for the sake of allowing Jesus to make a public display of God’s healing power at an obscenely later time in his life. (Poirier, “Another Look at the ‘Man Born Blind’ in John 9“, Journal of Religion, Disability and Health, January 2010, v. 14, p. 62.)
We know he was a ‘man born blind’ so we can guess he had lived, and been blind for, decades by the time Jesus and he had their encounter. Yes, that feels like a long time.
But is ‘obscenely’ an accurate descriptor of something God has chosen to do?
There are times I am still tempted to think time is one indicator of God’s care: if God answers quickly (and in the right way), he cares; if he waits a long time, he doesn’t.
Of course a Biblical understanding of the character of God demonstrates that God has both full authority to do whatever he wants with his creation AND he perfectly loves and cares for us. God knows how we think about time and the impact that experiencing something over a long period of time will have. And he is sovereign over it for our good:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
There is also the problem of definition. At what point does something become ‘obscenely long’? Is a difficult thing we experience for a day acceptable but for a year it is ‘obscenely long’?
Does any part of God’s creation even have the ability, let alone the authority, to determine when something is too long?
Sometimes the Bible talks about hard things that last a long time:
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. John 5:5
When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. Luke 8:27
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. Luke 8:43
Even the saints with God wonder about how long things are taking:
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. Revelation 6:9-11
But suffering doesn’t need to be measured in years for it to feel overwhelming. My Paul’s seizures last less than a minute – and feel like hours as I watch him struggle.
Frequently I find it difficult to believe that my son is 15 years old. If anyone had said when he was days old that we would have even survived everything we’ve gone through with him – let alone found peace in God – I would have called them crazy, or at least ignorant. Daily, God helps us and those days add up.
But one minute or 15 years, or 38 years or however many years the man born blind lived with his disability is NOTHING compared to eternity. And God seems to care a great deal about eternity.
About 15 years ago, Pastor John included this in a letter to us many of you have already read:
Pastor John gets that from the Bible. Paul, for example, lived constantly with very hard things: beatings, imprisonment, slander, shipwreck, heart-ache to name a few. And he calls it a ‘light momentary affliction!’ How is that possible, except that it is in comparison to something much greater than his suffering!
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Disability is hard. On our own, our human reserves will disappear. Human systems – church, medicine, schools, social workers – will fail us. Doubt and dispair are natural outcomes. I am tempted to discouragement all the time, and frequently fail.
Yet, God has promised to supply our every need and to help us.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Psalm 68:19
He confirms his promises based on the obedient life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The promises of God are anchored in God himself!
It really is the perfect combination – God has told us he has created some to live with disability for his glory, he has promised to help us, and there is an eternity of joy that makes these present difficulties look small by comparison. There is hope in this God. Let us remind each other regularly.
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