• About
  • Books

memoirandremains

memoirandremains

Tag Archives: Animals

Kuyper on Common Grace 1.6

04 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by memoirandremains in Abraham Kuyper, Genesis, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Animals, Common Grace, Kuyper, Noahic Covenant

The previous post in this series may be found here. 

Genesis 9:3–5 (ESV)

3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

16860641782_b54a2be018_o

Goya, Three Salmon Steaks

In chapter six, Kuyper considers the provisions of the Noahic covenant which pertain to the relationship between animals and human beings. He will conclude that the primary basis for this command is to erect a clear demarcation between human beings and animals.

First, human beings may animals as well as plants.

Second, human beings must be distinguished from animals, in that we will not eat living animals. In distinction from animals and in reverence to God, the animal must first be dead before it may be eaten.

Third, animals are not given the equivalent right to eat human beings.

Some further observations.

Three points of elaboration.

Kuyper notes the Noahic covenant has no foreshadowing of the New Covenant in the way the Mosaic Covenant points forward to the coming Messiah. He refers to the Mosaic Covenant as being a covenant of shadows – and that the foreshadowing did not start until the giving of circumcision and the coming of Israel.

As to killing animals, he contends rightly that this is a provision of the Noahic covenant – it is not based upon the creation order.  Kuyper notes how we naturally revolt against killing animals – it takes some to overcome that hesitancy.

Kuyper also infers a high degree of barbarism in the pre-flood world, such that limitations on tearing animals in the manner of beasts and restrictions on cannibalism were necessary as a common grace restraint.

He notes that by requiring the life to depart to God who gave it, we are giving deference to God in the taking of the animal. Calvin, who informs a great deal of Kuyper’s thought on this subject writes in his commentary:

This ought justly to be deemed by us of greater importance, that to eat the flesh of animals is granted to us by the kindness of God; that we do not seize upon what our appetite desires, as robbers do, nor yet tyrannically shed the innocent blood of cattle; but that we only take what is offered to us by the hand of the Lord. We have heard what Paul says, that we are at liberty to eat what we please, only we do it with the assurance of conscience, but that he who imagines anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean, (Romans 14:14.) And whence has this happened to man, that he should eat whatever food he pleased before God, with a tranquil mind, and not with unbridled license, except from his knowing, that it has been divinely delivered into his hand by the right of donation? Wherefore, (the same Paul being witness,) the word of God sanctifies the creatures, that we may purely and lawfully feed on them, (1 Timothy 4:5.) Let the adage be utterly rejected which says,‘that no one can feed and refresh his body with a morsel of bread, without, at the same time, defiling his soul.’Therefore it is not to be doubted, that the Lord designed to confirm our faith, when he expressly declares by Moses, that he gave to man the free use of flesh, so that we might not eat it with a doubtful and trembling conscience. At the same time, however, he invites us to thanksgiving. On this account also, Paul adds “prayer” to the “word”, in defining the method of sanctification in the passage recently cited.

John Calvin, Genesis, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries, 1998, Ge 9:3.

 

John Newton’s Letter to Miss M, November 11, 1775

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Animals, Biblical Counseling, Building, Eclispse, John Newton, Justification, letters, Mortification, Sin

In this letter, John Newton addresses a lady who seems to have been disappointed in some good undertaking. After a brief introduction, he comes to his point:

“One reason why he often disappoints us is, that we may learn to depend on him alone.

While this is not a direct quotation from Scripture, it is a principle which runs through out the Bible. For example, in 2 Corinthians 1, Paul explains that his overwhelming trial had a purpose: “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” 2 Cor. 1:9.

At this point we can err by concluding that all our help from God comes by non-material means; that only a “spiritual” blessing can possibly be of God. Such thinking smacks of gnosticism, and Newton will have none of it. He admits the usefulness of “sensible comforts” but points us to the source of such comforts:

“We are prone, as you observe, to rest too much upon sensible comforts, yet they are very desirable; only, as to the measure and seasons, it is well to be submissive to his will; to be thankful for them when we have them, and humbly waiting for them when we have them not. They are not, however, the proper ground of our hope; a good hope springs from such a sense of our wants, and such a persuasion of his power and grace as engages the heart to venture, upon the warrant of his promises, to trust in him for salvation.

We may use such comforts: when the crowd hungers, Jesus feeds them (John 6:1-14). Yet, we must not trust in such things. Sensible comforts should point us to the one who grants such comforts, not to the comforts themselves (John 6:26).  

A child who receives lunch from his parent should not place his hope in the sandwich, but in his mother who feeds him. The good for the child is relationship with his parent.  In like manner, our good is not the “sensible comfort” God gives us but in the surety of our relationship with God who gives such things. As explained above, God seeks us to seek him (our ultimate good, hope, joy). 
When we realize that the chief end of our existence is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1), we can understand God’s working:

 “”In a sense, we are often hindering him by our impatience and unbelief; but, strictly speaking, when he really begins the good work, and gives us a desire which will be satisfied with nothing short of himself, he will not be hindered from carrying it on; for he has said, I will work, and none shall let it.”

