2010 Legacy Passin' Through

A delivery truck arrived today with new 2010 Legacys aboard. None stayed here as all were being delivered to Subaru corporate accross the river in Cherry Hill, NJ. This particular one was a GT Limited model with Navigation. The car looks very nice. The back seat is roomy--the key thing Subaru needed to change on this car. Looks like a winner to me!

Give Me the Simple Life?

This past week, Peggy Noonan made a big splash on the internet with this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992073614326997.html She predicts that the economic situation in the US may lead us to a more simple life.

Some Christians seem to think that a simple life; i.e. less technology and fewer machines is a morally superior life.

For me, the simple life has to do with finances. It means getting out of debt as much as possible. Currently, I have no car payment and two credit cards. Both cards have either no balance or a low balance and we use them for the benefits they provide. One pays a cash rebate and the two together keep you credit score up.

I do not equate the simple life with a low-technology life. While it is true that one can become a slave to technology, technology allows you to take a time-consuming, menial task and turn it into a low-stress, easy job. For example: the dishwasher. Before I got married I had no dishwasher. I either ate off paper plates or I spent hours--literal hours each week washing dishes. What a waste of time and effort that is! Now, my wife and I have a dishwasher. This device sanitizes the dishes, getting them cleaner than they would be if washed by hand, it uses less water than hand-washing, and it turns a 1.5 hour chore into a 12 minute breeze. If the "simple life" means I give up my dishwasher, forget it. I'll take technology!

And that example reminds me of this theological truth. Man, made in the image of God, is supposed to be creative, as God is. He is to take possession of his world, harness it, and rule over it. When men use scientific knowledge to create technological devices that make life easier and make work more efficient, they are following God's example in creation and obeying his command to take dominion over the earth and subdue it. When I use my electronic devices and when I drive my automobile, I feel that I am doing God's will. To deliberately give them up in order to return to some supposed superior way of life that is actually less productive would be sin. I'm glad I live in modern times. Having experienced them, I would not choose to go back in time if I could help it.

The Pearl of Great Price

The parables of the pearl of great price and the hidden treasure occur back-to-back in Matthew chapter 13. The common interpretation of these parables is that the pearl and the treasure represent eternal life or salvation. The individual comes to see, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the value of eternal life; the treasure that it is and the beauty that it possesses, and the person gives all or surrenders all so that he might obtain eternal life.

An alternative view is that the pearl and the treasure are those who are saved. God purchases salvation for the world through the death of His son so that he might gain the treasure of those who are to be saved, that is, the elect. A variation on this is given in Scofield’s notes, for he argues that the pearl/the treasure is Israel. God purchases the world so that he might redeem his chosen people.

Though the second view is a minority view, I think it is preferable. I see the pearl/treasure as those who are saved having been bought by Christ. Here are two reasons for my view.

First, no explanation is given in the passage in Matthew as to the meaning of these two parables. So, we must look at the surrounding parables in Matthew 13 (there are a total of seven parables in these verses), two of which ARE interpreted by Jesus to see how the uninterpreted parables should be taken. In the two interpreted parables (the parable of the sower and the parable of the wheat and tares) the initiator of the action on behalf of the kingdom is God Himself. God is the sower and God is the one who plants the wheat. In the other three uninterpreted parables, the initiator of the action also represents God’s action in relation to the kingdom, its growth, and its consummation. The man who sows the mustard seed represents God. The woman who puts the leaven in the bread represents God, and the one who casts the dragnet into the sea also represents God. Since all five other parables have a person who represents God initiating the action to grow the kingdom, we MUST assume that the man who buys the field and the man who seeks the pearl represent God as well. There is nothing in the text that justifies interpreting these two parables differently.

Second, these two parables speak of “buying” something. If the land buyer and the pearl seeker are unsaved people who gain salvation, then, according to the parable, they gain it by “buying” it. As humans, we cannot purchase salvation at any price. We do not have the resources to do so. No. God is the one who purchases our salvation. Indeed, he purchases us through the precious blood of his son. Jesus shed his blood; a sacrifice sufficient to pay for the sin of the whole world, so that those who believe might be saved. We are God’s pearl. We are God’s treasure. This is the proper way to interpret these two parables.

The Easter Chicks

For Easter, one year, my Mom bought my sister and me a live chick apiece. Mine was green and Renee’s was pink. My Mom doubted that the chicks would live very long and thought we’d enjoy having them for a while.

Mine did not live that long as our family dog made a snack of it. However, Renee’s lived to be a full-grown bird with a pretty nasty temperament. It was not a playful pet.

Winter came, and one night it snowed. My Dad came home from work and rushed inside the house to eat. Company was coming. While he was inside, the chicken discovered the heat rising from the vents on the hood of his car and roosted there. After supper, my dad looked out the window and saw our company drive by, missing our house in the snowstorm. My dad ran out and jumped in the car to chase them down. When he turned on the windshield wipers, the chicken hopped up and jumped over the wiper blades when they went up and again when they went down…and again when they went up and again when they went down. The bird successfully jumped the wipers several times, but when my dad got up to speed, the chicken spread its wings and flew off the car. We never saw him after that.