Newton then anticipates an objection: Must it really be this way? Must my trial have this shape? I once counseled with a man who suffered a grave trial. He said, I could bear trials X, Y and Z (all very painful), but this trial is the one which is too great for me. God, in his wisdom chooses the trial most fit for our soul. 
Now if Newton had said, God has chosen this trial because it is fit for you – it would have easily sounded abusive and uncaring. Therefore, he brings himself into the picture and begins with the proposition: I need such correction:
“”Ah! had it depended upon myself, upon my wisdom or faithfulness, I should have hindered him to purpose, and ruined myself long ago! How often have I grieved and resisted his Spirit! But hereby I have learned more of his patience and tenderness, than I could otherwise have known. He knows our frame, and what effects our evil nature, fomented by the artifices of Satan, will have; he sees us from first to last.”

Note the movement in his argument: He begins with himself and then moves the application to “us”:  “He knows our frame” (an allusion to Psalm 103:14 — you will never be a better counselor, a better pastor, a better Christian than as you know the Scripture).

Newton now comes to the point of correction: but note how the argument moves to Christ. Our trials expose our own weakness: we don’t know if a roof is good until a hard rain. Our trials expose the sin latent in our heart.

“A thousand evils arise in our hearts, a thousand wrongnesses in our conduct, which, as they do arise, are new to ourselves, and perhaps at some times we were ready to think we were incapable of such things; but none of them are new to him, to whom past, present, and future are the same.”

But it is precisely here that Newton displays some pastoral genius (if you will). The exposure of our sin has the tendency to drive the Christian to despair: never one sinned as I! But Newton turns the sin of our sin into a sight of the surpassing love and mercy of God. God knew our sin before we saw it exposed — and yet he loves us:

“The foresight of them did not prevent his calling us by his grace. Though he knew we were vile, and should prove ungrateful and unfaithful, yet he would be found of us; he would knock at the door of our hearts, and gain himself an entrance.  Nor shall they prevent his accomplishing his gracious purpose. It is our part to be abased before him, and quietly to hope and wait for his salvation in the use of his appointed means.”

Having struck, he drives home his point: not only our salvation, but our justification depend upon him. And, to make us know the degree to which we cannot move an inch in our justification without him, our Lord lets us see our sin run wild — like animals–and then brings them to heel (I must say this little bit was a tremendous encouragement to me)

“The power, success, and blessing, are wholly from himself. To make us more sensible of this, he often withdraws from our perceptions: and as, in the absence of the sun, the wild beasts of the forest roam abroad; so, when Jesus hides himself, we presently perceive what is in our hearts, and what a poor shift we can make without him; when he returns, his light chases the evils away, and we are well again. However, they are not dead when most controuled by his presence.”

Before we proceed, consider the profound psychology of Newton’s statement: the animals roaming about are some many things which the psychologist or the psychiatrist would hope to control by drugs or therapy. Here Newton places the problem on a theological basis: those animals can be controlled only by Christ. If the modern Christian Church truly believed this to be so, it would profoundly change the way we consider human beings””

Now Newton pictures the Christian life as a building:

“It is your great and singular mercy, my dear Miss, that he has taught you to seek him so early in life. You are entered in the way of salvation, but you must not expect all at once. The work of grace is compared to the corn, and to a building; the growth of the one, and the carrying forward of the other, are gradual. In a building, for instance, if it be large, there is much to be done in preparing and laying the foundation, before the walls appear above ground; much is doing within, when the work does not seem perhaps to advance without; and when it is considerably forward, yet, being encumbered with scaffolds and rubbish, a by-stander sees it at a great disadvantage, and can form but an imperfect judgment of it.”

At this point, Newton seems to be thinking Paul’s thoughts (1 Cor. 4:4), it is the judgment of God, alone, which matters in the Christian life — and God alone controls the building

“But all this while the architect himself, even from the laying of the first stone, conceives of it according to the plan and design he has formed; he prepares and adjusts the materials, disposing each in its proper time and place, and views it, in idea, as already finished. In due season it is completed, but not in a day. The top-stone is fixed, and then, the scaffolds and rubbish being removed, it appears to others as he intended it should be.”

Newton ends with a doxology — which is the only natural bent of the Christian when considering God. When we consider ourselves — in the light of our indwelling sin & in the light of our savior — we are poor beasts. Yet, when we consider what Savior can and will do, it can only bring praise:

“Men, indeed, often plan what, for want of skill or ability, or from unforeseen disappointments, they are unable to execute: but nothing can disappoint the heavenly Builder; nor will he ever be reproached with forsaking the work of his own hands, or beginning that which he could not or would not accomplish; Phil. 1:6. Let us therefore be thankful for beginnings, and patiently wait the event. His enemies strive to retard the work, as they did when the Jews, by his order, set about rebuilding the Temple: yet it was finished, in defiance of them all.”

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior, Book 1.1.3
  • Weakness
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior Book 1.1.2
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior Book 1.1.1
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion With Her Savior.1

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior, Book 1.1.3
  • Weakness
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior Book 1.1.2
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion with her Savior Book 1.1.1
  • Thomas Traherne, The Soul’s Communion With Her Savior.1

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • memoirandremains
    • Join 629 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • memoirandremains
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...